Looking Back April 13

1880Local markets: wheat, 90 cents; corn, 16 cents; oats, 22 cents; fat cattle, $3.50; hogs, $3.25; potatoes, 50 cents a bushel; eggs, eight cents; butter, 15 cents; and flax, $1 a bushel.The weather was so windy and dusty here that many people wore goggles on the streets.1890Corn was low in price and farmers were looking for some other better paying crop. One man wrote to the Gazette that there was more money raising onions, and some were going back to flax. Some farmers met in Fairbury with a man who was a representative of sugar beet interests at Grand Island and took home some seed to experiment.1894Price Bros. were reported planning a $10,000 building at Diller.Spies, supposed to be from the Coxey-Kelley Army, were seen around Endicott.1904Unable to make a deal with the Fairbury Waterworks Co., James Brawner, official street sprinkler, put down his own well, with a gasoline engine-powered pump.Will Drake was building a new house in the Silver Creek neighborhood.1910The cemetery association at Fairbury made a rule that automobiles would not be allowed in the cemetery during funerals. Another move was to raise the price of lots 50 percent, to provide that graves could not be elevated and no coning or fence put around lots.1914Local horse thefts included Dr. Veidner's horse and rig from the east side of the Fairbury Square. The doctor's horse and rig were recovered near Shickley, where the thief had abandoned them and taken a train. Mr. Stolting at Endicott had a horse stolen but it was also recovered.1924The Teapot Dome pipeline from Wyoming oil fields to Missouri was near completion. One of its pumping stations was built at Deshler.Whittet Motor Co. of Fairbury offered the Studebaker “Light Six” touring car at $1,045, the “Big Six” at $1,750 and the sedan at $2,685.Contractor R.W. McHale offered to sell the residence at 1014 E St., with “$2,500 lot, $1,500 garage,” for “half what it cost to build.”1934The State Bank of Harbine was liquidating, paying off depositors 100 percent.Top local market prices were $3.05 for hogs, beef cattle $7.05, corn 35 cents, wheat 54 cents, prairie hay $5-$7.50 and alfalfa $6-$12.Almost 3 1/2 pages of The Fairbury Journal were occupied by farmers' statements for the federal cornhog program, listing acreages and numbers in 1933. The program was to bring about $355,000 to those who participated in a reduction.1944The Rev. F.H. Stephenson had been called to the Fairbury Christian Church pastorate.Nine inches of snow April 17 had melted by the next evening, but set a record for that much snow that late in the spring.Nearly 100 cases of measles cut attendance in Fairbury school.The FHS girls sextet won a superior rating in the district music contest. Members were Betty Aasen, Louise Bales, Amaryllis Barber, Pattie Haning, Clarine Lane and Marjorie Nuckolls.1954Mail service on Union Pacific trains through Fairbury was stopped; trucks were to be used.Members of the Jefferson County YMCA board awarded the contract for a new building at Camp Jefferson Brown Bros. of Fairbury.State school funds allotted Jefferson County were $19,913; had been $56,560 in 1953.1964Mrs. Dora 0. Miller, The Fairbury Journal's Diller correspondent, won six first in Nebraska Press Women's contests.Marvin Magee was named manager of the Fairbury plant of the F.U. Co-op Creameries.In a cost-cutting move, the post office department reduced money order sales and parcel post deliveries to five days a week.1974The Fairbury school board set a salary base of $7,450 for the 1974-75 term.Dennis Kenning was installed as FHS Future Farmers chapter president.Jeffery Kujath of Daykin was top judge at the Blue Valley Beef Revue. With Mark Niederklein and Mark Kujath, the three won the club championship for the Swingin' Swingters.1984Ed Brandt was elected vice president of the Fairbury Rotary Club, succeeding Kent Garber, who had moved up to president when President Charles Friend was transferred from Fairbury.Engineers estimates of $188,00 for repairs of the city's storm sewer southward from Sixth Street didn't meet a federal-state matching minimum, but it was proposed it be extended three blocks north, where a cave-in had been found.Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Urbach were to receive the community citizens award of the Western Grange.1994Area youth were treated to a miniature circus at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Two separate shows were presented by the circus and elephant rides were given at intermission.Continuing on a roll that has carried over for the third week the Fairbury Senior High number one trap team, displayed excellent marksmanship, claiming first place in the overall team title for a third straight meet at Saturday's Izaak Walton shoot at Fremont.2004Since spring seemed to be early this year, alfalfa weevil damage could cause earlier and greater damage to your alfalfa than in recent years.Fairbury Mayor David Beasley signed a proclamation for Arbor Day (the last Friday in April) and helped plant a tree for the occasion.Fairbury has been named a Tree City USA by the National Arbor Day Foundation. Fairbury Mayor David Beasley signed a proclamation for “National Day of Prayer,” which was to be May 6, with the help of Richard Schlichtman from Faith Lutheran Church in Fairbury.A breakfast for National Day of Prayer was held at the Faith Lutheran Church in Fairbury.

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