Prairieland Talk—
First Night Spent at Minneola
t
By ROMAINE SAUNDERS, 4110 South 51ki St., Lincoln 6, Nebr.
(Editor’s note: Romaine Saunders, au
thor of Prairieland Talk, was principal
speaker at the Holt county old settlers’
picnic held Monday. August 25. north of
O'Neill. Text of his talk follows * :
Mr. Chairman. Old Settler Friends and Visitors:
Another step along the highway of life brings
fou together again at the annual picnic party. 1
esteem it an honor and a pleasure to be with you
ftxfay. to feel the touch of a friendly hand, to look
jpon smiling faces and enjoy the social contacts.
More than 70 years have gone dowm the lane
•f time Since I as a lad of
12 years was lost my first
night on the prairies of Holt
county. My father profession
ally was a dentist, but he had
Hood of a pioneer in him and
did not like to stick around
«i his dental office \ji a south
ern Wisconsin town and pull
teeth. So about the year 1882
*r '83, he came to O’Neill.
Already an older brother
mine was out here, the first Romalne
Journeyman printer in O’Neill
who later started a paper up
at Dustin. Father preceded the rest of the family
by a year or two. He seemed to be overtaken with
the land hunger craze of those days and took a bite,
Bled on a homestead five miles northeast of O’
Heill, his homestead joining that of the Doc Math
ews homestead—the Mathews who started The
Frontier in O’Neill in the year 1880 and which con
tinues to come to you week-by-week, now under
the able management of Editor Cal Stewart.
When Mathews acquired title to his horn* stv-w*
i • At_t_ ...»» lUnt nlrwi/1 fhp
walked on and on and father, thinking we must be
near home, let down his load to discover we had
Ix-en traveling in a circle and were now north of
the place where we got the hay. Trying it again
we made it.
Our shell of a house rested on 12-inch tim
bers, one on the we6t side, the other on the east.
The wind had blown steadily all day from the south
east. As evening came on a dark cloud gathered
above the northwest horizon. We retired for the
night, father and mother in their quarters down
stairs, sister in the south end of the upstairs, I
in the north end.
Sometime in the night that cloud that had
gathered in the northwest struck with raging fury;
and our shell of a house started to go with it, was
moved off of the timber on the west side and up
on the one on the east side, thus leaning against
the storm. Sister screamed and I screamed, jump
ed out of or beds and down stairs where we found
mother wiping up a stream of milk that ran across
the floor. The milk came from cans of milk on a
shelf. Father had our homestead abode insured
against damage by wind and got enough out of
that insurance to finish the house, a good founda
tion under it and then built us a “cyclone cellar."
A night in November wind upset a barrel of meat
out in the open -there were no refrigerators those
days—rolled it down across the prairie scattering
chunks of meat along the way. That house, the
homestead home of Doc Mathews, of my parents,
stands today modernized and with additional
rooms on South First street in O’Neill, and is the
| homp of my friends, Lloyd and Mrs. Gillespie, who
themselves are of pioneer stock.
I was staying with John Addison at his home
in the M innnnln ami • Un/^ fin! J li:
.4M..WIIVU VUUUlg
John’s hair. We stepped outside to shake out the
trimmings. The whole country to the south and
east was on fire. We worked until midnight plow
ing fire guards and saved John from any loss.
Recently Mrs. Downey died in Burnell. She
was a daughter of the Hallorans, early settlers
near Inman. Mrs. Halloran told me the story.
They were to spend their first Thanksgiving day
on the prairies of Holt county. All they had in their
little homestead abode in the way of food was
some dried cherries. These made their first Thanks
giving day feast as Holt county homesteaders.
They had plenty in after years. I know because I
worked at the Halloran ranch during haying in
the summer of 1887. We were fed five times a day—
the usual three meals, and at midforenoon and
midafternoon that woman who lies in the abode
of the dead down at Burwell, then a girl in her
parental horn* near Inman, brought lunches to us
in the hay field.
My father and mother, my life’s companion
and sweetheart of my dreams, with other dear ones
are buried under Holt county sod, as friends assem
bled here have dear ones no longer with them. Time
rolls on; here today, gone tomorrow. The things of
earth will have an end; then a home in a better
world where we part no more. That unchangeable
home is for you and for me where the Lord in
heaven will be, the king of all kingdoms forever
is He, and He holdeth our crowns in His hands.
my iamer uaucu jui urc i»wv.^v --
Mathews land, moved it over to his homestead.
The house was a story and half frame building un
finished, neither plastered inside nor sided out
side. It was to sch a house that mother, sister,
toother and I arrived at a day in May in the long
ago.
We had sold our pleasant home In Monroe,
Wise., arrived by train at Runningwater, Dakota
territory, ferried across the Missouri river and
spent our first night in Nebraska in Niobrara.
Father met us there the next day with a team
and spring wagon and we took off for our crude
prairieland home and I have wondered if my moth
er did not feel her soul shrink at such a prospect
lurrher home, as other pioneer mothers must have
rrtt. but the pioneer women as well as the pioneer
men faced it with courage and it is from those pio
neers this generation has its heritage.
We spent our first night in Holt county in Mln
neola, a frontier village long since disappeared.
( said my first night on the prairies of Holt coun
ty I was lost.
In those pioneer days we had no fancy beds
*o sleep in. Father with a bedtick under one arm
started for our nearest neighbor a mile or more
to the north to fill that bedtick with hay so we
wold have another bed. I went with him. With hay
m the tick father put it on his back up over his
bead and we started out, I to lead the way. We
Editorial—
After Integration Repeal, What?
(Editor's note: The editorial that fol
lows appeared in a recent issue of The Jack
son Advocate, Jackson, Miss. The Advo
cate is an Audit Bureau of Circulations
newspaper—like The Frontier—and The
Advocate is regarded as the largest and
most widely read Negro newspaper in
Mississippi)
Up in Nashville. Tenn., the other day, accord
ing to newspaper reports, the delegates attending
the annual race relations institute at Fisk univer
sity became greatly sobored vv-hen a well inform
ed spokesman suggested the possibility that its
opponents may be successful in obtaining the re
peal of the U S. supreme court decision calling for
the integration of the nation’s public schools.
With such a suggestion having been raised the
question immediately arises, if not integration,
what? A question which can be considered intel
ligently only in the light of the nation's past his
tory
In the first place there are many instances
a the nation's history where laws enacted by the
,congress, and subsequently upheld by decisions of
lie United States supreme court, because of the
swerWhelming rejection of American public opin
i«i with the consequent lack of public support, have
Been finally repealed. Notable among which, in
what may be called contemporary American his
tory was the prohibition act, which remained on
flie statute book for 18 years with many lives lost
and millions of dollars spent in attempting its en
forcement, only to have it finally repealed for lack
of public support and the overwhelming rejection
af public opinion.
Any view' or study of American history, and
of the American ideal of democracy, is bound to
mvcal that what brought peoples of all races, na
assumption as events are providing daily, that
this could be done without injury to the great idea
and ideal of American democracy.
We see no reason why the aims of the Negro
for equal protection under the law would suffer as
a result of the U. S. supreme court decisions in
the public school integration cases. Indeed, the
Negro, particularly those in the South, might be
far better off than they now are, by thus reliev
ing the existing tension and again making race
pride a motivating incentive in Negro progress, and
again making possible southern inter-racial coop
eration and goodwill.
Moreover we see American democracy under
its original idea and ideal winning the propaganda
battle with world communism.
Finally the repeal would leave the subject of
racial integration a matter between the individuals
involved, thus making it a social, rather than a
legal concept, the social concept being the chief
basis of the arguments on which the decisions were
based.
Coming Back Alive
The coming of fall is a signal for hundreds
of Nebraska hunters to take to the fields and the
woods. Hunting is a great sport, and a healthy
recreation when it is practiced safely, and it can
te comparatively safe if all hunters will leam and
practice the ten commandments of hunting.
The National Safety Council estimates that
at least 2,600 persons die annually as a result of
firearm accidents, with countless others seriously
injured. About one-third of all fatal accidental
shootings occur in connection with hunting trips.
The principal causes are moving suddenly into the
line of fire, excited hunters firing recklessly at
game, hunters not being seen, or hunters being
nistaken for game.
Probably a large percentage of all hunting ac
cidents due to firearms could be avoided if every
gunner would acquaint himself with the fundamen
tals of safe gun handling and constantly practice
them.
Uum, vuiui a auu uivvvio iv uivux. iv/ jv* — -
helping make the United States the great nation it
is today, was that each group could have its own
' churches, schools and other institutions and organ
ization under the guarantee of equal protection un
der the law.
It was the impetus of the idea and ideal of
equal protection under the law that created what
became known to history as the American melting
pot, an expression of the essence of which was the
fact that people of all races, nations, colors, cul
tures, and creeds upon reaching this country be
aame merged in the American spirit, while at the
■ame time enjoying the privilege of their own
churches, schools, and other institutions and organ
izations, with equal protection of the law.
It was under the idea and ideal of equal pro
tection of the law and the right of each group to
bave its own churches, schools and other institu
tions and organizations, that the American Negro
made his greatest progress. A progress primarily
possible because racial pride was then a powerful
motivating incentive, which is not and cannot be
true under the integration.
TTie idea of integration in this country was bom
In the minds, first of those who saw in it a means
of creating the division and stirring up strife and
tension in the United States as an aid to the cause
and advancement of world communism and later
by those who think the best way to combat Russia
and communism is to make the United States as
•early like Russia as possible, under the impossible
Romaine Saunders spoke at the old settlers’
picnic at Atkinson several years go; at the Holt
county old settlers’ picnic Monday of this week.
Time was public speaking at such affairs was re
served for Congressman Moses P. Kinkaid, Judge
R. R. Dickson and Attorney Mike Harrington.
Frontier
CARROLL W. STEWART, Editor and Publishei
Entered at the postoffice In O’Neill, Holt coun
ty, Nebraska, as second-class mall matter under
the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. Tills 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, 32JO
per year; elsewhere in the United States, 33 per
year; rates abroad provided upon request All sub
scriptions payable in advance.
When You & 1 Were Young . . .
Cross, Kilmurry
Start Residences
Atkinson Getting
New Homes
30 Years Ago
A marriage license was issued
to Thomas Tomjack and Miss
Margarethe Elizabeth Gehrmann,
both of Ewing: John Ii. Trom
mershausser of Ewing was mar
ried at Omaha to Miss Alice Edna
Wunner of Stanton. . . Mrs. An*
i drew Clark, jr., died at Atkinson
i She was the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Joseph McCaffery of Em
met. . . John Ryan, who went to
Valentine to accept a position
there, did not like the place and
I returned home to resume his dut
j ies at the P. J. McManus store
. . . Anna Cross and Ed Kilmur
ry of Atkinson are each starting
new foundations for new residen
ces. Mr. Kilmurry will build on
lots he purchased from Frank
Kieman on State street. Miss
Cross will build on her former
residence lots on Main street.
20 Years Ago
Damage by fire amounted to
about $3,000 to the Morrison groc
ery store. . . J. P. Marron was
elected chairman of the democra
tic county centrfcl committee
... At the school bond election
384 votes were cast for and 35
against the bonds. . . D. H. Cron
in was elected chairman of the re
publican county convention and
Ira H. Moss was elected secre
tary. . . Drs. Brown and French
have announced they will onen the
hospital formerly operated by the
Shoemaker sisters, who were
forced to quit because of ill heal
th. . . Mr. and Mrs. Andrew
Johnson of Emmet celebrated
their golden wedding anniversary
, . . The Brady, Carson and Mc
Whorter reunion was held in Nor
folk.
10 Years Ago
Miss Mary Devine Brennan in
terviewed Miss Wauneta Anspach
Miss Joanne Simonson, John Joe
Uhl and Ralph Rickley about what
they thought about returning tc
school. . . Mrs. W. H. Harty, a
gold star mother, was appointed
clerk of Holt county’s new peace
time draft board. . . The lx>dies of
Pfc. Harold V. Eppenbach of
Ewing and Pfc. Ted McKenzie of
Dorsey arrived in the United
States. . . Forty-five out of 1,000
Nebraskans work for the govern
ment.
One Year Ago
Terry and Billy Hynes and Den
nis Tomlinson alerted a police of
ficer, Milford Coats, who captured
a pair of burglars at the Fourth
Street Market. . . The Council
Oak store announced the closing of
the O’Neill store. . . Deaths:
James Brown, 87, of Stuart; Char
les F. Lierman. 80, at Omaha; Dr.
F. A. O’Connell, 66; Frank A
Pettinger, 74, of Idaho; ’’Gid”
Hamman, 82; William L. Leisge
70, of Stuart. . . Three sets of
twins were present at the home of
Omer Poynts.
Two Area Men
Join QM Company—
Recently assigned to the 157th
quartermaster company at Kai
scrlautem, Germany, are Pvt.
Bennett E. Devall, 18, son of Mr.
and Mrs. Elmer J. Devall of O’
Neill, and Pvt. Max A. Lamp
man, son of John A. Lampman of
Spencer.
Both are supply handlers in the
company. Both entered the army
last December and completed
their basic training at Ft. Car
son, Colo.
Devall is a 1957 graduate of O’
Neill high school. Lampman is a
1953 graduate of Spencer high
school.
_
Mr. and Mrs. John Spilger of
Palmer spent Friday visiting with
Henry Krier and Mr. Krier’s sis
ter, Eugenia.
Mr. and Mrs. Luveme Morgan
of Atkinson were guests of Mr.
and Mrs. Leonard Davis Monday,
August 25.
ROYAL THEATRE
O’NEILL
—
Thurs. August 28.
Brace yourself for a shocking
motion picture!
FIOOD TIDE
Starring George Nader, Cornell
Borchers and Michel Ray with
Judson Pratt, Joanna Moore.
Theirs was a love that lived in
fear ... of a boy with a twisted
hate!
—
I Fri. & Sat Aug. 29 80
Big Double Bill
A new breed of pilots blasts off
into excitement beyond human
bounds of time and space!
THUNDERING JETS
A Regalscope picture! Starring
Rex Reason, Dick Foran, Audrey
Dalton, Barry Coe, Buck Class,
Robert Dix, and The Men of the
United States Air Force.
— also —
ESCAPE FROM RED ROCK
They turned Apache fire against
a bandit seige to break the
West’s most savage outlaw rule!
Starring Brian Donlevy as Bronc
trapped between Apache arrows
. . . and his outlaw guns! Costar
ring Eilene Janssen, Gary Mur
phy, Jay C. Flippen. with William
Phipps, Michael Healey.
Sun.-Mon.-Tues. Aug. 31 Sept. 1-2
| Paramount presents Elvis Presley
in
KING CREOLE
Co-starring Carolyn Jones, Walt
er Matthau, Dolores Hart Dean
Jagger, Vic Morrow with Liliane
Montevecchi, Paul Stewart. It
pulses with the heartbeat of to
day’s youth!
Matinee Saturday & Sunday 2:30
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and
Friday and Saturday admission—
Adults 50c; Children under 12,
12c, Free if accompanied by par
ent. Wed., Thurs., Family Nlte,
family admitted for two adult
tickets.
Report on Girls’
State at Lincoln
EWING Roberta Jean McDan
iels presented a report
Thursday evening on the week
spent in Lincoln attending the
girls’ Cornhusker state in June,
at the American Legion auxiliary’s
regular session. Karen Tuttle and
Sharon Kropp, two of her class
mates, were guests. Miss McDan
iels was sponsored by the aux
iliary.
Mrs. Alfred Napier, president,
was in charge of the session.
Other officers present were Mrs.
Floyd Lee, Mrs. Eula Eppenbach
and Mrs. R. H. Shain.
Upon adjournment the Legion
members joined the auxiliary for
a social hour and refreshments
served by Mrs. Walter Woeppel,
Mrs. Everett Ruby and Mrs. Eu
la Eppenbach.
Cecil Bishop of Kearney sjient
the weekend with his family. Mr
Bishop is employed in Kearney.
HOTEL LINDELL
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
M«t frank KM* taaaoneblr Rot**
FEATURING TILLMAN'S CAFETERIA
i:
Mrs. Ted Chambers
Former O Neillite
in Iowa Nuptials
Mr. and Mrs. Milford Christ
ian of Ringsted. Ia., have an
nounced the Sunday, August 24,
wedding of their daughter, Miss
Jackie, to Ted Chambers, son of
' Mr. and Mrs. Charles Chaml>ers
of Ringsted, la., formerly of O’
Neill.
The four o’clock wedding took
place at St. John's Lutheran
! church at Ringsted.
The bride has been employed
1 by the Emmet County State bank,
i Ringsted. Mr. Chaml>ers is a sen
I ior at VVestmar college at Le
Mars.
The bridegroom's parents will
be moving this week to LeMars.
Uncle, Aunt Note*
50th Anniversary—
CELIA Mr. and Mrs. Merrill
Anderson attended the 50th wed
ding anniversary celebration of
Mrs. Anderson’s uncL and aunt,
Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Grant. The
affair was held Sunday, August
10, at the Grant home in Long
Pine where 105 signed the guest
book.
The Grants were married at
Riverview, near the Niobrara riv
er, at the home of her parents,
August 12, 1908.
A four-tier cake, complete with
miniature bride and bridegroom,
was baked for the golden wedding
anniversary affair by a daughter,
Mrs. Cecil Mucullough of Long
Pine.
A number of out-state guests
were present. Mr. and Mrs. Vi
vian Clark of Hillsboro, Ore.,
had flown to North Platte and
were taken to Long Pine. The
Clarks spent that night at the
Merrill Anderson home.
Tells of Mission
Work in Pakistan—
EWING — Miss Louisa Habib
Khan addressed the congregation
of the United Presbyterian church
Sunday morning and in the even
ing showed slides of her school
of 20 boarding pupils and many
day pupils in Pakistan.
Miss Khan, dressed in her na
tive costume, answered many
questions of the congregation and
also sang a solo in her native lan
guage.
While in Ewing, she was a
guest at the home of Dr. and
Mrs. William H. Ross. They took
her to Atkinson on Monday where
she will speak. Miss Khan will be
in the U. S. several weeks.
* !- x » .* 5-=iT •* - -■ a-*-.. • ■>'v -_
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5
Roy Williams Farm on Highway 20
4% miles west of Ainsworth, Nebr.
This is your invitation to
step into a new world of power!
Be our guest as we show you all that’s
new from IH ... all at once. Watch newer,
mightier Farmall® and International®
tractors go into action, teamed with new
plows, planters, balers, field harvesters,
and a host of other new machines. Stop in
today and let us tell you more about what
you’ll see.
• See and try—
the mighty, new line of
Farmall181 and International9
tractors, powered from 10 to
60 hp.
• See and try—
the greatest line-up of new
profit-making equipment
ever seen in this area.
Make up a Neighborhood Group and GO to the
See us for free transportation!
SHELHAMER EQUIPMENT CO.
Phone 570
Heavy-duty 100 Series tandem [foreground) and Fleetside pickup.
You get the right power... right down the line! 1
From the mountain-movin’ Work
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WORKMASTER V8-Built for top-tonnage
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HEAVY-DUTY SUPER TASKMASTER V8
This 175-h.p. V8 is tough-built for
tough jobs. Like the Workmaster, it has
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HEAVY-DUTY TASKMASTER VB - Engi
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jobs, this 283-cubic-inch V8 packs 160 h.p.
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durability, this 261-cubic-inch 150-h.p.
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TRADEMASTER VB-This 160-h.p. V8 has
stay-on-the-job stamina for tight sched
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THRIFTMASTER A-Tops for cutting cost
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THRIFTMASTER A SPECIAL-Ruggedly built
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rzrr_ ;
CHEVROLET MS* II TRUCKS I
_See your local authorized Chevrolet dealer_1
A. MARCELLUS CHEVROLET CO.
127 No. Fourth St. O’Neill, Nebr. Phone 100
• I
