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In November of 1934, Nuckolls County newspapers reported workers associated with the Civilian Conservation Corps Camp located on the Nuckolls County Fairgrounds were building a dam on the Paul Huskinson farm northwest of the Ideal Cement Company plant. The new dam was on the site of a previous dam built sometime before 1885 on what was then part of the Superior Cattle Company ranch. A faulty spillway was blamed for the original dam washing out during the heavy rains of 1915. The new dam was to have an improved concrete spillway. The original...
Lovewell State Park is sponsoring a 3D Archery Shoot event Sunday. Registration will be at the state park archery range located just north of Cottonwood Campground, 9 to 10 a.m. A $10 donation is suggested to enter. Donations are utilized for replacing targets when needed. A Steel Deer Competition will begin at noon, with a $5 donation suggested to participate and cash payback to the winner. The 3D targets will be set up on the walk-thru course from Friday through Sunday for self-guided practices, bring your own equipment. Sunday is also a...
The post office in Cody seems a logical starting place in search of answers to a Sandhills mystery. The postmaster lifts her gaze from sorting bills and ads soon to be delivered to the community of 154 people. She can't speak with authority about the town's history. But she knows who can. Walk next door to the Husker Hub, she instructs. Table closest to the salad bar. There a woman with white hair tightly curled above her glasses sits chewing her cheeseburger. Rocky Richards, a recently retired...
As the drought continues, the Republican River at Superior is a pretty sorry sight with most of the river bed covered by tall weeds and only slivers of water making their way down stream Eighty years ago on Aug. 23, 1934, The Express reported, It was quite evident Sunday, that there had been rain someplace for the Republican River had some water in it. Saturday the river was practically dry. But on Sunday, new water reached from bank to bank. The Express rejoiced there was now enough water to ensure the steady running of the cement plant. The...
Summer is ending, but there’s no end in sight to law enforcement’s crackdown on impaired driving. This Labor Day holiday, the Kansas Department of Transportation, the Drive To Zero Coalition and law enforcement urge drivers to think twice before driving drunk or high. Enforcement for the “If You Feel Different, You Drive Different. Drive High, Get a DUI” safety campaign will run Aug. 14 through Sept. 2. According to KDOT, 67 people died in 2023 Kansas crashes involving an alcohol impaired driver. While this was a decrease from 95 deaths...
The Camel Cafe and Conoco filling station was located along Highway 36 in Mankato where the Farm Service Agency is now located. Several small cafes were located in Mankato. Nearly every town had at least one cafe. Can you find the cafe sign in the upper left hand corner of the picture - (a camel hanging from the pole)? The sign is part of the Jewell County Historical Society collection....
When Jewell County voters went to the polls last Tuesday to cast their ballots in a primary election, there were only three races and they were on the Republican ballots. Turnout was generally light. The unofficial preliminary results were not available in time for printing in the last issue of this newspaper. However, the results were posted late Tuesday night on the newspaper’s Facebook page and website (jewellcountynewspapers.com) on Wednesday. For the First District House of Representatives post, Jewell County voters favored Tracey Mann, w...
In May of 1974, firemen from six Kansas and Nebraska fire departments battled a Saturday evening blaze at the Scoular-Bishop Grain Company in Lovewell but were unable to save the wooden elevator house. It was approximately 5:30 that afternoon when a passerby reported smoke and fire coming from the top of the elevator. By 7:30 p.m., most of the old-style, wooden structure had been consumed. The Formoso Fire Department was the first on the scene and prevented the fire from spreading to adjoining...
Forty years ago this June spectators gathered down by the river to watch workers employed by Capitol Bridge Company topple the overhead truss bridge which provided the Superior community's most direct access to Kansas via what is commonly called the Webber Road. The old bridge was a sturdy on but it was creating a dangerous bottle neck on an increasingly busy road. Though when placed across the river after the 1935 flood, the Nuckolls County Commissioners thought it would adequately serve for...
Fifty years ago there was railroad fever in Nuckolls County much like there must have been 125 to 150 years ago when the first railroads were being built in this area though the original fever was more universal. In 1974 promoters were beating the drums seeking financing for the Nebraska's first locally owned short-line railroad. In early spring of 1974, they believed they were on the verge of completing a unique railroad that would set a pattern for railroad abandonment in rural America. When...
Keenagers met Thursday April 18, at the Lawrence fire hall. There were 28 people there with two hosts. Vicki Kucera and Brenda Janda hosted the wonderful meal of pulled pork and macaroni and cheese. Bingo games were played with prizes won by Cindy Troudt and Eileen Buschkoetter. Card games also played and winners Marita Lukasek and Rita Mazour. The next meeting will be Thursday, May 16, at the fire hall. Sherri and Marcy will be the hosts and they will be serving lasagna! Please come and enjoy the day!...
The Desire Tobey Sears Chapter NSDAR recently honored the late Lorena Dunning Clingman with their "Women in American History Award." Clingman was a long-time educator in Superior. The award was given at the chapter's April 15 meeting held at the Superior Public Library. "Rena" as she was known, was born on Jan. 7, 1883, in Polk County, Nebraska, to William and Lydia Coleman Dunning. She grew up in Polk and Butler Counties north and west of Lincoln, Nebraska. Her parents had married in Guthrie, I...
A. C. Felt, who voluntarily returned from California and confessed to the wrecking of the First National Bank at Superior, after receiving his sentence of five years in the Leavenworth federal prison, told the judge a wonderful story. He told how he was prevented from destroying himself three times by the sight of other men doing the very act he contemplated doing. First, he went down to the docks in San Francisco to drown himself. Just as he arrived, another suicide victim was dragged from the water by the life savers. In a hotel later, he...
Though not yet a town, Nelson was selected as the county seat of Nuckolls County by a vote of the people in October, 1872. Two other towns were in the running, Elkton and Vernon, both in Elk precinct, The voters apparently picked the soon to be town for its central location and best accessibility from all parts of the county. The county offices moved to Nelson in 1873. The town was surveyed and laid out early in 1873 by A. R Buttolph, surveyor for the original proprietors, Horatio Nelson...
Before the COVID lockdown, this newspaper requested a visit from a webpress mechanic to perform maintenance on the 60 plus year old press used each week to print your newspaper. After the travel restrictions were lifted the mechanics had a long back log of work. Monday morning the long awaited phone call came. A mechanic had left Shelton, Iowa, and was headed to Superior expecting to arrive about 6 p.m. He said he wanted to see the press run and asked, “Do you have anything to put on the press Monday night?” We were able to put this wee...
The end of January saw changes for the three Catholic parishes in northern Nuckolls County and parts of Clay, Webster and Adams counties. Sacred Heart and St. Stephens, Lawrence, and Our Lady of the Assumption in Deweese. The change came about when the then pastor, Father Jamie Hottovy, returned from a six month sabbatical and historical architectural school in Rome. The Catholic Bishop of Lincoln recognized the need for the skills of Father Hottovy in Seward and St. Gregory The Great Seminary....
Tuesday, Jan. 29, was Kansas Day. Kansas, having become a state on Jan. 29, 1861, was 162 years old. President Abraham Lincoln signed the law which made Kansas the 34th State in the Union. During all those years, Kansas has acquired many symbols. Twenty-two symbols in fact. Many are well known, the buffalo (state animal), the meadowlark (state bird), the sunflower (state flower), the cottonwood (state tree), the ornate box turtle (state reptile), the barred tiger salamander (state amphibian)...
Not everything improves with age and experience The Superior Express reported on Jan. 9, 1913, that “Parcel Post has made good.” The story continued as follows: “Great public service reforms usually require time for usage to oil the wheels of their machinery. “But parcel post made good the first day! “The first real test between the new government experiment and the old established express companies was made out of Chicago the very first day of the parcel post. A parcel mailed at a Chicago parcel window was delivered in Milwaukee eight hou...
They came from different places within Nuckolls County but they had things in common. Most were homeless, poor and often in declining health. Generally they were men, although an occasional woman was in their midst and at least once there were even small children. These were the tenants of a place that is now only a memory-and a vague one at that - the Nuckolls County Farm. Many counties once had such farms but they are no more. Today we have different ways of caring for the people who once...
A nonfictional book, Sod and Stubble, written more than 90 years ago about a local family's pioneer history in Osborne County, Kansas, is being brought to life in a new film. The book was first published in the 1930s by Professor John Ise, telling the true story of his parents, Henry and Rosa Ise, pioneer settlers, on their homestead two miles west and a mile north of the present town of Downs. The Ises would raise their 12 children on their farm. Professor John Ise, taught at Kansas...
On the last Sunday before Christmas 1983, the members of Oak's First Community Church held a rather unconventional Christmas program. That was not unusual for the church under the leadership of Pastor Henry Knotts. The year before the program was built around the showing of photographic slides taken in 1943. In 1983 the program was held in the basement of the church which had been decorated to resemble Bethlehem at the time Jesus Christ was born. The congregation gathered in the sanctuary as...
Last week’s homicide was terrible but it not the first time a domestic dispute in the Superior area ended in a shooting and a sad Christmas season for those involved. The Superior Express reported on Dec. 21, 1933 that Mrs. T. B. Smith was hospitalized in a critical state as a result of gun shot wounds. She told authorities that her husband shot her while her adopted son, John, held her. At that time both Mr. Smith and John were being held in the county jail at Nelson. Mrs. Smith had three bullet wounds in an arm and another in her chest, t...
It never changes, there always are folks who fail to recognize the good things happening in a community. That was the case in Superior in 1923 when the following store first appeard in The Express. We were surprised to read about all that was happening in the community and as we begin to look back on 2023 we wanted to share this glimpse of 1923. So get ready for a trip back in time to see the news for a century ago. The Superior Express Dec. 27, 1923 Headline:Superior shows good progress the past year A lot of good citizens have been heard to...
Gold was found in the Republican River and in the Republican Valley from the Colorado Line along its flow through Nebraska. Tales from the old settlers claiming they had panned gold along the river years earlier had been taken with a grain of salt but in more recent years interested parties had started a scientific research into the matter. Attention had been given particularly to the river and to the sand deposits along the river valley. In 1933, it was reported active sluicing was being done in an old river bed. A dry land barge was...
In the last issue we published a syndicated column distributed by the Prairie Doc organization which quoted President Teddy Roosevelt as having said Dec. 7, 1941, was a day that would live in infamy. Elsie Grummert made a special trip to the newspaper office to chide us for not catching and correcting the error. She remembered hearing President Franklin Roosevelt say that in a speech broadcast nationwide over the radio. Elsie was 14 and attending high school at the time. All of the students gathered in the school’s study hall to listen to t...
