in Nebraska. We used to listen to his tall tales of adventure but there was much we did not know. He must have been very lonely at times, for when our mother died, there were four small children, the youngest four months old. He devoted himself to our needs and our education, and our respect for him was unlimited. The treasure that he cherished most from his home in Galway through all his wanderings was his faith. That was also our most precious inheritance."

—Marion Preece

Another one of fame and fortune claimed by old timers as their own was Rose Cecil O'Neill, creator of the Kewpies. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. P. O'Neill and no relation of Pat O'Neill one of the founders of Battle Creek. The W. F. O'Neills homesteaded the farm later known as the Joe Orr place and now owned by John Volk.

They came to Nebraska with their three children in a covered wagon that was loaded with their household furniture, farm implements, books and flowering shrubs. Neighbors told of how Mr. O'Neill would hand a visitor a book of scenes from plays by Shakespeare, ask him to open the book at random and read aloud the first line of a scene, and how Mrs. O'Neill would then complete the scene word by word from memory. The roses, lilacs and other shrubs they brought had no protection on their barren homestead so they asked Philip Hughes if they might set them out in the Hughes grove until they got a start in the Nebraska climate. Mr. O'Neill who had no experience in farming found the breaking of prairie sod too discouraging and in 1878 after Mrs. O'Neill had finished teaching the fall term in School District 23, the Hughes school, they moved to Omaha.

The shrubs they left in the Hughes grove took root and spread and for some thirty or forty years they furnished plantings for flower lovers from far and wide across the prairie.

Rose, the oldest daughter, even as a small child showed talent as an artist and the picture she drew of her dolls were forerunners of the Kewpies (little cupids) that made a fortune for her. But there was another side to her as an artist and in later years she was recognized as an important illustrator, a sculptor and a novelist.

—Marion Preece

The Battle Creek "Union Cemetery Association" was formed on April 14, 1890.

The following citizens of the vicinity met in the Geo. S. Hurford Drug Store for this purpose: Geo. S. Hurford, J. D. Hoover, Henry Tomhagen, W. W. Craig, T. L. Curas, J. L. Knesel, R. L. Scott, L. R. Baker, H. H. Kilburn, Richard L. Taylor, John Lindeman, A. G. Moyer and S. K. Warrick.

Geo. S. Hurford was elected chairman and R. D. Scott, secretary.

168