Thursday, August 31, 2006

The Big Stone Wall


Nellie Mary Story had moved to Peterson, Iowa from Virginia in the spring of 1879 with her parents, twin sister, three brothers and one other sister. It was there that she met George Washington Paul and they were married on December 26, 1883.

George and Nellie lived a rather nomadic life, moving from place to place as George found run down farms to purchase cheaply. The family would make improvements and then resell and move on. By the time May was born in June, 1884,and Wilbur was born in 1887, they had moved to Basehor, KS. In December of 1888, William was born in Leroy, MO, but they were back at Bashor in June, 1891 when Olive was born. In February, 1894, George was born in Hennesy, TX, and they moved on to Madisonville, TX where Lillie was born in 1897 and Florence was born in 1899. The next move was to Milo, near Nevada, MO where Julia was born in July of 1903, and to Cherry County, NE in 1907 when Earl was born. We know of many other moves because Julia told of living in eastern Colorado, western Nebraska, and Texas. These moves were made in a covered wagon except for the one from eastern Colorado to Alvo, NE.

There was not room in the wagon for anything but essentials so any toys or personal possessions belonging to the children were left behind. The children had to labor at whatever work was at hand, building up a farm or working out for cash. Julia told of having to pick cotton in Texas and pulling the long bags behind her down the row. She would have been about nine years old.

With each move Nellie and the children did most of the work of rebuilding the house and picking up the rocks from the fields. Usually, a few months during the last year of living in each place, George was off searching for another place to locate. Nellie and the children repeated the cleaning up and building up only to have the place sold and the story was repeated again.

Ollie remembered in 1903, when she was 12 years old, her little sister Julia was born. The children were sent upstairs to bed, at an unusual hour, and were naturally quite curious about just what was going on downstairs, until they heard a baby cry.

Across the field from where they had picked up rocks, ran a stream in which the kids sometimes played. One day one of the boys threw the family cat in the water, and then made Ollie carry it to the house. George was well known for his temper and never took time for questions before meting out his form of justice, and Ollie took a whipping for that wet cat.

Another time Ollie remembered that once when her father was away on one of his many treks to locate a new place to move on to and had left strict instructions with her mother to hire a certain neighbor to cut the oats. When the time came, Nellie had dutifully made the date for July 4th. There was a celebration in Milo and the boys begged to go, arguing that their father need never know. So Nellie sent them to the neighbor again to see if he would be willing to wait until July 5th. He agreed, probably glad for the kids' sake. So they all went to Milo and ate a picnic lunch in the school yard.

The family didn't remain long enough to finish the house at Milo,MO. but Ollie remembered vivid accounts of picking up rocks in the fields to make them tillable. These rocks were used to build a stone wall on the north side of the yard. To a 12 year old the height of this wall was tremendous. In 1957, Ollie was taken back to the location of the farm, by two of her children. She found an old schoolmate who remembered her and who now owned the old farm. The farm was a lovely spot, the house stood on a pretty grassy slope. Ollie remembered getting that grassy yard in shape and setting out trees there. She was disturbed at the low height of the stone wall and knew after all the back breaking work it had to be taller than that. She found a stick and began digging out the fifty four years of dirt, leaves and debris that had collected in front of the wall and found that it really was as tall as she remembered it to be.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Our own 007



Bond, James Bond!

This is a picture of James M. Bond and his wife Marget. I wish I had known them. They both look very stern and she looks as if she had too much work to do to pose for a picture. She even has on her apron. James reminds me of his grandson, my grandfather, whom I remember as being stern but gentle and kind.

Near the end of the Civil War James enrolled with the Missouri Volunteers and had the rank of Private in Captain James A. Burns' Company. His enlistment lasted only 6 months, as that was the length of his term of service. He enlisted on Dec 1, 1864 and was discharged on July 1, 1865. His discharge papers lists him as being 22 years of age, 6 feet tall with dark complexion, blue eyes and light hair. His occupation was listed as farmer. Since his enlistment was not for at least two years he was not awarded the $100. bounty provided for by an act of June 1840, however he did receive an allowance of $40.80 for having his own horse. The stock of the rifle he carried is long gone but the barrel is still intact.

He and Marget are buried in the oak shaded Hopewell Cemetery. Several years ago someone unbeknown to us put up new headstones. They look nice but the name was spelled Bonds!.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Strong Pioneers

John Spencer Anderson was born and raised in the state of Kentucky. He married Mary Ann Hall, also a native of the Blue Grass State. They began their trek west, first moving to Scott County, IL where in 1851 John bought 200 acres of land near Winchester, IL. In 1855 he sold the 200 acres and moved the family to Jacksonville, IL. There the family continued to grow until there were 17 children, and by 1864 they decided to leave Illinois for free land in Nebraska. Seven of these children died before the age of two and were buried in Illinois.

Nineteen year old James was sent ahead to what would later become York County, NE to stake out homestead claims for his father and older brother, William. John Spencer's homestead was the first in York County. William was 21 at the time and old enough to file for a homestead in his own name. As the other boys became old enough, they all took homestead, with the exception of the youngest son.

Hezekiah Boone, always called "Boone", was 16 years old when he left with his parents from Illinois. He also applied for a homestead. During his years in York County, in addition to farming, he drove freight wagons on the Government Freight Road between Nebraska City and points in western Nebraska and Wyoming.

In the spring of 1885, he moved his family to a tree claim eight miles southwest of Gothenburg, NE, in Lincoln County. Even though he had homesteaded 80 acres in York County, he was still eligible for a 160 acre tree claim under the Timber Culture Act of 1878. This is a picture of his "soddy" near Gothenburg.

When the family moved to Lincoln County, they brought the family dog and kept him tied up for a few days until he got used to the new home. When he was turned loose, he disappeared and showed up several days later back at the farm in York County (150 miles) with sore and bleeding feet.

In addition to farming, Boone was an auctioneer and also earned money playing the fiddle for country dances with sons Wilburn and Jesse. In the early 1900's he ran a livery stable in Gothenburgh.

He and Mary Louisa had 11 children.