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Kool-Aid's Beginning


category : One Of A Kinds
Kool-Aid's Beginning "Mother would bring home some of the soft drink powder that Edwin was experimenting with and my father didn't know if he wanted to drink that powder, sugar, and water mixture!" - A partial reprint from the booklet Hendley Nebraska Centennial.Little did the inhabitants in the village of Hendley, located six miles west of Beaver City, even in their wildest dreams know that the "Dry Goods Box Factory" as they called one of Edwin Perkins' ventures, and the mixing of concoctions would turn into such a large business.

The D.M. Perkins family moved from a farm south of Precept to Hendley in 1899. While in Hendley, he was engaged in the general merchandise business. He was to remain there until 1920 at which time he moved to Hastings, Nebraska. One of his children, Edwin, a boy with a lot of imagination, ingenuity and ambition, was to become very successful with a soft drink powder that was call Kool-Aid.

About 1900 when Edwin was 11 years old, he read an advertisement which fired his imagination. The ad urged the reader to "Be a manufacturer, Mixer's Guide tells how, Write today." His mother soon found her kitchen utensils scented up with perfumes, flavoring extracts, medicine and other mysterious concoctions of a juvenile experimental laboratory operator.

The working with experiments took most of the income that he made from his various business enterprises and he became the editor of The Hendley Dephic in 1909 and was later appointed Postmaster of Hendley in 1914 and served until 1918. During this time he married Kitty Shoemaker. In the 1920s, they and his parents moved to Hastings, Nebraska. Later the family moved to Chicago in 1931.


Come visit us in Beaver City, Nebraska

Attractions and Upcoming Events

Brick Streets - Downtown Business District - Park

Beaver City was founded in 1872. The central downtown business district situated around a square block of city park began developing at the end of the 1800s. The first city streets were only dirt roads. Then in 1927

Beaver City, NE Historic Downtowns

Beaver City Firsts

Flying Doctor - Our town has recorded some unique "firsts" in the field of medicine and aviation. Beaver City was the home of Dr.Frank Brewster, Nebraska's first flying doctor. Brewster bought a Curtis-Wright JN4D biplane in 1919. Purchased for $8,000

Beaver City, NE Famous People

Furnas County Courthouse

When Furnas County organized in late 1873, Beaver City was one of the voting places designated by Governor Robert Furnas, for whom the county was named. Competing with Arapahoe for location of the county seat, Beaver City was chosen for the honor by the people. This is where it has remained.

Beaver City, NE Historic Courthouses


G.W. Shafer & Son, General Merchandise

In 1910, on the square in Beaver City, George Washington Shafer opened what his family lovingly calls, "the first Wal-Mart," G.W. Shafer's. "Grandpa Shafer was the first Wal-Mart," said Jean Shafer of Beaver City. "He sold everything ... absolutely everything."

Beaver City, NE Historic Buildings

Things to do One Of A Kinds near Beaver City, NE