Gov. McKelvie at Sutton Commercial Club - Nov. 1921

Governor Samuel R. McKelvie, Fairfield native, was the guest speaker at the November 1921 meeting of the Sutton Community Club. 

Here we learn about the menu, the toasts, and a bit about the Governor's speech. 

1996 City & County Election Candidates

This list of candidates for the 1996 general election appeared in the Clay County News on October 3, 1996.

Members, 1946 Clay County AAA Committees

Something called the Clay County Committee chose its new membership for 1946. There were 5 members in each of the county's 16 townships. These were called Triple-A committees.

What were they? What did a AAA Committee do? Were these township officers? Those were elected in the normal election process earlier and were the political leadership of the township. This seems to be something else.  

This article appeared in The Edgar Sun on December 14, 1945.

Township Officers - 1895

Townships once had formal and robust political leadership. This is the list of Clay County township political officers from the 1895 elections.

The excerpt is from The Clay County Patriot newspaper from 22 Nov 1895 (erroneously catalogued under "The Clay County Republican" at newspapers.com

In days of yore, the township was a real thing a formal administrative and functioning staff elected on the ballots for school, city, county, state, and federal positions.

This roster of Clay County township officers appeared in The Clay County Patriot newspaper in November 1895. Do you find your great, grandfather here?

Note that the dominate political parties at the time were the Populists and Republicans. Democrats had not yet recovered and rebooted from the days of the Confederacy. Also note that townships tended to be dominated by one or the other of those "p" and "r" labels.

Masthead of the Clay County Patriot Newspaper in 1900

 The Clay County Patriot newspaper proudly displayed this masthead on its weekly paper touting labor and populism. The paper's politics changed overtime. For a time at the end of its existence in 1921 the paper was named The Clay County Republican.

1920 Clay County Electon Results

 This account of Clay County election results in 1920 appeared in The Clay County Patriot - a Clay Center newspaper.

1970 County Election Results

 The 1970 election was held on November 3rd with these Clay County results.

David Maser Elected Clay County Attorney - 1970

Dave Maser defeated incumbent Jay Sullivan for Clay County Attorney in 1970.

Ballots to be mailed to Voters on Sept. 12

This notice is from The Clay County News of Sept. 16th.

The County Clerk will be sending ballots to all registered voters 22 days before the election allowing plenty of time for voters to get their ballots back in the mail.

Easy peasy. 

Two years ago the state legislature authorized counties to opt into a full mail-in system of voting. Eleven counties, mostly rural and including Clay County, immediately took advantage of that for the 2018 midterms. Additional counties have joined.

Sutton's Primary City Ballot - 1920

This is the Sutton city ballot for the primary election in 1920 from the Citizens "party" caucus.

John J. Pershing's Favorite Son for President Ad

General John J. Pershing was a "Favorite Son" candidate for President of the United States from Nebraska.

1968 Clay County Election Results

The 1968 Clay County Election Results

Looks like the county was organized into 22 precincts 50 years ago

Jan McKenzie announces for the legislature - 1993

State Senator Jan McKenzie announced her candidacy for the 34th legislative district in October 1993. She had been serving in the post for almost one year after being appointed by Gov. Nelson to fill out a term.

World War I Satire

This satirical piece appeared in the Harvard Courier newspaper in September 1918. It reads somewhat awkwardly today but illustrates the state of mind of the public during World War I.

Sutton Members of the Nebraska Legislature

Nebraska had a two-house legislature until 1937 when the unicameral first met, the first and still the only one-house legislature among the 50 states. This reform was championed by George W. Norris, a U. S. Senator who was impressed by the one-house legislative system he saw in Queensland on a visit to Australia.

Sutton has had eleven members of the legislature as listed on the website: Nebraska Legislators: Past and Present. 

We will claim 12 adding Jan J. McKenzie who served our district from 1993-1997 even though the website recognizes her Harvard mailing address. 

Sutton's members of the original House of Representatives were:

E. A. McVey                      1893-1895

E. E. Hargrove                   1895-1897

James Weston                    1913-1915

Guy H. Matteson               1915-1917

Jacob Bender                     1925-1927

Ralph J. Buck                    1929-1931

Member from Sutton who served in the original State Senate were:

Wellington C. Walton        1877-1879

John B. Dinsmore              1881-1883

R. G. Brown                       1887-1889

Members of the Unicameral from Sutton, in addition to Jan McKenzie mentioned above, were:

Theodore C. Wenzlaff       1968-1971

Rod Johnson                      1983-1992

Yes, this is a product of early research for the Sutton Sesquicentennial Book. There are still openings on the committee for the book including the subcommittees for research, drafting, writing, formatting, editing, proofreading, photos, publishing, donuts and other tasks as required. Contact Jerry Johnson at 402-773-0222 or jjhnsn31@gmail.com or even try suttonnehistory@gmail.com

1918 Clay Co. Primary Election Results

Need a little break from 2018 politics? Take a break with a look at the results from the 1918 primary election in Clay County as reported in The Clay County Patriot newspaper on August 22, 1918.

See any names you recognize? That Vauck with the narrow win in the Democratic race for the Nebraska House of Representatives - 43rd District was Henry Vauck. Apparently unsuccessful in the general. County officials tended to last a while. Henry Vauck was later county judge for a long time, outlasted by his brother-in-law Roy Oakley who served as county clerk from 1922 through 1955. 

Yes, this was well before Nebraska went single-house in 1934 (effective 1937) for the state legislature. There were 100 members in the Nebraska House of Representatives from 1875 through 1936 (raised from the original 39). Notice that Clay County had parts of two legislative districts, the 42nd and 43rd. 

Sutton City Officals - 1917

So who were the movers and shakers in Sutton in 1917. Here's your answer:

1916 Anti-Prohibiton ad in Clay County,

1916 saw two major ballot issues in many states, prohibition and suffrage. This anti-prohibition ad was run by a lobbying group called the Nebraska Prosperity League and sought to tie prohibition with lower land values.  That is, land in Kansas was cheaper than in Nebraska...because Kansans couldn't buy booze over the counter.

"Causality" and "Correlation" are a couple of concepts that help explain what's happening, or not happening.

The Nebraska Prosperity League was an anti-prohibition lobbying organization in 1916.

This ad ran in The Sutton Register among other papers.