Good Old Days 01-24-14

COMPILED BY THE SIDNEY Sun-Telegraph Staff

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

'An Echo of The Past'

January 24, 1914

The death of Valeria Allenspach-Coad at Lincoln on Thursday night of last week turns the thoughts to early days of Sidney, say thirty years or more ago. Mrs. Allenspach-Coad, then Valeria Allenspach, lived here with her parents who ran a hotel. She was considered a beauty, in the wild, unpolished standards recognized in those days in this man's town, and was admired and made love to by the ranchers and cowboys who frequented her father's inn. Mark Coad was a patron of the place. Years after this she formed an alliance with Mark Coad in Omaha and after maintaining marital relations with him for two years she sued for a divorce and alimony. She lost the suit in the Lancaster Court on the grounds maintained by Judge Stewart that no marriage existed. The plaintiff appealed to the supreme court where she was adjudged the common-law wife of Coad and was granted a divorce and $20,000 alimony. She has lived with her mother in Lincoln since then. After the separation Mark Coad retired to his ranch on Little Horse Creek, Wyoming, where he was killed early in 1912 by a greaser in a dispute over wages. After Coad's death his divorced consort grieved and became broken in health. However, her death was sufficiently sudden and a coroner's inquest was held, which found she die from natural causes. The divorce case brought the pair into wide public notice, for it was unique in the annals of court records.

75 YEARS AGO

'Former Sidney Man Faces Grave Charge'

January 27, 1939

Three youths, including Samuel T. Jones, 25, a former resident of Sidney, are held in jail at Greeley, Colo., charged with the hit and run death of a 47-year old Cheyenne resident last Sunday morning.

The charges, accusing the youths of causing death with an automobile while under the influence of liquor, carry a possible punishment of 14-years imprisonment.

Chief of Police C. C. Hunter of Greeley said Jones admitted he was driving the car which struck down Claude Perkins of Cheyenne. Hunter said Jones told him the other two youths, Paul Dumbleton,

18, and Dale Edmonds, 19, were riding in the back seat.

Jones, Dumbleton and Edmonds were arrested in Cheyenne and returned to Greeley for questioning. Hunter said Jones explained how they dragged Perkins' body to the side of the highway on the outskirts of Greeley and then drove on.

Chief Hunter said the three admitted they had been drinking before starting from Cheyenne for Greeley early Sunday morning.

The body of Perkins, employed on a bureau of reclamation power line project. was not found until three hours after the accident.

The car driven by Jones belonged to a Kansas City man, for whom Edmonds was acting as chauffeur. The three youths had driven it to Greeley to attend a dance and were returning to Cheyenne at the time Perkins was struck, Chief Hunter declared.

Jones, according to information received here, had been employed as a meat cutter in Cheyenne. Friends said he married a girl from Peetz, Colo. before leaving Sidney.

50 YEARS AGO

'Prolonged Drought May Threaten Crops'

January 24, 1964

If the present drought conditions continue, there is danger of damage to the winter wheat and other crops during the next several weeks.

At the moment, however, Cheyenne County Agent, Ivan Liljegren feels that most wheat had adequate cover. Some has been pastured too short, but there is not a great deal of this.

This week marked the end of the third month of extreme drought. The last moisture of any consequence was in October when 1.45 of an inch of rain fell on the 20th and .70 on the following day.

The forecast does not sound too promising, moisture-wise. Dave Ells, volunteer weather observer in Sidney, reports that in the month of November only .04 of an inch of precipitation was recorded. There was a total of .22 of an inch in December. So far this month there have only been traces.

Strong winds on Thursday and this morning whipped dust and debris throughout the area. The weather station at the Federal Aviation Agency recorded powerful winds from 11 a.m. until about 5 p.m. Thursday and this morning.

Wind velocity averaged 23 miles an hour during the day Thursday, gusting to 40 miles an hour. This morning the gusts were up to 35 miles an hour.

25 YEARS AGO

'Shooting Kills Man Known Here'

January 23, 1989

Douglas D. Houser, 43, of Sterling, Colo., well known in Cheyenne County as a football and basketball official, was killed Saturday morning in an apparent car theft.

According to Logan County Under sheriff Harold Getz, Houser's body was discovered by a passing motorist about 10 a. m. three and one-half miles north and west of Sterling on County Road 34.

The Under sheriff said Hauser died from a single gunshot from a .22 caliber pistol in the left temple. Frank Stahl, 20, also of Sterling, is being held by Denver police after allegedly confessing to the killing.

Houser, a sales representative to Schmidt Imports in Sterling, had reportedly gone for a demonstration drive Saturday morning with Stahl.

Stahl was reported to have driven the car from Schmidt Imports, reportedly an 'old white Datsun,' to Denver where he was said to have attended an anti-abortion rally at a clinic near 14th and Acoma. At or after the rally he was reported to have turned himself in to two off-duty Denver police officers and confessed to the crime.

Stahl had reportedly worked at a Sterling discount store were two handguns, including a .22 caliber pistol, were reported stolen late last week. That aspect of the case is being investigated by police.

10 YEARS AGO

'Report Shows Increase In State Child Abuse, Poverty'

January 23, 2004

LINCOLN-Voices for Children in Nebraska has released its 2003 Kids Count Report, the only resource designed to track issues affecting children in Nebraska over an extended period of time. More specifically, the reports document the number of cases involving child abuse and neglect, juvenile arrests, early child care and education, out-of-home adoption and other issues in each of the state's 93 counties in 2002.

"Doing it this way gives county leaders and state leaders a way to be able to focus on their county," said Anne Baker, research coordinator for the 2003 report. "It's hard to compare for instance, Cheyenne County to Douglas County because they have different issues. It's a way to see what is going on in our own county as well as throughout the state."

Health and Human Services (HHS) received a total of 16,128 calls alleging child abuse and neglect in 2002, a 6.8 percent increase over the 15,103 calls received in 2001. Of the more than 16,000 calls received, 7,328 were investigated resulting in 2,192 substantiations involving 3,454 children. This averages out to 42 child abuse and neglect substantiations involving nearly 66 children per week.

In 2002, 10,880 Nebraska children were in out-of-home care at some point. In Cheyenne County 29 children were reported to have been in foster care in 2002.

In 2002, 16,314 juveniles were arrested, a decline from prior years. Male offenders comprise 68 percent of all juvenile arrests.

In Cheyenne County in 2002, there were a total of 69 juvenile arrests, (including both male and female).

The numbers tell the story every year-Nebraska's children are facing an increase in poverty. Nebraska was one of nine states that showed a significant increase in percent of children in poverty between 2000 and 2002.

In 2000 and 2002, from an estimated 12 percent in 2000 to 13 percent in 2002. Subsequently, 29 percent of families with a single mother had incomes below the poverty line.

In Cheyenne County in 2002, 57 percent of children with single parents were reported poor, compared to 43 percent with two parents.

Thirty-one percent of the county's minority children were reported to live in poverty with some390 people documented as being WIC (Women, Infant and Children) income eligible.

Nebraska lays claim to seven of the 12 poorest counties in our country, based on per capita personal income. These include Loup, Blaine, Arthur, Grant, McPherson, Sioux and Hooker County.

During the 2001-2002 school year, 21,534 high school students in Nebraska graduated. Nearly 93 percent of possible graduates were estimated to have completed high school in 2002. In addition, 1,392 Nebraskans completed their high school education by opting to take the GED tests.

In Cheyenne County, there were 155 graduates. In Cheyenne County, 22 students dropped out during the 2001-2002 school year. In Cheyenne County, 221 were reported to have been in special education in 2001-2002. Locally, 43 children were reported registered for Head Start in Cheyenne County in 2002.

The Kids Count in Nebraska Report has been published for the past 11 years. A project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the report is a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children throughout the U.S.