Williams & Vanderfords & Mail Carriers

Mrs. Nancy Vanderford's homestead was the half section that was later the east side of our (Rich and Alice Gregory) east pasture. She was a widow who had boys old enough to help her. As they got old enough, they homesteaded their own places. Mary Ellen was her stepdaughter and married Jonathan Henry Williams, my dad Frank Crabtree's "Uncle Henry Williams". His sister, Sarah Catherine Williams, was married to my grandfather Peter Crabtree. When I knew her I was about 8 years old and we called her "Aunt Ellie". She visited us on our farm and stayed overnight with us and heard us say our prayers. She was a good Christian lady.

Both Uncle Henry and Aunt Ellie Williams were born in Scioto County, OH. He was born in a log house near Portsmouth on the Ohio River. Mary Ellen was the oldest daughter of William Vanderford. Her mother and only sister died and later her father, married Nancy A. Newman. They had six boys; George, Chester, Lowell, Cory, Thomas and Edward. William died before Nancy and her children moved to Kansas and took the homestead. Lowell Vanderford married Olive Annette (Clark). Glen and Charley Vanderford were Nancy's grandsons. Charley married Elsie Kruger and they are the parents of Norvin and Kenneth Vanderford.

Olive Annette Clark was sister of Nate Clark (father of Hollis, June, Russell, Betty, one more boy)

Both the Williams and Vanderford families joined groups that moved to Nebraska. The Williams family included Henry, his parents and two sisters who were already married to two Crabtree brothers. There were about a dozen or so children. The Vanderford family came along about three years later. Uncle Henry and Aunt Ellie were married in 1885 and lived in Bennett, Nebraska until about 1890 when they moved to Cheyenne county to join his parents. They claimed homestead land nearby on land that is located now south of the Mills Ranch place.

William H. Williams and Elizabeth Altmann met when he was working on a riverboat during the building of a canal near the Ohio River. She was waiting on tables in a boarding house. They were married in 1841 and lived near Portsmouth, Ohio along the river. In 1879, along with some of their children and 17 grandchildren, they joined other groups of pioneers moving to Cass County, Nebraska. In the early 1880s, some of the Williams and Crabtree families moved on to Cheyenne County, Kansas and settled in the Hackberry Creek community. "Grand-dad Williams" was famous in the community for his interesting stories and songs. He was the Literary Society president in their community.

William and Elizabeth's homestead was located just north of what is now the Mills Ranch on Spring Creek. She died in 1891, only three years after they settled into their new home. He lived until 1898. They are buried in what is now a pasture on the Mills Ranch. Several years ago, Lee Mills erected a stone and fenced their grave site.

Here is the family line:

William Henry Williams (m. Elizabeth Aultmann--she was Pennsylvania Dutch)

1. Monro Williams
2. David Williams
3. Sarah Catherine Williams (m. Peter Crabtree)
4. Margaret Ann Williams (m. Jerome Crabtree)
5. Jonzee Williams (Died young)
6. Jonathan Henry Williams ("Uncle Henry Williams"), (m. Mary Ellen Vanderford--"Aunt Ellie")

Uncle Henry & Aunt Ellie's children were:

1. Ida May Williams (m. Dick Braaf)
2. Sarah Williams
3. William Henry Williams b.1891 ("Billy Williams"), (m. Goldie Fitzsimmons)
4. the twins Edgar & Edna Williams
5. Paul Vanderford Williams (m. Potthoff)
6. Robert Williams

The Henry Williams family lived in a sod house with a dirt floor. Robert remembers his "Ma scrubbed it every day with soap and water and it got as clean and hard as boards." The women went to the creek to do their laundry. The men from town would come to their place to hunt quail. My dad, Frank Crabtree remembers an incident where Uncle Henry ran down the creek shouting, "You have to stop! You just shot my girl!" A stray bullet had glanced and brushed one of the girls.

Billy and the twins were born on the homestead and went to the Rattlesnake Gulch school, "up the creek" from them. They also attended school at the Collins school with their Crabtree cousins where their aunt Cora (Crabtree) O'Brien was the teacher. Ida Williams went to school with Pauline Wagner, who grew up west of their place. Ida and Pauline maintained a lifelong friendship.

Uncle Henry sold their land and moved to Haigler, where they bought the Clifton Hotel. They operated the hotel until 1898 when they sold it and moved back to eastern Nebraska, where the two youngest, Paul and Robert, were born. Later, Mary Ellen (Vanderford) Williams and son Robert came back to the Haigler area where Robert attended West 10 school and Haigler High School.

Billy Williams carried mail from Haigler to the farm mail boxes along Route 2. Back then there was another mail carrier for the farms west of 27 highway. Route 2 went south on highway 27 to the road that went east past Klinsmann's, Kruger's and Dave Samlar boxes. The mailbox route was a mile north of Klinzmanns. There might have been a little back tracking to get to Emil Zuege's place. I don't know the exact route. But from Klinzmann's corner it went north past Carl Zuege's place to Earn Workman's corner then east past Roses, the Charles Zuege place and the Boyds. It continued east past Uncle Vester Crabtree's place to the Harvey places. Somewhere there it went north and east in several jogs then past the Bartlett place and came out on highway 34 in Nebraska near Parks, then back to Haigler.

I don't know how long Billy carried mail but he was doing it when we Crabtrees lived on the Fancher Place between about 1919 - 1926. When there was important mail, he would drive the mile and half through one gate to open and shut and along the head of one canyon and down to our little house on the prairie. In the spring when farmers were getting baby chicks he had a noisy drive. He had to deliver them to the houses along his route. My uncle Frank Wiley was his substitute.

Billy had a reputation in Haigler of fighting. From what I heard with my big ears ("Little pitchers have big ears") he was pretty "good" at it. He had a beautiful wife, Goldie Fitzsimmons. (Rich's sister Frances told me that Fitzsimmons was her name. She knew her.) People in Haigler loved her family. Billy and Goldie had three children, Gloria was born in Roca, Nebr. in 1921. She was still a toddler when I saw her in Haigler. Gloria's married name was West.

Billy's brothers and sisters were Ida, Sarah, Edgar and Edna (twins), Paul, and Robert. Edna lived to over age 100. In California. Ida (Braaf) and her daughter Doris was at our house at least once when I was little. And later we wrote letters for many years. Doris and I wrote back and forth, also. I have a picture of them . I met Sarah in 1944. Robert came to visit us when he was back for an alumnae reunion. He purposefully looked up Aunt Lizzie Pate, Ethel Rath and the St. Francis Crabtrees and us. I forget what year he graduated from Haigler High School. He said that his mother (Aunt Ellie) had moved into Haigler to send him to school.

-- Compiled from various items written by Alice (Crabtree) Gregory