Welcome to Baker, a ghost town in the midst of God’s Country. In awe and silence I stand staring at the hundred -year old location of the small active town of Baker that had its beginnings in the end of the century, and I wonder what it was like out there on the prairie. There must have been cabins, homes, stores and stables for the livestock. Men were working in the fields and washed clothes blowing in the wind to dry. Today there is only tall grass being rippled by the wind, fences, a well - groomed cemetery, and groups of trees on the rolling prairie. The narrow dirt road leading to the cemetery passes what was once Baker’s baseball field. The only visible remains of the town are the tombstones in the cemetery. From what I have heard and read the baseball field was located between the town of Baker and the cemetery.
Baker was located two miles southwest of the current junction of South Daktoa highway 18 and Nebraska highway 281 where the firecracker stand sits. To reach the vacant town site of Baker coming from Spencer, Nebraska, take the last gravel road leading west from highway 281 before going into South Dakota. Drive west until you see a country road (about a fourth of a mile) and take a right hand turn on to an overgrown road which leads directly to the Catholic Cemetery. From the Catholic Cemetery and looking west, you can see where the Lutheran Cemetery is located in a grove of trees. To get to that cemetery, go back to the gravel road, turn west and continue to the four way intersection and take another right hand turn. Proceed until you reach the grove of trees and the Messiah Evangelica Lutheran Cemetery. By Marita Placek Read the entire story in the latest edition of Living Here magazine. Order yours today! 888-673-1081
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John Bjarne Grindvold, of Hartington, Nebraska turned 102 years young on September 30, 2021. When interviewed he hastened to add “102 and two months”! With an unassuming personality, he looks much younger than his age and is very active. Longevity runs in the family DNA. “I have two cousins who made it to 105 and 106 years of age respectively” Grindvold says. He credits good clean living as his life’s guide. “I never smoked or drank” he said. “Well, I take that back. I did drink part of a beer in 1944. Didn’t care for it, and never felt the need to try it again.”
Grindvold sat down to talk at the Cedar County Historical Society Museum in Hartington in early December of 2021 with Historical Society president Laurie Kathol and “Living Here” magazine. He has been a member of the Society for many years and built a number of the display fixtures in the museum as well as other woodworking projects for his church. By Brad Kellogg Read the entire story in the latest edition of Living Here magazine. Order yours today! 888-673-1081 Laying prone on the ground among the thick brush and trees of the jungles in The Philippines, with bullets whizzing past their heads, a team of Native Americans spoke in their native tongue, transmitting words over radios in the Lakota language while Japanese soldiers moved about only a few hundred feet away. Code talkers representing the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Councils of Fire, also known as the Sioux Nation) spoke of the enemy’s numbers, locations, and movements amongst each other, translating the words into English to help military officers develop strategies.
Tribal members of the Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota - the three primary dialects of the Sioux Nation - served as code talkers in the South Pacific theater during World War II. Among them, Walter “Cody” John, a young iSanti Dakota (Santee Sioux), who joined the U.S. Army two months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941. It was a secret he’d keep from his children, taking it to his grave. By Tim Trudell Read the entire story in the latest edition of Living Here magazine. Order yours today! 888-673-1081 Eastern Nebraska and South Dakota are dotted with beautiful retreat spots for spiritual reflection and renewal but just across the Missouri River, among the bluffs of Northeast Sioux City, Iowa sits Trinity Heights.
To understand how Trinity Heights came to be let’s take a look at the history of the area. In 1912, when the Franciscan order came to Sioux City, they purchased a large tract of land on the northern edge of town and built a school complete with administrative offices, dormitories for staff and students, classrooms, a gymnasium and swimming pool. The original buildings housed and educated young men through their high school and college years until 1949. After the school closed it was used by the Salvatorian order as a minor seminary from 1958 to 1967 after which it was closed for good as a school. Over 2000 boys graduated high school and approximately 500 graduated college from Trinity. By Carol Rempp Read the entire story in the latest edition of Living Here magazine. Order yours today! 888-673-1081 Nestled at the foot of a wooded bluff, two miles east of Homer, Nebraska is a historical complex maintained by the Dakota County Historical Society. In this complex stands the historic O’Connor House. This fifteen-room, two-story brick home was built in the Italianate style by The O’Connor Family and is registered as a National Historical Landmark.
The O’Connor Family’s story begins in Ireland. Cornelius O’Connor immigrated with his parents from Cork County to the United States in 1829 at the age of eight. Catherine Duggan, born in Shandagan, Ireland was also eight years old when she immigrated with her family to the United States in 1831. Cornelius and Catherine were married in New York in 1852. In 1857, they left New York, traveled to Dakota County, eventually homesteading and farming east of Homer in 1863. By Marci Broyhill Read the entire story in the latest edition of Living Here magazine. Order yours today! 888-673-1081 The poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson once wrote, “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” However, if you live in the Midwest those thoughts might turn to Antique Tractor Rides!
Of course, tractor rides are not just a Midwest tradition, and they also occur throughout the summer and fall. There are groups dedicated to farm tractors and tractor rides from coast to coast, and there are many aficionados and collectors. Tractor rides are even extremely popular in England. By Brad Kellogg Read the entire story in the latest edition of Living Here magazine. Order yours today! 888-673-1081 |