Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

This week’s article is a continuation of the life of 90-year-old Verna Donovan of Bloomington.

Clarence, Blanche and their family’s next move was northwest of Bloomington about three miles to a rental farm (SE * 23-2-16, 240 acres). Verna thought a man named Marsh owned it. I found this true when I checked out transactions at the Clerk’s office. This farm, as we know it today, sat just west of the farms of John Schegg and north west of Leroy Haussermann.

Although the house is gone, we went there via Verna’s memory. She remembered the house sat on the west side hill and there was a lake to the east of the house. Verna’s family lived here almost three years.

She remembered she started school in Bethel School District 16. The former student told me she started school when seven years old. These moves add up pretty close to the time period. Verna only attended Bethel School for a few months. I asked her how she got to school? “I walked one mile straight north of our farm to Bethel School,” she said. Right again! If you go west of this farm there is an abandoned road that went north one mile and came out at Bethel School. As we left this farm I asked: “Do you remember your dad’s horses names?” Ninety-year-old Verna replied: “I believe one was named Rastus”. Her memory amazes me. Charles Kahrs later owned this farm with the house on the side hill and the lake to the east, father of Kenneth Kahrs and Willis Kahrs.

The Sharp family moved back into Bloomington around 1916. She attended Bloomington School while living in this small white house. We currently know this site as the yellow house occupied by Rose Hill. Verna talked to me, in old time talk, saying this home was just across from Dr. Spark’s house. Verna said her dad worked for William and Vern Dunn in their general store. This was short lived and it was back to the farm.

This time Clarence and Blanche owned the farmstead, for on the 1923 Atlas of Franklin County; the land NW * 7-2-15 bears his name. It was called the Jess Godsey farm. To describe the site today, I say it’s north and around the corner from the Bob Phillipson farm on the east side of the road. The foundation sits on its spot and still sports a windmill. By that time I came to Bloomington in 1971, it was a gray weathered house that showed the love of a family a very long time ago.

Clarence bought this farm November 5, 1917 with his brother Gaylen. This Godsey place cost him $4,500. He put $2,000 down and Jess Godsey mortgaged the rest for him. Clarence renewed the mortgage in 1919. Gaylen died in the 1918 flu that hit Franklin County with a rage. He renewed the mortgage again in 1921. The reason I tell you these dates is for verification of the years the family spent on this farm. Here, Verna attended Hillsdale School, or Barr School (district 71) as some called it. Her friends were the Barr children. Her teacher was Clara Voight. Clara taught at Hillsdale School in the years of 1922 and 1923. Verna used to go and play at the small Barr house in the draw southwest of the school. Verna recalled walking across the pasture to school about a mile. I wonder what experiences she had on that trip each day. A wagon was the family’s mode of transportation into town to shop at her grandfather’s store and to visit her grandmother Catherine. As a youngster, she remembered going to see her other grandparents, the Sharps. This is the farm the Duane Donovans own today.

They went by horse and wagon telling me it wasn’t very far to grandma’s house. She remembered thinking her grandma Lydia was a nice lady. Her Aunt Elsie would take them down to the creek and the millpond west of the house, to swim and wade in the water. She said she was nine or ten years old. Her memories of her Aunt Elsie were that she kept as clean as a pin and Aunt Elsie took care of her mom, Lydia for years. Aunt Elsie never married and lived to be 101 years old. Verna’s face brightened when she told me of the orchard that was south of the Sharp house, and wanted to know if it was still there today. “No it isn’t!” I said, wishing I could at least find a fruit tree trunk. I can only go there with her memories and “see” the red apples and cherries. She visually took me back to a time of traveling in a wagon to the same place covered with quilts on a snowy day. They hurried to this, Grandma Sharp’s farm and relaxed with games and received lots of love inside a warm home. This grandma had cattle, horses and raised lots of chickens, and she didn’t get to town very often, “In those days, women didn’t get to go as much as now,” Verna said. Sometimes Grandma went to visit her daughter, Edna Tanquary. She talked about the big red barn on the Sharp farm that had a haymow. Most people remember a haymow from childhood with warm thoughts, as did Verna. They kept the horses in the barn, all cozy and fed, ready to do the daily work. Grandma Sharp used to pump water from the well right outside the kitchen door. Aunt Elsie planted flowers by that pump in the summertime. Verna was scared of the sandy parts of the creek. She thought it was quicksand and she would sink. It sounds like a scare tactic to keep them away from the creek until Aunt Elsie was ready to take them wading. This small northwest facing kitchen of Lydia’s and her daughter Elsie had a pantry. “There was wonderful food in there.” And saying that, she chuckled. The parlor was on the east side of the house and three bedrooms on the south side. On the back west porch was a wringer washer.

Verna said they usually went to Grandma Catherine Dunns for Christmas. She always had a big Christmas Tree. Here, she got gifts in a gift exchange. They always had a big dinner. She reminded me they owned a grocery store, so they had lots of good food. “There were treats there,” she said, “turkey, pumpkin pie, and cakes.” “Mama had a doll for me,” but she couldn’t recall if it was a Christmas gift. Verna said they also went to Dunns for Sunday dinners. To look back upon her grandparents, the Dunns, she told me her Grandmother Catherine’s dad was a minister, and that her Grandfather William was a moneymaker who dealt in lots of adventures where he was financially successful. She remembered her dad, Clarence, didn’t come with his parents in 1902 to our farm, he came later. At the time the family came west, Clarence lived on a farm in Iowa. “Dad was a checker player. He loved that game, and was an expert game man,” she said.

While living on the Godsey farm in the small four-room house, Clarence sold his homestead at Burlington, CO-the farm he had owned since before his marriage. Verna remembered listening and learning three men went on farther west of Nebraska, to Colorado and homesteaded. They were Clarence Sharp, Carl Stolz and John Dunn. The last two men were from south of Naponee. They stayed long enough to prove up on their homesteads. Clarence acquired a brand new Buick car while they were living on the Godsey farm. Verna said it was dark green and a classy car. She went on to tell me it was really a trade. Bill Meyers, a real estate agent in Bloomington, traded Clarence, the car for the homestead land. Verna said, “Bill Meyers was the grandfather of a man we know as David Janssen, the actor of “The Fugitive” TV series. Owning this new Buick car meant a new way of transportation for Clarence and his family.

Experiences seemed to make a big impression on Verna at this time period. The memories poured out of her so fast I could hardly get the notes recorded. For every question I asked, I got a precious answer.

They must have lived on the Godsey place about five years. This is because Vivian Decker wrote in the rural schoolbook about Hillsdale School “I started school in 1922. There were 10 of us in school that year. The next year we lost four students as the Sharp family moved to Bloomington. Bessie Sharp was my special friend and I really missed her. Bessie was Verna’s youngest sister.”

So once again the Sharp family left the farm and moved back to the same small house they had lived in east of Dr. Sparks. Verna would have been about 13 years old at that time. Here, they lived until Verna graduated from Bloomington High School in 1929. The whole family moved to Beaver City some time shortly after graduation. Clarence ran a grocery store for Blanche’s sister Bess Holmes. While the family stayed at Beaver City, Verna went to Cedar Bluffs, KS south of McCook to run a store owned by Aunt Bess Holmes. It was her first experience away from her family. She ran this store for about five months and then returned to her family at Beaver City. This adventure didn’t prove profitable, so the family moved to Naponee, bringing the store goods with them to a building on an east-west street where they opened up another grocery store. While the family remained at Naponee Verna went to Kearney to attend Kearney Teachers College. Guess who catered to the store at Naponee? A handsome young man from the south of Naponee-James Donovan! We all have to eat you know. Verna said she met James Donovan because Margaret Waring married James’ brother, Ben Donovan. Margaret and Verna were in the same class at Bloomington and were friends. Ben and Margaret were married long before James and Verna. Kate (Decker) Moninger was her friend too. The friends, along with Verna’s sisters, went off to dances at the old auditorium at Naponee during their high school and college days. Verna said she didn’t clerk much in the store at Naponee, because she was in college. Her mother Blanche ran it most of the time. Verna always calls her mother, “Mama.” As she reached for a photo I held in my hand, she smiled, and said: “That’s Mama.” She held the picture of Blanche for a long time before returning it to me. No matter how old we get, we all have dear and comforting memories of our parents. Verna remembered that her sister, Catherine, babysat David Janssen, who lived next door to them at Naponee. She said her family didn’t have much business in the Naponee store so they closed it down and moved back to Bloomington again.

This time they lived in a house to the west of the now fallen in house of May Schaffer Fogg. They lived there till they moved to the big, old Sharp house that Clarence and Blanche lived in until they passed away. Verna lived there, teaching in the rural schools, and occupying the southwest bedroom until she married James Donovan.

Clarence was the janitor of the Bloomington School until his death. The big Sharp home is still standing, just west of the Rose Hill House today. Its interior comes alive through the memories of the grandchildren: Duane, Ruth, Pollyanna, Marsha and Sally. Duane has fond memories of his grandmother Blanche. She would make him butter and sugar sandwiches. He talks with softness as he tells about the pretty smelling sachets she kept in her dresser drawers. Ruth remembers all the bedrooms had sheer curtains on the windows and coordinating bedspreads that matched the wallpaper. Blanche would make the best cinnamon rolls and tie them in a clean dishtowel and store them in the pantry. Ruth remembers running the hand driven clothes washer on the back porch. Vines covered this porch screen, and anyone could see to the river from her grandmother Blanche’s rocking chair.

One day, Blanche’s daughter, Bess, drove up in front of the Donovan house. Blanche was in the passenger seat. She rolled down the window and gave Ruth some money through the car window. They talked for a while and then drove off toward Newark, where her daughter Bessie lived. That was the last time Ruth saw her grandmother Blanche alive. Blanche died suddenly while on a walk around the yard with her granddaughter, Sally, at Bessie’s home.

Verna taught Sunny ridge District 7 in 1931, and at Red Top School District 40 in 1933, 1934, 1935. Verna wrote about these teaching days in the rural schoolbook, “In the 1930’s I began my teaching career, having graduated from Bloomington High School in 1929 and attended Kearney State College the following two years to attain my Elementary Teachers Certificate.

Sunny Ridge (District 70) was about two miles east and seven miles north of Naponee. It was my first teaching position in the fall of 1931. Here, I had 6 to 7 pupils, as I remember them. Lena and Johnnie DeReise, Charles Kelly, a Pohlenz girl and Henry Carney. I boarded at the home of August and Emma Jansens, where I was brought from my home in a Model A car, owned by my brother Don. I still had to walk a mile to my school.

I recall field trips we made for our nature study. It was only a hike down the hill, but yet it was an exciting experience for the pupils. School days were happy days in a country setting.

“In 1932, I contracted to teach in School District 40, located four miles south of Naponee. This was the Redtop School. Again, I had to board away from home, and this time I lived at the John Dunns, and walked almost 2 * miles to and from school. I now had 10-12 students: the 3 Siegel children, Bill Schnuerle’s, 2 Schworer’s, 1 Melton’s, Halbert’s 3 boys and Schulke’s girls. This school set north and couth with a door on the east. There were no trees close to the schoolhouse. I remember the Carl Stolz farm north of the school. I remember how much teaching was done on the blackboard. And the Primer Book opened up the reading knowledge of the little ones. School programs helped me keep in touch with the parents. I taught three years in this school.”

Verna and James were married June 24, 1936 in Reno, NV. James was born July 5, 1905 south of Naponee into Kansas. His parents were Frank and May (Cottrill) Donovan.

James and Verna were the parents of eight children. When they were first married they lived in Oregon and California, returning to Bloomington in 1944. The next year they purchased the large old home that was once the mansion of banker McGrew. There, the Donovans lived their lives and reared eight children: Polly, Michael, Duane, Don, Ruth, Lynn, Gail and Thomas. James Donovan passed away June 5, 1977. Verna later moved into a mobile home for a while and now lives in a white two-story home once owned by Mr. Green, the lumberyard merchant of Bloomington. At 90, Verna is failing in body, but her mind is still clear. She is “as sharp as a tack” in her wit and good humor. Verna still cares for herself in her home and shows favorable interest in all her family’s accomplishments. One of her delights is drawing all her loved ones home for a holiday dinner. We all gather around the table and hold hands in a never-ending circle, as this dear old lady says her thanks to the Lord for a life well blessed. We can only pray to also enjoy as many days on this earth as Verna has. I am honored to know this lovely, peaceful woman who holds her family together. I love you Grandma Verna (Sharp) Donovan. God Bless you.

“Let us move on and step out boldly, though it be into night,

And we can scarcely see the way

A Higher Intelligence than the mortal sees the road before us.” Charles Newcomb.

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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