It was December 1917, in Omaha, Nebraska, when a young Irish priest only 31 years of age, but wise beyond his years, dared to provide a haven for 5 troubled and neglected boys.   Father Edward J. Flanagan understood that mistreated or orphaned children were at risk for a life of crime in later years unless someone intervened.  He was quoted as saying, “Often it has been said that youth is the nation’s greatest asset.  But it is more than that-it is the world’s greatest asset.  More than that, it is perhaps the world’s only hope.”  After years of running the Workingman’s Hotel for down-and-out workers in Omaha, he saw firsthand the result of life without hope.  The original Boys Home was a drafty Victorian mansion which quickly filled to capacity within a 6 month period.  But people do have big hearts, and through donations and assistance from sympathetic citizens, Boys Town was able to move to a building on the other side of town, 10 times the size of their previous home.  It turns out that the  building was a German-American home, which, with the U.S. declaration of war against Germany in April 1917, had become the most despised building in the city.  These were hard financial times for people and the children suffered alongside the adults...

Read the complete article in the Bevil Newsletter, which accompanies the cover when collected.