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May 22, 1924
HARTINGTON — Rapid transit between Yankton and Norfolk was started when a motor bus was placed in operation, the route from Norfolk being via Pierce, Wausa and Crofton. No previous advertising had been given the venture but it is believed that capacity business will be developed, particularly between Pierce and Norfolk and between Wausa, Crofton and Yankton. The excellent road along the eastern line of Knox County means quicker transportation.
May 22, 1924
Oldest of all the schoolhouses in Cedar County, still in use at Brocke’s Bottom school, which in days of old, also served as a missionary chapel where the parents of its present pupils were baptized and taught to worship on Sunday, where they learned reading and ‘riting and ‘rithmetic on week days, and where later they were married.
With its 60 years of service the old building has picked up much from the ways of the generations that have come and gone.
In a wry old way, the building now poses as a much younger one, and even deceives the casual passerby. Having had its face lifted again and again, having been puttied here and patted there to break up wrinkles, and having been twice removed from its original site, it really has succeeded in keeping up appearances.
White paint administered again and again keeps it one of the best looking buildings in its community, giving it a shine that can be seen miles away. A new foundation added this year gives it sufficient nerve to carry on its deceptions. But a glimpse of its inside, the schoolroom, tells the real story. The old walls and ceiling, the old double desk, richly carved with names that bespeak associations found nowhere else in the county, these tell the years of service the old building has given.
But even this reality has not been given up without a struggle to appear youthful - for the walls have outlasted three series of new schoolroom equipment and give every indication of outlasting many more.
Built originally on the old John Brocke land, so long ago that folks now living cannot tell just when, although they are sure it was either in the late sixties or early seventies, the first site of a building has long since been washed away by the Missouri River.
Among the men active in getting this early school which is believed the first school in Cedar County was John Brocke, for whom it was named, although the spelling has often been slightly changed during the years. Mr. Brocke who came to the county about the same time as did the Wiseman family, is the father of Mrs. August Lubeley, George Beste, and Mrs. Frank Thoman.
His old homestead is now being farmed by his great-grandson, Emery Lubeley, whose house includes four rooms of the old Brocke log cabin.
The bottom was named after Mr. Brocke because he was the first white man to come to the community to live. One other man was there before Mr. Brocke but he left, while Mr. Brocke built a home and remained for the rest of his life.
