A bit of history

Allow your old columnist to reflect a bit on the history of this wonderful bit of Southwest Nebraska in which we have chosen to live. Prior to the Civil War our prairie land was mostly uninhabited. Sure a few Native Americans in their wandering hunting lifestyle came and went as they pleased but rarely did they establish long-term villages in this area. Cattlemen grazed the open range and occasionally cattle drives transited from Texas to the rail terminal in Ogallala.

Following the Civil War, this area was opened to homesteading and about that time the Burlington Railroad had built its line as far west as Indianola. Homesteaders came in droves and settled nearly every available quarter section of farmable land. The railroad continued to build to the west and the community of McCook grew into a town with shops, churches and residences. Roads were built and school sections were reserved in the manner laid out to encourage and pay for the new railroad. By the year 1900, this area was established pretty much as we see it today.

The people that came to settle in this area were mostly recent immigrants to the United States. Locally these families were a large part ethnic Germans who came from Russia around the Volga River area and were fleeing from the Soviet takeover following the Russian Revolution. Other locals came from Bohemia and other middle European nations plus a few from Mexico. In the area around Holdrege immigrants from Sweden seemed to dominate and further east in Nebraska it was those coming from Czechoslovakia. Family people of the strong Christian faith. They were happy to live in a nation that was founded on Christian principles. They also learned the American version of the English language even though many still spoke the native language in their homes up until the event of WWII.

The Christian ethic seemed strong and family was most important. Couples did not live together before marriage and divorce was frowned on and rare. When a couple had children, it was important that man and wife stay together to provide those children a safe and secure home to mature to adulthood. Old people were provided a home with one of their adult children and cared for as best as possible.

Education was important and the many one-room rural schools with one young teacher. According to the land grant which laid out the structure of this area two of the 36 sections of each township were designated “school lands” and the proceeds from their rent was to go to a School Trust administered by the State to provide K through 12 school funding. K-12 but public education was only mandatory through the 8th grade.

Sadly, in my opinion, things have really changed and not all for the good in today’s society. The first step was to outlaw any teaching of religion in our public schools. Then the teachings of Christianity in our modern way of life along with church membership and belief is steadily declining. Divorce is rampant and all too often children suffer from the breakups. Sex before marriage seems to be the rule and so many couples live together with little or no intention of marriage. Then there is the big push to normalize the LBQ???? and transexual thing. To me, it is all sad, sad, sad for our nation.

Still, in our local community, we see very little of the bad trends that we see happening in national news broadcasts from large cities. I’m not aware of any homeless in this area. Our rate of violent crime in this community is really low or non-existent. There is no call to defund our police. Our schools are wonderful and I’m not aware that CRT and encouragement of sexual dysphoria is being taught. Our churches are well attended and they have a splendid record of reaching out and caring for the disadvantaged in our area. Sure we argue about spending well-earned tax money to improve our swimming pool and to build a lavish and expensive new ballpark but we are also trying to build new housing to attract new residents. Whether we realize it or not we live in a gem of a community and are richly blessed to have landed here.

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail