Genealogy Research

One of my favorite hobbies is searching for ancestors and recording what I find in my Family Tree Maker and on my online family tree records. I'm sure there are many or you who are doing this, also. I find the internet an invaluable tool and am so thankful for the people who have been willing to share their information for me to use.

I recently volunteered to be the host for the Dundy County page on Genealogy Trails. I thought you might want to stop by from time to time to see what things are being added.

Maybe you would like to help build the site. The goal is to make Dundy County records available for people who may be searching for information that would help them build their family trees.

If you have something to share, such as family bible records, out-of-print books, newspaper clippings, obituaries, pictures of Dundy County things or people, I would love to add it to the Dundy County page.

Pictures and notes from a Visitor

I ran across this Flickr sight that shows some pictures taken by a young lady that visited our town last summer. Thought you'd like to see them and read her interesting comments:

Little Pieces of History

Dundy County Towns in 1895

DUNDY COUNTY NEBRASKA TOWNS AND PLACES (CURRENT AND HISTORIC)
Town	Note	Latitude	Longitude	Elevation (ft)	Had Post Office in 1895?	Had railroad in 1895?	Had express office in 1895?	Zip
Allston					Yes	No
Benkelman	Previously named Collinsville	400257N	1013157W		Yes	Yes	Yes	69021
Burntwood City	Historic populated place
Califer	Historic
Callison	Abandoned town
Calvert	Historic post office				Yes	No	No
Colfer	Abandoned town
Collinsville	Re-named to Benkelman
Crab Island	Historic populated place
Doane	Historic post office	400207N	1013728W
Haigler		400050N	1015620W		Yes	Yes	No	69030
Hancock	Abandoned town
Hiawatha	Historic				Yes	No	No
Hoover	Historic populated place
Kaw	Abandoned town
Lamont	Historic	401915N	1015222W
Lux	Abandoned town
Max	Unincorporated	400650N	1012408W		Yes	Yes	No	69037
Ough		401920N	1013044W	3,353
Parks	Unincorporated	400230N	1014329W					69041
Rollwitz	Abandoned town
Sanborn	Historic	400313N	1020111W

Looking for Ough descendants

Looking for Ough descendants and stories of their families. My grandmother was born on the Ough divide in 1889 and lived in Benkelman for years. Her father was John Clemmons Ough.. He ran the "Hotel Ough". Any history would be appreciated.

Sincerely, Mary

Tumbleweed Festival

Tomorrow is the First Annual Tumbleweed Festival in Haigler.

I hope the weather is as nice as it is today! and that everyone has a great time.

It sounds like a fun afternoon with games, prizes and food.

How about someone taking some pictures and sending them to The Haigler Blog so those of us who can't be there can share in the memory!

Thanks.
Editor

The Fly Trap

My dad was always coming up with new ideas and was quite an inventor. I didn't realize it then, but many of the things we "needed" around the farm were made by him, such as our Fly Trap.

It was a pan with a screen canopy over it. There were holes in the side of the pan where the flies could get into the bottom part that was filled with sugar water. There were also holes in the screen that covered the top of the pan so when the flies drank the water, then flew UP, they would enter the chamber above which was enclosed with screen.

Did you know that flies always fly UP after then eat? They didn't know how to fly down to escape the trap they found themselves in.

It was a stinky, messy job to empty the fly trap when it became full of dead flies.

--As told by Alice Gregory

Competition

We walked to school through the pasture - over the hill northeast of the house. The cow paths were knee deep or more to us, but that path was closer than taking the road around the hill to the northeast gate or the west gate. We had to crawl through the fence to get onto the road. Ethel started school two years after I did.

At the end of the schoolday, Ethel and I would race to get our coats on first. May and LethaBelle were 8th graders and they would take turns helping us. It was a competition for them, too, to get 'their' tot ready first. I remember that I was VERY competitive. The World Series had nothing on me!! and Ethel was too.

There was one day that, for some reason, (probably I was brattier than usual) - both May and LethaBelle helped Ethel -- Not ME.

Sylvia, Mildred and Marjorie, the younger girls, helped me - and I WON!!! I was gloating so hard that I forgot all about being discarded by the 8th graders. What a BRAT!!

My Mamma told me later that I felt jealous of Ethel when she started to school. I guess that may have been so, but I don't remember that it was jealousy. I just remember being bratty, selfish and bossy.

One morning as we were walking up our first hill towards school -- not far from home, Ethel was not wanting to go and said she didn't get to see Mamma long enough. So I told her that she could go back to the house. She did and I went on without her.

Our Mamma said that we played together perfectly until we went to school.

-- A story told by Alice Gregory that happened about 1922. The school they attended was the Prairie Rose School in Cheyenne County, Kansas.

A Hammer-Driving Man

When we were kids, we had to learn poems and stories that had to be recited at programs attended by our parents and other people from the community. One that my brother Lloyd did when he was 7 years old was:

"When I am big, I'm going to be
a hammer-driving man.
Therefore each day I'm practicing
on everything I can.

I've nailed the pictures to the wall;
The carpets to the floor.
I've added here and there a nail
To all our paneled doors.

An now with only one nail left
Whatever shall I do?
Nail mother's best dress to the wall
Or Daddy's Sunday Shoe?"

--as told by Alice Gregory

The Boogie Man

I think all kids have a "boogie man" that creeps around in the dark. When we were kids, other kids had a boogie man, but Ethel and I had a "Jocko-Jo-Seepees... That is what we called the boogie man.
--As told by Alice Gregory

Learning to Drive

Men had a hard time learning to drive cars after driving horses for so long. Rich told a story about his granddad William Samson driving down the road. The mailbox was next to the road and he was headed right towards it, saying, “Whoa There!! Whoa There!! And, of course, running right into it.

Another story was about his step-dad, Horace Roach. The family was in the car ready to go somewhere and he stepped on the gas letting out the clutch RRrrrrrrrr – Jerked his foot off the pedal with it in reverse. Of course, he never heard the last of that one!

--As told by Alice Gregory

Calvin & John Deere

Calvin and his 1956 John Deere 70 with factory Propane.

Happy Birthday Bonnie (Zuege) Doggett

I was reading some old St. Francis Herald newspapers tonight and ran across a note about Bonnie (Zuege) Doggett's 60th Birthday, which she celebrated October 29, 2007. The picture included must have been taken about the time I attended school with her at the East 10 school in Cheyenne County, south of Haigler a LONG time ago!!

So, I want to wish her a Happy Birthday, even though it is a year late!!

So, if you know Bonnie, you can wish her a happy birthday this month on October 29.

Fire Destroyed Filling Station

Saint Francis Herald
March 22, 1932

The Girls of '55

The girls of '54 were together recently and this picture was snapped of them. They had a very nice visit.

Can you name them?

From Left to Right:
1. Myrtle Sayer
2. Mary Sharp (sitting)
3. Fern Tracy
4. Pearline (Workman) Gillette
5. Charlotte Sayer

========================
Thanks to Russ Hoover, we have all the names:
"The names as I recall are, Mary Sharp setting down, then standing left to right -
Myrtle Sayer, Fern Tracy, Pearline Workman, Charlotte Sayer. I consider each of them as best friends for over 50+ years. RDH

Texas Trail Canyon Marker

I've been wondering about the Texas Trail Canyon marker. Can anyone tell me what happened to it?

It no longer sits on the site east of Haigler along Hiway 34.

When did it disappear and where did it go?
===========================================
WOW! Just got a quick reply from Linda Jones:

Hi: I read the article on the blog about the Texas Trail Marker. It is back up after having been re-painted at the State shop in Benkelman.

We are having beautiful rain. It has rained off and on for over 24 hours and is just perfect!

Take care. Linda J

===========================================

The inscription on the Historical Marker was this:

"Texas Trail Canyon. After the slaughter of the buffalo and the last of the Indian hunts, ranchers moved into this part of the Republican River country in 1875. Among them were J. P. and Ira Oliver, who were using this canyon on their range in 1876. Herds of Texas cattle were delivered to them here before being driven north to Ogallala.

Prior to 1880 the main Texas-Ogallala Trail entered Nebraska fifty miles east of here, but with the influx of homesteaders, the trail was pushed west to this area. By 1881, this canyon was known as Texas Trail Canyon and a checkpoint was established here in 1883-84, where the cattle were checked for brands and disease. It is said that 150,000 cattle were moved through here in 1886, the last year of the trail drives.

A number of pioneer burials were made in the immediate vicinity, beginning with Mexican Leon, a cowboy killed in a fight with Ira Oliver. When the railroad built through in 1881-82, a worker was killed and buried 100 yards east of here. Remains of several unidentified pioneers, adults and children have been discovered over the years and were interred here in 1971."
--Dundy County Historical Society - Nebraska State Historical Society

A note in the 1976 Haigler Centenniel Book states:

"Trail Canyon, about five miles east of Haigler, was said to be on the route taken by the cowboys who trailed cattle from Texas to Ogallala, Nebraska, the northern terminus of the Texas Trail.

Back in the 1920's I met an old gentleman on the Little Medicine, in southeast Lincoln County, Nebraska. When he learned that my home town was Haigler, he volunteered the information that he knew where the town was and that he had been one of a number of riders who trailed a bunch of about 3,000 steers from Texas to Ogallala. Coming down off the flats between the Hackberry and the Republican, they came down this canyon. It was a hot summer day, and when some distance away, they broke into a run. When McDermott (for that was his name) told of his experience following that herd of cattle in the choking dust they raised, one could easily visualize the scene."
--Taken from "Reminiscences of Haigler", by Olin O. Wood, 1976 Haigler Cenntennial Book, page 23
Other References to Texas Trail Canyon

Texas Trail Canyon

The Texas Trail - Digging In

A Road Less Traveled

If you visit the Dundy County Chamber of Commerce website, they have a thank you note to NTV for featuring Haigler on The Road Less Traveled with a link to the video. You can link to it from there or go to the NTV site and choose Town #199. You might want to see the featured videos of other towns around Nebraska, also.



"The Road Less Traveled". Haigler is Town # 199.


-- thanks to Russ Hoover for this information.

From Russ Hoover

Cool 23 this morning, MT. PKS. have new snow and we

had little skiff at our location. Sun shining with clear skies.

MT. McLoughlin in background and Agency Lake up front.

 

Another view including Pelican Butte

  

Quail on early feed

  

Jay and Chipmunk competing for seeds

 

Magpie working on suet.

Happy Birthday - Gene Pennell

October 10 is Gene Pennell's birthday!

We wish him a very Happy day and many more!

First Annual TumbleWeed Festival

The First Annual TumbleWeed Festival will be held in Haigler on Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 12:00 Noon at the Country Schoolhouse 67 South.


There will be an Old Country School Box Social & Auction, HomeMade Ice Cream, Dedication of the School Bell, Cake and Pie Walks on the Carousel Merry-Go-Round and Games & Awards.


Admission is FREE
Bring a Decorated Box Lunch for Check in at 12:00 Noon


At 1:00 p.m. there will be an auction of the decorated box lunches by Pitts Auction Service of Dreshler, Nebraska.


Come dressed in Old-Time outfits - (fun - but not required)


All funds go to the Country School 67 South Restoration Fund.


In case of bad weather, the event will be moved inside the schoolhouse and Golden Inn Senior Center.

Click on poster to enlarge.