Biography
Bert Sells, also printed as Bert or Burt Sell, was an Arcadia, Nebraska farmer and Farm Holiday organizer seriously injured at the June 14, 1934 Loup City strike meeting. Contemporary reports distinguish him from his son Portius Sell, a defendant in the prosecution associated with Mother Bloor. The father was hospitalized and a June report said his arrest warrant had not yet been served. His own arrest, conviction and any jail term in that Loup City case remain unverified. A separate 1935 Ord report documents Burt Sell being taken into custody in a trespass dispute, followed by a fine and appeal bond; the exact custody endpoints are not established.
The August 8, 1935 Ord Quiz reports a separate Arcadia trespass prosecution concerning a disputed threshing machine removed July 7. Burt Sell and his sons Orville and Portius were found guilty in county court on August 6; Judge John L. Andersen imposed $25 plus costs on Burt and $20 plus costs on each son. Their attorney John P. Misko appealed and the account explicitly says the prisoners were released on bond. The August 1 account had already reported their arrests, not-guilty pleas and $100 appearance bonds each. These private-property proceedings are distinct from the 1934 Loup City strike case and do not establish a continuous jail term or a political motive for this particular charge. Source: https://ordlibrary.org/ordquiz/1935/1935%2008.pdf#page=16 (August 8, printed pages 1 and 8; PDF pages 9 and 16), and https://ordlibrary.org/ordquiz/1935/1935%2008.pdf#page=1 (August 1, printed page 1).
Father and son distinguished; earlier case claims remain unverified
Bert/Burt Sell was the injured Arcadia farmer, not automatically the imprisoned son. The September 21, 1934 defendant list explicitly identifies Portius Sell as his son. Mother Bloor’s October 17 account describes the father’s serious injuries. The June 27, 1935 report again distinguishes arrested Portius from his hospitalized father. The September 30 report names the imprisoned son as “Portens Sells,” alongside Carl Wiklund and John Squires, and identifies him by the same injured-father relationship; that printed spelling is retained as source context, not treated as an independently verified legal alias. The Sherman County trial-record catalogue names Portius among the defendants.
The previous record stored June 14, 1934 as the father’s actual arrest and described a thirty-day sentence plus a $100 fine. Those values are not confirmed for the father. June 14 is the confrontation date; the June 21 Ord Quiz said his warrant was unserved while he recovered, and the June 28 report separately listed Portius under arrest and the father bedridden with a warrant outstanding. A September 24 Daily Worker report instead names Bert among seven convicted defendants, conflicting with the more explicit relationship and defendant accounts. The unsupported exact arrest and copied sentence are removed from structured fields, with the former values preserved here for transparency. They are not reassigned to the son. No father jail admission, physical release or completed thirty-day duration is invented.
A distinct episode is documented in the August 8, 1935 Ord Quiz (printed pages 1 and 8; monthly PDF pages 9 and 16). Its continuation says Burt had been taken into custody a day or two before son Elbert’s July 26 altercation. It separately reports Burt and sons Orville and Portius convicted of trespass the preceding Tuesday, with Burt fined $25 plus costs and the sons $20 plus costs each, followed by an appeal and bond release. This property dispute is not the Loup City riot case. The relative booking language and separate bail events do not establish exact or continuous custody endpoints.
Daily Worker, September 21, 1934, PDF page 2; October 17, 1934, PDF page 3; June 27, 1935, PDF page 3; September 30, 1935, PDF page 5; Ord Quiz, June 21 and 28, 1934, front-page reports; Ord Quiz, August 8, 1935, printed pages 1 and 8; Sherman County District Court trial-record catalogue. Conflicting account: Daily Worker, September 24, 1934, front page.