Wofford Travels – 2019-10-19 – West Point, NE-2
Greetings,
This is day four and a wedding day, so there will not be any travel items. We were up at our usual time, breakfast at 8:00, and then we could “chill” as the wedding was not until 2:00. We left at 1:00 for Dodge, 30 minutes away. The church venue was Saint Wenceslas which has a school associated with it right across a small street. A stone sign on the church building stated that it was “organized” (became a parish, I assume) in 1883.
The day was perfect for a wedding: sunny, no wind, and a mild temperature. Our granddaughter (just turned 5) was the flower girl and couldn’t have handled her assignment more perfectly. And, no bias here, she could have been in a bridal directory…wearing a sleeveless dress with a very wide ruffle around the dress from the waist down to the floor, and sporting a very grown-up, upsweep hairdo.
In the church, Tom spotted an Infant of Prague statue…which I had planned to photograph before I left…and didn’t I forget? Of course, I am especially fond of the Infant of Prague because of our visit to Prague, Czech Republic in 2018, and viewing the “actual” Infant of Prague statue.
This was a Catholic Mass, so the service was familiar. As a musician, I took special notice of the music. There was a female soloist accompanied by a pianist and occasionally a harpist. She also sang with a gentleman who, I later learned, was part of an Omaha singing ensemble, and made his living in this field. The duets were lovely.
The reception was just a few blocks away in the Dodge Auditorium. We learned that there were around 400 people in attendance. That’s what happens when you get married in a town in which you’ve lived your whole life; and it helps if it’s small because the whole town, it seems, comes to your wedding! When we left the reception to go to our hotel, I could actually say, “I left Dodge!” How many people get to do that?
Speaking of towns, West Point is where my daughter-in-law grew up…on a farm with 3 siblings. Her dad is a farmer and her mom is a nurse. Three of the siblings are pharmacists and the one, just married, went into farming.
The city of West Point, Nebraska lies on the eastern bank of the Elkhorn River and has a total square area of 2.73 miles. The 2010 census shows a population of 3,364, yet the estimated population for 2017 took a downturn to 3,340. The town was first founded in 1857, when Omaha businessmen formed the Nebraska Settlement Association in order to find suitable town sites in the Elkhorn Valley. Uriah, John, and Andrew Bruner (three brothers originally from Pennsylvania), and William Sexauer chose the present location on a bend along a river, which they called New Philadelphia. The name was soon changed to West Point because it was the westernmost outpost along the valley.
West Point grew slowly at first, but with the coming of the railroad in 1870, its population grew to over 700. The Chicago and North Western ended railroad service in 1982 after flood damage and declining freight traffic levels resulted in the track being abandoned. Plans were made to revive railroad service from the newly formed Fremont & Elkhorn Valley Railroad, who purchased the abandoned C & NW track. However, the costs were too high to revive railroad service, and the tracks were removed in 1988.
A point of interest today is that of the 50 states, Nebraska ranks #1 in farmland at 93%! (North Carolina ranks 29 at 29%.)
Dodge, in the meantime, is a village in Dodge County with a population of 612 as of the 2010 census and .40 square miles in land. It was platted in 1886 when the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad was extended to that point, and then incorporated in 1887. Dodge was named for George A. Dodge, a pioneer settler.
Just some history on a Nebraska town and village…all due to a wedding!
Tomorrow we will be riding all day with a goal of stopping in Norman, Oklahoma. ODO – 19,645 (1,895 miles).
Tita