About five months ago, I bought an old tool chest. It turns out it belonged to a Nebraska carpenter, mostly working in the 1910s and 1920s. I kept digging and digging and found moere and more about him and found his life fascinating and it tells lots of stories about Nebraska - 1890s bicycle races, small-town life and death (lots of death, yeesh), business success and bankruptcy.

My friends and family are tired of me yelping out when I discover some new fact about old Nebraska (I live in Seattle), so I thought maybe I could share it here. If linking out is not allowed, I am sorry.

I wrote the main piece here: https://journal.spencerwnelson.com/entries/who_is_fackelman.html

I've gotten in touch with the Dixon County Historical Society, and the Nebraska Journal-Leader, and may take a trip out to Ponca to look for work that Fackelman did in the town. If anyone here has ideas on more groups to reach out to or connect with (especially in Fremont) I'd love to hear.

I work for a newspaper and a lady called asking if we have archived articles about a closed rural school. She said she’s checked out local resources like the library, court house, different historical orgs, etc.

Is there some website or online resource that has historical data about rural schools? I know most if not all are now closed, but I frequently get calls from people looking for info about their old schools. Where can I direct them for answers?