Editor's Notebook

 

November 11, 2021



What a spider web of interconnected events we do travel. In the newspaper business one story leads to another and another with unexpected connections along the way.

While reading a daily newspaper story about the unfortunate incidents that happened last month at the Agrex elevator, an Omaha resident learned of my long association with the local news business and wrote asking if I knew anything about a murder which happened at the new Superior cement plant in 1914. I’ll admit to being old but I’m not old enough to have reported that story. But thanks to the long lasting printed word, I can read the stories written by others about that event.

The Omaha resident who contacted our office is actively trying to trace her Italian roots and has been corresponding with a woman in Italy who agreed to follow the genealogy web in Italy. In exchange, she asked for help in tracing her genealogy web in the United States.

She asked the Nebraska resident for help in finding out what happened to a relative who came to the United States and disappeared, perhaps in Nebraska.

Appears he was killed while sleeping in the cement company’s bunk house about 30 days after the plant started operation. As the caller told me the little bit she had found about the man’s death, I recalled a visit I had with the late Senator Carl Curtis about the incident and was able to share what I remembered from talking with the senator and David Downing. I turned to Stan Sheets 3-volume history of Superior to confirm what I recalled and passed along the report to the woman in Omaha. Since then, checking Jack Nispel’s book recording the history of the plant has revealed even more information as have microfilm files of The Superior Express maintained at the Superior Public Library. I have sent that information on the relay to Italy.

Later a customer service representative at an Omaha paper warehouse called to ask about the Agrex incident. Knowing she was of Italian ancestry, I told her about the cement plant incident and the recent Omaha inquiry.

That information intriqued Josi for she wanted to let her relatives in Italy know of her mother’s death. Though her mother’s death happened two years ago, Josi did not know how to contact family members in Italy. She hoped the woman I had spoken with could tell her how to proceed. She asked for contact information which I supplied.

While I was busy with the Agrex incident, George Day, a former Superior resident, called me. In our conversation, he asked if I had read the story Doane Kiechel wrote about a life-threatening personal experience he had about 90 years ago while serving as a Nuckolls county judge.

After learning I hadn’t, he said he would contact Judge Kiechel’s daughter and ask her to send me a copy of the story,

Sunday I received an email from Paul Edmondson, CEO of the National Historic Trust. Seems he is the grandson of Doane Kiechel and the son of Doane’s 94-year-old sister. He included a copy of the story in question, and shared other stories about the Kiechel family.

Before becoming editor of this newspaper, Doane Kiechel and Joe Boyd practiced law together in Superior.

Doane Jr. and Don Boyd were close friends. Such close friends that when the Kiechels moved to Nelson, young Doane ran away from home. His destination was Superior with the hope he again could be with his cousin, Don Boyd.

While learning about that story, I recalled the time a contemporary of mine, who was also the son of a Nuckolls County judge, who without permission left home in an automobile and headed to Lincoln. It was a memorable trip for the youngster who wasn’t old enough to have a driver’s license.

I was sorry to learn that Don Boyd had died but that explains why his subscription to The Express has lapsed.

When I was growing up and reading The Express, I often encountered stories about what Don Boyd was doing. He had a distinquished career as an attorney working with the DuPont company. Apparently, his father was willing to share the success stories with a newspaper reporter.

Paul Edmondson is currently the CEO of the National Historic Trust with an office in Washington, D.C.’s Watergate office building.

I remember hearing something about another group that had an office in the Watergate. But that is a story for another time.

 

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