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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1949)
The Frontier A North-Nebraska s Fastest-Growing Newspaper SECTION 1 PAGES 1 TO 8 VOLUME 63—NUMBER 42 O'WEILL NEBRASKA. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24. 1949. PRICE 7 CENTS Flood Preparedness ' Committee Formed -- Governor Calls Meeting Civic Groups Today at Neligh A Holt county flood disaster preparedness committee has been formed to function under American Red Cross direction in the event floods strike in the Elkhorn river valley. Working under the Holt ARC chapter, the flood disaster committee will be headed by Glea H. Wade, who helped ad minister relief work in the county for the Red Cross dur ing Operation Snowbound. Wade's duties will be to make an advance survey of flood possibilities and draft relief plans, clear plans with civic, county and state agen »cies, interpret ARC assist ance policy and keep higher Red Cross headquarters ad vised on developments. Under the disaster chairman there will be four committee chairmen. These are: Harry Ressel— survey, rescue, trans portation and communications; Mrs. Glen Tomlinson— regis tration, inquiry, family; Amer ican Legion auxiliary (Mrs. John Davidson, chairman) — food, shelter, clothing; Dr. J. P. 3rown, chairman, and Mrs. Melvin Ruzicka, vice-chairman —medical aid. Headquarters will be in the courthouse basement, same as during Operation Snowbound, and shelter headquarters will be the American Legion club, likewise used as a shelter cen ter during Operation Snow bound. Community chairmen in var ious Holt county cities and towns, who are being asked to act as leaders in the event of floods, are: Lyle Dierks, Ew ing; Earl Watson, Inman; J. * W. Walter, Chambers; John Conard, Emmet; Kenneth War ing, Middlebranch; Frank Brady, Atkinson; Glen Cobb, Stuart; Robert Tomlinson, Star (Gibson school), and Effie Stevens, Page. In a survey of flood capa bilities in the upper Elkhorn river valley, a government weather bureau worker in the O’Neill vicinity Tuesday “stL mated nine inches of moisture on the level after sampling snow and ice depths and con verting the samples to water. Gov. V a 1 Peterson has called a meeting today Thursday) at Neligh and has invited delegations from towns from Norfolk to Stu art. Flood relief measures will be discussed. At least three O’Neill men: Wade; John R. Gallagher, Holt county Ameri can Red Cross chairman, and H. L. Lindberg, representing the Chamber of Commerce were expecting to attend. Valley residents are keeping a close watch on the Elkhorn riv er. Full-fledged thawing that has been in progress for sever al days already has the river bank-full. No gorges had devel oped until late Wednesday. Holt Fair Board in Special Meet _ CHAMBERS — Officials of the Holt County Agricultural society, sponsors of the annual Holt county fair and rodeo, met Wednesday afternoon in special session. Important matters pertain ing to the 1949 exposition were discussed. Voice’ to Be Heard 15 Minutes Later Beginning Wednesday, March 2, the “Voice of The Frontier” program, originating in the O’ Neill studios of radio station WJAG, will begin at 9:45 a. m., ; instead of 9:30. Time change for the regu- ; larly-scheduled program, broad cast each Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, has been made for a twofold purpose. Mary M o o or e, WJAG’s homemaker heard just before The Frontier broadcast, will extend her pro- j gram 15 minutes—from 9 to 9: 45—instead of her current half- j hour program, 9 to 9:30. When necessary, The Frontier pro gram can be converted into a half-hour by beginning at 9:45 and running until 10:15. FALL INJURIES PROVE FATAL CHAMBERS — Funeral ser vices were held at 2 p. m. Wednesday in the Methodist church at Chambers for Hans Obermiiller, 42-year-old ranch worker, who died at 9:10 a. m. Sunday in St. Mary’s hos pital at North Platte. Burial was in the Chambers cemetery under the direction of Biglin Brothers, of O’Neill Rev. Ralph Gerber, pastor of First Presbyterian church, of O’Neill, officiated. Mr. Obermiiller fell from ; a windmill tower recently and his death is partially attributed to injuries receiv ed in the fall. He was born November 21, 1906, at Loup City. In 1929 he went to Hyannis where for 13 years he was employed by J. L. Snyder on a ranch. During 1935 and 1936 he re sided at the Isaac Taylor res- 1 idence at Chambers. Mrs Obermiiller is the former El sie Taylor. Survivors include: Widow: sister— Mrs. Minnie Wagner, of Riverton. Wyo.; brothers— Arthur, Carl arid Edward, all of Loup City; Fredrick, of Rockville; Otto, of Kearney, and Ferdinand, of Riverton. Wyo. 28 Pages . . . This Issue SECTION ONE Page ! Editorial 2 Romaine Saunders 2 Blanche Spann Pease_3 A. Stroller 3 Churches 4 Society 5 1 Drew Pearson 6 ( James C.(Olson 7 SECTION TWO Sports 1 Capitol News _ 2 When You and I Were Young 3 Jack and Jill 3 Classifieds 4 NOWADAYS Magazine Section Robert Goldman _ 3 Toni DeLay 4 Ray Jones .5 Jo Bjornson 6 Clay Schoenfeld 7 Paul McGinnis _ 10 Bob Hope 11 Omer Henry 12 J. J. Bryson 13 Don Wray 15 WEASELS' BRING RELIEF; TAKE LEAVE , . . The weird "weasels”, the vehicles that are a cross between a war-born jeep and a light tank, have come and gone. Most rural folk who saw them rolling over the snow when all other surface vehicles failed wish they owned one—even for normal Winters. Top photo \ graph is a dramatic shot made by The Fron tier’s staff photographer, John H. McCarville, as two "weasels” operating in northeast Holt county were bounding over the drifts. Bot tom picture shows A1 Sipes, of O’Neill, deliv ering groceries to Mr. and Mrs. Earl Kifer, of the Gibson school vicinity, during a typical mercy mission. George W. Parsons Burial at Crofton ATKINSON — George W. Parsons, 87, was buried Monday at Crofton. He died Friday in the Stuart hospital where he had been a patient since January 2. Burial was near the grave of his wife, who died in 1938. During recent years the late Mr. Parsons made his home at Atkinson with his sons, Irvin and Donald. Survivors include two other sons, Hugh, of Crof ton, and Guy, also of Atkinson. Need printing?—Frontier. Red Cross Disaster Operations End The American Red Cross at noon Wednes day closed down its distress headquarters in the Holt county courthouse basement. Since Janu ary 26 the ARC headquarters has been a focal point in Operation Snowbound. From the headquarters human relief was administered in seven north-Nebraska counties as well as in Holt county, where more funds were spent by the Red Cross than in the seven other counties combined. Heading the relief work in the eight-county area was Glen D. Custer, American Red Cross field representative with World War II welfare experience. Custer, coming in response to a call from John R. Gallagher, Holt county ARC chap ter chairman, elected to administer the eight county work here because of O’Neill’s communi cations facilities and because Holt county itself was hardest-hit in this sector. Actually, O’Neill was the most easterly city in the eight-county area. Glea H. Wade, ex-commander of Simonson post 93 of the American Legion, was Custer’s No. 2 man in running the distress headquarters. Members of the American Legion auxiliary of Simonson post manned the battery of telephones ’round-the-clock as humanitarian relief work was carried out. Heading the auxiliary staff was Mrs. Glen Tomlinson. The distress headquarters established priori ties, purchased food and supplies, and dispatch ed airplanes, "weasels”, freight-sleds and ve hicles on mercy missions for nearly a month. Custer and his wife, who has been here for two weeks, will leave O’Neill today (Thursday.) Officials of the Holt county ARC chapter met in O’Neill Monday night and closed the books on the activity in this county. Some of the figures follow: Food hauled by airplane— 26,000 pounds; fuel oil and coal hauled by air plane—103,000 pounds; food hauled by "weasel” —13,000 pounds; feed, fuel oil and coal hauled by “weasel”—167,000 pounds: food hauled by sled —32.500 pounds; fuel oil and coal hauled by sled 66,500 pounds; fuel oil and coal hauled by army truck—60.000 pounds; missions flown by air planes—564. Summary of the eight-county activity and comparisons follows: A <D g ^ 3 3J3 3 3-°i9 tj 8 8ja-o ^ ^.3 I ! lid 1 lid ilifl II SI I O is S=3^i24; ■^n,j2fe-,'fi4!rCfliJrK> 3 «J= x > 2^ Su<<^cj>ch<Ow c/3 cuu w Boyd 6 0 610 1 20 20 0 0 1 3 hrs. $ 250.00 $ 250.00 Keya Paha 4 1 12 18 2 50 50 0 0 0 6 hrs. 300.00 300.00 Holt _ 72 17 564 473 12 210 260 6 300 31 67 hrs. 9,000.00 14,750.00 Brown _ 8 5 65 57 3 40 40 3 20 2 25 hrs. 1,000.00 2,750.00 Rock.. 12 300500 0 hrs. 500.00 500.00 Cherry _ .... 9 3 35 35 2 60 120 2 50 2 10 hrs. 1,375.00 1,375.00' Sheridan 25 8 100 100 7 72 100 6 75 12 24 hrs. 500.00 2,550.00 Dawes _ 35 4 30 30 5 75 200 12 2 60 hrs. 2,875.00 2.875.00 Totals 161 41^ 812 723 38 527 790 32 445 50 195 hrs. $15,800.00 $25,350.00 STILL DIGGING OUT . . . Near O’Neill a bulldozer operator pushes his machine through high drifts of snow toward isolated farms as the huge operation of digging out hard-hit blizzard areas was concluded. Chambers Drafts Appreciation Notes CHAMBERS — Members of the Chambers disaster* commit- - tee drafted and sent letters of appreciation to Maj. James H. Harper, O'Neill sub-area com mander in Operation Snow bound, to Maj Gen. Lewis A. Pick, overall Snowbound com mander. and Gov. Val Peter son. Committee members met on Monday night with Major Har per. Normalcy is being restored here. Rural schools have re opened — many of them for the first time since Christmas. MULTIPLE ROLE Allen Martin, of O’Neill, will appear in a multiple role in the forthcoming production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet” at Ne braska sta*- college at Wayne on March 10 and 11. He will play a guard. Marcellus and Osric, courtier and judge. - -- - - “Voice of The Frontier” . . . 780 .. . thrice weekly. Norfolkan to Enter Appliance Field M. E. Jacobson, of Norfolk, next week will enter the elec- j trical appliance field in O - Neill. As a result of arrange- , ments completed Wednesday, | Mr. Jacobson’s store will be in the Beha building, second 1 door East of the old Nebraska State bank building on Doug- '■ lss street. Matthew G. Beha. who has operated the Beha Electric in that location, has withdrawn, from the appliance field and will devote his time exclusive ly to wiring and selling of electrical fixtures. The radio maintenance section will con tinue to be operated by John Mullen. , __ Formal announcement of Mr. Jacobson's coming to O’Neill and store policy will appear in next week’s issue of The Frontier. Mr and Mrs. Ja cobson and their son. John Paul. 2, have not completed housing arrangements. There is an average of 1.690 fires daily in the United , States. 4Snowbound9 Ends in Holt BURLINGTON’S TRIUMPH NEARS Casey Jones legend to Make Room for Story of Derailed Engines Yep, the Casey Jones rail road legend will simply have to move over and make room for the epic story of the Bur lington’s two derailed locomo tives. The story is so fresh in the minds of most of The Fron-. tier’s readers that it isn’t real ly necessary to repeat. Two locomotives, pushing a wedge-type snowplow through a 1,500-foot snowdrift 18 feet deep, left the rails six miles east of O’Neill on December 30. For several days the snow plow crews kept the engines ‘ alive,” conveying coal from town by burlap sack and scooping snow into the tender to substitute for water. Finally, in the face of new storms, the engines were abandoned and they lay partially on their side buried in snow until Wenesday. Photographs of the hapless locomotives made front pages of many newspapers in the land. Burlington disaster crews went to work. Wedge - type plows couldn’t begin to clear the snow and ice. Even the rotary plow, “borrowed’ from a Rocky Mountain division, finally had to give up. These crews hit a new low m snow-.removal progress near McLean. Dynamite was used to blast snow out of several of the cuts. In one 16-hour pe riod the crews advanced only nine feet! First time in Burlington his tory, the railroad officials turn ed to private contractors tor help. Big bulldozers went to work, skimming snow off the top of the rails and, finally, progress was being made. Early Wednesday the ’dozers reached the two derailed loco motives, and others went on ahead to clear the tracks into O’Neill. Workmen manually were digging out the locomotives Wednesday night and firing them. As soon as the two iron horses are Tightened and the torn rails are restored, the en gines are expected to chug in to O’Neill under their own steam. Wednesday night that tri umphant moment seemed only a matter of hours away, i Last train East from O’Neill, j Western terminus on the 125 mile O’Neill-to-Sioux City line, left here on Tuesday, Decem ber 28. Miniature ‘Blizzard’ Hits Circulation Desk A miniature “blizzard’’ hit The Frontier’s circulation desk during February. More than 1,500 ex tra copies of the issues of Feb ruary 3, 10 and 17 were printed and the supply has been ev hausted. Reprints of “Weekend in a ! Weasel”, epic story of a mercy mission written by The Fron tier’s editor, Carroll W. Stewart, were printed with pictures to substitute for full issues of papers that had been ordered. Supply of “Weasel” stories ' will not be exhausted. Reprints ' are being sold at seven cents each or 10 cents each if you ' wish The Frontier to handle and mail the full-page reprint to any address in the United States. ■■■ ----- » EX-OFFICIAL DIES . . . John , Steinhauser, 83, ex-Holt coun- , tv supervisor, died Wednes day, February 9, at his Stuart home. He had been ill j months. Survivors include four daughters and three sons. ] Rural People Li Iterated, Emergency Terminates Monday at Midnight ’Dozers Move Out Operation Snowbound now ! is history in Holt county. The emergency formally I ended Monday at midnight, several days after Maj. James H. Harper, Fifth army com mander in the O’Neill sub area of district II, had recom mended its termination t o Maj. Gen. Lewis A. Pick, ov erall commander of the ex tensive snow - removal opera tion. Fifth army pulled out of the other counties in the sub-area — Boyd, Rock, Brown and Keya Paha — a week earlier. Army commanders in the field made recommendations to General Pick and the Gen eral, in turn, made recommend ations to Gov. Val Peterson, who had declared that an emergency existed and was re* sponsible for bringing the military into the area. Until the end the big bull dozers were chewing away at Holt county snowbanks, eating up miles of snow - clogged roads. It was 6 p. m. Tuesday before all the men and ma chines had gotten in from the field. Until Saturday more than a hundred ’dozers were still at work in Holt county alone. By Monday this figure had dwindled to 80. Some of the ’dozers were shipped out of here for Wy oming, where Operation Snow bound was still in full swing. Others went to Knox, Cedar and Dixon counties East of here; still others—government owned machines—were enroute back to Granite City, 111., aboard railroad llat cars. This is the point from which they came. Throughout Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, highways leading out of Holt county were filled with ’dozers heading elsewhere, most of them loaded aboard “low-boy” trailers or trucks. Major Harper late Wednes day was closing down the Fifth army sub-area headquar ters, planning to move out of the city about noon today (Thursday). Actually, the de mobilization had been under way for a week as men and machines were being released to other storm-stricken areas still paralyzed. t Northeastern Holt county, probably the hardest-hit sec tion in north-central Ne braska, was the last to get full relief. But after equip ment was concentrated in that locality, the big ma chines. manned by civilian operators, made short work of it. During the 24-hour period that ended at 10 p. m. last Thursday, the army had cleared 486 lineal miles of road. This was an all-time record ’or a single county anywhere n Operation Snowbound, ac cording to army officials here. Most of the northeast Holt blowing was done after Sun lay, February 13. Most of the work that had been done prior o that date had filled-in again md snow-removal had to begin mew. All “weasels'” have been tak en out of the county. Most if these—and their Filth ar ny crews — were trucked to \insworth from where they were flown to Wyoming and sjorth Dakota for disaster work here. “Liberated” rural people, nany of whom hadn’t been in 3’Neill since before Christmas, lave found new spirit. Most ownfolk admit that their country cousins show signs of weariness and hardship borne iy the Recurring Blizzards of l948-’49. Fifth army headquarters lere were in the Holt county ’ourthouse. Major Harper and lis staff occupied a portion of he office of the register of leeds, Esther Cole Harris, and he board of supervisors’ of ice. Scores of civilian and mili ;ary relief workers were hous ’d in private homes. For a nonth hotels were filled to •apacity. Auction Calendar The following sales have been cooked in The Frontier’s auc ion sales calendar: Saturday, February 26—How ird Jeffrey. O’Neill, personal >roperty at residence. Monday, February 28—Ralph Irittell farm sale, near Page.