"RAVENNA: THE EARLY YEARS"

Soldiers looking out from the embankments of a small outpost dubbed Fort Banishment, protecting Union Pacific construction crews in 1866, could not have envisioned that near this point on the South Loup River there would one day arise a thriving community. First there would be a post office, Beaver Creek, established in the home of an early settler, Erastus Smith, in December of 1878; then Ravenna, born with the coming of the Burlington railroad to the valley in 1886.

A Burlington affiliate, the Lincoln Land Company, purchased two-thirds of a section of land for a town site from Erastus Smith. The plat of the town was prepared by Anselmo B. Smith in June and the first lots sold in July of 1886. The name, Ravenna, was selected by R. O. Phillips, secretary of the land company, upon the suggestion of his daughter. The names for the streets were also of Italian origin: Genoa, Milan, Alba, Padua, Verona, and so forth. The post office assumed the new name on July 23rd and Erastus Smith was replaced by William A. Way on that date. Official incorporation of the new town was completed October 12, 1886.

Erastus Smith, who retained ownership in one-third of the town site, had come to Nebraska in March of 1874. Lured, perhaps, by railroad advertisements and his own desire to expand his holdings, Smith sold 216 acres of bottom land near Des Moines and came to Kearney. He chose land for his new home where Beaver Creek joined the South Loup River. Here he filed on a homestead, a tree claim, and purchased 520 acres from the Union Pacific. His wife and three young children joined him in May. Their household goods, six horses, machinery and two carloads of grain were on the same train. Three of the horses and most of the household goods were lost attempting to cross the rain swollen Beaver Creek. A rented dwelling proving unsatisfactory, the new Nebraskans built a frame house using timber from the Loup valley, which was sawed into lumber in Gibbon. Sod was placed around the walls to make it warm and comfortable in winter. Their home was the first to be erected in Garfield township. Smith, who became postmaster in 1878, also became a volunteer weather observer for the United States Weather Bureau that year and kept records, until 1909.

A nucleus of a town had begun to develop before Ravenna was platted and trains commenced to run over the Burlington tracks. Barta Kase, a shoemaker, and Joseph Bohac, a harnessmaker, started their businesses from one building in February of 1886. In May, Jim Varney's General Store was opened and, soon after, a livery barn and the Burlington Company store were ready for business, the latter in the town's first two-story building. Another general store, a drug store and the first newspaper appeared in July. The first issue of the Ravenna News was printed July 30, 1886. A competitor, the Ravenna Star, edited by C. B. Cass, began publication with the issue of October 11, 1886. It was not long before the State Bank of Ravenna opened its doors.

Much of this early growth was a result of the Burlington railroad's development and promotional activities. H. A. Kufus, agent of the Lincoln Land Company, was especially active in advertising the merits of Ravenna and its environs. The designation of Ravenna as a division point and meal stop for the Burlington between Lincoln and Alliance greatly enhanced the town's potential. The decision in 1888 to make Ravenna a repair station and to build a roundhouse there led people to see the city as a major railroad center. The main roundhouse was completed in 1890 and several additions made in later years. These repair shops operated in Ravenna for 40 years, being closed by the Burlington in 1930. During World War II the roundhouse was used as a "make believe target" for pilots in training at the Lincoln Air Force Base.

By 1889, when the Ravenna Saloon and Opera House was built and the Ravenna Creamery was incorporated, the town was on a solid footing. A buttermaker from Cheyenne had suggested the establishment of a butter and cheese factory and the town responded by subscribing to $7,000 in stock. The two-story frame structure, 30 feet by 50 feet, was erected in the east part of town during the fall of 1889. The capital stock of the firm was increased to $15,000 in 1895 and C. A. Clark of New York, an experienced creamery man, became the manager. At first the cream was collected from the region immediately about Ravenna, but it was not long before cream was being shipped in from considerable distances. The creamery produced butter and ice cream, and also handled poultry and eggs. Cheese was also processed in the 1920's and 30's, but it was chiefly a creamery. In its first 40 years over fifty million pounds of butter was produced. The operation was moved from its original location to the banks of Beaver Creek next to the railroad near the main section of town. The plant was eventually sold to the Fairmont Creamery.

The first Ravenna flour mill was built by C. S. Seeley in 1891. Ten years later Shellenbarger and Davenport became the owners and suffered a total loss of the mill by fire. It was rebuilt in 1902 and in 1904 came into the possession of the Ravenna Mills, Inc. The property represented a total investment of around $75,000. The mill was destroyed by fire in December of 1940, which was at that time the biggest fire in Ravenna's history.

Early in the history of Ravenna, a brick yard was located on a hill north of the city. The first kiln of 140,000 brick came off the fire in July of 1898 and was placed on the market at $10.00 a thousand. By the turn of the century the brick works were turning out brick at the rate of three hundred per hour. The yard continued to produce brick for several years. However, in the summer of 1915 the old brick kilns and the shed were badly damaged by strong winds. All that remains is the designation of "Brick Yard Hill."

Prior to 1884 there were too few settlers in the area to support a school and children had to attend a school twenty miles away. In 1884 a local district was organized, Erastus Smith serving on its board, and a small one-room school opened with Mrs. Alva Adams as teacher. It was replaced in 1887 with a structure costing $18,000 that housed both the grade and high school. An addition to the building was necessitated a few years later.

Several churches were organized before the turn of the century. The first place of worship in Ravenna was referred to as the "Tabernacle." It had a frame floor and walls, and the upper walls and roof were canvas. The first Catholic mass in the area was celebrated in a sod house in 1883. By 1887, eight German, eight Irish, and some Bohemian families were being served. The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes was organized in 1889 and completed its first building the same year. A group of forty people organized the First Congregational Church November 3, 1886. The following year a church building was erected and, in 1893, a parsonage was added. From available sources, it appears the Methodist Church was organized in 1887. The Lutheran Trinity Church (German) organized in Schneider township in 1898 with the Rev. William Landgraf, pastor, and eleven charter members. Lutheran services were first held in Ravenna in 1910.

Numerous social and benevolent associations were formed in the bustling community. One of these, the Cedar Mountain Post No. 220 of the Grand Army of the Republic organized July 17, 1886, with eight members. They held a reunion in 1887 to mark the first anniversary of Ravenna.

In 1927 a radio station operated by Roy McConnell began to broadcast programs over the air. It was called the Sothman Studio and Golden Rule Station, since those two businesses founded and operated it. In 1928 the call letters KGFW were established. The station was later moved to Kearney.

Local celebrations of Independence Day and a fall Harvest Festival evolved into the August festival of ANNEVAR in the following century. Ravennans in 1900 could look forward to further growth and progress, but like the soldiers of 1866, none could have imagined what the future would bring, or that in 1978 their city would be one of ten in the nation designated as an ALL AMERICA CITY.