Today I am thankful for the service of a man that our community lost on Veteran’s Day. It was an appropriate day for Val Fuller to be called home, but it marked the end of a lifetime of giving that needs to be noted. Val was not an ostentatious giver, there were no big news articles, no awards, no flowery speeches…at least not here on earth. ...

Remember when I talked about the Friday night soup bag in the freezer, the one you put that spoonful of green beans or cut up small pieces of leftover roast in? Then on a day when you are in a hurry or just don’t want to go to the store, you drag that bag out of the freezer, add some fresh potatoes or carrots, bullion seasoning and water…..dinner is ready! It may seem that saving bits and pieces of leftovers is ridiculous, that is until you go to the grocery store, then that Friday night soup bag seems pretty smart.. ...

When you are reading through this, remember, McCook was only 4 years old in 1886. Personally, I am astounded by how quickly people came to settle. Of course, some businesses just opened second locations hoping to cash in on the arrival of new customers, but the Lincoln Land Company and the B & M Railroad did a heck of a job selling dreams to people eager to come to Nebraska for a new start...

This directory was compiled in 1925 and printed as the 1926-27 directory by The Sunbeam Press of Wood River, Nebraska. The compilation was done by Mrs. N. E. Perley of Hastings, Nebraska. As it is also badly degraded, it won’t be available to the general public until we are able to digitize the contents and print a copy...

I am intrigued by questions that I not only can’t answer but actually never gave much thought to. This week, I was asked when McCook changed from electing a mayor to run the city. I was somewhat close on when that had occurred but hadn’t really studied how or why the change was made...

As you probably know, I love grand old buildings. Based on that fact, I’m wandering a bit from history and genealogy today. Over the years, I’ve been a huge proponent of saving buildings that are of historical importance in our community. It is not always a winning proposition but the transformation of the Keystone, Valentine School (East Ward) and the original YMCA shows what can be done when enough money and initiative come together.St. ...

It now takes walking into a room three times to figure out why I went there in the first place. I should hate that but actually, I’m simply happy I finally remember! Life is a series of adjustments. This week I’m just sharing a few tidbits I’ve saved for future use. Better use them before I lose them...

What you think you know and what you know are often miles apart. I had always thought that St. Patrick’s Parochial School was the first of its kind in McCook. Not so! In fact, St. Pat’s, as it is lovingly called, was 10 years after the first church based school in McCook, the German Evangelical Lutheran school which began life in a rented home on East 6th street back in 1908...

If you are curious as to why I am doing the church stories right now, the museum has moved their church display and I am trying to get a handle on the histories of churches in our area. Need I say, there are a lot of them. Remembering back to when I was a teenager, years ago, the saying we had about McCook was that it was just churches and gas stations….there was nothing to do. ...

I learn something new every day when I am browsing through old newspapers. This time I was working on the history of churches in McCook and came across an article concerning the dedication of the new Methodist church in 1905. That church was located on West 1st Street and strangely enough, there was another “new Methodist church” in 1909 which is the one we all recognize today on Norris Ave. ...

Twenty tomato plants and four tomatoes this summer does not make for a happy gardener! I canned all of our beets into pickled beets and only ended up with 11 pints. Most of my garlic just gave up the ghost a month ago and my green beans (what is left of them) have hesitantly sent out about six blossoms. The brussel sprout plants are beautiful but have not born stalks of tender buds and forget about peas. I did put up some nice corn and peaches but obviously someone else raised them...

Straying from the story line again, the Memorial Auditorium coverage is going to have to wait a week because the prospect of a gift such as the Ball Park needs to be addressed. After reading my comments concerning the pool a few weeks ago, you may have been under the impression that I was not supportive of the Ball Park. ...

When I left off two weeks ago, I promised to tell you how McCook ended up getting their new pool when the proposition had failed in the 1936 election. Then I went on a short vacation in two areas where internet and phone services are foreign languages. I had a hard time trying to figure out why I would leave SW Nebraska and travel where it was just as hot, but vacation is vacation and now I need to make good on my promise to finish the pool story...

First a couple of notices before I delve into the pool question in 1935. The SWNGS Genealogical Library is going to be open by appointment only during the month of August. Either Sherrie Dack or I will make ourselves available to those who need to do a search and you can reach us at 308-350-0126 for Sherrie or 308-340-8221 for Sue...

I thought this clipping might be appropriate since the proposed ball park complex and long-awaited swimming pool decision are looming. People, it just shouldn’t be that hard! Quite some time ago there was some notation from a City Council meeting that alluded to the fact that McCook has a large amount of public space compared to other cities. ...

Chautaugua is heading our way this month and it is going to be all about the 1950’s! Poodle skirts, white T shirts, belted jeans, bobby socks and garter belts for your nylon stockings! The changes that took place in the 1950 era were actually quite astonishing as the first round of baby boomers hit the classrooms and schools that were adequately sized suddenly were bursting out at the seams with students! I thought we would look back at the beginning of the 50’s this column starting with the summer of 1950. ...

In 1940, Robert (Bobby or Bob) Roth was 9 years old. He and his parents, Edward and Lydia Roth, lived at 711 West 4th. Although both his mother and father had been born in the United States, Edward in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1909, all four of Bobby’s grandparents had been born in Russia which might explain the fact that the neighborhood they lived in was full of Russian born or children of Russian born families such as the Eckhardt’s and the Peppler’s...

I have to tell a funny on myself. I was reading a 1991 Gazette that I had found and thought, “I’d write an article about this stuff but 1991 isn’t that long ago.” Really Susan, think about these facts. Your youngest son was still in high school in 1991, and now his eldest daughter has graduated from Hays State with her Masters. ...

Before we start on the last segment of A. Barnett’s memoirs, a reminder that this weekend is Buffalo Commons weekend. Artists will be featured throughout the three days and there are events that are free if you left your money at the gas pump this week...

We pick up with Albert Barnett’s memoirs of early McCook where he revealed a tricky land purchase for a “sheep ranch” by H.C. Ryder which suddenly became the designated site for the B & M Railroad Division Point, a designation highly sought after by both Culbertson and Indianola...

Albert Barnett is a well-known name in these parts. A builder, a businessman, a statesman and a promoter of McCook, Mr. Barnett was also the benefactor who built the beautiful Methodist Church whose bells ring out over our town each day. A. Barnett apparently took the time to write down some memories of the early days in approximately 1906. ...

I’m going to move away from genealogy and local history for a few moments today. Perhaps I am the only person who was sick to death of the duel between the two “front-runners” for governor. Unlikely, but possible. Unfortunately, in a year we will begin to start listening to the race for President of the United States heat up. ...

May 25, 2022, will mark 140 years since the first building lots were sold to create the town of McCook, Nebraska. The following excerpt comes from Andreas’ History of the State of Nebraska, written by William Cutler and published by Andreas in 1882...

In a little over 10 days the obnoxious political ads will take a breather and then we will be overstimulated by new political ads until the general election. One might wish that the candidates would spend more time actually outlining their vision of Nebraska’s future but on the other hand, it is doubtful any are running for altruistic reasons. ...

Olelia Ann Hartsfield was born in Cottage Grove, Kentucky 90 years ago this Sunday. Who, you might ask, is Olielia and what does she have to do with Southwest Nebraska? Well, Olielia, after attending Dunbar High School where she was a cheerleader and no doubt, an excellent student, happen to marry one Wilker H. T. “Mickey” Stubblefield and ended up moving to McCook, Nebraska where he would play baseball for the McCook Cats...

If this was a poker game, I’d put money on the table that very few, if any, people know where this building is located in McCook. Yes, it still stands today. V. Franklin either didn’t like his first name or he thought it would confound people trying to pronounce it: Vocanses. ...

I woke up the other morning with the old campfire song “ I’m looking under a 4-legged table for my lost bubble gum”. Now, that doesn’t bother me that much even though it’s been over 60 years since I sang it at a campfire, what bothered me is that I couldn’t remember the rest of the song! For half the morning I tried to get my list of duties done with that first stanza playing over and over in my mind. ...

1917 was no year to write home about for most. The Spanish Flu epidemic was knocking at the door and WWI loomed but four couples in the McCook area celebrated milestones that not many achieved back in those days. All of these came from 1917 issues of the McCook Tribune and clippings are available at the SWNGS library or you can read them online at www.swngs.org...

The last Chautaugua in McCook began on July 12, 1990. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember why I hadn’t taken part in the festivities, that is, until I remembered that Legion Baseball was in full swing then and I was no doubt parked on a bleacher cheering on the team...

I was out working in my flower beds today and one of my co-workers from my railroad days happened to walk by and asked if I was getting ready for spring. Well, to be honest, I was actually finishing the fall work that didn’t get done. Last year my flowers started out gang-busters and ended up just dust-busting. By the time the heat wave broke and no rain prevailed, I was done. Now I’m paying for it...

One can always tell when the temperature outside drops like a rock! Stuck in their homes, people start re-opening that genealogical research they hadn’t looked at for a while. Anyway, that’s what I do, either that or clean out closets and who wants to clean closets?...

I got a really nice letter from Janet Felt after my columns on Stratton and I’d like to share it with you so that the update gives you an idea of how a small community can create great historical sites. “I read your column on the early Stratton homesteader. ...

When Carla Quinn brought me some Oxford Standard newspapers I could hardly wait to take a look at them. My dad’s family lived in the area and his mom and sister had worked for the turkey factory after he was grown and gone. The oldest paper was a September 10, 1959, edition of the Oxford Standard and is filled with local news from Oxford and the surrounding towns. All of the following come from this edition...

It always pays to go through files, though I don’t get it done very often. Taking the time these last few days has led to some gems I put aside for future articles and then promptly lost in a myriad of papers! I started this quest looking for one thing and ended up finding everything but what I was looking for...

Every town of importance had one, that is, had a Booster’s Club, and McCook was no exception. The McCook Boosters was a sub-group of the McCook Commercial Club, the forerunner of today’s Chamber of Commerce. In the February 24, 1910, edition of the McCook Tribune there was an advertisement (with an attached cartoon) that read: “The citizen who praises his own town. ...

The first U.S. Chamber of Commerce was organized in 1912 but that does not mean there weren’t groups of people working for the good of their communities. Like the Chamber or not, its purpose is to promote the town and surrounding area of their influence and it is an important one to preserve the existence of a vibrant city center...

Diphtheria was an unchecked killer in 1917 and Danbury had an outbreak in March of 1917 when a family was struck with the disease. The following news items come from The News, a Danbury publication. “Diphtheria, one of the most dreaded of all diseases, has made its appearance in our community. ...

I’d like to think that if the Liberty Bell came to McCook today everyone would be there to greet it and marvel over the fact that it had survived all these years. It is, after all, 270 years old having been ordered by the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1751 to commemorate the anniversary of William Penn’s 1701 Charter of Privileges which was Pennsylvania’s original constitution...

The first church built in McCook was the Congregational Church. It was a story and a half simple wooden structure with wooden steps leading to the front door off of a wooden boardwalk. A simple spire rose off the right roof on top of a brick chimney...

There’s a gas mask from World War I at the museum whose provenance appears to be linked to Dr. R. T. Jones who lived and practiced in McCook long after that war was in the history books. Robert Turner Jones was born in Steuben, Indiana to Robert Perry Jones and Elizabeth (Turner) Jones on January 31, 1877. While his early history is somewhat of a mystery, we do know that he had a brother, John Turner Jones, born in 1879...

There’s a gas mask from World War I at the museum whose provenance appears to be linked to Dr. R. T. Jones who lived and practiced in McCook long after that war was in the history books. Robert Turner Jones was born in Steuben, Indiana to Robert Perry Jones and Elizabeth (Turner) Jones on January 31, 1877. While his early history is somewhat of a mystery, we do know that he had a brother, John Turner Jones, born in 1879...

Where in the world did 2021 go? Unlike some, I am not in a hurry to say goodbye yet even though I certainly would not claim this year to be up in the “best year” category, at my age the years seem to melt away like a spring snow. This week I delved back into the McCook Daily Gazette published by none other than H. D. Strunk in 1931. All of these clippings come from the November 30th issue...

the stories I extract from newspapers come from the McCook Tribune but today I’m sharing stories from the McCook Republican that I found in Newspapers.com through my expanded Ancestry membership. Newspapers.com does offer a short-term free membership to allow you to search their website BUT, and this is a very big but, you have to remember to discontinue that membership or you will be charged every month...

We are a family of readers, and I was getting low on material after finishing the last Lee Child novel, so I picked up a few books from my brother-in-law’s collection to read. I’ve often said that the back of cereal boxes will work if there is nothing else but luckily there was a selection of books to chose from. ...

First let me say thankyou to the Judith Keith family for the family genealogy sheets and miscellaneous research material given to the genealogy library. We welcome donations that help expand our information base. Our annual Christmas celebration will be Saturday, December 4th from 1-3 PM and is open to the public. Food and refreshments will be available and viewing our beautiful library and all the great historical records contained within is a must...

We are a boot strap kind of community and have proven it repeatedly over the years. McCook didn’t exist when Red Willow County was formed, wasn’t the county seat to start, and then ended up being the largest town and the county seat. Over the years we have built a solid base of giving …the first library (not the Carnegie), the Temple Building, the Auditorium, St. ...

First a report on the garden this year. I finally have both asparagus and horseradish growing and I am excited to see if they make it through the winter. The tomatoes didn’t give up, but I did and the last of a bumper crop are going in the freezer because the canner is put away. ...

I have the best back-up crew in the people that read my column! Two weeks ago, I posed the question concerning the McCook Country Club that in the 1931 City Directory was said to be located in NE McCook. I just couldn’t place where that might have been, but a call from Marilyn Anderjaska solved that mystery immediately...

That it is not just McCook that is suffering from a lack of people seeking employment as was quite clear when we made a trip to Lincoln this last week to watch the grands play softball, one for Wesleyan and one for UNK. If you want to see the results of nearly two years of mis-information, panic and true devastation, take a trip to Lincoln and make a point of staying in a motel, eating out and shopping. ...

A new addition to the SWNGS library is a 1931 R.L. Polk & Co. directory. Because this directory is prior to the 1935 flood that changed the layout of south McCook, it is fascinating to look at the listed residents for that area, residents that we know lost everything in the flood. ...

Marching bands bring tears to my eyes just like looking at our flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. I’m not an emotional type of person but the sound of the drums, the cadence as they march down the street with their backs straight and their heads held high….what’s not to like?...

From the Sidney Telegraph many years ago, I have a picture of my great-grandfather along with a large group of men standing ready with their horse drawn equipment to harvest a field for a neighbor who had been injured. Fast forward 130 years and I witnessed the response to a tragedy here in Southwest Nebraska and the true meaning of neighbors helping neighbors. I’m going to say, if you’re lucky enough to live in our wonderful Tri-State region, you’re lucky enough!...

Linda Taylor called me last week about a collection of memorabilia that she had found in a home they had purchased years ago when they opened the first Video Kingdom (the castle building). She was cleaning out, as I am trying to do, her home and thought that I might be able to find a home for the items...

An empty lot now stands in our historic neighborhood of the Original Town of McCook platted in 1882 by the Lincoln Land Company. It is not the first to be demolished as the home standing on Lot 1 was destroyed in the 80’s and replaced with an apartment building. ...

I’ll bet everyone living in SW Nebraska has a pretty good idea how tall kochia weeds can grow in a two-week span, especially when the sun is beating the earth in to dry powder! I think the ones in my gardens were watching us pack to leave and doing a little kochia weed dance as we pulled out of town. To Sturgis, no less….and no, we didn’t get Covid because we went, but then again, we had the Johnson & Johnson vaccine a while ago...

I have very few annual flowers around my house, most of which are from the planters I take to the cemetery on Memorial Day. You have to water the darn things everyday for them to even pretend like they are pretty not to mention having to keep them out of the wind…in Nebraska no less!...

My Ancestry.com membership has included a membership to Fold 3 (Military Records, etc.) and Newspapers.com. As most of you know, I use www.chroniclingamerica.gov the majority of the time when researching newspapers because I like to reference FREE sites for my readers to use. Unfortunately, Newspapers.com has a much larger base of newspapers both in the papers themselves and the dates available...

Algebra and I never agreed on anything. In my mind, letters are letters and numbers are numbers. The only algebra class I took in high school was in Indianola as a 9th grader and the one memory I retain from the class is a scar from a lead pencil that I most deservedly (my big Scotch-Irish mouth got ahead of my brain) received for a comment I made to one of my classmates. Today, one of the two of us would have been in big trouble, but in those days you shook it off and got on with life...

By Linda Buck for Susan Doak Linda Buck graciously agreed to share this story of McCook’s woman doctor, Emma Easterday. Linda portrayed Dr. Easterday in the 2021 Cemetery Tour and has a special interest in Emma because Linda now owns the (beautifully preserved) home our lady doctor lived in. Here is her story, researched and written by Linda...

My grandmother, Flora, raised Hollyhocks. Actually, you don’t “raise” Hollyhocks, they raise themselves sometimes in incongruous areas of your garden, but my love of the flower comes from my grandmother who would take a full bloom and a just peeking out bloom and with a simple toothpick create a flower princess all dressed up for the dance by joining the two. Grandma’s were always in the alley along a fence, hardly watered and yet covered with flowers stems standing 4 or 5 feet tall...

The early 1970s in McCook found the people raising money for a new hospital. I remember that fundraiser because those people taking pledges didn’t care if you pledged $25 or $25,000, each individual pledge was important to them, and it may well have created the most diverse group of donators for any project in McCook. ...

Among the newspapers given to SWNGS from Naomi Ruppert was a McCook Daily Gazette from August 1979 and right on the front page was Wendell Cheney with his beautiful hibiscus flowers from the garden he and his wife, Donna, grew in their back yard on Sunset Road...

My memory of getting my first license to drive involved my mother and my birth certificate. My memory of registering to vote for the first time (at the then legal age of 21) involved my having identification in the form of a valid driver’s license and this was in one of those woo-woo states. ...

Emila Menard was one of the women featured at the Cemetery Tour on Sunday in the, need I say, sweltering heat. Mid-afternoon in June is no longer a pleasant time to be out in the sun but my volunteers were troopers! When I write these, I write in first person as if she was standing by her graveside telling a bit of her story. ...

I am a confessed garden hose mender. Doesn’t matter if it was an expensive or a cheap hose to begin with, my irritation at having something I purchased not last more than a year or two is unequaled. Unfortunately, in most instances the hose displays the hole in a spraying fountain as far away from any shade as possible. ...

I have a grandson who is not yet a driver, but never fails to notice or comment on using turn signals when you drive, actually, when I drive. I can’t wait till he gets his learner’s permit so I can ride with him and make comments, but since he wants to go into law enforcement, I doubt that I’ll get much of a chance to get even...

Quite often you hear of the Box Elder Cemetery, but few understand that the cemetery is all that is left of a community that had a general store, school, church and post office. The precinct of Box Elder, named for the community within its boundaries, lays directly north of Willow Grove (McCook’s precinct) and is between the Coleman (to the west) and the Fritsch (to the east) precincts. ...

The peas, radishes, beets, onions, kohlrabi and garlic are acting like it didn’t snow and get down to the low 20s last week for which I am grateful. The beans, horseradish, potatoes and carrots are not as certain as survivors. Now to inquiries. I was passed on a letter asking about the Schnell family that had settled near Culbertson prior to moving on to Oregon...

As I watch my tulips vaiantly attempting to survive snow and a hard freeze, it reminds me of my best friend’s comment about McCook. She hot footed it to California (no pun intended) the minute she graduated from McCook Junior College to happily settle in Southern California (there is a song about that weather). ...

My bucket list includes strange items! One such item involves getting placards on the business buildings listing who built the building and the main businesses that resided in it. I like complicated goals apparently, but when people start wandering through memories, asking what was in this building seems to be a number one question...

Linda Hein, a favorite and respected historian from McCook, gifted two boxes of City Directories to the SWNGS library this week with promises of more to come as she sorts through her many years of collections concerning McCook, Red Willow County, and Nebraska in an attempt, as many of us do, to make sure these things are preserved for everyone’s use...

The Stringtown article resulted in quite a bit of interest in trying to find out where exactly Stringtown existed. Was it a town? Probably not in the strict sense of the word, but it was a community of early settlers in Red Willow County’s Bondville Precinct...

Last year when Buffalo Commons was so rudely interrupted by Covid 19, our planned cemetery tour was also canceled. 2020 was supposed to be the “Year of the Woman” according to the National Museum of American History celebrating the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage. ...

There are days when it seems collectively we just don’t have a sense of humor anymore. One of the reasons I enjoy old newspapers is that the editors seemed to find a way to inject humor onto every page. Some examples are simply the personalities of rival editors poking fun at each other, others are fillers that helped close out a page, but I like to think that each paper wanted to make their readers chuckle a bit. ...

When you are researching the Southwest Nebraska region, it is good to find as many different newspapers as possible to peruse. As indicated in my last column, I had been reading the Bartley Inter-Ocean paper from 1916 when I came across the Bandit War(s) information. ...

I had never heard of the Bandit War(s) or Camp Llano Grande until I was reading the Bartley Inter-Ocean paper from August 1916. “The boys at Camp Llano had their first big tramp last week when they indulged in an eight-mile practice march. Every man in the service at Camp Llano carried a cord around his neck with his name and rank in company stamped on it as an identification card. ...

In an 1888 article promoting Red Willow County that appeared on the front page of the McCook Tribune, the following comments were made about Lebanon: “Lebanon is most beautifully located on Beaver valley, is a yearling, and a most promising yearling it is. There is one bank, a live weekly newspaper, a fine hotel and the different branches of merchandise represented with full stores. This town is surrounded by a rich agricultural country that is being developed rapidly.”...

In 1904-1905 editions of the McCook Tribune there are columns entitled “ Items From Stringtown.” I’m going to share a few of the postings in hopes that someone, somewhere will tell me exactly where Stringtown was! It seems in my foggy memory that I knew once but the information has escaped me. ...

Once again I have been digging into old newspapers. Several years ago, I expanded my Ancestry membership to include Fold 3 and Newspapers.Com. It was mostly a money saving move since I had three memberships and when Ancestry bought the other two they offered a deal I couldn’t resist. Newspapers.com has some newspapers on it that aren’t available through Chronicling America, one of which, The Cambridge Clarion, covers well past 1935...

It doesn’t hurt anyone to eat a little crow once in a while and it is apparently my turn to savor the dish. This column is going to center around McCook in the year 1909 which thankfully, is very well documented, through a Sanborn Map and the McCook High School 1909 class annual. Both of these are available for you to research on our website, www.swngs.org. The website is free for anyone to use!...

Imagine that you live during a time that there are no TVs, phones or radios. Where do you get your news? Newspapers! McCook was lucky to have newspapers and they sprang to life almost immediately when the town was born. Many issues of the Weekly McCook Tribune from 1883 are available to research online at www.chroniclingamerica.gov...

There’s one in every generation, the child that snoops. No corner, drawer, trunk, cupboard, desk, box or closet is safe from the family snooper. They give themselves away, unknowingly, when one of their parents is trying to remember where some object was placed for safekeeping and a little voice says: “it’s in the upstairs closet.”...

130 years ago, the United States was preparing to take the eleventh census of the population. In the McCook Tribune, May 30, 1890 there was an explanation of what would be covered in the census questions. Genealogically speaking, the expanded questions were quite handy for those doing research...

Due to the increase of personal requests I’ve received in the last couple of weeks, I am assuming that everyone is over with reorganizing their closets and looking for another project to attempt. Family history/genealogy will keep your mind off COVID-19 as you sit at home...

Mornings find the refrain “nobody told me there would-be days like these” playing in my mind. I’m certain somebody did tell me, but I’m not always a good listener. My Christmas letter is not done yet, the Christmas bouquets for the gravesites I decorate are sitting in my living room, the front porch still has Fall décor, and it is December 8th for Pete’s sake. Guarantee we aren’t going to be baking Christmas cookies this year and the grandkids aren’t going to be happy about that...

Before this was printed in an unknown newspaper in 1927, it was clipped and saved by John Irwin when printed in the Danbury news. It is attributed to G. T. Plumb of Marion noted as “one of our most interesting pioneers”. “Come, all you enterprising tenderfeet. If you will listen to my song, I will try and not be tedious, nor will I detain you long: while I tell you how we used to do, way back in seventy-three, when we wore buffalo hocks for moccasins, skill off above the knee...

As always when Bill and Lynda Baumbach leave bits of history at my door, I find treasures. Among the pieces is a newspaper clipping written by Mrs. A. Martin Anderson that touches on her life as an early settler. You might wonder why I would reprint these things, but aside from this clipping so carefully saved, there is nothing online available to recall this...

Genealogy seems to lead me to interesting people. This week I found I had a message from a woman thought to be a distant relative on my Davison side. Davison, Davidson, Davisson…just like many surnames from our migrant past, the spelling doesn’t always mean you are or are not related. ...

It seems that every generation believes they are the first to recognize social problems and therefore the first to have good ideas on how to deal with them. Call it what you want but social inequity wasn’t invented today and ways to solve that problem has plagued Red Willow County since the late 1800s. ...

One of the best parts of writing this little column is the people I get to meet and the stories I get to share with my readers. Bette Rice touched base with me about a pioneer story by Ethel Lawton Cole, Pete Rice’s grandmother, which was printed in the Palisade Times, September 24, 1937. Bette gave me a copy of the story to share...

One of the services our society provides is researching historical people or places. Michael Simmonds, our new Red Willow/Furnas County Veteran Service Officer, contacted Chris Christensen concerning an area in Memorial Park cemetery where a flag pole exists...

Sometimes you just have to go back in time for a bit of comic relief. I found this article entitled “Married and Skipped” in the 1898 McCook Tribune, May 6th edition and I had to share it before I lost it again! “Samuel Mellen was up before Squire Berry, Tuesday night, charged with being responsible for the unfortunate condition of a young woman named Bertha Dubarko. ...

Whenever I have a free moment, I have been working on the Hayes county papers gifted to the genealogy library by Sharon Lytle. I have found myself straying from the job at hand and reading selections of news articles, this last group from 1999. One of the columns, the Swan Lake News, has tweaked my curiosity as to the location and reason behind the “Swan Lake” personals. ...

I finally broke down and bought a replacement phone for our house. My answering machine/phone combo had given up the ghost several months ago so that even though the calls got answered, I couldn’t talk to anyone or recover any messages. The ringer had broken even before that resulting in blessed silence since 99 per cent of the calls were those robo, steal someone else’s number to disguise your true self, calls. ...

The push to make education of our young people (compulsory public education) started with the Smith-Towner bill in 1920. My mother was 8 years old by then. Imagine that! Red Willow county began to be settled in 1871, 39 years prior, and yet one year after Red Willow County was officially organized in 1873, nine school districts had been formed...

These paragraphs have been taken from the three-ring notebook labeled H.P. Waite and donated to our library by the estate of Zolona Chinn, one of the founders of our society. Because there is a mixture of information contained within this notebook, I can’t determine if all of it came from H.P., but the stories are too good to not share. ...

There’s a reason why our Genealogical Society is called Southwest Nebraska. Perhaps it should cast an even wider net, but the majority of our state records are related to the region it is named after. It seems logical to me that in order for any of our towns, including McCook, to survive, we have to include regional populations from our rural areas, across the border into NW Kansas and no doubt reaching into the corner of NE Colorado when we proclaim the benefits of living here. ...

My first Christmas present was a puppy, a cocker spaniel named Duke. Duke was a great dog that was allowed in the house only to the landing at the back entrance. Dogs were dogs, not pseudo people, back then. Duke did share one thing with his people family and that was a love of mom’s cooking. ...

Loving books started at home, my parents both loved to read and therefore, out on the acreage I also found books to be the best of entertainment! Writing came a bit later. When I was in sixth grade, my teacher was Mrs. Jenkins. Now Mrs. Jenkins loved to read also and the first of the year she challenged us with a reading requirement that we had to fill in the name of each book we had read over the year. ...

My first memory of going fishing was at the Medicine Creek lake when the water level wasn’t even close to full. Dad, who grew up fishing every creek and river in the area, loved fishing for catfish and though I’m not really sure why he took me along (it may be that mom wanted a break), off we went with worms, poles, bobbers and net. ...

You might have noticed in my articles that I use words like “presumed”, “highly likely”, and do not imply that anything historic is an absolute fact. History, even as it was created yesterday, is only a compilation of human interpretations of events that occurred, or, maybe even didn’t occur. It’s kind of like eyewitnesses at a crime scene, everyone saw something, but no one saw the whole...

While we have grown up thinking that the United States was created by the landing of the Puritans in 1620, a vast portion of what makes up our country today was actually claimed by Spain after the exploratory voyage of Christopher Columbus (an Italian ship’s captain) who sailed because of the monetary contribution of Queen Isabella of Spain in 1492...

I have been working for a couple of weeks on a story about the Spanish influence on our area, but as I sat down to finish that work, I realized that tomorrow our mother, Rhoby (Davison Bridenstein) Coady, was born 108 years ago and I felt the need to re-visit all the things that helped to shape her life and the calm with which she met each storm...

You will have to bear with me if you’ve heard this story before but 1963 was a banner year for me. After all, one only turns 13 once and becoming a teenager was on the schedule for not only myself, but my best friends, Judy and Donna. Back in those days there was a lot of angst about when our mothers were going to allow us to do certain things and at the time those “things” seemed like just about the most important thing in the world, right after watching Little Joe on Bonanza each week...

Last week my final note was about an advertisement I found for the McCook General Hospital created by Dr. Reid and located one block west of the courthouse. Lo and behold, Ron Allen contacted me with a complete booklet on the McCook General Hospital that was in a scrapbook from one of his Grandmother Allen’s sisters! What a find. ...

One way to learn more about an era that your ancestors lived in is to check out the advertisements in the paper. As I have mentioned before, www.chroniclingamerica.gov has several years of the McCook Tribune and the McCook Weekly Tribune that can be researched online using the Advanced Search tab and then selecting the McCook Tribune and placing the word or words in the search boxes below. ...

I am certain there are other things I could be doing but then again, it is beautiful outside and my front porch beckons! Front porch sitting is back in vogue! Plop a comfy chair down, and I don’t mean your leftover couch no matter how comfy it is, and watch the world go by. ...

Some days I have to continually remind myself that not everyone appreciates my sense of humor. Even I, at times, wonder if I really said what just flew out of my mouth. In these days of “political correctness” I find the term self-isolating to just be ridiculous. ...

The common phrase used lately seems to suggest that this world will never return to “normal” or what was considered normal after Covid 19, but, as those of us who have an abundance of gray hair these days knows, it will, just as it did after the pandemics of 1918, 1957 and 1968. ...

The basement is cleaned, the garage too and so in an attempt to forget what a mess my genealogy files are, I headed to the flower gardens. While I am not particularly grieving about the “social distancing”, my flower beds have always had a mind of their own and to decide to attack them is folly at its best. ...

I used to have an abundance of tea towels…..you know, those wonderful white kitchen towels that often were embroidered with cute little “days of the week” sunbonnet girls. I always felt sorry for Wednesday’s girl: Full of Woe. While I never became a needlework expert, the void was filled by many others in the family, the last, my sister-in-law’s mother, Dora Wissler, who is no doubt stitching for the angels now. ...

There’s nothing more important than getting your mail, even today. Years ago, there were post offices in places such as private homes or general stores and they were located so that all the rural areas didn’t have to travel by wagon to town just to get their mail. ...

Is there anyone else out there that detests “catch phrases” as much as I do? Probably not, but in this day and age we are subjected to them on a minute by minute barrage from every news channel. It makes you think that someone, sitting at home as an “abundance of caution”, is writing the captions for all newscasters and sending them out in an email each day...

Before delving into my article, the SWNGS board has determined that the library will not be open for the time being. You may still do an amazing amount of research for free on our web site: www.swngs.org. We will keep you posted as to when the library will re-open and if an April meeting will be held...

In 1963 there were three funeral homes in McCook: Breland Funeral Chapel at 1001 Norris Ave., Carpenter Funeral Home at 305 West C and Herrmann’s Funeral Home at 607 Norris Ave. What you may not remember about both the Breland and Carpenter businesses is that they also provided ambulance service for McCook...

1963 was a sad year for my family as we lost two very precious family members just a few months apart. As I was entering my teenage years, these were the first losses that I faced with full knowledge the finality of death. Then, with the assassination of President Kennedy, I grasped the concept of true evil in the form of man. ...

I written about the Omaha Daily Bee newspaper and its influence in Nebraska. If you go to www.chroniclingamerica.gov and bring up the Omaha Bee in the advanced search box, by entering McCook in the phrase box, you will find around 7,000 pages of results. ...

I’m going to digress a bit from genealogy for a moment. When I was growing up, my mother saved bacon grease in a holder that sat on the back of the stove and yes, she used that grease to cook fried potatoes, hominy or other wonderful foods. A spoon full was always added to the pancake batter to make them richly brown. ...

A “Hall of Fame” contest was held in 1976 by the Red Willow County Bicentennial Committee as part of the celebration. Committee members, Lester Harsh, Bob Paschall, John McDowell, and Donna Cheney (Mrs. Wendell Cheney) announced that the purpose of the contest was to select names of individuals who would be permanently recorded as part of the history of Red Willow County...

In past columns I have written about my father-in-law’s quest to uncover the details of his birth parents. Never was his curiosity driven by a desire to deny the loving family that he grew up in, the parents who were the only ones he knew, the brothers and sisters whom he loved, but rather a completion of the circle of his life. ...

When my parents moved us to McCook from Indianola, I found myself in the middle of a “neighborhood”. Of course, we had neighbors down the lane when we lived on the acreage out of town, 2 families to be exact, but living on Sunset Road meant we had neighbors everywhere. It was a new experience for my brother and I, actually having people our own age within a few steps and for myself the girl on the block ended up being my lifelong best friend...

I traveled east of Marion this week to re-visit the town of Lebanon. Lebanon’s society writer was prolific in his (or her) coverage of the goings on. Reading though the weekly column, one would be fully informed of who, what, when and where of the town residents...

The many schools that existed when I was young have joined into few, and as the schools left, the glue that held the community together dissipated. The school building was often the largest building available and served many functions beyond educating the precious children each family sent off to be taught the three “R’s” ; reading, writing, arithmetic...

Corporal punishment didn’t even have a name when I was in school. It was known as being sent to the principal for a swat, but it actually existed in many classrooms, no need for the principal to be bothered. Our classrooms were crowded by today’s standards because the “baby boom” of the 1950’s was in full swing. ...

How often do you use a facility, travel a road or enter a building and really appreciate the fact that someone in the past looked to the future and created a perfect solution to a need that still exists today? Have you ever given thought to the fact that the City of McCook has zero at grade railroad crossings? Can you name even one town in Nebraska that has that claim to fame? Probably not because I don’t believe that any other exists...

Probate records are predominately records concerning wills or lack thereof. The word probate comes from Latin and means “to prove” which in the case of wills means to prove to the court that the will provided is authentic and is the last testament of the person who has died. If there is a will and it is authentic, the probate is called testate. If there is no will it is intestate...

When I was growing up in Indianola, we attended the Methodist Church. Mom taught Sunday School and when I was older, I sang in the choir and taught the younger grades in Sunday School, but it is the Christmas celebrations at church that I remember so vividly...

Among the many items held in the SWNGS library is a section of wedding, obituary & anniversary clippings taken from the McCook Gazette, McCook Democrat, McCook Republican and the McCook Tribune dating from 1885 through 2018. The early newspaper clippings have been transcribed and are available to research online. ...

Before I get to the point, I want to clear up something I wrote about a while back. When McCook became the county seat of Red Willow County, the courthouse had not been built yet, but the records had to go somewhere. I thought that they were housed in the building on the corner of Norris and West C Street, but when researching an entirely different subject, I referred back to the 1889 Sanborn Map of McCook and found that the Phillips-Meeker building was what I now refer to as the Hansen bldg., and has also been known as the Kelly bldg., now housing in the north section, McCook Abstract. ...

Let’s start down memory lane with a request for your memories. Robert (Bob) and Susan Ihrig, both SW Nebraska natives, are compiling a book about area bands and musicians. They are asking for any band or musician recollections or connections you might have so that they don’t miss one of our many talented artists. You can reach them on Facebook or contact me at sdoak@swnebr.net and I will pass your contact info along...

Quite often on the Facebook page, Remember When in McCook, Nebraska, people post vintage pictures of McCook businesses or buildings. You are allowed to comment on those posts, give opinions as to where you think the building was located or what store is in that building now...

When I was a little girl and my dad got called to work, I would tell him that I wanted to work for the railroad and go “earn the beans”, as he always said he had to do. That wish came true some 40 years later but another of my occupational wishes never did, and that was to be a teacher...

Often, I have to take a few moments to say thank you to the people who remember our society or my columns. In this case, I have to play catch up, because I’m really behind on that list. First, Wendy Mefford Brown gifted a Natural History book from 1817 to the society a couple of months ago complete with a clipped article concerning its’ owner, C. W. Barnes, an early news paper publisher in McCook. It joins other books we have that give a researcher a bird’s eye view of life in centuries past...

Susan Doak Southwest Nebraska Genealogy Society There are many things we might say this wonderful country doesn’t always get right, but after visiting Washington D.C. again after several years, I will say with some sadness that we get our memorials right. Since I had last visited D.C., which was prior to 911, several more had been built, but I want to mention the two which actually took my breath away...

Charles Meeker, whom, if you are aware of the name at all, is recognized with an irrigation ditch southwest of McCook being named after him; the Meeker Canal. Charles was brought in as a civil engineer to help the farmers attempting to design the best locations for the future canal and ended up being an advocate for the eventual financing and approval of the canal at a time when emotions were running high concerning land acquisition and costs...

As I noted before, our pioneer woman was educated and refined. When asked to write about the “society” of the frontier, she mentioned the surprise the soldiers expressed to find that these settlers had dictionaries, could read and write and were not the “dime novel style of the west”. ...

Perhaps our mystery pioneer woman did not reveal her name because at times in her reminiscing she is brutally honest in her misgivings; but, no matter what, she stayed, certainly not because their life was filled with earthly riches of the monetary kind. I’ll resume her story, which as you remember from last week, with their setting up housekeeping in a tent with a dugout kitchen resplendent with pots and griddles hung on the post...

As you all know, my nose is often buried in the newspapers of the past searching out tidbits of information that will help us understand how very tough and resilient our ancestors were as they settled this corner of southwest Nebraska. I knew that some of the early publishers had featured columns by “Old Settlers” but never could settle on one no matter what I put in the search engine box...

The hoosegow, slammer, calaboose, pokey, stoney lonesome, greybar hotel, stockade, no matter what the name, jail was meant to hold those ordered there. In the early 1900’s however, being placed in jail did not necessarily mean you were going to stay there!...

Our little genealogy library has been blessed in many ways lately. We have received some fantastic donations from families who were clearing homes out. It’s hard to say goodbye to the things that our parents or grandparents loved, but rest assured, by gifting items to our library, they will be shared and appreciated by many...

Let me begin by saying I have never been a fan of beets. Consequently, my family, including my husband who loves beets, has seen them only on buffets or other people’s tables. It is very strange that I did not learn to like beets, I am a veggie lover from way back having a mother who introduced me to things like artichokes and asparagus and a father who grew the best kohlrabi around...

If anyone is expecting an organized article from me this week, they will be sorely disappointed. This time of year, I am trying to put up produce and act like I know what I am doing which is often glaringly not so. This week is corn on the cob, pasta sauce, salsa and pickled corn relish, a new addition to my pantry after reading an article on pickling in Mother Earth News...

Imagine you are back in time and it is 1886. You don’t turn on a faucet to fill your sink, but you might, as my aunt did, have a hand pump that brings water up to cook and clean with. You might, but then again, all the water you have to use could be sitting in barrels hauled up from the creek by the oxen team that pulled your covered wagon into Nebraska. ...

As is always true, families that live miles apart get together for funerals and last week as we said goodbye to Steve, we had people from Virginia, California, Arkansas, Colorado gathered together for what became a determined goal of making a family reunion a yearly occurrence. Since McCook is the halfway point for most, and the lake, which Steve loved to visit, a draw for all, we will gladly welcome them all back each year for a celebration of family...

I like the adage: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” No idea who coined that phrase, but sometimes it is refreshing to look back to the “good ole days” and find that they were probably only good because we were too young to understand what was going on in the world...

I have written before about Red Willow County taking exhibits to the Nebraska State Fair of farm products. Quite often the Burlington would offer a free train ride to those exhibits and the people accompanying them. There were even pictures of the exhibits in the Tribune when Red Willow placed well at the state level, but I never quite understood what was behind the exuberance in a county, rather than individuals participating...

The gifts of items expanded last month when we received several issues of the Red Willow Zephyr, the earliest of which was the 1939 annual. Since I grew up in Indianola, I am very familiar with the Red Willow School. The two high schools were competitors in sports, and I sat in the original building’s gymnasium for basketball games. ...

The 1935 Flood has been extensively covered over the years, but I was always curious about what happened afterwards. A wonderful morning spent with Clara (Lebsack) Adams and her gift of a scrapbook to the genealogical society helped fill in some of those blanks...

It seems many people no longer subscribe to a newspaper. Perhaps they purchase one only when a front page grabs their attention as they stand in line at the grocery or I am sure there are some who take it on-line as I do for the Lincoln Star Journal. No reason to cut down a tree so I can read a distant newsprint, but, then again, I love holding books, magazines, and newspapers rather than reading on a screen...

Life events often draw us to go back and try to imagine what life was like at that time. This week with the 75th Anniversary of D-Day plus some personal losses, I was curious about what life was like after the war ended and before I was born so I grabbed the 1947 MHS Annual to look back...

Since this Sunday is the Riverview Cemetery Tour as part of the Buffalo Commons celebration and we are honoring 10 of our numerous Civil War Veterans, I thought I would continue with John Cordeal’s saga concerning the beginning of McCook and the end of Fairview...

The McCook Daily Gazette produced a 50th Anniversary Souvenir Edition in 1932 entitled “The Pioneer’s Dream in 1882”. SWNGS library has both an original and a photocopy of the book which is 82 pages packed full of pictures and stories from the early days. None of us were around to see it, but the original town, Fairview, sat on the bank of the Republican River. I’m going to excerpt the early story of McCook’s development in this column...

Last year over Memorial Day my cousin and aunt came from Colorado to be joined with my father’s cousin and myself to decorate somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 graves throughout southwest Nebraska and northwest Kansas. It was a special day, mapped out so that we could visit as many gravesites as possible in one day. ...

Shades of Russian interference, you can’t believe everything you read! For as long as I’ve done this column, I’ve said: “ Documentation, always get documentation!” Aunt Mae may remember it one way, Uncle John another, and neither may be right! So, of all things, even though a little voice in my head (and I have lots of those voices) was harping at me to not take everything as the truth in that little book that Lois and Bob wrote, I went ahead and wrote that Stonewall Jackson’s daughter lived briefly in McCook. ...

The trouble with doing research, let me rephrase that, the trouble with “MY” doing research is that I hunt for what answers my question and ignore the other things contained within a paper or a book. That is exactly what I had done with Trails West to Red Willow County by Robert T. Ray and Lois Rutledge. I should have understood the treasures they preserved for us all...

The war between the north and south was the bloodiest war the United States ever fought as far as loss of life. The battle of Antietam was the bloodiest battle of the war according to historical records. Commanders of the War, George McClellan for the Union and Robert E. Lee for the Confederate army, oversaw the engagement of 132,000 soldiers: 87,000 for the North and 45,000 for the South...

A source of information that I often omit writing about is the National Archives. If you go to www.archives.gov, you will find an enormous listing of available records, some of which are online. Just pulling from their genealogy section you find applications for enrollment in Native American Tribes, court records, fugitive slave cases, land records, military personnel records, naturalization records and federal employee records (historical)...

By the time you are reading this we have either had a spring blizzard or a dusting of snow but we have at least had a warning of what may occur. That warning gives us time to prepare, to remember to fill our cars with gas, bring our early planted pots into shelter, try to protect the newly born calves or test the snow blower one last (we hope) time before the peach trees start to blossom. We do, after all, live in Nebraska and our environment is always predictably unpredictable...

Zolona Chinn, a driving force behind creating the genealogy society, had many items covering the history of Southwest Nebraska in her collection and our little genealogy library was the grateful recipient of many of those books. One such book was a compilation of the Pioneer Stories printed in the Beaver City Times-Tribune reprinted in book form in 1914. ...

Over the past few years of columns I have talked about my gg- grandfather, William Joseph Coady, who in an effort to prove his service in the Civil War and thereby obtain a stipend for his wife (who was much younger than he) and children, walked from the Alma, Nebraska area to Shelby, Indiana to complete his quest. ...

The SWNGS library has a large accumulation of McCook High School Annuals which I often go to for stories. Some of the annuals are very detailed and provide pictures of all the classes in McCook from Kindergarten on up. Others have pictures, but no names attached to them other than generic “Choir” or “Wrestling” underneath. ...

I’m always on the lookout for a good story and they seem to appear in the strangest places! On a trip I met a man whose family had owned part of the huge Cattle Baron, I.P. “Print” Olive land after he had left to resettle in Kansas. The large spread was in an area around where Calloway is today...

All this DNA information that people are gathering at times can be more confusing than helpful. How do you get to be fourth cousins, let alone cousins once removed? I must continually go back to a chart to figure it out, so maybe this column will help you with those questions!...

Several posts on Remember When in McCook Nebraska were memories of learning to swim at the old YMCA building on Norris. For those who grew up in McCook, they will remember that “way back when,” swimming lessons at the Y were split with boys in one group and girls in another. It seems, and I have no way of proving this, that the boys got to swim without the constraints of a swimming suit!...

If you’re like me, a little bit of information just makes you want to know more. In genealogy, knowing more is sometimes like a horseless wagon, you either hitch those ponies up or you’re not going anywhere. I’ve done a lot of sitting in that wagon looking at the harnesses and not knowing what the next step is lately...

The war between the north and south was the bloodiest war the United States ever fought as far as loss of life. The battle of Antietam was the bloodiest battle of the war according to historical records. Commanders of the War, George McClellan for the Union and Robert E. Lee for the Confederate army, oversaw the engagement of 132,000 soldiers: 87,000 for the North and 45,000 for the South...

How many remember that there used to be two school buildings on the block that now holds Central Elementary? The beginning was the East building facing West 1st street built to house the senior high classes. The second building was erected in the fall of 1922 and built for the junior high and set to the west of the senior high building...

The 1921 MHS annual contains many advertisements for local business throughout. The first one that caught my eye was for the J.J. Gragg Auto Company which was located on East B Street. Gragg was a distributor for Hupmobile Cars. Now I’ve been to a lot of car museums and shows and I couldn’t remember having seen a Hupmobile, so as you all know, I just had to do some more research!...

To finish up with the 1950 McCook-Culbertson Telephone Directory, I thought I would stir some memories for those who are a bit older than me. My last article mentioned the Coney Island at 501 West B Street and I got an immediate response from someone who had worked there...

If you have ever had to pack up a loved one’s home, especially if you lived in that home with them, you will understand the difficulty in letting go of memories by letting go of stuff. When it gets too difficult, out come the totes and in goes everything you just can’t deal with at the time. Fast forward a few years and those totes sit untouched. Were those things really that important?...

Well the mid-term elections are over, and it seems that finally people decided that voting was an important thing. Personally, I would like to see our voter turn out nearer the 90 per centile, but that is probably an illogical dream. In case you are still operating in the dark ages, as I do sometimes, I will tell you that names are no longer removed from the registered voters list because you didn’t vote in the last general election. ...

One of my very dear friends posted a photo of a car buried in snow with a remark asking for 6 feet of snow this winter. With the same joviality, I answered that would be fine, 3 inches at a time. Not everyone found either funny of course, but after all, the wooly caterpillars are boasting a fine coat this year and they are at least as reliable as the weatherman...

Perhaps you are a crafter who buys a frame to use in a project and a photo is still in the frame. Maybe you rehab homes and find photos as you remodel. At an auction you buy an old trunk and find a collection of pictures in it. What do you do with the photos? They mean nothing to you, but it is very possible they would mean the world to someone else...

Mother Nature always wins and she’s not always a fair fighter! Since I have taken on the mantle of “Thistle Queen” as far as keeping the “noxious weeds” off our land, I have determined there is no such thing as elimination when it comes to weeds. It’s not that I don’t try and because I don’t blanket spray our pastures, I have graduated from a 3-gallon hand held sprayer to a 5 gallon back pack sprayer to a 25-gallon sprayer that sits on my golf cart and has a 15’ hose. ...

About the time I think this column has run its course, someone like Larry Richards stops in the office with an answer to a question posed some time ago. If you remember, I wrote about the Lebanon Girls Baseball team and their games against the Sunflower girls of Kansas in 1904. In the article, I mentioned how great it would be to see a picture of these girls and here months later, Larry stops by with just that thing!...

The G.A.R. emblems you see next to several cemetery plots signify the burial of a soldier that served in the Civil War. While estimates vary, the death toll from the Civil War certainly exceeds 600,000 soldiers and may well have gone beyond 800,000 people. Since the war was fought between 1861 and 1865 and youngsters barely in their teens fought along side men long in the tooth, there were still many of them alive into the 1900’s...

It seems the older I get the more I resist change. This is comfortable; it works doesn’t it; why mess with things? The problem is, if we don’t welcome change, we don’t open ourselves to the opportunities that come with walking down a different path!...

As the final plans are falling into place for my MHS 50th Class Reunion, I find my mind wandering back to those days, not to relive them necessarily, just to remember all the details that wrap around the wonderful people who were in my life then and have left this world...

I’ve reached the age where I have “long time ago” memories; I just need check them to make sure they are correct! When asked if I remembered Chef LaLanne’s restaurant being in McCook, I did, at the location of the former Chief Restaurant, now VK Electronics, back in the 60’s. ...

I’ve been wandering around in old newspapers again using www.chroniclingamerica.gov a free website provided by the Library of Congress, and I was looking at early schools in McCook finding a reference to the Tully building on Main (Norris) Street being used for grade school classes...

It does not pay to be too sanctimonious about your ancestors when you are researching them. They were after all, humans, just like all of us. As a point, I got a kick out of some early history of Iowa and the Catholic-Irish settlement that my great-great grandparents were a part of when I read that because clergymen were usually circuit priests (traveling between sparsely populated “towns”) scheduled to be only in an area for a short time and then returning a few months later, there were times when the birth of a child proceeded it’s parents’ marriage. ...

Several stories have been written about the infamous train wreck of 1911 but Mike Fidler’s search for answers concerning the Feekins led me to do a little more digging. Mike’s family lore had the Feekins as newlyweds killed on their wedding day in the wreck, but we found that they had been married for two years...

If you enjoy this column or the columns by Walt Sehnert and past ones by Linda Hein, then you have benefited from the efforts of one man, Harry D. Strunk, who made the saving of McCook newspapers from the past a priority. It doesn’t matter what the reasons were for his gift to us, what matters is that he made sure they were saved...

Before I journey into the past, I need to correct my article last week about Gen Wagner. Gen’s location on Norris Ave did change before she retired when she moved to a storefront on West C Street. I didn’t remember that at all, but her grandson tells me they moved into a smaller one level store in the 80’s...

I stopped down at the office the other day and Mike Baumfalk handed me a donation for the genealogical library that he had found among his grandmother’s things. His grandmother, Gen (Ike) Wagner, was better known to us all as the proprietor of Gen’s Bridal Shop, a cornerstone of McCook’s retail stores for years...

I asked once if some observations I had made were appropriate for the column and the answer was, within reason, it is my column. This week, genealogy aside, I’m going to mention a few things that bother me so it’s your choice if you want to follow along...

These news items came from the Omaha Daily Bee, a large amount having been written by the “correspondent” I mentioned in my last article. He apparently rode the train to it’s final stop, which in the beginning was Indianola. “The B & M line was finished to Indianola on May 1. A station house, terminal facilities, and stock yards are now being erected, and trains will be begin running to Indianola over the extension about the 25th.” May 15, 1880...

Edward Rosewater was born in Bohemia in 1841, the son of a Jewish family, immigrating to the United States at the age of 13. He attended a commercial college and went to work for Southwestern Telegraph Company, the precursor of Western Union. Southwestern was in Alabama and Edward became caught up in the South during the Civil War only able to escape the clutches of the confederacy when transferred to Nashville which was captured by the Union Army in 1862. ...

I was going through some of the Southwest Nebraska Genealogy Society's library books the other day and came across “The Red Willow County Bicentennial Hall of Fame,” which was compiled by a committee of Mr. Bob Paschall, Mr. John B. McDowell and Mrs. Wendell P. Cheney in 1976. They had solicited nominations with short bios from the area and ended up with 47 people that they included in the booklet...

Last week we made a quick trip out to Colorado and I got to spend time with my aunt and uncle, Stan and Erna Martin. We had a grand time, laughed a lot and reminisced about when my uncle moved to McCook from Oxford, working for the C B & Q Railroad. ...

The Cemetery Tour was a hot success in more ways than one! We certainly didn’t have to worry about being rained out this time though a few clouds would have been a welcomed addition. Kuddos to the actors and the audience for braving the heat. One of the persons portrayed was Cora (French) Evans who was suggested by Candy Crosby. Candy had discovered Cora, developed her story, and when the portrayer was ill Sunday, stepped in and told Cora’s story sans costume...

Last week I wrote briefly about searching news items for R.F.D Route personal items in the McCook Tribune. Prior to R.F.D., persons living outside of a settlement that had a post office had to either travel to a post office or pay a private carrier to bring their mail to them. ...

Before I delve into North McCook, I have a couple of things I would like to share. Friday my Aunt and cousins joined me in decorating graves throughout SW Nebraska and NW Kansas which was a 200-mile circle encompassing 9 cemeteries and over 50 of our relatives. ...

I don’t write much about Lebanon, that lays along Highway 89 in Red Willow County and was in the early 1900’s petitioning to become an incorporated town. Their first attempt, according to the McCook Tribune, encompassed so much land proposed to be within their city limits, that 7 bridges would become the responsibility of the town. They quickly withdrew their petition for reconsideration...

When I look back at the blessings in my life, and there are many, one that comes to mind over and over is the fact that I grew up surrounded by strong women: my mother, grandmothers, aunts, cousins and my sister didn’t just talk the talk, they walked it every day...

If Densel O’dea’s hard work comes to fruition, there will be a new Historical Marker in Red Willow County located at the site of the town of Red Willow. I had always thought that the town lay around the school house located on the highway between Indianola and McCook, that is, I always believed that until Densel approached me with the information about the actual site south the old school near the railroad tracks...

In 1940, the Nebraska Press Association published a book entitled: Who’s Who in Nebraska 1940. You can view the listings in this collection by going to: www.usgennet.org. The beginning of the publication covers what the editors called: 1867-1940 True Story of Nebraska and then provides a searchable list of Nebraska Counties and the people who were considered to be important enough to make the cut. ...

We all tend to remember things from 50 years ago better than we remember 10 years ago. I’m not sure why that is true, but it tends to be as exhibited by the Facebook page: Remember When in McCook Nebraska. Someone will post a picture or ask a question and 180 responses later you’ve got a history book full of information...

We have always been a giving town and proof of that generosity stands right before our eyes if we just look for it. When I attended the public hearing at the City Council chambers last night, I wondered if we had not forgotten our history of giving and instead look to government to provide all forms of services...