CHEYENNE COUNTY

10 Years Ago, The Sidney Sun-Telegraph, 2015

Fourteen local musicians make up the Cheyenne County Community Band, directed by Chris Gabis. There are no auditions, experience level requirements or age restrictions to be a part of this nonprofit musical group. “We provide the music, and all you have to do is bring your instrument and show up to a practice,” said Danielle DeKruif, Cheyenne County Community Band president and member. The band has only been together for a year, but they have made multiple appearances around Sidney and neighboring towns. “Oktoberfest is our big event,” shares DeKruif.

20 Years Ago, The Sidney Sun-Telegraph, 2005

The new governor of Nebraska, Dave Heineman, expected to take his oath of office Jan. 20, has confirmed he will attend the Jan. 21 annual banquet of the Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce. Heineman will automatically become governor when Mike Johanns’ resignation as governor becomes effective when he takes his oath as the new Secretary of Agriculture for the Bush Administration.

Congressman Tom Osborne, Nebraska’s 3rd District representative to Congress, will be the featured speaker at the annual Business After Hours/Ag Night on Friday, Feb. 4, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Country Kettle Restaurant.

30 Years Ago, The Sidney Telegraph, 1995

Pastor Mary A. Frohs was installed as associate pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church of Sidney and as pastor at First Lutheran Church in Potter n Sunday, Jan.15. Frohs is a recent graduate of Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. Her shared-time position with the two churches will be a first in the Nebraska Synod of the ELCA in which one pastor is full pastor at one church and an associate at another. Her time will be shared 50/50 between the two congregations. She will make her home in the Potter parsonage.

Using a strong first round performance and winning several close matches in the finals, the Sidney High wrestling team captured the Western Conference tournament title for the second year in a row Saturday afternoon. The Red Raiders placed 10 of 11 wrestlers and crowned six individual champions while outdistancing Kimball 177-1/2 to 163 for the team title.

40 Years Ago, The Sidney Telegraph, 1985

Lodgepole farmer Mike Behrends divides his time between substitute teaching, duties on the South Platte Natural Resources District Boards, his family and his 2,620 acre crop and livestock operation. With an eye on conserving resources for the future and keeping a tight rein on books today, Behrends has been selected as the 1985 recipient of the Sidney Jaycees’ Outstanding Young Farmer/Rancher award. For the past two years, Sidney OYF/R representatives have been judged best in the state. They were Keith Rexroth, Dalton farmer in 1983, and Leon Kriesel, Gurley, in 1984.

50 Years Ago, The Sidney Telegraph, 1975

Sidney’s Union Pacific Depot is scheduled to be torn down Monday, The Sidney Telegraph learned today. Union Pacific spokesman Dick Tincher in Omaha, confirmed local rumors that offices and personnel were being moved out of the stone structure this weekend and wreckers scheduled to begin Monday. He said the decision came as a surprise to his office. “We had no advance notice. We have been tearing down several old depots along the line for several years now because they’re safety hazards. We recently tore one down in North Platte for that reason,” Tincher said. He explained the depot was too close to the railroad’s mainline to be safely used as a museum and its native stone architecture would probably be difficult and expensive to move to another location. Local railroad officials wouldn’t comment on the report.

60 Years Ago, The Sidney Telegraph, 1965

A rash of farm home break-ins in recent months has prompted law authorities to urge farmers who move to town for the winter, go on trips or, for other reasons, leave their farm homes vacant for a time, to take steps to make their farmsteads break-in proof. Methods could include enlisting the aid of neighbors and friends to make frequent checks and removing valuables if possible. Sheriff W. W. Schulz told The Telegraph this morning that the most recent break-in reported was on Saturday, Jan. 9, when the Lumir Studnicka farm home 12 miles north of Potter was entered. The culprits broke locks on the shed and the home, entered and stole a shotgun, three rifles, and miscellaneous other items, including tools and 60 pounds of meat from the freezer. During the last few months vandals have seemed to roam the countryside searching out vacated farm homes and, in most cases, doing thousands of dollars in damage.

70 Years Ago, The Sidney Telegraph, 1955

The warning to Cheyenne County motorists to be alert to the use of radar speed traps on area roads apparently didn’t make much of an impression on some people. The Nebraska Safety Patrol Friday night operated a radar set on Highway 19 and within three hours, 20 speeders had been arrested. Seventeen more motorists were nabbed Saturday and Sunday by radar.

80 Years Ago, The Telegraph, 1945

A warning was issued from the office of County Sheriff W. W. Schulz this week concerning twenty one-hundred pound bombs that were dropped in this territory last week by a B-17 bomber that was running low on gasoline. Schulz said he had been informed by Kermit Karns, head of the Civil Aeronautics Communication station here that the Fortress, based at Rapid City, became lost one night last week and dumped the bombs in preparation to bailing out of the plane. Shortly afterward, the crew spotted the lights of the airfield here and brought the big ship down for re-fueling. It is believed that the bombs, painted blue, were of the practice variety, a metal tube filled with sand with what is called a spotting charge, or a small amount of black powder that will go off and enable the airmen to view the results of their bombing. Anyone discovering the location of the bombs is asked to get in touch with Sheriff Schulz.

90 Years Ago, The Telegraph-News, 1935

Cheyenne county plans next month to reclaim a fugitive who escaped from jail here in September, 1933, only to fall in the hands of federal agents and get a year sentence in the U. S. Penitentiary on McNeil Island, Wash., for theft of interstate commerce goods. The fugitive, Donald Carlton, was being held in jail here for exactly this same charge. He left jail attendants a courteous note regretting that he couldn’t stick around and disappeared in the night. Three months later he robbed a railroad car at Bard, Nevada, was arrested and drew a federal prison sentence of one year. Carlton will be released from prison February 8 and when he walks to freedom he will be met at the prison gate by an authorized representative of Cheyenne county, who will serve him with two warrants, one charging larceny in connections with a boxcar theft and the other involving jail breaking.

100 Years Ago, The Telegraph, 1925

Mr. and Mrs. Pannebaker were in the city Friday from twenty five miles northeast. They marketed fifty dozen fresh eggs. Read that again, slowly, for which they received $25 in trade. They have, in all probability, as large a poultry plant as there is in the county, and in one year their shipments were equal to a car load of eggs. This is only one item of their large ranch.

On Monday, the 19th, the North Sidney Farmers Union local have voted to put on a jack rabbit drive in order to rid the community of a pest which is becoming all too numerous, besides the sport of it. Anyone who may wish to participate in the hunt is invited, provided he comes equipped with a shot gun. The use of a rifle of any kind was voted out, because of the danger of stray bullets carrying too far and injuring someone.

110 Years Ago, The Telegraph, 1915

The Board of Commissioners at the meeting held Tuesday, fixed the salary of the sheriff at $100 per month with $25 per month as jailer fees; county superintendent $85 per month with $15 per month for expenses; county attorney $800 per year; county assessor $450 per year. The estimated expense for running the county during 1915 is $40,300. The offer of the Lodgepole Express to do the county publishing and furnish all legal blanks and stationery for the sum of $300 was accepted. Barlow and Rihn voting for the motion and Commissioner Troelstrup against. The amount of publishing and printing involved is estimated to be worth from $800 to $1,000. The Telegraph offered to do the work for the reasonable compensation of $500 but the two commissioners evidently preferred cheapness to service.

120 Years Ago, The Sidney Telegraph, 1905

The “big chief” of the county board and his satellite from Lodgepole have honored their favorite with the official publishing and The Telegraph ceased to be the official paper with the last issue. We will, however, give the county affairs due publicity in our columns as of yore, for the benefit of our subscribers.

Dr. N. P. Barber, U. P. Surgeon at Cheyenne, with two assistants, was sent to Lodgepole Thursday to investigate the rumor regarding smallpox at that place. The doctor found them in very bad condition and severely censured the people there for what he terms gross carelessness in permitting the disease to spread instead of stamping it out. The doctor reports he found about sixty cases of genuine smallpox in the town and community, and thinks it quite probable that the railroad will place a quarantine on the station and run all trains through the place without stopping.

130 Years Ago, The Sidney Telegraph, 1895

Unless coal rustlers have a care we are afraid we will have a tragedy to report in these columns some bright morning. On Tuesday night, Nightwatchman Wiser discovered parties in the act of diminishing the company’s coal pile and turned loose on them with his gun, firing five shots at them. Whether or not anybody was hurt is not known.

Louie Halstead came near having a round with burglars on Wednesday night. A short time after he had gone to bed, some unknown came to his door, and made a fruitless attempt to pick the lock. Louis was awake and securing his revolver placed himself in a position to hold the fort in case his midnight caller succeeded in his operations, but after waiting about fifteen minutes, and thinking the prospects for fun very slim, he politely invited the intruder to call some other night.

140 Years Ago, Plaindealer Telegraph, 1885

In a shooting match last Tuesday, fifty yards, with Sharps rifles, between W. J. Powell, J. W. Maits and I. W. Sullivan, the latter was victorious centering the bull’s eye twice out of three shots.

A young man named Frank Johnson, driving the mail wagon from Sheridan to Custer, was found frozen to death a week ago Thursday.

Harry Winters has placed a Mason & Hamlin organ in the new gambling room which makes it pleasant for the boys.