NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Remarks on the Occasion of the Dedication of the Hall County Heritage Memorial Sponsored by the Hall County, NE, Historical Society, Stolley Park, Grand Island, NE, July 31, 2012

By: Michael J. Smith Director/CEO Nebraska State Historical Society (NSHS)

Congratulations to the Hall County Historical Society, the longest continuous operating local historical society in Nebraska. It is a pleasure to note the Society’s many activities beginning right here in Stolley Park with the preservation of the Stolley House. The Society is active throughout Hall County today.

Thank you for your kind invitation to be with you today. Of course I represent the NSHS, its Board and staff and I bring you today their greetings and their congratulations on this new project, the Hall County Heritage Memorial.

All projects involving history and heritage—and this is no exception—require faith, drive and determination. And money! Congratulations to all who have dreamed, planned, built and executed this activity. It is sure to have lasting impacts and I will address some of those in my remarks this morning.

Before getting into those remarks I would like to recognize some of the trepidations that anyone called upon to speak at a dedication like this must have.

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First, an impossibly high standard was set back in 1863;

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There is an uncertainty in the audience in as far as you have no idea of how long the speaker is going to go on;

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Every speaker would like to say something worthwhile that might actually be remembered by the audience which is increasingly difficult to do without the power points and other the visual aids so common today;

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The fourth is that whatever the weather it will be on the top of the minds of those in attendance.

As to the standard. No this is not the Gettysburg Address. I doubt there will ever be another of those. Second, Ernie didn’t really say how long he wanted to me talk, so we are almost all guessing. Third, what I say may be more memorable for me in that it has advanced my own thinking about the work we do in historical societies than it will be for you who are here this morning. Fourth, we stand here in the middle of one of the most severe stretches of weather of the past 80 years. So, we are, if you will, in all of this together.

Hall County located in the middle of Nebraska has a fascinating history. Bisected by the Platte River, famously a mile wide and foot deep in the best of times, and made up of prairie lands, Hall County’s boundaries encompass a place that was surely known to those first peoples to venture into this area. Water sources attract wildlife and provide for fish and thus always draw people. We are certain that the earliest people to Nebraska—11,000 years ago or more—came here in their wanderings. Later, other Indians in pursuit of hunter-gatherer-early agricultural lifestyles built societies here. In time they began to know the Europeans who came seeking fortunes in precious metals (they found none), furs and hides, and also courting Indian allies in their imperial push and shove match that was managed from London, Paris and Madrid, far across the Atlantic Ocean.

Robert Stuart and his fellow returning Astorian fur traders came along here following the Platte east as they walked home from Oregon in 1813. Other explorers followed and then in the 1830s people began making their way west seeking new lives. In the middle of the 19th century the area that would become Hall County was on the paths emigration….to Oregon, California and the Great Salt Lake. Hall County was no longer in the middle of nowhere; it was on the way to somewhere.

That changed in 1857 as the Davenport Land Company of Iowa, coveting fertile land, transportation connections to the developing Nebraska commercial hubs of Nebraska City and Omaha and perhaps a sense that this just might be the chosen route of the grand transcontinental railroad to come, acquired land and sent settlers. It offered what the people of this country—then as now—craved…opportunity. A place to make it; to start or start over, to seek to build a community and a life for themselves, their children and their fellow human beings. Thus arrived the original settlers.

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These men were strong for political freedom, religious liberty, education and literacy, selfgovernment and public services and the traditions of European society that they brought with them. Some things they valued not so much including two of the powerful movements of the mid to late 19th centuries…the universal prohibition of alcohol and the rights of women including the right to vote.

Regardless of their origins or prior experiences these founders of Hall County tended to possess values that in many ways sum up the ideal for both community and place in America. To list a few •

A balanced combination of individualism and community.

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A commitment to a religiously/morally guided way of life.

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An equality before the law and a commitment to live by legal standards

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A trust that opportunity to use individual talents would produce individual reward.

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A willingness to sacrifice for the common good that could and often did include putting one’s life on the line literally in the military, the local police or fire services or even in taking political positions.

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The use of the polling booth to make changes.

Encouraged by these and similar principles and aided of course by the rich soil of the county which supported farming, raising cattle, horses and sheep, all of which became economically significant due to the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1867 and the CB&Q Railroad in 1884, Hall County grew in population and prosperity.

None of this was easy for these ancestors, of course, which may be why putting together memorials requires the same pioneering spirit of commitment. Nebraska is not easy…never was and never will be. It lies on the edge and Hall County itself sits on the division between the eastern prairie and the high plains to the west, the Nebraska Sandhills to the north and the extraordinary soils that trail away toward the Republican River in the south. The weather demands fortitude, and above all, respect. Two or three years of rain and ideal growing weather can turn without warning to one of the most arid periods on record. Don’t we know that this year? A quiet winter morning can disappear into snow-filled skies and incessant blizzard winds. A spring day can be ruined forever by a wicked tornado in the afternoon.

Nebraska demands stubbornness. Those with it came here and built this place. The record of what they did and what they valued stands…..the Stolley House right here illustrates the character of a pioneering family. The meetings of the Leiderkranze in Grand Island meetings recall the work of those who wished to preserve and cherish cultural traditions while addressing social needs in the new country. Our churches, schools, public buildings, homes—stately and

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modern—business buildings, factories and food processing plants, present or long-gone, give record to the spirit of those whose names and titles are or will be added to this memorial.

The names that are or could be here are many. I have drawn a few from the history of Hall County, both because their individual stories interest me and because they illustrate a point I want to make.

Othman Ali Abbott Edith Abbott Grace Abbott Lena Andersen Fred Bosselman Roy Brewer Heinrich Egge Scott Frost Henry Theodore Julius Fuerhrmann Jay Royce Gillham Richard Gerald Gillham Tommy Goodchild Wilford Goodchild Andrew N. Hargas Fred Hedde Joyce Hornady Henry Koenig Henry Oxnard Evelyn Ryan Oscar Roeser William Stolley Leo Stuhr

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Robert Taylor John M Thayer Samuel N. Wolbach The Rev. Wunibald Wolf Venus Webber

Many of these names—but not all,—compiled from the histories of Hall County and its cities, will be found on buildings, parks, towns, business, etc. here in the community.

The Hall County Heritage Memorial, however, offers the people of today an opportunity to remember their own family members through the purchase of the commemorative tiles. That is very meaningful, whether one records that name him or herself, or whether one’s friends or colleagues do it.

The question I want to leave today with those of you who are here and with the Hall County Historical Society is, how can you use this memorial to perpetuate individuals, families, businesses or institutions, certainly, but also to memorialize the spirit that has been evident in the building of this place known as Hall County, Nebraska over all these years? People come and go. Some are merely born here and move on. Others grow to adulthood elsewhere and come here to make a career. Some will come here just for their waning years to be close to their children and grandchildren.

But it is in the values of our communities, our communal living together that we find the ways to persevere, to build a better life, to recover from what nature throws at us, to deal with the setbacks and the tragedies that are to be found all around us.

Today’s Hall County is not the same as it once was…

The place: The climate is warming on a macro scale perhaps heading back toward the dry prehistoric times when archeological evidence traces the exodus of the prehistoric peoples to more northern locations. I like to point out that at one time in the distant past, the prehistoric Nebraskans picked up and became prehistoric South Dakotans where the weather was more moderate.

The agricultural landscape is not that of the 19th century homesteaders or even the pre-World War II farmers. Land—whether cropped or grazed--is now consolidated into larger economic

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chunks either owned or rented—usually a combination of the two. There are few small towns and the list of no-longer-lived-in Hall County communities is long. Rural areas are losing population and people are concentrating in the primary community or town of our counties.

A quiet walk in the country will find many new plants and animals that were unknown to the Euro-American founders in this location. The American Elm which they planted, perhaps our greatest shade tree, and eagerly sought out when a break from the relentless Nebraska summer sun was desired-- is now gone. The trees the Extension Service suggests for planting today along our city streets were not known in these parts 75 or a hundred years ago.

Demographics: That combination of German emigrants, Yankees from New York, Swedes, European Jews, African-Americans who had been slaves in the American south, Irish, Scots, the English and the many people of mixed heritage and background who made up Hall County’s population in the early years and even well into the 20th century has given way over the years to the demographics of today.

Is this change a new phenomenon? Hardly! The Davenport Company of settlers was largely, but not all, German in nationality and in language. German was spoken and read by many in Hall County in their homes, their businesses, on their farms and in their schools and churches for many years, but that largely came to an end with World War I and the hysteria that found traitors behind every tree and in every setting where a German immigrant was to be found. Being German in tradition wasn’t old-fashioned, it was illegal and dangerous.

Today, Spanish is the new German in Grand Island and Hall County. Immigrants from Mexico and the other Spanish-speaking nations of the Caribbean and Central and South America are here and make up about 15% of the population. They hold jobs with the railroads and in take much of the most difficult and sometimes dangerous work, as in the slaughter houses. They have their own churches, social clubs, traditions, and language classes.

Social Customs: As I noted earlier, the 48ers who came here enjoyed their beer and expected, as men, to be the heads of households and the decision-makers in business and agricultural pursuits. They and others of their background fought against mandatory prohibition, lost and in the end, won. Some fought against letting women participate in the political process and in the end lost.

As time as gone on, some of the residents of the county, have carried on similar fights designed to exclude someone from entering the ranks of community homeowners because of their race or their religion, to restrict women from taking up the most popular golf tee-times on a weekend or joining the ranks of civic clubs, to redline housing or enforce blue laws. Some joined the Ku Klux Klan or less visible groups with agendas in the social sectors. Today, many of those social restrictions are gone and in the view of most, for the betterment of the community.

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Yet issues remain, not solely in Hall County, of course. What are society’s responsibilities to the needy and those less well off physically? Should our youth be told that dealing with a bully is merely part of growing up, or should they be protected from the meanness and aggressiveness of one who may be physically larger or of those who run in packs? Should everyone be required to speak English or could we exist as an officially bi-lingual nation?

Commitments: Here, too we find that things have changed over the years. When I was growing up, it was generally assumed that fit young men would serve time in the military, that it was your duty to vote, that serving on a jury was something that you did for your peers, that paying taxes was a means of assisting the entire community. Today, we have an all-volunteer defense force with the few providing for the security of the many. Voting participation is worse than ever and shameful in the sight of today’s Middle Eastern people who often vote proudly while at great risk. I have heard too many complaints about being called to jury duty to which I consistently reply, “Why would you complain about a task, which if you had no opportunity to benefit from, would send you into the streets to protest?”. Today some claim that they want no taxes perhaps unconcerned about the common welfare of society.

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Now, let me go back to the memorial and your historical society. Does this memorial look back at simply a bygone time as in the days before the Internet or before air conditioning became standard in cars and trucks? Does it only point back at the pioneers, the successful, the hardworking and the committed? Does it only serve to remember grandmother who slaved over a cook stove, or great-grandfather who borrowed money and took a calculated risk in opening the auto dealership in the midst of the Great Depression? Does it only help to commemorate the public servant, the young soldier who didn’t come back from Anzio, Hue or Baghdad, the reformer who fought for the rights of the marginalized? Or is it something more?

For the Hall County Historical Society whose vision and hard work brought forth this memorial, what is it? Another project completed? A stimulant to our memories? Proof that we have reason to exist and legitimacy in our requests for funding support?

The memorial and the historical society that created it really need no more purpose or reason than what I have suggested here. To remember those who have gone before in their achievements, sacrifices and dreams is certainly sufficient for us today and is every bit of reason for citizens to draw together and operate an historical organization. I congratulate you for that and take my hat off to what you have accomplished.

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However, let this memorial to the people of Hall County be more. Let it be a visible lesson and challenge for the people of Hall County of today and tomorrow. Let it be seen here and in visual form everywhere in Hall County, at events and parades, festivals and celebrations, public expressions of sorrow and in the night of natural disaster. There, let it carry the message that this community in this place was built by people like us, people with great abilities and all too human limitations, people who could love and hate, who could join together in times of great need, yet dispute over the smallest infraction. Then let this memorial carry the message that despite all these shortcomings, this community of people has faced clearly the challenges offered by the forces of nature and responded. Let the memorial remind us that this community has welcomed the newcomer and learned to incorporate her and her culture, him and his native language.

Let this memorial remind all that social customs are by nature changeable and yesterday’s views can and probably will have both positives and negatives. Let it speak to the fact that human societies that seek to set all things so they cannot be changed have almost always cracked and splinted rather than adjusted and found ways to go forward.

Most of all use this monument to send history’s most important message, which is that we as individuals and as communities can learn how to stay the course and how to change. Use this memorial to encourage the generations of today and those to come to find the ways to make those discernments and meet the continuing needs of the people.

I thank you for the privilege of speaking here today and wish the Hall County Historical Society and the people whose lives it records and reflects the very best in the years to come. Thank you. **************

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