ERNY, CHARLES LOUIS AND LOUISE (WOERNER)
My great-grandfather, Charles L. Erny was born in Beinham, France in 1859 where he lived until he was 24. He came to the United States and lived in Marengo, Illinois; where he met my great-grandmother, Louise Woer-ner.
In 1890 my great-grandfather moved to Mullen, Nebraska by Immigrant car. An Immigrant car is a car on the railroad in which settlers brought all of their belongings and livestock. A team of mules, few head of eastern cattle, some furniture and clothing were a few things my great-grandfather brought along.
In 1891, great-grandfather brought his family here where a homestead had been taken, which is now the Frank Sexton ranch. 1892 was a drought year so the Ernys had to leave their homestead. This time they moved to what is now the Rush Creek ranch, where great-grandfather went to work for George Manning putting up hay. He took hay as part of his wages to keep his own cattle from starving.
The next year being a better year, the Ernys took another homestead where the Lyle Furrow ranch is now. Henry Erny was born on this homestead in 1899.
In 1903, the Erny family took out a pre-emption on the present ranch which belongs to my grandfather. A pre-emption was where a settler could file a claim upon a 160 acre of public land and get a title by paying $1.25 per acre at the time the land was put up for sale. The hills in this country had been burned so often by prairie fires that the grass wouldn't grow on top of them and therefore were blown badly by winds which caused them to have a white appearance so were called “whitecaps''.
There were no fences at all. Grandfather said from his present ranch to Whitman where the family went to trade, there was only one fence line. Whitman was about 18 miles away. After the Kincaiders came around 1908, fences were built up around each one's property. Since there were no fences, great-grandfather had to go out each night and hunt his cattle herd up and bring them back to the corral as the cattle brought on the Immigrant car from Illinois had no sense of direction. They had to be taken to the water holes to water as they couldn't find them by themselves.
My grandfather said to me, “When I was very young we boys wore dresses just like the girls. I remember one day when I was about 5 years old, I was out playing beside the house in my dress, I looked up and three big long horn steers were standing there facing me. I remember screaming. Suddenly old Shep came running out and scared the steers away. I remember the steers had the baseball brand on them.''
Grandfather knows many exciting things. I wonder if my life will seem so interesting to my grandchildren!
This story was written by Patricia Nadine Benner in grade 6 in Nebraska History class for the 1967 Nebraska Centennial. Patricia is the great-granddaughter of the late Charles Louis Erny.