Prairieland Talk—
Rival Once Tried to Wreck Plant
By BO MAINE SAUNDERS, 4110 South 51*t St., Lincoln 6, Ncbr.
LINCOLN The year 1958 brings The Frontier
up to the venerable age of 78 It was approaching
the spring of the year in 1880 when there came to
the prairie village of O'Neil] a newspaper guy from
a southern Wisconsin town to look into the pros
pects for starting an O'Neill paper Pat Hagerty,
who had a trading post where the Goldent hotel now
stands, had induced Doc Mat- . T
hews to "come west” and start
a pajier, so The Frontier was
launched upon the sea of ac
tivities among the early set
tlers, cow punchers, Indians
anti ambitious young politi
cians. The Frontier has survi
ved two fires and one attempt
by an envious rival over at
Niobrara to wreck the plant,
has outlived six editors and
a score of printers, has not
missed a week coming from Romalne
the press, the first a Wash- Saunders
inglon hand press, in these years The paper had a
large part in inducing settlers to come to praine
land The Frontier is still read by everybody in th
community and many in distant ptaces_ It has ex
pended from a four-page six-column sheet to
£ig,. eight-column paper that others are copymg
Xr My bn it her Ezra was the first printer to set
,he type for Doc Mathews’ glowing word Futures
of "God's Country” and he now lies upon the hi
under the sod as do others who had been connected
with paper as publishers or printers Nine other
newspapers once were published in O Neill, tailed
and died The Frontier goes on still under capable
management.
• • •
Nebraska History, a quarterly magazine put>
lished by the State Historical Society with oftices
and headquarters at 15th and ft street m Lincoln^
draws our attention now to newspaper notables of
the state instead of the politicians and army offi
cers that have been about the only theme of state
historians in recent years. A full page picture of
James Lawrence and the story of his life's work as
an editor appears in the latest issue of the mag
azine. Having turned their gaze away from mili
tary posts and government officials, the editors of
Nebraska History may catch a vision of the pio
neer men and women of prairieland from whose
toil worn hands this generation has its heritage.
Who were they that subdued a wilderness and
forminl the empire of Holt? It was men like Walt
O’Malley and his forebears, men like Wallace John
son like Hugh O'Neill, like Will Riley who brought
to the prairies of Holt county purebred Shorthorns
to take over and drive out the longhorns, men Uke
Sam El wood who brought to the county the first
herd of purebred Angus; women like Mrs. Dustin,
like Mrs. W. W. Page, like Mrs. J. J McCafferty
and other wives and mothers w'ho maintained the
homes and reared families; the men and women
in the towns, on the land from the Missouri river
to the foothills, from the Sioux Indian country to
the valley of the Republican-these were the hands,
the minds, that made Nebraska history.
• • •
Meditation is the tongue of the soul and the
language of our spirit; and our wandering thoughts
in prayer are but the neglects of meditation and
recessions from that duty; and according as we
neglect meditation, so are our prayers imperfect,
meditation being the soul of prayer and the inten
tion of our spirit.—Jeremy Taylor.
A native daughter of O’Neill. Mrs. Edwin
Johnson, writes me from her home in Omaha: "I
feel close enough to write you as we have in com
mon O’Neill. Never miss your column and I sure
hope you have many more years of good health in
which to write. Others here from up there join me
and say they read your column first, and there are
quite a few here and say they followed Arthur Mul
ien down here, but I remember when we used to
come down to see Dr. Dwyer.”
Mrs. Johnson is a daughter of a pioneer couple ,
of O'Neill, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Tierney, both now
lying under the sod upon the hill in the abode of
the dead. Mrs Tierney was a sister of the late j
Dave Stannard and his brothers. Tom was the
town drayman until he passed away more than 40
year ago. Mrs. Johnson wonders if that was before
my time. Not hardly as I landed in O’Neill be
hind a pair of range bred horses something like 75
years ago and now traveled the rugged highway of
life a little more than 87 years. Cordial greetings
to you, Mrs. Johnson, and others from out of the
groenrobed prairies of Holt county now anchored
in Omaha.
• • •
In commeration of the 501h anniversary' of the
opening of a school of journalism at the University
of Missouri the postal department will issue a spe
cial stamp early this year. Schools of journalism
have sprung up in about every state, while news
papers are becoming few'er and fewer. Something
like a dozen less in Nebraska in 1957 than there
were in 1956. Holt county at one time had 17 nows
l>apers; today there are four. Simultaneously with
the introduction of schools of journalism has dis
appeared the gifted writers and their charming
word pictures have given way to the common place
"news stories." No more the songs of a Doc Bixby,
the wit and literary beauty of the writings of Ross
Hammond of Will Maupin nor the charming elo
quence of an Edgar Howard. No longer the thrill
of a line by Clyde King, Jim Riggs, John Wertz or
George McArthur nor the slashing vindictiveness
in a paragraph by John Sprecker. This is the age
of school of journalism "news stories” that leave
you guessing as to what did happen.
• • •
There stands in O’Neill today a magnificent
court house, a monument to R. R. Dickson and
John Weeks without whose promoting it would not
be there; public school buildings, an academy,
churches and a city library—monuments to a
people that make the history of a community. The
Frontier building stands as a monument to Denny
Cronin, the Golden hotel, a monument to Tom Gold
en and a seven-room white cottage on South First
street a monument to my mother!
• • •
Every man has two educations—that which
is given to him, and the other, that which he gives
himself. Of the two kinds, the latter is by far the'
most valuable. Indeed all that is most worthy in
man, he must work out and conquer for himself.
It is that, that constitutes our real and best nou
rishment. What we are merely taught, seldom
nourishes the mind like that which we teach our
selves.—Richter.
• • •
The .Methodist church of O’Neill forwarded
the brochure of the church's 75th anniversary
to the Nebraska State Historical Society and is
now in the society’s archives in Lincoln.
Editorial—
Flaws of Quality, Not Quantity
Conservatives in the United States congress
and elsewhere—are bracing themselves to with:
stand the most powerful onslaught todate on behalf
of federal aid to education.
"Liberals" of every description—including
some in Nebraska’s stateliouse—-have seized upon
the SiHitnik furore as a heaven-sent opportunity to
ram through schemes of shotgun legislation to pro
dace federal and centralized control of education
to some degree.
Viewed as particularly ominous by the nation s
lawmakers are (1) Secretary Folsom s one-billion
dollar program of federal grants-in-aii to schools,
and <2> the lioast of the left-wing National Educa
tion association that its profederal aid lobbying
will bo conducted this session on a •’round-the
clock” basis.
Many educators, who are members of the asso
ciation and ribminally foes of federal aid, are
afraid to speak out because of possible reprisals.
The education hierarchy has so manuev.ered certi
fication of teachers some of the membership teels
muzzled relative to controversial matters. (At a
local level, some teachers opposed to the fash
ionable hatchet plan for small schools are afraid
to speak out because “labor boss tactics might
be employed.) . . . _
Opponents of federal aid say that American
conservatives must work as never before to im
press their congressional representatives with this
fact- The flaws of American education are flaws
of quality, not quantity. The piling on of federal
dollars will only intensify the existing evils and
shortcomings in the present educational setup,
while creating new ami equally grievous dangers of
federal control and waste
Two supporters of this argument, neither ot
whom can be snifTed away as "reactionary”, have
offered this comment:
President Harry Heald of the Fold foundation:
"Under present mass education policies, the re
quirements for graduation art' scaled down for the
weaker students; the more able ones do no more.’
Dr. Howard L. Bevis, chairman of the presi
dent’s committee on scientists and engineers:
• American education should increase the require
ments of science, mathematics. English and other
basic disciplines through high school”.
Earth Is Warming Up
Dr. Edward Teller says the earth is warming
up. Taking his stand in the controversy concern
ing the trend of the weather. Teller says that the
increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the air is
warming up our earth.
Teller says accurate measurements show that
then' has been an increase of two percent in the
carbon dioxide content in the air since the begin
ning of the industrial revolution This has been
caused by heavy uses of fuels such as coal, oil, and
its derivatives.
Unless there is a halt to the trend. Teller be
lieves the earth will become overheated before the
end of the Twentieth century. He believes that
when the amount of carbon dioxide has increased
much further, ice caps on the Poles will begin to
melt tthey are already receding) and the amount
of water in the oceans will increase.
This will inundate such port cities as New
York and such countries as Holland.
The answer? Teller believes the answer is the
use of nuclear fuel. The associate director of the
University of California’s radiation laboratory says
that we must put nuclear fuel to work, powering
electrical plants which otherwise would consume
coal, or oil or other carbon dioxide producing fuels.
Soil Plan Will Depopulate
A headline in the Omaha World-Herald
suggests the effect of the “pilot plan" for turning
a substantial hunk of Nebraska back to grass and
trees for five- and 10-year periods will have an ad
verse effect on the economics of small towns.
Our guess is the effect will be adverse on
some of the larger ones, too, and will be a boon to
absentee owmers who will “bid in" their places and
shuffle off to the West coast on some distant place
to spend the dough.
The result w ill be a depopulation of an already
sparsely populated area; less services will be re
quired; fewer groceries will be sold.
Nebraska is one of four states in the trial
balloon plan. The object, of course, is to reduce
production while science and industrious fanners
are doing everything possible to increase produc
tion. It’s our guess socalled poor land will im
mediately find its way into the new soil bank while
better land will produce more and more Hence,
the agricultural department experts will be back
where they started.
Common speakers have only one set of ideas,
and one set of words to clothe them in; and these
are always ready at the mouth; so people come
faster out of a church that is almost empty, than
when a crowd is at the door.—Swift.
Open your purse and your mouth cautiously;
and your stock of wealth and reputation, shall at
least in repute, be great.—Zimmerman.
Why do so many women waste money trying
to look young and attractive and at the same time
eat their way to 200 pounds?
FrontTfr
CARROLL W. STEWART. Editor and Publisher
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 Subscription: In Nebraska, $2.50
per year; elsewhere in the United States, $3 per
year; rates abroad provided upon request. All sub
scriptions payable in advance.
When You & I Were Young . . . I
Sullivan, Uttley
Tell of ’88 Storm
Teacher, 13 Pupils
Marooned
SO Years Ago
F O Hammerberg. one of The j
Frontier's friends from up at Ce
lia, was a caller Wednesday dur- i
ing the editor's absence from the |
office. Call again Anthony
Stanton and John Hickey return
ed Monday from West Point. . .
John R. Hollar, one of the best
known and well respected citiz
ens of Shields township, died sud
denly at his home January 4.
Nearly 54 years old, he was a na
tive of Canada. He came to this
country 18 or 20 years ago He
was a prominent member of the
Mennonite church in his commu
nity. . . Weddings: Dey S. Wey
gint of Meadow Grove and Miss
Fanny L. Johnson of Tilden and
John Cleary and Inez Murray,
both of this community. . . The
Tuesday club met with Mrs. J.
J. Harington. Shakespeare is the
topic being studied. Those taking
part wrere: Mrs. G. W. Smith,
Mrs. Scott, Mrs. Mote, Mrs. A. F.
Mullen and Miss Ruth Evans. . .
Men’s overalls advertised at the
Cash store for 48 cents; cotton
flannel mitts at 6 cents a pair;
men's overcoats at $3.60 and bed
blankets at 48 cents each.
20 Years Ago
.‘Montana Jack’’ Sullivan and
Mrs. Mary A. Uttley told of their
experiences in the blizzard of
1888. Montana Jack recalled that
‘‘the cattle became agitated and
by instinct, they scented the dan
ger”. He goes on to relate that
on the horizon appeared a whirl
ing grey blur that roared toward
him like an express train. It was
proceeded by a snapping and
cracking sound like static elect
ricity. ‘‘I was so fascinated with
the extreme terror of it,” he says,
"that I stood spell bpund until the
storm rolled over me”. Mrs. Ut
tley, a teacher in a little sod
schoolhouse just across the Nio
brara river at Hogan’s bridge in
Keya Paha county, had 13 pupils
with her the day of the storm
(January 12) and they remained
with her in the schoolhouse all:
day and all night with neither food,
fuel nor light from 4 o’clock in the j
afternoon. She says the storm!
struck about 9 o’clock in the mor-;
ning and raged until about 3:30 j
the next morning. About 5 o’clock
Mr. Hogan and two neighbors came
to their rescue.
10 Years Ago
Nancy Elaine Harshfield, who
was born at 6:35 a m., new year’s
day at Atkinson, won The Front
ier’s first baby contest. She weigh
ed 7% pounds. James F. Lewis,
4, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Lew
is of near Spencer, was "goo«L af
ter having his right arm amputa
ted at Sacred Heart hospital in
Lynch. He was the victim of a
power saw accident. . . The tem
perature reached 50 twice this
week. . . Those fearless Frickel
trappers, Ronnie, 8, and Donnie,
10, of Celia, closed 1947 with a
skunk and a badger added to their
triumphs.
One Year Ago
Kathleen Marie Blake, who
was born Thursday, January 3 at
St. Anthony’s hospital, won The
Frontier's first baby of the year
contest. . . Larry Wayne Papke.
11, of Stuart, was fatally wounded
by an accidental charge of a .22
calibre repeater rifle. . . Deaths:
J W. Roche, 66, of Atkinson; Jane
Tangeman. 85, of Chambers;
George H. White, 80, of Atkinson;
William Kramer, 72, of Stuart;
David Everett Lee, 6, of Atkinson;
Mrs. Agnes Slaymaker of Atkin
son.
Tubercular Patients
Will Be Remembered
Partners from O'Neill, Pierce,
Stanton and Norfolk were in at
tendance at the regular January
Marche of the Madison County
410, 8 et 40, which met Thursday
evening at Hotel Madison in Nor
folk.
Mrs. A. R. Andrews, shapeau,
appointed Mrs. Jesse Walker of
Norfolk as salon chairman of
education and scholarships, a new
project of the 8 et 40 which pro
vides scholarship funds for grad
uate nurses to take advanced
study for nursing of tubercular
patients.
Mrs. Andrews also reported
Income Tax
For assistance in filing your
self-employment and tax
reports, call on
Geo. C. Robertson
O’Neill
Accounting and former em
ployee of Internal Revenue.
Dow ney Bldg. Phone 534
Wednesday, Jan. 29
through
Saturday, Febr. 8
Cecil B. DeMille’s
The Ten
Commandments
Wed. & Sat. Matinee—1 p.m.
Adults 90o: Children 50c
Sunday shows starting at
12:00. 4:00 and 8:00 p.m.
Adults $1.25; Children 50c
One Show Nightly—7 p.m.
Ainsworth Theatre
AINSWORTH, NEBRASKA
%
that the salon had rasied $89 from
the sale of greeting cards.
Miss Daisy Rohinson of Stanton
chairman of finance, presented
the 1958 budget which was unan
imously approved.
Bernice Bussman, child welfare
chairman, read thank-you notes
from several patients in the Nat
ional Jewish hospital of Denver,
Colo., and was appointed to secure
names of local tubercular patients
who may be hospitalized, either in
the Kearney State hospital or In
Denver so that they may be re
membered on holidays and special
occasions by the salon.
A pre-inarche dessert was ser
ved by the hostesses. Mrs Wil
liam MeGinty, Mrs Virgil Sch-'
lack. Mrs Ervin Ashy and Mrs
Andrews.
Games furnished entertainment
following the marche. Mrs. Lester
Riege of O'NetH won first prize at
bunco and Mrs Robert Lowery
also of O'Neill, had low score At
bridge, Mrs Ann Warner of Nor
folk won high and Mrs A L
Maier of Norfolk won low scon*
Partners front O'Neill who at
tended the ntarche included Mrs
Lowery, Mrs Melvin Ruzicka,
Mrs. Riege and Mrs ohn David
son.
Ray Lawrence
ON Ell J. — PHONE 174
Dealer of Nixon St Co.
F-E-E-D-S
General Livestock Hauling
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When you’re thinking about buy
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price, there are two things it pays
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conveniences that you’d normally
expect to he standard in a car.
Chevrolet's Delray models are
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they’re full-size Chevrolets—and
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Nothing else near the price has
what’s in this' package. See and
drive this big beauty soon at your
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Only franchised Chevrolet dealers
display this famous trademark
See your local authorized Chevrolet dealer for quick appraisal—prompt delivery! riOM
Cherries...phimp, bright, tender cherries!
80 many you’ll find ’em in every spoonful, adding
their delicate flavor to the mellow richness o!
Meadow Gold Vanilla Ice Cream. Pick up a half-gallon v
package of Meadow Gold Cherry-Vanilla next time you shop.
Better yet, pick up two. You’ll find that your family gets
to the bottom of one package mighty fast!
o 1M7 KATRieC fOOMMb
/ ___— 1
