130 Years Ago
December 7, 1894
Will the ladies who so kindly sent contributions for our Chicken Pie supper please call at Bell & Acheson’s and identify their dishes? By order Soliciting Committe.
125 Years Ago
December 8, 1899
The electric light proposition in Alliance is a pretty tangled mess just at this time, and no one can definitely announce that the city will ever be so lighted.
120 Years Ago
December 2, 1904
The occupants of the tailor shop located on Box Butte avenue, between the establishments of C. A. Gleason and L. Buechsenstein, had a warm time at 5:30 o’clock Tuesday evening. W. H. Mattbies, the proprietor, was engaged in cleaning clothes with gasoline. Electric lights were used in the room, but the gasoline stove was burning. The saturated cloth caught fire in his hands so suddenly that his clothing and that upon which he was working were ignited.
115 Years Ago
December 3, 1909
Tuesday afternoon about four o’clock another accident occurred in the railroad yards, that came near resulting in the loss of another life. The unfortunate victim of the accident was Wm. Sowers. He was caught between two passenger coaches and was badly bruised and squeezed.
110 Years Ago
December 4, 1914
Myers Hobbs, son of Mr. and Mrs. O. D. Hobbs of Alliance, was attacked by a vicious hog Tuesday night on the Ward Johnson ranch forty-two miles from Alliance and received two severe gashes on the leg. An Alliance physician was called and the injured man cared for. He has been teaching school in that vicinity and it was necessary to secure another teacher for the school until he is able to resume the work.
105 Years Ago
December 2, 1919
Before the stores close on Wednesday night all of the children in the city who are in need of extra wearing apparel for the cold weather will have been supplied. The teachers in the city schools held a meeting last night and made out a list of all those youngsters who need shoes, stockings, coats, dresses or heavy coats.
100 Years Ago
December 5, 1924
When you can afford diamonds, you don’t care about them. Samuel L. Lefkowitz of New York got pretty rich and had a French dentist put some diamonds in his front teeth. Now he’s richer, and his glittering smile bores him.
95 Years Ago
December 3, 1929
Mrs. Dorothy Provost, 40, objected last week when officers incarcerated her in the woman’s ward of the county jail. Her objections were so strenuous that she went on a rampage and kicked out nearby windows and door panels of her quarters, according to jail authorities.
90 Years Ago
December 4, 1934
Hesteds Store Co., one of the outstanding Nebraska business institutions, has purchased the Brininger variety store and will close out this stock of merchandise and will restock with a class of popular priced merchandise that has made their stores so successful in 19 of the leading cities in Nebraska.
85 Years Ago
December 5, 1939
The optimism of Box Butte county’s junior farmers was shown today by the fact that 15 boys and girls who have enrolled in 4-H calf clubs have already purchased 22 of the choicest cattle in western Nebraska and have them on feed.
80 Years Ago
December 5, 1944
Sherman Hall, veteran of World War II, admitted yesterday to Sheriff Dan Hoppes that he stole the 1932 model Ford belonging to Elmer Roland, farmer of the Hemingford vicinity, according to a statement made by the sheriff last night. The car was used by Mr. Roland’s daughter to drive to school.
75 Years Ago
December 6, 1949
Unsealed Christmas greeting cards that Alliance residents mailed last year for one and one-half cents cost two cents this year, Postmaster Frank Brennan announced this morning. However, Brennan recommended first class rate of three cents for Christmas cards.
70 Years Ago
December 4, 1954
The special plane from the North Pole was on time this morning and with Santa Claus’ arrival here, the official Christmas season in Alliance started. Santa arrived promptly at 9 o’clock as he said he would in a special letter to Alliance children last week. And about 600 of the small fry were on hand to welcome him.
65 Years Ago
December 1, 1959
The Northwestern Bell Telephone Company has announced a new type directory which will be delivered late next fall to telephone customers in Alliance and Northwest Nebraska and some areas of Southwest South Dakota. The exchanges will be arranged in alphabetical order to make it easy to locate numbers.
60 Years Ago
December 5, 1964
Test drilling for oil by the Wolf Exploration Company of Denver has been completed on a second wildcat at the Cook Ranch 25 miles west of Alliance. A report from the ranch said that the second test, on Section 29 north of the ranch buildings has been abandoned as a dry hole after reaching a depth of about 4600 feet.
55 Years Ago
December 5, 1969
The Sister at St. Joseph’s Hospital and members of the Hospital Auxiliary are discussing plans of carrying out a project of “Meals on Wheels” in Alliance. Older people and persons unable to cook would be recipients.
50 Years Ago
December 5, 1974
Jimmy Wayne Howard, 25, is in maximum security at the Alliance City Jail following his return Wednesday evening from Sidney where he was apprehended ona warrant charging him with escape from custody.
45 Years Ago
December 5, 1979
Year-round classes or split shifts were t two school alternatives which received a weighty consideration during the Alliance Board of Education meeting Tuesday evening. Margheim said that since teachers’ complain about being underpaid, they could better sell the public on a pay increase if they would work all year.
40 Years Ago
December 3, 1984
All hospitals in the Panhandle report reduced hospital occupancy. According to Mark Shellabarger, administrator of Box Butte General Hospital, this is due to high medical, costs insurance company requirements of subscribers to pay a deductible and new Medicare regulations.
35 Years Ago
December 6, 1989
Featured in the December 11 issue of People Magazine is a two-page layout about Carhenge, located 1.5 miles north of Alliance on U.S. 385. A writer and photographer for the magazine were in Alliance this fall and spent several days here doing the story on Carhenge.
30 Years Ago
December 1, 1994
Eight duplexes and a triplex, consisting of 19 two-and three-bedroom units, will be constructed at 25th and Big Horn by Retro, an Omaha-based company in business for 30 years.
25 Years Ago
December 2, 1999
Record warm temperatures returned to Nebraska Panhandle on Tuesday, Nov. 30. Alliance set a new record high for Nov. 30 at 70 degrees. The previous record was 66, set in 1970.
20 Years Ago
December 3, 2004
A festive forest again invades Knight Museum tomorrow for the ninth annual Christmas Tree Festival, a few blocks away wreaths will fill the Sallows Military Museum.
15 Years Ago
December 4, 2009
Girls in grades 5 through 8 are getting a guiding hand in their lives and providing service to the community through the Girls Are Powerful (GAP) program. Maria Swenson, 2010-11 president-elect for the Alliance Chapter of Soroptimist International, said the program began this school year with 18 students.
10 Years Ago
December 4, 2014
Wednesday at 12:19 p.m., the alliance Volunteer Fire Department responded to a gas leak at the local McDonald’s. However, it wasn’t the first emergency to hit the fast food restaurant yesterday, as employees just got done putting out a small fire.
5 Years Ago
December 4, 2019
A winter storm moved through the Panhandle over the weekend, bringing with it ice, high winds and several inches of snow. Alliance Electric Line Superintendent Kirby Bridge said the conditions cause a number of outages on Saturday evening. “A lot of the problem was just the ice on the lines,” said Bridge.
*Compiled from The Alliance Times-Herald Archives by Christine Baum