A LITTLE HISTORY OF HECLA, NEBRASKA
Loren `Pete' Inman and wife Evelyn came with their family of three girls, Lorena, Ruth, and Nina to Hecla, Nebraska from Ardmore, South Dakota. Pete was employed by the C.B.&Q. Railroad in the fall of 1930.
At that time there were two Section Houses, a Depot, Post Office, a bunk car which was made very liveable for a couple and a building that was called the Pool Hall. Drakes owned the building where stored grain was in part of the building and the rest was used as an apartment for the help. Of course there was the Hecla School.
During this period of time there were a number of people living in Hecla: Mr. and Mrs. Homer Graham, Robert and Virginia (Hohlfeld), Mr. and Mrs. Rudy Wiese (Mary), Mr. and Mrs. Oleo Olson, Mr. and Mrs. John Hanson who moved in after Olsons moved to Mullen, Little John Whitley, Mr. and Mrs. John Osborn and Ardith Ann.
Later in the 30's the Jines family moved to Hecla. Jess and his wife Ruth had a small farm on the outskirts of Hecla. Their children were Alta, Bertha, Finley, Jesse, Edna, Josephine, Mildred, Harold and Donnie.
The Hecla school at that time had a child in every class from the first to eighth grade. There were always enough of children to have a baseball game. One of the scariest things about going to Hecla school was the 7th and 8th grade county exams that were taken at the Mullen Courthouse. As scared as we were, surprisingly we passed. We had very good teachers in Hecla. Things were pretty bad in those days, for a teacher driving ten miles in all kinds of weather, coming into a cold school house and building fires in the pot-bellied stove. They were certainly loved by all. The teachers that taught there over the years were Kenneth Catron, Maxine McKinney, Vivian Long, Regina Neal and Cecile Williamson. Like all kids we always looked forward to the picnics on the last day of school. One picnic that comes to mind – Miss Long took us to the Nels Simonson Ranch to join Miss Jean Simonson's school. We all thought that was a fun day.
Two more girls, Ethel and Laura were born while the family lived in Hecla.
One of the biggest thrills in Hecla was in the fall of the year when hundreds of cattle were driven in by cowboys to the Hecla Stock Yards to be shipped by rail. One day in the late 30's there were a thousand head of cattle shipped out. Mrs. Inman and Mrs. Graham set up a lunch counter in the freight room in the depot and fixed hamburgers for the hungry men, that was a day we never forgot. Lots of excitement.
As the years went by, people moved away and children grew up. Not many years later, the railroad began selling the housing in Hecla and everything was sold.
The Inman family is thankful for all the wonderful memories of a tiny town, Hecla, in the Sandhills.