[ CLAY COUNTY INTHE REARVIEW MIRROR
]
Our nostalgic lyrics go like this: O mio babbino caro Mi piace, è bello, bello Vo’ andare in Porta Rossa A comperar l’anello! Etc. O.K. Here is the full translation you likely never heard: Oh my dear papa I like him, he is so handsome. I want to go to Porta Rossa To buy the ring! Yes, yes, I want to go there! And if my love were in vain, I would go to the Ponte Vecchio And throw myself in the Arno!
I am pining, I am tormented! Oh God, I would want to die! Father, have pity, have pity! Father, have pity, have pity! “O mio babbino caro” is a soprano aria from Puccini’s one-act opera “Gianni Schicchi.” Great composer, so-so opera, fantastic song, but only in Italian. In English it sounds harsh. In Italian, one weeps. The Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) over the Arno River is one of the major tourist attractions in Florence, Italy. The aria is popular with street singers in Florence, obviously, and worth at least a two-Euro coin in the hat every time.
2001 – 25YEARS AGO Sutton and Clay Center police chiefs Roy Eckerdt and Dee Wilkerson joined the Adams County Sheriff’s Department to recover $10,000 worth of stolen property in Hastings. The tools and motors had been taken from a garage in Sutton in October. That same team of authorities recovered a pickup truck that had been stolen from Quality Builders in Sutton in early January. The pickup was found burned in a field northeast of Hastings.
Curtis O. Griess and his sons met with 60 people at the Sutton Community Senior Center, where they explained the planned expansion to their hog operation northeast of Sutton.
B.J. Koohmaraie, sixth grade son of Mohammad Koohmaraie of Clay Center, won a savings bond in the local Lions Club’s contest as part of the Lions Club International Peace Poster Contest. His poster was advanced to the district competition. More than 325,000 entries were submitted worldwide to the contest.
Featured business: Sutton Auto Supply, NAPA distributors.
Death notices this week included: Orville K. Bieck, Harvard; Vera (Ulmer) (Mrs. Harold) Monson, Grand Island (Saronville); Ira Marvin Sinner, Harvard; and Jack Webb, Fort Collins, CO (Clay Center).
Harvard wrestlers dominated in their fourth consecutive Twin Valley Conference championship meet outscoring Shelton 60.5 to 40.5, earning medals in all 14 weight classes and collecting eight golds. The Cardinals’ gold winners were Thomas Hiatt, Chris Longoria, Trent Leichleiter, Shane Dowse, T.J. Aumilller, Nate Schumm, Jarod Owens, and Dave Aspegren. The six conference teams were Harvard, Shelton, B-D-D, Franklin, R.C./B.H., and L/N. (A quiz there.)
Sutton wrestlers were 2-0 in duals at St. Cecilia, beating the hosts 55-18 and Clay Center/ Sandy Creek 52-28. Jeff Thompson, Tyler Peters, and Mike Robinson had wins in both duals.
Clay Center boys lost to Friend 69-49. Clay Center won its first-round game in the Crossroads Conference tournament in York, defeating Benedict 62-59 in overtime. Nathan Karnatz secured the win with a steal and score.
Clay Center survived Shickley’s 19-9 fourth-quarter advantage to hold on to a 50-45 win. Chris Anderson, Adam Barnes, and Nathan Karnatz all had ten points in the win.
Bronsen Schliep scored 35 points in Sandy Creek’s 72-48 win over Hebron.
Heartland only hit double digits in one quarter as Sutton took a 63-33 win. Tyler Lemkau had 15 points.
Sandy Creek’s Lady Cougars may have had the lopsided win of the year beginning with a 21-1 first quarter against St. Cecilia and 42-9 at the half. St. Cecilia added ten in the second half losing 79-19. Taryn Ninemire had 23 points and Shelly Lipovsky had 19.
Harvard was led by Jami Lipker’s 18 points in a 63-42 win over Blue Hill.
Brandice Studnicka scored all five of Clay Center’s fourth-quarter points in their 49-47 win over Rising City. Clay Center’s Lady Cats were outscored 21-9 in the third quarter and lost 61-42 to Friend. The Lady Cats fell to Shickley 40-32.
Sutton Fillies’ second quarter’s 21-8 performance paced their 51-35 win over Superior.
1976 – 50YEARS AGO A meeting to address the financial straits of the Sutton American Legion generated an immediate $3,000 and the appointment of Doug Douglas and Brian Hultine to head a fund-raising drive. The club reopened Jan. 24, with volunteer manager Doug Douglas in place until a new manager could be found.
Harold Engel was re-elected Chairman of the Board of Supervisors with Earl England as Vice Chairman. The board approved a motion to support the “Clay County Community Medical Center, Inc.” which was recruiting an additional dentist in the county.
Dr. Paul Guyer, Extension Livestock Specialist at UNL Ag College, was at the Branding Iron Lounge in Fairfield demonstrating software systems to county Livestock Feeders Association members. Dr. Guyer’s system calculated the most economical feed ration for beef and swine. (The early days of computer automation was a hoot. Fifty years ago, I was a year and a half deep into COBOL programming on Honeywell 6080 computers at SAC Headquarters at Offutt AFB. We supported aircraft mission planning for B-52 and FB-111 bombers and their KC-135 tankers. Down the hall, programmers were supporting Titan and Minuteman missile systems and missiles on submarines. We were mostly ex-pilots, navigators, missilemen, retrained (quickly – computer science schools were just beginning) and shoved into those seats. We soon found civilian companies interested in how we trained, organized, developed best practices, etc. in this new world. Quite an experience.)
About two hundred people attended the Open House for the new First United Methodist Parsonage in Harvard.
Featured business: Kluver Transfer in Fairfield with daily service from Omaha, Lincoln, and Hastings.
Death notices this week included: Agnes (Rotter) (Mrs. John) Fleming, Sutton; Edward C. Genschmer, Harvard; Rose Hoevet, LaMars, IA, (Fairfield; and Katie (Bettger) (Mrs. Henry) Peter, Goodland, Kansas (Sutton).
Harvard girls beat Trumbull 19-18 led by Laurie Glantz’s 7 points.
Sutton Fillies’ basketball team came up against a more experienced team in Geneva losing 36-17. Belinda Griess scored 11 of those points.
Clay Center dropped games to Giltner, 84-61 and Deshler by 50-40. Dennis Jaeger returned after missing time with an injury to score 20 in the first game. Scott Johnson had 20 against Deshler.
Friend lived up to its reputation beating Sandy Creek 85-59.
Sutton was down four at the half against Hebron but came back to win 38-37. Scott Gemar and Milt Ehly each had nine points.
Sandy Creek led all the way beating Harvard 81-46. Scott Davenport had 18 points for Sandy Creek. Doug Stone matched that with 18 for Harvard.
The French Concorde SST passenger plane began regular commercial service for Air France and British Airways. (Remember when Willy Theisen, Omaha’s founder of Godfather’s Pizza, celebrated his 40th birthday by taking 98 of his close friends on a fiveday weekend trip to London including an Omaha to London round flight on the Concorde?)
1951 - 75YEARS AGO Wartime hiring at the Hastings Naval Ammunition Depot was putting a strain on local housing. Eugene Darling, manager at Spencer Park in Harvard said the unit was filled with a waiting list of 175 families for the 804 active units. Officials announced that Harvard Courts, a federal project of 260 units, that had been closed for four years, would be made available for NAD workers. Plumbing, lighting, and heating fixtures had been removed for use in college housing projects when the Courts closed. Managers were preparing to renovate the units. The depot employed 1,700 and was to be increased to 2,500 on a rapid schedule.
Members of the Zion Lutheran Church which burned recently planned to build a new brick church structure.
Virgil Johnson of Saronville completed Air Force basic training in San Antonio and technical training at Lowry Field in Denver and was enroute to a European duty station. Sgt Roy King of Sutton was at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri waiting orders to his next station.
The county’s February draft call listed Wesley Shonkweller, Fairfield; Robert Israelson, Saronville; and Curtis Coleman, Sutton. Deryl Hoppens of Harvard was a voluntary enlistee.
Pfc Dale Mosley of Ong completed recruit training at the Marine Corps recruit depot in San Diego.
The Clay County Education Association met in Fairfield where speakers were Supt. Earl Wilse of Grand Island, Edwin Schaad, principal at Sutton, and Supt. M.R. Stoval of Edgar.
Featured business: Burdick’s Dry Goods store in Edgar, with Peters brand shoes.
The Center Theater in Clay Center was showing “Down Dakota Way” with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Sutton’s Lyric had “Kill the Umpire” starring William Bendix and Uma Merkel. “Side Street” was showing at the Edgar Lyric starring Farley Granger and Cathy O’Donnell.
Death notices this week included: Anna Mabel (Mahan) (Mrs. George) Mathewson, Sutton; Agnes (Leedom) (Mrs. James) Fleming, Sutton; Charles Redler, Denver (Sutton); and Enno Edzards, Ong.
Harold Zook, star of last year’s Glenvil basketball team, scored 12 points in Hastings College’s win over Nebraska Wesleyan.
Harvard beat Nelson 51-36 as Willard Fagler scored 25. Fagler had 27 points in Harvard’s 60-40 win over Fairmont.
Glenvil dominated Edgar in their 61-23 win led by Ronald Fitzke’s 19 points.
Ohiowa scored with 20 seconds to go to beat Ong 65-63 for their 11th straight win. Ong’s record was now 13-2. Gordon Benson had 32 points for Ong.
Clay Center beat Edgar 40-25. Geneva High lost their football and track coach, Dick Ophoff, who was recalled to active duty with the Marines. Ophoff was a first lieutenant in the Marines in World War II.
Some historic websites claim Fidel Castro was ejected from a Winter League baseball game this week after hitting a batter. Others claim he was seriously scouted by teams including the Yankees and Pirates. Beware. These are persistent myths.
An Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb at Frenchman Flats, the first detonation at the Nevada test site northwest of Las Vegas. Earlier tests were conducted in New Mexico.
1926 – 100YEARS AGO Ice plants were in full swing. Harvard’s Fuel & Ice Company had six hundred tons packed away. Most of the ice came from Crystal Lake and a lake in Crete.
The Harvard American Legion Post and Auxiliary was in rehearsal for a musical comedy, “Kitchen Kabinet Orchestra.”
Clay Center celebrated the 10th anniversary of the library building and the 16th anniversary of the library.
Featured business: Dr. T.J. Lindgren, Veterinarian in Edgar.
The Lyric Theater in Edgar was showing Carl Laemmle’s “The Phantom of the Opera.” Sutton’s Lyric had “The Iron Horse,” described as “…an epochal 10-reel Super picture.” Harvard’s Paramount Theater had “Daughters of the Night,” “…a romance about the night life of a Telephone Operator with plenty of adventure and thrills.” (That plot would need an update.)
Death notices this week included: Rachel (Huff) (Mrs. Thomas) Casterline, Edgar; Hazel Gladys Leonard, age 19, Eldorado (died after appendicitis operation); Daniel Gotheridge, Harvard; and Byron C. Hayes, age 18, Fairfield.
Mrs. Bridget Garvey of Albion died at the age of 113.
Edgar fell to Geneva 33-8. Sutton’s basketball team made a southeast Nebraska tour losing to Nebraska City 21-16, beating Peru 14-5, and winning at Auburn 10-7. Team members were Captain Carl Oates, Robert Oates, Joyce Johnston, Donald Barr, Walter Kirchhefer, James Stone, and Authur Bauer.
The Fairmont – Ong basketball game ended 20-20. “The five-minute extra period was agreed upon and Ong succeeded in caging seven more points to Fairmont’s two.” (Sounds like overtime terms were negotiable. Suppose?)
Harvard and Giltner played to a 5-5 tie at halftime when Harvard held their opponents scoreless for a 19-5 win.
Scottish inventor John Baird demonstrated a pictorial transmission machine in London that he called “Televisor.” His machine transmitted images at five frames per second proving live images were possible. The first overseas broadcast (London to New York and the first color television demonstration occurred in 1928. The BBC began experimental broadcasts using Baird’s system in 1929.
1901 – 125YEARS AGO The number of smallpox cases had subsided. The Board of Health lifted the quarantine of unvaccinated children.
The creamery in Fairfield was purchased by people from York.
Featured business: Vodra, the Barber, in Fairfield.
A new bowling alley and pool room opened in Sutton.
The Fairfield city council revoked the license of the billiard hall.
The City Bakery in Harvard moved into the Tom Bennett building recently vacated by Hurd Bros.
Dr. George F. Hall was delivering lectures to the public at the Edgar High School. This week’s lecture was titled “America in the Twentieth Century.”
Anson Soules was the agent in Harvard for the Ideal Steam Laundry in Fremont. Baskets left on Wednesday returned Saturday noon.
Death notices this week included: Feke (Hinrichs) (Mrs. John) Goldenstein, Glenvil; and Olof Johnson, Saronville.
County newspapers carried dispatches from England remembering the reign of Queen Victoria and the prospects for the new 60-year-old King Edward VII.
A mob of perhaps 8,000 people broke into the jail in Leavenworth, KS taking a Negro prisoner from the sheriff’s custody and tied him to a post on the edge of town. The mob piled boards around the prisoner and burned him to death. The governor called for the arrest of the sheriff for failing to protect the prisoner and for the arrest of the mob leaders. County newspapers expressed outrage at the killing, calling out vigilante actions.
Queen Victoria of England died at the age of 81. She became queen in 1937 weeks after her 18th birthday. Her son, Edward VII, succeeded her.
1776 – 250YEARS AGO The Continental Congress authorized the first national Revolutionary War memorial to honor Brigadier General Richard Montgomery who was killed during an assault on Quebec weeks earlier. Benjamin Franklin hired French King Louis XV’s personal sculptor to build the monument. It was originally planned for Independence Hall in Philadelphia but was installed at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York in 1788. Montgomery’s body was moved from Quebec to St. Paul’s in 1818.
