Nederland Honor Roll -- 1943-1945
The first Nederland Honor Roll was dedicated on Sunday, July 4, 1943. The board was sponsored by the Nederland Alumni Association and Nederland Chamber of Commerce to honor all men and women in military service from Nederland. At the time Evelyn Chester was President of the Nederland Alumni Association.

The board was red, white and blue and located on the corner of Main street and Mena avenue. Today that is Boston and 13th St. There were 305 names on the board initially. New names were added as other men and women enlisted and by April 1944, the list had grown to 375 names.

In July 1945, three organizations provided a new honor roll for service men and women. The roll was located across the street from the First Baptist Church. The organizations that took part in promoting the new board were the Nederland Alumni Association, Nederland Chamber of Commerce, and Nederland Lions Club. There were approximately 500 names of men and women that were in the armed service on the honor roll from the Nederland area. In the center of the board were the names of 17 men who gave their lives during their service.

It should be noted that this was a temporary sign meant to honor Nederland's service men during WWII. We've tried to determine the fate of the wall, but have had no success at this time. The Chronicle, 22 September 1948, pg. 9 indicated that the Port Neches wartime Honor Roll was recycled by the Port Neches Junior Chamber of Commerce into a sign promoting the City and it's various civic groups. Maybe Nederland's sign was also repurposed. If we discover what happened to Nederland's Honor Roll, we'll update this information.

Photo of Evelyn Chester with Nederland Honor Wall ca. 1943

Miss Chester was the president of the Nederland High School Alumni Association. The Association was one of the sponsors of the Honor Roll. The photo was donated to the Library by her nephew, Marvin Newman.

The Chronicle, 22 January 1943, pg. 1

The Chronicle, 25 June 1943, pg. 1

The Chronicle, 26 March 1943, pg. 1

Port Arthur News, 1 July 1943

The Chronicle, 15 June 1945, pg. 1

The Chronicle, 14 April 1944, pg. 1

The Chronicle, 6 July 1945, pg. 1