Liveblog: Linklings

Liveblog:

Linklings

Fri, May 29, 2015 at 9:10 AM by Doc Searls.

Linklings

Keeping up with @JPBarlow, who died temporarily a few nights ago. Get well, JPB!
Wellington, New Zealand, shot on approach at the end of a long series of flights from New York.
Don Marti: Hey kids, let's play Adtech or Malware! and Minimum Tracking Warning.
@ScottWalchek in @TechCrunch: The Unbundling of Finance.
Arthur Attwell in Medium: Why I won't run another startup. Turns out the label is poison, and the culture is Kool-Aid. (Boy, did that brand ever get the worst PR.)
David Brin vs. Charles Stross. @Cluetrain is involved, at least as a dropped name. fwiw, I'm with David.
Bloomberg Business: Google just dropped a bombshell. Not sure about that, but could be.
The Guardian: Language and the Net.
Stephen Hawking says humanity is toast and needs to get off-world. Soon.
The Independent: Neverland Ranch (remember that?) is for sale. $100 million.
Me talking in 2012 about opportunities telcos would continue missing for at least the next three years.
A Brian Lehrer show I missed and need to listen to on a podcast.
DeWitty, Nebraska — a ghost town
- Located deep in the Sandhills, DeWitty (also called Audacious) was the first village in Nebraska (and one of the few in the country) founded by and comprised of African-Americans. It was active from 1908 (when the Kinkaid Act open settlement to homesteaders), to 1936 (when the dust bowl got the best of the residents there). I got interested in the town while looking to identify sites in the Sandhills that I shot from above.
- Members of the Hanna family, which has ranched the area for many generations, now own the DeWitty land. This account of "Negro Settlement at DeWitty," from a Hanna family history, tells it pretty well:
  - It should be noted that there was a large settlement of Negro Homesteaders, located up and down the North Loup River (on both sides of the river), from approximately eight miles upriver from Brownlee, and extending ten or twelve miles further west. There were a few of the Negro homesteaders north of the Wambaduze Valley, but they were mainly located in the DeWitty community. DeWitty was a store and post o"ce located approximately one mile south of the river; operated and managed by Jim DeWitty. William Crawford (one of the Negro homesteaders) delivered the mail two times each week from Seneca to DeWitty, with a team of horses and wagon. He also brought groceries, etc. for the store. There were some seventy families of Negroes that homesteaded in the general area. They had a large sod church building, as well as a cemetery about two miles north of the river. John Milton Hanna 27 “Uncle” Bob Hannahs There was a bridge across the river, known as the “Hatter” bridge, to connect the settlement. They also maintained a very competent and complete school for their children, School District #113. These Negro homesteaders flocked into south Cherry County via Seneca, following passage of the Kinkaid Act -- beginning in 1907 and continuing until about 1911 or 1912. They built a sod house, planted a little corn, raised a few chickens and pigs, worked as cooks and/or “hay-hands” on the various ranches around Brownlee. Five of the boys (Boss Woodson, Herb Hannahs, Mac Boyd, Turner Price, and Joe Price) had a wonderful music “combo”. They played for dances all over the Sandhills; from Broken Bow to Alliance, and every place in between; including Brownlee. “Uncle” Bob Hannahs (father of Herb Hannahs) was the barber in Brownlee for twelve or fifteen years; going by horseback from his homestead, some eight miles west of Brownlee and remaining at his barber shop on Friday and Saturday. ‘Uncle’ Bob and his family had one of the largest and nicest sod houses in the entire DeWitty community. They began to leave the area about 1915 and were mostly gone by 1925. As they left, Milt and his sons (especially Don and Seth) purchased their homesteads. The last 440 acres was purchased in1993 by Don E Hanna, III from the grandchildren of Pearl (Woodson) Bronson.
- So does this account from RootsWeb.
- Funds are being raised for a historic marker.
- Bonus links:
  - Center-pivot irrigation, used in parts of the Sandhills and in all the surrounding flat territories, making the land look like an Othello board.
  - Nebraska National Forest, which I have shot a bunch from above. The idea was to foliate the Sandhills with forests. To mixed success.
  - The DeWitty site on Bing maps, with a blue dot on Brownlee, the village to its east.
  - The Google Maps version of the same.
  - The Hanna family story. Because the DeWitty site is on Don Hanna's ranch now.
  - The Black Towns Project page on DeWitty.
  - More from Invisible History, Nebraska's Guide to Unique Places, Nebraska off the Beaten Path, Blacks in Nebraska Timeline, Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, Blackpast.org (which also cites many sources) and Early History of Cherry County.