(upbeat music) -[Narrator] Coming up on Nebraska stories.

Sometimes small towns remind us what community really means.

Up first, two faiths, two altars.

One little church.

This town stepped up in a moment of national need.

(upbeat music) Descendants of two communities unite to honor a shared history and a winter festival that brings everyone together to celebrate a stuffed groundhog.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) -(pews clicking and clanking) -(classical music) (classical music) (classical music) - [Narrator] A Catholic and a Protestant walk into a church.

Not the start of a joke, the start of a story about a unique place where both could have gone to services a century ago, a tiny building in a tiny village near giant Lake McConaughy.

(classical music) (classical music) (classical music) (birds chirping) - [Barbara] It is touted as the only one in the world.

- [Kathy] Most people are amazed at what's actually here.

That it's here and how special it is, and we think it's a real treasure.

(classical music) - [Barbara] It's just really a special place.

- [Narrator] Here's how it works.

There's a Catholic altar on one end, Protestant altar on the other.

In between, rows of pews on hinges that flip whatever direction is needed.

Same with kneelers, pulled out from either direction.

- [Barbara] That's the reason why Keystone was invented, because the ranchers didn't want to take their cattle across that river - Right.

- with the quicksand.

- [Narrator] Barbara, the Catholic, and Kathy, the Protestant, are two of the less than 100 folks who live in Keystone.

They keep The Little Church and its history from fading away.

- [Kathy] Dedication was Reverend Dean George Beecher of Omaha, and he was Episcopalian.

He wasn't any of the three (chuckles) - Really?

- that we know about.

- Well, that's interesting.

- I didn't know that either.

- [Narrator] It started long before Kathy and Barbara were around.

Keystone was founded in 1906 with a hotel, some businesses but no church.

(classical music) - [Kathy] The idea was brought by a group of teenage girls who were called the king's daughters, and they were under the direction of Mrs.

Georgia Paxton.

Mr.

Paxton, her husband, Bill Jr, they had a ranch just northeast of town here, and his father, Bill Sr was big in the Omaha stockyards and so they had bought land out here in ranch.

- [Barbara] So the girls decided we needed a church and they went about having sales, bazaars, an oyster supper at one time.

- [Narrator] The girls raised several hundred dollars to get things started.

The Paxton family kicked in the rest.

They hired noted Omaha architect Thomas Kimball to design the church.

Kind of a small job for the MIT and Paris educated designer whose credits include the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, Burlington Station, and St.

Cecilia's Cathedral.

(train horn hooting) Trains brought lumber from Omaha and a letter from the Vatican.

- [Barbara] Had to get a dispensation from the pope to have a Catholic altar in one end and a Protestant altar in the other.

And they got that.

- [Kathy] The special dispensation was shipped from Rome to New York City and there it was handed over to church officials who brought it out here on the railroad.

(classical music) - [Narrator] And the idea for the two-way pews?

(pews clatter and click) - [Barbara] Mrs.

Paxton was very well traveled and we believe she's the one that came up with the idea for the conversion of the backs.

Got the idea from the cable cars in the big cities that went one direction, couldn't turn around, so they flipped the seats and came back.

(pews flipping and clicking) (gentle music) - [Narrator] The Little Church opened in 1908 with a big dedication ceremony.

The unique concept occasionally got attention in other parts of the country.

One article called it "eminently sensible, neighborly and effective."

With visiting clergy, Catholics and Presbyterians alternated Sunday worship times here at first.

When the Presbyterians left in 1926, a Lutheran congregation moved in.

When the Catholics left in 1929, it was just a Lutheran church until closing two decades later.

(gentle music) - And Rex was the last baby baptized in this church during regular services - for the Lutherans.

- Oh really?

I didn't know that.

- 1949.

Yeah.

- [Narrator] Barbara and Kathy helped get it fixed up a few years ago and are preserving its history.

There are occasional special services, events, even weddings here.

(gentle music) Tour groups can see original bibles, hymnals, and journals showing how much each Sunday school kid put in the offertory.

It's a step back into early 1900s life in a small frontier town.

(gentle music) - [Barbara] The organ in the corner is original.

It's a pump organ.

You have to pump your brains out, but you can get music out of it.

(chuckles) ("Amazing Grace") To be able to have two different congregations hold services here spoke to the unity of the community and how they were able to work together and build something that was really beneficial to everybody.

("Amazing Grace") - [Kathy] I think it speaks well to the pioneer spirit.

We figure out what we need and we figure out a way to do it and we can usually get along while we're doing it.

And I think it's a simple solution to so many issues today if we could just all do this.

("Amazing Grace") ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: At a time of war, in the heart of Nebraska, soldiers and citizens came together at the Kearney Army Airfield.

BRYON: The whole area here was mobilized to support the base.

NARRATOR: Kearney Goes to War.

TODD PETERSEN: Kearney was a processing base.

What processing amounted to, it processed both airplanes and the men.

The airplanes came here straight from the factory, some of them needed modifications before they went overseas.

We had several different variants of each airplane, over time and so there were a lot of maintenance issues that had to be done.

Lower octane fuel had been drained out of the airplanes, they had 100 octane in them when they left, their guns were loaded and mounted and the whole airplane got a real thorough check before they sent it off because once they left here, they were going straight into combat.

CHANDLER BRYON: They'd make these 20 year old guys sign for the airplane like they were gonna be charged for it if they didn't bring it back or if they got it scratched and I've had a local farmer tell me about it, just scared him to death to have to sign, personally sign for that aircraft.

PETERSEN: They were all fresh out of training, next step was combat, so they had a number of things that they needed to do.

They might write wills.

They might buy life insurance.

They might get their teeth fixed, get their shots and another thing that was important that happened during processing was that the people at Kearney were doing the processing, we'd try to weed out the incompetents who had somehow gotten through the training and gotten to that point, at which time they were yanked out of the Air Force and then put into the infantry.

It was an important base, the rest of the air bases in Nebraska were all operated under Kearney as the main base with the exception of the one in Omaha.

But the other thing that should be remembered is the contribution that the civilians made.

BRYON: The whole area here was mobilized and they came in from quite a ways away to support the base here.

Ladies come in from the farm and pack parachutes, for example.

There was a WAC mechanics group here where they were working on the engines and just all aspects of the base life, there were civilian and military workers.

PETERSEN: This was true all over the country, everybody wanted to do their bit and so there was no shortage of people that were trying to help and had we not had the cooperation of the civilians for that war, would we still have won it?

Most likely but it would have taken a lot longer and we'd have had to have a military that was three or four times the size because of all the contributions that civilians made.

So the base at Kearney, in many ways, was a microcosm of what went on across the country, as far as people having an opportunity to really contribute to the war effort.

LEO SINNETT: Shacks they put up out there for us to live in was about next to nothing, then they had the guts to feed us with that food out there, every other spoonful was sand.

NARRATOR: Thousands of soldiers had left the comforts of home behind and it was up to the citizens of Kearney to provide them with hospitality.

BRYON: Many of the families kind of adopted these young fellas and invited them into their homes for home cooked meals and picnics and other things.

(people chatter) (baseball bat clacks) NARRATOR: Among the ways the Kearney soldiers stayed entertained, the most popular were easily the dances.

(lively orchestra music) Dances were an almost nightly event with big name acts regularly coming to the base or to clubs in the surrounding area.

ROBERT NEEFE: We had Harry James and we had Tommy Dorsey, all the big name bands came there because they were going across country and they'd make that stop and make a few dollars and then keep on going.

PETERSEN: The biggest problem had to do with turning a couple of thousand testosterone-laden young men loose in the community and the parents were justifiably worried about what could result.

They formed what was called the Hostess Club and to be a member of the Hostess Club, you had to be at least 18 and single and of good moral standing.

It was organized along military lines.

They had captains and colonels and the captains and the colonels consisted of older women from Kearney who served as chaperones.

This pretty much allayed everyone's fears and it worked very well throughout the war.

It wasn't until the tail end of the war that it kind of fell apart and that was because there were so many young women that were attending the dances at the air base that the whole chaperone thing just kind of disintegrated.

(lively orchestra music) (people applaud) (somber music) NARRATOR: Another result of the boosted population, the presence of black soldiers, meant Kearney had to begin enforcing the racial segregation practices common at the time.

This included separate facilities for blacks and whites.

PETERSEN: The thing you have to remember about it is that a white soldier can go into any tavern in town and buy a beer but that wasn't possible for the blacks, so they got right to work on building a black serviceman's club.

The spot that they chose for it happened to be right across the street from the Methodist church and at that time, there was a very active dry movement in Nebraska and most of the clergy in Kearney objected strongly to the fact that this was gonna be right across the street from the church but what ultimately happened was that the commanding officer put his foot down, he said, you have to find a place where these guys can congregate and drink beer and if you don't, then we're gonna restrict everybody to base and not allow any of the troops into town.

Well, these guys were real free spenders and certainly the city council didn't wanna see them restricted to base, so right away there was another meeting held and they promptly approved of the location on Avenue A and they announced that the beer would be free until such time as they obtain a liquor license.

Especially for the airmen that were passing through, it was the last real impression of America that they got before they left, 'cause again, when they left here, they went straight overseas, they didn't sit in Maine for two weeks waiting to go.

The people in the community went out of their way to try to make them feel welcome.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> WHEN DRIVING DOWN A HIGHWAY, HAVE YOU EVER FOUND YOURSELF WONDERING ABOUT THE AREA YOU'RE DRIVING THROUGH?

AUTHOR STEW MAGNUSON IS ONE SUCH PERSON AND HE'S TURNED HIS CURIOSITY INTO A BOOK.

>> I WANTED TO WRITE ABOUT HIGHWAY 83 BECAUSE MY DAD GREW UP ALONGSIDE IT.

MY GRANDPARENTS LIVED THEIR WHOLE LIVES IN STAPLETON, NEBRASKA, AND MY GRANDMOTHER, WHENEVER I WOULD BORROW A BICYCLE TO GO RIDE OUT TO THE SOUTH LOUP RIVER, SHE WOULD ALWAYS CALL OUT AFTER ME, "BE CAREFUL!

THAT HIGHWAY RUNS FROM CANADA TO MEXICO!"

AND AS A 12-YEAR-OLD, I'M THINKING, "WOW, THAT'S REALLY INTERESTING!

>> U.S.

HIGHWAY 83 IS AMONG THE LONGEST HIGHWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES AND IT RUNS THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF NEBRASKA.

>> I WANTED TO WRITE THIS BOOK AS A HYBRID TRAVEL/HISTORY BOOK.

IT WOULD BE MY EXPERIENCE, TRAVELING THE HIGHWAY, AND THEN, I COME ACROSS INTERESTING HISTORICAL VIGNETTES -- ONE OF THESE ROADSIDE SIGNS, AND THEN I WOULD TAKE THAT, AND TURN IT INTO A CHAPTER, THAT IS A PIECE OF AMERICAN HISTORY.

>> IT WOULD BE THE LACK OF A HISTORICAL MARKER THAT WOULD SET MAGNUSON ON AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY.

>> I ALWAYS WONDERED, WHY ISN'T THERE A HISTORICAL MARKER FOR DEWITTY/BROWNLEE, WHICH IS THE LONGEST, MOST SUCCESSFUL, AFRICAN-AMERICAN RURAL SETTLEMENT IN NEBRASKA.

>> SOUTH OF VALENTINE AND ONLY A FEW MILES OFF HIGHWAY 83, TODAY BROWNLEE HAS A POPULATION OF ABOUT 15 PEOPLE.

ORGANIZED IN 1887, IT WAS A THRIVING TOWN OF WHITE SETTLERS.

WHEN THE KINKAID ACT OF 1904 WENT INTO EFFECT, THE TOWN NOT ONLY GREW - IT BECAME A HARMONIOUS, BI-RACIAL COMMUNITY AS BLACKS SETTLED ALONG THE LOUP RIVER.

>> I WANTED TO COME TO THIS AREA, TO BROWNLEE, DEWITTY, BECAUSE THIS IS MY DAD'S HOME.

HE WAS BORN IN OVERTON AND FROM THE TIME HE WAS 10 YEARS OLD GREW UP HERE IN DEWITTY.

HE TALKED ABOUT IT ALL THE TIME.

I GREW UP THINKING I KNEW A PLACE THAT I HAD NEVER BEEN.

THIS IS MY FIRST TRIP HERE AND I THINK IT'S EVERYTHING THAT HE SAID IT WAS.

>> CATHERINE'S FATHER, WILLIAM, WAS THE YOUNGEST CHILD OF CHARLES AND ESTER MEEHAN, A BI-RACIAL COUPLE WHO EMIGRATED FROM CANADA IN 1885 TO LIVE IN NEBRASKA.

>> GRANDPA WANTED LAND AND I THINK ALL OF THE HOMESTEADERS WHO CAME WANTED LAND.

SOME OF THEM HAD LAND IN CANADA, BUT THEY WERE VERY SMALL PORTIONS.

THEY LIVED IN AREAS THAT WERE NOT LARGE FARMING HOMESTEADS.

THEY WERE PROBABLY WHAT TODAY WE WOULD CALL TOWN.

I THINK MY GRANDFATHER THOUGH WANTED AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE ABLE TO GIVE MORE TO HIS FAMILY THAN HE HAD IN CANADA AND NEBRASKA I THINK JUST SUITED HIM.

IT WAS THAT OPPORTUNITY.

>> AFTER THE KINKAID ACT OPENED LAND IN CHERRY COUNTY, THE MEEHANS, ALONG WITH SEVERAL OTHER BLACK FAMILIES, BEGAN SETTLING ALONG A 14-MILE STRETCH OF THE NORTH LOUP RIVER IN 1906.

THEY CALLED THEIR SETTLEMENT, DEWITTY.

>> IN ALL OF THE STORIES THAT DAD TOLD, HE SELDOM TALKED ABOUT ANY DISCRIMINATION HERE.

ONE OF THE THINGS THAT HE TYPICALLY SAID ABOUT DEWITTY -- ABOUT NEBRASKA IN GENERAL, BUT DEWITTY SPECIFICALLY, WAS PEOPLE WERE PEOPLE.

YOUR NEIGHBORS WERE YOUR NEIGHBORS AND I CAN JUST HEAR HIM SAYING THAT.

I THINK REALISTICALLY, THERE PROBABLY WERE DIFFERENCES THAT WERE DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE TO OVERCOME ON BOTH SIDES, BUT THE IMPRESSION I GOT IS THAT PEOPLE REALIZED THAT THERE ARE NOT MANY OF US OUT HERE, BLACK OR WHITE, AND WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET ALONG BECAUSE WE NEVER KNOW WHEN WE ARE GOING TO NEED ONE ANOTHER.

>> WHEN RACE RIOTS WERE HAPPENING IN CITIES ACROSS THE UNITED STATES, INCLUDING OMAHA, THE BLACK AND WHITE PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITIES OF DEWITTY AND BROWNLEE LIVED TOGETHER IN PEACE.

>> YOU HAVE THE STORY OF AN INTERRACIAL COUPLE.

YOU HAVE INTEGRATED, ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSES.

YOU HAD THE TWO COMMUNITIES COMING TOGETHER ON THE FOURTH OF JULY TO CELEBRATE THIS VERY QUINTESSENTIAL AMERICAN HOLIDAY, AND THEY PLAYED BASEBALL GAMES, AND HAD A RODEO, AND A PICNIC, AND SO ON, AND THIS IS WHAT YOU FIND IN THE HISTORICAL RECORD.

THE MEMOIRS YOU READ OF THE SETTLERS JUST MENTION ALL THESE THINGS.

THEY DON'T MENTION ANYTHING ELSE.

>> BY 1910, THERE WERE 82 RESIDENTS IN THE DEWITTY SETTLEMENT AND OVER THE YEARS, NUMBERS MAY HAVE REACHED AS HIGH AS 150.

AT SOME POINT, DEWITTY WAS RENAMED AUDACIOUS AND ALL CONTINUED TO GO WELL FOR AT LEAST A COUPLE MORE DECADES.

BUT THEN THE DUST BOWL YEARS BEGAN AND BY 1936, THE LAST RESIDENT OF DEWITTY MOVED AWAY.

IT WOULD TAKE ANOTHER 80 YEARS FOR THE UNIQUE HISTORY OF DEWITTY TO BE RECOGNIZED.

>> "WHY ISN'T THERE A MARKER HERE?"

THEN I, KIND OF TOWARDS THE END OF THE RESEARCH OF THE BOOK, I STARTED TO GET A'HOLD OF SOME OF THE DESCENDANTS, AND I SAID, "I'M JUST GOING TO LOOK INTO THIS."

>> WITH A LITTLE RESEARCH AND CROWDFUNDING, STEW AND CATHERINE WERE ABLE TO GET A HISTORICAL MARKER FOR DEWITTY.

ON A COOL APRIL MORNING, A FORMAL DEDICATION WAS HELD ALONG HIGHWAY 83.

>> I NEVER LIVED IN NEBRASKA AND I NEVER VISITED CHERRY COUNTY BEFORE, BUT I GREW UP WITH THE NAMES DEWITTY AND AUDACIOUS CONSTANTLY IN MY EAR.

MY DAD WILLIAM MEEHAN SEEMED TO CARRY NEBRASKA WITH HIM.

IN SO MANY WAYS THIS FEELS LIKE COMING HOME.

I HEARD MY FATHER AND COUSINS COMMENT THAT THERE WAS NO PREJUDICE OUT HERE.

THE PEOPLE WERE JUST PEOPLE, AND NEIGHBORS WERE NEIGHBORS.

>> HOW ABOUT THAT?

>> AN IMMEDIATE KINSHIP FORMED BETWEEN SOME 200 PEOPLE AS THEY GATHERED ON THE REMOTE NEBRASKA HIGHWAY, CROSSING COLOR LINES AND COLLAPSING TIME.

>> IT'S HEARTWARMING.

I THINK THAT THE ANCESTORS WOULD BE REALLY, REALLY PLEASED, VERY HAPPY, TO KNOW THAT THIS MANY YEARS LATER, A CENTURY LATER, THEY'RE STILL REMEMBERED.

>> AND OF COURSE, NO NEBRASKA HOMETOWN WELCOME IS COMPLETE WITHOUT A POTLUCK.

>> I ONLY THOUGHT THAT IT'D BE MORE THE PEOPLE WHO WERE DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO THE ACTUAL PEOPLE WHO LIVED HERE.

I DIDN'T THINK THAT THERE WAS GOING TO BE SUCH A LARGE RESPONSE FROM THE COMMUNITY ITSELF.

>> YES, THIS HAS JUST BEEN A PHENOMENAL EXPERIENCE.

THIS IS MY FIRST TIME HERE AND WE'VE BOTH JUST BEEN PLEASANTLY SURPRISED AT HOW FRIENDLY THE PEOPLE ARE.

THAT'S WHAT HAS JUST ACTUALLY BLOWN US AWAY, IS THAT EVERYONE HAS JUST REACHED OUT AND EMBRACED US, OF ALL RACES.

THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN HERE ARE ACTUALLY BROWNLEE DESCENDANTS, AND THEY EMBRACED THE DEWITTY DESCENDANTS JUST LIKE THEY WERE FAMILY.

>> COMING BACK HERE, AND SEEING THE WAY THAT MY ANCESTORS WERE TAKEN IN BY THE OTHER HOMESTEADERS, I THINK THAT REALLY DOES TAKE HEART BECAUSE IT SHOWS THAT WE HAVE COME A LONG WAY.

>> THAT WE -- OUR FAMILY MADE IT OUT HERE AND BUILT A TOWN AND WERE EDUCATED.

>> IT'S VERY HUMBLING AND REALLY, IT GIVES YOU PERSPECTIVE OF HOW DIFFICULT IT WAS AND HOW MUCH THEY ACHIEVED.

>> I'M NOT SURPRISED.

THE HOPEFUL MESSAGE IS HERE.

LORD, IN OUR TIMES, YOU KNOW, WE ARE HAVING TROUBLE AS A SOCIETY HOLDING TOGETHER, SO THIS IS JUST A LITTLE GLIMMER, A LITTLE RAY THAT WE CAN LIVE TOGETHER.

>> THERE'S EVIDENCE THAT I HAD A GOOD TIME!

>> IF GOOD THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES, THEN MAYBE WHAT STARTED IN TWO LITTLE NEBRASKA COMMUNITIES BETWEEN PEOPLE WHO FOUND THEY HAD MORE IN COMMON THAN NOT, CAN SERVE TO REMIND US OF WHAT IS POSSIBLE.

♪ ♪ (steady rock music) (light mysterious music) - [Bob] Unadilla Bill is a groundhog that was eating cabbage in my garden, I saw my cabbage was ate, and I looked over and there he was laying there, so I picked him up and I took him to the taxidermist.

He stuffed him for 14 dollars.

He's going to determine if he sees his shadow or not, and of course if he sees his shadow it's six more weeks of winter.

If he doesn't see his shadow then spring's right around the corner, that's what we're hoping for.

But the facts are the facts, you know that.

- 7:32, I don't see a shadow, do you Brody?

- [Brody] No, I don't.

- Bill's requested that I make a short statement: "Hear ye, hear ye, I'm Unadilla Bill.

I'm in my thirtieth year.

No shadow I see, and predict spring is near."

(crowd cheers) - Early spring!

(crowd laughs) - [Bob] Thanks Brody, thanks for the help.

- So it's just, we're you kind of fudging on it?

Uh-oh!

(laughs) Don't record that!

Is it better than Christmas?

- Probably.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- That's a pretty good day then, isn't it?

- The best part is the parade, probably.

(triumpant music) - Great time for kids, a great time for people to come back to Unadilla that, naturally with a town of 311, a lot of people that lived here moved away.

- [Andrew] It's a good reason to get out, see people you haven't seen in a few years, a few months, a few days, catch up.

- [Nick] People you graduated with in high school, people you grew up with when you were this tall, and they'll come back.

Enjoy the day.

(music continues) - [Randy] We're the Syracuse Germanfest float, and I've got the wiener dog hat on today because of the wiener dog races that are always at Germanfest.

- [Child] He likes wiener dogs!

(crowd laughs) - We're very fortunate.

Everybody's here to have a good time.

- [Terri] It's about community, it's about tradition, it's about having fun.

- [Kent] Something to do to break the monotony through the season, actually.

And it's fun, and we brought a pair of mules here.

One to ride and represent a saddle mule and the other one as a driving animal is what we've done.

- [Pete] You know you guys have a huge advantage by having a parade on a day when nobody else has one.

(men laugh) - Now therfore I, Pete Ricketts, Governor of the State of Nebraska, do hereby proclaim the community of Unadilla, Nebraska as the Groundhog Capital of Nebraska.

(crowd cheers) - One of the special things about crazy small towns is that the community really comes out and supports it, it really gives it a special flavor.

(motorcycle revs) - [Groundhog Dude #1] Bob and the parade asked us to dress up as groundhogs today to just help celebrate Groundhog Day and the parade we have in Unadilla.

Masked identity.

No one knows who you are.

You can just hug people and give them high fives and dance.

- [Groundhog Dude #2] We just work for him in the summer and stuff, do whatever he tells us.

- We have an official car of Groundhogs Day, the Ford Falcon, which was introduced on Groundhog's Day back in the late '50's.

- [Kurt] Well we were just told that the groundhog was killed about 20 years ago, and they just drive him around and he's stuffed.

Unadilla Bill is dead.

- [Toddler] Mama?

- [Mike] Well if you're not here you should be here because you're missing out.

This is huge.

The whole town's here.

Half of Lincoln's here, part of Omaha, we're all having fun.

- [Announcer] We're celebrating the 15th anniversary.

- What made it successful was all the kids just being happy, that's all that counts.

The thing that makes it successful is whenever they have a smile on their face, you know it's successful.

I put a smile on kid's faces, and that's what I'm happy about.

(rock music continues) - [Narrator] Watch more Nebraska stories on our website, Facebook and YouTube.

Nebraska Stories is funded in part by the Margaret and Martha Thomas Foundation, and the Bill Harris and Mary Sue Hormel Harris Fund for the presentation of cultural programming.

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