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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1936)
K,b* State Hiitorlcal Society The Frontier ~ !■" —VU':-"- - - - . ' VOL. LVI r^T O’NEILL, NEBRASKA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1936. No. 39 TWO SEEK REFUGE AT FARMS IN WORST BLIZZARD IN YEARS Heavy Snow And High Wind 8tops Traffic. Trains Are Late And Drifts Block Most Roads. Starting last Friday the worst storm that the middle west has known since the eighties swept over several middle western states, tying up railroads, bus lines and in many places transportation in cities. It started snowing Thursday night and snowed at intervals most of Friday. That afternoon it was reported that a severe blizzard was headed this way and early in the afternoon the pupils were sent home from the public school and St. Mary’s academy. A real stiff wind, of blizzard proportions, started in early in tho afternoon and rapidly made roads and streets impassible, and tied up traffic in the city as well as on all highways leading into town. Mrs. Florence Bergstrom, who drives the Chambers mail, made her usual trip last Friday morning and was on her way home and got as far north as William Ermer s. By that time In tho afternoon the storm became so bad that she de cided to stay there. Her failure to retui’n caused great uneasiness on the part of her relatives, who did not learn where she was until Mon day morning. Sunday a party started out from here to try and locate her but could get only a couple of mile south of town when they had to return on account of ^ impassible drifts. Gone Harty made a trip to Em met with laundry last Friday after noon. It was about 5:30 when he left there for home. When a few miles west of towu -the clutch on his car burned out and ho was com pelled to stay at Clarence Way man’s during the night. As there was no phone there his parents here were greatly worried on. ac y count of his non-arrival, hut it. was ' impossible to get out on the west highway. Saturday morning he walked to Mrs. Gray’s where he telephoned bis folks of Mb safety. Saturday morning it was 25 be low zero here with a brisk wind blowing from the, northwest and the warmest it got during the day was 14 below zero, and it drifted most of the day. The storm abated during the night and Sunday morning broke bright and clear with 22 degrees below zero being recorded and it remained below zero during the en tire day, the highest point reached by the thermometer being 5 degrees below zero. It warmed up a little Monday and crews were busy on the main highways trying to get them open for traffiic, and the highways east and west were fin ally opened for traffic Monday afternoon. Railroads were also blocked. The Northwestern passenger train, due here at 11:07 Saturday night reached this city about 2:30 Sunday afternoon, after a snow plow had gone east from Long Pine, On the Burlington the first passenger train to reach here from Sioux City since last Thursday night arrived here Tuesday night. A snow plow left Sioux City Sunday morning and reached, this city at 0:30 Tues day morning. They returned to Sioux City and tho passenger came thru nearly on time that evening, and trains have been running near ly on time since then. Since Mon day night Northwestern trains have been running about on time. Highway 281 was blocked with dinfts running from four to eight feet deep. Men from here and a bunch from Chambers opened the highway from here to Chambers Tuesday morning and it was the first communication with that vil lage since last Friday. Highway 281 south of Chambers was still I blocked late Wednesday afternoon * as several cars that attempted to go south were compelled to turn back, after they had gone as far as Bartlett. Rural mail carriers out of here have been making part of their routes about every day. They fol low the main highway north as far as Midway and there they are met by some who manage to reach the highway on horseback, and they take the mail for their neighbors and distribute it on the way back. Mr. Ryan, on Route one, uses his car south as far as Shoemakers and then takes a horse and delivers the rest of the mail on the south end of his route. If there is no more snow and. no more drifting it will take at least ten days to open up the east and west i-oads in the county and many of the county roads running north and south arc blocked with eight and ten feet of snow. This particular section of the state has suffered the severest weather it has known probably since the eighties. For six straight days, from Feb, 4 to Feb. 9, 288 hours, the thermometer never went above zero, the closest being on Feb. 5 and 6 when it registered 1 degree below. The warmest on Saturday, Feb. 8, was 14 below. Wednesday night made the 24th consecutive night that the therm ometer registered below zero. For the past thirty nights, since Jan. 16, it has registered below zero on every night except two, Jan. 17, when it was 6 above and Jan. 21, when it was 1 above. If the old timers want to beat that record we are of the opinion they will have to hunt a long, long time. In Omaha all records have been broken. The only record that they have that anyway approaches the severity of the past three weeks was in 1884, and according to the record this winter has set that old record in the background. Jan. 16 . 13 —7 Jan. 17 . 9 5 Jan. 18 . 6 —12 | Jan. 19 . 2 —10 Jan. 20 _ 15 —14 i Jan. 21.. 33 1 Jan. 22 ._. 33 —18 Jan. 23 . 9 —17 Jan. 24 . 9 —7 Jan. 25 . —4 —17 Jan. 26 _ 4 —19 Jan. 27 . 7 —22 Jan. 28 . 12 —2 Jan. 29 . 14 —16 Jan. 30 .i. 10 —10 Jan. 81 . 12 —9 Feb. 1 . 10 —13 Feb. 2 . 8 —4 .06 Feb. 3 . 10 —7 .39 Feb. 4 .- —4 —22 Feb. 17 ..—l —21 Feb. 6 ^.. —1 —28 .16 Feb. 7 . . —10 —14 .13 Feb. 8 —14 —25 Feb. 9 . —5 - 22 Feb. 10 .. 9 —19 Feb. 11 4 —13 Feb. 12 ... . —1 —15 .06 Feb. 13 _ ... —14 The above record of the moisture is complete only from Jan. 31 to date, and does not include the snow of Thursday, Feb. 13, as it was still snowing as this is written. Thinks We Need More Snow And Less Cold To Match Winter of 1915 George Syfie came in from Phoe nix Tuesday. He has been a resident of that part of the county for over thirty years and says that this is the second hardest winter that he has encountered during his resid ence here. He says that the winter of 1914-15 there was more snow on the ground than there is now, but that it was not near as cold as it has been the past three weeks. When George came in Tuesday he said he walked part of the way and rode in r wagon part of the way over prairies, meadows and corn fields, as the roads in that section are impassible. 1936 Pasture Contest Is Open To Farmers Nebraska’s 1936pasture improve ment contest, in which $1,500 in prizes go to winners, was announc ed here today by Agricultural Ag ent F. M. Reece. All Holt county farmers are eligible to participate. Again designed to show the way to better pasture and grazing land mangement, the 193G contest is sponsored by the Nebraska College of Agriculture, the Agricultural College Extension Service, the Om aha Chamber of Commerce, Ne braska Crop Growers’ Association and the Nebraska Livestock Breed ers’ Association. A state committee composed of P. H. Stewart, Elvin F. Frolik, F. D. Keim, W. W. Derrick, M. N. Lawritson, Val Kuska and D. L. Gross is to act in an advisory cap ' acity on the contest details and procedure. Stewart is chairman of the group. Frolik will supervise the state contest for the committee. Pasture committees will be set !up in each county which will have charge of all local details. The county agricultural agent in each instance will serve as secretary of the group. Trophies, ribbons and cash prizes go to the winners. The ten highest ranking contestants in the state get i cash awards of $50, $40, $30, $20, $10, and five prizes of five dollars each. A silver trophy goes to the highest ranking contestant in each county finishing ten or more con testants. A special trophy goes to the Nebraska pasture champion. Counties finishing 10 or more con testants get additional cash awards. Holt county farmers have until April 1 to file their entry in the statewide contest. The 1936 con i test is not divided into three div isions as last year but rather all participants compete in one class. Winners will be named on the basis of their pasture pi*ogram and de tailed plans submitted, a report of pasture operations and mangement and actual results of their pasture programs. Last year John Kollman of Stu art placed second in the permanent pasture division. Entry blanks will be in the hands of Agricultural Agent F. M. Reece soon. I ONGRESS I AS SEEN . BY A NEBRASKAN By Karl Stefan The government machinery is working at high speed to get ready to pay the so called soldiers bonus. Over three million application forms have been placed in the mail and it will take 8,000 additional employees by the. Veterans admin istration and treasury department to handle this rush job. One guess is that it will be about July 1, be fore the bonus will reach the vet erans because of the interest cal culations necessary. Practically all of the bills on gen j eral consent calendar which would ! grant the Indians permission to go to the Court of Claims to seek jus tice were objected to yesterday by a determined bloc of Congressmen •who want all of these bills off the calendar because of a new ruling by the Comptroller General. This bloc was successful in their campaign, and many of these bills which af fect Indians in Nebraska will have to be started all over again. There seems to be a determined effort on the part of many mem bers to cut ruthless appropriations. This was shown yesterday when the House defeated a bill backed by California boosters to invite for eign countries to attend the open ing of the Boulder Dam. The bill in question carried no appropria tion. Merely an invitation to the foreign countries to come over here and help celebrate the opening of the big dam, but the debate dis closed that another bill was all ready to follow' that bill and it asked for about three million dol lars to entertain these foreigners when they did come over. Those opposing the bill made it plain that if the foreign countries would pay the United States w'hat they owed us in war debts, they would be more friendly. The fact that the government has already spent mil lions of dollars for expositions in San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles also helped to defeat this bill. - The House voted fuvorably yes terday to appropriate forty million dollars to provide loans for farm ers for seed, during the year 1936. The Senate bill is for sixty million dollars. Those oposing this bill stated that it cost about five mil lion dollars a year to run the set-up but those who said that the seed loans must be made immediately showed that a large amount of this money is being paid back, and they predicted that practically all of it would be paid back and the govern ment would not be out very much. Many farmers have written that they are unable to pay their feed and seed loans but the committee and the administration is not al lowing the various relief bills to come up. Some of these bills call for the repayment of these feed and seed loans in kind bushel for bush el. The farmers borrowed at a time when the seed was very high and they have to pay back when the grain is comparatively low. | They would be glad to pay back . bushel for bushel in kind. The I forty million dollar feed and seed loan bill passed the house. ’ The young men and women who work for the government here say they are having a hard time of it. They say they can’t make both ends meet, altho they receive sal aries of around twelve hundred Wc are putting out only 4 pages this week as our feature pages have not arrived and we have word they will not be here. You will get eight pages next week if trains can get thru. The in stallment of the story for this week will ap pear next week. 1935 CORN-HOG CONTRACTS WILL BE COMPLETED County Agricultural Agent F. M. Reece notified this office late this afternoon that he had been instruc ted from Lincoln to complete the 1936 corn-hog contracts and send them in. Tliis means that the farmers of the country will receive the balance coming to them on their 1936 corn-hog contracts with in a short time. Barber Unable To Work Due To Frozen Hands While coming ijp to work last Saturday morning Dean Streetei froze the fingors on both hands badly, which will cause him to re frain from attending to his duties in his barber shop for ten days or two weeks. Dean was carrying a coal oil can in one hand and with the other was holding his coat col lar closed and protecting his face against the frigid blasts from the northwest. After reaching the shop he noticed that his hands were frozen and first aid was administer ed. After trying to get rid of the frost bite for a couple of hours he finally decided to go home and he has remained there since, nursing [badly swollen fingers. County’s Roads An* Completely Blocked By Huge Drifts of Snow Norb Uhl, W. J. Biglin and Leo Mullen drove down to Inman Wed nesday afternoon for the body of George Geary, who died at his home six miles south of Inman yesterday morning. The boys drove to within two miles of the Geary home where they were met by some neighbors, driving a four horse team and sled with the body of Mr. Geary. They say all roads except highway 20 are impassible and that you have to drive thru fences, over meadows and pastures in order to get anywhere and then had to shovel out several times be fore they got back. Bill and Leo say that Norb is a fine snow shovel er, but he had experience in shovel ing his way from Grand Island to O’Neill last week. dollars a year. Every department has it’s society which holds weekly social functions and these young men and women say that they have to dress up to standard and huve to pay back their social obligations which costs them a lot of money. One young man who is going back to a farm in Nebraska, says he can live better at home on the farm for a few dollars a month than he can in Washington for $1,200 a year. Another new bill which will be introduced with a view of helping cooperative creameries, is one to eliminate the three cent charge on each check which drivers deliver to fanners from whom they collect milk and cream. The postofiice de partment rule is that in case these creameries have their independent drivers deliver checks with any written information thereon they must pay three cents for each check. One Iowa Congressman tells us that this has already cost one of his small creameries $2,000 a year. There is every indication that if the new soil erosion farm program goes thru both houses and becomes a law there will be no delay in carrying out this program. In dications are that the agriculture department has anticipated the success of it’s program, by making advance preparations. One girl who works in the dairjc division of the AAA says that during the past week there has been much activity in her department. All week, she says, they have been installing new telephones and new desks. DEATH TAKES ONE MORE OF COUNTY’S EARLY PIONEERS — George Geary Dies At 82 Years, On His Original Homestead Located South of Inman. George Geary, one of the pioneer residents of Inman township, died at his home six miles south of In man last Wednesday morning, after an illness of several weeks of ail ments due to old age, at the ad vanced age of 82 years. The date of the funeral has not been set but he will be buried in the Inman cemetery as soon as the weather moderates and the roads are pass able. Deceased was born in England and came to America when a young man and shortly thereafter came to Nebraska. He located in Washing ton county, Nebraska, and came to Holt county in 1884 and took a homestead six miles south of In man where he lived up to the time of his death. He leaves his wife and four children, one daughter, Jessie Hartigan, and three sons, Cal, R. B. and G.H. Geary, all of Inman, to mourn the passing of a kind and affectionate husband and. father. Holt County Schools Take Part In High way Safety Campaign By County Superintendent We are pleased to know that , Governor Cochran is promoting a drive on highwuy safety. All of our civic organizations and schools have been asked to contribute their support to this all important enter, prise. The State of Nebraska has already shown a large decrease in car accidents, despite unfavorable weather conditions. Wc spend large sums of money educating our children ami taking precautions in regard to their health, yet little money is spent to educate them against some of the dangers that they must encounter. I am having a large number of safety posters printed and each school will be furnished with one poster. Safety rules will be printed on each poster and posters are to be placed in a conspicious place. If we are to minimize read accid ents, we must first do away with the cause. Parents can lend us their assistance in cautioning child ren of some the the dangers of the road. O’Neill PC A Meeting Indefinitely Postponed Due to the severe cold weather, and impassable condition of the roads, it has been found advisable to postpone the Annual Meeting of the stockholders of the O’Neill Production Credit association which was scheduled for Feb. 12th, until a later date. A date for the post poned meeting lias not yet been set, but will be announced later. James W. Rooney, Sec. Treas. Meat Dealer’s Course In an effort to stimulate meat consumption in Nebraska and sur rounding states by improvement of retailing tile product, the third annual short course for retail meat dealers of Nebraska will be held at tho college of agriculture in Lin coln, Feb. 24 and 25. Agricultural Agent F. M. Reece was notified of the plans for the | event this week by Prof. Wm. J. Loeffel, prominent meats authority at the college of agriculture who is arranging the short course. All Holt county retail meat dealers are I being urged to attend. Among the topics to be discussed are methods of selling slow mov ing cuts, new meat cuts and how ! to make them, Belling meat by ; telephone, preventing meat shrink ; age, utilization of waste products I from the small retail shop, and I means of conducting meat cutting ! tests. -—-> Murray-Breiner William Murray, of O’Neill, and Miss Yvonne Breiner, of Atkinson, were united in marriage at Emmet last Thursday morning, Rev. M. F. j Byrne officiating, in the presence of a few of the relatives and im mediate friends of the contracting parties. These young people are members | of prominent pioneer families of the county and have a host of j friends who wish them a long and I happy life on the matrimonial seas. Hospital Notes Born to Mr. and Mrs. Harold Shaw, of Atkinson, Sunday, Feb. 9, at 8 a. m., a son, weighing seven and one-half pounds. Named War ren Richard. All doing fine. Mrs. Maurice Cavanaugh went to her home Sunday evening Feb. 9. Miss Edith Castleman was brot in Sunday evening, Feb. 9, suffer ing from a severe throat infection. She is much better at present. Martin Wright, of Ewing, was brot in Tuesday afternon with a severe heart attack. He gave no response to treatment and died a few hours later. People Caught Out In The Cold Suffer of Frost Bite Another blizzard reached here about 2 o’clock Thursday afternoon. Some snow and a hard wind from the north soon made all roads im passible. This (Friday) morning it was 2G degrees below zero. No trains in or out of O'Neill last night, no busses running and all roads are blocked. Charles Adams, about 65, repre senting a Lincoln firm, left O’Neill about 1:30 yesterday afternoon for Spencer. When about 12 miles north he found the roads impassible and started back. He had not gone very far when he tore the rear end out of his car and he was left helpless on the road. About 3:30 John Dailey and Joe Connolly came along, on their return home from a trip to Butte and Spencer, and they helped him to the home of Emil Noelle, on the old Wettlauffer place about 10 miles north. Adams was badly chilled and had to have help to get to the house. Medical | aid was summoned from this city and Dr. Brown tried to make the trip out there, but was forced to abandon it on account of the drift ed roads. Reports from there this morning arc to the effect that Mr. Adams is all right. John Dailey and Joe Connolly were forced to put up for the night at the Matthews home, just this side of Noelle’s and John is re ported to be walking in this morn ing. Both he and Connolly suffer ed frosted cheeks and fingers. All three snow plows, attached to the local state garage, are stuck in snow drifts, north, east and south of town and two more plows are coming down from Ainsworth and are expected here early this afternoon. Deputy Sheriff Bergstrom had both of his legs frosted while at tempting to serve papers in the Amelia vicinity the first of the week. He was using u horse to get over the enow covered ground. — 1 Will Form Townsend Club In This City John Gaughenbnugh, who is one of the active leaders of the Town send old age pension advocates in the city, says they arc going to organize a club in this city and he says that the number of members they get will be a surprise to the average citizen. He says they are going to have Terry Carpenter, who has filed for the democratic nomination for United States Sen ator and who has endorsed the Townsend plan, in the city in the near future to address the people of this city and explain the work ings of the plan. If weather per mits they expect to have the meet ing next week. O’Neill Workers Club The O’Neill Workers club met at the home of Mrs. T. M. Harrington Tuesday evening. Demonstrations were given in needlework. Several fine pieces of fancy work were dis played. A delicious lunch was served by Mrs. Clodo Johnson and Mrs. T. M. Harrington. Owing to the weather conditions there was a very good attendance, only three being absent. Ewing Man Dies Here Following Heart Attack Martin Wright, of Ewing, was taken to the local hospital Tuesday afternoon suffering from a severe heart attack. He sank gradually until evening when he passed away. He was about 62 years of age and had lived in the vicinity of Ewing for two years. He i6 sur vived by two sisters and one broth er. Weather permitting, the funer al will be held Friday afternoon services in the Biglin Chapel, Rev. A. J. May officiating and burial in I Prospect Hill cemetery. FROZEN MAINS AND LEAD-INS REPORTED IN SEVERAL PLACES A Crew From Power Company Put To Work By The City On Restoring Service. The severe weather of the past month has made a lot of work for the plumbers of the city as well as the city officials, responding to calls from residents of the city on account of frozen water pipes. A main in the western part of the city was also frozen and the city officials employed the Interstate Power company to thaw it out as well as the pipes leading into var ious residences in the city. The main in the west end of town was frozen Tuesday and men worked on the main all Tuesday night, Wednesday and Wednesday night, and this morning at 11 o’clock they reported that they had about over come the difficulty and expected to have the water flowing freely in a very short time. According to Mayor Kersenbrock about twenty-five residents of the city were suffering from frozen water pipes and the number is in creasing hourly. The State Gar age was one of the first to report frozen pipes and they were thawed, out Tuesday and froze up again Tuesday night. The following are among the residents of the city who have reported frozen water pipes to the Mayor within the past three days: C. W. Porter, Dr. Wilk inson, Ray Osborne, Three Kubit schek houses, Cob Olson, George McCarthy, Ugo Williamson, James Oppen and C. E. Gatz. Cattle Testing In The County Discontinued Tho state veterinarians who have been in the county for several months vesting Holt county herds for tuberculosis have been trans ferred to other points in the state and tho work in this county has been halted temporarily, on account of the condition of the roads and the weather. Dr. Crumpacker, who has been the supervisor in charge of the force in this county, has been transferred to Seward; Dr. Duff has been transferred to Lancaster county, and Dr. Jackson and Dr. Wiswell have been transferred to Wilbur. At the time of their departure the work in this county had been about completed, as we understand, that there are but twelve herds in the county that have not been tested. When the weather moder ates and the roads arc again pass able some of them will probably return and complete the work. Filings For Office Light March 5, 1936, is the last day that candidates for office at the coming primary election can file, and to date there has not been a great rush of applicants to get their names on the ballot. So far there have been but three candid ates filed for office in this county, the three being candidates for sup ervisors. They are: J. H. Gibson, of Chambers, who has filed for the democratic nomination for super visor from thdteffth district, raw being held by J. W. Walters by appointment; J. H. Carson, present supervisor from the Second dis trict, has filed as a candidate for renomination on the republican ticket; Robert Tomlinson has filed as a candidate for the democratic nomination in the same district. Cattle Pulling Thru Nicely Altho the weather has been very severe the past month farmers say that cattle are doing nicely, despite the severe weather. There is lots of feed this year, and with a little shelter the cattle will make it thru in fine shape. What a blessing wo did not have this kind of winter last year or there would hardly have been a head of livestock left alive in the county. Ashes Start Fire At Hotel The fire alarm shrieked its shrill warning last Saturday evening about 6:10 with the thermometer several degrees below zero and a fierce blast blowing from the north west. Some ashes dumped near some boards in the furnace room of the Golden hotel caused the smoke and incipient fire. It was quickly extinguished without dam age except smoke.