Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

Memories of Bloomington by Raymond E. Paulson

This article was submitted by Mr. Paulson, a graduate of Bloomington High School (Class of 1927). Raymond is 91 years old and lives in Wakefield, NE:

“Being one of the oldest Bloomington natives still around, I thought I should write down some of my memories when the community was still a lively progressive town.

Before the county seat was ‘taken way’ from Bloomington, it had four grocery stores: Schobel’s Big Double Store, Hayden’s Grocery and Dry Goods, Dunn’s Grocery, and Farmer’s Union Store.

We had two banks: Farmers State Bank and Bloomington State Bank; two drug stores: Sumner Drug and Malick Drug.

There was a newspaper called the Bloomington Advocate, with Herb Crane as the editor. The town also had a light plant and telephone company.

Located west of town, the Seigle Flour Mill made Prairie Rose Flour. The mill was powered by water from Cotton Wood Creek. After the mill shut down for the night, the town had an electric plant that was powered by a dynamo from the water in the millpond. This took care of the town’s electrical needs during the night.

We had three doctors: Dr. J. B. Sumner, Dr. Ella P. Sumner and Dr. Sparks. The Sumner’s son ran the drug store and the doctor’s office was in the back of the store. Lawyer A. H. Byrum had his office in the same building. Dr. Cullen was a dentist and also had an office on the north side of the street.

There were two hotels in town. One was at the corner of Seventh and Nebraska Street, a block east of where the then post office used to be. The other hotel was several blocks south on Nebraska Street.

There was a rooming house, operated by Mrs. Waring at fifth and Central, just south across the street from the old Opera House.

Just east of the main intersection at Sixth and Central, was a harness and repair run by Lee Walker for many years and later by Tom Wallin. Just east of the harness shop was the Peterson Bakery run by the Peterson family. Later, Mr. Nelson had a bakery there.

William Paulson had a large garage a block west of Sixth and Central. From the time cars arrived in Franklin County until he retired, William Paulson sold cars. He sold both Fords and Dodges. Across the street, Gus Bailey had a blacksmith shop. Gus is said to have told this story: When he was asked if he ever went up in an aero plane, he reportedly said, ‘No, but I went up in a balloon once and fixed one.’

Just west across Sixth Street on the corner was George Green Lumber and Hardware. He sold coal, lumber and hardware. Mr. Holmes and Mr. Hirsh owned the other two lumberyards, but they finally went out of business leaving George Green with all the hardware business in town.

Cole Insurance and Real Estate, owned by Billy Cole was located at Sixth and Central, south of the Bloomington State Bank. George Cole, no relation to Billy Cole, was a broom maker. He made very good brooms. George later sold his business to Donald Versaw, who carried on the tradition of making very good brooms.

Before Prohibition, the building where the American Legion Hall is now was a saloon owned by William Meyer. After that, over the years, it was a grocery store, meat market and pool hall.

When the county seat was moved to Franklin, Bloomington fought back. A new Schoolhouse was built in 1925. The business section was paved in 1928. We had a very good school, approximately 75 high school students.

Bloomington’s basketball team did very well. The 1924 team won the Class B. Invitational Tournament at Kearney State College. They also went to the State tournament in Lincoln. The team also took a trip out west playing three or four games, winning them all. The last game they played was at McCook, where they defeated the much larger town. On the wall in the community center is a picture of the 1926 team. It was the county champion that year. I donated the picture.

The loss of the county seat hurt Bloomington. Most of the county officers and their families moved to Franklin. Two or three lawyers also left. Some of the business places started down hill, but the town did fairly well, until the drought and Depression in the ‘30’s.

With no rain and dust storms so bad you couldn’t see across the street day after day, farmers left, banks closed, businesses closed, and that was the end of an era!

People from the East settled Bloomington. They all brought their religion with them. They all built churches but, there never were enough people for all of them to survive. At one time there were Methodist, Christian, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Catholic Churches. The Baptist church has never functioned during my life. The Presbyterian church folded at least 80 years ago. The Christian church ceased soon after World War I. Many years ago, the Episcopal church had a service once or twice a year. Those church building stood empty for many years and there was never a window broken in any of them.

Before I finish, I must write about the old Opera House. It was the center of all our entertainment. It was used for movies, dances, and plays and, before the schoolhouse was built, it was used to play basketball. Helman Stock Company used to come every year and put on plays four or five nights. There was a different play each night. Other traveling shows also played there.

Chautauqua entertainment came to town for many years during the summer. This was real high-class entertainment. This was backed by the merchants and was before radios. The Chautauqua troupe set up a big tent on the northeast corner of the courthouse lawn. There were different programs each day for four or five days. Whatever program was arranged, it was really a cultural thing. We had excellent music, good plays, mind readers and magicians. These were things we had no way of seeing except here. Chautauqua’s were very well attended. Along the same lines, there were Lyceum Courses in the winter, usually about four different times.

One of the sad things to me is that over the years, and especially during the years that they were building the Harlan County Dam nearly two thirds of the houses were moved out of town. This has limited the population ever since.

I’ve learned-

That no matter how good a friend is, they’re going to hurt you every once in a while, and you must forgive them for that.

I’ve learned-

That it isn’t always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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