In 1935 the family moved into the college building and Grace served as manager of the dining hall until 1943. Raymond worked as a mechanic and electrician and as an owner-operator of an appliance store.

Raymond and Grace Gibson Family. Seated: Ruth (Gibson) Van Zant. Standing: Reva (Gibson) and Leonard Ferguson. Raymond and Grace had two daughters; Ruth and Reva. They are both graduates of Central City High School and Nebraska Central College. The College and the Friends Meeting were important to all members of the family and they served both faithfully. Ruth married Evan Van Zant and Reva married Leonard Ferguson, They two were graduates of NCC.

Gladys Glantz and Family. Gladys (Myers) Glantz with her 4 children; Don, Jean, Larry, and Vickie. Gladys is a birthright Friend, but her husband of nearly 40 years, nor any of her 4 children joined the Central City Meeting.
     Rev. Ralph Boring was the pastor when Gladys became an active member.
     Gladys is now living in California, but still gives her support to the Meeting.

Gerald and Edith (Halling) Haynes. Born to Quaker parents, Edith grew up on the family farm in Nebraska. She acquired her college education at Nebraska Central, financing her education by serving as secretary to the president of the college. During the summer months she served as secretary the Yearly Meeting superintendent and worked on her parent's farm. Gerald was a native of Kansas, but moved with his family to Ontario, Canada, during his high school years. He was drafted into military service during World War II, and served three years in field artillery. Out of this experience Gerald deepened his aversion to violence and to the military approach to conflict resolution. While studying at Whittier College he found in his association with Friends a confirmation of his growing sense of harmony with the spirit of

nonviolence. During these years he became affiliated with First Friends in Whittier. With the re-enactment of Selective Service in 1948, Gerald refused to register for the draft, was prosecuted and sentenced to a brief term in prison.
     When reflecting on the question of what drew him and Edith together, Gerald observed: "Edith understood my radical pacifism."
     Together, through the years, they have been active in the life and work of Whittier Meeting, sharing values and faith. Edith's interest in an visitation of prisoners developed early on in her teaching career when she learned that the parents of two children in her school were arrested and sent to jail for a crime they did not commit. While providing encouragement and support to the children as well as the parents, Edith followed the case until the parents were cleared and released.
     For more than forty years since that experience Edith has visited in jails and prisons, including San Quentin and Marion Prison in Illinois, because she says: "The inmates have no one else corresponding with them or visiting them." On one occasion a prisoner asked her to attend his execution -- "if it happens -- but not my parents, because," he said, "you care more than they do." Over the years Edith has corresponded with more than 50 prisoners and currently she is either corresponding with or enlisting others to correspond with quite a number of inmates, including seven on death row. Both Edith and Gerald are widely known as foes of the death penalty and as advocates of prison reform.
     Through the years, Edith has been actively involved in the work of the AFSC and FCNL. When Peace Camps were organized for small children in the '80s, Edith was among those who gave enthusiastic support. She explained that she had observed that the sorry things that happened to many prisoners, occurred when they were children. Peace Camps provide another opportunity for teaching children self-esteem, how to resolve conflict and how to appreciate people across differences."
     Edith and Gerald have also been involved in the community working for the homeless. Working with representatives of churches in Whittier, Edith helped to develop a shelter program for the homeless that provides two hot meals per day and overnight accommodations for all the homeless who are willing to comply with minimum conditions. Each homeless person who accepts the hospitality of the participating churches must become involved in a self-improvement program and be willing to become seriously engaged in a search for employment. Combining both compassion and tough love.
     The picture is one of Gerald and Edith holding Xenia Marquez, daughter of Alex Marquez. Alex's family is from El Salvador. When Alex was in fourth grade, Gerald was his teacher and Alex's mother asked the Haynes's to be his godparents. Now Alex asks them to be godparents to Xenia.

Taken by Lorton Heusel's article in Quaker Life

William Edwin and Mary Emily (Carey) Hockett. The Hocketts were here at least by the early 20s. I understand they lived there when the McConnells moved to the neighborhood in 1921. I remember going to Grandma Hockett's and I must

have asked for cookies. I don't remember it, but I do remember my mother telling me it wasn't nice to ask for cookies. Clara (Hockett) Wilder lived there with her two sons, Dale and Dean. I was young enough to not remember either Mr. Hockett or Mr. Wilder. Edwin Hockett is listed in the 1926 church directory. I think they came from South Dakota, probably to be near the school because the girls Clara and Alta went to Nebraska Central
     Clara's son, Dale, went to Nebraska Central. Dean and Jeanette Lindgreen were married at the Friends Meetinghouse in 1941.

Don Hockett, Mary Hockett, Dale Wilder, and Dean Wilder. Grandchildren of the Hocketts. Don and Mary Hockett went to Nebraska Central; Don married into another Quaker family (Ardith Mendenhall).

Katherine Honold. Katherine became a member of Central City Friends Meeting when the meeting she attended was laid down. She has been an active participant by joining us in spirit and financially in our outreach programs. She has taken part in the Challenge Offering each year, sends us her "soup" labels, and helps with special funds. On the days for USFW she reads the lesson in the blueprints to feel a part of the women's society.

Dr. Solomon Hull and his wife, Adda (Baker) Hull. (Taken in the early 1940s). Dr. Hull's first wife, Susanna Shaw Hull, was the mother of Ruth Hull. Susanna Hull died in 1903. Dr. Hull was active in the Meeting in different capacities for many years.

Elizabeth (Marsh) Jensen. Elizabeth's education began at District 23 (Gardner School), two miles from her home, Archer High School one year; seven years in Central City High School, Nebraska Central Academy and College. She supported herself by four years of teaching in country schools. Later academic pursuits took her to Haverford College for an M.A. degree, and for a term at Woodbrooke School in England.
    Elizabeth worked for ten years with Quaker organizations, interrupted in the late 1920's by a summer in England and Europe, tramping, attending two world youth conferences, a month at the League of Nations sessions in Geneva, then the term at Woodbrooke. Much of the ten years was spent in traveling among American Friends, and the work largely evolved around youth. Headquarters were first in Richmond, Indiana, serving as National Young Friends Secretary. Five years followed, developing youth volunteer services and working in personnel out of the Philadelphia offices of American Friends Service Committee. There were returns to Philadelphia during the next for years for staff, Board or Committee assignments, with a year and a half of full-time work there, and another year in Mexico among Spanish refugees, accompanied by Daniel Jensen, the man she married in 1935 at Pendle Hill near Philadelphia, and her daughter, Karen, who was born in 1936.
    Elizabeth, Daniel, and Karen lived on a ranch in Colorado for ten years, then sold it in 1947 and moved to a better ranch in Wyoming. Daniel died in 1971 and Elizabeth now lives in a retirement home in Loveland, Colorado.
    She said that life was made enormously rich through the years by people. Every year brought scores of friends and relatives to their door. They also traveled frequently among those people in various parts of the country.

Taken mostly from the Merrick County History

Frank and Mary Jewell. After Frank and Mary (Wild) Jewell were married in 1866, they moved to Merrick County in a covered wagon. They settled on a homestead east of Lone Tree on the north bank of the Platte river. He built their first home of logs from Timber Island. The house was located by the California Trail where it crossed Warm Slough. They gradually acquired more land, including a tree claim.
    In 1874 the family moved into Lone Tree, where they bought a general dry goods and grocery store from Reynolds and Ratcliff. Fitch Brothers print shop was upstairs in the same building. The Jewells lived in town about eight years, then built a new house on the farm and lived there until March 1906, when they again moved into town.

     Frank and Mary were very active in community affairs, especially the organizations for Civil War veterans and families. Frank was on the board of the Platte Valley Bank and served one year as County Surveyor. He was an active petitioner for changing the name of Lone Tree to Central City. Reasons given by the petitioners included: "Lone Tree gives an image of such barrenness as to support only one tree, and -- the inhabitants as a wild, rough, uncouth, and uncultured people," when actually they envisioned "a city so centrally located in so goodly a land that it would be attractive and a credit to the state." The name was officially changed 1 July 1875.
     The Jewell family joined the Society of Friends in the early 1900's. Frank Jewell and his daughter, Nettie, lived in the house one block west of the Meetinghouse.

Taken mostly from the Merrick County History

George and Alta (Hockett) Johns. Taken on their 25th Wedding Anniversary, 1947. Alta was involved with the women's activities as well as the regular worship services.

Archie and Viola Johnston, Donald and Larry. Archie is the son of Lula Mable Solt and George Archie Johnston, Lula Mable and her parents were charter members of the Central City Friends Meeting and a birthright member. Viola Hemmingsen Johnston came into the Meeting by letter from the Presbyterian Church in Primrose. Archie and Vi had two sons; Donald and Larry.
     Donald went to Oskaloosa, Iowa to William Penn College in 1961. He graduated from there in 1960. That fall he taught Industrial Arts in Melcher-Dallas, Iowa. He passed away in 1965. Donald was married to Carole Kleppe in 1962, who also graduated from William Penn (1963).
     Larry and Deborah Dukes were married at the Meetinghouse in 1972.
     Archie has served on the finance committee; he and Viola were both on the Ministry and Counsel, and Viola was statistician. Viola taught the little ones in Sunday School and kept track of them as they grew up. Archie and Vi are good to visit people.