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The article that started my quest.
After finding on the web this article, I became fascinated about this story. Found everything I could online
and took it all in. The article mentions the Nebraska History Center where this Needham is located. I called them and arranged a date to come photograph it. Of course this was in the middle of winter….in Nebraska……. I rented a car and took off on 15 hour journey to Lincoln. Lincoln at the time was covered in snow and it was still snowing and never stopped snowing. I took the pics of this Needham and got a pic with me holding it. They also had two other Needhams. I photographed those as well. The center didn’t know where those two came from. Holding this Needham from the basement was a surreal moment. Of all the Needham Conversions out there, and I own 10 of them, to me, this one is one of the most important examples of all of them. This one has verifiable history even after the Fenian raids into Canada were over. The other important ones would of course be the battlefield pickups, none of which I have personally seen, just have pics of.
Me holding the Needham from the John Fitzgeralds basement.
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Click F1 at the bottom left to see an enlarged image of the article for easier reading. Click browsers back button on to return to this page.
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Found this aricle which is an excerpt from a book entitled : “Trials of a Lawyer” by James Manahan
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Another excerpt from the same book:
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