Women and children recognized at ‘Angels and Aprons’ cemetery tour

Last year when Buffalo Commons was so rudely interrupted by Covid 19, our planned cemetery tour was also canceled. 2020 was supposed to be the “Year of the Woman” according to the National Museum of American History celebrating the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage. On that note, I had determined that the cemetery tour should be about the women and children buried in Memorial Park, hence the name: Angels & Aprons. A year later we are going to give it another try, and more details will follow but if you know of a woman or child that you wish to have featured during our tour, please feel free to contact me with the details of their life.

The following news items were taken from the Red Willow County Times, published in Indianola on March 29, 1890.

“While digging a new cistern this week, M. E. Green concluded to remove the dirt from the edge with a scraper, and to that end hitched his team of ponies to a scraper and proceeded to till it. It appears that he drove near enough to the edge to permit the scraper to slide into the hole, the lines became entangled, and the weight gradually dragged the ponies back until the whole “shooting match” went over. Ten feet deep and not a derrick within ten miles. Mr. Green was not discouraged, however, and went to work like a true Yankee to get them out. He hauled a load of hay and gradually filled the pit until the ponies could walk out, and strange to say, neither of them were injured.” Moorefield Post

“Although kept a secret for a long time, it has finally leaked out that gold has been discovered within three miles and a half of this place. The ore has been examined by an expert miner, who claims that it is “paydirt”. As we are pledged to not say anything more about this matter, we cannot go into details this week, but we would advise Stockville people to keep their eyes and ears open.”

“A one story frame dwelling in south McCook, recently purchased and occupied by Russell Mitchell, was discovered on fire about 5 o’clock Thursday morning. The hook and ladder company responded promptly and id their best, but as there are no fire plugs in South McCook it was useless for the hose companies to turn out. The house with entire contents was burned to the ground entailing a loss of $100 besides household goods. No insurance.”

“A young man named Myers employed by Peter Penner, drew a revolver on John Steinmetz, yesterday afternoon while in a fit of anger. Myers claiming to have paid Steinmetz $100 to conduct a land contest for him, which was allowed to go by default. Myers was placed under bond.”

On a different subject, there was a query on the Remember When in McCook Nebraska questioning if one of the nuns who taught at St. Pat’s several years ago was a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic. Doing a little research, I found discovered two young Irish women that survived the tragedy did take their vows and become nuns after reaching the United States, but I could not find that either had been assigned to Nebraska or to McCook. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but it is highly unlikely. What isn’t as strange to imagine is that a young woman who survived one of several less famous passenger shipwrecks may have had the calling to serve in McCook but since those ships that would fall within a likely time range compared to the Sisters teaching in McCook, (the Edmund Fitzgerald, Lusitania, Britannic, Carpathia and the Wilhelm Gusloff) didn’t get the continuous coverage that the Titanic received it is much harder to research their survivors.