Bender & Sons Ad - 1912

1912 Bender & Sons Ad

from the Sutton Register

Staff Sergeant Ralph Wenz - WWII Casualty

Staff Sergeant Ralph Wenz became Sutton's sixth war casualty of World War II when he died in the crash of a B-24 Liberator bomber on a hilltop in the Yukon-Charley River National Preserve in Alaska on December 21, 1943. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Wenz were initially informed that the aircraft and their son were missing after departing the base at Fairbanks.

SSgt. Wenz remained in “missing” status for some time.

Staff Sergeant Ralph Wenz - killed in aircraft
crash in Alaska December 21, 1943

The mission of the flight was to test a procedure to feather the propeller. Only five men were on board for this flight including an officer who was listed as a propeller specialist.

The crew encountered a thick fog that restricted their horizontal visibility just as their instruments failed. The plane went into two spins which the pilots were able to correct but as a third spin began the pilot called for the crew to bail out. Only the co-pilot 2^nd Lieutenant Leon Crane and the Crew Chief Master Sergeant Richard Pompeo were able to get out of the plane before it crashed.

Crane and Pompeo made it out of the plane through the bomb bay doors. Lt. Crane saw Pompeo drift over a ridge but he was never seen again. Crane had cold weather gear but did not have gloves as he landed in the mountains of Alaska, in December. He found a series of trapper cabins where he found more cold weather gear and food. It took him weeks to cover 75 miles where he found an inhabited home where he was given a dog sled ride to a settlement where a mail plane brought him back to his home base in mid-March of 1944, almost three months after take-off.

Lt. Crane led rescue workers back to the plane where the bodies of the propeller specialist 1^st Lt. James Siebert and the radio operator S/Sgt. Ralph Wenz of Sutton were found in the plane. There was no sign of MSgt Pompeo or the pilot 2^nd Lt. Hrold Hoskins.

Staff Sergeant Ralph Wenz’s body was recovered and he was buried in Alaska.

Wenz was an experience flyer having flown mail in Alaska starting in 1939. He joined the marines after the Japanese attacked Dutch Harbor and was assigned to instruct army pilots in the hazards of flying in sub-zero weather in the North. His last visit to Sutton was in mid-August of 1943 when he had ferried a B-29 to California after test flights in Alaska.

An Air Force historian at Elemendorf Air Force Base in Alaska had previously worked as the park historian for Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve and had visited the crash site first in 1994. He became interested in the site and on a later visit he found metal objects in the burned wreckage of the plane. He instigated further research and in 2006 searchers found human remains near the wreckage. A DNA test with Lt. Hoskin’s brother led to positive identification of the pilot’s remains.

SSgt. Wenz’s pilot, 2^nd Lt. Harold Hoskin was buried at Arlington Cemetery on September 7^th, 2007.

This item appeared in The Sutton News on August 19, 1943 as Sgt Wenz was home on furlough a few months before is death in Alaska.

Updates - March, 2019

This news arrived in March 1944 giving hope that Ralph Wenz, missing since December, may have survived in Alaska as one of his aircrew had found his way out of the winter wilderness.

This April 1944 newspaper item closed out the case of Sutton's missing airman, Sgt. Ralph Wenz as his body was found in the wreckage of the airplane.

Paul M. Hofmann - Sutton's 10th WWII Fatality

Paul M. Hofmann graduated from Sutton High School in the spring of 1942 where he was an impressive student and representative of the school and the community.

Hofmann held three minor offices in the Future Farmers of America of Nebraska before being elected president of the state organization for 1942-1943. He was selected to Boys’ State and was a winner of a prestigious Union Pacific scholarship. He was the state’s representative at the National Youth Foundation Camp at Shelby, Michigan for the F. F. A.

Paul M. Hofmann - February 3, 1924 - December 15, 1944

He headed off to the University of Nebraska Agricultural College where he was a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and was active in campus activities. He signed up for officers’ training with the campus ROTC program but was inducted into the armed forces on March 27, 1943 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

During Hofmann’s early army training he was selected to attend a cadet program at the University of Indiana and the University of Cincinnati but that program was discontinued. He was soon at Camp Campbell, Kentucky driving tanks.

He was assigned to the Third Army where he was believed to have been with Patton’s tank corps at Bastogone, France. His letters home indicated he had been in Marseilles, Lyon and Dijon France before his tank unit became engaged in action on the western front.

Private First Class Paul Hofmann, son of Mr. and Mrs. Karl F. Hofmann, became the tenth of Sutton’s sons to give his life in World War II when he was killed in action on December 15, 1944 at the age of 20. 

1912 Sutton Business

1912 Sutton Business

John Roberts grocery and hardware

Sutton Register advertisement

1912 Sutton Business - Schwarz Ladies' store

1912 Sutton Business Advertisement

CHRIS. SCHWARZ ladies' clothing store

Sutton Register - 1912

Sutton's First WWII Casualty - Marine Sgt. Merritt C. Walton

Merritt C. Walton's Biography and the Unique Honor for Sutton’s First WWII Casualty

Area newspapers reported in January, 1943 the posthumously awarding of the Navy Cross to Sutton’s first casualty of World War II, Marine Platoon Sergeant Merritt C. Walton, sometimes known to his family as Cecil Merritt. He received the award for valor displayed on August 7, 1942 on Gavutu, Solomon Islands when he led an attack on a Japanese machine gun position that threatened his platoon’s right flank. The attack was successful but Sgt. Walton was fatally wounded.

The Navy Cross was only one of two honors, the lesser one I believe, that the Navy bestowed on this Marine with Sutton connections. More on that other award in a moment.

Marine Platoon Sergeant Merritt C. Walton (18 Dec 1916 - 7 Aug 1942), Sutton's first casualty in World War II

Sgt. Walton was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1916 and lived there until 1933 when he and his mother moved to Sutton to be near relatives. He lived in Sutton until joining the Marines in early 1937 after spending the prior summer working on the Fort Peck Dam at Ft. Peck, Montana.

The first active duty assignment for Sgt. Walton was a three year hitch with the marine garrison in Shanghai, China. He spent much of 1940 at Mare Island on the north edge of San Francisco Bay before duty at Lakehurst, New Jersey. The beginning of World War II brought him to parachute training at Quantico, Virginia, a short tour in North Carolina and then off to the South Pacific and the battle for the Solomon Islands.

Sgt. Walton visited his mother and relatives in Sutton during Christmas, 1941. Area relatives included his mother, Mrs. Clara Olson, a sister Mrs. Floyd Schwab in California and his grandmother Mrs. Zenah Walton of Edgar. Sgt. Merritt Walton’s family connection to Clay County comes from his father Cecil Cullen Walton who was raised on the Marshall Township homestead of his father, also named Merritt Walton. The older Merritt Walton’s own father, Isaiah Walton was the family patriarch, born in Maine, lived in Indiana and came to Edgar late in life. He is buried in the Marshall Union Cemetery about a mile north of Merritt Walton’s homestead. A number of Isaiah Walton’s descendants lived in Nuckolls, Fillmore and Clay Counties and do still today – your author among them.

Sgt. Merritt Walton’s fatal encounter on Gavutu occurred just seven months after that Christmas visit to Sutton on the Allies’ first offensive on the island. The award of the Navy Cross was an appropriate recognition of the bravery of his actions that day. The Cross is a highly ranked medal in the hierarchy of Navy medals. But that “other” award is truly noteworthy.

It may require some personal military experience to fully appreciate the honor that the U. S. Navy granted to Sgt. Walton. The United States Navy saw fit to name a ship, a World War II John C. Butler-class destroyer-escort, the USS Walton after Sutton’s first World War II casualty, Marine Sergeant Merritt C. Walton. Yes, the Navy named one of their ships after a Marine. Sure, the Marines are part of the Department of the Navy, but, personal experience speaking here; it often takes a soldier or an airman to remind seamen and marines that they are parts of the same organization.

Is the USS Walton the only Navy ship, or the only ship overall, to have a Sutton connection? I can’t think of another.

The Walton was launched on 20 May 1944 in Orange, Texas with Sgt. Walton’s mother present and sponsoring the ship. The destroyer was commissioned on 4 September 1944. The ship served briefly as a school ship at Hampton Roads, Virginia before heading to Bora Bora and the Solomon Islands. Her first active wartime duty was in late January, 1945 as escort to merchantmen ships bound for the Philippines. Escort duty continued through the end of the war. After the end of the war, the Walton had the honor or transporting discharge-bound veterans home arriving in San Pedro, California nine days before Christmas, 1945.

She was decommissioned until the Korean War when she was re-activated and was assigned to Pearl Harbor for a second career as destroyer-escort throughout that war. The Walton became a school house again after the Korean War, this time for Naval Reserve personnel.

Final decommissioning came on 20 September 1968. In her final act of service to the country, this time as a target ship she was sunk on 7 August 1969, the 27^th anniversary of the death of Sergeant Merritt C. Walton.

Was it a pure coincidence that the ship was sunk on the anniversary day of the death of her namesake? Perhaps, and I’m sure that official Navy archives would not indicate anything to the contrary. But I also can’t help but speculate that some Navy Lieutenant with a sense of history, and maybe a sense of humor too, tweaked the gunnery practice schedule so that the hull of the USS Walton would be the target on August 7^th. As one who was an Air Force Lieutenant that day in August, 1969, I hope something like that really happened and I salute that Lieutenant, real or imagined.

The complete story of the USS Walton can be found at several online locations. Try these first: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Walton_(DE-361) and http://www.navsource.org/archives/06/361.htm

Then through the wonder of 1940's home movies, check out the USS Walton and its crew on youtube.com ...   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtLqe70FW6M&feature=related

And for a better and extensive look at the men who served on the USS Walton, visit the ship's web site at http://usswalton.com/    where you will find dozens, no hundreds of photos taken by crew members during the life of "our" destroyer.

As a distant relative of Merritt Walton, I was very familiar with the story that the USS Walton had been named after Merritt Cecil Walton but I’d associated him with Minnesota and Fillmore County. It came as something of a surprise to find local papers describing Walton as Sutton’s first casualty of World War II. I am proud to include the story of my distant cousin in our collection of Sutton’s veterans, especially as we can make the connection with the destroyer – that definitely adds to this story.

Sgt. Walton’s citation for the Navy Cross reads as follows:

“For extraordinary heroism as member of the First Parachute Battalion, First Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Gavutu, Solomon Islands August 7, 1942. Although fully aware of his extreme personal danger, Platoon Sergeant Walton voluntarily proceeded  to reconnoiter the position of a hostile machine gun which threatened his platoon’s right flank. After skillfully spotting the weapon’s location, he courageously participated in a daring attack and realized success in silencing this deadly menace before he died of fatal wounds.

“Platoon Sergeant Walton’s unflinching determination and unconquerable fighting spirit were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.”

USS Walton, DE-361, John C. Butler Class Destroyer-Escort named for Sutton's First WWII Casualty, Sgt. Merritt C. Walton here pictured in San Francisco Bay on 7 May  1967 as the flagship for the annual blessing of the Fleet.     

Sutton High Yearbook Collection

Display of Sutton High School yearbooks from 1912-1981 - not complete.
You can help us meet our  goal of a Bigger Collection.

Growth of the  Sutton Museum's yearbook collection has stalled with 28 books. The museum would like to offer a near-as-possible complete collection for public display and use. Such a collection is good for remembering classmates, finding Mom and Dad or grandparents and settling bar bets.

The museum has annuals from Sutton High School for the following years: 1912, 1917, 1922 (senior pictures), 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1935, 1937, 1946, 1947, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981.

These are available at the museum for your enjoyment. We would appreciate donations to fill in the gaps and to add annuals from the most recent 30 years. If you have copies gathering dust that you would like to see begin a new life in the public eye, please contact us or stop by the museum on Sunday afternoon.

Yes, we know that the war years of the early 1940's precluded printing actual yearbooks. The last issue of The Mustang newspapers those years featured pictures of the senior class - the closest those classes came to a yearbook. The Class of '46 made up for those years with one of the most ambitious yearbooks from Sutton High - right up there with the 1912 yearbook, probably my favorite. That 1912 was dedicated to the new high school building built that year which that graduating class just missed.

Biography of HALL GRAY CARNEY

It was a short war for Lt. Hall Gray Carney. His unit arrived at Attlebridge Airfield northwest of Norwich in Norfolk, England in March, 1944 and flew its first mission on March 22^nd, an assault on Berlin which was the longest initial assault by any unit in the European Theater.

First Lieutenant Hall Gray Carney, B-24H Bombardier

Five days later on the 27^th day of March, Bombardier Carney was again in the nose of a B-24H on his second mission of World War II. The pilot of crew N-405 was Prosper F. Pinto with B-24H aircraft 42-52562. The other pilot was Robert J. Mogford with crew N-514 and aircraft 41-29364 – Stardust. I have not found the “name” of the first aircraft and numerous “Stardust’s” flew in the war.

These two aircraft were about tenth in the take-off sequence. When they reached the assembly point about ten miles off the end of the runway, in the midst of the jostling to get in formation, the two aircraft collided with the loss of all 20 airmen.

I’ve not determined which of the two aircraft Lt. Carney was in, nor have I documented with certainty that he died in this crash. He did die on that day and the unit did experience the loss of those two aircraft and 20 men on that day. Updates to follow as we learn more.

Please check the comment below for updated and further information. Thanks to the contributor.

Lt. Carney’s crew had trained for months and months in Mississippi, Texas, Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico. They were members of the 784^th Bombardment Squadron, the Red Squadron of the 466^th Bombardment Group (Heavy) in the 8^th Air Force. The group took the nickname of the “Flying Deck” with the 784^th being the Clubs. They began their move to Attlebridge in February with the 62 aircraft flying the southern route with the loss of one crew en route.  The ground echelon was transported to England on the Queen Mary.

There is another potentially important detail about the crew of “Stardust” on the 27^th. The regular pilot and one of his crew were sick that day and Mogford’s crew was assigned to Stardust for the mission. We can surmise that the crews had trained together for all of these months, likely mostly in their assigned aircraft. They had certainly developed a level of cohesion working together that gave them confidence in flying the aircraft and operating the numerous systems onboard. They certainly had learned a lot more five days earlier in that first long combat mission. On take-off for their second mission these men could have been at the peak of the ratio between confidence and actual skill. They were trained, “experienced” and confident they could face any flying challenge. They were not. They were trained. They were not experienced; they had only seen dozens of flying challenges that first mission compared to hundreds a crew would face over time.

Whether the confidence and skill levels of these new crews played a factor in the mid-air collision, we certainly cannot say. But understanding something about how these 20 men came to be at that point over the English countryside that morning helps us to visualize Lt. Carney’s last moments.

This is NOT Lt. Carney's crew and he is not in this picture. We would like
to have that picture though. The B-24H had ten crew members: Pilot, Co- Pilot
two Bombardier - Navigators, Engineer, Radio Operator, Nose Gunner, Tail
Gunner and two Waist Gunners. This is Crew #651 of the 466th Group with
Paul "Red" Evans - Pilot and Aircraft Commander.

Lt. Carney was the bombardier sitting in the nose of the plane surrounded by windows and a clear view of the airspace before and around him. That vantage point had to provide a spectacular view, the best of any crew member’s. But everyone knew that if the plane ever encountered a problem, the bombardier would be the first one there.

The loss of these two crews only compounded the tragedy of the month. The 466^th had lost two aircraft and crews in that first Berlin assault, again to a mid-air collision. Those four losses plus the earlier loss in transit cost the unit five planes and 57 men.

The 466^th Bombardment Group had four squadrons, the 784^th – Lt. Carney’s, the 785^th, 786^th and the 787^th. Squadron aircraft carried a distinctive two character identifier – the 784^th aircraft were marked with “2U.” The Group Commander was Col. Arthur Pierce.

First Lieutenant Hall Gray Carney carried the name of two of Sutton’s founding families. He was born in August, 1919 to Samuel C. and Margaret Carney. This Sam Carney had grown up in Sutton but lived in Evanston, Illinois for a time where he had met his wife. Sam Carney was back in Sutton in 1930 and a bank president

That Sam Carney was the son of Samuel and Eugenia Carney. The older Samuel Carney was an early arrival in Sutton and took over a hardware business from Isaac N. Clark. Eugenia was the daughter of Hosea and Ann Gray. Hosea and Eugenia’s older brother John M. Gray were the very early arrivals in Sutton. John M. Gray and his wife Emma were Hall Gray Carney’s uncle and aunt. The Sutton Historical Society can claim the connection in that John and Emma built both houses of today’s museum.

The Sutton Historical Society asks the town and residents of Sutton, past and present, to join us in recognizing the life and the death of First Lieutenant Hall Gray Carney, a brave son of our town.

We also invite comments, corrections or additions to the story of Lt. Carney. Together we can ensure that present and future Suttonites will know and remember this fallen hero and others as we add to this collection.

-     Written with respect and admiration on Veterans Day, 2011 by Lt. Col. Jerrell R. (Jerry)Johnson, USAF, ret.

A 2019 post displays The Sutton News article published at the time of Hall Carney's death.

Nebraska's Fallen Heroes Marsh

 CITIZENS OF CLAY COUNTY INVITE YOU TO VISIT AND REFLECT

The Nebraska Memorial to the service men and women from Nebraska killed in the Southwest Asian wars.

Ours with Sutton and Clay County connections

Linda Tarango-Griess 

Army Sgt. 1st Class Linda Ann Tarango-Griess, age 33, was killed on July 11, 2005 in Sumarra, Iraq will serving with the 267th Ordnance Company of the Nebraska National Guard.


Sgt 1st Class Linda Tarango-Griess' story is told by The Military Times here.


Killed in the same incident was Sgt. Jeremy Fischer, 26 of Lincoln and of the Karnatz family from south Clay County and Nuckolls County. Jeremy is buried in the Ong Cemetery.

Sgt. Jeremy Fischer of Lincoln and the Karnatz
family of the south Clay and Nuckolls County
areas. 

Sgt. Fischer's story is here.

The Fallen Heroes Marsh memorial to Nebraskans killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars is at the Duck’s Unlimited Verona Complex southwest of Sutton. The memorial was dedicated in September, 2009.

Names of Nebraska's Fallen Heroes of recent conflicts.

The memorial is six miles west of Sutton on Highway 6 then two miles south on Road R to Road 315 and then ¼ mile west of the intersection of Road R and Road 315. The memorial is in an austere setting at a hunting location recognizing the interests of Adam Herold, the inspiration for the memorial.

Background information and the story of the dedication can be found at:

http://www.ducks.org/news-media/fallen-heroes-marsh-dedicated   SORRY - BROKEN LINK. We're looking for a replacement. Any suggestions? Or additions?

http://journalstar.com/news/article_2baf8a54-9a7b-11de-9a37-001cc4c03286.html

The Memorial is 1/4 mile west of the intersection of Road R and Road 315, in a graveled area north of the road.

Walter Wellman - Sutton's Explorer

Have you ever associated Sutton, Nebraska with North Pole explorations? No? Come along with us as we peek through the haze of Sutton Past.

Among the more obscure heroes of Sutton Past is the near-forgotten Walter Wellman. Never heard of him? Well, you are in for a treat.

Walter Wellman (November 3, 1858 - January 31, 1934) was born in Ohio. His pappy brought the family west to York County, Nebraska after the Civil War to settle down on a farm on the frontier. Walter must have been dis-inclined toward farming as he slipped off to Sutton where he started his own weekly newspaper, very likely the town's first. Sutton was the age of a toddler that year, and Walter was only 14. Wellman published his first issue of the Sutton Times on Friday, June 20, 1873 - a "five column quarto" with nine columns of advertising and eleven of local reading matter according to a contemporary account by Dr. M. V. B. Clark.

But Walter soon outgrew our town, for seven years later he'd moved on to the Cincinnati Evening Post and later to the Chicago Herald. Then he decided that he should make the news rather than just report it.

Screen capture of the video at http://wn.com/walter_wellman

In the 19-zero's, Walter and his Wellman Chicago Record-Herald Polar Expedition made a couple of attempts to fly airships to the North Pole. These efforts did not work out so well but were relative successes when compared to his next project to fly airships across the Atlantic. His airship America only suffered engine failure requiring rescue near Bermuda but the Akron exploded on a test flight and killed the crew of five, including one poor fellow who'd survived the America debacle.

The screen shot at the right is of a video at http://wn.com/walter_wellman which shows our local hero visiting the memorial to S. A. Andree, a Swedish balloonist with similar ideas who failed, badly in 1897 in his attempt to reach the North Pole.

Wellman's Biography which has been summarized here is also at that "World News" link, though a challenge to locate your first time. You'll see it under "Biography" among other selections The video itself will be the top selection of videos at that link.

http://sundaymagazine.org/tag/walter-wellman/

Walter Wellman wrote a few books on his adventures, three of which seem to available in used condition at amazon.com from individual peddlers. Let me know what you learned if you succumb to that temptation.

Other references to our man Walter show up deep in the recesses of the Internet. New York's Sunday Magazine of February 5, 1911 had an article written by the man himself. No, no. Don't try to read the picture at the left. Better to follow the link, better, but not by much, actually.

But here is our pièce de résistance: a photograph - if only a picture of a picture of a picture in a newspaper - of our hero's Exploration Machine. Is this cool, or what? Kind of looks like a prop out of a 1960's comedic movie with Jack Lemmon.

Walter Wellman's airship America taken from aboard a ship somewhere out in the Atlantic.

Bringing you back to earth here, we're talking Sutton History. It's a tenuous connection, but it is a well documented connection.  

This last illustration is of the flight deck of the machine named America. It had two engines, a primary and a backup. Good plan there.

Flight deck of the America. Note the brave aeronaut at his command position and the crew out climbing around there in the distance. Do we still have opportunities for such adventures in today's world? I think not.

There is sometimes merit to the saying that, "History is only dry gossip" but that need not be so. There is often real, measurable entertainment value.

by Jerry Johnson
Sutton Historical Society
Comments welcome.

Park flooding - once a common thing.

Sutton Park entrance. Notice how close the water came to the eaves of the pavilion. This was before the city did some work on the School Creek channel.

Do you remember when this used to happen a lot? Not sure when this was taken. Any guesses?

Herbert Johnson - Sutton's Political Cartoonist

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH SUTTON?

One of the magazine covers from Sutton's own, Herbert Johnson

Didja know that Sutton produced a national known political cartoonist?

Herbert Johnson was born in Sutton in 1878 and attended the University of Nebraska. Not sure where he went to high school - doesn't appear to have been here.

Don't believe me? Check out these two references. A little Googling will turn up some of his work.

http://www.unl.edu/scarlet/archive/2005/03/24/

http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?searchtype=BIO&artist=8347

Herbert Johnson - Sutton kid to the Big Time in Philadelphia 

He worked as a clerk, a stenographer and a bookkeeper before getting his big gig as a cartoonist for the Saturday Evening Post and its sister publication, The Country Gentleman.

Johnson fit in well politically with the adamantly right-wing Post offering works in support of presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. He was an unyielding critic of FDR and the New Deal.

Herbert Johnson died in Philadelphia in 1946 at the age of 68, barely outliving the object of his ire.

Another of Sutton's lost, but not (now, anyhow) forgotten native sons.

by Jerry Johnson

Wolfe School Museum - Clay County District #55

by Jerry Johnson

The Sutton Historical Society's rural school museum came from Lone Tree Township in Clay County, Nebraska about four miles southwest of Clay Center and two miles north of Fairfield. The school house was the Wolfe School in District #55 and operated until the 1962-1963 school year; Dorothy Shaw was the last teacher in the Wolfe school when there were six students.

The Wolfe School from the door looking toward the front of the room.

The school came to us complete with piano, stove, books and teacher and student desks. The blackboard extends across the front wall and there is the classic elevated stage at the front of the room.

The ceiling was dropped sometime in the history of the building leaving a four or five foot tall space between the new and old levels.

We have added one school desk to the arrangement of the school. This desk of a distinctive design has been in the basement of a house in Sutton for many years. It came from a rural school about five miles north of Sutton, District #8, one of the two schools in School Creek Township that were designated as "Nuss Schools," the other being District #16, my own school through the fifth grade.

The desk from the original District #8 in northeast Clay County.

District #8 was in the middle of a large tract of land that was settled by the Germans from Russia who found a home in the Sutton area after 1873. They built their first school furnishing it with desks of this design, a design that they were familiar with in Russia, and probably earlier in Germany.

When they built their second school they furnished that school with desks of the much more common design for American schools, the design of the rest of the desks in the room and for most of us.

We had a visit by a graduate student from the University of Freiberg in Germany in the spring of 2011. Emily Jordaning is originally from Fall City, Nebraska and a graduate of Doane College in Crete. Her graduate thesis was on German immigrants to Nebraska and Sutton became a center for her research. She told us that this desk design was a common school desk arrangement in Europe, a piece of information that makes this treasure even more interesting and appropriate.

The Wolfe School has two rooms in the corners beside the front door. Those were the old "utility" rooms used as coat closets, storage and for drinking water, etc. Rural schools did not have indoor plumbing. Two outhouses "out back" served for toilet facilities. We had an outhouse behind our school museum but the building suffered considerable damage when we used it in a parade - it was not in good shape anyhow. We are in the market for one, or two, outhouses to complete our museum and add a bit of authenticity. Early rural school houses also often had a barn where the kids and teachers could keep their horses during the day, especially harsh winter days on the Nebraska prairies. Yes, youngsters often rode horseback to school or maybe more commonly, had a small buggy that could carry several kids from a family or neighboring families.

We have desks of a variety of sizes and designs including these "double-wides."

There were at at least 67 rural schools in Clay County, more earlier before the Hastings Naval Ammunition Depot took a big bite out of the western part of the county. A typical school district was from seven to nine square miles putting about four or five schools in each of the six mile by six mile townships. The arrangement meant that few children were more than two miles from a school.

The districts were chartered as state corporations. The farmers in each district organized themselves electing three board members who were charged with the affairs of the school. The school board recruited and hired teachers and were responsible for the official and proper conduct of a state corporation. The board was furnished with templates and instructions for filing the necessary reports and documentation for their corporation. Historians have found that the reports were typically submitted in compliance, no strict compliance with the templates and guidelines furnished. Those families placed a high value on the education of their children though late spring and early fall field work sometimes took priority for the older boys.

The school board also had responsibility for fuel, generally coal and other maintenance functions. The teacher had responsibilities beyond the book-learning. She (generally "she") had to get to school early and get the fire going in the winter to warm up the building before the kids arrived. Teachers often maintained flower gardens and took pride in the appearance of their charge.

Teacher training was called "Normal Training" either in the local high school or in a separate school specifically for teacher training. Normal training often occurred in lieu of the upper classes of high school such that teachers were often working not much past their 16th birthday.

Imagine a sixteen year old girl running her own school in all kinds of weather a half a mile, or more from the nearest farm house. Imagine her level of responsibility as storm clouds built up in January threatening a snow storm, maybe a major blizzard. Imagine that situation before weather forecasts, radios, telephones or motorized transportation. Imagine the level of trust and confidence farm families put into the judgment and performance of their teachers, often teenagers or very young adults.

The academic guidance for a county's wide spread educational system came under the County Superintendent. The County Super directed and looked after the course work and the teaching performance of all of the county's teachers. Clay County had 67 or more schools over the period of rural education. The superintendent made periodic visits to the schools. It seems unlikely that they could visit more than four or five schools in a full day plus there certainly would have been work in the office. It'seems unlikely that a school received more than three or four visits in a school year, if that.

A visit from the county superintendent was a big deal at the school. This was a performance evaluation for the teacher. As a young fellow in a country school, I recall that we picked up onthe teacher's apprehension and sense of urgency about the visit. The superintendent, in our case, Mrs. Rippeteau watched as the teacher conducted classes. She inspected the building and the grounds. Our county superintendent had a weekly column in each of the county papers. Her assessment of the school appearance and the teacher's performance made the papers for all to see. Those reports make fascinating reading. Good marks weren't gimmies.

The rural school system was an important part of the settling of the Great Plains. One of the histories of the rural system points out that it was largely a feature of the British colonies. The idea that kids in even the most remotest settled areas were entitled to a free education led to rural schools in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand to a greater extent than elsewhere.

The Sutton Museums are open on Sunday's from 2 - 5 pm or by appointment by calling 402-773-0222 or at jjhnsn@windstream.net. We like to show off our Wolfe School. Stop and see us. There is a diminishing number of us who remember, first hand, what country schools, the rural schools were really like. We enjoy hearing your stories too.

Nellie Stevens: Pioneer & Fictional Heroine

Hawaii has James Michener; Red Cloud, Nebraska has Willa Cather and Grafton, Nebraska has Alida Curtiss.

Alida Curtiss wrote “Mother Wanted a Son – A Prairie Tale” in 1964. In her historical novel, Captain Xerxes Stevens brought his wife Elisabeth and young daughter Nellie to a homestead near Grafton not long after the Civil War. Nellie’s little brother was born there, the son Mother wanted, but the story is Nellie’s.

The author tells us that all the characters in her book are fictional except Xerxes, Elisabeth and Nellie plus Ora Keepers who we meet later in the book. The actual Stevens homestead was about two or three miles southwest of town and Nellie really did grow up to become the school teacher.

Ora Keepers (1881–1905) and Nellie Stevens (1866-1926)

Xerxes died before establishing the farm and Elisabeth moved her family to town where she became the postmistress – we’re in the novel now, pay attention.

Nellie’s finds a male role model when her father’s war buddy Rev. Hiram Curtiss comes to Grafton with his wife Hannah and brood of little Curtiss’s including Horace, a boy about Nellie’s age. That’s the fiction of the novel; however, there was a real Rev. Hiram Curtiss, a Methodist preacher in Grafton and in Sutton about that time with a son named Horrice though the real Hiram’s wife was Fanny. The real Curtiss family also included a daughter seventeen years younger than Nellie named Alida – the author of the novel. Are you paying attention?

Alida Curtiss chose Nellie Stevens as her protagonist and through her, we learn about the Stevens homestead, living in Grafton and growing up on the frontier. The characters appear real - they were real and the relationships are believable. This was the first and only novel by Alida Curtiss so don’t expect fine literature. But for an enjoyable picture of the early days of our area, this book fits the bill quite well.

Fictional Nellie’s mother sent her to Vermont to school and she returned to become the Grafton school teacher, just as the real Nellie did. Ora Keepers, the fourth “official” real person in the book is one of Nellie’s students. Ora becomes an orphan and Nellie raised her. The fictional Ora is only a few years younger than Nellie. The real Ora was much younger, closer to the same age as Alida.

Spoiler Alert: The novel moves on with Nellie and Ora enjoying a life together, moving to Colorado to a “happily-ever-aftering” kind of conclusion.  The real life story of Nellie, Ora and Alida went in a different direction.

This photo, likely from about 1920 shows a millinery shop on the
extreme right at the location we'd determined to be where the
Curtiss & Stevens shop was locate. The next door "Lyric" was
the town theater still operating through the '60's.

Ora Keepers, the real one, died in 1905 at 23 of tuberculosis as her fictional mother had and maybe as her real mother did. The real Nellie Stevens and Alida Curtiss were the long-term companions. Alida gave Ora the gift of a long life in her book inserting Ora into her own place in Nellie Stevens’ story.

Rev. Curtiss' family moved to St. Joseph but by 1910 Alida was back in Sutton living with Nellie Stevens on Maple Street and partners with Nellie in a millinery shop about where Bill Bottorf’s office is now located. Then Nellie and Alida moved to Colorado where Nellie returned to teaching just as Nellie and Ora do in the novel.

The 1920 census lists a Grafton household of Nellie Stevens, age 56; Lida Curtis, 37 and Fannie B. Curtis, 70. Nellie’s business was “poultry and dairy farm.” Do not know how that happened. Was it on the Stevens homestead?

Ad in 1912 Sutton High School Annual for
Curtiss & Stevens Millinery Shop.

Nellie Stevens died in 1926. Alida Curtiss moved back to Rocky Ford, Colorado and probably lived much of her remaining life there. She left a few tracks in the public record, attending weddings of nieces and other relatives, returning from a European trip in October, 1947 and other Google hits.

Alida answered a surprise letter from Sutton, Nebraska on the day after Christmas in 1969. She remembered Eva Weikum who had worked for their next door neighbors, the Luebbens. Eva’s son Lawrence Trautman had tracked Alida down in Oxnard, California. Alida’s sister Victoria Schell was helping with the letter – Alida had suffered a stroke – and she was remembering Sutton, sixty years earlier.    

Alida Curtiss died in Ventura, California on May 11, 1972. Nellie Stevens is buried next to her parents in the Grafton Cemetery. Ora Keepers’ parents are not far away and records show that young Ora Keepers should also be in the Grafton Cemetery. I did not see a marker.

Alida Curtiss (1883-1972) with Nellie (1866-1926), her friend and main character in her novel.

I thank Lawrence Trautman for bringing this story to my attention and lending Alida’s book to me. The novel tells a good story about Nellie and Ora but the real story of Nellie and Alida could have been a better book with more drama, tragedy and pathos.

The Sutton museum has a copy of “Mother Wanted a Son – A Prairie Tale” and I ordered a copy from amazon.com that is now in the Sutton Library. I may need another copy for my own library.

Thanks to Diana Thompson and Cherie Baudrand, genealogists of the Stevens and Curtiss families on ancestry.com for the photos of Nellie, Alida and Ora.

    
by Jerry Johnson and the Sutton Historical Society

 This article appeared first in September, 2011 issue of Sutton Life Magazine. For information about this local Sutton publication, please contact Jarod Griess at neighborhoodlife@yahoo.com or at 402-984-4203 or at 501 West Cedar St., Sutton, NE 68979.

Grave of Nellie Stevens in the Grafton Cemetery

Stevens Family plot: Xerxes and Elizabeth (Harvey) Stevens on the left;
Nellie Stevens on the right - Grafton Cemetery.

Sutton in the Census

From the U. S. Constitution, Article I, Section 2: “The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.” That is the only specific tasking the founders gave us and it is time for the Twenty-Third Census of the United States.

The purpose of the census is to provide population statistics to adjust the boundaries of Congressional districts but data collection has grown as has the usefulness of the information.

Sutton’s first appeared in the 1880 census having just missed the prior edition. Enumerator James E. Marsh found 1631 people in Sutton Township. Mr. Jacob Steinmetz counted noses in School Creek Township.

Each census has asked a different set of questions beginning with early years when little more than the name of the head of the household and the number of persons was asked. By the beginning of the twentieth century the census bureau was collecting a wealth of information including age, place of birth, immigration date, number of years married, parents’ birthplace, literacy, occupation, etc. Recent forms have shrunk. The 2010 form has only 10 questions asking for name, sex, age, date of birth, racial and home ownership information.

Analysts use census data to learn how the country has grown and developed but no group has benefited from this resource more than genealogists. Great-grandparents seem to come to life as you see their family listed in the census and imagine the interview with the local enumerator. There are surprises lurking in these records: children who died young and were not remembered, in-laws who lived in the house, servants, boarders and gaps – people who should be there but aren’t.

We can’t fully trust everything found in the census. My great-grandparent’s family appears on the first page of the 1880 School Creek census where we’re led to believe that Anna Johnson gave birth to twins in Sweden at the age of 14. Possible, but her achievement probably would have been part of our family folklore. Family records indicate Anna was born in 1841 and would have been 38 years old when she met with the census taker, not 28 as he recorded. Curiously, he also listed his own wife as being 28 years old that year with 18 and 13 year old daughters. He might have had trouble with arithmetic, or maybe he was married twice – the census provides clues, not always complete answers.

Mr. Steinmetz illustrated another point in his own entry. He tried to record his wife’s birthplace and that of her parents but he re-wrote it a couple of times making a mess of the page. It appears he wrote “Prussia” and he clearly wrote “Hesser Castle”, probably meaning the Prussian province of Hesse-Kassel. Again, clues, not always complete answers.

I learned two things about my great-grandmother in the 1900 census. It reports that she had seven children but only six were living. My grandfather must have had a brother or sister who likely died in Sweden before the family emigrated. Also, the enumerator recorded that Anna could read and write, but did not speak English. Quite a number of older people, especially women were getting along just fine in their native language according to the 1900 and 1910 census.

Did you notice that I skipped over the 1890 census? If you research census records, you will too. That census was lost in a fire. So our Sutton research begins in 1880, then skips twenty whole years to the 1900 records followed by 1910, 1920 and you are finished at 1930, for now. Census records are “closed” for 72 years as a privacy consideration. The 1940 census will become public in just a couple more years. I am anticipating that one as my father was the School Creek enumerator starting the task on April 2^nd and finishing on April 17^th. It will be in his handwriting – and a good hand it was. That was not always the case.

Just a few years ago census records were only available on microfilm at Mormon libraries at temples and in the largest stakes. Many of us spent hours and hours in darkened rooms at the library just west of Temple Square in Salt Lake City poring over film after film. Now, it is almost too easy. Census records are online and indexed. What used to take multiple sessions can be done in minutes. The genealogy web site www.ancestry.com is a robust and easily accessible repository. There is a modest subscription fee, but when compared to traveling to spend hours or days in a library, it’s a fair price.

This article appeared in the January, 2010 Sutton Life Magazine. Information about the magazine is available at neighborhoodlife@yahoo.com or Mustang, Inc., 510 West Cedar, Sutton, NE 68979.