Nebraska’s Miss America: Teresa Scanlan

Posted on March 1, 2013 by pgaster

NSHS staffers Laura Mooney (left) and Laura Mohr box up a dress Teresa Scanlan wore during the 2011 Miss America pageant.

The first Miss Nebraska to be crowned Miss America, Teresa Scanlan, will be featured in a new exhibit to open March 1, 2013, Nebraska Statehood Day, at the Nebraska History Museum in Lincoln. The Gering, Nebraska, resident was the ninetieth Miss America when she was chosen in 2011. Then age seventeen, she was the youngest Miss America since 1921. 

Museum visitors will see many of Scanlan’s pageant outfits, including the gown she wore when competing in the Miss Nebraska pageant and her various costume changes from the Miss America pageant. 

Although her dresses may have changed, one thing remained constant in all the pageants Teresa competed in since the age of thirteen: her shoes. The shoes Teresa wore when she was crowned Miss America were the same shoes she wore in 2004 when she was crowned Scotts Bluff County Teen Queen. 

Teresa Scanlan received this duct tape bouquet as a gift.

Pageant contestants have various talents, but Scanlan’s involve an unexpected product: duct tape. One of her many hobbies includes making clothing and other items out of this versatile product. When the Duck Tape® brand learned she was a fan, they invited her to be the grand marshal for their festival in Avon, Ohio. A sash and bouquet made entirely out of duct tape will be on display, along with a ring given to her and made by students. 

During her reign as Miss America, Teresa traveled more than 240,000 miles, visiting thirty-five states and several foreign countries. She served as a goodwill ambassador for the Children’s Miracle Network, visited many hospitals, and worked with the USO. She was a spokesperson and advocate for many organizations and causes, including the American Cancer Society, National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, Special Olympics, and many more.  

What’s next for Teresa? Since ending her reign as Miss America, she has continued to work for various causes, including raising money for an orphanage in Haiti and an organization supporting education for Kenyan girls. She is currently attending Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia. Her career goals include becoming a Supreme Court justice and running for president.  

Shoes from the Miss America pageant.

Visit the Nebraska State Historical Society website for hours and directions on how to reach the Nebraska History Museum. The Nebraska’s Miss America exhibit is scheduled to close September 3, 2013.

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Harrison Johnson’s History of Nebraska

Posted on February 26, 2013 by pgaster

Gage County Courthouse, Beatrice. From Johnson’s History of Nebraska (Omaha, 1880)

“Our work is done,” wrote Harrison Johnson (1822-1885) as he concluded his History of Nebraska, published in 1880. “The volume is completed, and only awaits the Introduction. The printers are clamoring for this, and only a few more lines and the History of Nebraska, on which we have spent so many anxious hours, will be in type for the use of our numerous friends and subscribers, who are found all over the State, and, indeed, all over the country.”

Johnson dedicated his work, the state’s first extended history, “[t]o the People of the State of Nebraska: Through whose large enterprise, indomitable energy and great liberality, in the brief space of twenty-five years, an unorganized Territory has developed into a prosperous Commonwealth, that now occupies a proud and important position, politically and commercially, in the Union of States.”  

Hall County Courthouse, Grand Island. From Johnson’s History of Nebraska (Omaha, 1880)

The author wrote: “The work has been no sinecure. It covers the history of sixty-five counties, extending over a State of 80,000 square miles, and illustrates a period of time–the most eventful of the Nation’s existence–of a quarter of a century.” He told his readers that his aim was to present details of Nebraska’s topography, climate, soil, timber and water supply, railroads, and religious and educational advantages in a “condensed, reliable and readable form” for the benefit of prospective settlers.

Johnson, a native of Ohio who had entered Nebraska Territory in 1854, represented Douglas County for two terms in the territorial legislature and served on the territorial board of agriculture. About 1880, the year his History was published, he moved to Brown County, Nebraska, taking up a homestead on Plum Creek near Johnstown. He died October 6, 1885.  

Fur trading post at Bellevue, 1854. From Johnson’s History of Nebraska (Omaha, 1880)

A brief biography included in an 1887 publication of the Nebraska State Historical Society said: “Mr. Johnson, being one of the first settlers in the territory, an active participant in all that was going on, became well-acquainted with its history. . . . He was a deep thinker, good scholar, and writer. He was widely and favorably known all over the state, in the advancement and development of which he always took a lively interest.” – Patricia C. Gaster, Assistant Editor / Publications

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Drilling for Oil at Shelton

Posted on February 22, 2013 by pgaster

Solomon D. Butcher photographed the Morris oil derrick at Shelton, Buffalo County, in 1910. NSHS RG2608-2413

Nebraska’s first producing oil well was drilled in Richardson County in 1940, but prior to that date some drilling had been done in other parts of the state. One such project was at Shelton in Buffalo County. The Kearney Daily Hub reported on June 23, 1910: “The Shelton Oil Well company is pushing work as fast as men and material will allow. There is now on the ground four carloads of material, two cars of oil well machinery, the heaviest and best that has ever been shipped into the state, including a powerful engine and all necessary tubing and drills. The large tower is now up to seventy feet in height and will be completed in a few days. Then the balance of the work of placing the engine and other machinery will be pushed and boring will be begun some time in July.” Local farmers and businessmen were said to be supporting the project liberally.  

Work on the well progressed and by October 26, the Hub reported that backers were elated over the prospects for success. Dirt taken from the excavation contained crude oil and when thrown into water, a thin film formed on the surface. Local expectation was that striking oil would “make” not only Shelton, but every town in central Nebraska. Solomon D. Butcher photographed the Morris oil derrick at Shelton in 1910. 

Bird’s eye view of Shelton in 1910. NSHS RG2608-2420

However, all didn’t go as planned. Newspaper coverage during the next five years reveals that the drillers worked on through various mechanical and financial setbacks to sink several wells but never struck it rich. A drill was first sunk to a depth of about 1,300 feet before it became stuck and work was abandoned. In 1911 drilling was resumed but later stopped due to lack of funds. In 1912 more financial backing was obtained and work was again commenced, only to be abandoned and a receiver appointed for the defunct project. 

The Hub reported on December 11, 1915, that after five years and the expenditure of more than $20,000, “the Shelton oil well prospect has gone glimmering. The original company . . . has been defunct for some time and all that remains of the original project is a hole in the ground choked with a diamond drill and a dilapidated collection of shafting and machinery.” The property was later sold to pay the outstanding indebtedness. A Tulsa firm removed the machinery and equipment to Oklahoma. – Patricia C. Gaster, Assistant Editor / Publications

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Nebraska’s Unlikely Landscapes

Posted on February 19, 2013 by dbristow

A rocky outcrop is covered with small round cacti. Wide dusty badlands look like a backdrop for a Wild West movie. High rocky bluffs make the landscape below look miniature. It may come as a surprise to many (even Nebraskans!) that these pictures were taken in Nebraska: just a few examples of Frank Shoemaker’s stunning photographs featured in the Spring 2013 issue of Nebraska History.

Prairie Dog Creek badlands, Sioux County, NE, June 1911. UNL 32301-00317

Frank Shoemaker was a man who loved observing the untamed beauty of nature. A self-taught naturalist and photographer, Shoemaker’s writings, careful field notes, and photographs are now housed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s archives, providing a valuable record of Nebraska as it appeared 100 years ago. To see the University’s site about Shoemaker, visit http://sandhillsarchive.unl.edu/.

Excerpt from a page of Shoemaker's 1911 field notes, describing Hackberry Lake in Cherry County, NE. UNL SF1911g130015

In the article, authors Mary Ellen Ducey, Elaine Nowick, and Rebecca Bernthal revisit Shoemaker’s work and his beautiful perspective of Nebraska. Born in Iowa, nature fascinated Shoemaker from an early age. As a young man he would study species and habitats in his spare time when he wasn’t working for his father’s newspaper. When he was twenty-two, he moved to live with relatives in Omaha and began working for South Pacific and Union Pacific during the week, and working as a naturalist on Sundays.

Young screech owls, Lincoln, NE, undated. UNL 32301-00609

Shoemaker traveled extensively, both for his work and for pleasure. Sometimes accompanied by his cousin Elizabeth Van Sant, he would often make excursions in and around Omaha to study wildlife; particularly birds. After buying a camera and teaching himself photography, Shoemaker could record his observations better than ever. He moved to Lincoln where he began doing photography for the University. He also traveled as a photographer with the Nebraska State Historical Society, taking landscape and wildlife pictures all over Nebraska.

Hat Creek Valley, Sioux County, NE, undated. UNL 32301-00317

Many of Shoemaker’s photographs show Nebraska’s varied scenery: woodlands, lakes, bluffs, sand hills – a far cry from the “grass only” stereotype. Some capture landscapes that no longer exist. Thanks to Shoemaker’s hard work and his more than three thousand pictures, we have a better understanding of Nebraska’s natural history.

- Joy Carey, Editorial Assistant

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Lincoln and Washington Counties Named for U.S. Presidents

Posted on February 15, 2013 by pgaster

The contemporary celebration of Presidents’ Day brings to mind the two Nebraska counties named for the two presidents, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, whose birthdays are commemorated in February.  

“The Blair Separable Horse Collar and Mtg. Co.” in Washington County in 1892 boasted more than 150 employees. NSHS RG2793.PH2-96

The older of the two, Washington County, is located in eastern Nebraska on the Missouri River. It was explored as early as 1739 by Paul and Pierre Mallet, who were on a trapping expedition to Canada. In 1804 Lewis and Clark reported the establishment of the new United States government to a council of Indian leaders near the present site of Fort Calhoun. As a result of this council, Fort Atkinson was established in 1820 and served as a key outpost until its abandonment in 1827. The county was organized as one of Nebraska’s eight original counties in 1854, with its boundaries defined by an act of the Legislature on February 22, 1855, Washington’s birthday.  The county seat has been located in three different towns: Fort Calhoun, DeSoto, and finally at Blair, its present site since 1869.  

North Platte, Lincoln County, 1878. NSHS RG2154.PH6-99

Lincoln County is located in west-central Nebraska about 250 miles from the Missouri River and was first organized as Shorter County in 1860. The general election for its re-organization as Lincoln County was held in September 1866. The county seat, first located at Cottonwood Springs, in 1867 was removed to North Platte. Many parts of Lincoln County were settled by persons taking advantage of the Homestead Act and Timber Culture/Preemption laws. Settlement was also encouraged by the Union Pacific and Burlington railroads building through Lincoln County.

Several other Nebraska localities were named for presidents Lincoln or Washington, the most prominent of which is the state’s capital city, the largest one in the U.S. named for the nation’s sixteenth president. – Patricia C. Gaster, Assistant Editor / Publications

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What’s in a Name?

Posted on February 10, 2013 by dbristow

When your name is easily used in puns and songs, the novelty wears off quickly. But instead settling for cheap laughs, one Nebraska town has turned a notable name into international recognition and thousands of letters. In the Spring 2013 issue of Nebraska History Mary Ann May-Pumphrey follows the holiday cachet program of Valentine, Nebraska, from its beginnings in 1941.

“Send a Valentine to your Valentine from Valentine, Nebraska,” announced the front page of the Cherry County News. For years the post office had received Valentine’s Day cards to be re-mailed with a February 14 postmark from Valentine. In 1941, postmaster Margarete Clare Phelps decided to make an organized program for these cards and promote the town in the process. Valentines would be collected and saved for the holiday, then sent out again with a special cachet: a stamped design included in the postage stamp cancellation.

Valentine’s Day 1941 was a big celebration for the community. In addition to the cachet program, there was a coronation of a King and Queen of Hearts, as well as a costume ball and showings of the film of that year’s Rose Bowl. After it suffered a setback in the form of WWII, the cachet program continued to grow, powered by post office and Chamber of Commerce staff with the invaluable support of volunteers.

Over the years, the stamp itself experienced several reinventions. Often including the town’s “Saint and City” motto, special versions of the cachet were designed for particular years. During the 60s, the cachet looked like the mileage signs heading into Valentine “Heart of the Sandhills,” “Nebraska’s Heritage Sweetheart,” and “The Heart City” are just a few of the slogans on cachets throughout the years. In 2009, a high school art contest added four more designs to the collection of currently available cachets.

In spite of email, Valentine’s cachet program is still going strong and receives mail from all over the world. To send your Valentine’s Day cards with this year’s special postmark, Valentine’s Chamber of Commerce website directs: “Just prepare your valentine or valentines like you were going to mail them yourself, including postage.  Then put them in a larger envelope and mail them to Cupid’s Mailbox, P.O. Box 201, Valentine, NE 69201.”

Do you have a colorful name? Take a cue from the Sweetheart City and make the most of it!

-Joy Carey, Editorial Assistant

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Gateway to Columbus

Posted on February 8, 2013 by dbristow

In 1940, Columbus, Nebraska, erected two arches along Highway 30 to welcome visitors to the city. One, shown above, stood at 23rd Street and 23rd Avenue north of town. The other stood at the north end of the viaduct near 13th Street and 33rd Avenue. Both are long gone, but older residents remember them. Continue reading →

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Nebraska Cigars Once a Smoker’s Delight

Posted on February 5, 2013 by pgaster

Ross & Bryson Cigar Factory, Lincoln. NSHS RG2158-PH9-16

The photograph above, from the collections of the Nebraska State Historical Society, depicts employees of a Lincoln establishment, identified by a sign over the awning as the Ross & Bryson Cigar Factory, about 1910. Others have gathered to pose, including a young boy seated at left. A cigar store Indian stands in the window at right.  

Although Nebraska has never been known as a center of cigar manufacture, the state once boasted a number of small cigar factories that by 1900 were turning out more than thirty million cigars each year. Many of these early cigar “factories” were actually cottage industries located in a home or perhaps an adjoining shed. Two or three people made cigars by hand, using wooden molds. However, not all cigar manufacturing was done on such a small scale, even in Nebraska. A Grand Island cigar factory in 1890 employed thirty-eight people, many of them young women. The firm, said the Grand Island Independent, “keeps a great stock of fine leaf tobaccos of the best domestic brands, and of foreign tobaccos, which come all the way from Havana and even Sumatra.”  

Employees at the Ross & Bryson Cigar Factory in Lincoln, Nebraska. On the table in the foreground are tools of the cigar rollers' trade, including cigar holding block, presses, and containers of tobacco. NSHS RG2158-PH9-15

Said to be “shrewd, energetic businessmen,” the two proprietors of Ross & Bryson, Samuel J. Ross and C. E. Bryson, got their start in Tecumseh in June 1890, where in 1892 their firm employed from seven to twelve cigar makers to produce both five-cent and ten-cent cigars, the latter called their “Genuine Havana.” Ross later relocated to Lincoln, where he first appears in the city directory in 1907 as an employee of cigar manufacturers Herminghaus & Hellweg.  

Ross & Bryson in the capital city must have been a small concern. Although Ross continued to be listed by the city directory as a cigar maker through the late 1920s, the firm name itself does not appear. The photo at the top of the page was probably taken before July 7 of 1910, when the Alliance Herald noted that Lincoln dentist Albert Gaiser, whose sign is posted at left, moved his dental practice to Alliance. – Patricia C. Gaster, Assistant Editor / Publications

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Fire and Accident a Friend to Coyotes

Posted on January 29, 2013 by pgaster

Hunters exhibit their trophies following a hunt in Franklin County in January 1914. NSHS RG3367.PH3-23

Organized hunts for “wolves” (what we now call coyotes) were a frequent part of the winter sporting scene in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s. Hundreds of hunters frequently joined in, but despite all the manpower, the wiley coyote was not always bagged. Sometimes he seems to have been amply revenged on his hunters.

In a hunt covering 117 square miles held in March 1900 in Rock and Brown counties, a ring of hunters on foot, horseback, and in vehicles was formed to trap their prey within an ever-tightening circle. However, the hunters were foiled and many coyotes escaped due to a prairie fire. The Omaha Bee reported on March 22: “A lighted match dropped accidentally by one of the riders ignited the grass and in a moment the prairie was in flames. The lines being broken to fight the fire, at least twenty-five wolves escaped, but after all five were killed within the ring.”  

After a hunt south of Elmwood in 1913. NSHS RG3384.PH3-5

More than five hundred men participated in a hunt in January 1913 near Elmwood, with eleven coyotes killed. The editor of the Elmwood Leader-Echo, who took part, noted on January 31 the shooting mishaps that occurred: “During the hunt two or three men were shot as a result of carelessness, but no one was hurt seriously. A shot from a heavily loaded shot gun entered the mouth of one of the hunters through the cheek, and it is said the fellow spat it out, seemingly unconcerned over the incident.”  

A large hunt in Franklin County in January 1914 by two to three hundred men and boys resulted in the shooting of six coyotes and a wild dog. No mishaps with fire or firearms were reported, but the Franklin County News said on January 17 that “some of the boys who were not used to trudging from eight to twelve miles, were about all in the next day.” – Patricia C. Gaster, Assistant Editor / Publications

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A Funny-Looking Airplane

Posted on January 25, 2013 by dbristow

NSHS RG3473-4026

Above is an LS Cruiser, built by Lincoln Standard Aircraft Company of Lincoln, Nebraska, and shown here sometime between 1920 and 1922. The photo is from the NSHS collections and appears in Wings Over Nebraska: Historic Aviation Photographs, published by the NSHS a few years ago.

I like this photo because the aircraft is obviously a transitional model — one of the first with an enclosed cabin for passengers. But why leave the cockpit out in the open, where the poor pilot would be exposed to cold winds and rain? Continue reading →

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