FROM THE NORTH END: FIRST OF ALL…this Corner wants to wish everyone a very blessed and Merry
Christmas!!!
WHEN WE RETURNED HOME for Dog Days this past August we were aghast to discover that much of our basement had flooded. After much clean-up and tearing out sheetrock, some car siding etc. and hauling many boxes to the garage while the renovation is completed we looked for some positives. One of the bright things that we discovered is that it forced us to go through “stuff,” throwing away things we don’t need, giving stuff away we don’t need, and, most importantly, finding “stuff” we didn’t know we had! I found many pictures and historical memorabilia I had forgotten that I had. “Stuff” that should
give me some good material for future North Ends.
I stumbled on a pamphlet entitled “Memory Trails” which served as a guide for an Auto Caravan which
took place on Sept. 30, 1973. The focus of the trip was the Lucas area. Historical stops included: The
Buchanan Sanitarium, Sully gravesite, Lucas, Dave Stroup sod house, Wade, Hall Post Office and Store, Deegan Landside, Landing Creek Post Office and Dixon Cattle Company, Kime Ranch and Red Rock, Turney Post Office, Snake Creek Ferry, Mullen Mansion(now The Grey House Inn in Gregory), Mullen post office and store, Day, Peterson Cemetary, Red Leaf Homestead, Fool Hawk Homestead, various one-room rural schools and, of course, the townsite of Lucas.
Places of interest in Lucas included: The Woodman Hall, Baptist Church, Lucas State Bank, Wm. Davidson Store, Stroup Hotel, Ed Larson Pool Hall, Frank Faust Implement, Frank Haakinson Store, Ferd Moyer Livery, Catholic Church, Lucas Post Office, J.B Moyer Blacksmith, “Saloon”, Adam Glaser home, and J.N. Parman home.
The Davidson Store Fire had a bearing on the Buchanan Sanitarium as the old sanitarium was torn down with the lumber being used to rebuild the Davidson Store. Local historians, including this writer, would question the spelling of Davidson as everything we’ve studied shows Davidson being spelled Davison. Perhaps we’re splitting hairs a bit!?
The county officers in 1973 were: Lucille Robertson-President; Floyd Barrett-Vice President, Louis
Lillibridge-Secretary and Don Fenega-Treasurer. The county directors were: Fred Gnirk-Burke, Vivian
Olson-Fairfax, Ivan Sinclair-Gregory, Harold Teel-Herrick, Esther Messick-Gregory, Mrs. Ray Walth-
Fairfax, Hollyce Schmitz-Bonesteel, L.J. Berens-Dixon and Pearle Robertson-Gregory.
The host Burke-Lucas Chapter officers were: Louis Lillibridge-President, Marion Peterson-Vice-President, Tom Harlan-Secretary and Karl Zutz-Treasurer. The Board of Directors included: Cedric Fedde, Ethel Miles, Ruth Junod, Wes Dappen and Mattie Shindelbower. Membership dues were Student-$1, Individual-$3, Couples-$5. Pioneer membership(for people who came to Gregory County from 1906 to 1909-)$1.50 and Honorary membership(for people who came to Gregory County in 1905 or earlier)- FREE. And.. …in 1973 there would have been some of folks who qualified which tells us a lot about our area being one of the last places in the USA to be settled!!! Pictures in the little pamphlet included the two shown above along with Dave Stroup’s VERY LARGE sod house, The Buchanan Sanitarium, the Deegan Landslide, Red Rock, Charles Keckler’s threshing rig and the Snake Creek Ferry which ran where the Platte-Winner bridge is now located. See you next week and we’ll see if we can come up with some more historical photos!
Author: Jack Broome