Looking Back

These stories from the past first appeared in The Sidney Telegraph. Original writing is preserved, though some stories were shortened for space reasons.

100 YEARS AGO

‘Wonderful Future In Store For

Sidney And Cheyenne County’

April 17, 1913

During an interview with Mr. McNish, who is president of The First National Bank of Wisner, Nebraska, and who has been one of the largest land owners in Cheyenne County for many years and through whom many present, happy and contented Cheyenne County farmers first learned, while fighting high rents and grasping eastern land-lords, the real truths of the opportunities and wealth offered by the wonderful natural advantages in our climate and soil, Mr. McNish said in part: “I am arranging my business interests in the eastern part of the state so I can again enjoy the beautiful climate and summer life in Cheyenne County. Those of us who have once been acclimated always long to get back, and it is with a great deal of pleasure I anticipate another residence in Sidney. I feel that we are going to experience the greatest immigration into Cheyenne County yet witnessed, for the people further east are awakening to the realization of the great opportunities lying dormant in this section, and are now fully convinced that investment in Cheyenne County land is no longer a gamble.

“When you stop and consider the class of successful eastern Nebraska and Iowa farmers who are populating and building such beautiful homes and churches on our great divide and farming with such magnificent crops we can readily see the real value of our land which produces now more returns per acre than does the lands selling from one hundred to two hundred dollars per acre and when I consider this fact in comparison to what our lands are selling for I cannot help but realize the future in store for Cheyenne County.

“I am informed that Cheyenne County people during the past twelve months have purchased more farm implements and machinery that any other county in the state, demonstrating, in a measure, the activity on the locality. When we know that there are over seventy gasoline outfits breaking virgin soil and seeding large acreage, we can understand that outside people have heard of our great wheat and flax yields, which is unexcelled anywhere. County Treasurer Fishman tells me he has purchased an outfit and running night and day shifts, breaking and cropping two thousand acres. The 300 families who have arrived in the county this spring certainly bespeak the development of our natural resources.

“The kind, hospitable people we meet here are unexcelled and Sidney certainly has a great future and is now taking on metropolitan airs.

75 Years Ago

April 19, 1938

‘SOIL PAYMENTS IN COUNTY TOTAL OVER $322,000

Officials Believe Full Share To Approach $400,000 This Year

BUSINESS REVIVAL SEEN AS FUNDS DISTRIBUTED’

Third Shipment Arrives Yesterday, Totalling Over 30 Thousand Dollars;

Farmers Are Notified As Soon As Checks Received Cheyenne county had received $322,584.15 in soil conservation payments up to Monday noon, the agricultural conservation committee reported.

Payment has been received on 1387 checks, with approximately 500 more checks yet to be received.

Yesterday morning 668 checks totalling $137,240.66 were received at the local office. Immediately work was rushed addressing letters to everyone whose check had been received. First shipment of the 1938 checks arrived last week, and most of these had been passed out by Saturday night.

 Additional shipments of the 1938 checks are anticipated any day, it was announced. Cheyenne county is the largest wheat producing county in Nebraska and, as such, qualifies as one of the major participants in the agricultural conservation program.

 Officials of the program in the county said they had laid careful plans for distribution of the checks upon arrival and they anticipated no delay in getting the payments into hands of farmers and land owners. Notices are sent out as soon as the checks arrive and unless a farmer receives this office notice, he should not apply for payment because his check has not arrived.

Last week’s initial payment stimulated all types of business in Sidney and the larger payments received yesterday should continue to keep trade at a brisk pace. Machinery houses said, at the close of business Saturday, that their volume for Friday and Saturday has resembled the old “bumper crop” days. New and used machinery moved briskly and repair parts business was back at its customary spring peak.

Box Butte county also has received about $180 thousand dollars in 1938 checks, it was reported Saturday. Most of this money was needed for spring planting, according to the press reports from Alliance.

Amounts of the three individual payments received in Cheyenne county so far:

April 13: $76,922.79; April 14: $108,420.70; April 18: $137,240.66.

Officials estimated that the full amount to be paid would approach 400 thousand dollars.

50 Years Ago

April 19, 1963

‘Big Crowd Here For Ag Dinner’

A near capacity crowd of farmers, ranchers and stockmen from the Sidney trade area filled the Elks auditorium Thursday evening to attend the second annual Chamber of Commerce Chuck Wagon Dinner. The event is co-sponsored by the Sidney Rotary Club.

Members of the Chamber and Rotary donned aprons and, acting as cooks, servers and busboys fed western beef, baked beans and salad to the long lines of visitors.

Gerald Matzke, who acted as master of ceremonies, pointed out that this is the means business people of Sidney have taken to show appreciation for the patronage of the area rural residents.

Dinner music was furnished by the Chuck Wagon Harmonizers, and entertainment was supplied by a dance team consisting of Larry Mahlman, Stanley Mahlman, Doris Dailey and Linda Gade, under the direction of Nina and Homer Kocontes.

The Sidney Men’s Chorus, under the direction of George Hinn and William Fankhouser entertained with several selections.

Ken Noteboom, Chamber president, welcomed the visitors. Edgar L. Van Tassell, meteorologist in charge of the weather office at Scottsbluff, presented Mr. and Mrs. Dave Ells with a citation for their 25 years as weather observers in Sidney. He pointed out that there are hundreds of volunteer weather observers who serve completely with out compensation in gathering and recording the weather data that is used as background information by the Federal weather bureau.

Featured speaker for the evening was Willis H. Edmund, executive consultant for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. Mr. Edmund told his listeners that the country is facing a great technological era in which the United States will, and must, make great strides. He said we are in first place, and there we must stay.

We need flag waving, and a return to enthusiastic patriotism, he said, in citing that the government must cooperate with us to preserve free enterprise which will assure our future progress.

Mr. Edmund emphasized the need for vocational and technical schools, saying we need trained hands for the period ahead as badly as we need trained brains. He said there must be a return to honesty in all our business dealings, that mutual trust is a necessity to greater progress. He said at the turn of the century there was a popular saying to the effect that if someone built a better mouse trap the world would beat a path to his door. Mr. Edmunds said just the reverse is true, now, and the better mouse trap-builder must take his trap and beat a path to the world’s door.

Door prizes, consisting of five cellophane-wrapped silver dollars were handed out to ten lucky number holders. Winners were Earl Anderson, Potter; Chuck Lafler, Sidney; Robert Dailey, Lodgepole; Mrs. Carl Loch, Sidney; Mrs. Dave Truss, Sidney; John Egging, Gurley; Floyd Fraass, Lodgepole, and Mrs. Roy Adams, Potter.

General chairman for the event was Robert Kallhoff. Food preparation was under the direction of James Smith, and Don Rapp and the ASC staff prepared the conservation displays.

25 YEARS AGO

‘SIDNEY MAN CHARGED IN DOLAN MURDERS’

April 22, 1988

A Sidney man was arrested Thursday in the Dolan murder case.

Thirty-nine year old John Grabowski was charged and jailed Thursday, Cheyenne County Attorney Robert P. Goodwin announced at an 8 pm. press conference.

Goodwin, reading from a prepared statement from his office, said: “The Cheyenne County Attorney’s Office has today filed a complaint in the Cheyenne County Court, charging 39-year old John A. Grabowski with two counts of first degree murder, burglary, robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felon.”

“Pursuant to those charges,”the statement continued, “Mr. Grabowski was arrested by the Cheyenne County Sheriff’s Office,

“The charges and subsequent arrest of Mr. Grabowski, were the result of an extensive, month long investigation conducted by the Cheyenne County Sheriff’s Office and the Nebraska State Patrol into the March 14, 1988 homicides of Nancy A. Dolan and A. Thomas Dolan at their rural farm home east of Sidney. Mr. Grabowski is presently being held in Cheyenne County Jail, awaiting arraignment and setting of bond. A date has not been set for those hearings,” Goodwin’s statement concluded.

In a separate statement, Cheyenne County Sheriff Darrell Johnson reported Grabowski had been placed under arrest on a felony warrant, at 5:25 pm. Thursday at his home at 2043 Dodge Street. Johnson said the arrest was made by the Cheyenne County Sheriff’s office, assisted by the Nebraska State Patrol. The arrest was without incident.

Questioned, after the statements, regarding evidence turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory, Goodwin said, “We have stayed in daily contact with the FBI Laboratory in Washington, D. C. and I will have no further comment on the results of their tests.”

Materials gathered during the first nine days of investigation was delivered to Washington, D.C., March 24, by Johnson, accompanied by Deputy Robert Kraus.

Dolan, 79, and his 33 year old daughter were found outside their rural home northwest of Colton on March 15, reportedly by Dolan’s son, Rod. Their deaths had reportedly occurred the previous day.

In a statement given March 17, after his return from an autopsy in Scottsbluff, Goodwin reported, “Thomas A. Dolan’s death was apparently caused by multiple blunt instrument trauma to the head and Nance A. Dolan’s death was apparently caused by a .45 caliber gunshot wound to the chest and heart.”

Eight investigators were involved in the investigation, including a forensic pathologist from Scottsbluff. Also included were three Nebraska State Patrol detectives and four members of the Cheyenne County Sheriff’s department.

Cheyenne County Crime Stoppers offered a reward of up to $1,000, for information concerning the double homicide. Additional reward funds were offered by the Dolan family for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible. The family established a special arrest and conviction fund. Anyone with information was asked to call Crime Stoppers at 254-3344 and remain anonymous.

10 YEARS AGO

‘Dorwart Cancer Center To Observe 2nd

Anniversary With Open House’

April 22, 2003

Sidney’s Dorwart Cancer Care Center, 830 Pine St., will celebrate its second anniversary with an open house Thursday from 3 to 6 pm. The public is invited to attend and refreshments will be served.

The Dorwart Cancer Care Center provides treatment and services for patients in the southern panhandle of Nebraska, northeastern Colorado and northwestern Kansas. The facility represents a team effort of health care professionals dedicated to the needs of area cancer patients, and is a service of Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff in cooperation with Memorial Health Center in Sidney.

“The association between Regional West and Memorial Health Center succeeds because it involves medical professionals from both the Scottsbluff and Sidney area working together for the sole benefit of our patients,” said Leslie Biggs, RN at the Dorwart Center.

This fits into the center’s philosophy of treating the entire person—not just the disease. “It takes more than technology to fight cancer. We think it’s extremely important to pay attention to the full range of patients’ needs and not just their physical symptoms,” said Mark Hartman, MD, radiation oncologist/medical director of both Regional West’s Cancer Treatment Center and of the Dorwart Cancer Care Center. “We want to make this the least stressful situation that we can. Being close to home while receiving cancer treatment goes a long way in restoring normalcy during a very difficult time.”

In addition to radiation therapy, the Dorwart Center offers access to symptom management, patient education, support groups, dietary counseling, social workers, rehabilitation, and enterostomal therapy. Dr. Hartman and Dr. William Packard, medical oncologist from Scottsbluff, provide cancer care support for the Dorwart Cancer Care Center.

Sidney Medical Associates and Dr. Carl Cornelius of Sidney provide primary care physician support.

The number of patients seen at the Dorwart Center exceeded initial projections it its first two years of operation, according to Carissa Pierce, RT (RT), assistant director for both centers. Twice as many patients were treated in 2002 as in 2001. Pierce attributes much of the Dorwart Center’s success to the cooperative efforts of both hospitals and the community of Sidney and surrounding areas.

“Those of us who work at Regional West and travel to Sidney on a regular basis have developed a good relationship with Memorial Health Center and the people of Sidney,” Pierce said. “It’s been a very positive experience for everyone involved.”