The Benkelman Post and News-Chronicle du lieu suivant : Benkelman, Nebraska • 1

Nebraska Historical Society Down Thru the Years or An Empire In the Making (With Variations) A Historical Review of Dundy County and Adjoining Communities Written and Compiled by (PAT) KETLER Publisher of The Poet and connected with Dundy County Newspaper Making for Fifty -Two Years and neus-Gbionicle Benkelman Dundy County Nebraska Thursday March 3 1955 Number 47 Subscription Price $300 Per Year Ketler Publiaher Volume 61 Dedicated to all the Pioneers and to their Children anjj to their Children (Pat) Ketler Candidates Named In City Caucus Sessions Bird City Road Slated By Kansas for Oil Paving 4-H ACHIEVEMENT PARTY SATURDAY Valley Hereford Group To Have Sale Next Friday The annual spring sale of the Western Republican Valley Hereford Association will be held on Friday March 11 at St Francis Kansas The sale will include 43 service age bulls and 21 females The show will be held at 10:30 am CST and the sale will begin promptly at 1:30 pm CST Sherlock will be the auctioneer John Nickel Levant Kansas will be the judge This year's sale cnsists of an outstanding consignment of registered Herefords from breeders of the association This area is becoming very well known throughout the west for the Hereford cattle it produces Nearly 1000 head of registered Hereford bulls were produced and sold by members of the association during the past year The breeders would like to extend to you a cordial in vitation to attend their spring sale and to visit their ranches ferent in that respect even as it was different in so many others For instance Dundy county people can remember when many harness horses were annually trained on the Benkelman track whereas now there are many people approaching middle life who have never so much as witnessed a so-called race But getting back to Benkelman-St Francis bail games in the early days Both towns had excellent clubs and a contest between them always guaranteed jk good attendance even though the financial intake was sometimes nil because most games were played without admission charge and even in later days the charge was rarely over 15 centa or a quarter at most I believe that among the last baseball games which took place between Benkelman and St Francis teams was on the Benkelman unds almost two decades ago Dundy county 4-H members leaders and parents will recognize National 4-H Club Week March 5-18 by holding their annual 4-H Achievement Party on March 5 in the Quonset building at the fairgrounds Four-H club member will receive recognition for their work well done in 1954 and inspiration for 1955 Medals camp trips and other awards will be presented and announced at this meeting All members who submitted achievement reports last fall will receive an award The chairmen in charge of the meeting to be held on March 5 are Kelham Hatch and Boyd Adkinson Other members of the committee who helped plan the program last Saturday include Mrs A Morehouse Dale Wicke Paige Boyce Alfreda Stute and Rex Williams They have planned an evening of recognition games and dancing The committee invites everyone who is interested to attend this achievement party at the Quonset on Saturday March 5 at 7:30 pm Goodland TV Station Awaits Federal License AUTO RACING SEASON DETAILS PLANNED All Weather Road To Link Benkelman and Bird City This Spring The Bird City-Benkelman highway has been taken over by the Kansas State Department of Roads as of March 1st according to Scoby State Highway Supervisor of Atwood The road will be known as Kansas Highway No 161 The state designation of the Bird City highway is most important to residents of this area for it opens the way for improvement of the highway Supervisor Scoby said Tuesday that the state department has taken over the maintenance of the road and will provide oil paving as soon as weather permits The announcement will be received with enthusiasm by good roads boosters of the Bird City and Benkelman areas and by the Board of Commissioners of Cheyenne county all of whom have worked towards that achievement for a long time It is especially welcome news to Commissioner George A David of the First District of Cheyenne county whose labors towards that end have been untiring The Bird City-Benkelman lin has been a problem for many years and one that has received considerable public attention The Cheyenne county people reasoned with the State of Kansas for many years that the road was important from an interstate traffic standpoint and was worthy of state designation and improvement The Kansas department however was reluctant to take charge of the road because of their heavy responsibilities elsewhere Time patience and perseverance on the part of the Cheyenne county officials finally won out Recently word was received that if the Bird City road could be graveled and altered in a few respects that state designation might be possible in a short time The prospects were so bright that the cooperation of the Benkelman business people was enlisted to help put the road in acceptable shape and a drive for funds for the purchase of gravel was instigated by the Benkelman Chamber of Commerce and the money raised was added to that raised in Cheyenne county to complete the project in time to win state favor for the road Buffington Wins Nod From Both Parties for West Ward Councilship A fair turn-out at the caucus meetings of the and parties on Tuesday night car ried out the political functions of naming candidates for city and school district offices Two city councilships and two seats on the school board are at stake in the election which will be held April 6th The terms which will expire this spring and are to be filled in the April 5th election are those of Councilmen Kenneth Buffington and Howard Ochs-ner snd school board members Fallen snd Mark Bock Candidates nominated for election are as follows: For City Council East Ward: Bud DeWester Party Howard Ochsner Citizen's Party For City Council West Ward: Kenneth Buffington both parties For School Board: Merle Gwin and Dr Schreiner Party Fallert and Owens Party At the Party caucus (Councilman Howard Ochsner refused nomination for re-election for councilman and Bud DeWester was nominated by acclamation For school board the balloting was Merle Gwin 30 Schreiner 22 and Fallert 14 For West Ward councilman Kenneth 3uffington won 26 to 18 over Dale Bauer DeWester was elected chairman of the party and Roy Davis was re-elected secretary At the Party caucus Kenneth Buffington won with 17 votes over Dale Bauer with 12 and Bud Moses with 11 votes for nomination for West Ward councilman Howard Ochsner polled 23 votes over Bud 17 to win the East Ward council nomination For Board of Education it was Fallert 24 Owens 23 Mark Bock 16 and Schreiner 16 Bill (Hines) presided as chairman pro-tem Joyce Benge to Model Fashions at Style Show Miss Joyce Benge student at the University of Nebraska will be participatingn the annual Home Economics Club style show at 3:00 pm Sunday March 6 This show features the latest fashions which were made and will be modeled by co-eds majoring in home economics Many of the creations were designed by the models The public is invited to attend this showing of play clothes school clothes date and dinner dresses to be held at the Student Union Ballroom in Lincoln (Installment the J28th) Previous to the beginning of the Simon Matson story I pointed out that there had always been a friendly feeling between the people of Cheyenne and Dundy counties end I likewise mentioned the fact that there had been much friendly rivalry too particularly between Benkelman and St Francis in the early days and especially as it applied to athletics because there was a strong flow of sportsmanship blood in the veins of the homesteaders and then as now they loved action involving ell sorts of sports Of course the two towns met in many and varied types of competition in the early days and quite often St Francis came out on top but not always In fact according to stories related by sportsmen living in Dundy county during the early 1890's Benkelman people were invited to with the best talent they had to offer to take part in a Fourth of July celebration And at that particular time Dundy county really had some athletic talent Listed among their top performers was barber by the name of Dick Worley who was rated tops as a sprinter in Nebraska And then there was a fellow by the name of John Gos-ney from the Ough Divide who was not alone state champion wrestler of Nebraska but of Iowa as well In those days the popular hold in wrestling was the side-hold system much unlike the present system used by professional wrestlers today for then there was no rolling and tumbling on the ground like a bunch of worms in action and no grunting and groaning at all Gosney was a wonderful wrestler but in the end took in too much territory matching the country's top side-hold wrestler for a go in Chicago wagering everything he had on the outcome including his homestead and lost But that is beside the subject Gosney upheld the local wrestling honors at St Francis a couple of local horse wranglers won the rodeo events and the Benkelman ball club defeated the St Francis lads But no show was complete without horse races and there again Benkelman scored tops As the old timers here will recall Rake Hampton living on the South Fork on his homestead later known as the Sam Hansen farm had a race track and developed some of the fastest thoroughbred horses in the state successfully competing in races st the state fair and in the larger racing vents in this section of the West St Francis had no thoroughbreds but they did have some pretty good entries that offered plenty good competition in the horse racing events So all in all it was a Benkelman day for they won every event and everybody naturally came home feeling pretty good But it was in a sense borrowed glory for in later years St Francis evened the score and that applied in most part to baseball games which furnished competition between the two towns for many years even to a greater degree in the horse and buggy days than baseball games do today For one must remember that high school athletics have now largely taken over and com- nkelman and Haigler and other surrounding ball clubs decided on a tournament at Benkelman At that time all of the teams entered had good clubs but they were shy one club to fill the schedule so an invitation was extended to St Francis which had made no effort at having a baseball club that year and it was not expected that a team from there would be entered and if they did come in any game in which they played would be a dub And so they were surprised when Farmer Shields a real baseball fan who was head of the Cheyenne County Bank and who passed away a few years ago phoned the boys that he would field a team in the tournament It was good news for they needed another team badly to complete the schedule but knowing that St Francis had had no team that year their entry did not add in- terest in the tournament Then came the opening game with Benkelman playing the Kansas aggregation Benkelman had really spiked to take care of the Haigler Colts and in so doing imported players from as far east as Friend Nebraska and from some of the Kansas towns When the St Francis lads showed up some of whom had been borrowed from the country teams surrounding the town it looked like a walkaway Aqd perhaps it would have been except for one thing The St Francis pitcher was a long lanky fellow who look too hot and his catcher was a young fellow imported from some eastern Kansas town And it turned out to be the most entertaining and amusing game of the series because our lads couldn't even touch Hippo Hodges the St Francis import Only once was a ball hit by our boys throughout the entire game and a local player permitted to get to first base whereupon Hodges noting that the ball should have been fielded on third base turned to Farmer Shields and said: you take that third baseman out of the game and put a tin can in his place then at least know what to Well Hodges won all the games in which he pitched and he pitched most of them and St Francis easily won the tournament How well I remember St Fran- Jim Blair of Goodland was in Benkelman Saturday calling on some of his clients and made The Post a pleasant call Blair owner and operator of radio station KWGB in Goodland told us of some of his plans for his forthcoming television station KWGB-TV The Federal Communications Commission granted him a priority on Channel 10 on December 8 1954 He originally filed application for a license to operate in January of this year The application originally called for a 500-foot 12-bay transmitting antenna to operate with over 220000 watts of power An amended application was filed February 2nd for a 760-foot 12-bay antenna with over 220000 watts of power The installation will cost $330000 Network affiliations will either be NBC or CBS basic with ABC and Dumont networks as associates The studio will be located in the old power plant building in Goodland Excellent coverage hs expected in an area within a 100-mile radius of the station Blair pointed out that Benkelman is in a choice spot to receive excellent reception from the Goodland instal lation Transmitting equipment has been contracted for and construction of the station will start immediately upon notification of granting the license by the Federal Communications Commission Mr Blair plans to operate the station four hours each evening at the beginning and gradually lengthen the program hours IN FINALS FOR QUEEN Miss Joyce Benge daughter of Mr and Mrs Raymond Benge is one of twelve University of Nebraska coeds from whose number six Comhusker Year Book Beauty Queens will be selected in the spring Miss Benge and the other 11 beauties were presented at Coed Follies on Monday evening The Follies is an annual variety show sponsored by Associated Women Students at the University Miss Benge is a sophomore Pictured above the finalists are (top panel from left) Addie Dubos Burwell Barbara Thurman Broken Bow Marilyn Beideck Lincoln Sally Jo Speicher Omaha and Joyce Benge Benkelman (bottom panel) Gretchen Teal Lincoln Ardell Wilhelm Nebraska City Marilyn Miner Tecumseh Courtney Campbell Lincoln Mary Zellers Lincoln and Eddie Lou Thompson St Joseph Mo Not pictured is Sue Delehant Lincoln (U of Photo) Auto racing fans can expect a good season in 1955 That was the general opinion of stock car owners and drivers who viewed racing prospects for the Tri-State Racing Association at their spring meeting Sunday Continued interest in the sport was apparent as owners and drivers consulted one another in adopting rules and regulations for the 1955 season and making adjustments in the by-laws of the organization The season will officially begin on the Benkelman track on Sunday May 15th the date adopted by mutual consent of owners drivers and Association officers There were no principal changes made in rules and regulations concerning stock car specifications and the horsepower and similar limitations will remain about the same as last year One change in track management policy was established It regards pit men the limitation of the number allowed per vehicle and the charge made for each Heretofore there was no strict rule on how many persons were allowed in the pits that area where the cars are parked serviced etc This year each car may have only three pit men Last year some had as many as six several of whom were doubtlessly poorly qualified for the rating The mutual insurance agreement among the participants was abandoned this year In the past all those actively engaged in the operation of the races chipped in a dollar per race for a benefit pool for the assistance of participants injured By general consent the pool was eliminated from the rules this year The pay-off to drivers and owners will be made on the day of the race this year Heretofore the bookkeeping was left until after the race and then the secretary prepared checks for the winners Paul Erd-man secretary-treasurer of the Tri-State group favored the cash pay-off and it was so voted at the Sunday meeting The meeting was called for Sunday afternoon at the Harold Knoles-Ford garage and a good crowd responded President Lawrence Westrand presided and Vice-president Royce Smith acted as secretary in the absence of Paul Erdman Discussion of a track improvement project with representatives of the Wallace Construction Company ended without any action agreed upon pending further investigation Legion Auxiliary Plans Immunization Clinics Jean Ellis Homemaker Of Tomorrow Winner Hayes Center TV Meeting Outlines Finance Drive The Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow in the Benkelman high school is Jean Ellis She received the highest score in a written examination which tested the homemaking knowledge and attitudes of the senior girls in the graduating class She will be entered in competition to name this candidate for the title of All-American Homemaker of Tomorrow She will also receive a golden pin award as well as cook books for herself and the Benkelman high school General Mills is the sponsor of this program designed to assist schools in building in young women a deeper appreciation and under standing of the American home and the personal qualities necessary to successful homemaking An advertisement in The Post is always a good investment It has been five years since the last count y-wide immunization clinics were held Many new families have moved into the community many new babies have been born and there are those who perhaps need a booster shot Plans are underway to have the clinic dates in April at the Benkelman offices with definite dates to be announced later Available to your child at these clinics will be smallpox vaccination and a combined toxoid for diptheria whooping cough and tetanus The clinics will be for the pre-school as well as the school child The Auxiliary hopes that the teachers and school boards in Dundy county will work together with them on the project and work toward a goal of 100 protection for their district The American Legion Auxiliary Martin Bowles Post Unit No 65 Benkelman is sponsoring this project with Mrs Lee Bowers as chairman of this committee Benkelman Golf Club To Hold Meeting Friday The Benkelman Golf Club will hold a discussion meeting at the Sherbert Produce on Friday evening March 4th at seven All members and prospective members are requested to attend this meeting A discussion of plans for the 1955 season is on the agenda served the purpose well until in 1925 when it was wrecked and replaced by Cheyenne county's present beautiful modern court house cis in the early days The streets mand the public interest which were almost as heavy and sandy fact is demonstrated by the lack as the South Fork river bottom of baseball interest in some towns and the old frame court house today to the point that little effort stood on what then appeared like and Benkelman was honored when is given to building baseball clubs a sandhill knob Joe Lowe told our city band was invited to go because of the lack of public sup- me that his father helped to build over and help furnish music for port In the old days it was dif- the structure in the It its dedication Trenton Wins District Class Tournament Benkelman Military Band Helped Furnish Music for Dedication of Cheyenne County's New Court House on April 7 1925 An organizational meeting of the Committee for Television for Southwest Nebraska was held on Friday at Hayes Center Representatives of more than 25 communities in an 11-county area including Southwestern Nebraska Northeastern Colorado and Northwestern Kansas attended the meeting They were given complete plans and time-tables on a fund-raising campaign which is scheduled to begin March 10 and last one week William Maucher of Hayes Center and William Simon of North Platte who were named general co-chairmen of the committee Friday said the money to be raised from the area would help defray the cost of building a satellite transmitter and rebroadcast station at Hayes Center which would serve communities within a 60-mile radius with network television as received by KHOL-TV Holdrege KHOL-TV would micro-wave its programs to the Hayes Center station which in turn-would transmit to home television S6tS KHOL-TV estimates that 245 thousand dollars would be needed to build the satellite station The station Thursday applied to the Federal Communications Commission for permission to build the Hayes Center installation The help of Southwest Nebraska citizens is needed said Dr Wayne Brewster president of KHOL-TV because the rebroadcast station would not be economically feasible as a commercial venture for a private organization All money contributed will be held in escrow until the construction starts Mr Maucher co-chairman said If the fund campaign fails he added money will be returned to the donors Bird City Wins Grade School's Last Game The Benkelman grade school basketball team lost their final game of the season to a classy Bird City team last Thursday evening by a score of 41-23 at the local gym The Benkelman second team won by a 21-15 count Bird City jumped into an early lead and led at half-time by a 25-6 margin Dale Lorance and Ronnie Jones topped the Benkelman scoring with 7 and 6 points in the first team game and Bill Heineman tossed in 9 for the second team The Bison finished the season with a 9-6 mark Ronnie Jones and Dale Lorance were high point men for the year with 174 and 108 points respectively Jones Lorance and Eldon Roese-ner are the only eighth graders on the squad Max Methodist Church Holds Special Service The Max Methodist Church held a world day of prayer service Sunday evening Feb 27 Special numbers included a vocal solo This by Mrs Donna Pur-sley an anthem of by the senior high school choir a duet the Sun Shine by Sherry and Dwight Hatch and a horn solo Be by Barbara Basctie Prelude and offertory numbers were played by Phyllis Howard An impressive motion picture Power of was shown by Rev Sand-sted pastor of the church A new pulpit Bible was dedicated at the service The Bible was purchased by the Society of Christian Service the Intermediate Youth Fellowship and the Senior Youth Fellowship and dedicated in tribute to the pastor and his wife Mrs Orlie Powell treasurer of the presented the Bible and it was accepted on the part of the congregation by Kelham Hatch chairman of the Board of Trustees A fellowship hour was held in the basement of the church following the service Pie cake coffee and punch were served by the ladies of the congregation Eighty people were present The Trenton Warriors of the Frenchman Valley conference defeated heavily favored Paxton in the finals of the District Class tournament at Wauneta Saturday night The Warriors topped the Paxton team 55-52 in a closely contested game The win put Trenton in the play-offs at North Platte this week where Tuesday night they beat Ansley 59-40 In the other play-off game at North Platte Chadron Prep romped over Bertrand 73-44 Trenton and Prep met last night to determine who wins a berth in the state tournament at Lincoln next week The Benkelman Tigers lost their first round game to Hayes Center last Thursday night by a 45-42 couqi which closed the books on the Dasketball season for Benkelman The game was dose throughout with never more than three or four points separating the teams Hayes Center was eliminated by Paxton Friday night 48-40 in the semi-finals Trenton advanced to the finals by stunning Stratton 52-29 in the other semi-final game Friday night It was not too much of a surprise that the Warriors won but the margin of victory was Trenton and Stratton took out St of North Platte and Culbertson in opening round contests Wednesday night Trenton dumped St 48-24 and Stratton handled Culbertson 55-47 Paxton won their opening round game from Sutherland 69-38 in the first game of the Thursday night bill The loss to Hayes Center gave them an overall record of 10 won and 9 lost The Tigers were mainly an underclassman team this year with Alvin Lingo being the only senior on the squad so prospects are far from dim for next season Morehouse Hospital Notes Cub Scouts Enjoy Blue and Gold Banquet Cub Scout Pack 218 held their annual Blue and Gold Banquet on Tuesday evening February 22nd at the United Presbyterian church Registration of the Pack for the coming year includes 22 boys four committeemen and the following three Den mothers: Mrs Ralph Cordwell Mrs Vincent Novacek and Mrs Pete Denny Awards for achievements were Presented to Eddie Ross Druliner immy Woodworth Bobbie and Dick Powell Roy Williams and Roger Randolph Eddie Ross Druliner and Willard McDonald are of age to become Boy Scouts and were welcomed to Troop 218 by assistant Scoutmaster Leslie Three Cubs Roy Williams Kenneth McDonald and Jimmy Woodworth presented interesing information related to the portrait of George Washington entitled of His The Club Scout Pack is sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary Rev Wm Woodworth is the Cubmaster Bill Roach Wins Honors In Debate Conference Mr and Mrs Floyd Pettit are the parents of a baby boy Terry Harry born Saturday morning Harry DeLaMater returned to his home over the week-end Mrs Bert Line returned to her home in Stratton on Saturday following her recent surgery Wilbur Case underwent emergency surgery Monday morning for intestinal obstruction Mrs Lester Spears of Stratton was dismissed from the hospital on Monday following her recent surgery Carol daughter of Mr and Mrs Walter Chipperfield of St Francis was hospitalized Monday medical care Ted Pierce was hospitalized for medical care Tuesday evening Mrs Herbert Fish was a tonsillectomy patient Wednesday morning Mrs A Hansen entered the hospital for medical care on Wednesday Gaile Dunn had the misfortune to cut his hand with a saw while at More than one-third of the wood treated in 1953 was used for cross ties by the railroads Bill Roach of Kearney won two superiors in discussion at the University of annual intercollegiate debate and discussion conference Mr Roach was representing Kearney State Teachers College Eighty-five teams from 43 universities and colleges in eight western states were entered in the contest which included debate extemporaneous speaking discussion and a parliamentary session Prof Sherrmrd Director at bottom First row left to right: Ellis Cummer Gustave GaU Noriin Wolfe Heflin Edgar Hollenberger Walter Ough Harry Qugh Second row left to right: John Burchell Paul Magnani Bill Dobbe Lewis Pixler Paul Jones Jr Amos Rogers Third row left to right: Marvin Styer Clement Kimsey Bill McClure Fourth row left to right: Leon Fisk Lyle Fisk Edbert Woods A Grimmeiss Picture courtesy of Mrs Eleanor Wheaton of Haigler whose father Gustave Gall recently deceased had a leading part in the clarinet section of Benkelman band organizations for many years The picture was taken at the front entrance of the new Cheyenne county court house at St Francis Kansas work Friday Ronnie Sandman infant son of Mr and Mrs Charlie Sandman was dismissed from the hospital.