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Pages of History
According to a 1945 agricultural census Cedar County farmers harvested 171,111 acres of corn during the previous year.
This placed the county 21st in the nation and seventh in Nebraska for corn production. Today Cedar County produces more corn (about 179,000 acres) with fewer farmers.
The county’s population peaked at a little over 16,000 in 1930. From that year on, the population declined to a little over 8,000 today. Much of the loss came from the farms.
Laurel dodged a bullet on the evening of Monday, June 9, 1947.
About 8 p.m. that evening, a tornado touched down on the north edge of Dixon wrecking the grain bins north of town and knocking over telephone and light poles.
As the tornado swept across the countryside in a northeasterly direction, a number of farm buildings were destroyed or severely damaged. A barn and granary on the Lenus Anderson farm was completely destroyed. Huge trees were torn up by the roots on the Ted Ankeny place. And on the John Thompson farm, the roof of the barn was torn off and the chimney was blown off of the house.
The town of Allen was hardest hit. The winds damaged a number of business buildings and houses there. The two-month-old baby of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Onderstall was sleeping in a crib when the wind blew in a window next to it. The glass fell on the baby‘s face, causing a severe gash on one cheek and smaller cuts about the face. Mr. and Mrs. Onderstall put the baby in the car and raced to Laurel where Dr. Carroll stitched up the gash and dressed the other wounds.
Damage also was reported in Waterbury, Martinsburg, and Ponca, but Laurel suffered little damage other than broken tree limbs.
Although Hugh A. Linn was making an annual salary of around $3,000 as Laurel’s school superintendent, he decided to take a summer job in J. V. Harper’s store. This proved to be a rather painful decision. On Thursday, June 12, Mr. Linn was working in the basement when he heard the freight elevator start moving. He stepped into the shaft to set the brake but when he did, the cable broke and the elevator crashed down on top of him. When he was rescued, only one arm was sticking out from under the floor of the elevator.
Linn was treated by Dr. Osberg before being transported to a Sioux City hospital where it was determined that he had suffered a skull fracture, a crushed kneecap, and cuts and bruises all over his body.
Linn made a remarkable recovery and returned to running the Laurel school that fall. H.A. Linn was Laurel’s school superintendent from 1939 to 1949. He eventually wound up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he died in 1987.
Graduation exercises for rural eighth grade students were held in the Hartington City Auditorium on Saturday, June 8. County Supt. J. Mike McCoy (annual salary $2,000) presented diplomas to 159 graduates of the county’s mostly one-room rural schools.
The Laurel American Legion presented awards to the highest ranking students from the Laurel area. Two girls and one boy – Carol Henningson of Dist. 22, Virginia Hinrichs of Dist. 31, and Maurice Anderson of Dist. 44 — received the awards.
The month of June 1947 closed with a “Spring Festival” sponsored by the Commercial Club. The festival featured circus acts on a large outdoor stage, carnival rides by the Art B. Thomas “Bombshell Show,” plane rides at the new Laurel airport, a dance in the auditorium, and many other attractions. “The festival went over with a bang,” said the Advocate.
Roger Tryon has written history columns for the Laurel Advocate and Cedar County News for over 35 years now. Tryon is a Laurel native, and retired high school teacher now living in Sioux City, Iowa.
