Wall Family Reunion - Summer 2009

Willie Wall and Hugh Wall would like to invite our long lost relatives, friends

and anyone that might have some history to share about the William and Stella Wall family.

We will get together for an outdoor (Pot Luck) lunch at the park in

Benkelman, Nebraska at noon on Saturday July 18, 2009

We would appreciate any information, pictures, or even a story about the Walls.

Please pass this along to anyone you might think ever knew of or ever heard of the Wall family.

Thanks so much,

Larry Wall

6200 W. 76^th. Ave.

Arvada, CO, 80003

303-431-5662 – Home phone

720-299-2346 – Cell phone

Wallary@aol.com

 

  

  

Thank you Karen Krein, Editor of the Saint Francis Herald.

My Great-Grandparents are Buried in the Pasture

I have been trying to get out to see the graves of my great-great-grandparents, William Henry and Elizabeth (Altman)Williams, who were buried on their land in 1891 & 1898.  I have been wanting to take a picture of the markers put there by Lee Mills several years ago. 

Each time I visit the area and plan to cross the Hackberry Creek into the Mills' pasture north of the 'crik' it has rained causing the "tubes" to be washed out and the road to be muddy.  Someday I will get over there to see the graves located so close to where I grew up even if I have to wade the creek and walk over there.  Or maybe I can take off cross country from the north and get there in a 4-wheel drive pickup (if I had one)...  

At any rate, I plan to get pictures of their gravesite.  I'm sure the weather will cooperate later in the year and I will try again.

  -- Editor

Country Roads

I spent an awsome day with Karen Lindell. We had lunch at Parkhill restaurant in Sainty, stopped for a visit to the Cheyenne County Museum, then took off on country roads north of town to see what our "old stomping grounds" looked like. Luckily the roads had dried enough from last night's showers and we had no trouble traveling across country.

Much to my surprise as we approached the driveway to Steve and Tammy Workman's place, (where I grew up) there is a red round sign just across the road from the house with the words "Texas Cattle Trail - 1883" painted in white letters. Obviously, somone else figured out that the trail went through there before I did or they read the previous post on the blog about the Texas Trail and quickly painted that sign before I could come by and see it today.

A quarter of a mile past the Workman house, we turned north to take "the Scrivner Road" through the hills to Haigler. We weren't sure if it would be passable, but we were lucky to find only a few head of black angus calves in our path. The hills were green from the recent rains and the cactus and russian thistles were in bloom reminding us of how beautiful our "home turf" is and making us fall in love with it all over again.

We drove west of Haigler turning south to drive over Devil's Gap before returning to St. Francis where we said goodbye and vowed to get together again before the summer is over to drive our country roads again.

Thank you Karen for a fun and rejuvinating day.

--Sherri G

St. Francis Alumni Reunion - Main Event

On Saturday evening at 5:00 p.m. around 300 alumni of the Sainty High School began emerging at the gym for pictures and visiting before the 6:00 p.m. banquet.

There were people from classes beginning with 1934 - the oldest graduate in attendance, Alice (Crabtree) Gregory, to the class of 1999 and many classes in between.

Alice was accompanied to her 75th alumni reunion by her sister, Floy (Crabtree) Fisher and congratulated by people she had taught in first grade, like Elton Keller, people she had known all their lives like Jane Mills Oliver who was born the summer Alice helped Gladys with the harvest crew and hired men.  (Also the summer Alice met her future husband, Richard Gregory).  Her nephew Fred Stasser stayed by her side and took her to her place at the banquet table.  She was greeted by her cousins Betty Crabtree,  Jerry Crabtree, Audrey Crabtree and his wife Mary, nephew Merle Stasser and the daughter of Leslie White, a long time neighbor in the community where she spent most of her life.  There were many others who were amazed at her "young" attitude and ability to be so spry and alert at the age of 95.  

 -- Editor (and daughter of Alice Gregory)

-- if you have pictures and stories you would like to share about this event, just send them to the editor by email.

Floy Fisher, Betty Halley and Alice Gregory

A "Crabtree trio"

Marjorie Peter congratulates Alice

Alice and nephew Fred Stasser

Sainty Alumni Class of 1954

Since Dwight's brother was in the class of 1954, we crashed their party to say HI to the members of that class who were gathered on Saturday afternoon to chat and eat together.

Lloyd Crawford and his wife, Ron & Dot Hill, Doug Brewer & Kay Lampe, Jane Mills Oliver, Bill & Marjorie Wieck were some of the people there.

-- Editor

Lunch at Main Street Coffee

There was a sign on the front door of the Main Street Coffe in downtown St. Francis on Saturday. It said "Closed for a Private Party".

That party was the 1959 Graduating Class Alumni lunch, attended by 30 guests made up of members and their spouses & one party crasher (me, Dwight's sister-in-law). The fare was a wonderful chicken salad and scrumptuous bisquet shaped like a flower with a center made of butter, sour cream, and just a touch of dill. The dessert was called Strawbery Pretzel and was delicious!!

The group had a great time visiting and spending time together before moving on to the manor where they gathered throughout the weekend to visit.

-- Editor

1959 Sainty Grads Tour "The Breaks"

On Saturday, the class of 1959 met behind the highschool in Sainty to climb on a schoolbus for a tour of "the breaks". Tobe Zweygardt climbed aboard at the museum and pointed out interesting sights along the way beginning with the 1935 flood high water mark, a white painted brick on the wall of the Municipal Light & Power building. The river became a mile wide and 17 feet deep west of town. They built a foot bridge across the swollen river so people from west of the river could come into town for school and shopping. Next was the marker depicting the route of the stage coach back in the late 1800's, then going north of town he pointed out where the Cheyenne Indian prayer camp was near the south side of the river about a quarter mile from the road. Buffalo Bill also camped near there on his way to Colorado.

We crossed the south fork of the Republican River and drove past the GAR Cemetery. He told about the 700 mile long oil pipeline that stretches from Kansas into Wyoming that we crossed just north of the cemetery. He pointed out the place where his grandfather homesteaded up on the flat just before dropping down into a creek valley where the Carmichael place sits up on the bank to the right of the road.

Up over the hill and down into the Hackberry creek bottom where the Carr family settled on their homestead and is still owned by a grand-daughter Virginia (Carr) Fiedler and her husband Bill. Back up onto the flatland past the Fergusson place and the marker where the Prairie Bell school used to sit.

Traveling on north across Road BB and up to the south ridge above the Arikaree Breaks we passed the places where my Crabtree grandparents and their children Sylvester, Serepta and Mary laid out their homestead land back in the 1880s & 1890s.

The bus pulled to a stop where you can see for miles across the canyons and cattle were grazing on the far side and the soapweed was blooming in abundance. Joy Fisher remembered how bad the milk tasted after the cows would enjoy eating the soapweed flowers.

The Arikaree Breaks are 2 miles wide at their widest point and stretch from Rawlins County Kansas into eastern Colorado.

After driving across the Kansas/Nebraska stateline and on north to Hiway 34, we traveled west until we reached Trail Canyon which is marked with a State Historical Marker telling about the trail drives that came through this area. A stop was made at the Haigler Jail and a rest stop at the Haigler Park. We drove past the District 67 South school house that was moved in from the country northwest of Haigler and is being restored.

The tour then moved west of Haigler, past the “gambling house” of the 1890s and turned back south past the Grand View School foundation and across Devil’s Gap, past the Hope Cemetery then onto Hiway 27 where we traveled back to St. Francis.

75 Years Ago - Alice Graduated

75 years ago my mother graduated from high school in St. Francis, Kansas. She was 19 years old.

In November 2009, she will be 95 years old. I believe she will be the oldest graduate at the reunion this weekend. She plans to attend the Saturday night banquet along with Dwight Brewer who will be celebrating his 50th alumni reunion.

Dwight's wife and Alice's daughter, Leah, Alice's sister Floy and daughter Sherri will also attend the banquet to help them celebrate.

Congratulations, Alice (Crabtree) Gregory, for being able to attend this momentous event.
(Picture to the left - Freshman gym class)

Sophomore Girls

The Senior Class of 1934

The Weakline Place

Sherri, thank you for the birthday note. Brought back a lot of memories. I also wanted to wish Vie and Gene Pennell a Happy Anniversary, as it is also on the 13th. If we were closer we could "party" together.

Reading about the Texas Trail, I remember dad telling us he thought the trail ran pretty close to our draw, below the barn.

Sherri if you remember,we use to have ponds down in the draw, that eventually dried out with the dry years. The boys found some old rusted tin plates, a couple old rusted cups, and some other things that fell apart if you looked at them around the big pond. Of course they must have been digging around because that stuff wouldn't have been on the top surface. Anyway dad said they probably were left when they brought cattle up from the south. So you are probably right about the trail running through the breaks.

Talking about the ponds, the boys were allowed to ice-skate on the pond once in awhile,and it was nothing my folks were thrilled about. I'm sure every time they went down there they had a "sermon" before hand. Well you all know how boys are--seems as if one time the skates weren't thrilling enough----oooooh noooooo--one of my brothers decided it would be much more fun to use his car to do a few ice-twirlies. I don't think a complete turn was made before- yep you guessed-. You know, I can't remember what happened after that-----so I guess that wasn't "the fun part".

I was wondering if Indian Hill is on the old Weakline place where the folks lived. There is a marker almost where the old house was. When dad's sisters would come out from Manhattan they would walk to the edge of the breaks and look across the country and marvel how beautiful it was. (And how do I remember this? My sister told me).

Probably not to many people know that the Scrivener road was the only road to get out to our area at one time. It was such a treat for the folks to take that road home. There seemed to be sooooooo many steep hills to a little girl riding in the back seat. I was so impressed by the Scrivener place. I think because of so many trees and no matter how hot it was, that place looked like a cool heaven.

Anyway my mother told me about them coming home from town (it was the only road then) and Doralene was pretty little. Well it started to rain. Apparently you do not want to be on that road when it's wet. Of course those cars in that day were not like our cars today, you know--no 4 wheel drive and such. Well this little piece of machinery started to slide and there was no way of stopping it. Mom said she nearly squeezed Doralene to death just trying to hold on to something. Mom's blubbering around like a mag-pie wondering what they are going to do, dad's pretty calm and cool--picks up Doralene and tells mom to follow him and he'll show her what they are going to do. Now I know why mom hated that road--she and dad walked home, taking turns carrying Doralene. Of course dad went after the car when the road dried-----which was a day or so. At that time they lived on the Weakline place.

--Karen Lindell

NOTE FROM EDITOR: After getting this note from Karen, I opened up Google Earth and sat down with Mamma and asked her to show me where the Weakline place was located. Here is a picture of that area with names on the places she could remember. (Double click on the picture to see an enlarged version)

--Editor

St. Francis, Kansas, Stearman Fly-In

Here are some pictures Leah and Dwight Brewer took at the Stearman Fly-In - St. Francis, Kansas.

 

Motorcyles paraded down main street

  

Hot Air Balloons

  

SkyDivers 

 Hang Glider

 

T6 Trainer

Used to train pilots in WWII

   

This is Tim Liewer's plane - from North Platte NE.  1936 Stinson originally owned by Bloomingdales in NY.  He found it in a "junk pile" and completely restored it - to it's current condition which looked flawless to me.....

This Stearman really put on a performance - gave the Boy Scouts rides and anyone else who wanted to ride - Flew over St. Francis until after 5 in the afternoon

 The 3 Stearman's left this morning

 Stearman

Stearman Fly-In - Grace Field in Sainty

27th Annual Stearman Fly-In

June 13-14, 2009
St. Francis, Kansas

Friday the Stearman's and other aircraft begin flying-in

The Sky Divers jump at 7:00 Friday and Saturday evening, landing on the football field at the High School

Saturday and Sunday at sunrise, the Hot Air Balloons Fly

Sky Divers Jump All Day Saturday

Click here for more details

Indian Burials in NW Kansas

I really enjoy your stories!!!

The Indian burial you mentioned in your "West Pasture" story made me think of one that I read about in a very early St. Francis paper, probably 1906, telling about one that was found, and a doctor sent the bones home--to Iowa!!! At the time there was some speculation that it was Roman Nose, but I am quite sure it was not.

Janetta Evins and I went out to the place, on the Hackberry, south of Ochsners. I found part of a jaw bone, it even had some teeth in it!! We took it in to Dr. Cram, Janetta's brother-in-law, and he confirmed that it was indeed a human bone! Later, my Dad, Forrest Scrivner asked me to let a teacher in Haigler see it and check it out--alas, I never got it back, let alone any information about it! I guess it would have just been here in the museum, and we still wouldn't know any more about it anyway. There must have been quite a few burials around--oops, I guess they put the bodies on a scaffold first, then in a hollowed out spot, they didn't really bury their dead.

I found many arrowheads, scrapers, and pieces of flint in the hills and I found two kinds of pottery, some very early along the state line, and some made much later, on Indian Hill as we called it--was north of where you lived. It was the highest point in the northern tier of Kansas counties! Years ago (before I was there), there was a little building? noting that it was the highest point. How I loved prowling those hills. You have made me want to go out again to do some looking!

Now if you hear of some old woman being lost out in the hills, it may be me!

I love your things about Haigler, it was a great place to grow up in!

Marilyn (Scrivner) Holzwarth

Happy Birthday, Karen Lindell

June 13 is Karen Lindell's Birthday. She isn't quite as OLD as I am, but pretty near it!!

When we were children, our farms were within shouting distance (if you climbed on top of the graineries and shouted as loud as you could)

We loved to spend playtime together at each other's houses. Our playground was the barns, graneries, horse tanks, farm machinery and anything else we could climb on and, of course in her east porch where she had wonderful toys that I could only dream of.

Because the district line fell between our farms, she went east to Prairie Bell school over on Parks Road and I went to East 10 school west on "our" road. Then, the summer before my sixth grade, we moved to Colorado for a year while my sisters attended Campion Academy and my dad drove a truck. Before I left, Karen and I spent an afternoon together swimming in their horse tank and that's when we became "Blood Sisters". She had brought a pocket knife along and we actually made a small cut in our hands and pressed them together and swore we would always be friends and sisters.

While we were raising our families, we lost touch with each other except to hear or read that the other had been to Haigler visiting family. But, during the last few years, we have again taken up our friendship almost where it left off many years ago as if we were still best friends.

We have alot of catching up to do and plan to spend more time together in the future -- more than just the email and Skype conversations we do now and then.

Karen, I want to wish you the HAPPIEST of Birthdays on June 13....and hope you celebrate many more!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
From Sherri

Rainbow

I was pretty amazed when I seen this out my kitchen window last evening. 

When have you ever seen a full rainbow? 

Wish I could have captured the beauty of it.  Breath taking.

-- Karen Lindell

(Near Ft. Morgan, CO)

2009 Alumni Banquet

 These photos are from the Dundy County - Stratton alumni banquet, 2009.   The one photo is Gary Clark holding the newspaper of coming events in the area that was given each person attending.   The other is of the group  sitting down before  the steak supper.  

-- Linda J

The West Pasture

In the 1950s when I was a kid, my dad owned several acres of pastureland about 3 miles west of our farm place. The terrain there was deep canyons and steep trails that he would drive our old pickup across, up and down and around to check the windmill and cattle. We liked to ride with him and thought it was exciting to have to gear down and spin the tires to get the last bit of the way up a steep bank.

The fence on the west divided our pasture from Ern Workman's and on the east side, up on the 'top' was Charles Workman's field. I don't know who owned the land on the north, but the road (now called BB) was on the south.

I always loved that pasture because of its rugged gullies and hidden canyons with chokecherry and dogwood bushes providing hiding places for the cows and calves. My dad told us there was in Indian grave over there and Dick and I always wanted to find it, but never could (mostly because we didn't really know what we were looking for and it might have been an "entertaining story" that someone had begun). We did find arrow heads and petrified wood there though.

Since this pasture was separate from our other land and dad would put several head of cattle over there in the spring, we would "drive" them down the road for those three miles to get them from the home place to this pasture. Usually, Momma would drive the pickup ahead and block side roads so the cattle would keep going the right direction. Dick, Daddy, Leah and I would ride horses and "herd" the cattle along, keeping them out of the ditches and from going out into unfenced fields. Eunice was too little to help and Leone probably stayed home to read a book. (haha - not really - we all had to help, but she didn't like to ride horses).

In the fall when it was time to take the calves to the sale, we would load them in the truck in the corner of the pasture that was somewhat flat and we had a loading ramp and pen. Then we would drive the "mammas" back to the home place for the winter, where we fed them hay from stacks that we baled and built into square stacks and silage that had been chopped and dumped into the silage pit east of the barn.

--Editor

Cheyenne County Fair

August 5 - August 8, 2009

Parade - August 8

• Homeowned carnival
  
• 4-H exhibits, booths
  
• parade
  
• grandstand shows
  
• demolition derby

Fun-filled days and evenings for families. The homeowned carnival runs all three nights and is run by local men and women. Games for all ages. Grandstand shows each night. Saturday morning fair parade down mainstreet. Lots of floats and fun. See the 4-H exibits on display in the fair building. Livestock can be found in the barns.

Yuma County Fair

August 1 - August 8, 2009

Horse Show and Ranch Rodeo (on Aug 1)
Grandstand shows
Rodeo
Parade
4-H Shows
Horse races
and Much more
CLICK HERE for more information

Dundy County Fair

2009 Dundy County Fair
July, 27 - August 2
at the Fairgrounds in Benkelman, Nebraska

Dundy County has a home-owned carnival running during the fair. Also, food stands, and contests open to everyone in Dundy County and adjoining counties.

2009 Fair Schedule

Other events
Sunday, July 12 - 3:30 p.m. Archery Contest
Friday, July 17 - 9:00 a.m. Clothing Day
Saturday, July 18 - 8:00 Small Bore, Air Rifle and Trap Contest

Parks Baseball Team - Early 1920s

Tom Ballard - Catcher - Front Row, First on left
Earl Ballard - Pitcher - Front Row, Second left
Frank Crabtree - Pitcher - Front Row, Right end (Replaced by E. Ballard 3rd Base)
Frank Wiley - Middle Back Row
Manager of Parks Store (forgot name) - Back Row second from right

--From the picture collection of Alice Gregory

Christmas 1964 - East 10 School

-- Editor

1964-65 East 10 School

-- Editor

FENDER SKIRTS

I know some of you will not understand this message, but I bet you know someone who might.

FENDER SKIRTS

I came across this phrase yesterday 'FENDER SKIRTS.'

A term I haven't heard in a long time, and thinking about 'fender skirts' started me thinking about other words that quietly disappear from our language with hardly a notice like 'curb feelers'

And 'steering knobs.' (AKA) suicide knob, Neckers Knobs.

Since I'd been thinking of cars, my mind naturally went that direction first.

Any kids will probably have to find some elderly person over 50 to explain some of these terms to you.

Remember 'Continental kits?'

They were rear bumper extenders and spare tire covers that were supposed to make any car as cool as a Lincoln Continental.

When did we quit calling them 'emergency brakes?' At some point 'parking brake' became the proper term. But I miss the hint of drama that went with 'emergency brake.'

I'm sad, too, that almost all the old folks are gone who would call the accelerator the 'foot feed.' Many today do not even know what a clutch is or that the dimmer switch used to be on the floor.

Didn't you ever wait at the street for your daddy to come home, so you could ride the 'running board' up to the house?

Here's a phrase I heard all the time in my youth but never anymore -
'store-bought.' Of course, just about everything is store-bought these days=
.
But once it was bragging material to have a store-bought dress or a store-bought bag of candy.

'Coast to coast' is a phrase that once held all sorts of excitement and now means almost nothing. Now we take the term 'world wide' for granted. This floors me.

On a smaller scale, 'wall-to-wall' was once a magical term in our homes. In the '50s, everyone covered his or her hardwood floors with, wow, wall-to-wall carpeting! Today, everyone replaces their wall-to-wall carpeting with hardwood floors. Go figure.

When's the last time you heard the quaint phrase 'in a family way?' It's hard to imagine that the word 'pregnant' was once considered a little too graphic, a little too clinical for use in polite company, so we had all that talk about stork visits and 'being in a family way' or simply 'expecting.'

Apparently 'brassiere' is a word no longer in usage. I said it the other day and my daughter cracked up. I guess it's just 'bra' now. 'Unmentionables' probably wouldn't be understood at all.

I always loved going to the 'picture show,' but I considered 'movie' an affectation.

Most of these words go back to the '50s, but here's a pure-'60s word I came across the other day - 'rat fink.' Ooh, what a nasty put-down!

Here's a word I miss - 'percolator.' That was just a fun word to say. And what was it replaced with? 'Coffee maker.' How dull. Mr. Coffee, I blame you for this.

I miss those made-up marketing words that were meant to sound so modern and now sound so retro. Words like 'DynaFlow' and 'Electrolux.' Introducing the 1963 Admiral TV, now with 'SpectraVision!'

Food for thought - Was there a telethon that wiped out lumbago? Nobody complains of that anymore. Maybe that's what castor oil cured, because I never hear mothers threatening kids with castor oil anymore.

Some words aren't gone, but are definitely on the endangered list. The one that grieves me most, 'supper.' Now everybody says 'dinner..' Save a great word. Invite someone to supper. Discuss fender skirts.
--submitted by Leone

Swap Meet and Car Show - Yuma, CO

Friday, June 5
Sponsored by 2009 CO-NE-KS Swap Meet & Car Show

Click HERE or HERE for more information
- -- Editor