First Night Football Game - October 4, 1946

The first night football game in Sutton was held on October 4, 1946.

The Class of 1996 Held Their 60th Reunion in 1996 - pictured here:

The 60th reunion of the Sutton High Class of 1936 was held in 1996. We found a discrepancy in the number of attendees, the number of attendees in the photo, and the number of attendees listed in the caption. Your turn.

Centennial Princess Mona Lemkau - 1971

Sutton's 1971 Centennial celebration included a Princess - Mona Lemkau, daughter of Artis and Dale Lemkau.

The Carnegie Library was Razed 50 Years Ago

The December 17, 1970 issue of The Clay County News carried the story of the demolishing of Sutton's Carnegie Library.

The left photo shows the sidewalk superintendents anticipating the first swing of the 3,300 pound demolition ball. In the second shot, the roof is gone. The wrecking ball was at the cornerstone in the third picture. 

 And yes, before you ask, I did notice that my dad was mentioned in the article adjacent to the library article. 

Dubinsky Bros. Stock Company in Sutton 1920

 100 years ago Sutton was all a buzz about the Dubinsky Brothers Stock Co., or so it would seem.

So sorry I missed it.

The 1945 Clay County Fair

 This is what you missed out on when you couldn't make it to the 1945 Clay County Fair. 

Harvest Festival Schedule for 1970

Sutton's summer celebration was called the "Harvest Festival" in 1970 and was held on Monday and Tuesday.

There was a time when the carnival alternated between the north and south sides each year.

The 1970 Sutton Memorial Day Program

The 1970 Memorial Day Program included a list of veterans from various wars and members of other patriotic organizations.

The lists are incomplete, especially the World War II list.

Mrs. Beulah Ochsner was the Queen of the Daughters of the Nile in 1970

This article appeared in CCN on May 14, 1970.

The Sutton Museum has Mrs. Ochsner's dress from this occasion on display along with Dr. Ochsner's dental memorabilia.

Tom Osborne - Speaker at 1995 Athletic Banquet

Nebraska head football coach Tom Osborne was the speaker at the 1995 Athletic Banquet in Sutton. This was on May 9th, just a few months after his #1 Huskers beat #3 Miami in the Orange Bowl to capture his first National Championship.

Sutton Rebekah Lodge #34 - June 1894

Members of Sutton Rebekah Lodge #34 posed for this photo in June 1894.

The key to identify these women is on the back of the photo - almost all are listed providing good material for investigation into their stories.

FOX HOLLOW Golf Course Opened May 28, 1995

Sutton's Fox Hollow Golf Course held its Opening Day on May 28, 1995. The club held an auction to determine the first 36 golfers to take the course.

Thees anxious 36 were the intrepid golfers poised to Go Where No Man Had Golfed Before. 

The story of the Opening Day festivities. 

The Auction set the Order of Battle for the Opening Day rounds by First Golfers #1 - #36.

Fox Hollow course description, hole-by-hole on Opening Day

Jack Van Kirk took All-Time Course Honors initiating play on Sutton's new course

1919 County Track Meet

The county Y.M.C.A. sponsored a county track meet in the fall of 1919, a meet with 250 boys from rural and town schools competing in classes defined by weight.

The Clay County Patriot, Clay Center's newspaper carried this account of the meet on October 2, 1919.

How many names of these lads do you recognize? How many of them do you remember as distinguished county gentlemen of your own youth?

The 1967 Sutton Centennial Pageant Program

The city of Sutton held a centennial celebration in June 1967. Here is the program for the pageant held on June 17th. The last page mentions tape recordings and photos that were available. Does anyone have those in a box in the corner of the basement, or other carefully designated location? 

It could be fun to have a memorabilia party.

The 1967 event was in recognition of the centennial of the State of Nebraska. The event that we are now planning for 2021 is the sesquicentennial (150-year anniversary) of the 1871 beginnings of the city of Sutton. The state hit that milestone two years ago in 2017.

Sutton Coursing news - 1909 and 1911

Sutton hosted major coursing meets, including national championships during the years around 1910.

This item appeared in The Lincoln Star on 30 Sep 1909

This letter from S. A. Fischer, editor of The Sutton News was printed in the Nebraska State Journal on 20 Feb 1911

Coursing was outlawed in Nebraska for several years during the 1920's.

Account of the 1918 Clay County Fair

Our Clay County predecessors in 1918 were proud of their county fair claiming it to be one of the largest county fairs in the state. Perhaps it was...

Program for the 1917 Farmers Institute in Harvard

The Farmers Institute was an annual event in Harvard celebrating agriculture and home economics with a variety of competitions. 

1967 Dedication of the French Historic Marker in City Park

The Luther French Historical Marker was dedicated in 1967 and until a few months ago, was the only marker in Sutton's City Park. A new marker is now at the other end of the pavilion recognizing that Sutton was the first Germans from Russia settlement in Nebraska. 

This photo was donated to the Historical Society by the Sheridan family from the material saved by Betty Sheridan.

With the help of the accompanying article, we can take a better run at identifying these seven folks. Our original photo
failed to identify the woman on the left, listed the next fellow as "Rev", Earl Vauck is third and Annetta Trautman completes the left group. The first fellow on the right was identified as a French relative plus Robert French and Paul Bender.

Our reading of the article suggests the woman on the left is the French granddaughter, Mrs. Charles Burns of Sutton. The "Rev" is very likely Rev. Norman L. Jones of Hope Reformed Church who gave the invocation. Bert French of Sheridan, Wyoming is the grandson not identified in our original.

So the seven shown here are Mrs. Charles Burns, Rev. Norman L. Jones, Earl Vauck, Annetta Trautman and Bert French, Robert French and Paul Bender.

This clipping describes the dedication in Sutton's City Park in 1967.

And the text of this marker is:

1942 Rural School Teachers Supported the Sugar Rationing Program

This article appeared in county newspapers on May 1, 1942. Rural school teachers were assigned responsibility to register everyone in their rural districts for the sugar rationing program. 

We have not seen how people were registered for rationing of other scarce resources - gasoline, tires, coffee, etc. Perhaps sugar registration data was usable for those other products. 

Sutton Centennial Sketch

The committee named in this sketch wrote a history of Clay County which was delivered by Dr. Martin Clark at the Centennial celebration in the Sutton Park on July 4, 1876.

This history of the county was written just six years after Luther French homesteaded the 80 acres that became the north part of Sutton and just five years after the first stream of settlers and townspeople arrived starting in the spring of 1871.