Seventeen alums gather for 65th CHS Reunion

The Class of 1956 at Chadron High School gathered last weekend (7/9/16) at the American Legion Club in Chadron for their 60-year class reunion.  For a larger version of this image, along with a collection of other school photos, follow this link to:  Chadron Schools Gallery.

A 1947 CHS Autograph Register & Roster booklet

by Larry Miller

Some years back, Bob Galey of Whitney, Nebraska passed along this item that he had found at an auction in Chadron. We "re-discovered" it while rummaging through some envelopes of collectibles.

We were impressed that the folks at what was then called the "White Bank" at the intersection of 2nd and Main in Chadron (officially known as the Bank of Chadron) would provide 1947 graduates at Chadron High School with a dandy-looking little booklet called an Autograph Register and Roster - 1947.

Inside we found signatures of folks like Joe Folsom, Everett Thompson, Lois Fountain, Harold Ostrander and Betty Feldhausen — among others — along with a few inspirational poems and lots of room for notes about athletics and music, as well as other school activities.

Most delightful, however, was a roster of Faculty and Senior Class members from that era.

Long-time Superintendent H. A. "Heinie" Schroeder was on the job then, and the Principal was Dora Taylor.   Among the 13 faculty members we found listed were some we knew, including Edna Keal, Vera Krantz, Merle Lecher, Esther Miller, James Myers, and Curtis Thompson.   We recently did a story about Naomi Wilson, who was also listed among the faculty.  That was a revelation to us, since we knew only of her classroom service at West Ward and Chadron Prep.  

You may want to peruse the listing of 1947 seniors at Chadron High School.  Perhaps you'll come across some names of folks you know!

And we liked the Class Motto: "Something Attempted. Something Done."

Castek family of teachers had roots in Dawes County

Many mid-20th century rural school students will remember the name John Castek, who was a long-time Dawes County School Superintendent.  Born in 1894, his parents immigrated from Moravia, the region now known as the Czech Republic, and they settled on land south of Chadron.  The elder Castek was also named John, and his biography was among those included in the 1909 Compendium of History Reminiscence and Biography of Western Nebraska distributed by the Alden Publishing Company of Chicago.  That biography is shared here.

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John Castek, one of the prominent and successful farmers of Dawes county, Nebraska, comes of Bohemian stock, and is a worthy representative of the best traits of his race and blood.

He was born on a farm in Moravia in 1863. His father was a carpenter who lived and died in his native land. Our subject grew up there until he was sixteen years of age, then came to America, landing in New York city in June, 1880, and came west at once to Colfax county, Nebraska, following farm work in the eastern part of the state for several years.

In the spring of 1886 he moved to Dawes county, locating on his present farm, in section 31, township 31, range 48, and there built a dugout and hatched for awhile. His first team were oxen, and he owned a half interest in a plow and wagon, with which the farm was broken up and crops put in. Soon after coming here the drouths struck the section, and as he was unable to raise anything on his land he tried to sell out, offering his place for two hundred dollars, but even at that price could get no buyer so was compelled to stay. He kept on trying to improve his farm, and in '89 had the finest prospects for a good crop and was getting ready to harvest, when a hail storm struck the region and completely ruined his crop.

Mr. and Mrs. John Castek

The next year he took out hail insurance and mortgaged his team to pay the assessment, and was again hailed out, but when he tried to collect damage, he was unable to get a cent, but he kept on carrying insurance for several years, but for some reason dropped it one year, and that very year he was again completely hailed out, having this experience for four years altogether.

During late years he has raised good crops, and he has plenty of hay and pasture for his cattle of which he keeps a large number, most of the time having two hundred head, besides running them for other farmers. He has about nine horses and his range is admirably adapted to stock raising of all kinds.

In 1889 Mr. Castek was married to Miss Anny Potmesil, and she died June 16, 1896, leaving a family of two children, Francis, born August 14, 1892; and John, born September 6, 1894.

In 1898 Mr. Castek was married again, to Miss Jennie Kratochvil, born in Bohemia, daughter of Joseph Kratochvil. Mrs. Castek came to America in 1893 together with a sister, they coming to Chadron, Dawes county, Nebraska.

Mr. Castek spends all his time on his ranch building up his home, and is one of the well-to-do and progressive agriculturists in the county. He is a Republican, and keeps well up with the time in politics locally. He is a genial, whole-souled gentleman and is full of social qualities that bring him many friends. On another page of this volume will be found a picture of their residence and also portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Castek.

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Note:  The younger John Castek received a good formal education, followed by teaching jobs in North Dakota, South Dakota.  He was selected Dawes County School Superintendent and served in that capacity for many years.  His wife, Mildred, was a long-time and well-known legal secretary in Chadron.  Their son, Jack, graduated from Chadron High School in 1961 and also pursued a long and successful career in education.

Ex-Chadronite who excelled in radio dies at age 78

By CON MARSHALL

John Rook  (1937-2016)

A former Chadron resident, John Harlan Rook, who was widely known as a disc jockey and for his radio programming skills and also developed close relationships with numerous entertainment legends,  died on March 1 in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, at age 78.

He had lived in Coeur d’Alene since he and partners bought radio station KCDA there in 1983. His group also owned stations in Spokane and Pasco, Wash., and Las Vegas for several years.

  

Rook may have climbed as high in his chosen profession and received as many honors as any one who graduated from high school in Chadron.

Some of his honors included radio “Man of the Year” by Variety Magazine and “Program Director of the Year” by Billboard. He also was named “Radio Consultant of the Year” in 1977 and was voted by readers of Radio and Records as “one of the most influential programmers of the past 20 years” in 1994.

Four years later, Radio & Records honored him as one of “Radio’s Legends.”

During much of his career in radio he was known as Johnny Rowe.

His father, Gordon Rook, was a native of Chadron and his mother, Della, was native of Kentucky. The children also included Charley Rook, who was one year older the Johnny, and a younger sister, Dottie. Johnny was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Oct. 9, 1937.

  

The family moved to Chadron when the boys were in junior high.  Gordon was a diesel locomotive electrician the Chicago and North Western Railroad. Charley graduated from Chadron Prep in 1954 and Johnny in 1955.  Dottie also graduated from Prep.

While Charley was spending four years in the Navy, Johnny launched his radio career, first at KASL in Newcastle, Wyo., and then at KOBH in Hot Springs.  When Charley was discharged, his brother helped him get a job at KOBH. From there, Charley became a television news director and anchorman at major stations in Chicago and Los Angeles before spending 20 years at KREM-TV in Spokane, where he now lives.

Johnny was “a mover and a shaker” early in his radio career. While he was at KOBH, he was instrumental in bringing some of the nation’s leading hit recording artists and groups to Hot Springs for shows and dances that filled the City Auditorium to capacity.  During one such event in the late 1950s, the performers included The Champs (“Tequila”), the Crests (“Sixteen Candles”) and Jimmy Clanton (“Another Sleepless Night”).

On Oct. 3, 1959, Rook brought Eddie Cochran, whom he had befriended, to Assumption Arena in Chadron for a show that was on the star’s 21^st birthday. About six months later, Cochran, whose hits included "C'mon Everybody", "Somethin' Else", and "Summertime Blues," died in a traffic accident in England, where he was performing.

Throughout his career, Rook got to know many show business stars. Wikipedia says he took acting classes with Natalie Wood, Nick Adams and Sal Mineo at the Pasadena Playhouse and later received advice from the likes of Tennessee Ernie Ford and Pat Boone.  It’s reported that he had bit parts in the “Wild Bill Hickok” television series.

After leaving KOBH, Rook was a disc jockey at KALL in Salt Lake City and then began his long career as a programmer at KTLN in Denver, before moving to KQV in Pittsburgh in the mid-1960s. It’s reported that a KTLN rival recommended Rook to KQV after sensing that Rook’s abilities were a threat to his station in Denver.

    

It was in Pittsburgh that Rook became known for his musical instincts. Wikipedia says he regularly played records before they became hits in other areas and found a way to air Beatles records a week or so before other stations received them. In 1964, Rook had exclusive rights to the Beatles’ first appearance in Pittsburgh.

ABC, which owned both KQV and WLS in Chicago, appointed Rook as the program director at WLS in 1967. The station’s ratings were lagging when he arrived, but within four years it was named “Station of the Year.”

A few years after leaving WLS, Rook formed his own consulting business. One of his early clients was another Chicago station, WCFL, which within a year had higher ratings than WLS.            

It’s reported that dozens of other stations throughout the nation also used his consulting services, helping them shape their sounds.

In 1983, Rook and his partners began buying stations in the Pacific Northwest and one in Las Vegas. The Couer d’ Alene station was the last to be sold, in 2000.

That was not the last of Rook’s association with the music business and some of its stars. Wikipedia says that in 2006, Pat Boone discussed his disappointment at not being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rook’s investigation showed that numerous other hit-makers also had been overlooked.

Thus Rook founded the “Hit Parade Hall of Fame” that would be open to artists who had at least two nationally charted top 10 songs as determined by either “Billboard” or “Cashbox.” After nominations were made by radio and records industry luminaries, fans voted for their choices on line.

In 2007, the initial inductees included Boone, Paul Anka, Teresa Brewer, Chubby Checker, Jimmy Clanton, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Connie Francis, Johnny Mathis, Patti Page, Johnny Ray, Neil Sedaka and Frank Sinatra. 

(Editor's Note:  Our thanks to Con Marshall for sharing this story, as well as an earlier story about John Rook's older brother Charles, both of whom had highly successful careers in broadcasting.)

"Snap Shots of Chadron, Nebr." reveal early Chadron

by Larry Miller

We love old photo albums.  Even this little album, which measures only about four inches wide by three inches high.

With a front and back of thin leather, and a piece of string holding them together, the album was  found by friend Verona Beguin while sorting through the basement belongings of her late mother.  Etched onto the cover beneath a pair of pine cones are the words, "Snap Shots of Chadron, Nebr."

The booklet is the kind of "tourist album" that one often found in a dime store or novelty store, but its tiny images (they're just one and one-half inches by two and one-half inches) still  hearken back to an earlier era.

There are no dates on the covers or on any of the photographs, but we're guessing it's probably a product of the 1920s.  One photo prominently features the Assumption Academy building, which was built in 1923.  The school closed down in May of 1971.

  

As fate would have it, we had been searching far and wide for an old photo of the Academy to accompany a Con Marshall story about Assumption Academy athletics.  We had to settle for a photo from the 1960s.  Now, fortunately, it can be replaced with this earlier photo.

There were just nine photos in the album — but a few of them were images we'd not seen before. We found them fascinating, and you might, too.   

We've scanned all of the photos in this album, cleaned and brightened them up just a bit, and re-sized them considerably.  Fortunately, even though the photos are small, they were pretty sharp.  We've posted them in our Dawes County Journal Gallery.

Our thanks to Verona and Perry Beguin for sharing this neat album of historic photographs!.

Don Beem: The Train Guy

by Larry Miller

For generations, youngsters the world over – and lots of adults, too – have been mesmerized by railroad trains.  From mimicking the “choo-choo” sound of old steam engines to playing with model trains of all types and sizes.

And for one 1962 Chadron State College graduate, the fascination and love of trains blossomed into a lifetime of collecting and sharing his passion for model trains.

An "American Flyer" engine and coal car

Don Beem was born in tiny Climbing Hill, Iowa, but his parents moved to Edgemont, South Dakota at the end of World War II to run the Coast-to-Coast store.   Don was just six years old.  It was there that he and his older brother, Lee, grew up.   

When he was a junior in high school, Don’s mom and dad bought him an American Flyer model train. 

“Dad sold model trains in his store at Christmas time.  After the holidays, any that were left he could get for half price.”

Bitten by the railroading bug, Don built a train layout in the basement of their house, and that started his lifelong involvement in a hobby that has led him to be known as “the Train Guy” by many of the people in and around Silver City, New Mexico, where he and his wife have lived for nearly 50 years.  In that time, he amassed a collection of some 40 model engines and more than 400 rail cars, and was frequently invited to present railroad programs to a variety of organizations across the region.

Don Beem aboard one of his riding trains in New Mexico

“I grew up in Edgemont, which was – and still is – a railroad town” Beem noted, adding that “20 trains a day – about a hundred cars each – pass through the little community every day, hauling coal out of the Powder River Basin of Wyoming.”

After graduating from Edgemont High in 1958, Don enrolled Chadron State College.

“It was an easy choice.  My brother, Lee, was already enrolled at Chadron – plus it was just 60 miles away, much closer than Spearfish.  And it was cheaper, even paying out-of-state tuition.”

At CSC, his model train hobby got “put on hold.”  While his high school prowess in basketball and track weren’t pursued in college, Beem recalls that he did “play clarinet in the Eagle marching band for Harry Holmberg.”  One year, he served as student coordinator of the school’s intramural sports program. 

In May of 1961 – at the end of his junior year – Beem married his hometown sweetheart, Lawana Weckwerth..

After earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1962, Don and Lawana followed her folks to Lordsburg, New Mexico, to help them set up a hardware store.  It would give Don a chance to put to good use his college major:  business administration. 

“I worked there for a year and discovered that the business was a one-family store, so I found a job in Las Cruces working for an office supply company as an outside salesman."

Don Beem holds one of more than 40
engines in his extensive train collection

Part of his territory included Silver City, nestled in southwest New Mexico along the eastern slope of the continental divide.  A few years later, when Beem learned that an office supply store in Silver City was for sale, he alerted the owners of his company, and in 1968 they bought it and sent Don there to manage it.   

The next year, Beems bought a house on 29^th Street in Silver City, and Don’s growing model railroad collection found a new home when he dug a basement under the house to accommodate it.

Among his early special items was a “Mogul” engine, modeled after an old wood-burning steam engine that used a “2-6-0” wheel configuration. It was one that had very special meaning for Beem.

During his first years in Silver City, Don was immersed not only in operating a business, Western Stationers, but in helping Lawana raise their two sons and daughter – and becoming involved in the community.  He was an officer in Kiwanis and the Grant County Cancer Society, and he was also involved with the Downtown Business Association.  The Beems became members of the Methodist Church.

 

In 1974, Beem and his wife bought Western Stationers.  They were able to expand and strengthen the business. It was no longer just an office supply store, it also became a craft and hobby store, and they added Hallmark cards.  Business was good.

Old Santa Fe RR depot in Silver City

Like their hometown of Edgemont, South Dakota, railroading had been a part of the Silver City landscape for a long time.  The Silver City, Deming & Pacific Railroad was established in 1883, when the narrow gauge line was used to haul copper from area mines.  It wasn’t long before the line was bought by the Santa Fe Railroad and converted to a standard gauge railroad.

The original depot was in the northern part of town and by 1900 was moved to south Silver City.  A new depot was constructed in 1915, and it served the area for more than half a century.  But by 1975 – a year after Don Beem bought Western Stationers – passenger service was long gone and the depot was demolished.  While a few area folks made the trek to a hearing in Lubbock, Texas in an effort to preserve the building, it was for naught.

“In those years, the community wasn’t very aware of just how important these historic buildings were,” Beem observed, quickly adding that the event was a catalyst for creating more interest in local history.  The Silver City Museum became more active, too.

As owner of his own business, Don chose to add his own “railroad touch” by installing a display of model trains running through miniature landscapes within a downtown building he owned.  The setup surely fascinated visitors and it became something of an attraction for Silver City.  Especially for kids --- of all ages!

When the city started a Main Street revitalization project in the 1980s, they asked if it would be possible for Don to set up a train to carry kids whenever the community had major events – about four or five times a year.

A Don Beem riding train 

“I set up a track in my parking lot and bought a switch engine and riding cars.  We had a lot of riders and needed a bigger engine to handle the load,” said Beem.

He bought a GP40 (General Purpose) engine, which operated for more than 10 years.  Don would dress in a Conductor's uniform, much to the delight of youngsters.

As recently as last summer, Don Beem was on the job giving youngsters rides during Fourth of July festivities in Silver City.  But over the years his rolling stock also found its way to places like Show Low, Arizona, and Gila, New Mexico, among others, for annual special events.

In 2000, the Beems moved to an acreage on the north side of Silver City.  After he retired in 2008, he built a shop and moved his equipment into it and started construction of a small track layout in his two-car garage.   It enabled him to run three trains simultaneously.  We've assembled a small collection of  Don Beem model railroad photos in this Beem Gallery.

Beem poses with one of his favorites:  the Mogul steam engine 

“We were going to put train track down below the house for the big trains and started work on it – but I was running out of steam.”

Winding down a bit, Don sold his switch engine and the GP40, as well as some riding cars.  Much of his extensive train collection has gone on permanent loan to the Train Museum in the old depot at nearby Hurley, New Mexico.

“But I’m going to keep the “Mogul” engine, because when I went through high school in Edgemont, we were known as the Edgemont Moguls.”

It would seem there’s still a little steam left in Don Beem, "The Train Guy."

Faith and determination in 1940s Nebraska

Larman, Doug, and Gilbert Wilson in about 1940. The family moved to 
Chadron in 1942, where their lives soon changed dramatically.

Enrollment at the old Chadron Normal school dropped considerably in 1942.  Large numbers of students had gone off to war following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. World War II was soon raging in both Europe and the Pacific.

In February 1942, Curtis Wilson resigned from his teaching job in the Lincoln Public Schools to accept a job at the Chadron Normal.  He'd been teaching secondary school, but his credentials included having taught at Kearney Normal, and he was hired at Chadron to head the Geography Department.  

Naomi Gilbert Wilson

By summer, Wilson and his family — wife Naomi and sons Larman, 12; Gilbert, 11; and Douglas, not yet 4 —  moved to Chadron and rented a house at 827 Bordeaux.

It was in Chadron that the mettle of the family would be tested — challenged severely by unforeseen circumstances.

Beyond Wilson Acres is the story of Naomi Gilbert Wilson. Overcoming adversity, this young mother of three boys displayed enormous faith and determination, helping them forge their own separate paths toward productive and meaningful lives.  She would go on to her own remarkable career as a teacher, first in elementary schools and later at Nebraska Wesleyan University.  Take a few minutes to read...

                                                                                 

BEYOND WILSON ACRES