The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1907-09-20

Norfolk claims among her citizens
the Father of Masons" in Nebraska.
and Samuel Warren Hayes, the oldest
Mason of them all in Nebraska state,
Is more than that to Norfolk. For
more than third of a century he has
| made Norfolk his home and he has
| lived to see the present prosperous
and thrifty city of 5000 develop from
a village which consisted of a mill,
two stores and about five houses that
the people lived in.
1t was in 1873 that Colonel Hayes
everybody in Norfolk calls him Col
onel'-came to Norfolk with his SON
in.law, j. S. McClary, from Fremont.
They came because there seemed to
be better mercantile opening in the
Norfolk village of a half dozen homes
than in Fremont with its $50 inhabi.
tants. Even in those early days
Colonel Hayes says there was a gen.
eral feeling everywhere over these
prairies that Norfolk was located lust
right to one day make city. The
same sentiment that existed then eX.
lists today and Norfolk then a village
of half a dozen residences and now a
city of 5000, is still setting its pegs
further on and up.
1t has not been alone in late years
that Norfolk served as marketing
point for big territory. In those
early days of thirty-four years ago
people drove into Norfolk from a dis.
lance of seventy miles to bring their
grain to the grist mill. And when they
arrived in Norfolk they bought what
they needed.
1t was in little frame building of
one story which stood on the present
site of II. A. Pasewalk's big brick
building, that Hayes & McClary. in
the early seventies, established one
OF the two mercantile stores which
Norfolk at that time boosted.
Lumber Was High in Those Days.
Lumber in Norfolk was high in those
days. 1t wasn't due to the lumber
trust or to the depletion of the north
ern forests or to the increased Pacific
coast freight rates, but it was due to
the freight rate from Fremont to Nor
folk, distance of eighty miles. For
that freight rate was based unon the
cost of hauling every foot of lumber
by team and wagon up the Elllhorn
valley, and as may be imagined there
was nothing cheap about the process.
Some of the finishing lumber of which
the Hayes & McClary store was con-
structed cost as high as $1O0 per 1 900
feet.
Kerosene was likewise high-.highcr
even than in these days of Rookie
feller's monopoly. At Fremont kero-
sene was worth 81 per gallon and the
price kept climbing higher as you
came further on up the valley. For
Fremont was on the Union Pacific
railroad.
When Colonel Hayes came to Nor
folk, the land on which the business
blocks of today are built, was under
cultivation and was yielding up big
crops. Out in the country was the
farm land on which today stands the
First Congregational church. There
was little talk of paved streets, and
the government was a village affair.
Had Semi-MonthIy Newspapers.
But even in those days Norfolk
recognized the value Of and boosted
a live newspaper. 1t was called "The
Pioneer" and it was issued about twice
month. Each citizen of the town
would write an article upon some topic
of interest and at a stated time and
place, of an evening, the contents Of
THE Pioneer" would be publicly read
to the assembled residents.
And they had more than a news
paper. They had fieas. On one par
ticular occasion Colonel Hayes wrote
an article on "Fleas," for The Pioneer,
and 1T was read with the rest. This
article, be it said, was in poetry.
Colonel Hayes in those early days
took an active interest in Masonry and
organized the Norfolk lodge. He took
an active interest in political affairs,
having always been a staunch repub-
lican. Once from Fremont and later
from Norfolk he went to the Nebraska
state senate. In 1892 he was elected
mayor of Norfolk and served one term.
From 1896 to 1905 he was police Judge
in Norfolk and from 1897 to 1905 was
justice Of the peace.
Colonel Hayes was a "forty-niner."
He left New Bedford, Mass, and went