The Oatman family, comprised of parents, Royce and Mary, and their seven children, Charity Ann, Lucy, Lorenzo, Mary Ann, Olive Ann, Roland, and Royce, joined a wagon train in 1850 led by James Brewster, a leader in what we refer to as the Mormon Church. The Oatman children ranged in age from one to 17. […]

In the November 1887 election, the citizens voted to approve a street railway for Red Cloud. The firm of Flaisig Brothers had requested the franchise to construct and operate a street railway system. It was to operate between the hours of six a.m. and ten p.m. and run at 30 minute intervals. The cost was […]

One of the early businesses located in the 100 block of North Webster Street included The Red Cloud Milling Company. This mill joined other mills – both lumber and grain – that had previously or were currently in operation in the area. The gambrel-roofed two and one-half story mill, as pictured, was constructed of concrete […]

The city park as we enjoy it today was a project that began in 1923. It was highly impacted by a local organization known as The Business Women of Red Cloud. This monumental task was one of their more ambitious improvement projects for Red Cloud. With the objective of ridding their town of unbecoming sites, […]

TRIVIA TIME: How many brick were used to form the exterior walls of the Potter Building? If your guess was about 248,000 you are absolutely correct! Another downtown building conceived in 1901, the Potter Building was sometimes referred to as Potter-Wright or Potter-Pope. Offering three upper stories with four floors of commercial space, it dwarfed […]

The Hollands, George and Libbie, had come to Red Cloud in 1878 and operated a restaurant on North Webster and served a brief stint as operators of the Gardner House directly across the street south. They served as Cather’s prototypes for Johnnie and Molly Gardener in My Antonia. Using earnings from these past endeavors, they […]

By 1893, with the building in receivership of the banking commission, it was rented and leased for various endeavors over the years. These included a restaurant, a billiards hall, an abstract office, a loan and real estate agency, a newspaper office, another bank, and the city office for the town’s electric and light operations. In […]

Arguably the most ornate structure in the Mainstreet Historic District, the Farmers & Merchants Bank was reported to have been one of the more costly banking buildings in Nebraska by the time it was completed in 1889. Specifications and plans were drawn up in Lincoln, Nebraska. Along with brick, it was constructed of Colorado sandstone, […]

  This Blue Front building was home to numerous enterprises during its lifetime. Some of these included the second-hand stores of Johnson & Co. and C. F. Evans, and Jake Nustein’s cigar manufacturing enterprise. The Blue Front was also the original home of the Miner Brothers store when they first located in Red Cloud in […]

Opening as a branch of the Chicago Lumber Company, the Platt and Frees Lumber Yard was started in Red Cloud in 1878. It was established by David M. Platt, a Wisconsin transplant, and P. M. Frees, a Chicago investor who was known to be associated with other yards across the state. Considering that an October […]