![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ar00106008.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUpdated history book hits the shelves, limited number available for purchase<\/p>\n
After two-and-a-half years, the new book showcasing Harvard\u2019s history has been printed.<\/p>\n
In December 2022, Ruby Adam, Sheila Nelson, and Linda Parnell began working on \u201cHarvard, Nebraska 150 Years +2,\u201d a project that\u2019s been asked for since the first history book\u2014\u201cHarvard, Nebraska 100 +2\u201d\u2014came out in 1973.<\/p>\n
The trio\u2019s head start on the project came from Don Gerlach, who began collecting history and stories and then turned them over to Adam.<\/p>\n
The newest book is different in many ways from its predecessor, focusing instead on stories submitted from Harvard citizens.<\/p>\n
Adam asked people to write about their family in Harvard, or share information about businesses, organizations, and churches.<\/p>\n
While Adam worked on getting content, Parnell and Johnson did proofreading, indexing, and organizing, in preparation for the final layout\u2014 which was done mostly by Parnell.<\/p>\n
During their work on the 150th book, another book was completed, \u201c150 Strong, Harvard Public Schools, 1873-2023,\u201d which focuses on graduates from HPS over 150 years.<\/p>\n
In order to get the HPS book finished in time for the Harvard 150th celebration, they set the history book aside and began searching for photos and information about graduates.<\/p>\n
Also included in the HPS book are memorials of those who graduated from HPS. People could donate toward the book to put their loved one in, which helped with the costs associated with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople were very generous,\u201d Parnell said.<\/p>\n
Also during this time, the first history book\u2014also known as the 1973 Red Book\u2014was reprinted, this time with a table of contents.<\/p>\n
In order to do that, someone was willing to donate their original copy, which was then disassembled and scanned into an updated book. Then it was put back together in a coil-bound style.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ruby Adam, left, Sheila Nelson, and Linda Parnell pick up the finished \u201cHarvard, Nebraska 150 Years +2\u201d book, which continues the story of Harvard\u2019s citizens, businesses, and organizations. COURTESY PHOTO | CLAY COUNTY NEWS<\/p>\n
When the red book was completed, 1,000 copies were printed and sold at a cost of $6.50, which is the equivalent to $46.16 today.<\/p>\n
It was compiled by Alice Brehm, Joanne Williamson, Elaine Ling, Mildred England, Dorothy Farrall, and Edna Iliff.<\/p>\n
Once the school book was completed and the updated 1973 red book was reprinted, Adam, Nelson, and Parnell turned their attention back to the 150th history book.<\/p>\n
Submitted stories and looking through all of Harvard\u2019s history often took them down memory lane.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got down so many rabbit holes,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a lot of chuckles and reminiscing,\u201d Parnell added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe probably had six months of reminiscing,\u201d Nelson laughed.<\/p>\n
Despite the amount of time it took to get from start to finish, the trio agreed they had fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thoroughly enjoyed the writing styles of some of the stories,\u201d Parnell said. \u201cI loved seeing those personalities come through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Except for fixing obvious misspellings, they didn\u2019t do much editing and ran the stories as they came in.<\/p>\n
They also enjoyed seeing the photos that came in.<\/p>\n
Along with the people who submitted stories, they also gave a huge thanks to Joyce Bartels, a retired teacher who was a big asset to the book.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only regret we have is Gerlach didn\u2019t get to see the end result,\u201d Adam said. Gerlach passed away in January 2024.<\/p>\n
Three hundred copies of the book were printed, many of which were sold prior to the book being finished.<\/p>\n
There is a limited number left and will be sold for $70 on a first-come, first-serve basis with money in hand. To buy your copy, contact Adam at 402-984-9418 or [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>; Parnell at 402751-0023; Nelson; or send an email to the Harvard Alumni Historical Committee at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Harvard Public School book, left, features graduates from HPS between 1873-2023, and was printed in time for the 150th celebration. At the right, a new version of the 1973 Red Book was reprinted and features a table of contents and is a soft cover version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated history book hits the shelves, limited number available for purchase After two-and-a-half years, the new book showcasing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[412,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-7147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ar00106009.jpg\")
<\/p>\n