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The Nebraska Signal

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The Nebraska Signal footage believed to have been made around 1941.

Folks at the very end of the video are: Front row, left to right, Helen Edgecombe Hoyt, Joan Hoyt, John Hoyt.
Back row, left to right, F.O. Edgecombe, Ed Hoyt, Hattie Edgecombe, John Edgecombe Sr., Gladys Edgecombe and Tyler Edgecombe.

[silent film]

Page from Ripley's Believe It or Not: Frank O. Edgecombe, thought totally blind, was Editor and Publisher of The Nebraska Signal for 53 years! …Geneva, Nebr., 1894-1947… He was blinded in a hunting accident in 1892.
Page from Ripley's Believe It or Not! Date not known.

The Nebraska Signal weekly newspaper located in Geneva, Nebraska has been publishing the news of Fillmore County Nebraska since October of 1881.

Each week, the newspaper is full of events that are about the citizens of Geneva and the surrounding communities that make up Fillmore County. At the present time, Fillmore County has a population of slightly more than 6,000. Geneva is the county seat.

Since early on, The Nebraska Signal has been delivered to its subscribers through the United States Postal Service each week and approximately 98 percent of subscribers receive their newspaper by mail.

The Nebraska Signal serves proudly as the historian of Fillmore County. Each week, within the newspaper pages, there are stories of events in the county like births, deaths, weddings, schools, sporting events, official government records and advertisements from area merchants and much more.

Most of the news that is printed each week is submitted by local patrons. Interaction with the community is key in completing the newspaper each week.

The history that is contained in The Nebraska Signal pages each week is available to anyone interested to search through the 134 years worth of newspapers. Every newspaper since October 1881 is on microfilm and those are stored at the Nebraska Historical Society in Lincoln, Nebraska and they are available to the public at no cost.

Hard copy newspaper files from 1932 to present are available locally. All of the hard copy files are stored in The Signal building, but the very old ones are not available for public inspection due to the condition of those old newspapers.

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Edgecombe family.
Left to right: Jean Edgecombe, Tyler Edgecombe, Mary Edgecombe, Arlene Edgecombe, Gladys Edgecombe.
Photo taken around 1916.

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This video was made to share with family. There are many instances where grandpa or grandma or that type of name was used. This was shot in the front office of The Signal building.

00:00

Docent:

This exhibit, here at the office, is just some family photographs

00:05

and newspaper photographs that we have had enlarged to about two foot by three foot.

00:12

The first picture is Robert Edgecombe and he is

00:16

F.O. Edgecombe's grandfather.

00:19

He was born in 1807 in Aroostook County, Maine, and died in [unintelligible] Nebraska in 1876.

00:33

The next photo is F.O. Edgecombe

00:37

and it was taken, we believe,

00:39

around 1916 as near as we can tell.

00:43

The photo of the lady, is a lady by the name of Joy Camp.

00:47

And I am not sure about that.

00:50

I think later she became Joy Case.

00:53

This next photograph is a picture or a chalk drawing like Robert's,

01:00

of Tyler Edgecombe and Helen Edgecombe.

01:04

It was done in 1894.

01:05

Tyler was age 6 and Helen was age 2.

01:11

This is a photo of Grandma Gladys. This was taken about 1948.

01:18

Another picture of F.O., Grandpa Tyler, and again that Joy lady.

01:25

And this is taking in 1916.

01:28

You can see that very easily on the calendar.

01:34

If you will pay a little bit of attention to the desk on the right,

01:37

I'll show that to you later.

01:41

This is a picture of just the back room, a Linotype,

01:44

a couple of old pieces of equipment.

01:48

Light hutch are all gone but the proof press there in the middle,

01:51

with the roller, we still have that one here in the building.

01:57

This picture is taken in the front of the building in 1908.

02:01

And, frankly, I'm not sure who the people are.

02:06

I'm not exactly positive.

02:08

I really don't know who they are.

02:11

This one should be familiar to all of you.

02:15

I have no idea what year it was taken but there's Grandma Gladys,

02:19

and our Aunt Mary, Aunt Gene and Grandpa Tyler.

02:22

And I believe that that was obviously before my father was born.

02:28

In next photograph is a picture of Tyler and again

02:34

that was taken about nineteen, middle of 1940s, I think '48.

02:41

That desk, I'm not sure if that is the rolltop desk or not the Grandpa is sitting at.

02:46

It might be.

02:47

I'm not familiar enough with that.

02:50

Again the desk on the far wall is one that we still have here in the building

02:56

and I will show that to you in a moment.

03:00

This is a picture of the downstairs, of the old press in the basement.

03:05

There's Grampa Tyler in the far back right.

03:08

Dick Stevenson, tall man what kind of a hump in the back.

03:13

There's a young man in a white t-shirt beside the press, that's my father.

03:16

It had to be taken in the '40s, middle-40s or so.

03:22

The gentleman on the right, I believe, I'm not sure who he is for positive,

03:27

but I thinks it was Monte Montgomery.

03:32

Another picture of the back shop, again taken in the '40s, I believe.

03:37

There's Grandpa Tyler on the left, my father sitting down at the Linotype.

03:43

There's Monte Montgomery, and the gentleman in the white shirt towards the right,

03:48

back side is Howard Hamilton as a very young man.

03:51

This one here, of course, is the picture of F.O. in Ripley's Believe It or Not.

04:02

And that is about all there is to say about that picture.

04:08

These are just some of the plaques.

04:11

These three on the right hand side are all plaques from when F.O., Tyler,

04:17

and my father were presidents of the Nebraska Press Association.

04:23

The plaque here is mine from when I was the president

04:27

of the Nebraska Press Advertising Service.

04:31

And you'll see then that there are more of us that have been on that,

04:34

including my two children.

04:36

So that's Nebraska Press Advertising Service,

04:39

so there are one, two, three, four, five people who have served that.

04:45

This is Geneva Chamber of Commerce, my father's plaque, my plaque,

04:51

and then again there's a plaque down here that has F.O., Tylor, my father, and myself.

04:59

This is an award that I received from the National Weather Service

05:02

for being, I guess, a great weather person.

05:07

I'm not sure, exactly. It was given to me in 2011.

05:13

I started reading the weather in 1978.

05:17

And there's just a plaque that has my years.

05:21

This is an old photograph that goes back, I'm not sure what year it was taken,

05:26

but it's of the old courthouse and it's pretty unique.

05:32

The next plaque here is of

05:34

F.O. Edgecombe and myself.

05:39

F.O. being the president of the National Editorial Association

05:43

and myself as being the National Newspaper Association.

05:47

And then the are four photographs of course, there is F.O.,

05:51

there's Tyler, there's of course my father, and there is myself

05:57

along with a plaque that has the four generations of being president of the Nebraska Press Association.

06:04

And finally, these plaques are from the Nebraska Newspaper Hall of Fame.

06:11

On the left is F.O. Edgecombe,

06:13

he was inducted in 1975.

06:17

The next plaque is Grandpa Tyler and he was inducted in 1987.

06:23

And I remember taking Grandma Gladys and my boys to that induction service.

06:29

And then this was my father when he was inducted in October of 2004.

06:37

For anybody who is counting generations, Robert would be my children's 4th great-grandfather

06:44

and my grandchildren's 5th great-grandfather.

06:50

Okay, this is the Signal's North Building

06:54

and pictured in the movie as the old desk from the wall photographs,

07:00

the still photographs.

07:02

On that is a typewriter.

07:04

It's a Remington model 16 from the 1930s.

07:08

Behind that is a glass kerosene lantern, kerosene lamp that I found.

07:14

I just found that one a few weeks ago.

07:16

My son Jim and I found that down in the basement.

07:20

On the left-hand side is an old fan.

07:25

And you can see an old wicker basket,

07:27

a wire basket there as well and some other paraphernalia.

07:32

I'm not sure but I think maybe the pen on the right,

07:36

the fountain pen is Grandpa Tyler's, although I'm not positive about that.

07:42

And we also have displayed some old stuff,

07:48

some ink blotters and some old things like that that don't mean much.

07:52

No family anything to it.

07:55

So that's kind of the display.

07:58

And it's been here for a couple of months and people are kind of getting a kick out of it.

08:03

The picture on the back is Hough Halvsla on left.

08:09

He was a guy who ran the train, Burlington Northern train.

08:13

And he was a friend of Grandma and Grandpa's along with his wife.

08:18

And then in the back, the person in the back standing, is Grandpa Tyler.

08:23

And on the right-hand side is Robert Wearing, and he was the County Attorney here.

08:29

And his wife and Grandma Gladys were both from Edger, I believe.

08:36

So this is the display in the North Building.

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The Nebraska Signal, Linotype footage

[Linotype machine and background conversations throughout entire video]

Four people stanging in front of Signal building in 1908.
Only known person is the lady on far right, Joy Hart. Photo taken in 1908.

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Gladys Edgecombe worked at The Signal from during World War 2, until she passed. Approximately 50 years. Taken in 1948.

Tyler Edgecombe
This photo is taken in the front of the Signal building. Tyler worked at The Signal for 60 years. Photo taken in 1948.

Left to right, F.O. Edgecombe, Joy Hart and right lady unknown.
Left to right, F.O. Edgecombe, Joy Hart and right lady unknown. Photo taken around 1916.

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Left to right, FO Edgecombe, Joy Hart, Tyler Edgecombe. Photo taken in 1916.

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Left to right, Tyler Edgecombe, John Edgecombe Sr., Dick Stephensen, Monty Montgomery and Howard Hamilton.
The men at the table are putting together newspaper pages. Photo taken late 1940's.

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Left to right, John Edgecombe Sr., Dick Stephensen, unknown, Tyler Edgecombe and Monty Montgomery.
John is running the Duplex newspaper press and the men are inserting newspapers before being mailed. Photo taken late 1940's.

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People are unknown. Photo is in the very back of The Signal building and shows a Linotype, proof press and what are known as stones (tables with granite or marble tops) and some old type cases near the rear of the photo. Circa 1916.

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