BOYCE, JOHN H. AND JENETTE (JOHNSON)

by Jennie Boyce Wright

Entry F28 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

John and Jenette Boyce.

Sod House on Boyce Ranch - Built 1899 or 1900. Ida, Naomi and Jennie.

Boyce Family, 1950. Back Row - Florence Weise, Jennie V. Wright,
Clarence 'Bill' Boyce, Ida Ellison, Elsie Ellison. Front - John and Jenette.

John H. Boyce was born in Peru, Illinois,
October 13, 1864. His parents were Joseph
and Matelda Boyce. He had 2 brothers and
several sisters. The family left Illinois and
went to Kansas to farm. When the gras-
shoppers moved in, the family packed their
covered wagon and moved back to Kansas to
try farming again. After several years they
moved to Gordon, NE where John's mother
filed on a homestead. This is where John met
his bride, Jenette Johnson. They were
married May 21, 1890 in Gordon.

John's wife Jenette was born September 6,
1867 in Oslo, Norway to Hilmar and Dorthea
Helmerson. John and Jenette raised 5 chil-
dren - Elsie May Ellison, Ida Ellen Ellison,
Clarence, Jennie Viola Wright, and Florence
LaVina Wiese. The family made their home
in Gordon till 1900. John and his brother, Joe,
came to Hooker County in 1899 and filed a
claim on 1 section of land apiece. They each
built a house on their land and put up the hay.
In 1900 they moved the family of 4 small
children by covered wagon to their home-
stead 18 miles southwest of Mullen. Florence
was born after they moved to Mullen. John
bought out his brother a few years later. They
called the homestead the J.H. Boyce ranch.
To this day it is called the Boyce ranch.

John farmed, raised cattle, some hogs and
horses. The horses were their transportation
as well as they were used to pull the
machinery as no tractors were heard of. As
time passed on John bought more land, more
cattle and put more improvements on the
place. The wood frame house that he built
when he homesteaded in 1899 still stands at
the ranch.

John served on the school board, county
commissioner, auctioneer at social box
suppers, and took part in anything else where
a helping hand was needed. He liked to play
ball, horse shoes, cribbage and checkers. He
made lots of tops out of spools for the
children.

Mrs. Boyce was one of the best cooks and
was always willing to lend a helping hand
where ever needed. She raised lots of turkeys,
ducks, chickens and a bog garden. She did
lots of canning. The pork was salted down for
the table use. Mrs. Boyce pieced quilts in
winter and quilted them in the summer. She
quilted them in the hay mow of the barn
where she tied the quilts to the rafters with
ropes, so she could set on a chair and quilt.
She also sewed carpet rags and they were
sewed together by hand and used as a carpet
to cover the floors in the winter. Corn shucks
or straw was put under them to make it
warmer. This was all removed in the spring
and the carpets put up for the next winter.
Mrs. Boyce sewed, crocketed and read her
Bible, lots. She made her own soap for dishes,
laundry and cleaning. Her laundry was done
on the wash board.

In the spring the neighbors went together
for several years on a fishing trip. John, Ike
Wells, Jess Kemp, and Walt Sailor hitched
4 horses to a big wagon, took camping
equipment, barrels and salt. Ike Wells was
the cook, cleaned the fish, salted them down
in the barrels while the other men caught the
fish. They stayed until they filled their
barrels. The fish kept all summer. They
fished at "Mother Lake" north of Hyannis.
These same men in the fall would go duck
hunting, always starting from the Boyce
ranch and returning there. Ike Wells would
divide the ducks in even piles, so they came
out even for each man. Ike Wells lived where
Benny French lives now.

Many ranchers went together and built a
dipping vat at the Ike Wells ranch. They
dipped their cattle in the spring to delouse
their herd. This would take many days to get
each ranchers herd run through the vat. They
would push most of the cattle through, but
some had to be put in cages and pulled
through by a team of horses. They had to
make sure the cattle's heads went under the
dip.

For entertainment the neighbors would
gather some nights and have an oyster
supper. The men would play cards to see who
would pay for the oysters. The ladies baked
cakes and the children played. John always
hitched a team of horses to a wagon and took
the family to Sunday School and church on
Sundays, which was held in school houses. All
the traveling Pastors and Evangelist's stayed
at the Boyces. Many other travelers made the
ranch their over night stop. They were always
welcome.

The ranchers had to drive their cattle to
Hecla to load them on the train to be shipped
to market in Omaha. Hecla was 9 miles north
of the ranch. Hecla had stock yards, water
tank for trains, a store, section house, a big
hall, several other buildings and people. The
Boyce ranch was a night stop for the ranchers
taking cattle to Hecla. Passengers trains
always stopped in Hecla, too. There are no
buildings left at Hecla now.

The Boyce's had a radio, but no T.V., as it
had not been heard of.

The Boyce's retired from the ranch in 1943.
John bought the Lizzie Ladley house in the
south part of Mullen (now the Ernest Kraye
house). He sold the ranch to his son, Clarence
(Bill). Clarence's grandsons Steve and Mark
Lattin have the ranch now.

John passed away December 1, 1957 at 93
years of age. Mrs. Boyce passed away July 4,
1952 at the age of 86. They are buried at the
Cedar View Cemetery at Mullen.

Elsie Ellison of Kennewick, Washington,
Ida Ellison of Lomita, California, and Jennie
Wright of Mullen are still living. Clarence
passed away April 29, 1963 and Florence
Wiese passed away May 28, 1984.