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Note: NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - Alliance Herald; Alliance, Nebraska; Thursday, April 4, 1910; Page (GenealogyBank.com)
BAYARD Mildred DeVault and Linn (sic) took in the sites at the chautauqua at the Bluffs Friday night.
LETTER William Lynn DeVault wrote to Newland Devault in March, 1956. The letter was written in response to Newland's request for information on Lynn's parents and grandparents.
There are no papers of my father�s (Wm Peter DeVault) that will shed any light on early family History. I must explain that ours has not been a closely-knit family � that I have made only two trips home in five years and thirty; in one respect I can give you a little information. I should say that I was probably four years old (1901) when my Grandfather Henry and his wife, Caroline, accompanied by his two spinster daughters, came to Nebraska to live and homestead. I can remember dimly being rocked on the top of my Grandfather�s boot at that age, and his long white beard. I remember him as a rather taciturn old gent, and it is probable that, except for the sake of appearances, he would have just as willingly have smacked me as humored me. We were living in a sod house where I was born, and, as was the custom in that country, they all moved in with us for awhile and, there was the custom of making beds in rocking chairs. This was probably in the year 1901. My sister, Maude and I were of a size that we could be put to bed in a spring cot, one at either end without touching toes. My Grandparents and Aunts did come to Nebraska, as you suggested because they had a married child (my father) living there. Whether or not he persuaded them that it was a land of opportunity, or whether their livelihood in New Florence, Missouri, had deteriorated to the extent that they simply came west to throw themselves on his guidance, I shall never know. There had been an earlier visit by my Aunt Elizabeth (Mary Eliza) which was before the powers of my recollection, but which had a couple of amusing recollections from family anecdotes. On this visit, Aunt Lizzie often heard the familiar use of the word �spud� for Irish potatoes and upon returning home to Missouri thought to show off a little and made a business of asking to have the spuds passed. Also, the story is that upon this visit she became enamored of one Doctor Long, and that it was largely in hope of making an alliance with him that she persuaded the family to move to Nebraska. The story continues that upon the arrival of the family, Dr. Long ignored her, but fell in love with her younger sister (my Aunt Emma) who would have none of him. As I write this many names and thoughts that have been out of my conscious mind for years, come back to me. For a time, the Henry DeVaults lived in the old Vernalian house; for a time they ran a restaurant in a single story house across from the railway station, better known in those days as the �depot.� Finally they got their homestead located, I cannot at once say located upon their homesteads, because that was a longer process. There was much government land to be homesteaded, but there was at the time a considerable portion of land privately owned, probably through prior homestead entries, and these lands were, for the most part, abandoned, awaiting irrigation canals to be built. Grandfather DeVault�s homestead was nine miles from town, which was about two hours with a lumber wagon, and Aunt Lizzies�s adjoined it. To start with, until a habitation could be erected, the family lived at the abandoned �Old Williams� place, where there was still a windmill still in use. Even after their own house was built, about three-quarters of a mile away, they hauled water from the windmill for some months in a barrel on a sort of sled. A yard was built (barbed wire fencing) which encompassed both the family house and enough of the house on Aunt Lizzie�s acres to fulfill her homestead requirements. No one can say that she didn�t actually sleep there, although she didn�t, and it was used as a sort of overflow house when company or relatives came. It had no floor, but was covered tightly with burlap and was scrumptiously clean. I can never remember a sheet in connection with any family bed that was not pure white. It is true that the howl of coyotes was a nightly music and rattlesnakes were an ever-present menace. We killed the latter with hoes in the garden and it was nothing uncommon for me, as a barefoot brat, to slip off the back of a saddle horse, unsnap the bridle and whip a rattlesnake to death. The original homestead was named �Prairie Flower Ranch� and Aunt Emma�s homestead, which was located another four miles away, was given the name of �Verdant Valley View.� It is surprising now to recall that during the time Aunt Emma was fulfilling her residence requirements, sometimes weeks would go by without communication over the four miles because of lack of transportation; then it was largely the custom, that if you didn�t have a horse, you stayed home. William Lynn DeVault � 1956
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