Search billions of records on Ancestry.com









Poole Remembered
courtesy Winona Duncan Snell

..a series of articles by Winona Duncan Snell appearing in the Ravenna News in the 1990s


Early Days...

  A recent letter from Keith Buss of Gothenburg, reminded me of how we met. In 1990 he became curious about the Pool brothers after reading in an old history of Buffalo County that William.W. Pool, in 1876, came to Buffalo County, yet by 1884 was manager of a company holding 10,000 acres of land in the vicinity of the village Poole.
   Keith decided to satisfy his curiosity by doing some research.  He found much in land records, but was interested in the human element.  That was when he came to Ravenna to interview Pat Stover, Chick Tillson, Helen McInnis, and me, among others.
   There was not much I could tell him about the Pool brothers except that it seemed that my great-grandfather, A. H. Pool, and the Tillsons, felt that W. W. Pool was too much of a "boomer" for them and they withdrew from the Pool Ranch operation.  There seemed to have been no great discord between the brothers, for there was evidence of their continued social relationship.
[...details that duplicate Keith Buss' article omitted - RRS]
   In the summer of 1900 and into 1901 Vermont Savings Bank sold off parcels of the town to store owners, and the buildings were moved back.  Others purchased parcels for residences.  John S. Hanna purchased a large segment of Poole.  Dr. Bentley of Ravenna, who married Ella Pool, eldest daughter of W. W. Pool, purchased an area on the south side of the railroad tracks, known as the Bentley Addition, and he began selling lots there.  So during the summer, the buildings that had been moved off were moved back into the townsite.  In July 1900 the Post Office re-opened with W.Z. Tillson as postmaster.
   For two generations the people from the Majors community south of Pool Siding made it a working town.  The farmers came to trade and some of the farmers at retirement age moved into the village on their retirement. The fact that there was no city water or sewer, or even electricity, was of little matter to them.  They had not had these conveniences on their farms.
   A state bank opened in 1905 with S.N. Bentley as president and J. C. Miller as cashier. A Presbyterian church was started in 1907, and the District 60 school which had been located west of town was moved into town.
   The name change came in 1906 while Anna S. Sitz was postmistress.  The Union Pacific Railroad had built a depot in 1905 to serve Poole Siding, and had given it the name Poole.  This name appeared on the crossbar near the railroad tracks approaching the town and on both ends of the Depot. So to avoid confusion, the Post Office changed the name to Poole in conformity.
   The village was incorporated in 1910.  Charles E. Clark, John S. Hanna, Jimmy S. Criffield, Henry Abrams, and Joseph C. Mahoney were members of the first village board.
   I had always suspected that there would have been a livery stable in the village at some time in the early days. Keith Buss says Charlie Hanna had a livery and feed store.  It always seemed that the lot I knew as a vacant lot at the corner of Main Street and across North Avenue from the General Store must have been the location for it.  After learning that John S Hanna purchased a large segment of Poole, that seems logical, for the whole block which was last the ball diamond was most likely part of the Hanna property, as was probably the next block north.  I have not checked out land records to verify this, but I do know that Charlie Hanna lived at the corner of Main Street and Hanna Avenue and that at one time Duff Hanna lived in the house across the street north of the ball diamond.


Poole in the 1920s... a letter from Evelyn Lengkeek Miller
The following was so well-written, it is quoted as received.


   "My parents, John and Bernice Lengkeek, bought their first home just south of the [Poole] church.  My father worked as carpenter at the State Tuberculosis Hospital at Kearney.  He drove home on Saturday evenings and back to work Monday mornings.  Part of his pay was room and board at the hospital.  [Note: Workers were housed in the more recently restored FRANK HOUSE, now a museum in Kearney.]
   "I, Evelyn, was born Dec. 9, 1922 that same year. We had wonderful neighbors - just south of our place was the dark red house of Ed and Susie Pool.  They had moved there from out east and he worked on the railroad section until retiring.  They had no children, so treated me and my brothers as grandchildren.
   "The year I started to first grade, age 4, the school house was new.  We were very proud of the new brick building.  It had grades one through four in one room. My teacher was Sadie Hughes.  Mildred Meyer taught the fifth through eighth grades, and Mr. McClary taught 9 and 10.  The fourth room was used as a library.
   "The lower level was a gym with stage, and a lunch room.  The country kids took their lunch.  In town, we walked home for lunch.
   "My friends were the [children of the George] Johnsons, Opal Burton, Betty Parker, and Wilma Stover.
   "I remember long jaunts - my mother would take us down to the [South Loup] River - and we'd follow that quite a ways, looking for wild grapes or plums.  She pulled the wagon, sometimes with my brother, Harold, riding.  She also took us near the bridge to swim. When she was too busy canning, she let us go alone.  I must have been about 8 and Harold, six.  I got cured of that when a big water snake came down the river.  My younger brother, Ray, was born in Aug. 1933. 
   "My mother was a good friend of Mrs. Joe Mahoney.  He operated the [Union Pacific] Depot in Poole.  Quite often her daughter, Myrl Pesek, would come out with the grandchildren. Virginia Pesek and I had many fun times, exploring the attic or swinging in the hammock under the big, shady, cottonwood trees, or walking the tracks.  We knew what time the one-a-day train would come through.
   "When I lived there, Poole had two grocery stores, a post office, a brick bank, a repair garage, an elevator, and lumber yard.  George Duncan, who owned one grocery store, would often give my mother the over-ripe bananas in a sack.  He knew she couldn't afford them otherwise.  When George died, everyone went to the funeral at the church. It was the first time I had seen a dead person, and made quite an impression on me.
   "I was in 7th grade when my father found a small house in Kearney, so we moved in Nov. 1934.  What a thrill to have indoor plumbing and running water!"

Evelyn Lengkeek Miller
[Belle Plains, Iowa]
   Evelyn and Virginia have remained friends through the years.  Recently Virginia asked her friend to record her memories of Poole. Evelyn sent the above to Virginia, who passed it on to me.
   Our lives are made richer by the efforts of these friends.  We are grateful.  Thank you.

Poole in the 1930s...from Roy Trubl


   Roy Trubl responded to the articles about the church at Poole.  He said he, too, remembered that church and some of the events that took place there. Christmas programs came to mind, with Tubby Duncan dressed as Santa Claus passing out Christmas candy to the children.
   For many years, it seemed, Fern Zeller was in charge of all church anouncements.
   There would be a day for cutting wood for the church, when all the men and boys turned out to help while the women quilted, then served food.
   At the bazaars, he recalled that Walt Harvey served as auctioneer.
   Of all the funerals he attended at that church, the largest he remembered was for William Buske in May of 1937.  The whole community was saddened by his death, coming so suddenly by a lightning strike while working on his farm.  He had married a very popular young lady of our church, Myrtle Hughes, and they had a baby daughter.   A shocking loss to the community.
   Baseball was always a big entertainment item in the Poole community, and Roy recalls games being played in the Hughes pasture south of the Depot.  That field was in use for many years.  After the Hughes family moved, it continued while the Duncan's lived there.  Prior to that, baseball was played in the Bentley Addition.
   One of the earliest games I remember being played there was when the House of David was on tour and came to play the local team.  They made quite an impression on me, for the wearing of facial hair was not common at that time, and here comes this bunch of bearded men who could play ball so well that they could win most games using only three players - a pitcher, a catcher, and a first baseman.  A part of their exhibition was to put these three players on the field and invite all comers to try to get on base.  Few ever did. When the regular game was played, my dad, [Winona Speaking] Tubby Duncan, was pretty proud that he got a base hit off that pitcher.   Of course, the local team lost.  They had not expected to win, but to have a good game.  It was very entertaining.
   Roy also remembered the State Bank of Poole.  It was a source of great pride that the Poole bank did not close when so many other banks in the country were closing in the early 1930's, but also a terrible loss to the community when it moved to Ravenna and became The Ravenna Bank.  Roy says that he still has some of his father's shares in the bank. Frank Trubl invested in the bank of his community. Today The Ravenna Bank also has The Litchfield Bank and The Pleasanton Bank.
   Roy and his brother, Ernest, grew up on a farm four miles south of Poole on the Poole Road, and attended Sunflower School.  Roy married and moved from the area.  He now lives ten miles east of his old home, nearer Shelton.

   Hearing from Roy was a distinct pleasure. 



More from the 1920s & 30s...from Bernice Harvey Edson

   Bernice Harvey Edson, who lives in Van Nuys, California, taught in Poole in the early 1930's.  She sent some information that was helpful.  She says her mother, Lizzie Klein Harvey, had a sponge bowl with the Criffield Store imprinted on it.    Now Bernice's daughter, Jane, has it in her pottery collection.  Bernice knew that the Criffield Store was purchased by Wesley Heapy after Jimmy Criffield's death, and that Minnie Perry worked in that store.
   Bernice helped me with two other questions.  I knew that Ora Parker operated the lumber yard in Poole from 1927 until they closed the lumberyard and moved to Minden in the 1940's.  I have also read that the first lumber yard was an F. H. Gilcrest Lumber Yard and was operated by Stewart Thomas.  At a later time the Mahers lived in Poole and Mr. Maher operated the lumber yards.
   Bernice tells me that Ralph Drown married Minnie Harvey about 1912 and Ralph operated the lumber yard for several years.  Ralph and Minnie lived in the house later purchased by Ed and Susie Pool, about 1920.  The house, although in sad condition, was still standing across the street kitty-corner from the northeast corner of the ball diamond the last I knew. [ - the "new" diamond - RRS]
   Bernice also knew that the drug store and soda fountain were operated around 1912 and for a time thereafter by Mr. and Mrs. Homer Handley, who were friends of Ralph and Minnie Drown.  Later Will and Louise Eldridge ran the drug store and soda fountain and Nona worked at the soda fountain around 1920.  The Eldridges lived in the living quarters at the back of the building.  The living quarters from that building were separated and made into a small dwelling for Mrs. Jergensen in Poole around 1930, then was later moved to a lot on Grand Avenue in Ravenna where it is still used as a dwelling, according to what I was told by Birney Hughes, who seemed to have the best information on what happened to former Poole buildings.
   The Jessie Edson family were early residents of Poole.  Jessie and Sarah Edson operated a general store in a large two-story frame building.  They and their children lived on the second floor.  The building is prominent in a 1906 picture of Poole which appeared in the Ravenna News in 1956, courtesy of Mrs. George Duncan, but I have not found the original.  I never knew the building. It was gone before I knew the village well.
   Jessie Edson and his wife moved on to western Nebraska, but several of their children remained in the Poole area.  Charles N. Edson married Jennie Brabham and lived on the Poole Road about a mile and a half north of town.  Their family were Evelyn who married Earl Asher; Wilmer who married Bernice Harvey; and Francis, whom I knew as "Bud", married Margaret Stauffer.
   Another son of Jessie Edson, Leslie, lived on a Poole route southwest of Poole.  Leslie married Justine Tatum, and their children were Lillian who married Clifford Standage; Harry who married Clara Hughes; and Charles J. who married Bernice Razey.  On Leslie's farm they made a 7 hole golf course in the pasture with "skinned" greens.  Prominent Pleasanton people came to play on that golf course which was the source of much laughter and many pleasures.


A watermelon story...Jack Zeller

  What are your watermelon stories?  Everybody has one or two.  I would like to hear yours.  It is watermelon season as I write this, and I am reminded of a story Jack Zeller sent me.
   He and his friends were young men, playing on the Poole Baseball Team.  At that time they were using the ballfield in the Duncan pasture.  Tubby Duncan was a coach on the team.
   Between games, Jack and his friends would tell Tubby they wanted to go to the field to practice. It was necessary for Tubby to open the gate to the pasture to let them in. Each time they noticed that Tubby looked their vehicle over carefully as they went in.  Then again as they left, he looked it over quite carefully again.
   Tubby had a watermelon patch between the ballfield and the river. He knew that he often missed melons from his patch, which is the reason he inspected the vehicle each time the boys passed through. But they never had melons with them.
   Then one day, Tubby found a watermelon that had lodged on a sandbar in the river. Then he understood what had been happening.
   Jack and his friends had been picking watermelons and carrying them into the river to float downstream.  This one had not caught the current and had lodged.  
   Jack says they had quite sucessfully floated several melons away.  After they left the Duncan pasture, they would drive to the bridge at South Ravenna which crossed the South Loup.  There they would wait until the full number of melons floated into sight.  They would retrieve them and have melons enough for a feast.
   When one of the melons did not appear in the current, they feared they might be in trouble.  And sure enough, that ended their melon gathering for that time.
   When confronted by Tubby, they confessed to what they had done.  He was not too hard on them, but asked them not to do it again.
   After having heard some of the stories my father told me of the adventures of his youth, I'm sure he got a chuckle out of their ingenuity, and forgave them as he has been forgiven in the past.


Winona remembers Robert Leroy Stover

  Recently I received a letter from Roy Stover which made me proud to have known him at one time.
   I did not know him well, but my memory of him was of a young boy, perhaps seven or eight years old, accompanying his mother, May Stover, and his sister, Wilma, on a daily walk to the Post Office at Poole.
   In the past I have mentioned that living in a small community can have its bits of heaven and its bits of hell.  Perhaps no one knows this better than Roy.
   When I was growing up I was somewhat obese and very slow on my feet.  I dreaded recess at the rural school I attended, because too frequently the favorite game was "Tag" and I knew that if someone touched me and called, "Tag," as we went out the door I was going to be "it" all recess.  I simply could not catch anyone!  To make matters worse, my classmates would form a circle taunting me with "Hee! Hee! Hee!  Can't catch me!  Can't catch a flea in the middle of the sea!"
The sad part was - they were right.  It was not easy, and I can still feel the embarassment I felt then so many years ago.
   I have often wondered what kinds of verbal stings Roy may have suffered.  Roy was a bright boy with a slight case of cerebral palsy, which made it impossible for him to fully control his body. As he walked with his mother and his sister his arms flailed and his head and face were somtimes contorted.  It seemed to me that two block walk each way must have been a real struggle for him.
   But I did not know how he felt about it.  I did not have the good judgement to talk with him and find out how he felt. But I have wondered about him many times since I have been away from Poole.
   Now he writes to me, and tells me he graduated from the Poole School, then went on to Kearney where he graduated from high school.  Strictly on his own volition he went to a bakery owner and approached him for work after he finished high school.  The man gave him a job, and appreciated his diligence at doing work given him to do.
   Roy felt he had to get away from the area to prove his ability to succeed.  He saved his money and first went to a school in Wisconsin where he could learn how best to live with his disability.  He was able to work there assisting others more disabled than he.  Here he met a young woman bound to a wheel chair due to infantile paralysis.  They were married.
   Roy's wife was from Ohio, so they moved there nearer her parents.  He found work as a custodian for a church that had 1400 members.  No small job!
   His plan was to have a job, buy a house, have a family, and live as normal a life as possible.  I applaud his courage and his stamina, for he accomplished all of these.  His wife died a few years ago, but he has a son and a daughter who have families of their own nearby.  Since his retirement he has travelled to Europe and to China.  The China trip was on his own.  Oh, and he was able to get his driver's license at age 40!  What a lesson in courage!  Today I salute Roy Stover who accomplished his dream in spite of odds that could easily have stopped a lesser man.

Pat's Store in the 1940s

   Rod Stover wrote from Colorado Springs, Colorado with many memories of Pat's Store and Poole.
   Eggleston and Dudley were proprietors of the Poole Store during W.W.II. Dudley spent lots of time in a rocking chair behind the Post Office.  E&D had huge tabby cats weighing 16 to 17 pounds, probably to combat mice and rats.
   George Duncan had processed cream, dealing with Fairmont.  Eggleston and Dudley continued, though not too successfully.  Locals commented that Dudley was too lazy to learn how to process cream.  It was a complicated business.
   Rod remembers that the Post Office was in the front of the store, to the left as one entered.  May Stover, his grandmother, was Postmaster during the war years.  May cared for Rod, as his mother was teaching while his father was overseas.  Rod remembers having taken many afternoon naps in the sunny Post Office window.
   Eggleston and Dudley sold the store in 1946 to Tommy Morton.  Tommy Morton also processed cream and continued with Fairmont.
   Eggleston retired to his home east of Poole, where he had lots of shop space and several garages.  He had spent most of his life as a carpenter.  He made unusual things, such as fountains and statues out of concrete and broken glass.
   According to Rod, Dudley later operated the road magnet.  It was a large electro-magnet slung behind a truck, whose purpose was to pick up metal objects from the gravel roads that would pose a threat to tires. He would dump his load on a tarp in front of the store and Rod remembers there were curious things at which he enjoyed looking.  He assumes it was a County operation.  There was controversy over the operation, as some contended that the magnet would pull up, but not capture, buried chunks of metal that would then become a new hazard.
   Rod's father, Pat Stover, took over proprietorship of the store in 1947.  At the time of the purchase, the inspector did not approve of all the cats.  They had to go.
   Pat moved the Post Office to the former living quarters at the rear of the store, and installed a check-out counter and deep freeze in the former Post Office corner.  There was a glass slabbed Toledo scales, with a rotating slide rule that would allow reading a total price for the given weight on a horizontal scale allowing numerous different prices per pound.  You had to do tricky things for expensive items, such as adding two columns for a 63 cent per pound item; that is, add the 50 cent price to the 13 cent price.  There was an adding machine with a printed tape that accompanied the orders when completed.
   Pat converted the store to self-serve, but many customers were accustomed to leaving an order to return later to find it filled, so filling these orders became one of Rod's jobs, perhaps not at age 5, but certainly by age 8.


... a letter from Daniel Pokorney

   In early December, 1995, this letter arrived from Daniel Pokorney, now living in La Grande, Oregon.  I quote it in its entirity.

  "My memories of Poole start in 1960 when my brother, David, and I came to live with our grandparents, Sherman and Nellie Stickney.
   "In the fall of 1960 we started to Poole School and we rode the 'Little Bus.'  It was not a real bus, just an old car that Goldie and Billie Jean Johnson drove to pick up the families north and east of Poole.  Cliff and Leora Luce took care of the school. Cliff drove the 'Big Bus' and was the custodian.  Leora did the cooking, and what great meals we had in the basement of the school.  We went there until the consolidation about 1965 when we went to Ravenna Schools.
   "I remember many of the teachers, students, and the school plays in the basement.  It had a wonderful stage with a big roll-up curtain.
   "In the summer we played ball at the Poole ball field.  We played some teams from Ravenna, Haven's Chapel, and Pleasanton.  After the games sometimes we would get to go to the Poole Store that Pat Stover ran.  The store always had the coldest pop and the ever popular candy.
   "Many times we drove to Poole for school, or ball games by using the old sand road that ran straight east of Poole to the Stickney and Bateman farms.  Sometimes you would really get stuck in the deep sand on that road.
   "All these and other great memories are so very important to me and no matter where I travel or live, I am alway bursting with pride to say I'm from Poole, Nebraska."
A most welcome letter!

... recollections of Winona Duncan Snell

 ... including some references to "Early Days on the Cedar Creek" by Mary May Clayton Stover

...I think back and remember that I was born in 1918, yet many things remained the same, although there were already changes.
  We did have a windmill and did not have to pull water from a well.
  We had mechanized threshing machines, but still had to haul the bundles of grain in wagons to the machines.
  The "new" alfalfa crop was a staple on our farm.  1/3 of our land was planted in alfalfa and remained there for three years before being plowed under and used to raise corn or grain.  It put nitrogen into the soil, and it was important to rotate the crops every three years.
  We had the wooden plunger churn, but we also had the glass daisy churn that you held on your knee and turned the handle round and round that agitated the cream until it became butter.  We also had the wooden one pound butter mold that we pressed the butter into after churning and separating the butter from the buttermilk.
  We also cut ice and stored it in an ice house for summer use.  And we had an icebox that drained into a pan underneath that had to be emptied regularly or water spilled over on the floor.
  We also used kerosene lamps, and it was my job in the mornings was to take newspapers to wipe the smoke from the inside of the glass chimneys, then wash them in soapy water and dry them to have them ready for the night.  Of course the soap was the same kind of home made soap your grandmother describes.
  We used the cave to keep potatoes from freezing in winter. We did our own butchering, and we smoked our own bacon and hams in a smoke-house that my dad built in the side yard.
  When we butchered, we shared fresh meat with neighbors, and they shared with us when they butchered.
  My mother canned beef, and I still think those chunks of beef stuck in a glass jar, with a little salt and water added, then processed in the clothes boiler the designated time, sealed and stored in the cellar did produce the most tasty meat I have ever eaten.  I would give a lot to get hold of a jar of that meat today!  We would open a can, and we could cook noodles in the juices and have meat and noodles, or we could make a gravy of the juices and have meat, potatoes, and gravy.  Either way, it was delicious, and an easy meal to prepare.  I learned to put a meal on the table using this canned meat at a very early age.  Add some vegetables, and you have a very satisfying meal.
  The schoolhouse where I went to grade school had double desks as she described.  The ink wells had to be filled for penmanship class.  My hair was not long, so I did not have pigtails put in ink, but I have seen it done!
  By the time, (1923) I started to school, boys were required by law to attend all year long, so we did not have the bigger, older boys that came only in the winter.
  Our readers were the McGuffey Readers and I do not remember anything dull about them, because I really enjoyed reading those books.
  We still had some wild game for food, but certainly not as much as your grandmother describes.  The rabbits had not developed the disease that prevents them from being used as food today.  We often had rabbit or sometime pigeons.  My father talked of having quail and prairie chickens, but I do not remember them.  We often had pheasant.  We also had catfish a lot, because my dad ran set lines in the river, then brought the catfish home and kept them in the stock tanks for use when we wanted them.  He always cleaned the catfish.  My mother cooked them.
  I think the "oyster suppers" the men had were "mountain oysters."
  The men got together after they had castrated the hogs and had their oyster feeds.  My dad was often the cook for these events that were usually held along the river.  For some reason women were never invited.  It was not until a few years ago when I visited my nephew, Dave Johnson, in Cairo one day that I happened in unexpectedly, and he was cooking mountain oysters and I was served some for the first time in my life.  But I knew what the men were meeting to have when they had those outings on the river.  I just had never been served any.
Back to Poole in the Past...