Bobby Train, Shriners and Jack Rabbits

My cousin, Rex Cross, was right when he said the train consisted of one engine and two cars in his post "Hoe Down Time with the Wall Family". My memeory was not quite the same. I thought it was called the Bobby Train with just one engine and one car and ran from McCook to Yuma and back daily.

Rex has a keen sense of the musicians who marched up and down the streets, as mentioned in "Train Depot Memories". He remembers the Shriners and their uniforms. The caps looked like upside down red flower pots with a tassle on top, white shirts and red vests. (Let's have a big Hurrah! for Rex and his input to Haigler History.)

I don't remember the coyote hunts that Lillian Kruse mentioned, but a few years later, Jack Rabbit hunts were organized north of Haigler, one section at a time, closing towards the center. The emphasis was to try to get nature balanced out when one species over-populated. That was in the mid 50s when I went rabbit hunting. Seems like we had a truck load on one of the hunts.

SUBMITTED BY DALLAS ADAMS

Puddle Jumper, Coyotes and The Flood

I am enjoying the recollections of Haigler history. My parents were C Wm. And Alma Zuege. We farmed east of Haigler – about ½ mile until they moved to town in 1938, My dad was the city marshal – also worked at the depot. On Saturday evenings especially, but other nights also, he loaded up eggs, chickens, cream and milk on a little train which consisted of the engine, one storage car and one passenger car. It made its rounds from McCook to Wray, CO and back. Some people called it “the puddle jumper.’ He also hung mail for the zephyr and picked up a bag of mail that they threw off.

I remember the bad flood of 1935. there was a draw or canyon right next to our farm and it was full of raging waters-just so close to our barns and animals. The Health Department of Lincoln came and vaccinated everyone for Typhoid Fever.

Does anyone remember the coyote hunts? I was pretty small – but many men and boys congregated out in the country, rounded up and killed coyotes. There were so many. My mother belonged to U.M.C. Ladies Aid. They took a kerosene stove in the back of a truck and a boiler, filled it with water and cooked and sold Hot Dogs for 5 cents each. The ladies baked a lot of pies and sold them also.

I was able to go through the Haigler Schools, graduated in 1942 – lots of nice memories. Also, remember my oldest brother and wife taking a wagon and 2 horses and on week-ends they gathered old bones in the pastures. I don’t remember where they took them but they got two dollars a load. Money was very scarce in the 1930’s so every penny counted. Rev. Homer Clements was a pastor at Haigler and also filled in as Superintendent. He now lives in Lincoln, NB and shares his newspapers with us.

-- Submitted by Lillian Kruse

Hoe Down Time with the Wall Family

I come from Trenton, Nebraska. My mother was Helen E. (Wall) Cross. She was W. E. Wall's daughter.

My brother, Roger, and I visited our grandparents, aunts and uncles on a regular basis... at least twice a month from 1945 to 1958.

We would ride the CB&Q "Puddle" jumper, which was a three car passenger freight train that ran daily, each way, between McCook, Nebraska and Yuma, Colorado.

Many fond memories were formed in Haigler! Dallas Adams and I are of the same vintage and he is a cousin of mine.

I really enjoyed the description of "Haigler- Saturday Night". I remember all the Walls, Pete Sacket, Peg Darby, Reinholt Keller, Dick Wheaton, Workmans, Mr. Geece, Vic Stasser, the Brunswick (Brunswig) family, Mr. and Mrs. Spears.

I especially remember the little jailhouse out back of the General Store on the corner of main and Hiway 34. It was pretty rustic and spartan. A good place to stay out of. My brother and I always dreaded the thought of being locked up in Haigler, so we were pretty good boys. Last I heard, it was still there, but in disuse. It should be preserved.

One of my uncles was Donnie Wall. A very good athelete until he was injured in a tragic car accident. He and I were the same age.

I remember the Haigler Eagles.

My grandfather had an icehouse and hauled ice from Benkelman, Trenton, McCook and Wray to supply the community with ice. I bet many of you remember buying ice from him. He could tote those huge blocks of ice like they were nothing. His strength was legendary. I have seen him stand a railroad tie on its end and reach down to the grounded end and throw the tie on top of a truckload of railroad ties stacked 15 feet high onto a flatbed truck! This was when he was in his mid-sixties!!

He was quite a fiddler and loved to play at family get togethers. All the Walls played some instrument or sang a good tune. It was always "Hoe Down Time" at family holidays. His final song of the day was always "Redwing." You knew it was all over when he started to play that tune. I seldom hear that tune anymore, but an old negro violinist, here on the streets of Key West, played it for me at my request and a five dollar bill a few months ago. It still brings tears of joy to my heart and eyes.

Yessir!! I do have fond memories from Haigler!

-- Submitted by Rex E. Cross, Sr.