Prairieland Talk ...
Niobrara Town in 100th Year
By ROMAINE SAUNDERS, Retired, Former Editor The Frontier
LINCOLN—Niobrara, successively an outpost
of the paleface in Indian country; a frontier town
of conglomerSte clusters of soldiers, cowboys, out
laws and bums amid a group of worthwhile, law
abiding patriots whose purpose was to develop a
settled community of thrifty citizens; Niobrara, the
point where one of the first United States land of
fices was established for the great plains region,
now a peaceful Nebraska village 51 miles north
east of O'Neill where the troubled waters of the
Niobrara river mingle with those of the muddy
Missouri, will be 100-years-old next year.
This calls for something special from its citi
zens so they will celebrate. The
soldiers, the picturesque frontier
characters, the Santee Indian res
ervation with the school for In
dian boys and girls where an O’
Neill teacher, Miss Anna Lowrie,
guided the rising generation of
Spotted Tail warriors and their
squaws in their efforts to learn
to read and write, are now but
memories.
A village called O’Neill was
mapped out on the open prairie
by the Elkhorn 10 or more years Romaine
ater. This at first meant rivalry. Saunders
Here they came from Niobrara to wreck us and
thought the best way to do it was to put Doc
Mathews and his newspaper, The Frontier, out of
business.
But they hadn’t reckoned with such gents as
Doc Middleton and some others who pitched in
and put the invaders to flight.
Time passed.
me two communities were connected oy a
stage route inaugurated by Charley Downey, who
made the drive from O’Neill carrying passengers,
mail, a sack of prairie chickens, and fresh mutton
ready for the skillet. The first stop was at Min
neola, then to Stoney Butte and on to Niobrara.
The land office at Niobrara was responsible
for much of the traffic from O’Neill going to Nio
brara. With the removal of the land office to O’
Neill, stage coach service was discontinued.
A charming little state park at Niobrara af
fords a quiet retreat to which you may repair to
calm your troubled soul amid the enchanting
scenes of the great outdoors.
In the long ago Niobrara was the gateway to
the Nebraska prairielands. Many emigrants
crossed the Missouri river by ferryboat that took
off from Runningwater, Dakota territory, and
landed them on the Nebraska side where they
found temporary lodging at a hotel in the fron
tier village of Niobrara.
The hotel was operated by one Colonel Towle,
a somewhat sourpuss who later got into the land
office and came with it to O’Neill. We concluded
the sourpuss dealing with motley groups in the
hotel business was a gentleman of culture and an
rator who could float you in the clouds by his elo
quence.
* * *
A 31-year-old citizen of Beatrice, Robin J.
Scully, comes into ownership of sizable slices of
both Gage and Nuckolls counties by a judicial or
der. Mr. Scully has on his hands 56,768 acres of
land in the two counties and tenants who occupy
the land. . . The state health supervisors announce
that curtailment in the number connected with
the department is necesary because of budget cuts
by the legislature. Both the announcement and the
“cuts” will be welcomed in most communities as
Nebraskans are well looked after healthwise by the
home doctors. . . Announced by the artillery of the
skies as much as four inches of rain fell last night.
Hail beat wheat and corn fields to fragments in
communities near Lincoln and today a few farm
people look out upon the ruins. . . Jimmy Roose
velt, now a member of congress fron a California
district, has been legally and judicially cast away
as a husband by his former spouse.
They are an eyesore—pictures of the Molotovs,
the Churchills, the Eisenhowers and the Steven
sons, Stassens and the Andersons, congressmen and
senators, the Seatons and the Petersons, the gov
ernors and the judges. The daily papers flaunt the
mugs of the great and those in the realm of the
heroics day-by-day. It would be a relief to see a
picture of a baby sitter, of a kitchen worker in
apron and sleeves rolled up, of a workman in over
alls putting up a building, plowing a field of com
or straddling a mower in a hayfield; even a lino
type operator with nimble fingers running out the
life stories for a reading public. And there, poised
amid the rumble of daily life in a worried world,
is the true picture of human greatness to be found
in the humble walks of life. For the gilded frame
before hanging the picture on the wall, gather the
doctors, the lawyers, the editors and the repre
sentatives of business and industry of prairieland
communities with the clergymen to invoke the
blessing of heaven.
* * *
At the national convention of the U.S. Junior
Chamber of Commerce held in Atlanta, Ga., last
week, Hugh McKenna, a native of O’Neill, was
elected president. Hugh lives in Omaha, is the son
of Mabel McKenna, also a native of O’Neill, and
the late Charles McKenna. Prairieland Talker, hav
ing known Hugh’s parents and grandparents, ex
tends sincere congratulations. The parents of his
father were Holt county pioneers, who in the long
ago moved from the open prairie to O’Neill, and
the senior Mr. McKenna became the “village black
smith,” with a shop near where the Shelhamer
Food Market now stands. Hugh’s maternal grand
father, H. J. Meredith, was a member of the Holt
County Bar Association, was the captain of com
pany F, Second regiment, Nebraska national
guards. Mrs. Meredith was a sister of James H.
and George Riggs, publishers of The Frontier for
several years. Owen Meredith, brother of Hugh’s
mother, is a retired army officer now living in
California.
* * *
On Monday, July 7, 1902, the city council of
O’Neill, Ed F. Gallagher, mayor, and J. F. Galla
gher, city clerk, met to consider the problem of
“unwholesome meat from diseased animals” re
ported being sold at the “butcher shops” in town.
The council resolved that not only the laws of the
state of Nebraska were thus being broken but “the
confidence of our citizens has been betrayed.” The
council went on record pledging support to law
enforcement agencies to bring an end to any such
business in the community. The diseased meat
complained of came from a lumpjaw critter butch
ered at the slaughter house down at the river.
Anyway, the aproned gent at the meat block con
tinued to slice off a round of A-T branded steak
and sell it to you for a dime.
* * *
I have returned from the church services,
looked upon the face of the dead, witnessed the
solemn rites at the grave into which the lifeless
form of a friend I had known was lowered. I
turned away with the many others who had known
him to resume the duties of life among the living.
One more whom we have known heard the drum
beat that announces life’s journey is ended. A
year ago he and I sat together in the car following
another lifeless form to its last resting place when
my companion remarked as we entered through
the gate to the portals of the dead that he had
known more who now lay in the graves than he
knew among the living in the community. In him
today one more joins the silent majority.
* * *
Members and friends of the Bethany church
south of Amelia may be interested to a learn
that their former pastor, Reverend Pederson,
with Mrs. Pederson, visited in the home of Rev
erend Pederson’s parents in Lincoln last week.
Reverend Pederson is pastor of a church at Can
on City, Colo.
Editorial . . .
Free Men or Slaves in 1965?
The controversy rages in Washington, D.C., as
to whether or not Russia is way ahead of us in pro
duction of advanced type airplanes. The Soviets
have flexed their air might muscles in several
“fly-byes” over the Kremlin.
There is no controversy over the terrifying fact
that Russia is racing far ahead of us in the techni
cal manpower race.
Twice within one week spokesmen at national
meetings have issued frightening warnings con
cerning the way we are being outstripped by Russia
in the field of education.
The man who regards the Russian as a dumb
kulak peasant type has the jolt of his life ahead
of him.
William C. Foster, president of the Manufac
turing Chemists association, says that the Russians
have us outnumbered in natural scientists in a
“quiet but horrible race to develop the inter-conti
nental ballistic missile.”
It is this development that will determine
whether we, and our children, will be permanent
ly slave or permanently free.
We have some great scientists working on
our team. But the men who are working for Russia
are not peasant oafs but brilliant scientists and
there are more of them.
The Soviet output of engineers is two and a
half times that of America.
And we do not make the best use of the ones
we have. The military industrial conference com
mittee points out that a large percentage of our
available specialists are wasted on non-technical
military tasks, reflecting short-sighted and wasteful
thinking on the part of our armed services.
If every boy and girl now in universities would
enter engineering we still would be out-paced by the
Soviet. Instead of keeping up we are falling be
hind.
In 1950 we graduated 50,000 engineers.
In 1954 we graduated less than 20,000.
At one university with a full time enrollment
of 20,000 students there will be only six chemical
engineers graduated this spring. Forty companies
are bidding for the services of those six seniors.
Nothing can be done about the needs of 1956
or even 1959 in engineering. Engineering is a “long
term crop” and it takes seven to eight years of
preparation.
Part of the trouble, maybe the major share of
it, starts in our school system. We need to give
greater opportunity to study basic natural science
in our ninth and 10th grades. In the United States
with a shortage of 300,000 classrooms this is easier
said than done. We have a serious lack of natural
science and mathematics teachers. We have done a
poor job in making these subjects interesting or
attractive to students. This progressive education
isn’t exactly conducive to turning out fledgling
scientists. The progressive educators tend to retard
the advanced students and try vainly to speed up
the slow ones.
The terrifying fact is that we are falling behind
in the race which will determine whether we are
slaves or free men a decade from now.
If You Charge, We Charge
A newspaper has only one thing to sell to bring
in the money to pay wages and the costs of doing
business—and that is advertising.
Some people think we can exist on free pub
licity. We, for years, have had the policy on pub
licity that if you charge, we charge.
If an event is staged for the purpose of making
money, we feel justified in charging for advertising
to publicize the event. This is universal newspaper
practice.
Moreover, page one advertising Is npt for sale.
Page one display space is often requested in The
Frontier (and most other newspapers throughout
the country), but very few newspapers make it
available. Every cause, commercial or charitable,
would want front page display if it were to be
offered “for rent.”
In order to assure even distribution of adver
tising throughout this family journal, no ad space
is available on page one.
This, too, is a traditional American newspaper
policy.
CARROLL W. STEWART, Editor and Publisher
Editorial & Business Offices: 122 South Fourth St.
Address correspondence: Box 330, O’Neill, Nebr.
Established in 1880 — Published Each Thursday
Entered at the postoffice in O’Neill, Holt coun
ty, Nebraska, as second-class mail matter under
the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. This news
paper is a member of the Nebraska Press Associa
tion, National Editorial Association and the Audit
Bureau of Circulations.
Terms of Snbscriptkm: In Nebraska, $2.50 per
year; elsewhere in the United States, $3 per year;
rates abroad provided on request All subscriptions
are paid-in-advance.
Audited (ABC) Circulation—2,463 (Mar. 31, 1955)
When You and I Were Young . . .
Livery, Lumber Firms
Hit by Lightning
Jack Sullivan Wins
Over Trommer
50 Years Ago
Fire destroyed the Bowen livery
barn and Bazelman lumber yard
It is thought that a bolt of light
ning struck the livery barn.
Miss Ruth Evans gave a porch
party at the Hotel Evans in honor
of Owen Meredith of West Point
Military academy and Miss Green
teacher in the O’Neill schools for
the coming year. The spacious
porch was decorated with flags in
honor of the approaching holiday.
. . . Senator Currie of Custer
county was in the city. . . The 10
round boxing exhibition between
Jack Sullivan of O’Neill and
Franklin Trommer was pulled off
in the Ryan Bros, hay barn before
a crowd of 250. At the end of
the fifth round the contest was de
cided in favor of Sullivan by Ref
eree Frank Leahy. . . Judge Kin
kaid arrived home from Washing
ton, D.C., congress having ad
journed.
20 Years Ago
Masons from Holt county towns
and some of those west of Holt
county gathered at Stuart to com
memorate the completion of a
half-century of existence of the
lodge at Stuart. . . A bolt of light
ning is thought to have been re
sponsible for the death of Ne
braska King, $2,700 colt owned by
M. W. Zaborowski. . . Frank M.
Shaner, holding the contract to
furnish a new city well, reported
that an ancient human arm had
been drawn up from a depth of
32 feet while digging the well. . .
An unknown person broke into
the Conoco station and made off
with 15 gallons of gasoline and
3% gallons of lubricating oil. . .
A mother’s vacation camp will be
held this year in Neligh. , . Offi
cials said there is a very fine
chance that the two blocks on
Fourth street running north from
Douglas street may be paved
within a short time.
10 Years Ago
Virginia M. Schultz, WAVE
seaman, first class, has reported
for duty as a master-at-arms in
the WAVE quarters at the Puget
Sound navy yard in Bremerton,
Wash. . . Dick Reed of Cham
bers was kicked by a horse in the
abdomen, resulting in an internal
injury. . . The Up-an-At-It 4-H
club was called to order by Twila
Whaley, president, at the home of
Glea and Helen Bowden. . . Mrs.
Ira Wiatson and Carolyn of
Inman spent several days in Om
aha, where Carolyn had a dental
appointment. . . A large crowd of
O’Neillites traveled to Neligh the
Fourth to see O’Neill defeat Til
den in a close game by a 3-2 score.
• . . Mrs. Ann Asher spent the
Fourth with her brother and fam
ily, the Tom Hartigans, at Inman.
... A large delegation of Holt
county 4-H members attended the
camp held this year at Long Pine.
One Year Ago
Mrs. Chet Fees of O’Neill grab
bed first-place honors in the
“powder puff” derby—the feature
of the Fourth of July stock car
race show. . . Miss Marjorie
Weichman of Stuart was named
Stuart rodeo queen. . . Miss Bar
bara Brunckhorst has returned
home from a teachers’ tour to
New York. . . A large crowd at
tended the celebration at Bethany.
The main atraction was the three
baseball games in the church
league. . . Many relatives and
friends called at the farm home
of Mr. and Mrs. Claude Raymer
of Atkinson on July 4. The Ray
mers were celebrating their sil
ver wedding anniversary. . . The
212 South Fork 4-H club held its
regular meeting at Leonard Pet
erson’s. . . Mr. and Mrs. Donald
Clyde attended graduation exer
cises at the Milford state trade
school. Henry Rohrer, Mrs. Clye’s
father, was among the graduates.
Gallups Move
to Omaha_
Mr. and Mrs. Pat Gallup and
two children moved Friday to
Omaha, where Mr. Gallup will be
employed as a cattle feed special
ist for Nutrena Mills. Mr. Gallup
a graduate of Oklahoma A&M
college, served four years on the
O’Neill high school faculty.
When he was not a candidate
for reelection, Mr. Gallup planned
to move either to Stratford, Okla.,
or to Omaha. He decided to locate
in Omaha.
NEW DWELLING
EWING — Work has begun on
the new Mr. and Mrs. Allan Pol
lock residence on their lots in the
northeast part of the block in
which the Methodist church is
located. I
Riverside Clubbers
Go to Nellgh—
The Riverside 4-H club met at
the Leo Schneider home Sunday,
June 19. Because is was fathers’
day, a picnic was held in honor of
the fathers. After dinner the
members gathered for the meet
ing. Roll call found a few mem
bers absent.
Plans were completed for the
4-H picnic. It will be held at Nio
brara State Park on Sunday,
July 24. Everyone will gather in
O’Neill after church and leave by
truck.
The holiday picnic will be held
at the Matt Beha home on Sun
day July 3. On the Fourth the
club went to Neligh for the
evening celebration.
The next meeting will be July
12, at the John Vitt home.
Two of the group were recent
patients at St. Anthony’s hos
pital—Mrs. John Vitt and Charles
Boyle.—By Mary Agnes Janzing,
news reporter.
Curtis Supports
Affidavit Bill
U.S. Sen. Carl T. Curtis (R.
Neb.) Tuesday pledged support to
a bill introduced on June 27 by
Senator Eastland of Mississippi.
This bill would require any at
torney practicing before any fe
d e r a 1 court, before a federal
agency or commission, or before
a committee of the congress to
file a non-communist affidavit
prior to his appearance.
The American Bar association
in its brief on communism tactics,
strategies and objectives pointed
out that membership in the bar is
not a right but a high privilege.
Continued membership depends
on high standing and high char
acter in legal circles. In addition
to giving assurance as to the
character of attorneys working in
the federal courts and with con
gress, this bill would prevent an
attorney from making an appear
ance before a congressional com
mittee and then taking refuge
under the Fifth amendment about
possible communist affiliations.
Senator Curtis believes this le
gislation will receive expeditious
attention of the senate.
Margaret Pritchett
Weds Norfolkan
Miss Margaret Pritchett, daugh
ter of Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Pritch
ett of O’Neill, and Wayne May,
son of Mrs. Millie May of Nor
folk, were united in marriage at
2 p.m., Wednesday, June 29. at
the Methodist church in Norfolk.
They will make their home in
Alliance.
Bohn Participates in
Task Force Effort—
Marine Sgt. Richard O. Bohn,
son of Mr. and Mrs. D. L. Bohn of
O’Neill, participated in amphi
bious training exercises conduct
ed by the First marine division’s
Fifth regiment off the coast of
Southern California.
The regiment sailed from San
Diego, Calif., June 12 with a
navy task force. After five days of
training at sea, the leathernecks
made an amphibious landing near
Oceanside, Calif., on the Camp
Pendleton reservation. Two days
of tactical maneuvers followed.
Sergeant Boyle
Headed Homeward—
In a letter to the Frontier, Sgt.
Donald E. Boyle, who is stationed
in Schweinfurt, Germany, stated
he is in the process of coming
home with the First division. The
First will replace the 10th divi
sion at Ft. Riley, Kans., so he
will be leaving Germany about
July 12, arriving in the U.S.
round July 24. There will be a
ceremony at the dock and some
of the soldiers will be on televi
sion. His division was originally
stationed near New York City.
Thus New York state is consi
dered the home of the First.
Venetian blinds, prompt deliv
ery, made to masure, metal or
wood, all colors.— J. M. McDon
alds. tf
-
Stuart
REST HAVEN
Home for the
Aged and
Convalescent
Phone 5571
MR. AND MRS.
W. A. NICKLESS
— PROPS. —
_
ATTENTION
Stockmen and Ranchers I
If you will be needing hay for winter feed, why not make I;
arrangements for it now? I can save you several dollars a ton. I
I have 200 tons of first cutting alfalfa baled and piled before I
the rains and can get all the second and third cuttings you I
might need.
I have all the equipment to put alfalfa in wire-tied bales I
and pile. Second cutting just starting, some good first left.
If you want good hay now or later, write or see me and S
we will get it ready for you. |i
LAMONT SCHRACK I
Phone FA4-2963 — 811 N. Harrison I
Lexington, Nebr. 1
Senate Okays 115-KV
Line to Neligh
The senate appropriations
committee in Washington ap
proved 940-thousand-dollars Fri
day for a 115-kilovolt transmis
sion line from Ft. Randall dam
to-Neligh, but added an important
proviso.
It recommended an additional
appropriation of 60-thousand
dollars for the bureau of recla
mation to study the feasibility of
a 230-kilovolt line from Ft. Ran
dall-to-Grand Island.
If the bureau finds it is feasi
ble to build the 230-KV line in
stead of the 115-KV line, the
committee said, then it should
submit is study to the commit
tee and await instructions.
The 115-KV line already has
been approved by the house.
Th,e senate committee noted
that Nebraska power officials
have contended that a 230-KV
line is needed for pump-irriga
propriate and talented oration from
tion power, although at present,
for economy reasons, most pump
irrigation is gas- or diesel-pow
ered.
It reported out a 745-million
dollar bill for the army engineers
and bureau of reclamation con
taining a total of approximately
145-million-dollars for P i c k
Sloan projects in the Missouri
basin.
UI me Missouri basin amount,
about 90-miUion-dollars is for
the engineers and about 56 mil
lion for the bureau.
For the big dams on the Mis
souri river the committee ap
proved the same amounts as
voted by the house, with one
minor exception.
It provided $20,100,000 for Gar
rison dam in North Dakota, 100
thousand-dollars more than the
house amount.
The senate committee approv
ed $5,800,000 for taming the Mis
souri river between Omaha and
Sioux City and two-million-dol
lars for river work between Kan
sas City and the mouth. These
amounts were the same as voted
by the house.
The senate committee’s report
contained a recommendation that
the army engineers stick to the
original plan to acquire 40-thou
sand acres of land for the Gavins
Point dam in Nebraska and South
Dakota.
Under the administration’s new
land acquisition policy, it pointed
out, the engineers reduced that
figure to 36 thousand acres.
Some persons in the vicinity of
the lake to be formed by the dam
have protested the reduction,
while others have been against
the engineers taking more land,
especially by condemnation. '
The committee said the in
creased acquisition should be re
stricted as far as possible to land
not suitable for agriculture.
These were the committee’s
other recommendations in which
there were no charges from the
amounts voted by the house.
Club Plans Picnic—
Pleasant Brook
CLEARWATER—The Pleasant
Brook 4-H club held its last
meeting at the Schmiser's. Two of
the members went to 4-H camp
at Long Pine. They gave a report
on their activities. It was deciced
that the club picnic would be
held at the Neligh park Tuesday,
July 12.
Monuments of lasting beauty
made by skilled craftsmen of
the J. F. Bloom Co. . . . monu
ments from the factory to the
consumer. — Emmett Crabb, O’
Neill, phone 139-J. 37tf
Mr. and Mrs. Louis Reimer, jr.,
and son, Jimmy, spent the week
end with her father, Doctor Brown
of Dennison, la.
Alice’s Beauty Shop
(In Former Apparel Shop
Location)
Phone 263 — O’Neill
REX W. WILSON,
M.D.
ROBT. M. LANGDON,
M.D.
PHYSICIANS &
SURGEONS
128 W. Douglas St, O’Neill
Phone 138
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.. DANCE ..
AT O’NEILL
American Legion Auditorium
& BALLROOM
—
Saturday, July 9th
ACES OF RHYTHM ORCHESTRA
Adm.: Adults, $1; high school students, 50c
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