sfhps newsletter march 2010

ASHLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY Saline Ford Historical Preservation Society

www.AshlandHistoricalSociety.org Ashland NE 68003

MARCH 2010 NEWSLETTER Preserving , recording and “telling” the rich history

of the Ashland NE community and area

Ashland NE was founded in 1857. The name ASHLAND is credited to an ardent admirer of Henry Clay who was “charmed by the natural beauty of the scenery and its seeming advantage of becoming a future city.” Clay’s home, Ashland KY, was honored.

SFHPS Reports . . . . HISTORIC TOURS of ASHLAND

Historic walking/driving tour maps of Ashland are available at Willow Point Gallery and St. Stephen’s Church. The maps show 24 historic sites which are identified by signs in place from spring to fall. The signs have been pulled for the winter and Shirley Niemeyer will be restoring them for spring placement.

MARCY MORTUARY 125 YEARS OLD Marcy Mortuary hosted the October meeting of SFHPS in celebration of their 125 years in busi-ness. They showed a video of the building as it has changed over the years, pictures of the own-ers, and pictures of transportation from a horse-drawn hearse to modern gasoline-powered hearses.

Ashland Librarian Cindy Lutz showed an 1883 ledger from the Exchange Hotel which was built in 1880 and which burned down in 1887. The ledger was donated by Delbert and Marilyn Sherman O’ Neal.

At our July meeting Alice West gave a power point presentation of the Walton-West house at 501 North 13th—a typical Dutch Colonial design. Marti Fritzen showed pictures of the Keller-Dean House at 1326 Dawes which was built in 1906. In January Melanie O’Brien told of sharing a home with ghosts when they lived at 2645 Boyd Street.

Residents of other historic homes will be giving us information about those homes and showing memorabilia at our quarterly meetings.

If you have historic items or memories to share, do bring them to our meetings.

We invite you to share them via our new electronic ‘Window to the World’.

www.AshlandHistoricalSociety.org You may scan & e–mail them to the Web Geek:

[email protected]

2009—2010 OFFICERS President—Peg Lutton Vice President—Martha Fricke Secretary—Judy Hull Treasurer—Marilyn Wright Board Members—Shirley Hemke, Pat Proctor, Jerry Lemon, Jerry Froistad

NEXT GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING SFHPS meetings are held quarterly on the first Thursday nights of January, April, July and October, with the Annual Meeting held in October. Since the first Thursday in April, April 1, is Maundy Thursday and church services are scheduled, we will hold our April meeting at 7:00 pm; April 8th, 2010 at Willow Point Gallery, 1413 Silver Street, Ashland NE

MEMBERSHIP DUES: Individual $20 - Family - $35 - Patron - $75

SFHPS OFFICER LEAVES ACTIVE LEGACY

Martha Fricke has been an active part of SFHPS since its inception in 1996, serving as Co-President, President, and Vice President. She was Chairman of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank and last April brought to the SFHPS meeting a letter written by John Jacobs who had worked at the bank in 1897-98. The letter was written to Louise Fricke in 1948 and was Mr. Jacobs’ recollection of all the businesses up and down Silver Street in the late 1890s. Marney was always interested in history and helped publish “Ashland’s Main Streets Remembered”. We wish to express our sincere sympathy to her family. Their loss is our loss also. We are most appreciative of the influence Marney had in our community.

TOWERS OF HISTORYTOWERS OF HISTORYTOWERS OF HISTORYTOWERS OF HISTORY One of the greatest proposals to bring attention to Ashland’s historic past and present still is on the drawing board. Contributions by many have continued to help keep this project alive. As other towns in Nebraska search for historic moments in their past to celebrate and spur on interest in their cause, Ashland sits on some of the most documented important history in the whole state.

The Towers of History Memorial will be erected where many pioneers crossed on the 1846 Oxbow Trail, where the Otoe and Missourian Indians lived in this area, where the Lewis and Clark Expedition journeyed up the Platte River in the pirogue boat, and where Nebraska’s first astronaut, in 2007, Clayton C. “Clay” Anderson, was raised and graduated high school. Artist Gene Roncka continues to redesign portions of the Memorial to cut costs as the country suffers from the economic downturn.

The approval of the city, the NRD, the Department of Roads, the Governor, the Nebraska Travel and Tourism Department and grants from the Community Cultural Development Part-nership and the Ashland Rotary Club in addition to the very successful Towers of History ornament sales and OPPD’s offer to contribute plus the many who have helped to support fundraisers dedicated to financing the Towers of History Memorial proves the continuing interest in celebrating Ashland’s history.

COLLECTION DONATED TO SFHPSCOLLECTION DONATED TO SFHPSCOLLECTION DONATED TO SFHPSCOLLECTION DONATED TO SFHPS Dick Harnsberger has been collecting Ashland postcards since the 1940s and has donated them to SFHPS for inclusion in our historic memorabilia. There are 38 postcards dating from 1903 to 1940. They have been catalogued, scanned and are stored in our lock box at Farmers and Merchants Bank. THANKS, Dick! We appreciate your continuing interest in Ashland and its history. NOTE:

We will be sharing many of this important collection on www.AshlandHistoricalSociety.org

FEATURED STORIES in this Edition:

(3) Historic Ashland Landmarks lost in 2009 The history of each of the buildings

and pictures from years past

Historic Shedd - Harnsberger - Proctor Home -1602 Boyd Street The history of the home and the restoration

FEATURED STORIES in this Edition, continued:

(3) Historic Ashland NE Landmarks lost in 2009

A Christmas Day fire in 2009 destroyed the two buildings at 1310 Silver Street and 1316 Silver Street

most recently occupied by Campbell Farm Supply, Ashland Oak and First Position Dance Studio

- MARCH 2010 NEWSLETTER - Ashland Historical Society - SFHPS

The initial call came in around 2:00 am Christmas morning. Fire crews were still on the scene the better part of the day Fire crews came from as far away as Lincoln. Firefighters said their efforts were severely hampered by the frigid temps and frozen waterlines. The ongoing blizzard conditions made it very difficult for fire crews to make it to the fire station to get their equipment and then get it to the scene. Fire Chief, Brian Whitehead, who lives in rural Ashland, had to literally be rescued by Steve Clark of Clark Construction, who took his front-end loader out to plow the road for him.

We wish to gratefully acknowledge the photos above, which were secured from Suzi Nelson of The Ashland Gazette and the KETV 7 Omaha website

Fire has played a large part in the profile of Ashland NE

Fires in 1892 and 1902 destroyed Ashland’s first and second railroad depots. In 1907 a brick building replaced those destroyed by fire and remained until it was torn down in September of 2009, because it was in poor condition, had not been used for years and BNSF needed to make way for a third track on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad line.

In The Ashland Gazette article by Suzi Nelson, September 17, 2009, Marian Barnes & Marie (Squire) Groenjes reminisce about the depot.

They remembered the beautiful interior of the building with its cream-colored marble floors, high ceilings and dark wood adorned with carved designs. Tickets were sold at a window in to the office and benches filled the waiting room as the arrival or departure of trains was anticipated.

Tom Dailey, great uncle of Marie (Squire) Groenjes, was the station master in Ashland in 1900. He taught telegraphy to his four nephews, including Clifford Squire, Marie’s father. After serving in World War I, Cliff was a telegrapher for the railroad for 48 years, retiring in 1965. Marie remembers that the telegraph operator often came out and stood at the tracks to make sure the children crossed safely to and from school. A tunnel was later built under the tracks to provide safe crossing.

A Christmas Day fire in 2009 destroyed the two buildings at 1310 Silver Street and 1316 Silver Street most recently occupied by Campbell Farm Supply,

Ashland Oak and First Position Dance Studio Since we have lost three historic buildings in one year, Marilyn Wright suggested that we research the history of those buildings while their

memory is still with us. The train station photo to the left is from the Dick Harnsberger collec-tion of postcards of Ashland, recently donated to AHS-SFHPS by Dick.


The picture above is from a postcard, showing the buildings that burned. The “X” marks the building where classes were held while the new school was being built. That happened after the 1919 school fire, so the picture was taken after that time.

We are grateful to Marilyn Wright and to Suzi Nelson, The Ashland Gazette, for this photo contribution

The pictures above are of the depot, circa 1920’s & the “gardens” on the south side of the tracks. Notice the ‘billboards’ for traveling passengers to see - advertising the Hotel Fontenelle in Omaha and the Hotel Lincoln in Lincoln, as they traveled East or West

The “gardens” photo shows Mearl (Shirley) Squire and May Wills, taken in the 1920’s and is from Marie’s collection

The building at 1316 Silver Street—originally the Ashland Hotel was an early hotel that was used by traveling salesmen, construction and railroad men in the 1920’s . The photos - provided by Marie (Squire) Groenjes - are of Mearl (Shirley) Squire, her Mother (left), and May Wills (right), who were waitresses in the dining room. In the accompanying photo are Robert Shirley and Mearl Shirley Squire (circa 1921) You can see the Ashland Hotel inscribed on the window. It was known as the Midway Hotel in 1932 when it was purchased by Jens and Beda Knudsen. They owned it until 1936 when they moved back to Minden, Ne-braska. Jens said he could not get a clear title to the building. Their children were George, Margaret, Opal and Anita, born from 1911 to 1922. Margaret graduated from Ashland High School. Anita Knudsen Gillespie has shared these memories of living in the hotel with her parents and siblings.

The hotel had twelve rooms upstairs and one bathroom. The Knudsen family lived in the two rear bedrooms, so there were ten rooms to rent out. The charge was $2 a night or $6 for a week. On the street floor was a lobby with a restroom, a large dining room and a commodious kitchen. A one-legged gentleman named Jim Pace lived there permanently. He was widowed and grateful to be consid-ered a member of the family. There was a full basement but it had a dirt floor and Anita said she seldom went down there. The street level was all hardwood floors and Anita said she and her good friend Jerry Lemon would roller skate through the rooms, much to the displeasure of her father. If he was about, they would hide under the dining room table so he wouldn’t see their skates.

Jens Knudsen was a mason contractor and brick layer so Beda did the cleaning and the cooking. They were from Denmark and her hotel was spotless. She also cooked for the residents if they wanted to eat there. Railroad men and highway construction men often stayed there. Coffee was 5 cents a cup. Beda was also an excellent seamstress. Jerry Lemon’s mother, Flora McDowell, who worked at the variety store, would buy fabric and Beda would make matching dresses for Anita and Jerry. The building became known as Farmers Produce and later Campbell Farm Supply,

starting in December of 1944. Penny (Campbell) Stewart shares stories of “The Grand Old Lady (the building, not my Mother)”

later in this edition, together with some great photos The building at 1310 Silver Street was known as the old Hoffman building and was occupied by Detsauer’s Garage. The building was purchased by brothers George and Charles Gade who demolished it and built a new building in 1947. It was known as the Gade Brothers Garage. They were Plymouth and Chrysler deal-ers and used the front showroom to display their new cars. In the 1950s Charles Gade bought out George and the name was changed to Gade Motors.

The showroom was often used by the Ashland Garden Club for their annual flower shows as Leda Gade was an active member of that group. In the 1960s the build-ing was sold to Jerry Bates and he continued to operate it as Jerry’s Tire. Charles Gade continued to work for him for nine years until he retired.

The building was sold to Jerry Minnick who operated it for about ten years as Jerry’s Tire & Service. His sons, Mike and Jay, worked with him some of that time. Jerry died in 1996 and the building was sold to Robert McCune in 1998.

Chuck Niemeyer bought the building and had sold it to Chad Johnson shortly be-fore the fire. Johnson operated Ashland Oak, building beautiful wooden cabinets. First Position Dance Studio operated by Jennifer Smith occupied the front of the building.


THREE HISTORIC BUILDINGS LOST IN 2009 . . Continued

Mearl (Shirley) Squire (left) and May Wills (right) Picture is from the 1920’s; prior to 1924

Robert Shirley and Mearl Shirley Squire in front of the Ashland Hotel in 1921

Photos above from Marie (Squire) Groenjes collection


The Grand Old Lady (the building, not my Mother) “My parents, Bud and Dorothy Campbell, moved with their family to the two story red brick building at 1316 Silver Street in December of 1944. Their children were Gary, Dan, Karen Sue and Penny. The building had been vacant for some time so it took a certain amount of effort to get the building ready for a business and a home for their growing family. As the family grew, so did the space upstairs where the family lived. First Steve and then Brad joined the family as the two oldest boys moved away so there seemed to be plenty of room. Dad started downstairs, creating a space to sell livestock feed and supplies, a cream room, an egg processing room, a dressing room for dressing poultry and a chicken house. They named the business Farmers Produce. The area farmers would bring poultry, eggs, and cream to be processed and sold. In those days many of the Ashland businesses would remain open on Saturday nights. On those Saturday nights I would love to be in the store with my Dad to see the comings and goings of our small town. The store was one of my favorite places. My brother Steve and I loved to climb on the feed sacks and more than once we were sent upstairs because we were being too rowdy or, heaven forbid, we would tear a feed sack. The stacks of feed were just too tempting. They were just right for playing Cowboys and Indians. Much to my Dad’s delight, we finally outgrew that game. At Easter time Dad would get a delivery of pastel colored baby chicks. He would keep them under a heat lamp to keep them warm and many children would come in with their parents to see those cute little fluffy balls of peeps. If a child were lucky, he or she would go home with one. Our other playground was the sidewalk in front of the store and the alley behind the store. In the summertime the streets were so hot you could often see me quick stepping barefoot to Hoffman’s IGA on an errand with my Mother. Our store had a large brick supported canopy that stretched across the sidewalk and provided much needed shade. Dad had a long bench in front of the store and people would often come and sit a spell. We had a front row seat to some of Ashland’s tragedies. In the 1950’s we watched from the front windows in our building as floodwaters rose to the intersection of 13th and Silver. Also in the 50’s, on a cold winter night, the theater in the next block burned and we watched as the firefighters fought the blaze. Mom and Dad partitioned off the back rooms of the building to use for storage and on a warm spring night we watched as a tornado struck Ashland. The strong winds tore out the partition and some ceiling plaster and blew out the large plate glass window in the front of the store. In the early years the apartment had a heating stove in the living room. Obviously, on cold winter mornings, a place in front of the stove was highly prized. In the summer, we had one large fan so we would sleep on the floor in the living room to try and stay cool. Eventually, my parents replaced the stove with central air and heating. Over the years, the business changed from Farmers Produce to Campbell Farm Supply. Dad stopped handling poultry, cream and eggs and started selling DeKalb seed, lawn seed, chemicals, garden plants and trees. After Dad retired, the building was used mostly for Mom and Dad’s residence. I don’t think I could count how many times they climbed those steps. I give Mom more credit than Dad, though, because, like Ginger Rogers, she did most of it not backwards, but in high heels. I must say, it has been somewhat cathartic to tell you some of my stories. It was devastating to me to see the fire take that grand old lady (the building, not my Mom) but I have some wonderful memories.”

A huge thank you to Penny (Campbell) Stewart for sharing her memories of the 1316 Silver Street building.

Campbell kids in front of the store “MOM” - Dorothy Campbell, no doubt “DAD” - J. H. “Bud” Campbell Penny, Steve, and Sue in her trademark high heels! in front of the store

More of the Campbell family memories and photos on the next page


Above: The Campbell family in front of the store Below: Karen Sue and Penny in front of the store

Below: Dan Campbell in front of the store

I don’t remember exactly how old I was or how much I got paid. What I remember is that I worked with my Dad. I killed and picked chickens, and when I was done in the chicken house I’d go into the dressing room and help dress the chickens. That’s strange isn’t it. We would take all the feathers and unwanted parts off the chicken. Clean it to the very best of our ability. Nothing there but clean chicken skin and we called that “dressing the chickens”. That chicken was ready for someone’s frying pan. Not to FDA Standards, to our Dad’s Standards.

Like my sister Penny I remember Saturday Nights. Saturdays were a big day back then. Everybody came to town. Our store posted hours of 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM on Saturday. We very seldom closed the store before 10:00 PM. Most often we would help where and whenever we were needed. So many customers came in, almost all of them friends of our Mom and Dad. We would spend considerable time just listening to stories and current events from around the town. Everybody that came in always had time to visit.

The Holidays were some of my warmest memories. The older boys Gary and Dan were gone out on their own when I was quite young. During the holidays, from mid November through New Years we dressed incredible numbers of turkeys. Mom would work with Dad, testing cream, candling eggs, working the cash register, and yes dressing the turkeys that would be on many dinner tables at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The girls, Penny and Suzy, would work the dressing room until we were almost finished for the night, then they would run upstairs and start supper. Probably pan fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, brussel sprouts and chocolate cake. Dad loved chocolate cake. My sisters could bake a chocolate cake the way Dad liked it long before they were old enough to go to the Teen-age Dances. Turkeys were difficult to dress. They were so big and awkward to handle. We worked hard to prepare them the way our customers came to expect. We all chipped in to help get all the turkeys done for our customers. Then it was our turn. Often Gary and Mary would come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Mom and Dad were excited to see them and those little granddaughters. Our whole house would be turned topsy tur-vey so everyone had a place to sleep. Mom and Dad would get up at some ungodly hour to stuff the turkey and get it in the oven. This done they would go back to bed. I’ll never forget how the aroma of roasting turkey completely filled our house by the time we all got up at a more reasonable hour.

At Christmas Dad would get the tallest tree we could possibly fit in our living room. Mom would get after us for throwing the tinsel on instead of placing it on the tree. My little sister Penny upset the tree almost every year. The presents would be very sparse right up to Christmas Day because Santa always came real late on Christmas Eve. Penny and I were almost always the first ones up. We would quietly steal into the living room to see what Santa left. Then we would go back to our rooms and wait for Mom and Dad to get up. Seems they were always tired on Christmas Day, like they had gone to bed late or something.

As kids we had the run of our entire building. We could play any-where we wanted and we had some real spooky places to let our imagination run wild. Some of the rooms even had doors with num-bers on them. We didn’t have a yard but we had a chicken house and feed sacks. We never had to mow the lawn, but we all learned how to sweep our store and the sidewalk. We didn’t have numer-ous or heavy responsibilities. Mom and Dad had those but we had each other. We had our Mom and Dad, and we had our big old store with our home upstairs. Those days and that building will be with us forever.

Another huge thank you to Steve Campbell, as he shares his memories of the 1316 Silver Street building


Legal Description of address known as 1602 Boyd Street: Lot 11 - 12 Block 14 Flora City Addition to Ashland.

The abstract of title begins as the East Quarter of Section2, Township 12, Range 9 East in Saunders County.

It was probably an 80 acre tract originally. Ten acre lots were sold in 1860. The Flora City, Smith-Warbritten addition was deeded in 1868.

Kate L. Shedd purchased these lots in March 1880 for $175.00. She and her husband H. H. Shedd mortgaged the property for $1400 in August of 1881 indicating that the house was built then.

The Shedd’s owned the property until 1923, when it was sold to Carl W. Harnsberger.

H. H. Shedd was a prominent citizen of Ashland.

In Shedd’s 1896 history of the First Congregational Church he says that he settled in Ashland because of the church. It had been chartered in May 1871 and he wanted to be a part of it, settling in Ashland in August 1871. He bought a small business at the time - the general store. He became a state congressman and was Lt. Governor of Nebraska from 1885 to 1889. He was a Republican and an active member of the Ne-braska Historical Society in 1885. He was a long-time organist, choir director and Sunday School Superintendent of the Congregational Church. In 1906, when the present brick building replaced the original wooden church, the three windows on the west side of the church were purchased and dedicated to him by the town in appreciation of the honor he had brought to Ashland and for his community involvement The Shedds are buried in the Ashland cemetery.

In August of 1946 Lillian and Richard Harnsberger sold the home to Curt and Marjorie Parks Neukam for $4600. Curt was recently returned from World War II and he an Marjorie wanted to live in her hometown. They sold the house to Evelyn and Prosper D. Pyle the School Superintendent, and Edith and Willard Smith, Coach, for $6500 in March of 1947. At that time the home was made into two apartments. The Pyles lived in the first floor and a kitchen was added upstairs, where the Smith’s lived.

The property became a single family home again when it was sold to Louis E. and Gretchen Johnson in August of 1952. It was sold in July of 1961 to Eunice A. and Norman H. Parker and in August of 1963 to Lujean A. and Willard Nichelson.

The home had been vacant for some time when my husband, Ron, and I purchased it in 1973. It was in such disrepair that we needed to tear out and replace the inside. It was originally a square home with three or four rooms upstairs and probably three down. Ron wanted to keep the house as true to original as possible. We could see that the living room had been opened up, making one room out of two. When the back part of the house was added on, the back staircase and a bathroom was added. In the attic you can see the original roof and where the addition was added. The once beautiful oak floors had to be replaced and the windows were replaced abut 20 years after we moved there. They are the original style but smaller.

“We tried to save the woodwork, going through gallons of stripper, but reached a layer of paint that could not be penetrated. We couldn’t, at that time, buy wood trim of that period, so we tore it all out and Ron routed all new trim for the doors and windows. He used #2 grade pine 1 X 4’s. The original woodwork was approximately 5 inches wide, so it was not the same but close enough to look right.”

“When we gutted the upstairs we found the outlines of how the rooms had been when the house was built with the bedroom doors on an angle rather than square with hall, making sort of a vestibule at the top of the stairs. We put the doors back the way they had been originally. When Dick Harnsberger came to visit us once, he said there was a bedroom in the open area when he lived in the house so there must have been a hall before it was made into apartments. Dick was pleased with what we’d done; he said we had returned it to a home again. We did some rearranging of some of the rooms upstairs but only to improve closet arrangements.”

“The foundation is large - 1 ft. X 3 ft. X 18 inch quarried blocks and to fill the space large flat stones were cemented over to make the wall even. The structure of the house we found at the time we gutted the upstairs is called “balloon” framing, meaning the 2 X 4’s continued from the base-ment all the way up to the second floor with no sill plate between the floors.

We also found that carpenters and construction techniques have changed a lot through time.”

“Some little things we found in our home we never thought of changing are initials on the back of the riser of the stairs to the basement: C.H.+V.P: That might possibly be Carl Harnsberger plus Virginia Packer. On a post are some names of the carpenters but they are not legible.”

“We have tried to do the house honor by restoring it to some of its former glory. Ron’s Mother, Esther Proctor Anderson, said she could remem-ber, as a young girl of 13 or so, seeing Mrs. Shedd sitting on the porch in the area we have now screened in. That would have been about 1913.” “We have found the Shedd’s lots in the cemetery. I think it is important to remember times and places of the past. So many times old buildings are torn down to build something new with less charm and character.”

As presented to SFHPS by Elaine Proctor on June 26, 2008

HISTORIC HOME HISTORY - 1602 Boyd Street - as presented by Ron and Elaine Proctor, current owners


Dick Harnsberger shares picture taken . . probably in 1925 . . at 1602 Boyd Street

He and his brother Carl are sitting on the East steps between their grandfather, William A. Harnsberger, and their father, Carl W. Harnsberger. William A. Harnsberger died in April of 1926 so this picture was probably taken in 1925 when the boys were 3 and 5 years of age. Dick is wearing a Policeman outfit and tells the story of stopping Burt Greenslit, owner of Greenslit Lumber, who was driving west, going home from the lumberyard.

Dick stopped him, told him he was under arrest, and charged him a nickel before releasing him. Burt called Dick’s mother when he got home to tell her the story and that ended Dick’s career as a policeman. He was grounded.

Ashland Historical Society Saline Ford Historical Preservation Society

AHS - SFHPS NEWSLETTER - MAR 2010 AHS - SFHPS Treasurer - Marilyn Wright

26259 W. Park Highway Ashland NE 68003

sfhps newsletter march 2010

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