BOYER, ESTELLA NANCY (HEWITT)

by Clifford G. Boyer

Entry F35 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Estella Nancy Hewitt was born at Broken
Bow, Nebraska on May 26, 1884 and died
January 6, 1957. Her parents were Wilson
and Elsie Cudebec Hewitt, that had migrated
into Nebraska pioneer history about 1877
when Custer County was first documented as
a part of the state. Her father Wilson Hewitt
was instrumental in getting the post office
established and had written to Washington
two times to get a name authorized. Each
time rejected due to similarity ot other
names. It was about this time that the two
older Hewitt sons, Fred and Edwin chanced
to find a broken indian bow along the banks
of Muddy Creek, and took the bow home. It
was a keepsake among the family items until
nearly destroyed by being thrown into a fire.
Hewitt was still trying to think of a name for
his town, saw the bow hanging on the wall,
and said "why not call the town Broken
Bow", and the name was sent into Wash-
ington, and was authorized. Hewitt was the
first post-master for Broken Bow for two or
three years, along with his other vocation as
a blacksmith and medical help to his neigh-
bors. When Estella the youngest child, along
with the family moved up the Burlington and
Missouri railroad to the town of Mullen in
1896, when the father constructed the first
frame hotel on what was known for many
years as the Evergreen Hotel. The Hewitts
operated the hotel for a few years with the
reputation of giving a nights lodging and
breakfast for 50 cents. Hewitt was numbered
among the Hooker County officials down
through the years, and his brother-in-law
Fred Cudebec was among the pioneers that
followed the railroad into Mullen, and held
ownership in the township of the original
town of Mullen.

Estella attended school in the original
frame schoolhouse in the northeast part of
town. At the age of sixteen she was united in
marriage to Charles Floyd Boyer, and they
made their home in southern Cherry County.

Other members of the Wilson Hewitt
family were: Fred, Edwin, Clint, and Mary.
Mary and her husband Herbert with family
of son and two daughters resided in the house
occupied in recent years by the John Ronzos.

Herbert Pierce dealt in real estate through-
out Hooker County at the turn of the century.
Their late years were spent in New York
state.