FAMILY STORIES

children attended School District 96 which was located on the northeast corner of the Charlie Bishop farm. This school house is now located on the main street of Leshara, Nebraska.

   Henry Gocken married Myrtle Taylor of Ceresco, Nebraska, Jan. 1908. Children are Anna, Rosa Marie, John and Henry Anton.

   Bruno Gocken married Laura Hamilton of Mead, Nebraska, October, 1908. Children are Marvin, Elvin and Harold.

   Johanna Gocken married Harvey Hamilton of Mead, Nebraska, April, 1908. Children are Ruby, Ethel, Bessie and Elmer.

   Theodore Gocken married Ruth Hansen of Yutan, Nebraska, March, 1914. Children are Carol and Mildred.

   Anna Gocken married Jack Morris of Mead, Nebraska, February, 1915. Her child was Warren.

   Edward Ellsworth Good was born in Bloomfield, Iowa, May 13, 1862, and graduated from Iowa Law School. He married Orpha Jane Gillilan in 1884 after which they moved directly to Wahoo, Nebraska where he immediately went into an office to practice law.

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Good, 1912: Jessie, Earl and Elmo Gillilan, niece and nephews of Goods.

   After practicing law for several years, he served honorably and efficiently as County Attorney of Saunders County. Then he served (after being elected) as District Judge of the 5th Judicial District, many years as Supreme Court Commissioner, and, lastly, Judge of the Supreme Court of Nebraska from 1922 until his death in 1937.

   He loved serving the law. He believed the future of good government depended upon a courageous and intelligent judiciary. His decisions showed his legal learning.

   After they had been married a few years and had no children of their own, they took in orphaned nieces. At an earlier date they had made homes for three who were no relation.

   In 1908, my two brothers and I, Jessie Good Bailey, ages 6, 4, and 2, lost our parents. At their deaths, Judge Good put his wife on the small Wahoo train (changing trains in Lincoln) to go to our mother's funeral in Little Rock, Arkansas, and told her to bring the three of us back. Ever since they have been only "Mother and Dad." They had been good to the three of us. We feel so very fortunate! However, my oldest brother and I are the only survivors. Submitted by Jessie Good Bailey

   Richard has traced his English ancestry on his father's side to Colonial American times and found that two, Abraham Goodding and George Rogers, were Virginia Militiamen in the Revolutionary War. Abraham fought in the Battle of Guilford Court House and George in the battles of the Cowpens, Rugley's Mill and Yorktown. His ancestors, in their westward trek, lived in Smythe Co., Virginia; Sevier Co., Tennessee; Wayne Co., Kentucky; Macon Co., Missouri; and Nance Co., Nebraska where his father's parents settled in 1892.

Richard Goodding Family. L. to R.: Richard, Mildred, Richard, James, Gary, and John.

   His mother's ancestors came from England to Massachusetts as early as 1640. Their descendants were among the Minutemen who answered the call to arms against the British.

   Mildred's father, Clarence Bauder, was a farmer near Pauline, Nebraska, where he raised purebred Hereford cattle. Her mother was the daughter of Welsh immigrants whose first home in this country was a sod house in Adams County.

   Richard's father, Thomas Homer Goodding, was an agronomy teacher at the Agricultural College. His interest in agriculture led to the purchase of the 160 acre farm one mile east of Ithaca on Highway 63 which is now owned by Richard. In 1946, Dr. Goodding completed one of the early cooperative agreements with the Soil Conservation Service for adoption of soil conservation practices.

   Richard and Mildred met while attending the College of Agriculture in Lincoln. Upon graduation, Richard entered military service in World War II. The couple were married October 3, 1942 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Richard attained the rank of Captain and served as a Battery Commander in an eight inch howitzer heavy artillery battalion in the Asiatic Theater, Okinawa Campaign.

   In 1947, this city-raised young man moved to his father's Saunders County farm, and under the watchful eyes of interested and friendly neighbors, began farming, specializing in raising several thousand turkeys a year.

   A water right on Silver Creek was applied for and granted in 1950, and an aluminum pipe irrigation system has been utilized to increase crop production.

   Richard was active in the Saunders Co. Farm Bureau and served 3 years as County President. In 1955, he accepted employment with the Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation and has served as the organization's Legislative Director for more than twenty-five years.

   The Gooddings have four sons who shared in running the farm operation, making it possible for their father to maintain off-farm employment and at the same time allow the family to enjoy the benefits of Farm life. They are: Richard Dale II of Ithaca, wife Amy Hurst and children, Andrea Christine and Thomas Jeremy; James Kent of Ceresco, wife Jeanette Reinhart and daughter, Ann Elaine; Gary Louis of Lincoln, wife Carol Shoenhals and daughter, Stephanie Marie; and John Roger of Hallsville, Texas, wife Cindy Williams and daughter, Sarah Jane.

   Richard and Mildred are members of the Calvary Baptist Church in Wahoo.

   The earliest Grahams who came to Nebraska were Robert Barton, who became the mayor of Lincoln for two terms, and his brother, John Lawrence, who became a miller on Rock Creek in northeast Lancaster County. They had been freighters on the old Ox Bow Trail before settling down to raising families.

   John L. Graham married Anna Elizabeth Nightingale, daughter of Ransom and Elizabeth (Hurlburt) Nightingale of the Cedar Hill Community. They had 6 children: Robert, John, Charles, Lily, Mabel, and Esther. The John Graham family retired in Ashland at 19th and Silver St. They were buried in Ashland Cemetery.

   The 3 daughters married and moved away. Lily married John Durbin and had two sons, Edward and Richard. She died and was buried in St. Louis, Mo. Mabel married Vance Ward, had a daughter, Doris, and lives in Emerson, Iowa. Esther married Clifford Roberts of the South Ashland community, and had two daughters, Ann and Dorothy. She lived at Carlyle, Ill. and was buried there.

   But the three sons remained in the Ashland area all their lives. Charles, the youngest son, farmed many years in south Ashland area before retiring in Havelock. He married Rose Gardner, twin daughter of John Gardner. They had 6 children: Ardis (Mrs. Merril Stewart); Velma (Mrs. Fred Dickenmann); Kenneth, who married Marjorie Remmega; Ruth (Mrs. Virgil Elrod); Melvin who married Doris and moved to California; and Charles, who married Joann and moved to Oregon. Charles, Sr. was buried in Waverly Cemetery.

   Robert, the eldest son, lived in Dist #69 School southwest of Ashland, and later, became an Ashland seed corn merchant and insurance broker. He lived at 12th and Boyd St. He married Jesse Lang, a schoolteacher, and had a son, Max, and a daughter, Merna, who both moved to California to live. After the death of his first wife, he married Mrs. Lillian Proctor. She had 2 children, Bill Proctor of Gretna, and Norma (Mrs. Paul Sherman of the Cedar Hill Community). Robert and Jesse were buried in Ashland Cemetery.

   John L. Graham, the middle son, lived and farmed most of his adult life in or near Ashland. He married Mary Andersen, daughter of Peter and Phiney Belle (Jensen) Andersen of Sarpy Co. They had 3 sons, Donald, John Marion, and Sterling I. Sterling was killed in World War II in the Philippines. John M. went to California and married there and has 5 children: Sharon, Mary Ellen, John, Steve, and William.

   Donald Graham remained in Saunders County. He married Alice Gilkeson, daughter of Allen and Sarah Fay (Weston) Gilkeson. They have two sons, Lee of Lincoln, and Sterling II of Ashland. Donald farmed a number of years; then became a seed and feed farm dealer. The last 22 years he has had a real estate brokerage firm in Ashland. He is a Mason, Methodist, Rotarian, and served on the Board of Directors of the Lower Platte South, N.R. District.

   Sterling II lives with his parents, was Past Master of the Masonic Lodge, a Shriner, member of Jaycees, and Ashland Legion Post, having served in the Big One Division of Vietnam.

   John and Mary Graham and Sterling I were buried in Ashland Cemetery. Submitted by Alice Graham

   One cold night in January, 1947, there was a skating party on a pond east of Wann, Nebraska. Two people met and "fell for each other" on the ice that night. A year and a half later, June 6, 1948, Ellis Grauerholz and Lois Johnson were married at the Wann Christian Church and have resided on their farm south of Wann since 1949, where they have been engaged in general farming and raising Polled Herefords and girls.

Ellis and Lois Grauerholz

   Ellis' father, Henry, was one of five sons and one daughter born to Deitrich and Gretchen Gurdsen Grauerholz. His mother, Erna Timm, was one of two daughters and two sons born to Wilhemn and Sophi Lindercamp Timm of Ithaca.

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   Henry was born at Cortland, Nebraska, September 26, 1883. The family moved from place to place, finally settling in Memphis about 1910. Henry was a carpenter. Many of the buildings, houses, barn, etc., that he built are still standing. One of the later ones was the Wann Christian Church.

   Erna Timm was born on the Timm farm south of Ithaca, January 18, 1897. She and Henry were married January 21, 1918. To this union, two sons were born in Memphis: Clifford, September 14, 1921, and Ellis, June 25, 1923. In 1928, the family moved to a farm south of Wann. A foster sister, Ruth Dugan, came to live with them in 1939. Clifford now lives in Akron, Colorado, and Ruth in Uvalde, Texas.

   Lois Johnson Grauerholz was born to Earl and Mabel White Johnson in Ft. Collins, Colorado, June 6, 1931. She has 4 brothers, Donald (deceased). Paul and Marlin of Ashland, Steve of Lincoln, and Rita, Mrs. James Kellogg, of Ashland. Her folks moved back to Minnesota in 1932 where they were engaged in farming until 1940 when they moved to Minneapolis, and Earl worked in a war-related industry. They moved to a farmstead east of Wann in February, 1946.

   Ellis and Lois are the parents of four daughters, Peggy, Mrs. Mike Root, of Ashland, born October 1, 1950; Margo, Mrs. Ron Ems of Prairie Home, born June 19, 1953; Nancy, Mrs. Brad Berge, of Lincoln, born October 14, 1959; and Barbara, born December 4, 1961, who attends Manhattan Christian College in Manhattan, Kansas. The girls are quite musical. Nancy played piano in the church at Wann for 7 yrs, until it closed in September, 1979, and 2 yrs. at the Ashland Christian Church. Margo plays organ at the Methodist Church in Alvo, and Barbara has traveled and sung all over the United States with various groups from the college.

   Lois and Ellis have three grandchildren, Corey, Nick, and April Root.

   They have many fond memories of the little town of Wann. They, and all four daughters, attended District 20 school. Ellis and Lois, Peggy and Mike, and Margo and Ron were married at the Wann Church. Submitted by Lois Grauerholz

   My grandfather and grandmother Dietrich and Gretchan Grauerholz, were born in Germany and came to Saunders County with their five sons and one daughter in the early 1900's. They moved to Memphis in 1908.

   The Grauerholz Brothers were always interested in steam engines, threshing machines, and automobiles. My father, William Sr., the youngest in the family, operated an automobile repair shop in Memphis for over 25 years. He also sold Willys Knight and Whippet automobiles. He married Sylvia Ueberrhein in 1929. They lived their entire lives in Memphis. My father passed away March 2, 1964. I, William Jr., was their only child.

   I was a grocery buyer and inventory control manager for Safeway stores for more than 31 years until the Omaha Division closed in 1982.

   My mother and I are active members of the Iliff Chapel United Methodist Church. We enjoy gardening and raise large quantities of fruits and vegetables each year. We are living in the same house in Memphis that my grandparents moved into in 1908. Submitted by Wm. Grauerholz, Jr.

   My grandparents, Carl and Johanna Gustafson, came to this country in 1869. After living in Andover, Illinois for a year they, with two children, came to Saunders County, Nebraska. They filed for a homestead two miles east of Ithaca and lived in a dugout. Grandfather walked across the prairies to Ashland where he worked on the U.P. Railroad.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles O. Gustafson

   Some of the incidents that our grandparents related to us were: (1) Grandfather carried sacks of flour and other necessities to this home from Ashland, which was seventeen miles across the prairie. (2) The time a prairie fire was racing toward the barn and the grandparents hitched up the horses (or was it oxen) and hastily plowed a few furrows around this building just as the fire nearly reached it, and saved the barn. After these fires the Gustafson children went across the burnt prairie and gathered prairie chicken eggs. Those that were good were brought to their mother who used them for food. (3) In the blizzard of 1888 they thought that their cattle would perish in the extreme blizzard and cold, but they were found in the center of high snow drifts and all were saved. (4) Another incident was when Grandmother skipped across the prairie not too far from their dugout to get some water in a slough hole and there were several antelope standing in the water.

   A frame house was built in later years on Dry Creek on their claim. The kitchen and one bedroom were built in a bank of which brown stone and sandstone were used. It was probably hauled from Ashland.

   My father and his brother, Alfred, went to Northwest Washington where they homesteaded for eleven years. For many years now -- this area was made into a National Reserve and is called "The Rain Forest."

   In 1901, their son, Charles O., married Emma Johnson of Omaha. They built a new home on this farm and reared eight children: Helen, Robert, Lawrence, Ruth, Duane, Orville, Howard and Edith. As of now, February, 1983, we older children are eighty years and near eighty and all are still living.

   We children walked nearly two miles to District #30 school. In later years, my brothers and sisters walked several miles to a school bus which took them to the Mead Consolidated School where they finished high school.

   Grandfather helped build the Alma Lutheran Church two miles west of Mead in 1876. In 1886, a new church was built in Mead, which is still standing.

   In 1923, I married Clarence Challquist. He was a farmer and later became a disabled World War I veteran. We made our home in this vicinity and our children are: Marian Anderson, Janice Delehanty and Kenneth. My maternal grandparents were married by the pioneer minister, Rev. S.G. Larson, who baptized my mother and baptized me (Helen).

   In 1976, this farm received the Pioneer award for being in the Gustafson family for one hundred years. The award went to Duane Gustafson and his wife, LaVerne. Robert makes his home with them.

   These homesteaders experienced many hardships, but with lots of hard work and faith in God, they came through it. Submitted by Helen G. Challquist

   Duane and LaVerne Wood were married in the Iliff Chapel Church of Memphis, Nebraska in April, 1938. LaVerne is the daughter of Grant and Anna Wood. Grant was the son of Angeline and John Wood who homesteaded in the Memphis area, having come from Indiana. Anna Wood is the daughter of John and Mary Voss, both born in Germany, who came over and settled in the Blair vicinity, met and married. Later, they lived in Omaha where Anna was born. LaVerne spent her childhood in Memphis, attending 10 grades of school there, and graduating from Ashland High School. She lived in Omaha 1 year before her marriage. LaVerne has 1 brother, Harley, and 2 sisters, Marie and Dorathea. Grant died in 1937.

Mr. and Mrs. Duane Gustafson Married in 1938

   Duane is the son of Charles and Emma Gustafson. Charles was the son of Carl and Johanna Gustafson. They came from Illinois and homesteaded near Ithaca. Emma Gustafson was the daughter of John and Cecila Johnson of Omaha. Duane went to school in District 30 and graduated from Mead High School. Duane has 4 brothers, Robert, Lawrence, Orville and Howard, and 3 sisters, Helen, Ruth and Edith.

   When Duane and LaVerne were married, times were hard because of the hot, dry '30's. Duane's father and brother, Robert, lived with them until the father's death in 1939. Robert has always made his home with them. Duane and Robert have lived in the same house their entire lives.

   They sold Grade A milk and, in 1956, built a milking parlor, continuing to milk until the boys all left home when they sold out and went to a cow-calf herd.

   They have 3 sons who received their education at Ithaca Public School, graduating from Mead High School. Dennis attended Wayne State College 1 year, served in the Navy 2 years, and then married Pauline Swanson, daughter of Merrill and Leona Swanson of Mead. They now live in David City, where Dennis is plant superintendent for Gulf Central Pipeline Co. They have 3 children: Kevin, Carol, and David.

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