The Franklin Building still standing today on Norris Ave.

The Franklin Building on the southwest corner of Norris Ave. and B Street is now home to Main Street Clothiers, LLC. Courtesy photo/ Museum of the High Plains, Hansen Collection

If this was a poker game, I’d put money on the table that very few, if any, people know where this building is located in McCook. Yes, it still stands today.

V. Franklin either didn’t like his first name or he thought it would confound people trying to pronounce it: Vocanses. All most all of his legal dealings on record show only V. Franklin and the 1906 McCook Census shows V. Franklin and Mrs. V. listed. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1841 and as most men his age did, served in the Civil War with Pennsylvania Company #198, Infantry. Serving for the Union in the Civil War entitled soldiers to homestead acres as I have mentioned before, and Nebraska is where he headed.

He made a short stop in Beaver City, long enough to marry Bettie Alice Simpson shortly before he turned 40. Perhaps he met George Norris there, they were both up and coming citizens by then. He then traveled on to Indianola, finally landing in McCook in approximately 1886.

V. was a banker associated with the Citizen State Bank but he was also a landowner, having parcels throughout most of Red Willow County’s precincts. He and Bettie had three children together, all of which eventually left McCook, but V. and Bettie are buried here.

Now to the building. It sits today on the SW corner of Norris and B Streets. Most of us call it the Vogue building and it has three stories plus a basement but today it is Main Street Clothiers, LLC . This picture is what it looked like when built. Notice all the beautiful appointments over the windows and across the top and sides of the building. Those all disappeared when the third floor was added. It also was quite obviously, even in a black and white picture, built of the same red brick that is seen throughout McCook. One can assume that the current façade of pale brick was added when the third story was constructed giving the building a uniform look.

It was, when built, the Franklin Building, but then there was a name change to the Pringle Building which seemed odd until I found this wedding announcement from the 1912 McCook Republican on the SWNGS website. “A quiet and pleasant wedding occurred at the home of Mr. and Mrs. V. Franklin on Wednesday evening their daughter, Vernice and George Pringle of Parks being married at seven o’clock on that evening, the nuptials being celebrated by D. L. McBride, Pastor of the Baptist church. The wedding was a quiet one only the immediate relatives and a few guests being invited. Miss Vernice has grown up in McCook and is one of our most accomplished young ladies. Mr. Pringle is a prosperous ranchman at Parks and an accomplished gentleman.”

Vocanses was involved with other buildings around McCook. We will take look at those in the future, but today I would like to answer a question I’m often asked: “Where do I find this information?” These facts were garnered from several outlets: Ancestry.com, Southwest Nebraska Genealogical Society, Museum of the High Plains and Google searches. When you want to enlarge your picture of who your ancestors were as people, not just statistics, you have to expand the research to include every available source.

SWNGS is located at 322 Norris Ave., the Temple Building, Rooms 2-7. We are open from 1-4 PM Tuesdays and Thursdays, weather and health permitting. Like us on our Facebook page: Southwest Nebraska Genealogical Society. Do free research on our website: www.swngs.org.