130 Years Ago
August 28, 1896
The Entre Nous club is the newest club in the city at last accounts. The membership is understood to be limited to six and consists of the Misses LaVaughn and Eda Phelan, Kathleen Elmore, Lizzie, Minnie and Kate Shetler. The club meets each Wednesday afternoon to sew or do fancy work.
125 Years Ago
August 30, 1901
The Spatula, a monthly magazine for druggists, and published at Boston, Mass., in its latest issue has the following mention of one of Alliance’s enterprising drug stores: “A tasy 12-page soda menu, printed in red and black on white paper, comes to us from the Eagle Pharmacy, Alliance, Nebr. It is daintily conceived and reasonably well executed.”
120 Years Ago
August 31, 1906
“Love laughs at locksmiths” and so does James M. Donovan. Last night Donovan made his escape from the structure known as the county jail. He retired at eleven o’clock but when he arose from his slumbers, no one knows. The mechanism used to lock the door of his cell seemed to have failed to make connections and left the door so he could put it back a few inches.
115 Years Ago
September 1, 1911
Silos are unquestionably so desirable for the section and so sure a method of saving the most possible from a crop, regardless of season conditions, that they are certainly a solution soon to be generally adopted throughout this section. E. I. Gregg & Son are the first that we know of to put up a silo in Box Butte County, this being located on the Geo. Gaddis ranch, five miles south of Alliance.
110 Years Ago
September 1, 1916
All shipments of livestock from this part of the country, as well as all parts of the United States, stopped today as a result of the embargo placed on livestock and perishable freight. Owners refuse to ship at their own risk and stand chances of having to unload and feed the stock between here and Omaha.
105 Years Ago
August 30, 1921
Members of the executive committee of the local American Legion post and of the red Cross advisory board are making preparations to assist the “cleanup squad,” who will be in Alliance September 5 and 6 to render aid to ex-service men in the adjustment of compensation claims and other matters in which they may need assistance. Alliance will be the headquarters for Box Butte, Cheyenne, the south half of Sheridan county, and Grant and Garden counties.
100 Years Ago
August 31, 1926
While Box Butte farmers wonder when it’s going to rain, True Miller cranks the old engine and sits down to watch the water flow over his corn and potato fields and smiles. True bought 200 acres south of the lake and during the winter he installed a pumping plant. This spring he made a lot of irrigation ditches and now that he needs a little more moisture, he turns on the power and – presto! – the water is on the land.
95 Years Ago
September 1, 1931
The new law that makes it necessary for drivers of trucks containing cattle or other livestock to have papers showing the point of origin and destination of their shipments is looked upon with great favor by large-scale ranch-men. These ranch-men expect the new law to be a great deterrent to stealing cattle and trucking them quickly away.
90 Years Ago
August 28, 1936
State Engineer A. C. Tilley has awarded the $68,716 contract for construction of the West Third street underpass to the George W. Condon company of Omaha, low bidder when bids were called last June 26. Final award of the contract had been delayed pending the settlement of damage claims and the final approval of a three-way agreement between the state, the city and the Burlington.
85 Years Ago
August 26, 1941
Attorney William H. Hein of Alliance has been appointed referral agent for Box Butte County under a plan now being inaugurated by the Nebraska State Bar Association for the provision of legal representation and assistance to persons who serve in the military, naval marine forces, and their dependents.
80 Years Ago
August 30, 1946
O. W. Basye has sold his auto paint and body shop and one-story brick building at the corner of Big Horn and Third Street to James A. and John A. Robertson. The price was $17,000. James A Robertson has been with the Alliance Creamery company for the past 14 years and his brother, John A. has been in the automobile business in Chicago for many years.
75 Years Ago
August 29, 1951
Nurses of the Nebraska State Nurses Association today began a 2-day training course at St. Joseph Hospital on the nursing aspects of atomic warfare. The training course is a part of the civil defense program and will give nurses a brief scientific background on the construction of the atomic bomb and its damages after explosion in addition to more specific details of radiation and emergency care.
70 Years Ago
August 28, 1956
Representatives of the Smokey Mountain Jamboree, a national radio and television show which is being sponsored by the Alliance Volunteer Fire Department next month, are in Alliance helping the Fire Department with advance ticket sales.
65 Years Ago
August 29, 1961
The Denver Chapter of the Sports Car Club of America has offered to provide Alliance with a 2-day race meet. A course 2.2 miles long at the Municipal Airport was approved for the event here Monday afternoon by Ron Hunter and Charles Trowbridge, members of the Denver club.
60 Years Ago
September 2, 1966
A major change is ahead in the City of Alliance traffic pattern. The Alliance City Council acted Thursday evening to create a system of one-way streets, and to advance the speed limit from 20 to 30 miles per hour in the downtown business district.
55 Years Ago
August 31, 1971
City Manager R. W. Laing and Mayor Neil Colerick met with the county commissioners Monday. The possibilities of turning the city ambulance service, presently performed by the City Police, over to a private individual was discussed. The main reason for the desired change-over is because it takes a policeman away from his regular duties.
50 Years Ago
August 31, 1976
The first shipment of coal cars to the new SWEPCO plant located four miles east of Alliance were due to be delivered to the construction site Tuesday, according to Mike Jones, manager of the project.
45 Years Ago
September 4, 1981
A final step tor the way for ownership of land within Alliance by mobile home owners was approved by the City Council at a relatively quiet meeting Thursday evening.
40 Years Ago
September 1, 1986
The testing of the city’s 30-megawatt transformer turned out to be successful Friday, according to Dick Bacon, Alliance’s electrical superintendent who was in Jordan, Minn., for the testing of the trasnformer. The transformer is scheduled to be loaded Tuesday on a truck and is expected to be in Alliance late Friday evening.
35 Years Ago
August 30, 1991
After two long worried weeks Howard Lotspeich received the news that he had earned his high school diploma. Lotspeich, 89, said that waiting for the results of his test had been the longest two weeks he can remember.
30 Years Ago
August 29, 1996
Callers to the Times-Herald Information Plus poll were heavily in favor of seeing an overpass built at 10th Street. Saturday’s Times-Herald asked readers to call one of three phone numbers to express their choice for a site of the grade separation proposed by Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the city, and county.
25 Years Ago
August 28, 2001
The Alliance Volunteer Fire Department is aware of an organization called the Association of Disabled Firefighters (ADF) is soliciting donations by phone, in the Alliance area. “We got a phone call from an area resident asking about the legitimacy of the organization’s fund-raising,” he explained. “We had not heard of the organization at all, and they never contacted us to let us know that they would be in our area.”
20 Years Ago
August 30, 2006
The Box Butte General Hospital Board of Trustees, following an executive session where they discussed the possible purchase by the hospital of a medical building at 2307 Box Butte Avenue owned by Dr. Bruce Forney and Wendall Fairbanks, voted in open session to decline the offer to purchase the building.
15 Years Ago
August 31, 2011
According to the Nebraska Department of Education initial Nebraska State Accountability (NeSA) results for Reading and Mathematics, a high percentage in several Alliance Public Schools testing groups were below the State standards in the two subjects.
10 Years Ago
August 30, 2016
Community development is crucial towards growing any city or town into a thriving population of positive adaptations. Alliance’s Housing Task Force is one of them. Based on a study in 2014, ending in November of that year, there are more houses on the market today than in 2014, which is a sign of the current economy due to transitioning BNSF employees, school starting up, and various other factors.
5 Years Ago
September 1, 2021
The Alliance Police Department has implemented a new program! Loosely based on the well-known board game “Monopoly,” we proudly introduce “Criminopoly.” Criminopoly is a creative way to help our department work toward achieving three of the goals listed in our Strategic Plan: Community Partnership, Prevent Crime and Disorder and Enhance Police Effectivity, Efficiency and Euphoria.
*Compiled from The Alliance Times-Herald Archives by Christine Melcher