Genealogy Jottings

You talk about a hard life; my grandmother Grace lived it. She never talked about it, though, so details are a little sketchy.

Grace was born on her mother’s homestead near Palisade, Nebraska on August 30, 1896. The mother, Laura Riddle, had settled there with her three sons, Frank, Lewis, and Joseph, several years earlier. Riddle was the mother’s maiden name, and the boys sometimes used that as their own. At other times they used the Edmonds surname which was that of their father back in Michigan. The boys were 16, 18, and 20 when Grace was born, and she did not like them much. She never knew her father, and to this day we do not know who he was.

Laura struggled to make a living on the homestead. Eventually, her older sister Theodocia Evert traveled from her ranch near Hyannis, Nebraska to visit Laura. She took Grace back to the ranch with her while Grace was still a small child. Grace never talked about how she felt that day. She did, however, develop a strong attachment to Theodocia, whom everyone remembered as a loving, kind woman.

Grace Riddle became known as Grace Evert even though the Everts did not formally adopt her. Grace grew up among the extended Evert family and went to school through the 8^th grade. Her best playmate was her cousin Rowena’s daughter, Ida. They stayed in touch throughout their lives, even after Rowena’s family emigrated to Alberta, Canada in the 1920’s.

As some family left the Hyannis area, others arrived. During World War I, Grace’s cousin Henry Evert acquired a new ranch hand, his wife Bertha’s younger brother Owen Herbert Reed from Huggins, Missouri. Grace and Herbert married on April 18, 1918.

The young family had three children while they lived in Nebraska. Grace went home to her mother, now at Haigler, Nebraska, to have her first child, Hazel Margaret. The next two boys, Owen Howell, and Robert Lloyd were born at Hyannis.

During the mid-1920’s, Herbert left the ranch life and moved his family to Wheatland, Wyoming. He and Grace rented a house in town, and he went to work at the railroad station. They settled into small-town life, and had three more sons, Harold Howard, Earl Eugene, and Donald Raymond.

Life became harder in the 1930’s. Grace missed her family in Nebraska. One summer when she took Harold and Eugene back to visit, she received a disturbing letter from Herbert. He was having a hard time with the older kids, and one of them had even set the house on fire. Another time, illness struck. Grace came down with smallpox, and the family was quarantined. Luckily, she survived, and no one else contracted it.

Times were hard economically, too. Herbert lost the job with the railroad and took up truck driving. He was probably gone a lot, leaving Grace to manage six children on her own.

Then came the terrible day, July 6, 1935, when Herbert was killed on the job in Colorado. Grace was widowed at the age of 38. She never remarried.

How was she to support the family? Her brother-in-law Morton Reed stepped in to help. He found a house for them in Loveland, Colorado where they could get widow’s and orphan’s benefits. He helped Grace file a Workman’s Compensation claim.

Hazel Reed was 18 by then, and she went back to Nebraska to get married. Grace moved to Colorado with the boys. They muddled through the remaining years of the Depression. The oldest son, Owen, joined the CCC to help support the family.

When World War II began, they boys in turn joined the military once they graduated from high school. They all sent money home to their mom. They were proud to have reached maturity with the family intact and no one in trouble.

Military life was not for Harold. After a stint in Korea, he returned to Loveland, the only one of the boys to do so. He spent a career working at the sugar factory there. He and his mom lived together in the same house where he had grown up.

Grace made Loveland her home for the rest of her life. She enjoyed activities with the Presbyterian Church and the local War Mothers chapter. During the early 1970’s she and her neighbor Mrs. Hepner traveled with them to visit Washington, D. C.

One day, Harold came home from work to find his 79-year-old mother on the ground in the back yard, unable to get up. He took her to the hospital where he learned she suffered from a heart-related problem. The doctors recommended a nursing home.

Grace hated that idea, but there was no other choice. She lasted only a week there, and passed away on June 19, 1976.

Grace is buried in the Loveland Cemetery. She was survived by her five sons, five grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.