Wanted: Housekeeper

Wanted: Housekeeper; by SA Sullivan
Morris Publishing 2008
Creative non-fiction, 240 pages

Tom Schultz at first opposes the mail order housekeeper his domineering father has arranged, but he soon falls in love with her and they marry. Hazel is dismayed and Tom delighted when their first baby is born in less than a year. They employ her best friend, Irene, as mother's helper, and the marriage suffers when she arrives in Cottonwood Creek. Hazel has little time for cooking and housekeeping, or for Tom. The girlfriends shop, play gin rummy, chain smoke and gossip. Irene sympathizes with Tom, but she fears Hazel's anger and dares not show it.

Hazel is awed by the banker's wife, the exquisite Thelma Thompson, whose hobby is horseback riding. Hazel wheedles Tom for a horse of her own and he agrees, hoping it will satisfy her restlessness. Just the opposite happens when she meets cowboy Sid Andersson on the banks of the North Platte River.

Depression reaches Nebraska, and hard times combined with Hazel's extravagance hasten the bank's foreclosure of their farm. Tom finds work on the railroad in Sidney, but money is tight and life is grim and the future is uncertain.

$10 each copy plus tax, $13 includes S&H by mail

Miles Maryott, His Life and Times

1909: Avid hunter and fisherman, Miles Maryott, loved the Sand hills north of Oshkosh, NE for its beauty and abundance of game. His Kincaid on Crescent Lake boasted a spacious and comfortable hunting lodge, rather than the small sod dwelling required by law, and Maryott entertained important men from around the country. He prepared gourmet meals of wild game for his patrons after a day of the best hunting in the hills.

Maryott was hired by the U.S. government to document migratory birds, and given permission to shoot and mount a bald eagle. He was a self-taught artist and taxidermist, and an expert of birds and their habits. Ornithologists from afar often engaged his help in their quest for rare birds. Today, what remains of the endangered or extinct birds shot and mounted by Maryott is exhibited in the Silver Hill Museum in Oshkosh. Nebraska State Bank owned the collection, taken to settle a debt in the 1920's, and donated them to the museum in1975.

For all his talent, Maryott's alcohol abuse hung over his head like a black cloud. Respected and well liked, he made friends easily, but when he drank he was apt to shoot up the town. He kept an enemies list of those he felt had wronged him, including the county attorney, a critical school teacher, and Dr. Morris, the village board chairman. The townsfolk were terrified during his drunken rampages, and he was jailed frequently. Friends such as Connie Schlator loaned Maryott bail money with paintings as collateral. He rarely paid them back.

Maryott shot Marshal George Albee to death on Thanksgiving eve of 1926 as he attempted to arrest him. He pled self-defense, but the court ruled against him and he was sentenced to life in the Nebraska State Pen. Petitions with as many as 500 signatures from Garden County citizens defeated any chance of parole. He died in 1939.

$12 includes S&H.

KEEP THE RHYTHM AND THE BRIDGE WON'T SWING

Part 1: The infamous '49 blizzard hit the state in January, and the massive storm hammered the ranching community and killed thousands of livestock. Rural residents were stranded in their homes, and the Army moved into Oshkosh to open roads and restore power.

The infamous '49 blizzard hit the state in January, and the massive storm hammered the ranching community and killed thousands of livestock. Rural residents were stranded in their homes, and the Army moved into Oshkosh to open roads and restore power.

Part 2: James, the Wyatt's only son served in combat during the Korean War, and his frequent letters home described the danger, boredom, anger and discomfort from a 22-year-old soldier's perspective.

$24 includes S&H