End of Year Bits
Note From Bryce Erickson –
October 4, 2011
In 1912 his grandparents, John and Mary Harmon, and their daughters Frances,
Esther & Alma,
left their Iowa farm and moved to Kearney so the daughters could go to the
Normal school and become teachers.
John Harmon had a wagon & team of horses and ran a dray service.
Frances, the oldest, graduated in the spring of 1913. That fall
[school year 1913-1914] she taught in a rural school in north west Nebraska.
The next year [school year 1914-1915] she taught a rural school South east
of Miller Nebraska. During school year 1915-16 she taught at Riverdale
School. Here she met Bryce’s father, Albert Erickson, a farm boy
in the Riverdale area. They were married on March 8, 1916.
Bryce ended his note by saying, “We owe a lot to our college in Kearney for
our growth and Progress over the years.”
Facts Gleaned from Kearney City
Directories
Consumers Public Power District
became NPPD in1971
Central Avenue Upstairs
– 2nd & 3rd floors
Generally speaking
There are 2-36
rooms/apartments upstairs per building – 2 & some 3 story buildings
In 1960 most were used as professional offices and residences
In 1994 most were vacant
Some specifics
2004 Central – 1960 – 14 apartments, 4 vacant
– residential
1994 – not listed [unused commercially]
2102 Central – (north half of the former Schwesers)
1960 – Street level – Hawthorne Jewelers
Upstairs, 2 floors - 36 rooms, 6 vacant
2nd floor lawyer, insurance, real estate offices; 3rd floor residential
1994 – Upstairs – not listed [unused
commercially]]
2116 Central – Redman Shoes street level
1960 - 9 upstairs rooms used by dentists, chiropractors, & insurance
1994 – Still Redman’s but upstairs
not used
2201 Central – 1960 – Ayer’s Clothing; upstairs 19 rooms all offices, about
¼ vacant
1994 – Lungrin’s Men’s; upstairs not
listed
2223 Central – 1960 – Platte Valley State Bank Building
Included KGFW on street level
Kearney Beauty Academy in basement
6 apartments upstairs
1994 – KGFW
2011 – KGFW occupies street level and 2nd floor
3rd floor unused, remnants of apartments indicates there was one central
cooking area
Basemen unused, scraps from buety school remain
2300 Central – 1960 – Paul’s Broiler at street level; 9 apartments, one
vacant upstairs 2 floors
1994 – Valcom Computer at street level; nothing upstairs on either floor
2313 Central – 1960 – Gregerson’s Jewelry & Dee’s Food Mart at street level
Upstairs: Wort Apartments – 17 apartments, only one vacant
1994 – Jerry’s Barber Shop at street level
Upstairs: Wort Apartments – 9 apartments, one used as a storeroom,
other 8 occupied
Other Buildings Discussed
Yanda's - former Baumgartners
Baumgartners used second floor for sale of school text books for rural
school districts
Yanda's uses it for music related activities
Masonic Lodge Building
World Theater in part of street level
Business offices on second floor
Masonic organizational use of 3rd and 4th floors
Car Licenses
1917-1918 – Men who came into Kearney from towns in the county to get their
car tags were reported in the Personals column of the Hub.
Hub March 3, 1919 - Last Year Tags
Auto Owners Warned to Get License Tags
for This Year.
The state department is on the trail of owners who are still operating
their last year car license. It is charged that several thousand cars
are carrying a 1918 license. The 1919 license were ready for
distribution in January but the department gave a few weeks grace in
order that all might secure the new tags. Hundreds were issued during
the year, but there are still thousands who are “sneaking by” on last
year’s tags. The police will be ordered to round them up, which means a
fine.
Hub Classified Ads July 1921
Found--Car license No T22170. Owner may have same by calling at Hub office
and paying for this ad.
[Car license numbers were issued in
consecutive order by the state. This license tag would have been for
the 22,170th car registered in Nebraska.]
Hub November 26, 1921
In 1922 the car licenses were to
begin the new numbering system using a hyphen and a number for each county.
Also a car was to have a tag on both the front and back so it is easier for
“speed cops” to get the number of “fleeing motorists”
[The article gave the impression that the number assigned to each county was
based on the population of the county. Other sources have said it was based
on the car population, not the people population.]
Also in state news in the same issue – In Lincoln the block had been cleared
of 120 trees, leaving 3 large pines in the northeast corner, in preparation
for construction of the new state capital. Work would begin in the spring.
Interesting Fact
Archives record of 1886 Buffalo County Bar
Association listed 32 lawyers practicing in the county. [and that was before
the Boom really got under way.]
Current 2011 phone book – yellow pages – 50 attorneys with offices in
Kearney
This was not counting those lawyers
holding public office, working for private industry, and other circumstances
for not having an office.
Most were listed again according to their specialty – bankruptcy, divorce,
criminal defense
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