EARLY HISTORY OF CHERRY COUNTY, NEBRASKA

     After more than fifty years in public life, and working in the Middle West, and meeting many people and varied conditions, I think I can truthfully say that nothing gives me more pleasure than writing a preface to this splendid work--a History of Cherry County, Nebraska.

     'This is personal, biological, and psychological. Personal, because I lived in Cherry County from 1886 to 1898 and caught some of nature's feeling and inspiration from this Small Empire of Nature, 96 miles by 63 miles of valleys, sandhills, table lands, lakes, and rivers.

      I have known the author of this work, Honorable Charles S. Reece, Sr., for more than fifty years. I attended the school he taught in 1894 and received help and inspiration from his clean and vital personality, which has remained with me through the years.

     Most biographies and histories are written from hearsay and records, and therefore lack the human equation, the human feeling and touch. This is a grass roots record, written by a man who lived and breathed and felt through a life time, the varied pulsations of this Empire. He grew up in its body, through its changing life and moods. A self-made man, if there are such, who read The Book of Life and Nature, with sound and penetrating vision.

      Charles S. Reece, with his mother, sister, and brother, came to Cherry County in a covered wagon from Missouri in the 1880s practically without a dollar. They took claims near Simeon, Nebraska, and started life in this wild and virgin land.

     Charles with little formal education, began teaching in the District Schools. He saved his money to improve his home. Later he was appointed Deputy County Clerk, and after a term or two, he was elected County Clerk. After serving two terms as County Clerk, he moved to his ranch near Simeon. By frugality, energy, industry, care, and vision, he gradually built a fine institution on a firm foundation. His ranch, known as the V Bar V, developed by a normal, healthy growth.

     Today this ranch consists of nine thousand acres of land, well stocked with high class Black Polled Angus cattle, and a modern home, all free from debt. He and his good wife, who passed away in 1936, reared a family of six children; four girls and two boys. The boys, now married, live on, and help run the ranch.

     In the early part of the century, he was elected to the State Legislature, and served a number of terms with distinction in the House of Representatives. He was at that time, appointed Inspector for the Intermediate Credit Bank of Omaha.

     This history and the life of its author, should truly be a grass roots thrill and inspiration to all, especially the men and women, boys and girls who knew this wonderful Empire of God's Handiwork and the Author. This boy and man, lived through the living panorama of this great region, its life, its changing scenes, its emotions, and its moods, through the days and nights for over sixty years.

     Yes, in this history, old Cherry County lives, and breathes. Its table lands, with their buffalo grass and wallows; its canyons with their waving pines and gurgling streams. Its sandhills with their bunch grass and soap weeds, with their gorgeous spikes of white flowers. Its lakes, home of sunfish, bass, geese, and ducks; Robbers Roost and Fredericks Peak. Its animal life, and greatest of all, its people of the past, enshrined in our lives and memories.

     Yes, the Author has given us a great picture of old Cherry County, and in doing so, one of himself. A picture of a poor boy, fired with Christian ideals, clean living, vision, ambition, industry, and a willingness to pay the price to attain his high ideals and success. He is a shining example of what any man, woman, boy, or girl can do, if they will accept, follow, and obey the Omnipotent Laws of The Eternal God.

     With the Author, we too, may drink of the waters of life freely, and at the end, close the book of life, with the satisfaction of knowing our work has been well done.

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