BLAINE COUNTY
NEBRASKA

 Teaching to her meant teaching of manners, morals, general knowledge of the curriculum and shaping the ideals for life.  School was opened every morning with a scripture reading and prayer, not as a form but for a foundation of religion.  Mr. Homer Cox, one of Mrs. Oldham's first pupils and now pastor at Sutton, Nebraska says, "I am safe in saying, Mrs. Oldham has done more toward shaping my life than any person excepting my parents."  One winter when they were very few pupils, Mr. Oldham arranged one room of their home for public school.  They often had Sunday school there also.
            When the Sunday school was organized, Mr. Oldham was the Superintendent and Mrs. Oldham a teacher of one of the classes which often included the entire congregation.  They felt it their duty to attend all County Sunday school conventions.  They would drive miles over a hot, dusty road in a lumber wagon with their one poor over-worked team.  For thirteen years they carried on the religious work with little or no help from another person.  They were the ones who sowed the seed.¹
            During these many hardships Mrs. Oldham had sadness to bear.  Both her mother and father passed away on the same day.  Shortly after this came the terrible grief of the death of their only boy, Morris.  He was several years younger than Grace and passed away when about ten years of age.  He was a very promising lad, one to whom they ever looked forward as the mainstay of their last days of earthly life.² Mr. Homer Cox was with them after Morris passed away and her words to him show her enduring faith in the Master.  She said, "I never reallyknew how hard it was to say, 'Thy will, not mine, be done.'"  Yet she could faithfully say, "I trust my Master, and know it is best.”

  1. &  2.  Loc. Cit. Jan. 17, 1927.

            Mrs. Oldham realized the Sunday school alone would not be sufficient entertainment for the young people so her home was ever a social center for the neighborhood boys and girls.  The only other amusements outside of her home were an occasional all night dance with a few card parties between.
            The influence of Mrs. Oldham’s true Christian character will be felt as long as a pupil, friend or neighbor lives who knew her.¹ Mrs. Grace Purdum Johnson writes, “I always like to give them credit for the refinement and higher ideals that I ever received outside of my own home.²
            Their daughter married and lived on their home place in about 1904.  Mr. & Mrs. Oldham planned to retire from community life and live quietly in University Place, Nebr.  But this was not their way of living.  Soon Mrs. Oldham was a “mother” to a large group of college boys of Wesleyan.  In a short time they were both taking an active part in the Sunday school work at “Lancaster.”  They missed very few Sundays until Mrs. Oldham passed away in 1926, there to meet her son and also her daughter, Grace, who had passed on four years before her.
            The general thought of the people of “Lancaster” is expressed by an inmate:

1. Loc. Cit. Jan. 17, 1927.

2. Letter, Nov. 22, 1926.

            In the year 1885 Mr. George Brewster sent a petition to the State Congress for the establishment of a new county west of Loup County.¹ Mr. E. P. Dunn suggested the name Blaine, in honor of James G. Blaine, as their choice.² The legislature passed an act in that year forming this county.  It covered an area of seven hundred twenty square miles along the North and Middle Loup rivers.³
            In Mr. Brewster’s letter he had suggested Brewster as the county seat so it was located there.  The other parts of the county knew nothing of this action.  When it was made known in 1886 they were furious.  Even in that late age there was talk of “stringing up” Mr. Brewster.⁴ They were displeased as they did not want a county formed then because of the increase of taxes; the location of the county seat; and because they had no part in the action taken.⁵
            The first officers appointed were the commissioners, David Dale, Joseph Barton and William Schlingman.⁶ In the general election in the fall of 1886 the

1. and 4.  Riggs, E. H., letter, Dec. 30, 1926.
2. Mathews, A. E., letter, Jan. 12, 1927.
3. Sheldon, A. E., Hist. of Nebr. p. 162  

1. Riggs, E. H. letter, Jan. 12, 1927.  6. Ibid.

complete staff of officers were elected.  Wm. Smith as clerk; W. D. Akins as treasurer; M. D. Welch as attorney; A. J. Robinault, sheriff; E. H. Riggs, deputy; and Addie E. Leach Mathews as superintendent.  As the outcome of this election Blaine Center was voted to be the County seat.  This satisfied for a time the grievances of the people from the western part of the county.
            In the spring of 1887 began the second county seat fight.  After much talk and controversy Ladora won the County seat as her glory.¹
            In the short time Ladora was the county seat the first trial in the county took place there.² Mickel A. Yocum was arrested for the murder of Lincoln C. Downing on the Dismal River.
            In November of 1887, Dunning, Brewster, Ladora, and Blaine Center pooled their interests and decided to definitely locate the county seat at Brewster.  It has remained there since that time.  The excitement is now over and the county is ready for long years of gradual development.
            It has taken men of rugged quality to overcome nature’s tempers, to bring this country to its second stage of development; young men, men with vision.  The first settled communities of our country say, “Lo! We cry, we of this established community, behold our most amazing feat, our bulk, our immensity:--thinking of no better thing to boast than bigness.”³
            Lithe brawny men are still needed for the assurance of this western county’s future.  Men and women who choose the greatest occupation in life; to plant a tree; to build a home on virgin sod; to advance civilization one step farther west.

1. Riggs, E. H. Letter, Jan. 12, 1927
2. Ibid.
3. Hough, Emerson, Sas-Katch-e-wan, p. 145

            Of the total area of Blaine County only thirty-three percent is tillable and the rest is fit for grazing purposes only.¹ It can easily be seen that the occupation of the people must be agriculture and ranching combined.  Either alone would not support a family.
            Another part of the county began to grow and prosper at this time.  In 1886 the C. B. & Q. Railroad Co. built a track to the Dismal River.  In 1887 they crossed the river, just opposite from the old postoffice called Lena.² A town was laid out at this point by the Lincoln Land and Farmsite Co.³ It was named Dunning in honor of two families of pioneers by that name.  They were two brothers, Sam and R. O., who were faithful citizens in the development of Dunning.  One daughter of Sam Dunning, now Mrs. Wilmer West, lives at Atkinson, Nebraska; another Mrs. Frank Squire lives at Boise, Idaho.⁴
            The first store in Dunning was stocked by Mr. Harris.  This town has grown quite rapidly from that time to this.  This growth is due a very great deal to the hinterland around it.  All shipping from German Valley, Hawley Flatts, Pleasant Valley and Edith Valley is taken through Dunning.  The population in 1900 was estimated at fifty-five.⁵

1. Sheldon, A. E. Hist. of Nebr. p. 162
2. Fields, Floyd, Dec. 24, 1926.
3. Loc. Cit.
4. Ibid.
5. Sheldon, A. E. Hist. of Nebr. p. 18.

            Mr. Fletcher, Mr. E. H. Riggs and Mr. Turner are other important men in Brewster’s history.
            The Buffalo Flatts have developed to a close equal of German Valley and Pleasant Valley.  Many beautifully cultivated farms give proof that some day agriculture will be the only occupation of the sandhills.  Many acres of alfalfa wave their purple plumes over the last resting place of the buffalo grass.  Several homes have their own electric light system; a few have radios.  The latter gives the proper connection between the hills’ solitudes, its peace, its independence, and the interests of the world, programs of music and literature, lectures, news and reports.  The automobile blots out the distance to the railway.  Life may progress here in tranquil seclusion but at a few hours notice one may be in any city of the state.
            Purdum is as yet a very small village.  There has been no need for a larger town as yet, for the farm supplies most of the needs of humanity.  Consequently Purdum has one store, a bank, a postoffice, a garage, two amusement halls and three residences.
            For a number of years no one mentioned Purdum without the immediate connection with the name of Cox. 

1.  Op. Cit. p. 163

Mr. G. H. Cox, the eldest son of Levi Cox, did not find his greatest ambitions expressed in farming.  He worked with his father until 1900 when he was appointed postmaster.  He then built his first store, twelve by fourteen feet.¹ He married Miss Gertrude Keller and together they formed a wide circle of friends while building up a wonderful business reputation.  The store and postoffice was always open, being opened any time of the night or Sundays if necessity so demanded.  Mr. Cox is a member of the bank, and a friend and adviser to many, many people.
            This everlasting work was efficiently and orderly done for twenty-five years.  In 1925 Mr. & Mrs. Cox moved to College View to remove the load of responsibility.  They went back for a time in the fall of 1926 to be with his father after his mother’s death.  Their oldest son is developing a modern farm from his grandfather’s first home and the other boy and only girl are still living at Purdum.
            Mr. A. H. Schlasman is another man closely connected with the life of Purdum.  He has lived in Blaine County since 1885.² He has always been a warm, responsive friend to anyone in need and proved himself a real citizen when acting as sheriff in 1887.  He was the first and only sheriff of Blaine county who was obliged to conduct a prisoner from Blaine County to the State penitentiary.³ These few are only typical of the many who were instrumental in the development of this county to its present stage.

          The land where the only art is nature’s art painted in the glory of the sunrise and the sunset; where the rich blendings of purple, yellow and brown clothe its wide expanses; the land which requires a fight to win, that’s Blaine County.

1, 2, & 3, Western Nebraska; 4. Anonymous.  

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       Bibliography in Section 5