STEVENSON, ROBERT L. AND MARIE E. (JACKSON)

by Marie Stevenson

Entry F407 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Robert Louis Stevenson was born on
December 28, 1916, north of Yuma, Colorado,
during a snow storm, the son of Walter
Leonard and Alice May (Pesch) Stevenson.
Several days later Walter saw the doctor in
Yuma and gave him the information neces-
sary for filing a birth certificate. His given
names were acquired at his sister Susie's
suggestion, as she had been reading a book of
poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. Bob
attended grade schools at Huxtun, Yuma and
Fort Morgan, Colorado, as well as three and
a half years of high school at Fort Morgan.
The family moved to Nebraska during the
spring of 1935, where Bob attended the fall
semester of high school at Sutherland, receiv-
ing his diploma in the spring of 1936. In
addition to helping at home, he helped
different neighbors near Sutherland with
cattle and field work. After the family moved
to northeast of North Platte, they became
acquainted with the Jackson family and
enjoyed many good times together, going to
ballgames, barn dances and picnics.

I, Marie Eleen (Jackson) Stevenson, was
born on my father's birthday, June 8, 1918,
northwest of North Platte, Nebraska, the
oldest child of Fred William and Nellie Eleen
(Lister) Jackson. I attended grade school at
the White Horse School, and later high school
in North Platte, graduating in 1936. That
summer Swift & Company there hired me for
office work, which lasted until late 1937.
From January, 1938, to October, 1942, I was
secretary to E.H. Evans, a North Platte
attorney.

Bob and I were married on October 11,
1942, at the Methodist Church in North
Platte, living first on the Salisbury place
northeast of North Platte, after Bob's par-
ents moved to the Gaunt place further west.
In the spring of 1943, Bob and I moved to the
Doebke place west of the White Horse School
and lived there until we (along with his
parents) moved to the Hugh Priest place in
Hooker County in the spring of 1945.

The land comprising our place in Hooker
County was once called the Mitchell place,
Willis G. Mitchell having filed a Patent on
part of it in October, 1914. Martha A. Lillard,
formerly Martha A. Mitchell, filed on another
part in October, 1909. Still another portion
had a Patent filed by Florence Allen in
February, 1916, and Elijah Allen also filed a
Patent on a part of it in December, 1915.
These lands are located in Sections 28, 29, 32
and 34, Township 21, North, Range 32, West
of the 6th p.m.

The years since 1945 have seen quite a few
changes, one being the switch from work-
horses to tractors and four-wheel drive
vehicles; the REA line that brought a great
change with lights, appliances and powered
equipment; the telephone line out of Tryon;
the installation of irrigation wells; the build-
ing of a new frame house with lumber from
the Black Hills; the building of a cattle shed
and machine shed. The machinery was
upgraded from horse-drawn mowers, rakes
and an over-shot stacker, to balers, swathers
and a Haybuster stacker. During the early
years the voting place for Valley Precinct was
the unused schoolhouse on the south side of
the Peck Hill Range. After the schoolhouse
was moved away, it was in our home for a
time, before being transferred to Mullen.

Through the years we've had our favorite
horses, both work- and saddle-, favorite dogs
and cats, and while the children were small,
a flock of sheep; and, of course, favorites
amongst the cattle that came to be the source
of our livelihood.

Our first child was Nellie Alice, who was
stillborn in November, 1946. Robert Neal was
born August 3, 1950, but was in too much of
a hurry to wait for us to reach the Sutherland
hospital, so counted his birthplace as the
William Neal home in Tryon, later being
transferred to an incubator at St. Mary's
Hospital, North Platte, since his weight was
only two pounds and fifteen ounces. Judy was
born 1951, at Sutherland Hospi-
tal. She and Bobby attended the mobile
school units in Hooker County until the sixth
grade when they transferred to District 9,
McPherson County. Their four years of high
school were spent in Tryon. Later both
attended Mid-Plains Community College,
until illness forced Bobby to quit. He passed
away on October 16, 1970, in Omaha, after
over four years of Hodgekins Disease. Judy
acquired degrees in Data Processing and
Electronics at Mid Plains and in the years
since has become our mainstay in the opera-
tion of the place.

We love this place, the sandhills, the trees
that we planted and those that were here
before we came, the deer that occasionally
favor us with their presence, even the coyotes
whose vocalizing in the evenings adds zest to
the atmosphere.