CEDAR COUNTY, NEBRASKA - Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Cooper of Obert
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Cedar County News, 1939


From Mrs. Juergens' Files  

Obert Couple Completes 3,000 Mile Tour in Mid-West States 
                Wynot – Mr. and Mrs. J.W. cooper of Obert, who visited 
at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Jurgens Sunday afternoon, have just 
recently returned from a nine week’s trip thorugh Iowa, Illnois, 
Missouri and Kansas. During this trip of almost 3,000 miles, they had 
no trouble whatever with the exception of one flat tire. They visited 
many historic places during the trip. After visiting with Mrs. Cooper’s 
relatives in Illinois, they went to Springfield, MO., where they visited 
Mr. Cooper’s birthplace which he had not seen since he left there 46 
years ago. He visited his brother whom he had not seen for 27 years, and 
sat in a chair 129 years old which had belonged to his grandmother.
                In this section of the country the temperature is around 
65 to 70 during the winter. On Jan. 6 they picked dandelions in bloom and 
also water cress. It was nothing unusual to pack up a lunch and go fishing.
 On January 9, when Cedar county had the unusual combination of thunder, 
lightning, rain, hail and snow with the high temperature at 36, at 
Springfield the Cooper’s report the temperature at 70 degrees with thunder 
and lightning.
                During the interesting and scenic drive through the Ozark 
Mountain country Mr. and Mrs. Cooper spent one night on the highest peak of 
the divide where the water from the north side flows into the Osage River 
and the water on the south side flows into the Arkansas and Mississippi 
Rivers.  Only about 30 feet apart at the start the waters converge 360 miles 
distant at Mobile, Ala.
                Also in the Ozarks Mr. and Mrs. Cooper stopped at an old 
Spanish Cave. Most interesting of all was the Shepherd of the Hills country 
where the scene was laid for the book by Harold Bell Wright. They had lunch 
on the highest bluff in front of “Uncle Matt’s “ cabin above Lake Taneycomo.              
                At Springfield they saw the National cemetery, enclosed by a 
high cement wall, in which both Confederate and Union soldiers are buried. A 
strange and unusual feature of this cemetery is the fact that both the soldier 
and his wife are buried in the same grave. When the first one died the grave 
was made deep enough to allow for the interment of the second casket on top of 
the first one.
                At Mr. Cooper’s birthplace near Springfield he happened to dig 
out one of a set of six individual salt dishes which belonged to his mother. 
It is believed to be about 75 years old. 
                It was also his old home where one morning in the early days 
the two James brothers and the three Younger brothers appeared and demanded 
breakfast. His mother was sick in bed and his father was away and just two 
little boys at home. Two of the desperadoes cooked and ate breakfast while the 
other three stood guard, then they stood guard while the other three ate.  When 
they left they took one of the horses that belonged to the Cooper family. 
Thirty days later the James brothers sent $100 to pay for the horse.
                Coming on into Kansas they saw the strip coal mines near Thayer 
where the coal is stripped off in layers and trucked to surrounding towns. Also 
in the same vicinity are the gas and oil wells. At Chanute, KS., they visited 
the Johnson airport named after the explorer Martin Johnson. 
                It is rare to find snakes active in the winter time as normally 
they are in hibernation but while Mr. and Mrs. Cooper were at Springfield a 
woodcutter found a spreading viper crawling around on the rocks. He managed to 
catch it in a box and brought it to town to prove his story.