A LITTLE HISTORY OF HECLA, NEBRASKA

by Lorena Inman Jackson

Entry T16 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Freight train at Hecla early 30's.

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.