Sunday Stories: One Hundred Years on the South Loup

My husband's family hails from the Arnold area, as does the biological mom of three of my children. There are many cousins still residing in the area, and we love visiting Arnold for the beauty and sense of community.

2016 will find this blog featuring many stories excerpted from the wonderful community history book compiled by Norene Hall Mills.

It is my hope that by posting these stories online, genealogists, historians and family descendants will be able to find more information about subjects dear to their hearts, and these incredible stories of pioneer fortitude will gain a wider audience.

One Hundred Years on the South Loup

A History of the Arnold Community from 1883 – 1983

Compiled by Norene Hall Mills

Copyright June, 1983

Printed by Loup Valley Queen, Callaway, Nebraska

Introduction

This history has been compiled so there may be a record of past events in Arnold’s part of the South Loup Valley, and to preserve the memory of those people, who, armed with optimism, faith and little else, left family and friends to come up the dusty river trail, enduring drought, blizzards, grasshoppers and epidemics to carve homes from the prairie.

The descendants of many of these early pioneers still call Arnold their home, adding to the accomplishments of their forebears.

The South Loup river flows by almost unnoticed now, but it was not always so. It was the landmark that led the first settlers to the valley, the lifeblood of the new settlement and the force that sustained it.

Local history could not be written without the help of many people, and I am profoundly grateful to those who shared with me their personal recollections, clippings, old letters, scrapbooks and keepsakes. My thanks to the Arnold Sentinel, the Broken Bow Public Library, the Custer County Historical Society and the office of the County Superintendent for allowing me access to their old newspapers and records.

Every effort has been made to keep the material accurate, and I apologize for errors that may occur.

-        Norene Hall Mills