The Williams Graves & Dugout

The weather finally cooperated and allowed us to cross the 'crik' into the pasture north of the old Rueben Bandel place where my great-great grandparents are buried. Mark Mills knew exactly where to find the grave marker that his Uncle Lee had created to mark the spot in 1987. It is located on his family ranch - as is the dugout where the Williams family lived.

My grandfather tells of arriving at the Williams home in 1892, when he moved to Kansas at the age of 9 years old in an earlier story printed in this blog; "The Crabtrees Arrive on an Immigrant Train".

While standing across the spring fed creek that ran in front of the Williams dugout, you can imagine the family and all their belongings come down the draw from the

Charlie Zuege place southeast of Haigler. Your mind takes them from the depot in Haigler where they unloaded their horses and wagons, up through Wilson Canyon; across the top of the North Divide and down through the valley to the grandparents place north of Hackberry Creek.

Mark Mills told us of several other burial places and dugouts that he has run across throughout the years of growing up on the ranch, while checking cattle and roaming the countryside. His family owns and rents much of the farm and grass land in the NW corner of Cheyenne County.

The Williams grave marker says:

WILLIAMS
WM HENRY       ELIZABETH (ALTMAN)
5-11-1820 MD    10-31-1820 OH
1-25-1898 KS     9-26-1891 KS
M. 9-25-1841 SCIOTO CO OH
CHILDREN
SARAH C., MARGARET, JONATHAN H.,
OBITS KS EAGLE 12-1-1898
CN CO RUSTLER 10-15-1891

5-30-1987

If anyone has a copy of these obits or can find them online, I would love to have a copy or scanned image.