Committee seeks help with book as it hunts for local history

HARTINGTON – A group of Hartington area residents are on the hunt for history.

The Hartington History Book Committee is working on a 140-year history book – 1883-2023 – for the Cedar County seat community.

“We are doing this to preserve history and to update the 100-year book,” committee member Jennifer Sage said, noting Hartington’s centennial book was published in 1983.

The committee first met in April last year to discuss updating Hartington’s history book.

“The project will take about 1.5 years to complete,” Sage said. “Our deadline for this book is the end of August.”

Work needed to help complete the history book project includes: -Assistance from local businesses to complete historical information for buildings.

-Help from anyone who has photos of old storefronts to submit them to the committee.

“The time is now to complete this book because we see that so much information is being lost over the months and years, and we want to preserve it while we can,” Sage said.

She noted committee members are not sure how much copies of the history book will cost for people to purchase.

“We will have pre-sales closer to book publishing,” Sage said.

Anyone who wishes to make a monetary donation to the project may send it to Historical Society, P.O. Box 181, Hartington, NE 68739, with a memo of “Book Fund.”

Anybody who wishes to contribute information, history and memories to the project may e-mail hartington140@ gmail.com, or send a message to the “Hartington History Book” Facebook page.

“Any contributions are welcome,” Sage said.

In addition to Sage, the other committee members are: Andy Anderson, Tami Anderson, Elaine Arens, Lisa Becker, Laurie Kathol, Brooke Kleinschmit, Julie Meirose, Dennis Schumacher and Leah Wiedenfeld.

If people have questions about the history book project, they may contact Sage at 402-640-5763 or Wiedenfeld at 402-841-2766.