1997 SNC All-Conference Football & Volleyball Selections

The 1997 Southern Nebraska Conference All-Conference selections in football and volleyball were:

1922 Citizenship Applications for 20 County Men

The Clay County Sun newspaper of November 30, 1922 listed these gentlemen as candidates for citizenship in Clay County.

1997 Sandy Creek Volleyball Champs

The Sandy Creek Lady Cougars won the Class C-2 State Volleyball Championship in November 1997.

This article appeared in the Clay County News on November 20, 1997, page B2.

 

1947 Black Face Minstrel Show in Fairfield

Sign of the times, 1947.

The folks of Fairfield performed a black face minstrel show at the Fairfield Auditorium in 1947. Such performances were common and seen as a form of comedy. 

My country school, District #16, did a black face minstrel show as a Christmas program when I was in kindergarten. The youngest of us in the school sang "Mammy's Little Baby Loves Shortin' Bread"

That was 1948. It was a sign of the times, and the place. It is one of my few memories from being five years old. I like to think it was the awkwardness of the situation, at least, that imbedded the memory.

1897 History of Clay County from The Harvard Courier Newspaper

This major history of Harvard and Clay County was published by The Harvard Courier newspaper on November 20, 1897.

Sutton's 1922 Aid Reaches Russia

Germans from Russia in Sutton organized relief efforts for people in Russia who were facing starvation conditions after World War I. Many residents of Northeast Clay County were immigrants from, or one generation removed from the villages of Rohrbach, Worms, and Johannesthal in South Russia.

This area of 1920's South Russia is now in the nation of Ukraine and in the area near Odessa that has been in contention this year from the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory.

This article appeared on Page 1 of The Sutton News on November 17, 1922.

Sutton Ads in The Advertiser-News

The Advertiser-News was an early Sutton newspaper. This collage of local ads appeared in that paper in November 1897.

The Ong Methodist Church Centennial was in November 1972

The Ong Methodist Church celebrated its centennial 50 years ago. 

The article about the occasion included a brief history of the church.

This article appeared in The Clay County News on November 2, 1972, page 2.

1922 Sutton Golf Club Tournament

100 Years Ago - The Sutton Golf Club held their second golf tournament.

Notice that the winning lady receives a box of bon-bons for a prize while all the other prizes are golf balls. Question: Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

This item appeared in The Sutton News on November 3, 1922.

1947 Fairfield Neighborhood Corn Picking Crew

Neighborhood crews helping in harvest and other farm work for neighbors in some kind of stress was a common story throughout the history of the county.

This item, a reprint from the Hastings Tribune, appeared in The Fairfield Auxiliary newspaper on November 11, 1947.

Clay County Cotton Crop - 1947

The Sutton News of November 6, 1947 spread the word that a farmer south of Sutton had grown a cotton crop that year.

As predicted by the reporter in his last sentence, cotton did not develop into a big money crop.

Though, wait a minute. The average climate conditions have tempered measurably and obviously even just in the last 75 years. Could it be that our local growing season has become more like, say, Oklahoma and Texas or the southeast. Could it be that we may see someone make another attempt to grow cotton in Clay County, and, what if it works?

Just sayin'

Pioneer Story of August Anderson of Saronville

 

The Sutton News carried this pioneer story of August Anderson's family of Saronville.

Sutton''s First Bicycle Party - 1897

The Sutton News reported the first bicycle party in Sutton in their October 15, 1897 issue:

Australian Hiking Family Visited Sutton - 1922

This news item in The Sutton News of 6 October 1922 caught our eye while researching our column this week. Seems to need sharing:

 

 

Ong Methodist Church 75th Anniversary - 1947

The Ong Methodist Church celebrated its 75th anniversary in October 1947. This article appeared in The Edgar Sun newspaper.

 

Gibson's bought the Lyric Theater in 1947

 

This article in The Sutton News on September 4, 1947 tells when the Gibson's purchased the Lyric Theater, but not the name of the prior owner. Need to research that....

Farmers received mysterious burns near Doniphan - 1947

 

1972 County Fair 4-H Winners

The 1972 4-H winners were listed in The Clay County News on August 10, 1972.

Kipp Erickson of Saronville on the left won the Clay County Centennial Fair Plaque in the Halter Division, Steve Gemar on the right was the reserve winner.

Harvard Banker Visited Inflation-Plagued Germany in 1922

Herman Wellensiek, Harvard banker, visited relatives in Germany in 1922 and observed the economic climate in the early months of Germany's inflation crisis. About a year after this article appeared in The Harvard Courier, the U.S. dollar was worth more than 4 trillion marks. Prices were doubling in less than every four days.

This article was in The Harvard Courier on August 10, 1922.

Clay County Teachers in 1897

The annual Clay County teachers institution received a full story in the Edgar Post on July 30, 1897. The article lists teachers who attended, which likely is a list of the teachers of Clay County in 1897, or at least nearly all of them.

The article about the institute follows our list.

Elmer Plettner Jr. Sold his Sutton TV Center in 1972

This is from early August 1972 when Elmer Jr. sold his Sutton TV Center after selling and servicing TVs since DAY ONE of TVs in Sutton.

The store was on the south end, west side of downtown in the building recently taken over by Judy Barnes and her State Farm business. 

Grocery Deliveries in 1947 by Lohmeier Dray Line

This ad in The Sutton News on July 31, 1947 announced that Merele Lohmeier would be delivering groceries in Sutton from all four of the town's grocery stores.

The First Sutton School Bus - 1947

As we interpret this story, this was the purchase of the first school bus for the Sutton schools. It happened in the summer of 1947 when a used Burlington Trailways bus came to town.

The story appeared in The Sutton News on July 31, 1947.

1947 Problems with Long Distance Telephone Service

Issues with phones in 1947 did not involve display resolution, apps, camera quality, etc. Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph was busy beefing up circuits between numerous towns to increase their capacity for long distance calls.

And remember, young folk, long distance calls, those out of town, were metered and you paid based on distance and time connected. A half hour call to an uncle in California might impact your monthly budget. Birthdays could be handled with a card and a three cent stamp. People cringed when told they had a long distance call. A high percentage of long distance calls involved death notices. 

LT&T posted this notice in newspapers in July 1947.

 

Flying Saucers Over Sutton - 1947

 

Sutton did not miss out on the huge Flying Saucer stories of 1947

Henry Fuehrer stepped up first in town to report seeing stuff in the air. By the next week, two more Sutton men came forward to tell their story - Marshal Henry Trautman and Doc Ochsner, one of the two dentists in town.

This article ran the same week in The York Daily News

The hotbed of flying saucers was in New Mexico, Roswell for instance. This article made the Albuquerque newspaper.

And here is the report in the Hastings Daily Tribune.

Bob Stone Retired from Teaching in 1997

The June 19, 1997 issue of the Clay County News carried the story of Bob Stone's retirement.

1st Night Baseball Game at Memorial Field - 1947

The Clay County News reported on the first night baseball game at Sutton's Memorial Field in 1947.

Sutton Memorial Day 1947 inc. Veterans Listed

This is how Sutton observed Memorial day 75 years ago in 1947. The article included the list of the town's veterans, women's relief corps, and auxiliaries.