Before a school could open on a new rural site or an industrial plant could run its cooling equipment, someone had to establish a dependable water supply. In Hooper, that work repeatedly brought the Parkert family into the story. Their well company served farms, installed pumps and drilled the test well used to evaluate the future Logan View school grounds.[1]
The centennial book preserves a photograph of the company’s drilling rig. Newspaper accounts add the people, machinery and professional responsibilities behind it: a business that developed from hand drilling into a family operation with truck-mounted equipment and statewide trade-association connections.[1] [2] [3]
From hand drilling to powered equipment
A detailed account published in the Hooper Sentinel on January 31, 1957, traced W. J. Parkert’s entry into the business to 1898, when he worked in a hand-drilling partnership. The newspaper was reporting on a seven-page feature in the December 1956 issue of the industry journal The Driller.[2]
That account identified a Nebraska-made, horse-powered rotary rig purchased in 1903 for $350, including its tools. A Dempster rotary machine followed in 1918.[2]
Water for a new gas installation in 1941
The company’s work was not confined to individual farms. The centennial history’s account of Northern Natural Gas describes a new installation near Hooper in 1941, on land about a mile and a half south of town. W. J. Parkert and Son received the contract for two wells, each 115 feet deep, to provide water for the installation’s cooling needs.[1]
W. J. Parkert retired in 1945, but the family business continued into the next generation.[2]
A statewide role—and concern for safe water
On March 2, 1950, the Sentinel reported that Howard Parkert had been elected president of the Nebraska Well Drillers Association at its meeting in Lincoln. He had served as vice president the previous year. Illness prevented him from attending, but he sent five employees as his guests.[3]
The subjects they brought home included well sanitation and better well construction. The report specifically described Parkert’s concern about contamination. This was a business responsible for the quality and safety of a water source as well as the machinery needed to reach it.[3]
Farm wells, plumbing and pumps
By the time of the 1957 profile, farm wells accounted for roughly 95 percent of the firm’s work, within a service area about 35 miles in radius. The business operated three drilling machines, including truck-mounted rigs, and was preparing a combination boring and reverse-hydraulic machine as drought increased demand for irrigation wells. The account also mentioned wells for suburban homes and air-conditioning systems.[2]
Local advertising shows the range of services customers saw. A September 1959 directory listing named well drilling, heating and plumbing. A May 1961 advertisement promoted Aermotor pumps through Parkert Well Company. Together, these notices document work beyond making the initial hole in the ground.[4] [5]
The family’s professional connections
The March 2, 1961, Sentinel reported that Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Parkert Sr. and Howard Parkert Jr. had attended the state well-drillers convention in Lincoln. The elder Parkert, a past president, served on the association’s board.[6]
Mrs. Parkert also held an elected role. As vice president of the Ladies Auxiliary, she presided when its president was absent and was beginning her third term in that office. The account records her own participation in the industry’s organization alongside the drilling business.[6]
A test well for Logan View
The family’s work appears again in the centennial history of Logan View Junior-Senior High School. As the new district considered a site south of Broad View School, Parkert drilled a test well. After the water proved acceptable, the district purchased 39.24 acres at $750 an acre for the new school. Groundbreaking followed in April 1970.[1]
The test well was a small but consequential part of the school’s development: the proposed location needed an adequate water supply before it could become a school campus. It also gives the company a documented place in a story familiar to generations of Hooper-area students.[1]
Four generations in the centennial record
In 1976, the town history described Parkert Well Company as a business spanning four generations. It named W. J. Parkert, H. O. Parkert Sr., H. O. Parkert Jr., and Peter and Paul Parkert, and recorded services including water softeners and test holes. It also noted recognition from The Driller in 1967.[1]
These sources document different stages of the company’s work: early drilling equipment, an industrial contract, farm service, professional leadership and a school-site test. The advertisements and telephone numbers reproduced here belong to those historical dates; they are not current business listings.
Photograph and newspaper sources
Select any photograph or clipping above to open the larger image. The dated newspaper links below lead to the original pages. The 1898 starting date used here comes from the 1957 account of the contemporary trade-journal profile; the centennial book supplies the later family summary and local project connections. The drilling photograph is undated in the book, so no year has been assigned to it.