Creating the official O'Rourke house medallion a true Nebraska Token

In 2005 I decided that what the Captain John O'Rourke House needed a party its 125th birthday celebration. The party, which took place in 2006 celebrated the groundbreaking in June of 1881 when construction on the home began. For the party to be big it needed to have many things. There would be descendants of the original owners on hand, a Civil War reenacting band, guided home tours, local politicians making speeches, yard games, cake and much more. As I worked on the event I felt that even with all of the items that were planned something was missing. As I thought on this the idea of souvenirs came to me. Why not create something that would last long beyond the event? Why not give away tokens of remembrance to those who attended? It was a good idea and work began on creating just the right things to give away. For those who worked the event the souvenirs included reproduction Civil War Kepi's purchased through A&M Surplus. These served two purposes, first they reminded people of the Captain's service in the Union Army. Second they easily identified the volunteers to the visitors to the event and allowed anyone in need of assistance to spot help in an instance. Next I created a simplified version of the token above and had wooden nickles made up with the images seen above. These were given out to every one of the more than 500 people who attended the event. As wooden nickles are not expensive to make up there was a large surplus after the event and these were given out as souvenirs to the Boy Scouts at the 2007 Jamboree event held at Mahone State Park in Nebraska. The highlight of the souvenirs for that day had to be without a doubt the token that is shown in the images above. An expensive item to have created the idea here was to create something that would last a lifetime and possibly beyond. In a real sense this particular souvenir may actually last longer than the O'Rourke House itself. Now, before we discuss how it was created it is important to note that the name on the token is the Dugan-O'Rourke House. This is the name that the home carries and is known by in Plattsmouth. The official name on the National Register of Historic Places is the Capt. John O'Rourke House. The Dugan-O'Rourke House name is listed as a secondary name on the same form. OK, now that the name thing is settled lets look at the token. After shopping for a company that could create a high quality medallion for this project I settled on The Highland Mint located in Melbourne, FL. I worked with several of their employees on the project and found them to be highly professional and always helpful. I would highly recommend this company to anyone in search of a company to to this kind of work. To start with the Highland Mint asked that I send them draft images of what I was looking for in a medallion. In response I sent them, after many hours of negotiations with my wife, what I thought would be a good representation of what I wanted. My artwork to say the least was childish. I am not an artist and worried that the tokens would reflect this. What I got back from Highland Mint is what you see in the first two images above. Cleaned up the artwork clearly reflected what I wanted. The people at Highland suggested the stars separating the words and adding the black band of separation between the house and the words. The image of the house itself is lifted from the book Andrea's History of Nebraska from 1882. As such it is the earliest known image of the newly completed house. I insisted that the image contain enough of the front yard so that the Captain can be seen in the lower right hand side of the image. Not a problem I was told and as you can see he is right there where he should be. The date of 1882 reflects date of completion of the home. Liking what I saw I signed off on the artwork. The reverse side of the token holds a special meaning on several levels. The first of the two crossed four leaf clovers reflect the fact that the original owners were Irish. Irish born immigrants who chose to live in Nebraska. The second clover represents my personal Irish heritage as I myself am the descendant of Irish immigrants. Immigrants who chose to call Nebraska home even prior to the state becoming a state. The Irish blessing "May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow and may trouble avoid you wherever you go" was included and is self explanatory as to what we want for you. The line "Celebrating the Past, Present and Future" was included for the party and shows our pride in the home's past and our hope for its future. The name of the home was included on both sides of the token so that there can be no doubt from which it came. Finally the dates 1882 -2007 were included in Roman Numerals to reflect the 125th anniversary of the homes completion in 1882. Originally planned as just normal numbers Roman Numerals were chosen to "class up" the token. How many were made? Originally 500 of these were made in Antique Bronze. The size is 39MM. There were also 30 tokens made in Sterling Silver. Each of the tokens was encapsulated in a plastic capsule to keep them from damage or tarnish. These tokens were given out to dignitaries, band members, descendants and volunteers. In addition each adult visiting the home on the day of the event was given a token to keep as a remembrance. Since the party the remaining supply of tokens was given away to those who visited the home over the past two years. The two "die" that were created for the tokens was tuned over to me at the end of the project as was the 3-d large engraving used to make the dies from. In the photo above you can see this engraving as it is the blue token shown above. The dies are the same size as the tokens the 3-d engraving is about 14 inches across in size. Some would ask what it cost to produce these tokens. I will withhold that information as it is not relative to what it would cost to do the project again today. If you are really interested in what it would cost please access the Highland Mint's website for details. Will I do another token for the house? I would like to do so with the next token featuring the actual image of the Captain. Possibly this will be done for the 130th anniversary of the home. Thanks for reading.

The original Plattsmouth Cannon

There are many questions about the Plattsmouth cannon. Is it real? How old is it? What size is it? Where did it come from? Is it bronze or iron? Is it a Napoleon? I don't have all the questions and I certainly do not have all of the answers. What I do have is some of the answers and the photo's above.

Some background: the cannon supposedly arrived in Plattsmouth sometime around 1857. It was supposedly brought here to help prevent attack by Indians. Later, this same cannon was supposed to protect the city from Quantrel's Raiders as they ranged in and out of Missouri during the Civil War. Even later the cannon spent time in several other Nebraska cities such as Nehawka. Not sure where all it went or what it was used for at those times. What is certain is that the cannon does exist - I have personally seen and photographed it as can clearly be seen above.

I can not disclose to you where the cannon is located for security purposes. What I can tell you is that, with luck, at some point this fine example of a mid-century cannon will be on permanent display for all to see.

Now let's take a look at the cannon. Overall it has the same length and approximate weight as a Federal six pound cannon. The cannon also has several strange characteristics that if any reader can assist in identifying I would much appreciate hearing from. To start with the cannon has what appears to be an extra heavy casting where the trunions are located. If you look at the photo's that show this you will see a band cast around the barrel, a square section cast onto the band and the trunion extending from this square section. I have been unable to find any images of cannons with this configuration.

Next, if we look towards where the vent piece should be located you will see an iron band. This band is not a part of the cannon and appears to be a ring that was added so that the cannon could be mounted onto a cement stand in one of its earlier display assignments. I believe it was at this same time that the barrel was filled with cement. The vent hole is not visible due to the iron band but interestingly enough a hole was drilled in the band to simulate a vent hole.

The trunions do not appear to have any markings on them. Neither does the barrel's business end. In fact I could not find any markings of any kind on the barrel. What you can see from the photo's is that at some point in time the barrel was fitted with sights. This would have been appropriate for a cannon of this type so that's ok.

The cascabel is in tact and easily seen in one of the photo's. Typical of an 1841 pattern cannon this section of the barrel looks to match up with that type of barrel. In fact, with the exception of the strange trunion area on the gun it almost line for line matches an 1841 pattern cannon.

As it is assumed this barrel weighs in at around 800+ lbs I had no way to turn it over to see the condition of the other side or if there are any markings to be found there.

The barrel appears to be cast iron.

I wish I could provide the reader more information but that's about it except for several suggestions that were made as to the creation of the cannon as it now sits. One suggestion is that the cannon had a "belt" cast onto it at some point. This could account for the strange mid-section of the gun. It was suggested that this could have been done if the gun were cast iron and one of the trunions had been damaged beyond use. The other suggestion is that the gun is not a cannon at all but just a lawn ornament created by the Plattsmouth Iron Foundry that existed sometime before 1900. Casting large posts, columns and commercial building parts the company would certainly have had the ability to cast a cannon barrel if they so desired. One last rumor is that this very barrel was fired on a regular basis by a team of men from Nehawka who started a club around the use of the gun. The only photo of these men with the cannon shows them all wearing fire department helmets. Interesting to say the least.

Well, there you go, the cannon is real. If you can help identify its make, model and potential origins I would certainly appreciate hearing from you. If not, I hope you enjoyed reading a little bit about this historic cannon.

Thank you.

A restored Italianate Victorian comes full circle

This blog entry is to show readers how the Captain John O'Rourke House looked at the very beginning and how it has evolved over the years. This will be done through the use of several photographs/images and a review of each.

Image #1 shows the Italianate Victorian home as it first appeared upon completion. This image comes from a book called Andrea's History of Nebraska. It was published in 1882. If you look closely you will see the Captain in the front yard looking at the home and his daughter looking back at him from the front porch. Notice that the home has a large overhang, corbels under the roof line, a porch railing on both the upper and lower levels of the house. Since the Captain died in May of 1882 and we know the home construction began in June of 1881 the photo from which the image must have been made had to have been taken in either late 1881 or early 1882.

Truly Italianate Victorian in style and design the home matched time wise the buildings of the same design on mainstreet Plattsmouth located four blocks away.

Image #2 shows the home as it stood in the period of World War I. This is known by the service star in the front window designating that someone living here was in the military service. The picture is significant as it shows in clear detail the remaining railings on the front porch. In addition the photo shows the upper porch posts still connected to the house at this point in time. When I moved into the home five years ago these posts were discovered underneath the front porch of the home. Unfortunately the photo does not show the underside of the eves to show if the corbels still exist at this point or not.

Image #3 shows the home as it looked when I purchased it five years ago. Note that the corbels are missing from the front of the home. Also note that the balusters on the porch are of a completely different design than what was originally used. No railing or evidence of a railing exists at his point on the upper level of the porch. This image would date to roughly 2003/2004.

Image #4 shows the home as it exited for its 125th anniversary. At this point I have recreated the balusters to as close a resemblance as those in the WWI photo. The lower half of the porch posts have been rebuilt so that they once again have an Italianate look and feel to them. The upper porch railing was created completely from scratch based on the 1882 image shown above. At this point the majority of the painting still needs to be undertaken to properly colorize this Victorian lady. This image dates to late summer 2006.

Image #5 This image shows the home as it now looks. In addition to the porch work I also undertook the task of recreating the missing corbels. This was done by closely examining one of the corbels on the side of the home, taking detailed measurements and then simply spending enough time to create the pieces and put everything together.

As an interesting note when we removed some of the trim on the front of the home to make repairs we found that the current body color for the home is virtually the same as that originally used on the home. The colors we chose are based on a Sherwin Williams Victorian color palate and fit our home perfectly.

So, what you see in image #5 is the home, with the exception of shutters and storm windows, the way the O'Rourke's would have seen their new home when they moved into it in early 1882. The home is currently listed in the National Register of Historic places for both its building type and because a person of historic significance (Captain John O'Rourke) lived here.

Hope you like it - it was a great deal of work to hand recreate and install everything but we here feel it was very, very worth it.

Thanks for looking!

G.I. Joe & the Talking Adventure Team Commander

When I was a young boy growing up in Omaha during the late 60's and early 70's I remember being excited to be going to the stores with my mother. We would normally go to Hinky Dinky or some other grocery store but from time to time we would go to a Hesteads or a Woolco or possibly a Kresgies. When things were really really good we might even get into a Brandies, a Sears or a J.C.Penny. I remember we would go to "grand openings" and I would get little free trinkets from the store owners. Most often these would be along the lines of small plastic baskets with flowers on top and "rain bonnets" inside. Now these bonnets were simply a thin plastic that was accordion folded with a longer piece of plastic used to tie it to a ladies head. When folded down to nothing it would fit into the basket that was of a size useful to Barbie. Why did I want these? I mean, after all I was a young boy and not a girl and one would think I wanted something useful to a boy right? Well, actually I did want something more in line with what boys wanted and I would immediately discard the hat inside and the flowers on the outside of the basket and then I would have an item that possibly could maybe be used for my favorite hero growing up - G.I.Joe. So when I tell you I was excited to go to the stores it was not to see the clothes or the shoes or who knows what else they had on hand. No, I was simply there to see G.I.Joe and as soon as I had the chance I would be off to the toy section to do just that. Now back then it was much safer for a parent to let a child wile away time in the toy department of the store just dreaming about the possibilities..... I would not recommend it today without parental supervision. So when we got to the store I would make for the toy department and peruse the Adventure Team. It seems to me this must have been right around 1970 or 1971 as the only experience I ever had with the soldier lines of Joe was when I would visit my Aunt and play with my cousins snow trooper. Anyway, I remember the boxes of Joe's most vividly at the Brandies that was next to the Hinky Dinky where mom would do her grocery shopping. There were always at least a couple of Joe's in boxes on the lowest shelf of the display. I would open the boxes and inspect each and every one. Most often there would be Land Adventurers and Sea Adventurers. I would inspect each head for fullness of hair as sometimes they had strange beards or bald spots. I would make sure each had a dog tag and a pistol. I still remember to this day how mad it would make me to see them with the guns missing. Why would anyone want a G.I.Joe without a gun I would ask myself. Way back then I really didn't know about people called shoplifters but I guess we had them even then. Occasionally the holy grail of the Joe line would be present on the shelf. The G.I.Joe Talking Adventure Team Commander. When he would show there would never be more than one of him on the shelf. I would carefully open the lid and then pull the string to make him talk. I so clearly remember the time I was doing this that I was "caught" by a store employee who took the figure away from me, put him back into the box and told me that only buying customers were allowed to play with the merchandise. Now this hurt me through and through. True, I didn't have any money. True, my family didn't have much money either so at this point I had not actually ever bought a Joe - but - and this is a big point - I had never taken anything from a Joe nor had I ever damaged one either. To me, even at this early point, Joe was a thing of reverence. A toy to be looked at, admired and hopefully someday even owned. To add injury to insult the employee took the figure with them and dragged me over to Hinky Dinky where they paged my mother to the front desk to come get me. Once at the desk the Brandies employee proceeded to berate my mother for letting her brat run wild in the Brandies and to finger all the merchandise. "Do you know how much this costs?" I remember her asking my mother. Well, my mom didn't know but I did and by providing the answer I just inflamed the situation even further. After that incident and for a long time I was forced to sit in the car with my teen aged sister whenever we visited Hinky Dinky. I thought it terrible punishment for me but as I look back on it now it was probably worse punishment for my sister who had nothing to do with the situation and yet had to sit with me week after week till mom felt it was safe to take me back into the store. Now that year for my birthday the best and the worst occurred on the very same day. I remember awakening to the excitement that is a birthday and I remember running from my shared room with my little sister to the kitchen where I knew that a cake and presents would be awaiting me. I could not have been more wrong... It was a "working day" for my father. He was an Omaha Fireman and at the time they would work one day on and then one day off on a rotating schedule. One day on meant a 24 hour day of work and then a 24 hour day away from work. Well it just so happened that on that day my dad had his day on. We had breakfast and I was told that we would go to the fire station later in the day to celebrate with dad. Later meant almost all day but we got there eventually and there was cake shared by all the three men working with my father, my mom, sisters and myself. That year we even had ice cream malts from the Burger Chef & Jeff located next to the fire station. It was great and then the best part. I got one present that year. It was of course the dreamed of but never in a million years expected Talking Adventure Team Commander. Yes, I will say it right now he was to me the best present ever. Looking back I can only assume that my mom got the idea from that Brandies lady the day I got into so much trouble. Not sure, doesn't matter. I had him and he was mine! I drifted off into thoughts of the adventure's we would be having in the back yard together and when it was time got back into the car. We were off to another relatives house who lived close by because they wanted to give me a birthday present. I honestly do not remember what they gave me but I do remember this. I was told to leave my new Joe in the car so that nothing would happen to him or be left behind when we went home. This particular relative had lots and lots of kids and mom just wanted to make sure my prized possession made it home safe and sound. I don't know how long we were inside the house but I do know that when we came out the car was empty. That's right, I had my dream Talking Adventure Team Commander for less than a couple of hours and he had disappeared. Been stolen right out of the car. He had been placed in his box and set in the back window of our 67 Impala and one would have thought would have been A-OK but no. Some lowlife had taken advantage of the unlocked car and absconded with my birthday present. I was devastated. My mom was beside herself upset more because she knew that there was no money to replace him with and that he had been my only present from her and dad. Now I want you to think about this as I looked it up. In 1970 a Talking G.I.Joe cost $4.99 and now that he was gone there was no money to buy another. I was, to say it politely, simply crushed. I am not sure exactly how things panned out from there but what I can tell you is that my favorite Uncle Bill did what he could to salvage my bad luck. The next day he came to the house with a present for me and upon unwrapping it I found that it was a Sea Adventurer. It didn't talk and it had red hair rather than the brown of the Commander but he was mine and I loved him. I loved him so much that for the next couple of years he was my constant companion. Even when a Land Adventurer joined him in his adventurers it was always the Sea Adventurer who led the way. I never got another Talking Commander as a child but I have never forgotten that first one either and have from time to time wondered what his life turned out to be like in that den of thieves he was taken to. I have also never forgotten the efforts of my mom and dad and my uncle to make sure that for at least one birthday a small boy got exactly what he wanted for his birthday. In so doing they created memories that have lasted a lifetime. And all I can say is: Thanks guys I appreciate it.