COOLEY, J. G.
The Cooley's have been an integral part of American history for over 350 years and they have been a part of the history of Hooker County, Nebr. since about 1887 (when the County was “Unorganized territory''). Rob-ert Cooley (1596- ) & family emigrated from England to America in 1634. (1) Robert's son Benjamin located near Springfield, Mass. (2) Seven generations later “JG'' (Johnson Grimes) Cooley (1860-1944) left his boyhood farm home near Scotts, Kalamazoo County, Mich., (about 1880). He came to Lincoln, Nebr. & worked in (his Uncle's) flour mill for a few months then worked on Metzger's farm near Lincoln. About 1886 he worked on the construction of the CB&Q Railroad from Ravenna, Nebr. to Whitman, Nebr. When construction ended for the season he evident-ly went to the Chadron, Nebr. area & homesteaded a quarter section on the Mirage Flats between Chadron & Hay Springs, Nebr. He married Elizabeth Mann (1863-1930) in 1887.
She had emigrated from Pinchback-Bars, Lincolnshire, England with her parents at age 7 (in 1870). They probably docked in New York City, came through the Erie Canal, down the Ohio River & up the Missouri River to locate near Ford City, Gentry Co., Mo. Mann's moved to the Chadron area in 1885 when Elizabeth was 22. She was a school teacher & had also homesteaded a quarter section on the Mirage Flats. Times were hard & cash was short. One fall JG set out with a wagon load of slaughtered pigs & drove down into the sandhills selling the pork for cash to ranchers. Due to successive drouth they dried out about 1897-98. In the spring JG traded the two quarter sections for a team of 2 old horses & a set of chain harness, moved by wagon to the ranch about 25 miles north of Ashby, Nebr. with Erwin (1888-1960), John (1891-1975), Leslie (1893-1954) & Mary (1896-1969). An entry in Elizabeth's notes states simply “Rocked Mary to sleep in the hills under the stars'' north of Ashby.
JG was chairman of the election board one year. It was his job to take the completed ballots to Valentine, Nebr. He started out on horseback the morning after election. A new snowfall had occurred. It was quite deep & had crusted hard. The horse kept breaking through the crust. After going a short dis-tance JG knew the horse was going to tire out & get footsore quickly, so he took the horse home & walked to Valentine with the ballots (80 air miles).
JG's lived there until about 1904, where Lew (1899-1974), an unnamed baby (B&D about 1900) and Ray 91902- 1962) were born. Erwin stayed on the Ashby ranch & the rest of the family moved to the Mullen, Nebr. area to secure better schooling for the other children. At first they rented land & a sod house north of Mullen (now the Chas. Elliott ranch). Later they settled on the ranch on the south prong of the Middle Loup River 4 miles north of Hecla, Nebr. Cash was short so JG “located'' homesteaders in the Hecla area. Ranchers (and “squatters'' (with free range)) did not like homesteaders coming in because it depleated their free rangeland. The ranch-er's agent was attempting to discourage JG from locating homesteaders. Finally an alter-cation developed between JG and the man in the Hecla Store. The man evidently had a revolver, was threatening JG & shot him in the shoulder. JG was a strong, husky & powerful man. In spite of his injured shoulder he wrestled the man to the floor, was choking him & had his tongue hanging out before onlookers pulled JG off. After JG got home John strapped on a pistol & went to Hecla looking for the man but fortunately never found him.
Lee (1908- ) was born at the ranch north of Hecla. One disaster Lee recalls occurred Christmas morning in 1913. Lew got up early on account of Christmas & started a roaring fire. The log (or sod) house was chinked with rags & the ceiling rafters were covered with heavy building paper. One of the rags caught fire on the hot chimney (stove pipe?). Lew yanked the rag down to stomp out the fire but the rag caught at the ceiling & before he could get it loose fire had spread up the rag to the ceiling & throughout the house. Although Lee was only 4 or 5 years old, he remembers being carried outside in his bed while others were trying to put out the fire. It was a futile attempt and the house was destroyed.
(1) "Hotten's List of Emigrants to America", pp 277-279.
(2) "The Cooley Genealogy" Mortimer E. Cooley, Tuttle Publishing Co., Rutland, VT. (Ref. Library of Congress). 1941.