COOLEY, LEE R.

by Lee R. Cooley

Entry F85 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Erma and Lee Cooley in New Zealand 1979

Lee Cooley, son of Johnson and Elizabeth
Colley, was born Oct. 9, 1908 in a sod house
located on the south prong of the Middle
Loup River 5 miles north of Hecla, Nebr., 11
miles west of Mullen, Nebr. The sod house
burned down on New Year's Day 1913. The
family spent the rest of the winter in a one
room school house. Five children and the
parents filled it to capacity. Water was
hauled from the creek. The next summer a
small frame house was built on the south
prong of the Middle Loupe River.

A couple of years later the family moved
after building another sod house. The new
sod house was 24'x24' and a frame roof that
was shingled. When it rained it was dry and
cosy. The first `soddie' had a sod roof sealed
with gyp (a water repellant clay found in a few
places in the sandhills). When it rained on the
sod roof it leaded for a week. The bed were
covered with oil cloth to keep them dry. In
1914 a 2 story frame house with 3 bedrooms
was built (2 more bedrooms were added
later). The family lived there until 1927 when
the ranch was sold to a Mr. Greathouse.

Lee started school in a courty school and
walked 2 miles to school. After a few years he
started going to the `Town School', in Hecla.
There were 16 students in the Hecla school.
Lee rode horseback 4 miles, to school. In 1923
he started High School in Mullen and
boarded in town. Board and room cost $20.
a mo. Some weekends he would go home to
the ranch north of Hecla. He would ride the
`local freight' train to Hecla for $.15 a walk
to the ranch. He did lots of odd jobs to earn
spending money while going to Mullen High,
earning $.05 an hour. He planted trees,
scooped coal from railroad cars into the bins
at the Elevator or Hardware Store, scooped
rye at the Elevator when they were shipping
it out, hauled manure and did janitor work
at the High School. There were 7 coal stoves
at the High School, 5 upstairs and 2 in the
Home Economics room.

After graduation Lee worked at various
jobs on ranches. July 6, 1931 Lee married
Erma Wolfenden. She taught school for 2
winters before they announced their
marriage because married teachers were not
allowed to be hired at that time. In the spring
of 1933 they leased the "Stickely" place on
the Dismal River southeast of Mullen. This
place consisted of about 10 sec. of land and
rented for $300 a year. Lee summered cows
with calves for $.25 a mo., furnished salt,
water and looked after the cattle. On May 1,
1934 they lost the least on this place and went
to work for Erma's father (C.R. Wolfenden)
who had a sizable ranch in central Cherry Co.
Nebr. They both worked (Lee as a ranch
hand, Erma as household help) until Mar. 1,
136. Lee did not get to town for 6 mos. at a
time. When they left they were paid $150.
wages for 22 mos. work ($3.40 per mo. each).
Times were really hard, people were working
for room and board during the $30's. From
1936 to Nov. 1941 they rented several places.
Lee worked for the neighbors to earn extra
cash, he also milked 10 cows, sold the cream
and fed milk to the calves, pigs and chickens.
He trapped coyotes and muskrat (in the
winter), sold pelts for cash. Each year they
were able to get a few more cows and
eventually built a hand picked herd of 100
commercial Herford cows. Hooker Co. Nebr.
has been his home his entire life.

Lee and Erma moved to the W.B. Farrar
Ranch (on the Dismal River south of Mullen)
in the fall of 1941. This ranch covered 110
Sec. (over 70,000 A.) and provided pasture for
5,000 head of cattle in summer and 4,000 head
in winter. Lee was foreman, Erma was cook,
laundress, and gardner for the family and 1
or 2 hired men in winter, 6-8 men in the
haying season. In the spring of 1946 they
moved to their own little ranch 8 miles south
of Mullen. They bought it piece by piece 7
Sec. (4,300 A.). They built buildings, planted
trees and fixed it up so they were real
comfortable. They lived there for 30 years.

Lee got crippled with arthritis and retired
in 1968. They sold the cows, bulls and
replacement heifers to Frank and Forrest
Harding who were neighbors to the north.
They rented the ranch to the Harding
Brothers for 18 yrs. - That is getting along
with your neighbors pretty well. In 1975 Lee
and Erma bought the Booker Long home, 204
N. Blaine, in Mullen and moved to town.
They traveled quite extensively beginning in
the 1950's, being in all 50 states except Wash.
and Ore., spent parts of several winters in
Fla., went to Australia, New Zealand and
Nassau. They never expected, nor wanted to
get rich, just make an honest living and be
comfortable with lots of good friends and
neighbors. The response to Erma's death in
Jan. 1987 attested to their huge world of
friends and neighbors. Several children were
named Lee and Levi in honor of Lee.

Lee and Erma have 2 boys: Cyrus born
1933 and Jack born 1936.
Cy married Winnie Michael and they have 2
sons, Frederick Lee and Douglas Duane.
Frederick married Carla Bonefield (of Whit-
man, Nebr.) and they have one son Travis Lee
born 1985. Douglas is single, at this
time, and works at the Mullen Co-Op. Jack's
story will appear separately in this volume.