NEVA-RAE RUSSELL
Huston Russell of Lincoln County, Kentucky, brought his family to the southeastern tip of present day Nebraska in the 1850s after living in Indiana and Iowa. The area would become Nemaha County.
The county, then in the Nebraska Territory, was the core of the Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation formed in the Fourth Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1830 as land for the offspring of traders and Native Americans. The county's first community, Saint Deroin, was founded in 1853 by members of the reservation as a trading post on the Missouri River. White settlement was permitted in the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, Nebraska would become a state in 1867.
On May 8, 1893 Huston's granddaughter Neva-Rae was born on a farm just southwest of the town of Nemaha. Nemaha would reach there most ever number of residents in a couple years at 400.
The county, then in the Nebraska Territory, was the core of the Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation formed in the Fourth Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1830 as land for the offspring of traders and Native Americans. The county's first community, Saint Deroin, was founded in 1853 by members of the reservation as a trading post on the Missouri River. White settlement was permitted in the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, Nebraska would become a state in 1867.
On May 8, 1893 Huston's granddaughter Neva-Rae was born on a farm just southwest of the town of Nemaha. Nemaha would reach there most ever number of residents in a couple years at 400.
Nemaha City Main Street
Neva-Rae was said to be a bright young girl. She was very active in the Nemaha Methodist Church and was said to be a good singer. By the time she was in high school, she was showing off her independence. As a member of the school's debate team, she argued for women's right to vote (still 10 years away) and women's equality in a local competition. Her team won the argument.
After graduating high school in 1910 she still wanted to do more. So in 1912 she went up the road to the town of Peru, where there was a Normal School.
After graduating high school in 1910 she still wanted to do more. So in 1912 she went up the road to the town of Peru, where there was a Normal School.
A normal school or normal college was an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of the method and practice of teaching and curriculum. In the early 1900s in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high school level, turning out primary school teachers. Many such schools are now called teacher training colleges or teachers' colleges, Puru Normal was Nebraska’s first college, established in 1867 as a teacher training school with one building and 60 students. It is now Peru State College and has 1,900 students.
Peru Normal Had Really Grown By 1920
Neva-Rae spent the next two years getting her teaching degree. She was also taking music classes and keeping up with her singing. This led her to joining the literary and musical sorority Alpha Chi Omega. At this time the sorority was also supporting an artists' colony in New Hampshire started by pianist Marian MacDowell who was an alumna of Alpha Chi Omega. The sorority's tag line is "Real Strong Women".
After graduation, Miss Russell moved to Maywood, Nebraska, to become their Assistant Principle and also teach. Maywood had recently built a new school in their town of 300 residents.
The Recently Built Maywood School
Wanting more knowledge she soon left Maywood and moved to University Place near Lincoln. There she enrolled in Nebraska Wesleyan University.
Chartered on January 20, 1887, Nebraska Wesleyan University had an initial enrollment of 96. The initial teaching and administrative staff at this time totaled eight, including the chancellor. In September 1887, the cornerstone was laid for Old Main, which became the central building of the campus. Still with no stairways, windows, or flooring on some floors, classes began in September 1888. The first graduating class was four women in 1890. The second graduating class, in 1891, was made up of four men. The school is located in the former town of University Place, Nebraska. Today, it is part of northeast side of Lincoln.
During her first year, while studying for her Bachelor of Arts degree, she came up with an idea for a new playing card game and filed for a patent. It was a trick taking game using different aircraft (bi-plane, tri-plane, airship and zeppelin) as trump cards and suit cards had distances to different Nebraska towns.
While she waited for her patent to be accepted she finished her Bachelor degree in Art and then went on to get her Masters. For good measure, she also got a Bachelor of Science degree. Right after graduation in 1917 her new card game patent was approved.
Neva-Rae was now also a member of the female Masonic Order of the Eastern Start and a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). At the time the WTCU was campaigning for local, state, and national prohibition, woman suffrage, protective purity legislation, scientific temperance instruction in the schools, better working conditions for labor, anti-polygamy laws, Americanization, and a variety of other reforms.
Even though her new card game patent was approved Neva-Rae didn't have any time to try and commercialize her idea because she had a new job. This time she was hired as the new Principal of Carroll (Nebraska) high school. This town of 400 also employed four other ladies to teach all of the students.
Neva-Rae was now also a member of the female Masonic Order of the Eastern Start and a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). At the time the WTCU was campaigning for local, state, and national prohibition, woman suffrage, protective purity legislation, scientific temperance instruction in the schools, better working conditions for labor, anti-polygamy laws, Americanization, and a variety of other reforms.
Even though her new card game patent was approved Neva-Rae didn't have any time to try and commercialize her idea because she had a new job. This time she was hired as the new Principal of Carroll (Nebraska) high school. This town of 400 also employed four other ladies to teach all of the students.
Carroll, Nebraska, Main Street
The next year she apparently got a better job offer to become the Principal of the school in Waterloo, Nebraska. The town was an important supplier of vine and corn seed and also had a population of 400.
Waterloo, Nebraska
Neva-Rae arrived in Waterloo the summer of 1918 and instantly became a popular figure in the town. Unfortunately, trouble was brewing about 185 miles away near Manhattan, Kansas.
Construction for Camp Funston near Manhattan, Kansas began during the summer of 1917 and eventually encompassed approximately 1,400 buildings on 2,000 acres. The garrison was administered by the 164th Depot Brigade and was responsible for receiving, housing, equipping, and training enlistees and draftees for World War I.
The Spanish Flu pandemic was marked as having begun on 4 March 1918 with the recording of the case of Albert Gitchell, an army cook at Camp Funston. (But, there were actually cases before him.) The disease had already been observed within 200 miles of the camp as early as January 1918, prompting local doctor Loring Miner to warn the U.S. Public Health Service. Within days of Gitchell becoming ill 522 other men at the camp were now sick with the flu. Plus with soldiers leaving Camp Funston for deployment overseas the virus had now reached Queens, New York, where they were embarking for Europe from. Failure to take preventive measures in March and April were later criticized.
By September it was in central Nebraska and by October it had reached Waterloo.
Neva-Rae had left town to avoid the pandemic and went to Omaha. But, it was no safer there. She soon became sick and was eventually hospitalized at the Nicholas Senn hospital. On November 23rd the 25 year old Miss Russell passed away. Within a year over another 650,000 in the United States would die during this pandemic.
Nicholas Senn Hospital
Neva-Rae is buried in the Russell family plot in the Nemaha Cemetery.