130 Years Ago
January 18, 1895
We have at this office a new boys’ or misses’ shoe found ten miles west of Alliance. Owner can have same by describing and paying for this notice.
125 Years Ago
January 19, 1900
A hobo who arrived in town Monday from the grade borrowed money from Eph. Stewart, a bartender, until he could get his pay check cashed, but when this was done refused to settle the loan. This aroused Eph’s ire and he proceeded to give the fellow a threshing. This done to his satisfaction, he walked to the office of the police judge and tendered payment of a fine for fighting.
120 Years Ago
January 17, 1905
Mr. and Mrs. D. C. Taylor entertained a number of their friends at cards last evening. A very enjoyable time is reported.
115 Years Ago
January 21, 1910
This office is in receipt of a telegram, bearing the news that Alliance has been recognized at the Nebraska State Volunteer Firemen’s association held at Fremont this week, as the proper place throughout the whole state, in which to hold the 21st annual convention of the Firemen.
110 Years Ago
January 15, 1915
Guy Plerman and wife were arrested Wednesday nigh when they got into an argument in one of the rooming houses over the division of the day’s “wages.” The police were called and the pair placed under arrest. Mrs. Perlman was taken to the depot and placed upon the Denver train with a through ticket to an open port.
105 Years Ago
January 16, 1920
The attention of Chief Taylor was called to a little disagreement between friends Thursday, over the fact that one of them had loaned the other nine dollars, which had never been returned. After collecting only two dollars in many weeks on the loan of nine beans, the lender became angry and placed an attachment against the trunk and wearing apparel of the other.
100 Years Ago
January 20, 1925
Mr. Cadoo, who held up a mail car, stole $10,000 and was caught, explains as follows: “I was married only a little while ago, and wanted to make good with my wife.” A fisherman turned bootlegger, explained that his little family was getting bigger, and it was his duty to think of their future. Financially, his view was sound. He got off with a small fine, and is back at work, providing for the family.
95 Years Ago
January 21, 1930
Members of the W. C. T. U. staged a playlet entitled “Anniversary I” last Thursday to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the eighteenth amendment to the constitution which abolished the legal manufacture of liquor in America.
90 Years Ago
January 18, 1935
Alliance intends to show not just Nebraska, but the whole nation what it can do along the line of holding automobile accidents to a minimum during 1935. The city has entered a national contest for safety by means of membership in the National Safety Council.
85 Years Ago
January 16, 1940
On a commitment issues Saturday by the district court, Russell Trenkle and Cloid Crocker, both of Alliance, who were recently convicted of bootlegging charges, were arrested and lodged in the county jail on Saturday. Crocker was released Monday afternoon after payment of his fine of $100 and costs amounting to approximately $42.
80 Years Ago
January 16, 1945
Three women who live in an apartment together returned home after a midnight show Saturday to find a man asleep in a lounge chair in the living room. Horrified, they ran out of the house to a neighbor’s where they telephoned police. Officers hurried to the scene to discover that an aged man had gotten into the wrong house, sat down to relax and gone to sleep, apparently unaware of his mistake.
75 Years Ago
January 17, 1950
Visitors to the city park can now address the two park bears with familiarity. The male black bear is henceforth to be known as “Bruno”. His spouse, the slightly smaller female bear, is “Brunella”. These two names were given to the bears by Jeanenne Stilley, 11.
70 Years Ago
January 22, 1955
Rosemary Lulow of Alliance High School was selected today as the winner in the citizenship essay contest sponsored by Point of Rock Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.
65 Years Ago
January 25, 1960
Alert work by two Alliance policemen resulted in the arrest of Lynn L. Drury, 23 of Alliance, on a charge of breaking and entering early this morning.
60 Years Ago
January 23, 1965
Hemingford: A lone bandit, tall and slender with “a ruddy complexion”, held up Frank’s Liquor Store here at 8:12 p.m. Friday and escaped with about $140 from the cash register and a fifth of whiskey.
55 Years Ago
January 21, 1970
Miss Deborah Grothen and LeRoy Wigert have been named recipients of the youth leadership awards by the Alliance Elks Lodge. The two winners were announced this morning by Leonard Mayes, chairman of the scholarship committee.
50 Years Ago
January 22, 1975
When vandals recently slashed the tires on the police cruiser and stole the glass housing for the red light atop the vehicle, Hemingford’s lone police officer came up with an interim solution while the village administration awaits a replacement globe – an upside-down plastic ice cream bucket painted red fits perfectly and serves the purpose for the flashing light.
45 Years Ago
January 25, 1980
What do Alliance, Nebraska and Ocala, Florida have in common? Certainly not climate, so it must be rubber, as in Electric Hose and Rubber. And for an Ocala video crew, rubber will mean 50-60 hours of editing after the flight home early next week. Alliance was singled out for the wide variety of skills employed in the manufacture of hose here. In all, 19 occupations and more than 200 tasks will be represented on video tape.
40 Years Ago
January 16, 1985
“I’m finding facts,” said acting County Attorney William Howland in response to how his probe into allegations of irregularities at the Box Butte county jail was progressing. The allegations Howland is investigating are the use of marijuana in the jail, controlled substances being brought into the jail by trustees or work release prisoners, no searches being conducted on trustees or work release prisoners returning to the jail facility, no jail checks being done on prisoners according to jail standards, and jail logs not being kept to jail standards.
35 Years Ago
January 18, 1990
When Rod Stark graduated from Alliance High School in 1986 and joined the United States Army, little did he know that three years later he would be part of the military forces sent to Panama to oust dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega.
30 Years Ago
January 20, 1995
Box Butte County Public Defender Dean Forney filed suit against the Box Butte County Commissioners on behalf of three of his office’s employees in District Court Thursday. The action, filed against Casper (“Cap”) Brixius, Susan Lore and Don Hansen, seeks a permanent halt to the county’s recently adopted employee drug testing policy.
25 Years Ago
January 18, 2000
“I’m here because of my son,” Connie Stairs explained as she led her family in a demonstration protesting the arrest of her son, Kyle Stairs, 18, of Alliance. Mrs. Stairs said that in December of 1998 Larry Hudson, a Western Nebraska Intelligence and Narcotics Group (WING) investigator, told her son to become an informant or he would be arrested. According to Mrs. Stairs, her son refused Hudson’s request, and has been harassed by Hudson and the police department since then.
20 Years Ago
January 19, 2005
The Health Professions Club will be holding its fourth meeting at Box Butte General Hospital at 6:45 a.m., Feb. 9, Pam McDonald, administrative secretary at the hospital, said. BBGH decided to sponsor the club for all Alliance High School students after receiving a federally funded Rural Health Education Network (RHEN) grant.
15 Years Ago
January 18, 2010
On Jan. 17, many family and friends of Leah Nielson joined her in celebrating her 100th birthday at the Good Samaritan Care Center. Nielson reminisced about having grown up living “in the Sandhills near Ellsworth,” until she was a teenager.
10 Years Ago
January 21, 2015
The Alliance High School FCCLA group is participating in a project called Sewing Little Dresses for Africa. Currently the group has 44 kits and would like to continue making more dresses. They would also like to make shorts for boys.
5 Years Ago
January 26, 2020
Jon Worthman is set for his case to advance to District Court after waiving his preliminary hearing in Scotts Bluff County Court on Friday afternoon. Worthman who is charged with possession of cocaine with the intent to deliver, a class 1D felony, faces up to 50 years in prison if he is found guilty, with a mandatory minimum of two years in prison.
*Compiled from The Alliance Times-Herald Archives by Christine Melcher