HANSEN, ALPHA AND ETHEL (HESTER)

by Margaret E. Hansen

Entry F179 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Alpha Hansen went to the Sandhills in the
spring of 1915 to prepare for his parents Chris
and Amanda and his brother Charles arriving
with furniture, farm equipment and stock.
Chris, Alpha and Charles each homesteaded
a section of land. Alpha helped build his
parents' sod house and Charlie's cabin and
they helped Alpha build a 10X12 foot cabin
on his homestead.

In August he returned to Guide Rock to
marry his fiance, Ethel Hester, who had
grown up on a farm just across the state line
road from his parent's. She had been teaching
in western Kansas. Much of the information
for this comes form letters written by Ethel
or Alpha to her folks in Kansas.

Now. 22 they were stacking their way. They
had put it in shocks when they cut it in the
fall. By December 10 they had about half of
it stacked. They thought they would have
plenty. Most of the corn was soft because the
frost came too early. They had not begun to
pick corn for the crib yet. In May 1916 Ethel
reported that the hay barn Alpha had
constructed served the cattle very well. They
ate the walls out pretty bad so the holes had
to be refilled, but their cattle had much better
shelter than many peoples; also, they had
considerable cornfadder. Some cattle in the
Sandhills had nothing but hay all winter. By
the winter of 1916 they had a barn 16X16 feet
for cows and horses. There were stanchions
for 14 head of cattle with room to fix for 6
more. There were double stalls for 8 head of
horses and 12 could be put in. Alpha made
a philo coop for 50 chickens 12X12 and 3 feet
high. Doors were fixed so one could get eggs
by opening a door on the roof. Alpha spent
part of the summer of 1916 and 1917 working
in eastern Nebraska. The first summer he felt
his folks did not like it that he had gone, but
he felt he needed the money. In 1917 Ethel
stayed with his folks much of the time while
Alpha was gone. July 1 she reported she had
96 chickens and the incubator was hatching.
By July 21 she had 150 chickens and expected
to sell some in about two weeks.

Ethel and Alpha went to the Kansas farm
for her sister's wedding in August, 1917.
Ethel's father gave them cattle in payment
for money he had borrowed from Ethel when
she was teaching. Alpha loaded them on the
train in Red Cloud and accompanied them to
Seneca. Ethel took the passenger train.
Charles met them with team and wagon and
two saddle horses. Ethel drove the team and
Alpha and Charlie the cows. They left Seneca
at 2 P.M. It was hot and it took them two
hours to go 4 miles. They stopped for 2 hours
and then made better than 3 miles per hour.
They stopped from 9 to 11:30 waiting for the
moon and then drove on in the cool of the
night arriving at the ranch at 3:45 A.M. If
they had similar problems getting the stock
to the farm that was loaded by Charles and
Chris, no record has been left.

In August 1919 Alpha and Charlie drove
cattle to Seneca to ship to St. Joseph for sale.
Charlie accompanied the cattle. Alpha was
working for the Bar-F Ranch. They had 11,00
acres under their control and were still
leasing or buying more land. The Hansen
land was included in their lease and Alpha
helped care for their cattle.

September 8, 1919 Ethel began teaching
the rural school. She received $70 a month.
Grandma Hansen took care of her daughter,
Margaret, who was 1 1/2 years old. They
proved up on their homestead and as soon as
school was out they moved to the 120 acre
farm southeast of Mullen which they pur-
chased from Soren Sorensen. It has a 4 room
house, barn, well house and grainary. Twin
girls, Mary and Marium were born June 19
and Alpha's mother was there to help. Alpha,
Charlie and their father ran the dray line for
Mullen. They continued this until they
moved to Dunning in 1926. During the time
they lived in Mullen, Alpha rented a hotel
from Dick Fox and brought his Uncle George
Watt and his family to help operate it. He
may not have operated it for more than a
year. Alpha also worked for the telegraph
company some of the time which took him
away from home. Charles and his father with
some help from Uncle George were able to do
all the dray line work. Two more children
were born to Alpha and Ethel; Frank,
October 4, 1922 and John, April 19, 1924.

Following surgery in 1925 Ethel had a
nervous breakdown and the children were left
in the care of Grandma Hansen. Alpha,
Charlie and Chris purchased a garage in
Dunning in 1926 by mortgaging their homes-
teads. They rented the place east of M\en
to J.C. Jones. After a year and half they
exchanged it for a garage in Palmer, but that
was not successful either so Alpha and
Charlie returned to Mullen to work and Chris
and Amanda and the Children moved back
in 1930. All 5 children graduated from
Hooker County High School. The girls taught
in rural schools before finishing college. The
boys worked on ranches before going into the
service during World War II.