Taking root in early Red Willow County

As always when Bill and Lynda Baumbach leave bits of history at my door, I find treasures. Among the pieces is a newspaper clipping written by Mrs. A. Martin Anderson that touches on her life as an early settler. You might wonder why I would reprint these things, but aside from this clipping so carefully saved, there is nothing online available to recall this.

Mrs. Anderson began life, if Ancestry is to be believed, as Ellen (Nellie) Jane McKillip. She married Andrew (Andreus) Martin (Marty) Anderson in Red Willow County October 14, 1879, just four years after coming to settle the land with her father’s family at the age of 15. Though she references her “dear” mother as having cooked her wedding dinner, parts of the Ancestry trail suggest that it may well have been her step-mother, her father’s second wife since some Ancestry records show that her biological mother died when she was three.

Printed on October 8, 1929 in an unknow newspaper here are her thoughts: “Can you imagine the changes one can see in little old Red Willow County in fifty-four years. I don’t believe it is possible for anyone to even imagine the changes made in that length of time to anyone only by actual experiences, such as I have had. Just fifty-four years ago today, October the eighth I arrived in good old Red Willow County with my father’s family, and as I sat alone today and looked back over the trail I did not have to look through a smoked glass to see the clouds of grasshoppers that darkened the sun settle down and devour all our crops and how we children did fight to save our melon patch to no avail. The hoppers would stay till the wind changed to suit them, then moved on, that sounds like a fish story but true nevertheless. Fifty-four years seems like a long time and one can sit and dream of the old soddies now in our old age and watch the auto and airplane sail by and wonder if people are happier than they were fifty-four years ago. I feel they are not, in those days so long passed we would have long miles in a big lumber wagon and dance all night to the tune of Old Zip Coon or some other old tune and have a jolly time. It did not take fine orchestras to make us young pioneers happy. All young and old took part in the dances and it did not take silk or satin to satisfy us then. We went to have a jolly good time and we had it. It saddens one when you think how many of the dear old friends are gone, even in the last year there has been many of my old friends called and my dear mother was one of them, she who cooked and served my wedding dinner fifty years ago the 14th of October, 1929. As I was married to A. Martin Anderson the 14th of October 1879. If this article is to long dear editor drop it in the waste paper basket, I will not feel hurt. I have told my experiences to some young people and was asked why we stayed here. We stayed to build up homes for many. What would this old desert be like if us old pioneers had not stayed and encouraged others to come and make the desert bloom? All honor to the Old Pioneers they are getting less and less every year.”

What would have this area become? What has this area become? I believe a bit of the pioneer spirit is still strong here, otherwise we would have all jumped ship years ago. There are few of us who have taken root in this SW Nebraska “desert” that look longingly at living somewhere else, even aless so every day! I think about the fact that my mother’s life spanned 17 different presidents, and never once did I hear her say she did not believe in the United States of America. Those 17 had among them the classic Clint Eastwood movie, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but she was unwavering in her allegiance to her country. You can learn a lot about our nation in 99 years!