Della Mae Ury
1915-2008
Born: Chapman, Nebraska, USA
Died: Elk City, Douglas, Nebraska, USA
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In 1908 when Chapman’s main street had no sidewalks and very few stores, Elza and Fairy Ury moved to town from Broken Bow, Nebraska where they had spent the previous six months. They were a family of four at the time of the move. Before that, Mr. Ury clerked at the Tooley Drug Store in Central City, Nebraska from 1904 to 1908. He took over management of the drug business from Dr. Earl Farnsworth until the spring of 1909 and in March he purchased the business and the old frame building became the Ury Drug Store.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In 1917 the frame building was moved over to make room for a brick structure. The town built board walks and business prospered. In 1940 Elza bought out the Fred Fogg grocery business and combined the drug store with groceries. In all, Mr. Ury operated his store for forty-seven years.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When they first moved to Chapman in 1908, Fay Bernice was five and Edward Arthur one year old. Four more would be born to them; Mary Ann, Della Mae, Robert Elza and Daniel Kidd. All six children were educated in the Chapman schools, the first graduating in 1922.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mother, (Fairy Dell), was kept busy canning for the winter, sewing for all of us during those early years, dressing the wild game and processing meat. For winter there was always a barrel of apples in our cave and several bushels of potatoes from farmers north of Chapman. They supplied sweet corn and other vegetables too. Meat was prepared from the freshly butchered pork that was stored in the cold storage room. Very little of our food came from store-bought canned goods. Our lard was home rendered. A great deal of time was spent preserving food for the cold winter.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Coal was bought by the ton to heat our home; soft coal for the “range” and hard coal for “base burners”. The parlor was heated with the Round Oak heater, but on weekends only. Mother was kept busy keeping two fires in the winter. One was the old base burner and the other her cook stove. The cook stove produced big roasters of meat and home-baked breads and pies.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Our Grandmother from Council Bluffs, Mary Holder, (1st husband Shreves), (2nd husband Ward), visited us often, always arriving by train. We had only to go three blocks to the depot to meet her. We could go everywhere easily by train, but the train crossing did have its history of being the location of accidents involving horse drawn wagons and automobiles.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Elza was very active in the community having been Postmaster for fifteen years, (the Post Office was in his store), Board of Education member for seven years, served for twenty-eight years with the Telephone Association and spent thirteen years on the Village Board. Both parents were charter members; Fairy of Laura Mae Chapter, O.E.S., and Elza belonged to the Masonic Lodge. Fairy Dell was the last of the charter members when she died in 1975. Elza had preceded her in death 19 years before in 1956.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Dad was a hunter and Mother prepared rabbits and the ducks and geese he brought home from the Platte River blind. When he came in the kitchen, he would throw the game behind the kitchen door for Mom to clean. I can still hear the metalic sounds of the double barreled shotgun as he prepared it for storage.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The lean years came in the 1930s. Dad would accept in trade a barrel of apples or maybe several bushels of potatoes and sometimes even a freshly butchered hog for a bill at the store. Mother processed the hog, rendering the lard and making hams. But also in the 30s, the Chapman merchants treated the people of all the surrounding area to free movies every Saturday night projected on the wall of buildings. The movies were shown at night outside under the stars.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We had our grasshopper plagues, violent tornados and hail storms that destroyed crops and killed livestock, and sometimes the screens and windows in our house were blown out. Many times Mom ordered us to the old cave by the back door as she stood by and watched the threatening clouds.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Some Old Memories and Meanderings that</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">only those with Chapman roots would know:</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 11.0px helvetica; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1.Some of us danced to Lawrence Welk at the Govera in Grand Island, NE</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">2.We learned to swim in the Platte River where brother Dan almost drowned</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">3.Dan cut an artery and Bob had a tonsillectomy</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">4.We fished the old Wood River</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">5.Rode sleds in deep snow behind Model Ts</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">6.Watched Lou Caho the barber shave his customers</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">7.Bought homemade butter from A M Smith’s store</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">8.Walked to Schmutz’s house for our milk</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">9.Visited the switchboard when operated by the Volkman family</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">10.Went to see Mrs. Van Cleve’s mums</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">11.Played in Barker’s rain-filled excavation when they built their house</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">12.Went to Dr. Tripplett’s office when we had sore throats</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">13.Slid down the tree cable at the Fleming’s house next door</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">14.Hiked a mile north of town for a school picnic at Raser’s farm grove</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Townsfolk and acquaintances:</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 11.0px helvetica; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Bill Knight & family; Connie Ford and his meat market; Ben Lantz who delivered mail in his Model T; Ed Klingenberg and their Farmer’s Store; Ted Ruben a grocery clerk; Dave Magnussen our banker; Vernon Rice also a banker; Cecil Crone, another mail clerk; Bill Wilhelmi whose garage burned down; Emil Groshe and his blacksmith shop; Mr.Volkman who kept the telephone lines in repair; Grandpa Baese; the Jones family; the Samuelson family; Pastor of the Baptist Church; the C. C. friends; Rogans and Lears; On and on my memory goes. Fred Fogg, the grocer and artist.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 22.5px; font: 11.0px courier; min-height: 13.0px;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px courier;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There were two weddings in our house, one in 1922 when Fay married Lloyd Johnson of Aurora, Illinois and one in 1934 when I married Raymond Miller of Valley, Nebraska. Both couples stood on a white horse hair rug during the ceremonies. Three babies, (maybe four), were born in our home in Chapman and Dad died there in his own bed in April of 1956 from complications following a stroke. Elza and Fairy Dell had celebrated their 50 years of marriage in 1954 in the same house.</span></p>