Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

This week's article continues the life of Mary (Anderson) Hill.

I am sorry if you think this story is lengthy, but I don't want to miss putting even one of these lovely pictures in print for the future. It's hard to shorten the story of a person's life. So… lets go on to the next chapter.

A. C. Anderson farmed all of his life. He was a tall, handsome man with a mustache. When younger, his hair was dark, but, of course, grayed, as he got older. From his wedding photograph, we know that Mary (Anderson) Hill's grandson; Don is almost a clone of A. C. The similarity between the two is startling. I met Don Hill at Mary Hill's funeral, and I know this to be a fact. He looks so much like A. C. that it is almost scary.

A. C. served on the Bloomington School Board and was interested in his children getting a good education. He loved his garden and raised watermelons by the wagonload. Mary remembered her father playing "Pop Goes the Weasel" and other songs on the jews harp. Mary wrote " When Dad (A. C.) lived in Missouri, he helped train or cared for a race horse, and I think it was Man of War." His wife, Annie Mae Anderson was a petite person, who got stouter as she got older, She was a good wife and mother. Her grandchildren loved her and liked to spend time with her on the farm. Howard Hill remembers going to Grandma and Grandpa Andersons for big get-togethers on Sunday, having dinner, swimming in the creek and picking fruit.

There are handwritten notes of Mary Hill about the farm she was born on in Farmers Township, Bethel School District. It is thought A. C. Anderson family lived on this farm from 1905 to 1920. Mary was born July 13, 1912. Her mother, Annie, told Mary she was named after her two grandmothers: Mary Talkington and another, however no Georgia has yet been found.

Mary Said, " Mother was 27 when I was born, and 19 years old when her and A. C. were married."

"One day a peddler came, Mom and Jessie, who was 3 or 4 years old, asked him to leave. The man wouldn't leave, so Mom told Jessie to go get Dad and she did, Dad came and told him to leave.

"Dad had one white mule and one dark mule he drove on the wagon or spring wagon, and he'd never know what they were going to do. They usually ran off with everything. Ted's (Hill) folks lived on the Albers place (now the James Hausserman place). My folks crossed the creek and sometimes scared the mules, and away they went, upsetting the wagon. Ted and his folks came and helped pick up the pieces, and on to town they went." Mary was later to marry Ted Hill.

"I can remember that," she said. When brother Bill was in the third or fourth grade a bunch of boys crawled out the window in the old schoolhouse. The teacher caught them and pulled each of them back in through the window, that hurt, so they never tried it again."

Life dealt sad times to our pioneer families as Mary told about the death of her sister Jessie: " I can remember my sister, when we buried her that day. We rode to the cemetery in a lumber wagon. I remember the clothes Mon dressed her in. Jessie had a white casket. I wasn't quite 3 years old. I remember asking my folks where Jessie went. They told me Jessie went to heaven, and I wondered where Heaven could be. I remember she was so sick. Jessie died of complications of chicken pox. Jessie Marie Anderson died in 1915.

"When I was 4 or 5 years old, Mom had a bunch of geese, and one day one old gander got me down and was giving me a good beating. Mom heard me hollering and came and chased him away. Don't you know what happened to him?

"Some one gave Bill and me a rocking horse when we were small. I have a picture of it somewhere. There were always peddlers going around, selling whatever they had, and one day a man came to our place. I wasn't very big, as I remember Dad coming in after he left. The peddler had left his razor in the loft of the barn where he slept. It was a good one, as Dad used it until he went to the nursing home. Mary said more than once she would much rather help in the fields with her dad then do house work.

She also remembered an incident at school: "When I was in the third grade at Bethel School, I was so bashful. Teacher, Jessie Lemmert told us to write our times tables. I wrote some and was looking down in my lap. I might have been counting on my fingers. She took me out of my seat and scolded me."

To Him who hath kept, and blest through the day, to god of love will I kneel and pray. Anonymous

Rena Donovan, for the preservation of history and other memories.

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