BLAINE COUNTY  NEBRASKA

 Named for James G Blaine (1830-1893), an American Statesman. 
Established 5 March 1885.

Preface & Acknowledgements to the
HISTORY of BLAINE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
VOLUME 1, 1988

 

 

PREFACE - - and the writing Process

The executive members of the Blaine County History book committee:
President, Alfred Schipporeit, Secretary, Elsie, Pickering, Treasurer, Kay Anderson.

Besides the executive members, there was a host of others that contributed much time and effort by addressing and mailing brochures, doing research, writing topical material, making telephone calls, interviewing for potential stories, collecting stories, and other tasks necessary in the process of putting out a book such as this.  One begins to walk on thin ice in the recording of names, but those listed here should be given recognition for the benefit of our readers:  Lois Arnold, Jessie Ferguson, Shirley Kennedy, Dorn Simonton, Hazel Duryea, Sue Clark, Gene Sidwell, Inez Johnson, Rex Miller, Marilyn Schipporeit, Ethel Miller, Lola Shinn, Bill Dickson, Patty Kenney, Jean Ann Teahon, Sherry Mulligan, Jan Keller, Edna Spencer, Gary Dinkel, George Greenland, and Ruth Greenland. Proofreading teams were: Elsie Pickering and Jessie Ferguson; Don and Mary Ferguson; Gordon and Margaret Bradley, Dana and Mern Harsh, and Lois Arnold and Doris White.

Many others contributed much effort through the writing of many pages of material and family stories.  Some were obviously delegated to write the stories for their respective families and submitted ten to fifteen stories, some as many as twenty.

The committee is most surely indebted to all of these people, for without their combined effort, the project would not have moved as smoothly.  Material for the family story section of this book, making up about two-thirds of its content, was submitted by individuals and we believe that the stories were all written in the best interest of the reader and not used as any means to be derogative.

Many of the family stories were submitted to us typed and ready for the printer.  Primarily, names and dates were thoroughly checked.  If a name appeared with more than one spelling, the writer was contacted for the confirmation of the correct spelling.  We didn't touch dates unless, as in only several cases, the century date was obviously in error, (example: born 1980-died 1950).  We feel that we cannot be responsible for a misspelled name or a wrong date on a printer ready story since there was no original to compare it to.  We had to assume that the writer had double checked his or her material.

Only the common English words were corrected but never a sentence in which the writers expressed themselves in their own way.  It was felt that this method of expression was heritage in itself.

Stories that came in handwritten, were typed by us.  The finished work was proofread against the original and special attention was given to names and dates, but if some errors were made, we have to accept the responsibility for them.  In all, every story was read no less than three times. but still, in a book of this size, some errors may get by the proofreaders and we regret if some did, but we hope that you appreciate the magnitude of the effort required to eliminate them.

The family stories are placed in the book in alphabetical order by their surname, i. e. Smith, John and Mary.  If Mary chooses to use her maiden name in the story title, it would read: Smith John and Mary Brown.  In some cases, the family story was titled after the woman's name, and depending upon her choice, it may be titled: Smith, Mary (her married name); or Brown, Mary (her maiden name), even though John's history is in the story too.

When the book project got underway in the Spring of 1986. some began submitting their stories immediately.  As the stories continued to come in and the material for the topical section was being gathered, time went on and soon one year had passed.  At eighteen months, a deadline was set for the submission of family stories.  The response was overwhelming but unfortunately some of the stories that had been submitted earlier were already outdated.  There have been births, deaths, marriages and maybe even some divorces during this period of time, but the purpose of the book is to preserve history as it had been, knowing that more is being made every day.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Portions of the background history and material for the topical section of this book were taken from the following:
Western Nebraska Compendium of History, Reminiscences and Biography of Western Nebraska
 The Settlement of Loup & Blaine Counties by Colleen Switzer
Who's Who in Nebraska, by Thurman Smith
Writings by Carl Smith
Writings by Belle Dunn
Articles from various local newspapers like the Brewster News, Blaine County Booster, Custer County Chief, the Taylor Clarion, Ainsworth Star Journal, and maybe even others unknown to us. 

Stories and information that appeared in the Centennial booklets put out by the towns within the County.
The many scrapbooks and photo albums at our disposal through the generosity of lenders.

If there be lines or paragraphs in the book that were penned by other writers that have not been given credit, we do not mean for it to be intentional and if such a case exists, we surely apologize.  If there are family stories that were submitted to us with some material that may have been taken from another source, some with and maybe some without any acknowledgment of that source, we regret this.  We can only trust that the contributor's writings are his or her own unless otherwise stated.

Click on the appropriate box to view another page within the index - - or return to the main History Book Index.