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Stockham
Stockham is a lively village on
the line of the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad, on Section 25.
Township 9, Range 6. It was surveyed and platted in 1887 by the Pioneer Town
Site Company. Among the first business enterprises were the Bank of Stockham, I.
D. Evans, cashier; P. Moore & Son, druggists; A. D. Atwood, livery; J. W.
Gray, livery; C. F. Tatro, restaurant; Joseph Stockham Hotel. The above named
parties erected buildings about the same time.
The town is located in the
vicinity of the first settlement made in the county and is in the remarkably
fertile valley of the Blue River. The farmers being “well-to-do,” and
many of them even wealthy, the town has had an encouraging amount of business,
and has grown rapidly. In September, 1888, it was incorporated as a village,
with the following board of trustees: F. J. Sharp, Joseph Stockham, W. C.
Flickinger, Walter Scott, Henry Reiselt.
All branches of business were
represented in the village, the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad
affording facilities for the shipment of goods and products, and the Western
Union Telegraph Company affording telegraphic communication. The Stockham
Reporter, a bright, newsy republican paper, was established here in August,
1888, by F. P. Corrick. It was edited in 1890 by J. S. Lounsbury.
A handsome two-story frame
school-house 24x60 feet was erected in 1888. The school was in a flourishing
condition, and was presided over by E. C. Grubble, as principal, with Miss
Minnie Rowe as assistant. In 1890 it became a graded school. At this time three
churches were represented, the German Lutheran, Presbyterian and Methodist
Episcopal. The first named erected the first church building in 1887 and Rev. G.
Grobe was one of the first pastors.
The Presbyterians built a
church in 1889, and Rev. John Branch ministered to their spiritual
welfare.
Stockham in 1920
Stockham shows a new set of
business institutions by this modern date. C. & N. W. depot, Farmers
Elevator Co., Grosshans Grain & Lumber Co., Greiss & Co., store; M. G.
Fuehrer, garage; P. J. Maupin, store; J. G. Timmermier, drug store; Stockham
Hardware Co., Stockham State Bank, Dr. J. M. Welch, office; Yost Lumber
Co.
Source: History of Hamilton
County, Nebraska, 1921,
pages 485 & 486, transcribed as
printed
Transcribed
and Contributed by: Cathy Danielson |