WILLIS, STEPHEN G. AND SARAH (HERBIG)

by Elva Willis Cotant

Entry F455 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Steve and Sarah Willis at ranch about 1920

Stephen Griffith Willis and Sarah Ella
Herbig were both born at Marquette, Nebras-
ka and were married October 24, 1900. They
lived in Hamilton County Aurora, Nebraska
and farmed till December 1919 when they
moved to a ranch in South Cherry county.
Stephen Willis purchased an 1160 acre ranch
which they moved on to and lived there until
the fall of November 1945.

Times were very hard and traveling was
done by team and wagon. The winter of 1919
and 1920 was very cold with lots of snow. Mr.
Willis used four-horse team to freight the
machinery and furniture to the ranch eight
and one-half miles northwest of Mullen. This
train freight load also contained the family
horse, Dolly, the white Spitz dog, Buster, plus
chickens, tame ducks and tame rabbits. At
that time there were no roads, just trails over
and around the hills. They were called trails
and were very sandy. Freighting was done by
four horse teams hooked to a wagon.

In those years Mrs. Willis would set a lot
of setting hens on fifteen eggs each and hatch
her own baby chicks. This involved a lot of
time, patience and hard work.

They milked a lot of cows and sold the
cream to the Mullen Creamery. They also
raised hogs and a lot of chickens and sold eggs
in Mullen. They drove to Mullen with their
ten gallon cans of cream and crates of eggs to
town. They traveled to town in the spring
wagon (picture illustrates) or the lumber
wagon. This involved quite a bit of time
making the trip. These trips were made in the
cool of the morning as the cream would get
too warm and boil over.

Folks those days looked forward to Satur-
day as that was the day they took the cream
and eggs to town, to shop, take care of their
business and if time permitted they visited
with neighbors and friends. Then as time
went by it was time to start the trip home.
Upon arriving home everyone changed their
clothes, put on the working clothes and
started the feeding and milking chores. Trips
also had to be made to town for groceries,
some of these trips were made on some very
cold days. One time my dad was driving and
my mother and sister were walking behind
the wagon to get warm, the team got in a
hurry and left my mother and sister behind
when we, my Dad and I, heard them holler
"wait for us" we stopped the team and they
were glad to ride from then on in the wagon.
My folks raised fields of corn, oats and rye.
When ripe, the grain was cut by a grain binder
and later a threshing machine came to the
country and threshed the grain. The bundles
of grain were loaded on a hay rack, then
hauled to the threshing machine. Wagon
loads of grain were hauled and scooped into
a granery where it was stored till sold or fed.
The ladies always fed the large threshing
crews.

The Willis' were parents of four children:
Ralph Eugene, passed away December 1917;
Raymond Earl passed away an infant March
1903; Elva Pearl and Vera Lucille. Elva and
Vera attended school at Dist. 69, Cherry
County. They lived two and three-fourths
miles from school and rode horseback to and
from school.

Mr. and Mrs. Willis moved from the ranch
November 1945 to Aurora, Ne. to live with
their son Raph and children, Robert Hamil-
ton and Darlene Ann. Ralph's wife Hilma
passed away August 1945. Mrs. Willis passed
away March 1946, and Mr. Willis passed
away September 1955. Both are buried at
Richland Cemetery south of Marquette,
Nebraska.