That Labor Day weekend, after being Up West for the Chafin and Adel graves, Jim and Sue took me to sites close by, the first being the area of Loal and Minnie Luckert's farm as Lowell Vawser told us. Loal was one of Captain John's second family with Julia Witt Dannert; Loal's oldest, the only son, Gerald/Bud, died this year. Jim had been told Bud had Captain John's Civil War sword, but Bud's widow corrected that misinformation in her comment.
This area is south and a bit east of Center, and other Luckerts lived in the area, including Oscar. I am always annoyed by out-of-state bores/boors complaining how flat Nebraska is because they whiz across it on Interstate 80, the Great Platte River Road for pioneers, and, yes, much of it is fairly level. But I grew up in the Northeast, which generally looks like the two photos below of the Loal Luckert farm site. Often hiding glacial moraine deposits--lots of gravel pits--with fossils like the plesiosaur found just north of Center in 2003, this hilly terrain is what I and other Center boys happily explored. Most of the numerous farms I grew up with are completely gone, though we spotted some foundations for this one down in the bottom. Another big change is the weedy invasion of the eastern red cedar, beginning to fill in the spaces darkly between the native trees. Those are evident in the second photo's foreground along the fence line.
Not that far east is Morrillville Cemetery and, once, the Morrillville School. Straight west of the two was the Luckert farm of Dad's boyhood not a half mile down the road. It once looked like this. His earliest memories were of a dugout, though, mainly a cave with a wooden front added with door and windows.
My photos were taken from the road intersection by the school site, the farm within easy walking distance west, the cemetery a short ways east and looking like this, one of the few country cemeteries badly kept--though Dad once tried to clean it up--and desecrated by a herd of cattle which toppled and sometimes broke tombstones besides leaving their dung.
Sue had to hold up the child's tombstone for Sara Stocking. Another child's tombstone has a family name still familiar in the Bloomfield area, Case.
In the view west from the cemetery gate, the wooded Morrillville School plot is beyond Chester to the right on the main county road running north-south, about a mile south of the Koftans' Old Brick House, with the Luckert farm west beyond the school site, as shown above. (The trees at the left are a current farm.) The most interesting family discovery was this listing of the cemetery trustees.
On this stamped metal, under "First Cemetery Trustees" are the names, H.W. Morrill, G. Cole, S. Case, C.W. Jones, and T.M. Clark. C.W. Jones is, of course, my Justice of the Peace great grandfather, whose pictures and grave are in a recent entry.
Being Gerald Luckert's wife of 56 years I have NEVER heard of or seen "Captain" John's sword(s). I find a lot of your comments interesting and accurate to my knowledge, but this one is not. After Loal died in 1985 Grandma Minnie gave Bud and I several newspaper articles and another paper concerning his army information. I pressume Jack gave you wrong information. Sorry I can't help any in your search for these, if they ever existed.
Bud's widow Madaline
maddye76@gmail.com
ps- Could these have been in Uncle Oscar's assets when he sold out at the farm?
Thank you for the correction. I will edit out the comment accordingly. That's the trouble with hearsay evidence. I appreciate any family help in keeping the blog as correct as possible. I asked Jim, and he said Jack Schlect, Ellen's husband, had told him about Civil War items that Loal's family had. You would certainly know, so he--and I--were misinformed.