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About The Plattsmouth journal. (Plattsmouth, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 9, 1953)
zzzizvc ax: W . i 1 A - J ifWUU'l) CASS COUNTY'S GREATEST NEWSPAPER m JdDOJCSRSM n PUBLISHED SEMI-WEEKLY Monday - Thursday u Consolidated with The Nehawka Enterprise Delivered Twice Weekly to More Than 3000 Cass County Families VOLUME 72 EIGHTEEN PAGES PLATTSMOUTH, CASS COUNTY, NEBRASKA, THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1953 FIVE CENTS PER COPY NUMBER 65 PiLATnrsiSd'iDQnr extern) moo 8 ipuatms ISopse; Buteirest Plans for a Plattsmouth centennial are all washed up. A group of 20 local Chamber of Commerce and King Korn Karnival officials tossed the program aside follow ing an informal Monday night meeting at which the group had sought some means of backing a centennial celebra tion. A letter has been sent to the John B. Rodgers Pro ducing Company informing it that the city will not need its services for conducting the proposed celebration. It never got beyond the talking stage. A show of hands during the , Monday night informal session Milo Wheeldon Dies Wednesday; Funeral Friday Milo P. Wheeldon, resident ; tennlai ceiebration. here for the past twenty years, i 2. If the producing company died Wednesday, July 8, 1953, at should be hired to handle ad a hospital in Counci 1 Bluffs, ' ministrative details if they voted la., following an illness of two ' for a centennial, months. Mr. Wheeldon was 79 ; 3. Whether to combine it with years old. i the King Korn Karnival or to He had resided here at the 1 conduct a separate celebration, home of his daughter and fam- j 4. Whether to cancel Korn ily. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. : Karnival for one year if the Larson, in recent years. ' celebration would be held. Funeral services will be held Since the answer to the first Friday afternoon at two o'clock question was "no", answers from the Peterson Mortuary at were not required for the Nebraska City with burial at others WBom oCnmAeirU'29 1874 at Lo-1 The' Monday ni&ht meeting EanSSrt Ind Mr whleldoE marked the end to a series of wa? the son of James G and . non-supported meetings to con KnthfM ine WhPPlrtnn. The' fam- sider Plans for a centennial cele- ily moved to Iowa in 1831 set tling near Payne. Mr. Wheeldon was married to Mary Susan Keys on December 24, 1893, and moved to Nehawka in 1902 and to Syracuse twelve years later. He retired from farming in 1921 following the death of his wife and soon there after came to Plattsmouth to make his home with his daugh ter. Surviving are four children, James A. Wheeldon of Lincoln; Mrs. Raymond J. Larsoa- of Plattsmouth; Milo Wheeldon of Omaha, and Thomas K. Wheel don of Council Bluffs. Other survivors are a, sister, Mrs. Lottie Hauber of Nebraska City; nine grandchildren and twelve great grandchildren. Two children died in infancy. Final Riles for Victor Thimgan Held at Murdoch Funeral services were held at the E. U. B. church in Murdock for Victor Thimgan, who died June 30, 1953, at his home in Papillion. He was 52 years old. Son of Matthew and Ida Thimean, he was born August 17, 1900. on a farm near Mur dock. He was baptized in Im manuel Evangelical United Brethren church by the Rev. G. Goetz. At the age of eleven he was converted and united with the Ebenezer church in Mur dock. He attended school in Murdock for ten years and grad uated from high school at Elm wood. He attended -.Naperville college for one year, returning to work with his father in the carpenter trade for many years. ne was married 10 Miss Edna McCrory on Decembe'r;31, 1938. incjf wcic me pu.1c1113.-ui IWU sons, David Charles and Dwight Alan. Surviving are his wife and two sons, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Thimgan and many other relatives and friends. At the final rites pallbearers were Edgar Backemeyer, Alvin Rackemever. Carl Backemeyer, Elmer Miller, Clinton Jones, .Lawrence fcan and Lester Thim gan. interment was in Wabash feme rw vioor VT.iy.,!, ...51. with Kahler Mortuary in charge. Rev. Harvey A. Schwab of Blue Springs and Rev. Nichols of Murdock officiated at the services. Mrs. Vernon Schewe and Marcus Rikli, accompanied by Mrs. Vlfred Rornemeier, sane. Bee Hive Lodge No. 184, A. F. & A. M., was in charge of grave side services. County Officers Are Preparing Budget Estimates Cass county office holders are being urged to prepare their budget estimates to enable the rounty commissioners to estab lish a budget during the coming weeks. Arrangements are also being made with the state auditor to meet with the board in the near future. They are seeking a meeting with the auditor during the coming week when the com missioners will also outline their own budget estimate for the fiscal year. Subscribe to The Journal Lock 5 Is Cote showed about one-tourtn 01 tne men in favor of the celebration. I Another show of hands indi I cated that only three in the j group would take active com i mittee chairmanships. Basically the group had met to decide: 1. If they would have a cen- bration. Interest in four pre vious meetings had been ex ceedingly low. In fact the Mon day night attendance was the greatest, for any of the meet ings. Among those present, it was noted that but a very few show ed any interest in the centen nial celebration, and few if any showed any definite enthusiasm for the celebration. Discussion generally pointed to the idea that it would entail a lot of work, and except for a few, no one cared to put in the required timer - Original discussion, started several months ago, with an idea of celebrating the 100th anniversary of Cass county and Plattsmouth in 1954. Definite centennial celebration plans are underway at Nebraska City and Omaha, while several Iowa com munities have already staged centennial celebrations. Many here will recall the Glenwood celebration a year ago. Clarinda, Iowa, only last month celebrated its centennial. Since plans for the centen nial were sidetracked perma nently, part of the Monday night meeting was devoted to discus sion of King Korn Karnival ac tivities this fall. Several altera tions and changes were suggest ed but were left for officers of the King Korn Klub to decide. New Lions Club Officers Installed; Awards Presented - Formal installation of flew of ficers of the Plattsmouth Lions Club was conducted Tuesday nieht bv E. A. Ernst of PlattS- mnnth internationai councnui and a 'past district governor It marked the start of the sec ond year of the club in Platts mouth. N. W. McKee, business manager of Plattsmouth Motors, was installed as the club pres ident to succeed Ray Story. Other officers taking posts in the club were Dr. W. V. Ryan, first vice president; Cecil M. Karr, second vice president; Fred Feldhousen, third vice president: Wynne Babbitt, tail twister: Rov Moore. Lion tamer; loe asiera auu yi. 1 K f P n fl . new CUreCLUlA dUU Francis M. Casey and Harry Cane, holdover directors, only Dr. Brendel missed the installa tion. Chris Bulin is the new club secretary-treasurer suc ceeding Cecil M. Karr. Along with the installation, honors were bestowed upon sev eral members. Ray Story re ceived the past president's pin, while Cecil M. Karr received a similar pin as past secretary treasurer. In addition. Story and Paul Fauquet received Key pins for outstanding work in membership. In addition, several Lions re ceived citations for 100 per cent membership durin'g the year. They are Wynne Babbitt, Don Bell. Bill Floyd. Charles Land, N. W. McKee. Roy Moore. Dr. W. V. Ryan, Walt Soennichsen, Joe York. Fred FeMhousen, Harry Cane, Dr. R. F. Brendel, Ray Story, Cecil M. Karr, Bill Hongland. Tom Solomon and Franeis M. Casey. Committees for the Lions Club year have also been selected and announced by President N. W. McKee. The committees are: ProgranwPaul E. Fauquet, (Continued On Page 4) Kocian Assumes Presidency of Rotary Club I. L. Kocian,- insurance agent, took over the reins of the Platts mouth Rotary Club Tuesday noon from Howard Hirz. It was, in effect, a ten year birthday present for Mr. Kocian. I. L. Kocian Kocian became a member of the Plattsmouth Rotary Club in June 1953 and began serving a year as president of the club on July 1, 1953. He served five of those ten years as secretary of the club. Past President Howard Hirz presented , the president's pin to Kocian to get him started in the right direction. A very short business meeting followed the presentation. Earlier Hirz had extended the club's thanks to E. A. Ernst and his committee for the picnic held a week ago .and urged committee heads to get their reports in during the coming week. " Kocian called a directors meeting to outline the club's program at the conclusion of the regular meeting. Bids Received On Twelve Miles Of Mail Route . Low bidder on three Cass county road improvement pro jects, for which bids were open ed Tuesday, was Peterson & Wilke Construction Company. The company was low bidder on all three projects, one in each commissioner district. . The three projects total ap proximately 12 miles of road con struction, four in each district. The company's low bid of $3,- 740 in the first district is tor two miles of county road south from the Glendale cemetery on the Lquisville road, and two miles south from Highway No. 1, two and one-half miles west of Murray. . " The three and three-quarter miles of construction in the sec ond district was the greatest amount of the three bias, ine company bid $5,490 for improv ing the nearly four miles start- ! II- V. t 4-V-rx TTv. i v-l ing une nine uuui ui nic umun corner east to the Missouri river. Peterson to Wilke has bid $3, 740 on four miles of construction in the Alvo area in the third dis trict. Starting two miles east and one mile north of Alvo, they will improve the four miles of road past the Harry Weichel, William Westphal. Otto Reich man and Edwin Taylor farms. It connects with Highway No. 1 on the north. The improvements are all for mail routes in the three com missioner districts. Total cost of the twelve miles is $12,670. A Classified Ad m ine Jour nal costs as little as 3ftn City -Wide Rat Clean Up Advocated By . - ?.Tf - saj: r. ... - ? jvw Dead rats litter one small area of the city dump as shown here in the picture. The rats had been feeding from the rectangular bait sta ScGrxgdiofl Precinct Tabulation Precinct Personal Tipton :...$ 561,030 Greenwood 090,250 Salt Creek 524,100 Stove Creek I 942,830 Elmwood . 850,890 South Bend . . . . . . 502,300 Weeping Water Prct. . . 769,690 Center 748,920 Louisville 418,670 Avoca 604,530 Mt. Pleasant 983,620 8 Mile Grove 890,930 Nehawka -r. . -511,600 Liberty .... 573,010 West Rock Bluff . . 891,000 East Rock Bluff 327,510 Plattsmouth Precinct . 1,324,840 Plattsmouth City 470,480 Weeping Water City .". 108,680 $12,694,480 School Census Up Ten Percent At Plattsmouth Plattsmouth's new schools will not be ready any too soon a school census check completed . recently shows. The census re port was presented to the board of education Monday night. That census shows that dur ing the past year the number of school age children in Platts- mnnth Viae plimhpfl qnnt.Vipr 10 npr rpnt -Pinal tabulation shows i the census at 1.328 this year, compared to 1,204 a year ago. The increase isl24 youngsters. That compares with a some what smaller increase a year ago over the previous year. The increase, coupled with continued influx of new resi dents to Plattsmouth, may re sult in the biggest school en- i-ollment-herejinj.history when County Grader, Car Collide Wednesday A car driven by Martin L. Lohnes of Pekin, 111., who has been visiting relatives in Cass county, was struck by a county road grader operated by Ray Campbell, according to Sheriff Tom Solomon. The mishap occurred on a county road 10 miles west of Plattsmouth -about 11 o'clock Wednesday morning. The grad er was in the process of back ing up when the collision occur red. Damage to the Lohnes vehicle was said to be light. Father, Brothers Of Plattsmouth Woman Injured Four members of one family, relatives of Mrs. Les Steinbach of Plattsmouth, were . injured when a gas explosion rocked a Lincoln neighborhood Wednes day. They were William Pillard, 56, and his sons, Bob, 18, William, Jr., 27 and Don Pillard, 25. All received treatment at a Lincoln hospital. Also injured was Wil liam Yakel. Yakel was helping the Pillards connect an oil furnace to gas when the explosion occurred. The house was owned by Yakel. The Pillards are Mr. Stein bach's father and three brothers. v 'mi ??''4eA ;FWV Ira x Total $ 608,300 749,080 585,480 1,014,340 912,720 518,100 809,070 775,630 1,305,590 656,250 983,620 1,028,210 587,430 610,150 927,380 327,510 1,202,960 974,850 240,780 $14,976,430 Business $ 46,690 23,830 61,330 71,510 61,830 15,800 . 39,380 .26,710 836,920 51,720 137,280 75,880 37,140 36,280 33,120 504,370 132,110 $ 2,231,950 i 7, TTT actual enrollment is taken this In view of the crowded concuuons in past years, me new census figures indicate that new 'school facilities will be given a good indoctrination this fall. -Approximately four ad ditional elementary class rooms and four additional high school classrooms win oe proviaea in the ne,w construction turn ie- modeling program. Actual increase over a year ago is 10.3 per cent, mostly in the elementary grades, where thd four additional classrooms will be available. A new five- ! room school replaces the one room school house in First.Ward to provide the additional ele m v t ? ry ; " ' " ss rooms. evenae Plotted Tonight Against Millard Juniors ' Plattsmouth Junior Legion Baseball team will seek to a venee an earlier los when they meet Millard at Memorial Ath letic Field here tonight. Thurs day: Millard jumped on Lindy Wolever's gang 14-3 two weeks ago. Vengence will also be in the mind of the local Juniors Sun day when they travel to Sprine field. Springfield owns the only league over the Plattsmouth Legion team. The Millard game is scheduled at 8:15 at the Plattsmouth ball park. Leon Mullenax will prob ably draw the starting assign ment for the Devils. Either John Blotzer or Joe Schuetz will open for Wolever's crew against the Springfield nine on Sunday. The Springfield game will be an afternoon af fair. CONTRIBUTORS TOLD Four additional contributors to the Plattsmouth fireworks fund have been announced. They are Culligan Soft Water Service, Caldwell-Linder Funeral Home; Brown Floral and Briza TV and Radio Service. Each gave $3 to ward the fund. TV , 7s tions also shown in the picture. Several thou sand rats are estimated to have died in the past five days. Journal photo. BiosS OD ODBD Decreases Are General Throughout All Precincts; Tabulation Shovs Actual Values For All Precincts County Assessed Value is $41,461,461 Two Items Missing Total assessed valuation of all Cass county property as tabulated in the county's af fidavit tov the state tax com missioner is $41,461,461, - a . three million dollar decrease ; over a year ago. , The 1953 figure, however, does not include values for railroads and utilities which last year were nearly $3,000 000. With the addition of the railroad and utility proper ties the county assessed val ue is expected to fall about one million dollars short of last . year's $44,770,326 valu ation. Among: some of the top items of valuation in the county were the following. All are actual value figures: Cattle $4,164,735 Hogs' 381,960 Horses 34465 Sheep 22,700 Poultry 87,640 Corn- 2,799,135 Wheat 88,675 Household Equip. . 1,385,105 Tractors 1,271,205 Farm Machinery . . 1871,680 Personal Goods . . . 148,175 School Purchases Portable Seats And New Lockers Purchase of 116 steel lockers and roll away bleachers for the new high school auditorium was transacted Monday night by the Plattsmouth board of education. The units were purchased after bids had been studied by board members; Cost of the seven sections of roll-away collapsible bleachers amounted to $3960. The pur chase provides two movable bleachers for the stage and five 16-foot sectionfc in the main auditorium. Th? five sections will be placed below the perma nent bleachers which will be built into the auditorium. The steel framed bleachers are tentatively scheduled for delivery about the first of the year. The board also approved pur chase of 116 lockers for the re modeled high school building at a cost of $1,317. The lockers will be installed in recessed areas in the hallway in the remodeled assembly area. Delivery is ex pected in -early September. School Budget If. Approved The Plattsmouth board of ed ucation Monday night approved and adopted the $175,250 bud get as established a month ago at their regular meeting. The budget for operation and maintenance of the school sys tem is up only slightly from a year ago with the same tax bud get as established in 1952. Plattsmouth city officials are going all out in their crusade to get rid of the "rats" in the com munity. After setting the early pace, they are now backing a crusade which they hope will see 100 per cent city-wide co operation. Following the inspection re cently made relative to sanita tion and proposed methods of helping rid the city of potential methods of spreading disease, fhe city council has taken the lead by starting a rat control program at the city dump. The results are already in evidence as large numbers of dead rats are now scattered about the dump premises. In view of the early results, Mayor Clement Woster has ap pointed Councilman B. H. G. Eiting to coordinate the city wide control campaign. Eiting is working with the Chamber of Commerce, the Boy Scouts of America and the city health board to spread the control practices. "Realizing the importance of an overall program," Eiting said, "The Chamber of Commerce is actively contacting all local bus Business and personal property schedules in Cass coun ty have taken the expected drop, according to figures in the abstract of assessment filed by County Assessor K. Ci Giles with the state tax commissioners office. The decline is slightly over two million dollars on as sessed valuations with combined totals of $7,488,215 for 1953 in comparison to $9,679,645 for 1952. The drop' nearly erases the $3,000,000 gain -oted in real estate assessments over a year ago. Child Injured; $25,000 Personal Injury Suit Filed i A $25,000 personal injury suit has been filed in District Court here against Dewey C.Reed of Plattsmouth by Donald J. Mc Laughlin, father of William Mc- augnnn, wno was seriously in- jured when pinned between two vemcies i uesuay aiieniuuii. The suit alleges that the de fendant failed to exercise proper care and that he had been drink ing when he backed his pickup truck into the private driveway at the McLaughlin home at 716 South 10th, striking the youth. The three-year-old McLaugh- lin youth is in St. Catherine's i They'll be assessed , at half act Hospital at Omaha, where he is i ual value however or $1,140,975. receiving treatment for injuries 'Last year they equaled $1,928. to the face and head, lacerations 830. on the right arm, and body and The two million dollar drop iback injuries. The petition charges that the boy suffered a brain concussion and that his left eye was driven back into his head. Sheriff Tom Solomon's acci dent report explains that, after striking the McLaughlin boy, Reed's pickup backed Into th? fMcLaughiia car," then continued on luth Street and struck a car belonging to E. S. Newton, and later struck a car belonging to Naomi Willard of P a p i 1 l.i o n parked at the intersection of 6th Street and First Avenue. Solomon said Reed failed to bring his vehicle to a stop for any of the four aecidents. Arrested and charged with drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident. Reed plead ed guilty to both charges, and was fined $154, sentenced to 10 days in jail and given a six months suspension of his driv ers' license. The Sheriff said Reed told him that he had consumed four or five beers and two sleeping tablets prior to the accident. The McLaughlin youth had been playing in his family's pri vate driveway when the Reed vehicle backed into the driveway in an effort to turn around. He was pinned between the rear of Reed's vehicle and the rear of the parked McLaughlin car. Training Sessions Set For Firemen Plattsmouth Volunteer Fire men will begin an extensive training program next Tuesday night, Fire Chief Ray Wiysel has announced. Firemen will meet at the fire station at 7:30 Tuesday night, July 14th, for the first training session. Other training ses sions will be held during the following weeks. Council iness houses, while the Boy Scouts under the direction of Scoutmaster Al Linder will at temot to contact all homes on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. July 9-11, to solicit and urge participation of residents in this important program." Dr. R. F. Brendel, city physi cian, urges the cooperation of all citizens in this vital phase of the general program to- rid the city of any unsanitary condi tions that are condusive to the spread of disease. In the interest of providing citizens of this community with good information, considerable research has been done and per tinent data compiled. The in formation will be found else where in this issue of the Platts mouth Journal. Readers are urged to carefully read the in formative article and to file it for future reference. Eiting said that the city has made arrangements for all resi dents to participate in this pro gram at the group price paid by the city for the bait sta tions, which have already proved their value at the city dump. (Continued On Page 4) Total business and personal property valuations for Cass county are $14,970,130 but when sliced in half under the 5,0 per cent ruling fall far short of the more than nine million dollar assessable total of a year ago. Valuations of business' and personal property for , the dif ferent precincts and. the total for each precinct will be noted in the tabulation at left. On the whole the drop is notable in each precinct. The precinct figures include those for towns and villages in the preclnccts i.wlth the exception of Platts .; mouth and Weeping Water. Actual value of personal pro perty in Cass county as provid ed in the abstract is $12,697,480 with assessed value, or half, at $6,348,740. That compares with assessed value on personal pro perty for 1952 at $7,750,815. r Actual value of the county I business schedules is $2,281,950. in buslness.and personal sched- ules was actually made up in town propertv assessed valua tions which climbed just short of $3,000,000. Rural farm pro perty held about steady, drop ping but a few thousand dollars. Here how the actual value and asessed values for the en tire count iuok: Rural Lands and Improvements Actual $47,109,020 Assessed 23.554,510 1952 23.561,030 City lots and Improvements Actual . ..." $13,092,720 Assessed 0,546,360 1952 3,591,570 Business Scheduler Actual $2,281,950 Assessed 1.140,975 1952 1,928,830 Personal Schedules Actual $12,697,480 Assessed 6,348.740 1952 7,750,815 Totaling the four tax brackets gives the county an actual value of $75,181,170 with an assessable value of $37,590,585 or one half of the actual value. Assessed value a year ago on totaling the same bracket was $36,832,245 thus giving the county under" $1 000.000 increase in assessed values. - That increase is primarily in Plattsmouth real estate values with minor adjustments th roughout the county in the var ious taxable divisions.1 Assets of Two State Banks Are Over $6,000,000 ; Report of conditions of the ' Plattsmouth State Bank and the Murray State Bank show assets for the two banking institutions at well over the $8,000,000 mark. But total assets and liabilities for the two banks are under those of six months ago. - Plattsmouth State Bank with assets of $4,505,830.37 on June 30 are up slightly from the De cember 30 total of $4,470,869.94 while assets for the Murray bank dipped from $1,674,750.79 in De cember to $1,624,216.39 on June 30. Demand deposits in the Mur ray bank are up nearly $100,000 in the six-month period while time deposits dropped slightly, under $60,000. Demand deposits in the Plattsmouth . bank drop ped nearly $200,000 while time deposits are up $34,000. Undivided profits at the Mur ray bank climbed from $18,092.12 to $21,505.18, while at the Platts mouth bank they moved up from $149,203 to $150,964. EMPLOYED AT OMAHA Three Plattsmouth girls are now employed by the WOW In surance Company at Omaha: They are Shirley Glaze and Carol Kreici, both in the service de partment , and Mrs. Margaret Bradley in the field department. All graduated from Plattsmouth High school this spring. Meetiner Postponed Dr. G. ..H. Gilmore of Murray today announced that meetings of the Cass county historical society hae been postponed for the summer until September. x a l i. til l l l ; : v vi;.;