A wheat header barge and crew are pictured in 1918 on Ed Gansemer’s farm 3 miles south and 1 mile west of Paoli. Headers were pushed by six horses and would remove the heads and elevate them into the header barge. Header barges were pulled by two horses and had two operators — one to drive the horses and one to move the wheat in the barge. When it was full, they would pitch it off onto a stack where another crew member was positioned to stack it. Wheat would stay in the stack until it had gone through a “sweat” of six to eight weeks. Then it was put through a threshing machine pulled by a steam engine. — Source: Phillips County Museum
Peekin' into the Past
Five Years Ago
Aug. 25, 2016
Holyoke City Council approved the purchase of a new Taser body camera system for Holyoke Police Department at the Aug. 16 meeting.
The Melissa Memorial Hospital clinic expansion features a new handicap-accessible entrance into the large new waiting room. Both the specialty clinic and regular clinic are much larger, and the waiting area includes a new retail pharmacy. A new employee residence on campus to the east of the hospital will house traveling nurses and rotating health care providers. An open house to unveil the construction project will be held Sept. 1.
Virgil and Eloise Harms of Paoli celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on Aug. 15.
Ten Years Ago
Aug. 25, 2011
Erica Brady has been named director of Phillips County Economic Development and will begin the first week of September.
Holyoke’s police force will be back up to three active full-time officers with the hire of chief Bryan Wagner.
Past presidents of the Board of Education for Holyoke School District Re-1J were honored for their service Aug. 19 when current board president Dan Kafka hosted the group. Kafka will be joining their ranks in a couple of months when he goes off the board.
Twenty-Five Years Ago
Aug. 29, 1996
Almost everything was lost as a Sunday morning fire, started by a faulty electrical outlet, nearly destroyed Stone Motors in Holyoke.
Lou Anne Lundgren of Haxtun was recently named program coordinator for the Phillips County Literacy for the ’90s program, effective Sept. 1. She replaces Dorothy Ortner, who is still involved in the program but has moved to part-time duties.
Jack and JoAnne Kiernan announced last week that they would be discontinuing their landscaping business, Jack and JoAnne’s, with the business closing to be finalized by the end of 1996.
The Johnson-Skold farm in rural Haxtun was recognized by the Colorado State Historical Society as a Colorado Centennial Farm on Aug. 23 at the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo.
Fifty Years Ago
Aug. 26, 1971
Certain changes have been made in the senior high school schedule which should encourage more effective use of student and teacher time. The most significant change is that class periods are lengthened. This allows students to have some study time in each class and under the supervision of the person teaching the class. This organizational pattern makes regularly scheduled study halls unnecessary.
Former schoolmates of Pleasant Prairie District 14 and their families held a picnic Aug. 22 at the Holyoke city park.
Seventy-Five Years Ago
Aug. 29, 1946
In a special meeting of the county commissioners here Wednesday, a decision was reached to cancel the Phillips County Fair. The decision was based on the continued menace of poliomyelitis, new cases of which continue to occur in this state, the recommendation of the state health department, a telegram from R.L. Cleere, M.D., calling the situation to the attention of the commissioners, and the general feeling among local people that the fair should be canceled.
Cloudy weather Sunday followed by rains scattered over this area brought relief from heat and drouth. Here, Sunday evening’s rain was 1.4 inches but was not general over Phillips County. A second good rain fell here early Wednesday morning, which brought the total precipitation for the past week to 1.8 inches.
The Farm Security Administration is being discontinued, and it will be succeeded by a new agency called the Farmer’s Home Administration. Under the new plan, the government is going to stand behind the local bankers and help them to make farm loans at low rates of interest.