Corn Harvest

While traveling across Nebraska last weekend, I was reminded of the corn harvest on the farm where I grew up. We raised mostly wheat, but my dad planted some corn, cain and milo, but mostly Turkey Red wheat.

Last weekend, the streets of Haigler were busy with trucks of all sizes delivering corn to the Haigler Co-op. The scales were kept busy all day. We saw semi-trucks and 2 ton farm trucks delivering their loads.

All across the state, I saw piles of corn outside the elevators. It looked like it must have been a "good crop" year.

Henry Bartholoma Farm

This is the Henry Bartholoma Farm/Haigler Nebraska.

My Aunt Garnet Miller who passed away last year at 102 years of age was sure it was located where Kenny Potthoff now lives.

I received the original from my dad's second cousin Ray Heer who is a retired minister in California. His mother was related to the Bartholoma's. I think it is a real neat picture, you can see apples on the tree, a man sitting on a farm implement behind the team of horses, the mother holding a baby, the baby chicks in the front with the hen. It is a picture that tells a lot. On the back it says: Henry Bartholoma Farm Haigler, Nebraska

-- Submitted by Calvin Freehling
(Click on picture to see enlarged version and use your BACK button to return to the blog)

Boyd's Then White's

I didn't know much about Haigler from away back, except through other people’s stories. We mostly went to Parks. It was closer and was my parents’ "home town", plus my Aunt Georgia's house was along the road to Parks.

I remember White's house when it was Boyd's house. Grandma Boyd was a tiny little woman. Her son, George, who was single, lived with her and did the farming. Their first house was on the south side of the road (CR891 /BB) between Uncle Vester Crabtree's house and east of the Parks Road in that quarter section that we call “the basin”. Boyds finished "proving up" and moved cornerwise across the road to start proving up over there on the section later known as the Barber (Reichert) place.

My grandparents, Peter and Sarah Crabtree, lived at the Boyd’s first place while they were building a barn and house and dug a well on their own place on the next quarter south. Otherwise they would have had to sleep under their wagons or something I guess. They were lucky that the Boyd's house was right there standing empty. My dad, Frank, was about nine years old, Aunt Cora about 5, Aunt Sarepta , maybe 16. Uncle Vester, about 17, Mary and Addie. The three oldest of the family, Uncles Will, Dave, and Abel were still in Eastern Nebraska.

Rudolf Boyd stayed on the next place and farmed it while Mrs. Boyd and George moved over to what is now owned by the Whites. Rudolph and Gertrude Boyd had three boys: Max, Bill and Don. Rudolph died when the boys were quite young and Gertrude moved to Haigler and rented the farm out. The boys went to Haigler school but, Don, who was the youngest often stayed out in the country with his Grandma and Uncle George Boyd and went to the Prairie Bell School.

The first people who rented Gertrude’s place were the Charlie Armstrong family. They moved there sometime during the year when I was in sixth grade (1925) and Mildred and Marjorie came to our school, Prairie Rose for several years. Then the Armstrongs bought the Zuege place and the Alva McDonald's rented it.

Sometime during that next summer, Gertrude married Mose Barber and they moved back out to her farm so Don Boyd lived with them and came to Prairie Rose when he was in seventh grade. Emma Freehling was the teacher and her sister Alma was teaching at the John Keller School. Alma boarded with the John Keller family. John’s wife was also a sister of Alma and Emma Freehling. (Editor's note: Correction - John Keller's wife was Alma and Emma's Aunt. Read the comments from readers for clarification)

To homestead was quite an undertaking. A lot of settlers gave up and left without proving up and another settler would buy it from them or somehow acquire the land and continue building it up.

--Submitted by Alice Gregory

(Editor’s note: When she was a child, Alice lived west of the first Boyd place and east of the White’s section.)

Hollis Fisher will be missed

The following poem, written by Floy (Crabtree-Fisher) Ruggles is a tribute to Hollis Fisher, who was her brother-in-law.

Hollis invented, built, promoted and sold a Grain Saver device that attached to a John Deere combine. This device paid for itself over and over because of the grain it saved by keeping it from being thrown out the back end of the combine along with the straw. Adjustments were made each time the John Deere Company came out with a new model.

Hollis grew up east of Beecher Island and south of Laird. Many farmers from the 3 corners area knew him.

Hollis passed away in his sleep during the night on October 10, 2006. He had not been ill. He had been opening the senior center where he lived each morning. He was 88 years old. His funeral will be October 20, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. at the Seventh-day Adventist Church with burial at Grandview Cemetery in Wray, CO.

---

October 11, 2006
Here is a copy of what God helped me write today. The inspiration came in the middle of the night when there were no distractions. I scribbled the lines on paper in the dark as they came or I never remember them very long. This afternoon I typed it into Word and revised and added to it.

HOLLIS

A happy, bright eyed little boy with smiles for everyone,

Grew up beside Dry Willow Creek. There, life, to him, was fun.

Five older siblings, mom and dad, made up a sum of eight.

And life to him was never dull – much to investigate.

His active mind and eager will, would culminate some day

In making him a *livelihood. Work, to him, was play.

Meanwhile, just over the mountain there lived two beauties, twins.

‘Tween them, with brother Darrel, a romance soon begins.

Then Darrel chose for his own bride the twin named, Marie May.

And Hollis loved the other one – the one they all called “Fay.”

So now, a host of relatives and friends are here today

To celebrate the life of one, to whom, we, tribute pay.

It’s hard to write a tribute, sad, for he loved life so much.

For everyone, who came his way, received a caring touch.

He radiated cheerfulness. No one was left ignored.

He had good words for everyone that made them feel adored.

(meaning “special”)

He loved to play harmonica. He never left home without it.

And if you’ve ever heard him play, you’ll not forget about it.

He wrote the songs you’ll hear today. He wrote them from his heart.

So ponder well the message there, as for a while, we part.

We’ll miss this great man very much. He means so much to all.

He’s resting now in Jesus – awaits the “come forth” call.

Each one of you, who read these lines, has memories galore.

May they inspire a great desire to meet once more on yonder shore.

(*Fisher Grain Saver)
--Written and submitted by an appreciative sister-in-law - Floy Fisher Ruggles