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- Emigration of the David Hall Family
Copyright 1977 , Madison Square Colony, Nebraska
The Family Tree of Judson LeRoy Walker and Laura Ellen Pfund, Owner: StuartWalker723
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/1558543/person/-1823775386/story
"CAMPBELL - CARTER / KINGSLEY - HALL", Owner: JoAnneBarthel711
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/506645/person/-2025575066/story
In 1882, Fred Cook, his wife Lavina (Hall), their daughter Daisy, and Mr. Cook's younger brother, Edwin Cook, and Tom McCan, all came from Olean, New York and homesteaded in an area south of what was later Almeria. Fred Cook proudly named the settlement "Madison Square", the name by which it is still called today.
In 1884, David Hall, Fred Cook's father-in-law, of Olean, New York, came to Loup County to visit his daughter and family. Mr. Hall was so impressed with the new country and free land, that after returning to New York, he decided to move west, and take out a homestead. His description of the west was so enticing that his three sons-in-law and their families decided to come also. They were:
- Thomas and Eliza Raish;
- John and Sarah Thompson; and
- Valentine and Melissa Hyde.
Also making the trip were William and Frank Kamery, and possibly others.
On September 10, 1885, these families loaded all their possessions into immigrant trains at Allegeny, New York. They came by rail to North Loup, Nebraska, arriving sometime later and were met by Fred Cook with teams and wagons, as the rest of the journey was to be made by team. They left North Loup about eleven o'clock and arrived in the scattered town of Ord at night-fall. During the early evening after their arrival, a cyclone of no small proportions struck the little village. This incident of the trip was one the New Yorkers never forgot. The travelers were terrified, and the mothers wished they were safe in their old homes in New York. They pushed on the next morning and spent the next night at Kent in Loup County. The following afternoon the colonists reached the homestead of Fred Cook. (The Cook place was later known as the Cockrin or Glover place and is now occupied by the Glen Nabb family.)
Upon their arrival at Fred Cook's they found everyone excited as Edwin Cook had just returned from trying to rescue a neighbor, across the line in Custer county, from a deep well they had dug.
All the New Yorkers were able to secure homesteads after filing on a claim. From the beginning the settlement enjoyed far more social life than many other pioneer communities. These colonists like most that came to the county built their first houses of what the land had the most to offer… good old Nebraska sod … called Nebraska "brick" by some old-timers.
Water was the hardest thing for these homesteaders or any others, to get. Water was hauled from the North Loup River by team and wagon in barrels, or gotten from the nearest well. The wells were dug by shovel, dirt put into a bucket and hauled to the top of the ground.
Usually one man would haul water for all the families. Fred Cook's neighbors said that often when Fred made the trip to the river with his oxen after water, the oxen were so thirsty when they reached home they drank all of the water.
The Madison Square colony arrived during a period of prosperity. The land they settled on was fertile. The grass was tall, with no burrs and weeds except sun flowers. The first real hardships for the colony came during the drought years of 1890-94. Henry Hyde, son of Valentine and Melissa, recalled that they used parched corn for coffee. When they visited the George Worth home on the North Loup in the west part of the county they took home a half bushel of rye from the Worths. Every family in the Square enjoyed a treat of RYE coffee the next day.
The Madison Square colonists had not been farmers before migrating west.
- Fred Cook was a teacher, a machinist and had worked at the Olean foundry until 1882.
- Thomas Raish and David Hall had been in the lumber business, prior to coming west.
- Valentine Hyde was a prosperous leather worker before coming to Nebraska and had to learn farming the hard way. One morning when Mr. Hyde and his son, Henry, were getting ready to plow he asked Henry if they needed a neckyoke for the team. Henry said they did not, but Mr. Hyde was not convinced until he asked a neighbor, Mr. Codr.
The Colonists knew little about farming but they had come here to make homes and they had to farm because it was all there was for them to do. They had to break so much land before they could prove up on their claims. They all succeeded
Madison Square has the distinction of being the only community in Loup County to be settled by a colony.
Many of the descendants of the families mentioned above still live in Loup County. Each year in the fall the "David Hall Reunion" is held at Taylor and descendants of the four daughters of David and Amanda (Garrison) Hall meet. These enclude the Raish, Hyde, Cook, Strohl, Strong and many other families who descend from these early day colonists of the 1880's.
Thomas and Eliza (Hall) Raish were the parents of five children:
- Flora, who married Fred Perrigo of New York;
- Will, married Emma Strohl, a daughter of George W. Strohl;
- David married Anna Sears, daughter of Samuel and Eva (Ralls) Sears;
- Grace, married James Bowley, son of William Oscar and Ena Minerva (Calleway) Bowley and their only daughter, Blanch, is now Mrs. Ralph Hodson; and
- Fred Raish, who married Zora Carter, daughter of Albey and Ida Carter.
John and Sarah (Hall-Belch) Thompson had no children of their own but adopted a son, Edgar.
Sarah had children by a previous marriage to William Belch, several of whom died in infancy.
- A daughter, Lydia Belch, married Dan Strohl.
Mr. Thompson also had two daughters by a previous marriage, they being:
- Alberta, who married Gilmore F. Dilsaver; and
- Laura, who married Harvey Troxell, the son of John and Mary Troxell.
Fred and Lavina (Hall) Cook's children were:
- Daisy, who became Mrs. Charles Strong;
- Edd, who married Ethel Fuller, daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Smith) Fuller;
- Jay, married Fern Sly, an Almeria school teacher;
- Olean, became Mrs. Melvin McClure;
- Benjamin;
- Bessie, unmarried; and
- Burt who married Ada Klefman.
(Jay Cook and Fern Sly were married at a double wedding with Harry Troxell and Alphia Wirsig.)
Valentine and Melissa (Hall) Hyde were parents of twelve children,
- one son, Henry, married Kate Kamery and
- another son, Garrison, married Elda Patterson. Both brothers remained in Loup County all ltheir lives.
- A daughter, Susie Hyde, married William Ericson, the son of Ole and Hannah (Thurston) Ericson who were early residents of Madison Slquare.
The other children of Valentine Hyde were:
- Vina, who married Edgar Hall, a son of Carl and Emma (Beck) Hall;
- Fred, married Gladys Dutton;
- Roy, married Lora Plumber;
- Guy, whose wife was Elva Howard, a daughter of Will and Lora (Bradley) Howard;
- Stella, who married Roy Howard a brother of Elva;
- Leo, married Leah Pinnell; and
- Jessie (Sautter Marutz, Johnson).
In the fall of 1883, Ashley B.Cooley, and his wife, the former Jemima Sheldon, and their son, Burt, came from Odebolt, Iowa and settled on the far side of Madison Square near the Custer County line. Mr. Cooley was later a judge of Loup County. The Cooleyton post office was first established in Mr. Cooley's home.
- Their son died in 1896.
- A daughter, Ida May, had married Albey L. Carter, a son of Lewis and Rachel (Wheeler) Carter, in Iowa. The Carters also came from Odebolt, Iowa, in the year 1885, and settled near the Cooley's .
Albey and Ida Carter were parents of four children;
- Zora (Raish);
- Loren;
- Lella, who married John B. Rush, the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Been) Rush of Kansas; and
- Dell, who later married Harry Long of Kansas.
The Cheeseman, Hyde and Hall families all came from Allegany and Olean, New York, both towns being located in Cattaraugus County, New York.
- (Phoebe Hyde, a sister of Sebastian and Valentine, married George Hall, a brother of David and Joel Hall.)
StuartWalker723added this on 13 Jan 2009
JoAnneBarthel711originally submitted this to "CAMPBELL - CARTER / KINGSLEY - HALL" on 18 Jul 2008
A contribution from Richard Allen;
excerpts from a book written by his cousin Colleen Switzer (Hall descendents) "The Settlement of Loup & Blaine Counties"
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