A Mini-Reunion

The Gregory Girls and Fisher Boys got together on Saturday afternoon for the first time in several years. The cousins have always been close because their mothers Alice Gregory and Floy Fisher-Ruggles are sisters and best friends. In fact the kids consider each other to be like brothers and sisters and are also best friends.

The afternoon began with a lunch at Floy & Ray's house and visiting. After Leah, Leone and Sherri stopped by the Legion Hall to check in to see who was there, they all loaded up in cars and drove out to Steve & Tammy Workman's farm where the Gregory's lived while growing up. Some of the group drove by the various places where Alice, Floy and their Crabtree ancestors lived and went to school.

Dick Gregory and Sharna (Fisher) Richardson were the only two missing, but Dick and Sharon, his wife, phoned later in the afternoon to be included in the gathering.

Family members who attended the mini-reunion were Alice Gregory, Ray & Floy Ruggles, Dwight & Leah (Gregory) Brewer, Kenny & Leone (Gregory) Carlson, Sherri Gregory, Eunice (Gregory) Richard and friend David Hernandez, Melvin Fisher, Garry Fisher, Shelley (Beeson) Parker and Abbey Rose, David & Kelly (Beeson) Barger, Kevin Richard Beeson, Lauren (Crabtree) Rohn.

Other visitors at the Ruggles home included Almeda (Bier) Norris from Loveland, CO, Delores (Bier) Zuege of Haigler, Louise (Zuege) Thomsen, of Watts, OK, Pat (Smith) Fortkamp and Dallas Adams.

If you had a family gathering, too, we would love to hear about it. Write to either Floy or Sherri at ffisher@bwtelcom.net or haiglerblogger@gmail.com

Ancestor Search

May 25, 2008

Today Mamma and I stopped at the Woodruff, Kansas cemetery, located a few miles northeast of Long Island, Kansas where we know the Gregory family lived at one time and where I believed our great-grandparents, Gabriel Richard and Anna Belle (Thrasher) Gregory are buried. It is the third time I have stopped there to look for their graves. Three or four years ago, I stopped in Phillipsburg, Kansas and found Lucille Gregory, the wife of Earl Gregory, son of Richard Belle Gregory, who our daddy called “Uncle Richey”. She informed me that they were plain to see and on the west side of the little cemetery.

Mamma and I looked again today, but they were not to be found. Before leaving the cemetery, I stopped and talked to a lady who happened to have purchased a “Phillips County Cemetery List” at an auction and she looked at the Woodruff Cemetery list and they were not listed. She was kind enough to search through the book until we found their names listed in the “Goode Cemetery” which is located 5 miles south and 3 miles west of the Woodruff cemetery.

Even though there were huge black clouds to the south and east of us, Mamma and I bravely took off on some country roads that seemed to be pretty well traveled, even though there had been some recent hard rain ruts cut out of the low spots. After a couple of attempts, we came upon a small, very well kept cemetery at the top of a hill overlooking a beautiful tree lined creek. The cemetery gate was open, so we entered and walked to the west row of graves and there they were!!! After several years of trying to find them, they were exactly where they were supposed to be. Someone had placed flowers in picturebox containers made from tin trays with a glass covers. It was hard to tell how long these containers had been at the graves, but each of the Gregory family stones had one propped against it as if someone had just placed them there recently. The graves we found were Gabriel, Anna Belle (Thrasher), and three of their children; Richard Belle “Richey”, Cora A., and Matilda “Tilly”:

G. R. Gregory born Jan. 7, 1860 DIED Aug. 29, 1909
Anna B. Gregory born Feb. 7, 1860 DIED Sept. 15, 1907
Richard B. Gregory June 29, 1889 Aug. 8, 1917
Matilda B. “Tilly” Gregory Jan. 22, 1894 – May 22, 1917 “Daughter of Gabriel & Anna”
Cora A. Gregory Born Jun 25, 1892 DIED Nov. 21, 1892

Family Trees

Do any of you research your family tree? Do you have online trees that you would like to share?

Genealogy has been a "hobby" of mine ever since my mother transferred the "disease" to me in the 1980s. I lived in Salt Lake City at the time and was able to spend some time in the LDS genealogy library searching for records. I purchased some software called Personal Ancestral File (PAF) and ran it on a Tandy 286 that had a 10 mg hard drive. From that beginning, we now have over 3,000 names in the current Family Treemaker file, along with a large collection of family pictures that we have scanned from family picture albums and boxes.

Recently I began putting our TREE online at Ancestry.com and call it The Crabtree - Gregory Connection. Feel free to visit it when you have some time.

I'm beginning a new sidebar item that I hope you will enjoy. It is called The Haigler Trees and will be a place to list the family trees of Haiglerites. So if you'd like to share yours, just send the link to me and I'll post it.

Have a great day!

-- Editor

1960 Pic of East 10 School Students

I need some help with names of some of the children in this picture. There are three boys that I don't know. The far left of the back row and the far right of the second row and the boy between Louise Zuege and Yvonne Faylor.

Your help would be appreciated. I am preparing my "one-room-school" pictures to post on the site where everyone can see them who are looking for pictures of Cheyenne County, Kansas students. Thanks!

Thanks to Sherlyn Liess, niece of the two VanHorn boys shown in this picture, we have the correct names for them.

I am still looking for the name of the boy between Louise Zuege and Yvonne Faylor. Help anyone? (3/27/07 - Sherlyn wrote and said it is Roger VanHorn)

Bill, Maggie, Mollie Samson

My Great Grand Dad Bill Samson married Margaret Flock sometime around the time he moved to Haigler. His first wife died in 1894, when my grandmother Mollie was about 5 years old. At the time of her death, they lived in Rock Bluffs, Nebraska, where Mollie was born. The family soon moved to Harlan County, Nebraska, then on to Haigler. I think this picture is probably about the time Bill and Margaret were married. My grandmother, Mollie, looks to be about 16 or 17 in this picture, but may be younger. I am guessing it was taken about 1905. My grandmother married Dave Gregory in 1907 when she was 18 years old.

Here is where my great grand dad lived at the time of the federal census:
1870 - 7 years old - Irwin Tnshp - Brown County, Kansas
1880 - 17 years old - Plattsmouth - Cass County, Nebraska
1990 - Census not available
1900 - 37 years old - Republican - Harlan County, Nebraska
1910 - 47 years old - Haigler - Dundy County, Nebraska
1920 - 57 years old - Haigler - Dundy County, Nebraska
1930 - 67 years old - Haigler - Dundy County, Nebraska
February 14, 1938 - 75 years old - Death - buried in Haigler Cemetery
--Sources: US Federal Cenus, Haigler Cemetery records

My Grandmother

Dave (Samual David) and Mollie (Mary Frances Samson) Gregory were married in Haigler, Nebraska on July 4, 1907. They first lived on a farm north of Haigler that they called the Aultman Place, but later took up residency in a house on south King Avenue.

They had 5 children; Frances Matilda, MaryAnna Margaret, William Richard, David Doyle and Elsie Fern.

Frances was named for her grandmother Mary Frances (Goodin) Samson, Margaret's first name came from both grandmothers (Mary Goodin and Anna Belle (Thrasher) Gregory), Richard received the family name of Richard which was passed down to one of the sons for many generations.

Dave owned a team of horses and a dray wagon that he used to haul anything people wanted moved from one place to another.

The year of 1914 was a very hard year for this family. Doyle acquired diphtheria and died in February 1914 at the age of 1 year. In August, Dave succumbed to tuberculosis. Fern, who was born in May, 1914, lived until December and was buried beside her brother and father in the Haigler cemetery in plots owned by Bill (William Martin) Samson, who was Mollie's father.


This picture is of the house where Dave and Mollie Gregory lived in 1914. It was taken in the 1980s during a drive through Haigler with my dad when he was showing me the places he lived when he was growing up in Haigler

Bill Samson owned and operated a hotel and restaurant on the corner of Porter Avenue and Hiway 34 where the IGA Grocery stands today. In order to care for and feed her family, Mollie went to work for her father. It was while working in the restaurant that she met Horace Roach, who was in town working for the C.B&Q Railroad.

Horace and Mollie were married on November 9, 1916. They set up residence on homestead land between Anton and Yuma, Colorado. This is where Marlin Franklin and Horace Quentin were born. In 1918, Horace's job on the railroad took them to Oxford, Nebraska for a awhile. This is where Ollie May and Virginia Jewell were born. They were back in Haigler, Nebraska from 1922 to 1930. Betty Lois was born in 1929 and around the year 1930, they moved north of Laird, where Bud (Lowel Thomas) was born. They later settled in Wray, Colorado where Horace and Mollie lived until his death in 1958 and hers in 1970.


This picture is of the house in Oxford, Nebraska, where the Roach family lived from 1918 to 1922 before moving back to Haigler, Nebraska.

My dad tells a story about when they moved from Oxford to Haigler, they loaded all their posessions on a Model A Ford. Things were tied on top and hanging from the sides and bumpers of this car. He remembers moving into a house that sat on the corner of where Hiway 27 now hooks into Hiway 34, just north of the house "Buck" Ryan grew up in. The last I looked, there is still remenants of a foundation in that location.

Karen White Lindell Memories

What a wonderful way to bring back memories. I was glad Don had mentioned the old opera house as mom had once mentioned how much they enjoyed going to it for dances and other activities. She and dad lived where Mark McVey now lives, and said there were times she and dad would walk to town on Saturday nights just to go to what ever activites the opera house was having.

I was wondering if anyone knew any history about the Sackett boys that lived on the hill, Pete and Henry, I believe. That house and the stories alway intrigued me, but I knew very little about it. I think I had 2 brothers that seemed to like to play cards there,(and I don't think they were suppose to be there).

Our neighborhood southeast of Haigler was full of people, who now have almost been forgotten. I think about Jake and George Wall, Herb Reicherdt, Carr's, Zuege's, Smith's, Bier's, Gregory's and so many more. Mildred Wilkening made the very best angel-food cake a person could ever want, who could forget that. We went to Hackberry school for square dancing , card parties at different homes, box suppers, and seemed like were forever doing neighborly things.

Like Alice, I also went to Prairie Rose #34 ( a few years later, I might add). Most people probably have forgotten or never knew, but my 1st and 2nd grade teacher was my sister, Doralene. No, I was not her favorite student nor was I pampered. Do you realize what it is like to have a sister being your teacher for 24 hours a day? Hmm, just think about it.

I was very small when the tornado destroyed school #52 on the corner of my folks farm. I can remember it going up into the air and exploding like a balloon. Weeks later we were still finding pieces of it in the fields and pastures. That was the tornado that also damaged Kuhns and Bush's buildings in 1949.

I'm thinking, maybe Don and Alice can remember, the folks also said there was a creamery in town run or owned by the Medlocks. I can remember Hicks (Sherman Hickman) publishing the Haigler news. Wheaton's owned a cafe and when mom would bring eggs to the cafe, Spot would sneak an ice cream cone to me.

I look forward to reading this blog every day as it brings back a lot of memories that have been tucked way back and almost forgotten. Let's keep more information coming and jogging more memories.

Karen White Lindell

Rich: A man out standing in his field

Do you remember Ethel Rath’s sense of humor? She was a source of great joy in our family. She made us laugh without cracking a smile and enjoyed playing cute practical jokes. One day, she gave this picture to my dad (Rich Gregory)and he about died laughing. He always enjoyed the humerous side of life. This picture was taken about 1940-45…

East 10 School in Northwest Kansas

East 10 School in Northwest Kansas 1957

Back Row:

Johnny Terry, Sherri Gregory, Sylvia Zuege, Alfred Zuege, Albert Zuege, Alan Zuege, Dick Gregory.

Front Row:

Mary Rose, Bonnie Zuege, Sherri Faylor, Yvonne Faylor, Eunice Gregory, Velma May Zuege, Janet Zuege, Louise Zuege.

Emma Burrell was the teacher.

Ok, This School was really in Kansas

Here is a picture of those of us who went to East 10 in 1955. This was before it was moved over to Hiway 27. It was located 2 miles east of Hiway 27 on what is now called Road Bb. Mrs. Emma Burrell was the teacher. She lived with her husband in a small trailer house that sat on the west side of the building. They drove a 1952 turquoise Studebaker.

There was a cistern with a hand pump in the front yard of the school which was filled a couple of times during the school year. This is where we got our drinking water. Can you believe we didn't all DIE from the germs we must have spread to each other and there were probably snakes and mice in that cistern!

There was a swing set, teeter totters and a slide in the school yard, but most of the time we played Pom Pom Pull Away, Annie Annie Over, Football, Softball, Kickball, Fox & Geese, Hop Scotch or Dare Base. We all got really good at jumping rope and had little "chants" we would say as we jumped. Once in awhile we played Hide and Seek if the corn in the field next to the school was tall enough. There weren't too many places to hide, unless you hid behind one of the two outside toilets or in the road ditch under the tumble weeds.

The school had a telephone, but it was rarely used. It was on the partyline along with several of the neighbors. It was one of those big brown wooden boxes with an ear piece you took off the hook to open up the line. There was a crank handle on the right side that you had to wind in a sequence of shorts and longs, depending on who you were calling; then you had to yell into the mouth piece in order to be heard above the buzz on the line. Our home ring was two longs and a short. Everyone along the partyline could hear your phone ring and most would "rubberneck" and listen to other people's conversations.

The school was warmed by a gas stove that resided in the north end of the room. I can't remember being cold, but it must not have done a great job on really cold windy days.

There were a couple of times when the day was too nice to stay inside and Mrs. Burrell took us "Arrowhead Hunting". I got hooked on this activity and hunted for arrowheads whenever I was out in the fields during the summer driving the tractor. I didn't ever find many, but there actually were a few pieces of flint that looked like they could have been.... Anyway I always wished I could find some.

We lived 2 1/2 miles east of the school, on the farm where Steve and Tammy Workman live now, and most of the time Mamma would come and pick us up at 3:30 when school let out, but sometimes, if it was nice, we would catch a ride partway with someone and walk the rest of the way. When I tell my grandkids that I walked uphill to school - BOTH WAYS - I was telling the TRUTH. That 2 1/2 miles up and down those hills was a long WAY!!

We always had a Christmas Program before school let out for the the holidays. It was exciting to get ready for it and trade names and buy presents for each other. One year Mrs. Burrell gave us all glass piggy banks. I still have mine.

The schoolhouse was used for other things besides school. I can remember some community meetings and parties that were always alot of fun. One summer there were some "2 by 2" preachers who had meetings there. I don't know why we called them 2 by 2, unless it was because there were two of them. Most of the people in the community were either Luthern or Methodist, except for us. We were Seventh-day Adventist and sometimes felt "different", but don't remember anyone really caring about the difference in religion.

I hope I get the names right. If not, please let me know.

Left back row:
Leone Gregory (8th Grade), Alan Zuege (6th Grade), Albert Zuege (6th Grade), Calvin Zuege (8th Grade), Johnny Terry (6th Grade)

Front Row:
Alfred Zuege (5th Grade), Sherri Faylor (1st Grade), Sherri Gregory (5th Grade), Dick Gregory (5th Grade), Bonnie Zuege (3rd Grade).

Emma Burrell was the teacher.

I think there may be some people missing from this picture... or maybe they attended after this. Other people who went to school there during the years I did were Yvonne Faylor, Eunice Gregory, Sylvia, Velma Jean, Janet, Eddie, Gary and Louise Zuege, Mary Rose, Alvin Wall, Louella and Harry Straub, Leah Gregory and Almeda Bier.

It would be very interesting to hear what everyone is doing now!