1940 Census Happy Dance!

I found dad in the 1940 census! I had a hunch he was working in Wyoming for the Elsom or Patch families. I looked at the 1930 census and found that the Elsom's lived in Election District 5, so I looked in that district in the 1940 census. They are on the first page with the Charles W. and Maude A. Patch family. Dad (Hugh B. Russell) is a hired hand, 27 and single. He completed the 8th grade and in 1935 was living in Sargent, Nebraska. He is listed as seeking for work in column 23 but is listed as a ranch laborer. Dad's brother Wayne R. Russell is listed after dad with the same details except his age, 25, and the number of weeks worked and income.

Dad liked to talk about his years in Wyoming. He helped the Patch family and the Elsoms do various ranch work, including herding sheep. I don't think he enjoyed that part too much doing it only one season. I remember him saying he thought a lot of the sheep dogs - border collies, I think - and how smart they were. He said in the hottest days of summer, the male sheep dogs would find the shade and the females would keep working. He also talked about mules skidding timber down the mountain.

I remember visiting the Elsom ranch in the late 60s, I suppose it was. Mrs. Elsom had a huge Christmas cactus in her living room, blooming, in an old wringer washer. They raised goats for milk and that was the first time I tasted goats milk. I liked it! Dad always thought a lot of the Elsoms and Patches. We visited a Patch family in Buffalo in the 1980s.

The Patches were relatives of dad's mom's first husband, Louis Patch.

Tapes Return

Last week I received the tapes and copies of them on DVD. They've been copied and cleaned up and sound ok, considering the shape they were in. The 1978 tape was cheap to begin with and I think I recorded music on it first and recorded the interview over it. Add to that the fact that I didn't have a microphone and used the built-in one...it's no wonder it's still, after being treated by an "audio doctor", almost impossible to hear 50% of the words. As I listen, though, the conversation we had that day comes back to me and I'm able to recall a lot of what dad said.

The 1983 tape comes with a bonus...or really, two bonuses. I taped it at my parent's house while I was visiting them with my two oldest kids. In the background I can hear Liz talking and I can hear Ben making baby sounds...she was about 3 and he was less than 1 year old. If I knew how to imbed an audio clip, I would include one here.

Oh well.

I'm just glad they are home safe and sound (no pun intended!). Now to transcribe and work on a book I've had in mind for a while now about dad.

Precious tapes

Today I Fed-Ex'd two cassette tapes to a man in Canada who will work digital magic on them, turning rumbling and roaring noises and broken tapes once again into the clear steady voice of my dad. These are two of five or six tapes I recorded of conversations with my day in the 1970s through 1990s. I've been meaning to get this done for four years and today I did it. I hope all goes well.

on the 99th anniversary of dad's birth

A photo from almost every decade. Some weren't dated. The top right may have been taken in his teens, and the one where he's holding me is in his 40s. I included it to show that he lived over half his life before I was born. The bottom center is my favorite photo of him which I took in 1983.

Still miss you, dad.

Foto Friday

Mom took photos in the late '50s and early '60s of the cattle and gardens and this one of dad building a haystack. This post needs to come with an essay on "how to put up hay" but that may have to wait. But the hot summer days like we're having now always bring back good memories of helping dad in the hay field.

Almeria, Nebraska

The Grand Island Independent had an article last week in their Silver Salute section on the town of Almeria, Nebraska. Almeria is 10 miles west of Taylor on Highway 91. Some of the names mentioned in the article include Bill and Hilma Strong, Strohl, Rusho, Haythorne, Beals, Nelson, Hyde and many others.

I remember stopping at the Almeria store a few times. I remember skating at the roller rink on the west side of town. We had some school skating parties there where all the area schools were invited. One time I even got up the courage to ask a boy to skate with me...don't ask his name because I don't remember! We went around once and then he tried to impress his friends by seeing if he could scare me by going faster and faster. He didn't scare me and I didn't fall! I especially remember my shock at seeing my dad, who, as a boy, was doing a man's work when he should have been learning to have fun, strap the skates on to his second best Sunday shoes, and take off around the rink like it was the most natural thing in the world. Bless his heart, that was one of the only times I saw dad have fun and probably the first time I realized he had a life before I came along. I was probably 9 or 10.

The Almeria Cemetery is the final resting place of three generations of our ancestors. Frank and Lizzie (Worth) Jones, George and Flora (Swift) Worth, and John and Ann (Dugdale) Worth. Also Uncle Ed Worth and Uncle Will Jones. It is a small and well maintained cemetery south of the highway about a mile.

This was a great article and a pleasure to read. I always appreciate it when Kevin Brown writes about the history of Loup County.

on the 97th anniversary of dad's birth

Hugh Benjamin Russell, about 1 year old.



Brothers Hugh and Wayne Russell, about 1918.



Probably taken in the 1920s at Antelope school playground. Dad in a tree with his friends.



1937, Hugh Russell with his light green 1931 Chevy Sports Roadster.

***

Hugh Benjamin Russell was born in the Antelope Community southwest of Sargent, Custer County, Nebraska, on 23 April 1912. His mother, Della (West) Patch was the widow of Louis Patch. They had five children: Earl, Lola, Glen, Ralph and Eunice. Louis died on November 20, 19071.

Ben had a small stock farm and also did work for neighbors. He worked as a hired hand for Della. Della and Ben were married on 4 Aug 19112 in Broken Bow. Dad was the oldest Russell, followed by Wayne, Irene and Violet.

As many farm kids did, dad helped with chores from a very early age. One of his chores when he was about five was to bring in the cows at night. He hated the job because it involved going into a canyon and getting the cows out of the plum thickets. On a moonless evening as the sun set, it was very dark and he would be scared. His older half-brothers were happy to tell him ghost stories which added to his fear.

Dad graduated from the eighth grade at the Antelope community school. He planned to attend high school at Round Valley, and in fact started two separate years. However, because his mother depended on his work on their farm and his income from working out for the neighbors, he had to quit both times and he never went back.

Dad's relationship with his father was not an easy one. Their father, as dad used to say, was a poor provider. At some point in dad’s childhood, Ben moved into his own house, or perhaps back into the house he lived in before he and Della were married. Dad remembered that he would come for Sunday dinner, when his mother would kill a chicken and bake a rhubarb or mulberry pie. That would be the only meat they had all week. They mostly ate potatoes...boiled potatoes, dad said. Dad and his sister Violet recalled the time Della ask Ben for money as he was leaving after eating Sunday dinner. “I need money to feed and clothe these kids,” she said. Ben got on his horse and laughed and rode off. His response to Violet and Irene’s desire to go to high school was, “they’ll do it without any help from me!” And they did. With help from their brother. I’m not sure if Round Valley High School closed about this time or not, but Irene and Violet went to high school in Sargent. They were two years apart in age, but Irene waited two years so they could go together. Dad drove them to their boarding rooms on Sunday evenings and picked them up on Friday evenings.

Whenever Della had work that need done, she expected dad to do it. When he asked why the older boys didn’t do the work, she said they didn’t have to, someday they would “inherit land”.

Dad stayed on the home place and helped his mother until he was in his late 20s or early 30s. Then he moved to the place we knew as the Lakeman place, about five miles west of Sargent, along the "River Road" south of the Middle Loup River. He planted corn and put up alfalfa and prairie hay to feed a growing herd of cattle.



1.Obituary of Della West Patch Russell, Sargent Leader, Sargent, Nebraska .
2. Marriage License, Custer County Courthouse, Broken Bow, Nebraska

If you have any questions or something to say about this post, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you!