130 Years Ago
June 15, 1894
A drenching rain fell for several hours last night over this part of the county and the ground is now thoroughly soaked. Crops well put in are very little damaged by the dry weather and are pretty sure to come out in good shape now. This will also prove a great boon to grazing grounds and hay lands. Box Butte won’t be so bad off for crops after all this year.
125 Years Ago
June 16, 1899
A lively shooting affray occurred in the alley between Brann’s and Buechsenstein’s stores in this city Monday forenoon at about ten o’clock. The trouble was occasioned by a dispute regarding the allowance of a day’s board, ending in a slight scuffle between James Cockrell and a laborer at C. H. Sharp’s grading camp, five miles southwest. Cockrell is a timekeeper for Sharp, and immediately after the incident mentioned, came to Alliance after supplies. The aggrieved laborer also came to town with a friend, and after talked the matter over with a party of his co-workers, a decision seems to have been reached that a severe threshing would be about the proper medicine for Cockrell.
120 Years Ago
June 10, 1904
A small window in the rear of the Alliance Grocery was broken, the catch unfastened and the sash raised Wednesday night. The store was entered, the cash register robbed of two or three dollars, a valuable revolver taken and an unknown quantity of goods appropriated. There appears to be no tangible clue affording identity of the thief, but it is suspected the work of local “talent.” The patience of Messrs. Raymond & Quivey is pretty well exhausted, and justly too. Some of these times one of these intruders will bump up against a surprise that will last him a long time.
115 Years Ago
June 11, 1909
Active work has been commenced preparing for Alliance’s stockmen visitors next week. That the town is going to be filled to overflowing is already apparent. Practically everything in the way of amusements will be open and free to them. This does not include board and lodging, but about everything else in the way of necessity and entertainment is free.
110 Years Ago
June 12, 1914
Twenty-five cars from Alliance and one car from Hemingford carrying more than a hundred boosters for Alliance, comprised the party making the second Alliance advertising automobile booster trip which took place Wednesday of this week. Down in the Platte valley, J. E. Rice and the occupants of his car had quite a scare although none were hurt when in attempting to avoid a mud hole in front of a small culvert bridge Mr. Rice drove his car a little too far to the right and both wheels on the right side of the car ran off the bridge.
105 Years Ago
June 13, 1919
“The only argument against storm sewers is their cost and once this is paid it is soon forgotten,” explained Chief Engineer Grant at a public meeting called by the Community Club Wednesday night for the purpose of explaining to the tax payers the difference between sewer and surface drainage. Then he added that the trouble which accompanied surface drainage remains always.
100 Years Ago
June 13, 1924
Albert Schroor, 20 and handsome, son of supposedly wealthy parents in Holland, is in dutch for fair, and all due, so he says, to finding a pint bottle of the distilled juice of the corn. When he appeared before Police Judge L. A. Berry Wednesday afternoon, his eye still a trifle blurred and his footsteps a bit unsteady, his story was not given credence, and he was sentenced to a fine of $25 and costs.
95 Years Ago
June 11, 1929
Governor Arthur J. Weaver has accepted the invitation of the Alliance post of the Travelers Protective Association to attend their annual picnic held each summer. The governor and his family, and State Engineer Roy L. Cochran and his family will come out to northwest Nebraska for the picnic. Under present plans they will go through Alliance on Burlington passenger train No. 41 to Crawford.
90 Years Ago
June 12, 1934
An office which will be the general headquarters of the administration of the Panhandle Stampede was opened yesterday in a ground floor location in the Rumer building—on East Third Street, just off Box Butte. It is at this office to which all contestants in the rodeo program will be directed for registration and the payment of their entry fees.
85 Years Ago
June 13, 1939
Alliance electricity consumers in the 100 kilowatt hour per month bracket pay a higher bill than do customers in any other city in the state in Alliance’s population class. That was revealed by the annual survey of the average monthly electricity bill in cities, towns and villages of Nebraska, prepared by the federal power commission. Some relief is in sight, however.
80 Years Ago
June 13, 1944
Fourteen girls, combining expert horsemanship with beauty and personality, braved the threatening thunder storm Saturday afternoon to enter the Rodeo Queen parade. Miss Margaret Murphy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charley Murphy, who reside on a ranch seven miles south of Alliance, was the unanimous choice for queen of the 1944 Rodeo.
75 Years Ago
June 10, 1949
Who said Alliance couldn’t handle the convention of the Nebraska Stock Growers Association? Not the Stock Growers, nor the Cow-Belles—for they were lavish in their praise today of the manner in which things are going. “Alliance is the ideal location for the convention,” was the comment of member after member interviewed today and the handling of events up to the banquet tonight drew such superlatives as “marvelous,” “bang-up” and “amazing.”
70 Years Ago
June 12, 1954
The contract between the City of Alliance and the A.C. Smith Company of Scottsbluff for the sewer work in five new districts was negotiated Friday. A total bid of $16,844.25 had been accepted by the City Council at a Thursday meeting and the bond was furnished and approved Friday.
65 Years Ago
June 12, 1959
Box Butte County farmers were issued a stern warning today by Box Butte County Extension Agent Clifford Quick against what could be a record year for grasshoppers. The grasshopper situation in the county is getting out of hand and it is amazing how thick the hoppers are already. The hopper eggs are just beginning to hatch and the situation could become a real crisis.
60 Years Ago
June 12, 1964
Protests to the proposed dog leash ordinance, and inquiries about policy on the new liquor-by-the-drink ordinance highlighted a meeting of the Alliance City Council Thursday evening.
55 Years Ago
June 12, 1969
W. R. (Bill) Brazeal, general manager of Denver-based Community Television, Inc., announced in Alliance today the acquisition by his company of cable television systems owned by Multi-Pix, Inc. Systems included in the purchase are located in Alliance, Kimball and Ogallala, in Nebraska, Rapid City, S.D.; and Burley, Rupert and Heyburn, Idaho.
50 Years Ago
June 12, 1974
A budget increase of about 15 per cent can be expected to operate the Alliance school system for the next year it was indicated at the regular meeting of the Board of Education here Monday evening. A proposed budget has been prepared, and this will be worked on by the board and administrators at a session set next Tuesday evening.
45 Years Ago
June 12, 1979
With multi-pitched horns blasting out a mechanical concert and signs reading “65 Speed Limit, 80,000 Pounds, 65 Foot Long,” taped to their rigs, disgruntled truckers locked into a caravan Tuesday morning and crept through Alliance to protest their plight. They want lower diesel fuel prices, higher speed limits and uniform weight and length guidelines for their trailers.
40 Years Ago
June 12, 1984
For the first time in 25 years, Mary Collett Farris, from Punta Gorda, Fla., returned to Alliance to paint the downtown business windows with rodeo scenes. She sits by a box that holds old jars used to hold her paints. Mary has a paint brush for every color. As she fills each brush with the proper color, she applies the paint to the glass.
35 Years Ago
June 12, 1989
A fire hazard exists at the Alliance Fire Station. Fire Chief Bud Taylor said when the building was built in 1981 an unsealed gap was left between the top of the interior wall and the ceiling. Approximately $3,000 is in next year’s building and maintenance budget to seal the gap and fireproof the walls, Taylor said, and added at the time building was completed the building committee should have seen the gap.
30 Years Ago
June 11, 1994
For almost eight months now the Good Samaritan Health Care Center has had a large aquarium, complete with fish, which was donated by Maxine and Dean Hayward. Dean Hayward is a resident at Good Samaritan. The aquarium started with six African Cichlids, but two were killed during their spring mating season. Each fish is about six inches long and they are very colorful.
25 Years Ago
June 12, 1999
Thursday morning, Alliance’s District No. 6 Board of Education members Sandra Moore and Paul Mottl, and Alliance Public Schools Business Manager Stuart Simpson met with Education Association Negotiation Team members Leonard Hartman, Alliance High School computer teacher; John Miller, Grandview Elementary School fifth-grade teacher; and Linda Hartman, Alliance Middle School mathematics teacher to negotiate the district’s teachers’ contract. The teachers’ insurance package seemed to be the stalemate at the negotiations, with neither side accepting the other’s proposals.
20 Years Ago
June 12, 2004
Box Butte General Hospital will soon be connected with many of the hospitals throughout Nebraska by the use of a new T-1 Internet line that will be installed within the next 30 days. During Dental Days VI, June 5-6, BBGH was the first hospital in the state to have a teledentistry demonstration.
15 Years Ago
June 12, 2009
At times, reading about the War in Iraq can bring one a sense of the battlefield half a world away. For many, that battlefield is a reality. In 2006, Jakob Covey, son of David and Marsha Covey, graduated from Alliance High School. Two days later, he was shipped off to boot camp with the United States Marine Corps at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, Calif.
10 Years Ago
June 11, 2014
For the 11th consecutive year, students from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) College of Dentistry, headed west to be a part of Dental Days. A total of 231 children without dental insurance were treated in Sidney, Alliance, Gordon and Chadron June 6-7.
5 Years Ago
June 12, 2019
After having a number of questions answered by Alliance City Manager Jeff Sprock, the Alliance City Council voted to increase the budget authority for the golf course by $70,000 to cover expenditures.
*Compiled from The Alliance Times-Herald Archives by staff.