130 Years Ago
August 24, 1894
The members of the Alliance Cornet band have thought best to have future open air band concerts occur on Wednesday evenings. The next will be given next Wednesday evening, August 29th, commencing at seven o’clock, at the intersection of Wyoming and Box Butte avenues.
125 Years Ago
August 18, 1899
Taxes in the city of Alliance will be higher for the year 1899 than previously, the total levy being seventy-two mills. This is caused by an increase most all along the line. The school levy for this year is thirty mills—ten higher than last year. The state and county levies are also some higher, the former being placed at eight mills, the county fifteen. The balance of the sum total is made up from bond taxes.
120 Years Ago
August 23, 1904
Yesterday afternoon during the absence of the family the residence of George Snyder, in East Alliance was broken into, the thief breaking a pane of glass and entering through the window. Something like $12 or $14 in silver was located by the marauder and taken, which seems to be about all the property disturbed. So far as we have heard, there is no clue to the thief.
115 Years Ago
August 20, 1909
The ball game Tuesday afternoon on the local diamond, between the Omaha All Stars and the Alliance Red Sox, proved to be a rather one sided affair, being won by the local boys by a score of 11 to 3. A good sized crowd witnessed the game.
110 Years Ago
August 21, 1914
The drought that has kept this section of the country in a merciless grip for the past several weeks was broken Wednesday night by a heavy downpour of rain that swept over the entire part of the country. The bulk of the storm passed to the west and south of Alliance and a light rain visited the sand hills to the east.
105 Years Ago
August 22, 1919
Mrs. Ida Cusik was fined $55 in police court this morning on a complaint filed by the police chief that she had failed to report the prevalence of small pox in her family when the disease was known to exist for more than three weeks. This is the first case where a fine has been imposed on the law making it compulsory to report contagious diseases and the officers state that it will not be the last if conditions in this regard are not speedily improved.
100 Years Ago
August 22, 1924
W. J. Minnick, living nine miles northeast of Alliance, is the first Box Butte county man to learn that hunting wild duck out of season is a most expensive pastime. John Q. Holmes of Orleans, Neb., United States game warden, and Peter J. Varley of Syracuse, Neb., state deputy game warden, who came to this section of the state from Oshkosh the first of the week, came upon Mr. Minnick in the act of hunting for game Wednesday afternoon, and proceeded to clamp down upon him.
95 Years Ago
August 20, 1929
Fire of undetermined origin swept through most of the second floor of the Rumer building early this morning to cause damage estimated at more than $30,000. The blaze started in a vacant room on the east end of the second floor, ate in the Kubista studio and rapidly moved through several other second floor rooms to destroy furnishings and to completely gut the east half of the top story of the Rumer building.
90 Years Ago
August 21, 1934
Unpaid bills for labor, lumber and other building materials that went into the construction of the Alliance Amusement Park total $3,000. Part of this was due to the two windstorms that wrecked the grandstands before they were finished and the balance came from the withdrawal of CWA labor when the work was only half finished necessitating the employment of workmen for several weeks at the cost of the association when free labor had been assured. These bills must be paid. They are just bills and the laborers and material men need their money.
85 Years Ago
August 22, 1939
Admitting that he is being urged in several quarters to seek the democratic nomination for governor, State Senator Harry E. Gantz of Alliance Monday did not commit himself. He said he had received several letters, some of them from eastern Nebraska, urging him to file.
80 Years Ago
August 22, 1944
Sgt. Stanley R. Jones has been missing in action over Germany since July 20, friends in Alliance have been notified by his mother, Mrs. G. S. Maynard of Kamloops, B. C. Sgt. Jones had made his home in Alliance with Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Trusty for the past six years, during which time he worked at several ranches in the Alliance and Hyannis vicinities and had a wide acquaintance in this area.
75 Years Ago
August 23, 1949
Businessmen of Alliance are interested in faster mail service from Alliance to Chadron, Hay Springs, Rushville and Gordon, and are trying to find out if the mail can be carried by bus.
70 Years Ago
August 21, 1954
A contest to find the oldest sewing machine in Northwest Nebraska was concluded this week with the presentation of an 85-year-old machine to the Alliance Museum. Mrs. Ed Stamper’s, of Rushville, entry was judged the winner. The old machine, an open-arm Wheeler and Wilson model, belonged to Mrs. Stamper’s father, Scott Brown, Rushville Angus breeder, who purchased it for $5 about 25 years ago from a family that was moving away.
65 Years Ago
August 21, 1959
It rained in Alliance Thursday night, but hardly enough to mention. Some lightning accompanied the Thursday rain and about 6 p.m. one particularly lethal bolt knocked Martin Jacobson to the ground at his home. Jacobson was confined to his bed Thursday evening but was up and about this morning.
60 Years Ago
August 21, 1964
The Alliance City Council Thursday night decided that more stringent enforcement of the present dog ordinance might make a new “leash law” unnecessary, and assumed a wait and see attitude.
55 Years Ago
August 21, 1969
At a special meeting Wednesday afternoon, the Box Butte County Commissioners re-set the mill levy, adjusting it lower as a result of a 52 percent raise in rural agricultural land valuation by the State Board of Equalization. As set, the county levy for the next year will be 11.92 mills ($11.92 in taxes for each $1,000 of assessed property value).
50 Years Ago
August 20, 1974
Box Butte County Attorney Paul Empson will file objections in district court on behalf of the county commissioners to an order from the State Fire Marshal’s office regarding fire safety improvements to the courthouse.
45 Years Ago
August 20, 1979
Frank W. Whetzal, 59, of Rushville has been announced as the newly-appointed county extension agent of Box Butte County, effective Oct. 1. The announcement was made Monday by Dick Bloom of Alliance, Box Butte County Extension Board president.
40 Years Ago
August 20, 1984
A train derailment, which tumbled 13 loaded Burlington Northern Railroad cars from tracks about three miles southeast of Hemingford Saturday evening, was caused by a “burned off journal,” according to BN-Alliance Division assistant superintendent—administration Jerry A. Pinkepank. “There was some failure in the bearing that supports the wheel and as a result, it overheated,” Pinkepank said.
35 Years Ago
August 21, 1989
Fire officials from the Alliance Volunteer Fire Department and the Nebraska State Fire Marshal’s office are investigating the cause of a fire that destroyed an unoccupied house at 804 Box Butte Avenue early Sunday. Alliance Fire Chief Bud Taylor said the house was not occupied at the time of the fire and was in the process of being remodeled. Firefighters were summoned to the house at 2:35 a.m.
30 Years Ago
August 22, 1994
Firemen watched as an old District 124 schoolhouse was burned to the ground Saturday about five miles south of town. The school house was used as a drill exercise for the Alliance Volunteer Fire Department to keep in practice.
25 Years Ago
August 21, 1999
Grain silos towering over Hemingford appear to have ample room, yet a golden pile of wheat reveals the elevator’s lack of space. Throughout Nebraska last month’s wheat crop still remains outside protective bins at many elevators, Farmer’s Co-op in Hemingford mirrors this state-wide storage shortage.
20 Years Ago
August 21, 2004
Few know the history of ancient Greece. Being that the modern-day Olympics are in Athens, many think that the ancient Olympics originated in Athens. Shannan Stewart, an Alliance High School 1996 graduate who studies the Hellenistic period, chuckles each time the United States media implies that the Olympics originated in Athens. Stewart, having been in Greece this past summer, said she has been to the site of the ancient Olympics. She said the area still has ruins from the old Olympics.
15 Years Ago
August 21, 2009
Thursday morning at Carhenge, a television production crew began setting up equipment to film footage for a commercial. The team of 20 people—actors, producers and film crew—came to Alliance from Olathe, Kan. They are affiliated with Garmin, an international company specializing in Global Positioning Systems with headquarter officers in Olathe.
10 Years Ago
August 21, 2014
Before any expansion can occur, the Alliance Municipal Airport will need a new sourece of water. The City, along with airport personnel and airport engineers from M.C. Schaff are currently examining several options to alleviate the problem.
5 Years Ago
August 21, 2019
The State Chamber visited Alliance recently, sharing a legislative update, as well as an overview of Blueprint Nebraska, with business owners and community leaders who attended the Perfect Blend Forum, hosted by the Alliance Chamber of Commerce and Box Butte Development Corporation.
*Compiled from The Alliance Times-Herald Archives by staff.