The Eiffel tower, 984 feet in height, erected at Paris for the International Exposition. Blaine as Secretary of State overshadowed President Harrison throughout his term, both as shrewd politician and as a brilliant statesman. Idaho and Wyoming became states. The US census for 1890 figured at 62,500,000. Our parents were proud to aid in reaching that total.

On January 21st there was a special election held throughout the county to vote $25,000 bonds for the building of a new court house. Father got busy in our precinct with the result that all 34 votes cast were for the bond issue. This carried in the county by 45 majority and a three day celebration was held, so great was the import of the enterprise to Pierce town and county.

Neighbor Littell was elected County Sheriff with Father in on the campaign.

With Norfolk's population having reached the 2,500 mark, they had come across with $100,000 cash and $50,000 in bonds, besides a 50 acre building site, to gain the sugar factory over 20 contesting towns or cities. Father was one of the many subscribing substantially. This was to be 25% larger than the Grand Island factory and to be named "Oxnard". (Editor's note by Jack - my family and I live in the city of Oxnard, California, named for the Oxnard Brothers, who were leading figures in sugar beet production around the turn of the century. It sounds as though the Oxnard brothers must have had a hand in the Norfolk enterprise as well)

The last Indian War in the West was a Northwest Nebraska - South Dakota affair. The battle of Wounded Knee settled the war minded Sioux as well as the half-breed trouble makers, aided by some undiplomatic whites. The trumped up leader Chief Setting Bull was buried beside the hatchet.

Such were the items of interest which Father and we began to discuss around the table.

Our parents decided this spring that their 14, 12, and 10 year-olds could handle the farm work with Father's auditing. This left the lad of 16 to be free to leave his Mother's apron strings to work for a distant neighbor at the magnificent sum of $14 a month and such board as assembled by a bachelor farmer or in his absence, stirred up by memorized recipes of his Mother's cooking such as only a tired homesick hired young man might do, or ate warmed leftovers.

Father had planned to have one of us boys help Mother with her manifold house chores. We had become modern by now - having advanced from the wash-board to the hand operated Western washer. Now we might be able to man the lever with one hand while holding a book or the Youths Companion in the other, as we read an exciting continued story. Graduating suddenly from such labor to the undreamed of occupation, as he now found himself in, the "hired man" slowly but surely acquired a status in what he much later on in life learned to be "intestinal fortitude".

L.B. Baker, the lumber dealer in Battle Creek, started a small ranch on the half section joining our place on the west. Father had many dealings with him. One was taking care of several cars of livestock on the way to Chicago. On one such trip Father visited with Grandpa and other Illinois relatives on his return. Mother's records show the Bakers were her good butter and egg customers.

One watermelon time, one of us, the boldest, secretly made the loan of a couple of Mother's table knives, after which we were off with several neighbor boys to locate some melons that were reported to be juicier than our own. Getting back home, we discovered one of the knives missing. Mother mentioned the fact that one of her set of cutlery could not be located. No one appeared to have knowledge thereto. Information dribbled out to Father that we had been out on a melon steal, and with one eye frowned on such doings. The other eye was a bit kindlier, as the memory told him on such an occasion when he was a boy. His admonition was that he hoped we had not harmed or destroyed any part of the patch. Much later we confessed to Mother our part in the knife deal. She smiled as she had surmised as much and freely forgave. Such were the parents who tried to understand us, even though each one was of an entirely different makeup.

In May, a pony was bought for $40, which was an event more exciting than a new bicycle and brought as much competition for turns in riding.

With fruit trees bearing, Father was pleased to have the neighborhood sample his varied varieties. And when we say neighborhood, it meat a mile on mile area.

In November we were all at home husking corn when Walter was born on the 13th, also George's birthday. On the 14th one of us went to Pierce for 500 pounds of coal to keep the baby warm.

In trying to find where the inspiration came from to cause the name Walter Scott, to be, we do know that our Scottish teacher of the year previous had urged us to read the works of Scott. By our reference to him, Father might have been more of a Sir Walter fan than we knew. At any rate there seemed to be little debate over the selection, with the Sir lopped off.

On Christmas eve, the family drove to the Evangelical Church at Pierce to attend the exercises. H.A. Reppert, the Sunday School superintendent had the program in hand with Reverend Schwerine taking part. Our neighbor Jacob Kollmar gave a recitation in German, "Forty Years Ago". In powerful voice and old time gesture, the rafters echoed him and the laughter of his listeners.

Our teacher for the fall and winter was Miss Meade Littell, a niece of the Sheriff. Her father had soldiered under General Meade at Gettysburg, hence her unusual given name.

The Populist party, composed of the Grangers, Farmers Alliances and Knights of Labor, held their first National convention at Cincinnati. Father was quite interested and bided his time as a joiner to see how the movement clicked.

At Lincoln, W. J. Bryan was elected to Congress. He was a Democrat of the new school, a more liberal or reform movement that was striving to gain a foothold in both old parties. Bryan supported the bill to aid drouth farmers.

At Madison, Nebraska, a young attorney, Wm. V. Allen, allying himself with the new Populist organization, was striving for a seat in the US Senate (succeeding later).

At Norfolk, the sugar factory began to operate October 15th, manufacturing 1, 320,000 lbs of sugar in the 40 days of its first years run. It was a treat to visit the factory in operation, Mr. Marke and Ned were employed there.

In May, a $22,000 school building was completed at the corner of 6th and Phillip, a two teacher school.

A boom was on for sure!

At Pierce, the case of ex-County Treasurer Karl Korth was the hot news. He was found very short in funds and the state was suing the bondsmen. Karl, though a snappy, well educated sort of German, kind of heart, was an easy prey to any scheming unprincipled politician, of which there were a few and who were as guilty as he letting him take the rap. At the station, we saw him smilingly bowing to the crowd as he was taken to Lincoln for a term in the state pen.

Telephone service from Norfolk to Pierce was now established.

At the farm, our first shopping venture in Chicago was the purchase of a feed grinder and a few other articles shipped us through the kindness of Montgomery Ward & Co. All we had to do was to send a healthy money order with our request and they did the rest. We kindly assisted them by hauling the items from the depot to hour home, after several weeks of waiting passed. Senna Tea for the household and Antimony for the live stock.

At threshing time, among other grains, was 131-1/2 bushels of buckwheat which took time and considerable patience to separate from the sandburrs after a tedious garnering from a distant sandhill farm, and thanks to good milling facilities by the old stone method at Battle Creek, the flour baked into Mothers great stack of cakes, gave oomph to replace our lost energy.

While threshing was going on and accident befell brother John and "Old Fly". Riding hard, the old mare lost her footing and fell for a broken neck while John was tossed for the lost of a mount. At her burial, we freely forgave the few of her temperamentals, such as her refusal to take kindly to bridling, resulting in not a few bites on our fingers - take the bit in her teeth and forging ahead of her team mate or switching her tail over the line and holding up proceedings. To her credit, we all acknowledged her 9 years of faithful laboring for us, as Father said "pioneering with us", her by product of 7 mule colts (one of whom tried to leave its footprint on John's chest by a rear shot as he bothered too nearby), a total income from her progeny of $330, with hardly a day's illness in her career. Not without a tear we wished her happiness in horse heaven.

Mr. Inhelder, an ex-Reverend in the Evangelical Church, came on a number of Sundays to hold services at the school house. A very able, likeable, personality having a background similar to Father's, born in Switzerland, 1849. He became an American at 4, and by 17 freighted by ox-team to Denver, later becoming a preacher. Now a businessman in Pierce, he also freelanced as a preacher on occasion.

As director of the school, Father received applications yearly for the teaching job, quite often in person. Thus we older came to behold samples of beauty in the opposite sex even though as yet solely in teacher decorum. Miss Anna Mattock was the teacher hired for the coming term.

This Christmas was observed on a Friday around the little cook stove inside while a snow storm was raging on the outside. Stories in the Youth's Companion, pictures of much desired articles were leafed through the mail order catalog, along with kettles of popcorn and real store Christmas candy kept the family of assorted ages partly occupied. Father fashioned toys for the younger, as was his practice in winter days while some of the older were deep in the book of "Bill Mye's" humor, or perhaps quoting a more serious line such as, "I never knew a storm so grey it failed to have its clearing day". Father was for quoting a humorous bit of wisdom, purporting to be a negro's prayer - "Oh Lord, help me to understan' dat you-all ain't gwine to let nuthin' come my way dat you and me together can't handle".

Strikes in Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee were problems for the Harrison administration. Norfolk had no strike - had no time for them - could get along better without them. The railroaders had no grudge against the bricklayers nor they against the carpenters or any of these against the merchants, if any group might be receiving a few more dollars for net income above that of some other body. The farmers looked to the store keeper for short time credit, as needed. The merchant responded by buying and paying well for country produce. In the case of all, it was not "my" but "our" city, our vicinity, our farms, state and nation.

The Germans, the Irish, the Swedes and Danes and English sometimes contested in the use of their own tongues, but joked one another as they became "we" American. The Priest and Clergymen greeted all with a smile and at least a "God Bless You" in their hearts.

Will you say that this state was too ideal to actually have been? The answer is that as long as a status was in the majority it was possible for it to happen because it really did take place.

We have been styling it the Norfolk boom and since a boom can never happen unless it starts with cooperation we note the following as self-evident. In February, bonds were voted to aid in the building of the Norfolk and Yankton Railway, with the proviso that it be built within the year. The Oxnard Hotel and some new brewery warehouses were erected. Even an institute for the too-long-gone whiskey inebriates was opened February 10th. The first three weeks 18 patients were treated. However, not until evangelists came more and more to have their day was there a balance obtained among the imbiber and non-indulging citizenship.

On February 3rd, telegram from Erie notified us of the passing away of Grandfather Lederer, aged 83, Father attending the funeral rites. So ended the days of an ancestor whom we Lederers, Oltmans, Seidels and Pfundsteins must ever honor. With deepest gratitude for having left behind a handicapping Hinterland, for he and Grandmother's Americanizing and for their visions of a more abundant future for their descendants, it is for us to carry on.

Father's activities away from the farm were of the assessing job of Blain Precinct which brought in $65 and carpentering for the Havel's near Pierce.

In council with their 18 year old, it was decided that he work for the neighbors Wilgocki this season. Salary to be $18 a month. This was a splendid homey place and with Henry and Mrs. W ardent readers as well as strong literary leanings, the "hired man" was practically made one of the family. With eternal gratitude the young man came to absorb much of their natural culture and so widen his horizon of life.

September 13th, his birthday and vacation for a day allowed time for attending the Ringling circus at Norfolk, where with his girlfriend he celebrated sightseeing. On an afternoon in September, at the County Fair, there occurred the worst hail storm in the history of Pierce County. Of short duration, damaging all roofs and windows and buildings, also much corn, the hail, may as large as 9 oz, made it dangerous for man or beast, as a number of reported injuries confirmed. Father had never seen hail of such size in his 42 years.

Blaine had resigned as Secretary of State hoping to secure the Republican nomination, but Harrison won that contest for the Presidential candidacy. National and state politics waxed hot as the campaign advanced. The Democrats ran Cleveland and the Populists nominated James B. Weaver at the Omaha convention. The Wilgocki's Pratts and Hatches were very warm Clevelandites while Father, Littell and others were for Harrison.

How was a young man of 18 to choose when all three parties agreed their platforms were of Abe Lincoln design? Father was emphatically Republican because he believed the major part of his party stood for the common peoples rights and hoped that this wing of the party might lead to become in truth Lincoln Republicans. Election results: Cleveland 277, Harrison 145, Weaver 22. The Populists carried the states of Kansas, Colorado, Idaho and Nevada. Nebraska was honored by the cabinet appointment of J. Sterling Morton, of Nebraska City as Secretary of Agriculture.

As early lesson for some of us young bucks in the ways of politics was to carry a torch of smudgy kerosene light while trying to keep in step with "Jim" and to hurrah at a given signal. This much at least one of Lederer's helped Cleveland to become President.

The teacher Father contracted for the winter, Paul Rhode, proved to be well worthy of his hire. Under his advanced schooling and practical teaching, one of the older pupils ended his school days - graduating to a life of widening opportunity. Thank you, Paul.

The $90 for the "Hired Mans" salary was banked against his dream of becoming a railway telegrapher and station agent. Should he got to some telegraph school or try at the home town depot and learn from the agent? Yes there was something for all to look forward to this Christmas.

Teaching in early fall term was Jessie Chappell and Mary Fisher. 1992 saw the passing of two famous Americans, both outstanding poets. John Greenleaf Whittier and Walt Whitman, 85 and 72 respectively.