Volume 6, Part 1: Wandering Omaha
Omaha, Nebr. June 26, 1908
2132 N. 29th St
Dear Harry: –
Now the first thing I want to tell you is that I promise you that I’ll never tease you when you come home in August. I am awful sorry that I helped papa a long to scold you when you came home from Jensens.
Night before last us three girls were going to walk out to Alma’s uncle on 43rd and Erskine and we got lost. We got about four blocks from the place and didn’t know we were so near and started North and didn’t stop till we reached Boulevard Ave and then we went west and came to the Deaf Institute. Then we knew where we were and found the place. But when we got there they weren’t home so we rested and rode home.
So last night Mrs. Jensen took me out there and we had a fine time. Mr. Hansen treated us to an ice cream cone. We got home about half past ten and got up at half past five this morning to go walking. We went out to the lagoon and back again before half past seven.
Alma has been up to our house in the afternoons to sew. So I guess it will be my turn to go down there. Marion is going to have Grace Robinson up this afternoon so I may go down to Alma. Gertrude was just telling me what a good time she had at camp. The choir boys are at camp and yesterday was visitors day.
By the way. H.H. never called up yet so I guess he was bluffing. It is Friday to-day and he never telephoned so I guess I will have to go by myself. I suppose he is waiting to get an opportunity (I need mamma’s joke) to telephone. You see he is so sly. Marion doesn’t know and we have lots of fun (mamma & I) talking of my engagement.
Well, well that was a pretty weak joke. You can’t keep a thing. None of us care a snap if you took all the dictionary’s we had. Marion and I guessed it the minute we saw your letter. You can keep it and we’ll get another.
Next week will be the Fourth but it sounds as if it was the fourth now the way they shoot.
Stuart went to Sioux City this morning. Alma teases me and says that I’ll be lonesome but not I. She said a little bird told her that I had my eye on Stuart and that it was he and I just believe that it must be you.
For reasons unknown to us, Lillan was interrupted and broke her letter here. She finished it three days later, but as she covers a lot of ground (or at least gives me plenty to comment upon), I’ll break her letter here as well.
One of the best parts of these letters is Lillian’s casual tour of Omaha as she tells Harry about the places she visits in 1908. The Omaha Landmarks Heritage Preservation Commission maintains old city maps of Omaha and the surrounding area, which is a godsend since many of the places Lillian mentioned in her letters – including her house on N. 29th Street – are no longer there. This 1912 map of the Greater Omaha area brings Lillian’s adventure in North Omaha to life. The Parsons lived three blocks due east of Prospect Hill Cemetery and three blocks south of Lake Street. Prospect Hill Cemetery is in the center of northern Omaha. with Omaha High School (showing on this map as “High School”, since it was still the only one in town) to the southeast. The “Deaf Institute” Lillian refers to in her letter is the State Mute Institute, northwest of the cemetery on the corner of Bedford and 45th. Alma’s uncle, Mr. Hansen (most likely her mother’s brother) lived down Lake Street to 42nd, and a few blocks south to Erskin. This map makes it easy to see exactly how far Lillian and Alma wandered on their way to Alma’s uncle’s house. All told, their wander northwest took them about a mile off course. While Lillian talks about going north to “Boulevard Avenue,” the only Boulevard I can find on the 1912 map is significantly south and does not match Lillian’s directions of their wandering; I suspect she meant Bedford Avenue, to the north, and then directly west to the “Deaf Institute.”
The Nebraska School for the Deaf no longer exists, but was in its heyday in 1908. Founded in 1867, it moved to its location at 3223 N. 45th in Omaha in 1871. In 1908, the school taught students using American Sign Language (ASL), or the “manulist” method; it would be another three years before controversy ensued (and a certain amount of subversion by the school staff) when the state legislature, under pressure from certain factions, forced the school to abandon ASL in favor of the “oralist” method of teaching deaf students to lip read and speak.[1] The change did not last, but the school did, until 1998 when enrollment dropped so significantly (due to deaf students enrolling in public schools) that it closed its doors for good. The school is now listed on the National Register, though none of the buildings Lillian would have recognized in 1908 still remain.[2]
This is a good time to mention the Omaha High School Cadet Officers Corps, since it will come up again. The cadet program at Omaha High School was a forerunner of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) program. It was established at Omaha High School in 1886, disbanded in 1888, then reestablished under the authority of the U.S. Secretary of War in 1894. Enrollment was voluntary, but the program was significant. Like JROTC, the boys enrolled in the program drilled a few times a week, wore uniforms (self-purchased), and attended lectures on military subjects. It became a tradition for high ranking cadets to choose young women as “sponsors” for the various cadet battalions, though the purpose of the sponsors was not entirely clear.[3] A women’s auxiliary, known as Company Z , was formed in 1896 primarily as a drill team, complete with uniforms and rifles, which eventually inspired other schools to form their own female drill teams; unfortunately, Company Z was disbanded after 1900 and the only participation left for young women was as company sponsors. As of 1908, the cadet officer corps was organized into a battalion with 6 companies, a band, a signal corps squad, and a hospital corps. Military training fell under the direction of regular army officer and commandant Captain W.M. Oury, stationed at nearby Fort Omaha.[4] A drill competition, held in the spring, and an annual summer camp that began around 1900, were traditional major events for the cadet officer corps. In 1908, “Camp” was in Blair, Nebraska, about 25 miles north of Omaha. It is possible this is the camp Lillian was referencing in her letter, as the camps routinely conducted a “visitors day,” but Lillian wrote this letter about two weeks too late to be the cadet officer corps camp mentioned in the 1908 Omaha High School yearbook. Lillian may well be referencing some other June camp, but (teasers!) the cadet officer corps summer camp was THE High School camp, and the cadet officer corps came to play a much greater role in Lillian’s high school years after 1908.
Stay tuned for part 2 of this letter in the next posting!
Want to read more?
Volume 1: Lillian and her Letters
Volume 2: November 4th, 1907
Volume 3: Sweethearts or Sisters and…Candy!
Volume 4: School Stories
Volume 5: Falling Outs, Senior Fairs, Faith, and Uncle William
[1] National Park Service, “Nebraska School for the Deaf,” (https://www.nps.gov/places/nebraska-school-for-the-deaf.htm : accessed 6 December 2023).
[2] Adam Fletcher Sasse, North Omaha History, “A History of the Nebraska School for the Deaf,” online blog, 23 November 2015, (https://northomahahistory.com/2015/11/23/a-short-history-of-north-omahas-nebraska-school-for-the-deaf/ : accessed 6 December 2023).
[3] Barry Combs and Jim Wigton, Omaha Central High School Alumni Association, “Central High School Historical Timeline 1854-2016,” (https://www.omahacentralalumni.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Historical-Timeline-Optimized.pdf : accessed 6 December 2023), 21 December 2016.
[4] Ibid.
I have been going through old family photos and documents. I ran across a letter from Ian dated March 1910. I wonder if the same Lillian? I would love to connect and sort out this mystery. Thank you, Collette