Sept. 9, 1897 —
Jos. Smith west of the village has a son who is quite sick with typhoid fever. [Update on the back page of the same issue]: The home of Mr. Jos. Schmit [note different spelling of last name] of this place is shrouded in gloom this pleasant fall morning, all occasioned by the break in the brittle thread of life. Their son Edward, aged 18 years, 3 months, 21 days, who has been down with Typhoid fever, was called to his long home this morning. Interment was in the Catholic cemetery, situated on land of the deceased’s father.
100 Years Ago. . .
At the Osmond auditorium on Saturday, the famous dog, Strongheart, in “Whitefang,” from the book by Jack London.
Carl Boye was doing some bird mounting one week. One bird was a big eagle that measured 7 feet from tip to tip. It was a fine specimen, and was shot near Midland by a boy, who brought it to Plainview and sold it to a party there, who sent it over to Mr.
Boye to have mounted. A. E. Wright, who was up west, sent down a white crow for Carl to mount. Both birds were beauties.
Tuesday morning, Oct. 27, 1925, the ground was covered with a four- inch snowfall, the first real snow of the season.
Rev. Matthew C. Dickson, the new Methodist pastor, occupied the pulpit in the M. E. Church and he and family were now nicely located here.
Rev. Dickson was born and reared in Tennessee and had held various appointments in Missouri and Iowa and other states. When the world war broke, he was among the first to volunteer his services to Uncle Sam and enlisted from Kansas in the infantry. For 18 months he served across as a buck private.
On Oct. 23rd, a double birthday celebration was held at the home of Postmaster J. E. Scott. On that day, Mr. and Mrs. Scott’s son, Dale, was 14 years of age, and it was also the birthday anniversary of Dale’s teacher, Miss Gartrell. A bounteous birthday dinner was served and the table was decorated with Hallowe’en colors. The table was set for 12, including the teacher and the entire class.
75 Years Ago. . .
Many persons in and around Osmond had contributed to a fund being raised to be used for the purchase of an electric basketball scoreboard and time clock. Ray Goeres and Floyd Burt had been active in presenting the plan and making collections. They reported $150 on hand. About $250 was required for the type of equipment desired.
Never prone to do things by halves, Al and his son Don Magdanz, proprietors of “Alsidon Farms” southeast of Osmond, unloaded a full trainload of Wyoming lambs. The train of 13 double-deck cars stopped near the Elmer Wragge hay meadow three miles northwest of Pierce.
Here the animals were unloaded and corralled prior to the two mile cross country hike to the Magdanz farm.
Between three and four thousand lambs make quite a handful for a cross country drive, but two men on horseback plus a few on foot and a truck in the rear did the job.
Worst casualty of Osmond's first year of football occurred in practice when Donald Schumacher, son of Mr. and Mrs. Herman Schumacher, lost a front tooth in scrimmage. Several other teeth were loosened but latest reports indicated they could be saved.
Delmar Neubauer was quite severely burned while working on the road. He was burning weeds when gasoline exploded and he was covered with flames, resulting in many burns severe enough to incapacitate him.
It was in the closing minutes of the football game with Wausa when Hixson took a high pass from center, fumbled in the end zone while attempting to kick, picked up the ball, threw it to Fuelberth who fumbled with Schuttler recovering to race most of the length of the field for the final touchdown. Osmond won 19-0.
65 Years Ago. . .
Mel Steen, controversial Secretary of the Nebraska Game Commission, told 155 Norfolk Rotarians and Osmond city and farm businessmen here in no uncertain terms of Nebraska’s great potential to the development of places to go and things to do for tourists. An impetuous speaker, he illustrated his hour-long talk with colored slides, — and quote obviously believed in what he said. “There ain’t no Santa Claus; we’ve got to prime the pump,” he said in urging his intent listeners to exhort their legislators to appropriate more money to develop state parks and recreational outlets.
Was football on the way out at Osmond? The coaches admitted to such a possibility, if not a probability.
The reason? Lack of players. There seemed to be no lack of interest among those who did go out for the sport. They numbered about 14, about half the number of most of their opponents. The Tigers had been plagued by injuries far above average. Potential players were spectators for a variety of reasons: heavy study schedules, work load at home, fear of injuries and elimination because of violation of training rules.
Coach Henry Van Kirk wrote an editorial in which he said in part, “I have seen boys develop favorable characteristics that otherwise would have laid dormant and therefore these boys have been able to enjoy a richer, fuller life. . . . If the idea of your boy getting hurt really is your reason for not letting him participate in football, then make sure you keep him out of your car, and even more so, don’t let him ride that tractor, as both of these result in far more numerous serious injuries than he can suffer on the football field. Let us keep football at Osmond!”
50 Years Ago. . .
Fifth graders in Osmond’s three schools were named Junior Fire Marshals in a program sponsored locally by Adkins Insurance Agency.
The students were assigned a task for each day of the week, which included inspecting their homes for fire haz - ards, pledging to observe fire safety rules and helping make persons with whom they associated aware of fire hazards. As the final phase of their training, the fifth graders of each of the schools took part in a school fire drill and while the other students went
back to school, the fifth grade pupils inspected fire equipment provided by the Osmond Volunteer Fire Department. They were presented with a Junior Fire Marshal badge and a fireman's hat and then given a ride on the fire trucks.
The Osmond Music Boosters hosted a haunted house with guided tours on Oct. 30. Tickets were purchased at the witch’s station at the Town Bowl. Admission prices where 50¢ for students in eighth grade and younger, and 75¢ for those in ninth grade and older.
Five Osmond youths received trophies for their performances in the 1975 punt, pass and kick contest conducted at Plainview under the sponsorship of Dick Grace Ford.
They were John Schmit, third, and Patrick Maxey, first, for 11-year-olds; Jeff Gast, first place, and Michael Moritz, second place, for 10-year-olds and Jim Fuelberth, second place for eight-year-olds.
The Osmond Tigerettes soundly defeated Eastern Division champ Homer to win the Lewis and Clark Conference championship. Scores of the matches were 15-10 and 15-4.
This was the first conference cham pionship for the volleyballers since the Lewis and Clark Conference was established. High scorers for the Tigerettes were Pam Warneke, Brenda Folkers and Rose Clayton with 6, 5 and 5, respectively.
25 Years Ago. . .
Osmond held its annual punt, pass and kick competition with 52 students participating. Top three place finishers (in order) in each age group were: Ages 6-7 — Caleb Eckstrom, Gene Richard Kumm, Aaron Stech; ages 8-9 — Chris Krienert, Bryce Johnson, Lane Stange; ages 10-11 — Mitchell Schultze, Aaron Gutz, Brian Krienert; ages 12-13 — Brody Friedrich, Tyler Gansebom, Cory Rutherford.
Lynn Kumm of Osmond was among cooks whose recipes were chosen for the 2001 “Taste of Home” cookbook. Lynn’s recipe, Pumpkin Chiffon Torte, was first selected for the December-January 2000 edition of the “Taste of Home” Magazine. The cookbook featured 585 home-style recipes, including every one chosen for the year 2000 issues of “Taste of Home” magazine.
10 Years Ago. . .
The Osmond Q125 celebration committee distributed funds totaling approximately 436,000 to a number of organizations in the community. The overwhelming success of the Q125 celebration in 2015 resulted in excess funds that were available to be used for the betterment of the community. Organizations receiving funds were Osmond Public Library, TeamMates, Osmond EMTs, Osmond Community School Foundation, Summerfest Committee,American Legion Post 326, Osmond Senior Citizen Center, American Legion Auxiliary Unit 326, Osmond Food Pantry, St. Mary’s Catholic Church, United Methodist Church, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Osmond SummerYouth, Osmond Fire Department, HOME Team, and Sons of the American Legion.
