Arnold Area Historical Museum

06/12/2026

We are so grateful to be Still Growing with the continued support of another early 100 for $1,000 donor!!!

06/09/2026

From being one of the early donors in 100 for $1,000 to now being part of Still Growing, this continued support means so much! Thank you for being part of both!!

06/08/2026

06/04/2026

We are so grateful for the continued support and generosity as this project keeps growing. Thank you for being part of it!

06/04/2026

Friends from the West

Longtime readers will recall that in April of 2024 we began telling the story of Dan Haskell and his life-long experiences in the Arnold area (beginning in 1875). Then in July of 2024, we introduced the Schmitz family as friends from the east and shared their experiences as they began homesteading on Cliff Table in 1883.

It is now time to learn about the lives of our friends from the west – the pioneers from Garfield Table. I do not use the word friends lightly, as these people become very real as one invests in understanding their lives.

We know of the Haskell and Schmitz families because members of those families wrote books telling what life was like. These books enabled us to view their lives chronologically. Our source of information on our neighbors from the west is Garfield Stories, a 251-page softbound book. The material for this book is taken from hundreds of letters and stories submitted by Garfield residents. These wonderful, personal accounts do not lend themselves to a chronological presentation.

I say this to prepare the reader for a somewhat chronological, but rather random, presentation of interesting stories from our Garfield friends. I started preparing for this project by searching for the year 1884 in Garfield Stories to identify the first settlers. I found the following list of families under the heading “Those settling as early as 1884” were Auble, Hughes, Fox, Miller, Smith, Gill and Johnson. The next time I looked for information, I decided to try one year earlier, and found the story of Jake Smith (grandfather of Max, Bobbie, and Don) coming to Nebraska with his family in 1883 at age 18. In 1886, Jake was old enough to claim a quarter section of land and by 1889 had a threshing business and a serious interest in a young lady named Stella Dillon.

“Jake and Stella's courtship was typical of pioneer times; it would not be labeled romantic by pre­sent day standards. During the late summer, Jake was kept very busy with his threshing business. He seldom saw Stella more than once a month. Stella lived in the most north easterly section of Lincoln County.

“It seems that on November 13, 1889, Jake had just finished threshing for the day when he announced, ‘Well come on boys, if you want to go to my wedding!’ No one took Jake's remark serious and he started wal­king alone across the prairie hills to the Dillon homestead. Later, the men discovered that Jake had issued a bonafide, impromptu wedding invitation, Jake and Stella were married that night in the Dillon home in the presence of a few relatives.” (Garfield Stories, p 92)

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I am perplexed that they were threshing in November. Comments welcome!

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If you have stories or pictures to share, please contact me at [email protected] or 308-870-6138.

06/01/2026

Thank you!!!!

05/29/2026

More on School Names

At the risk of overdoing a topic, I want to share some new (to me) information. I have long been fascinated by the repetitions of key words in our rural school names. When I recently learned of a new name duplication, I just had to share it.

As I mentioned last week, the material provided by Molly Nightingale enlightened me to the fact that Lincoln County District 113, in the northeast corner of Lincoln County, was known as Pleasant Hill (also Holt and Daily).

The current Arnold District 89 is composed of the original District 89 and 33 surrounding districts that chose to be annexed into District 89. Twenty-three of these were in Custer County, five in Logan County and five in Lincoln County. This offers a great opportunity for name duplication.

The names the pioneers used revealed that they loved things pleasant, peaceful and beautiful. They were people of hope. Hope focuses on such things. These names reveal how they saw the area and their approach to life.

Within the 33 official school names, the descriptor “pleasant” was used 6 times. It described hills, vales, valleys, dells and views. Thus we had Pleasant Vale, Pleasant Valley, two Pleasant Hills, a Pleasant View and a Pleasant Dell. We even had two Prairie Dells.

Dell is not a common word to most of us so I looked it up. I love what is described: a small, secluded valley or hollow, often characterized by lush vegetation and sometimes partially covered in trees.

Other geographic names I enjoy are Cedar Ridge, Lone Tree and High Point,

For all the effort given to assigning pleasing and optimistic names, the locals often defaulted to the name of a local family. Family names on our list include Weber, Simpson, Gill, Hircock, Imboden and Steele in Logan County; Steel, Mackley, Schuck, Gallington, Wood, Rosentrater, Hall and Bassett in Custer County and Kilmer, Daily, Holt, and Hoy in Lincoln County.

Lincoln County schools take the lead in providing building remnants. Pleasant Hill (aka Holt or Daily), District 113, provides a nearly complete foundation and a concrete porch floor. Prairie View, District 132, provides a set of steps. Pleasant Vale, District 6 in Logan County displays basement stairs.

05/25/2026

Our 100 for $1,000: Still Growing recognitions begin with Kristi & Rich Dvorak, who have given in honor of the Stupplebeen family. We are so grateful this campaign is still growing!!!