WOLFENDEN, C. R. AND LIZZIE (KIME)

by Erma Wolfenden Cooley

Entry F457 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Wolfenden Family Reunion about 1940, Pearl, Erma, Eunice
(holding Robert Earl), Lizzie, Lee Cooley, Warren, Cyrus,
Robert, Hazel Howard, Leroy, Jack and Cy Cooley, Jim Wolf.

My mother Lizzie Kime, came with her
parents to central Cherry County in about
1888 in a covered wagon pulled by a pair of
oxen, from Stuart, Ne. She married C.R.
Wolfenden in 1899 and they took a home-
stead, later buying the Kime place from her
father. They added onto the.place, buying out
the homesteaders until they owned about
20,000 Acres. In about 1917 they bought the
`town house' from the Morrisons that had
owned a lumber yard in Mullen. This was the
3 bedroom house just south of the Hospital,
now occupied by the Haywards.

My mother moved to town to send us
children to school, every winter. Ruby had
taken the 9th grade in the country, the 10
grade at Peru Normal School, while staying
with an Aunt, the 11th grade in Mullen,
boarding with "Aunt Meg" Boyer. Mother
made the move to town every fall to send
Ruby, Robert, Warren, Hazel and me to High
School. All five of us graduated from Hooker
High School. Mother sewed dresses for the
ladies, to bring in a little cash, and to keep
busy. She sewed for the teachers, the bankers
wives and the elite ladies. Ready made
dresses were not common then.

Dad had a Reo truck and every fall he
brought in a load of hay, baled with a hand
baler, as well a cobs for kindling, and a milch
cow. So we had our own milk, cream and
butter. We had a windmill for water, also a
milk house with a cooling tank in which to
keep the milk and butter. There was no
refrigerators then. We also had a barn and a
chicken house and a coalhouse all in one. This
has been remodeled and is now a garage. We
also had a privey out back with a sidewalk to
it. Dad often brought in a pig, which was kept
until it was fat and then was butchered. The
sausage was fried down and placed in a crock
jar, covered with freshly rendered lard and
stored in the basement. The hams and
shoulders were hung in the milk house to
freeze till we would use off of them.

I used to sit on the floor and unlace my
mother's high laced shoes at night and stand
behind her chair and brush out her long hair.

Cattle were all shipped by rail in those days
and driven to town by cowboys on horseback.
This took 3 or 4 days from our home, the
cowboys always stayed all night at our house
while shipping and kept their horses in our
corral, as did several of our neighbors.

We had a telephone both in town and in the
country which was very unusual, and many
neighbors called us to relay messages to other
people.

There were few trees in town and mother
used to say she could see everyone in town
and pretty well knew their business from our
big front window. There were no lawns and
paved streets, just sand. It was not uncom-
mon for the few cars to be unable to get up
the hills. Goods were delivered about town by
the dray team which met the trains and took
the goods to the people who had ordered it,
mostly from Sears or Wards.

When the rest of my brothers and sisters
had finished High School, I took the 7th and
8th grades in the country. The folks rented
the house to Emmons, who moved to town to
send their children to High School. Even-
tually Mother sold the house to Luther
Phipps, who gave it to his daughter, Mrs.
Stahley. In about 1968, when she retired at
about age 79 years she again moved to Mullen
into a trailer house for about 8 years. She
spent the last two years of her life in the Rest
Home.