McCook's birthday

This is the year of Nebraska's 150th birthday and McCook's 135th and plans are already going strong for several special celebrations during the year to acknowledge these two landmarks! SWNGS is no exception when it comes to wanting to provide the public with both entertainment and enlightenment covering the early years of our state and hometown.

Linda Hein, one of McCook's great historians, was back for a planning session for one of the events and brought with her a copy of an 1893 booklet entitled: "McCook Columbian Souvenir". One might wonder why McCook would have such a book, most cities didn't print 11 year old histories, but in 1893 there was something called the Worlds' Columbian Exposition, more commonly known as the Chicago World's Fair.

It was held in commemoration of the arrival of Christopher Columbus's in the New World 400 years earlier. The fair consisted of over 200 new buildings on 600 acres within the City of Chicago. Since over 27 million (now give that a thought for a moment, that many people traveling to see a fair at a time when travel was not that easy) attended the fair, many states and localities had booths to promote the settling of their area and McCook was no exception.

So was McCook's own "brag book" created! The very first page touted concerning the early inhabitants of Nebraska: "Perhaps the spirit of adventure actuated them in removing from the slow and lethargic east. The plains of Nebraska swarmed with game, and diversion could be found in hunting Indians when other sports became monotonous." (Hmmm, it doesn't seem that was a sport for either side but it's not like they are going to tell prospective settlers about scalping!) Further down the paragraph the words continue with: "The Great American Desert (Nebraska) has become the seat of Empire. A million and a half of the most enlightened and progressive race upon the face of the earth people our prairies."

The booklet featured several home of prominent families in McCook, one of which was the W.S. Morlan home pictured here. The Morlan home does not exist anymore having been razed and our McCook library sits on its lot today, however, it is possible that many of the other homes do still stand; it is just going to take some investigation on my part to locate them. Families mentioned in this publication included: E. C. Ballew, Sam Rogers, George Hocknell, A. McMillen, J. E. Cochran, F.S. Wilcox, C.M. Noble, C. T. Lindsey, Jas. McAdams, J. F. Kenyon, Geo. Chenery, F. M. Kimmell, August Droll, J. F. Grenshaw and E. Fletcroft, just to name a few. Either pictures of their homes or of the men themselves are included.

Linda was generous enough to leave the book in SWNGS hands so that we could produce a copy for our library and it is now available to the public for research. This is once again an example of how our history can be saved with the simple act of sharing!

SWNGS winter library hours are Wednesdays from 1-4 PM; a member is on site to help with your research questions. We have Ancestry.com on our library computers for research also. To find us, we are one half block west of Norris Ave., 110 West C Street, Suite M-3. There is an elevator available if needed.