VAN NATTA, OWEN AND ALICE

by Owen and Alice Van Natta

Entry F433 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Owen and Alice Van Natta, 1949. L to R: Owen, Howard and Dolores Wright,
May Bell Wright, Alice and Stanley Wright.

Owen G. Van Natta was born February
18th, 1909, at Moorefield, Nebraska the son
of Elias and Rose Hammond Van Natta. He
had a sister and two brothers, Gerald and
Lowell, all deceased.

Owen went to rural school near his home
for eight years then to Curtis, Nebraska for
High School. He worked for a number of
ranches in the Curtis area until the family
moved to Montana for the summers and
returned for school in the fall.

In 1932 Owen came to Cherry County and
worked for Will Saults two years before going
to Idaho to work for Clear Water Lumber
Company and ran a pack train out of Elk
City. He worked as a licensed guide in the
Flathead Wilderness, Jackson Hole, and
Glacier Park. The next time he came back to
Cherry County to work for the Minor and
Carver Ranch, he married Alice Marshall
Wright in June 1939.

Her sons from a previous marriage were
Howard Lee and Stanley Gale Wright 10, and
7, respectively.

Alice Marshall was born at Gibbon, Neb-
raska March 8, 1909. She was the daughter
of Fred and Maggie Prindle Marshall.

Alice and her parents, two brothers Floyd
and Gerald came to the Sandhills, 30 miles
north of Whitman, May 11th, 1912. That
same year her parents built a sod house. This
was their home until the year 1920 when they
bought a place 10 miles south known as the
Lackey Place and built a home there so they
could be closer to a school. Alice had five
brothers, Floyd, Gerald, George, Wayne and
Raymond all deceased at this time. One sister
Doris (Mrs. Harry Coble) lives on a ranch
north of Mullen. Alice lost two sons JOhn in
1929, a baby daughter in 1931 and Stanley
Wright at Trinadad Ca. in 1987.

Howard Wright married Dolores Phipps
and they have two sons Charles and Patrick.
Charles married Nancy Sonnenfelt and Pat-
rick married Yolanda Mendoza, they have
two children, Tavie and Heather.

Stanley married May Belle Schufeldt and
they have two children, Tony and Alicia.
Tony married Genevieve Gerard and they
have three girls, Elinare, Samantha and
Adrianne. Alicia Wright married Sandford
Ladwig and they have two children, Sandy
and Sheera.

Owen and Alice have bought several
ranches south of Seneca, and in the Curtis
and Maxwell areas before they bought a
ranch from Bill Manning north of Mullen in
1955. They lived there until they sold it to
Vern Dent and moved into Mullen in 1974.