COX, DONNA G. (OSBORN)

by Donna Cox

Entry F96 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Donna, Beverly, Marvin, Donald Cox in their new ranch home - 1952

My father Rush Floyd (Colonel) Osborn
came by train to Mullen in the late 1800's. My
mother Jenny Strange came to Madison
County in 1902 by train and married Dad on
July 4th. They homesteaded about 14 miles
north of Mullen. Both of them were from
Grayson Co., Va.

A son, Charles Strange, was born to them
in 1903; a daughter, Mary Irene (Mamie), in
1905; and myself, Donna Grayson, in 1911.

Always being kind of puny, I stayed close
to Mama and had her read out loud to me as
much as I could get her to. She read to me out
of Comfort and Woman's World Magazine.
Mama would often explain the words and
ideas to me so that I understood the printed
page at an early age. Nothing was more of a
luxury to me than getting in Mama's feather
bed and having her read to me until I fell
asleep!

When the Osborns were first married,
everyone going to town would bring out mail
and supplies for their neighbors. The Osborn
home was located at sort of a crossroads with
someone riding in quite often. It was natural
that the other settlers would ask my folks to
put up a post office at their place. In 1908
Cherry Post Office was established. The mail
was brought out from Mullen by horse and
buggy three times a week. Mail sorting was
always an exciting time! The Omaha Bee
became a popular daily paper for the patrons
of the post office. My folks started a country
store to go along with the post office so I
managed to get more than my share of pop
and candy.

A school was started in the community
before the Osborn children were ready to
attend. First it was held in someone's home
and then the neighbors got together and
combined their labor and resources to build
a school called Cherry School.

I was crazy about horses and loved to ride
to school but often we walked and I couldn't
keep up with Mamie and Charlie and I'm sure
they often wished they didn't have a little
sister tagging along and crying for them to
"Wait"!

When I was six I got so awfully sick. The
roads were very bad and Dr. Roth wasn't able
to come until the next morning. He diagnosed
appendicitis. A car was brought out from
Mullen as we didn't have a car and Dr. Roth
rode to town with Dad, Mom, and me. We had
a hard time getting to Mullen with all the
snow on the ground and also a near blizzard
going on. It was decided on the way that
would get on the first train to leave Mullen
no matter which way it was going. It turned
out that it was going east so Mama and I went
to St. Joseph's Hospital in Omaha. I was
operated on at night and my appendix had
burst letting infection go through my system.
Then I was really sick and had drainage tube
for several days. Just as I finally began to
recuperate, Mom got very sick and had to
have her appendix taken out, too! We were
there so long that I got quite well acquainted
with the nurses and nuns and they all made
me feel very special.

When Charlie and Mamie were old enough
for high school our folks decided we should
rent a house in Mullen and Mama would go
in part of the time and the rest of the time
we would batch. I went to Mullen school in
the 4th, 5th and 6th grades but I was always
homesick for Dad so I went back to Cherry
School for my 7th and 8th grade years after
Charlie and Mamie graduated. In one of
those two years I missed over a month of
school because I became very ill with rheuma-
tic fever. Every join ached! Oh, for some
penicillin! But it hadn't been invented yet.

I attended high school in Mullen, graduat-
ing in 1929. I took the Teacher's Examination
in Mullen and received a Third Grade
Certificate. I taught for five years in southern
Cherry County. I took one fall quarter off to
go to Chadron to school and attended
summer school two of the summers - one at
Wayne and one at the University of Nebras-
ka.

In 1935 I married D.A. Cox and we lived on
the north part of his father's ranch (A.B.
Cox). We were in a very isolated location and
had no telephone or electricity and had to
carry water at first. We did have a lovely
garden spot in a nice valley. Beverly Ann was
born in 1938 and Marvin Alexander in 1939.

There was no school house in our district
and lumber was not available because of the
war so when Beverly was nearly six we bought
a hexagon shaped, pre-fabricated brooder
house which the men in the district erected
between Garrett Roseberry's house and ours.
Marvin started to school then, too, and the
two children went all through school togeth-
er.

The next year our children were the only
students in the district so I took them to town
to school, some 30 miles away. We all missed
being home so in 1946-7 I taught them myself
in the little hexagon school. The next year
Hird and Evelyn Thompson's children were
schoolmates of Beverly and Marvin. In 1948
we moved to the south part of the ranch on
the south side of Calf Creek Valley. From
then on, Herbert and Billy George (B.G.)
Roesch were our children's classmates.

In January 1952 we moved into the nice,
new house Donald built for us on the north
side of Calf Creek Valley. There we had every
convenience and a lovely view of the valley.
I really enjoyed having a lovely home to
decorate and live in as did we all.

In about 1968 my ill health forced us to
retire in Mullen where we settled among
many long-time acquaintances.