7.6

1892Jud Clark, Fairbury City Marshall, appeared in a brand-new uniform.McLucas Bros. shipped 125 head of cattle to market that averaged 1,400 pounds and brought $4.40 a hundred pounds.Mr. Chabbuck of Omaha told the Fairbury City Council he planned to install an electric system here, and would provide 14 arc street lights for $10 each per month. The rate for individuals was to be $1 a month for the first incandescent light, 90 cents per month for each one afterward, to a minimum per bulb of 15 cents. Current for street lights and homes would be supplied evenings and nights only, no power for other conveniences would be available.1902Over nine inches of rain had fallen in the first 20 days of June. This left farmers scrambling for planting time as the growing season marched on.E.H. Hinshaw of Fairbury was nominated for Congress after 355 ballots in an all-night district Republican convention at Beatrice. The local delegation carried red, white and blue umbrellas, and had taken a band with them.1912G.W. Bartlett took over the movies, and theater business in Fairbury. This included the two movie houses that were present in Fairbury, the Bonham and The Majestic.Another false alarm at the courthouse resulted when people saw smoke issuing from the new building's chimney.1922Petitions were circulated for a Fairbury municipal swimming pool, following another of the “annual drownings” in the Little Blue. It would be more than 10 years before plans for a pool were actually developed.Collapse of part of the dam on the Little Blue lowered the river level and left the power plant short of water for its condensers.1926The Park Board bought a lot on the east side of H Street to make, if possible, a broader entrance to the new park.Mrs. C.B. Callaway, Woman's Club president, made a census of trees in the City Park, in preparation for placing identifying markers. She found ash, hard and soft maple, walnut, white and slippery elm, catalpa and bung-eye catalpa, black and honey locust, hack-berry, black willow, sycamore, cottonwood, box elder, smoketree, Russian olive, cut-leave birch, linden, silver poplar, Norway and Colorado blue spruce, Austrian and white pine, arbor vitae and red cedar. Just outside the east park en-trance were two tamaracks, “the only conifers which shed their needles in the winter.”1932Two pounds of "the best butter" cost only 35 cents, sliced bacon two pounds for 10 cents, three pounds of beans 10 cents, 100 pounds of sugar $4.75 and 4.40x21 inch tires $3.59 each.Fire destroyed the Nutter filling station at "Reno #11," 10 miles south of Fairbury. Much of the grocery store's stock and the Nutters' possessions were removed before the fire spread.1936The Jansen Bank re-ported to The Journal the sale of farm land at $52.50 an acre in that vicinity, terming it, “probably a good investment.”The many grasshoppers seen on the ground in the county this spring were taking wing in July. First wheat harvested in Fairbury had been on June 25.1942Buck's Bootery [in the present "E" Street Thrift store] closed, because Manager Everett Mason had been inducted into the Army. Half of the 75 men from the county reporting at Omaha failed their physicals.Fire destroyed Paul Stark's store at Reynolds.Fairbury's Chamber of Commerce was "enlisting" town men to help in the harvest fields; farm workers, too had been drafted.1946Otto E. Schnuelle sold the Jansen Milling Co. to Albert J. Thiessen.Twenty trailer houses were ready for occupancy in Fairbury and a number of houses had been moved to the city to meet a housing shortage.The Fairbury Pilots Club sponsored an air show at the Fairbury Municipal Airport. There had been a few such exhibitions here in earlier years, but on level farm tracts used just for the occasion as landing strips.1952County Assessor J.W. Winslow estimated Fairbury city total assessed valuation at $6,640,000. He also assessed School District No. 8 at $7,15,0500.A midnight hailstorm flattened wheat in the Alexandria, Powell and Bower vicinities with wind damage near Thompson and Reynolds.A Red Cross disaster response group in the county was headed by Melvin Moss with Dr. Ralph Cassel vice chairman and Margaret Howell, nurse, vice chairman.1956J. Boyd Page took over as acting Fairbury postmaster, succeeding Homer S. Yeakle, who had retired. Page had lived in Fairbury for 45 years.Henry Hansmire became Rotary Club president succeeding Gus Herfkens. I.G. Randall became vice president; Chester Bonsai continued as secretary-treasurer.Boyden Construction Co., and Rahe Construction Co. of Jansen sponsored an essay contest for farm tenants in the county on the topic, “Why we are planning a complete conservation program for our farm.”Wilber "Pete" Wichman succeeded Everet Uldrich as 7-Up and Pepsi-Cola distributor here. The warehouse remained at 1229 E St.1962June salesperson of the month was Gene Lewis of Gene's Hobby Hut. Other nominees were Ruth Janz of Korbel Drug, Susan Lamb of Hesteds, Marguerite Bower of Shipman's Jewelry, and Evelyn Rhoden of Smitty's Bakery.Present at the FHS 1952 class reunion were four couples who were married to classmates from their class: Dick Burbridge-Joyce Koch and Andrew Markham-Suzanne Coatman of Fairbury, Dean Dalke-Ruth Ann Johnson of Lincoln, Lloyd Garber-Geraldine Thompson of Reynolds.A total of 6,200 persons received the Sabin oral vaccine against polio at a free clinic in Fairbury. A plane brought more vaccine from Lincoln when the original order of 7,0000 doses was exhausted. 1972County Commissioners were informed that the county would have to provide public defenders for indigents charged with misdemeanors, as well as those charged with felonies, as was formerly done.Dennis Austen, son of the Doyle Austens, received the Eagle Boy Scout badge.Fairbury's League of Women Voters elected Mrs. Gilbert Jackson as their first president.Processing of mail originated at the Fairbury Post Office was taken over by the Lincoln Postal Service Center.1976Members of the Southeast Community College District board expressed renewed interest in acquiring the former Pershing College campus near Beatrice, via the SCC Foundation, and added $150,000 to the budget for extension of program services in the Beatrice area.Several hundred worshippers attended Bicentennial union church services at McNish Park. Fairbury's Bicentennial Sunday celebration, July 4, included bellringing at 1 p.m., a day-long program at the Fairbury City Park, an air show at the airport and a “yesterday's fashions” style show.1986Several of those attending Fairbury's annual Fourth of July Flea Market observed and relaxed around the repaired and repainted fountain located in the City Park. The plumbing in the fountain was repaired. That, and the repainting, was all completed by volunteers.The Nebraska Air National Guard, the second-oldest Air National Guard unit in the nation, celebrated its 40th birthday.1992Meridian High School junior Amy Bachle was selected as part of a team of Nebraskans who were to play basketball in Mexico.Five wells in the rural Jefferson County, town of Reynolds, were recommended for closure by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) due to contamination by the chemicals, carbon-tetrachloride, which was used in the 1960s. These chemicals were used in the fields as a form of fertilizer or pesticides.1996Fairbury recorded the fourth-driest June in 111 years.2002The Chamber of Commerce reported that visitors to the Annual Fourth of July Flea Market traveled an average of 50-100 miles to attend the event.The movie advertised at the Bonham Theatre was “Men in Black II. The sequel, Men in Black III was released ten years later.

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