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American flags waved across Pipestone County and donations poured into the Red Cross.

This could describe events following September's terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. However, these particular acts took place during World War I, Chris Roelfsema-Hummel, executive director of the Pipestone County Museum and a fellow with the Center for Rural and Regional Studies at Southwest State University in Marshall said during a seminar at the university.

In researching the dynamics of Pipestone County and the town of Pipestone during 1917 and 1918, Roelfsema-Hummel discovered considerable documentation revealing an ultra-American bent in defining and cracking down on residents disloyal to the war cause. He hopes with his research to uncover reactions to this nationalism, particularly among resident aliens.

Pipestone residents exhibited tremendous enthusiasm for supporting the war effort, Roelfsema-Hummel said.

"This enthusiasm seems to have only increased as the war went on, even as people started to see what the cost of war was going to be," Roelfsema-Hummel said.

Pipestone was one of only 22 Minnesota towns to form a home guard designed to keep enemies in the county under control, Roelfsema-Hummel said. Up to 400 residents sought to join the group, which later merged with the National Guard.

When the legislature granted enormous power to the Minnesota County Commission of Public Safety to control sedition and insure loyalty, Pipestone's commission exercised its authority wholeheartedly, Roelfsema-Hummel said.

For instance, near the end of the war, the commission banned loafing and required people without jobs to explain why they were unemployed.

"If the public safety commission wanted 100 percent Americanism, which was their goal, Pipestone County wanted 110 percent," Roelfsema-Hummel said. "You had to go the extra mile."

Initially, a lack of negative action toward the war movement stood as a sign of loyalty, Roelfsema-Hummel said. Soon, however, demands for specific acts of loyalty became the norm, particularly from foreigners.

The Pipestone County Star newspaper printed articles warning residents from Germany to place American flags in their windows, Roelfsema-Hummel said.

"It's hard to say how many became citizens as a result (of the war)," Roelfsema-Hummel said.

Hoarding food was disloyal. Meanwhile, treating milk properly showed patriotism by producing healthy food to make Minnesotans strong to fight the enemy, Roelfsema-Hummel said.

"It was almost like a religion," Roelfsema-Hummel said. "If you broke the rules, you might get yourself in Dutch with the commission."

On the other hand, although brewing and drinking beer constituted an un-American act because it consumed wheat needed to feed people in Europe, a tavern in Trosky continued serving, employing up to 21 bartenders at a time.

And while the Town of Pipestone was dry, a number of drunk-and-disorderly charges found in Pipestone jail records reveal that at least some town residents also were imbibing in Trosky, Roelfsema-Hummel said.

Purchasing war bonds represented the primary yardstick for measuring loyalty, and participation accelerated throughout the war, Roelfsema-Hummel said. About 30 percent of county residents purchased the third issue of bonds, while 70 percent purchased the fourth issue, more than any other county in the state.

"They could haul you before a special county war bond committee, and they could basically ask you why the heck you hadn't bought liberty bonds," Roelfsema-Hummel said. "There wasn't a whole lot they could do beyond that legally, but it was a lot of pressure, and many people suddenly decided that they wanted liberty bonds, a tremendous amount of liberty bonds."

The local newspaper supported campaigns to root out disloyalty by printing the names of those who failed to purchase bonds and to register for the military. The newspaper also applauded some loyalists' illegal measures in forcing the bond issue.

A news article published in 1918 gave the following account of a Woodstock resident who refused to purchase liberty bonds:

"Indignant over (his) attitude, people a few weeks ago decorated his home with yellow paint. Still, he maintained his contrary disposition and would do nothing for his country. Saturday, he was brought before the county war board but the efforts of that body to induce him to take his share of liberty bonds were unavailing.

"When the facts of the case became known to this city, Pipestone, Saturday night a group of citizens determined to give (him) a lesson that he would not soon forget. Taking him in hand before he was able to get away on a midnight train, citizens escorted him uptown, where a painting squad got in its work. And when they were through with him, he was well smeared with yellow, while on his face was painted an upturned mustache in imitation of the Kaiser's."

During his fellowship, Roelfsema-Hummel plans to examine state documents filed against people who failed to purchase war bonds, as well as registration papers required from all non U.S. citizens after the outbreak of war. He also plans to look at census data from the war years to determine composition of the townships and to study voting data.

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