Early Days in Lyman #11

EARLY DAYS IN THE TOWN OF LYMAN
by Bela Foster

Continuing . . .

The nearer up-to-date I get, the faster the changes come. Perhaps they did not occur any faster but my horizon increased so that more people became my neighbors.

 

 

Foster.  Lyman Plat 1884.

 

In 1874 I went east two miles to drop corn for Mr. J. Davis.

 

 

Davis.  Lyman Plat 1884.

 

He was a widower with three children. Dr. Homer Davis of Genoa, Nebraska, was the oldest. Homer and Sammie used to go to the field with us and ride around until they were tired then get off and lie on a blanket or play in the field. I dropped corn on that planter eight days. It was a hard pull. The plates moved with the hand instead of opposite as in the later machines. Mr. Davis was my Sunday School teacher. I remember my first lesson. It was Healing the Blind Man, as recorded in the eighth chapter of St. Mark. I had never been in Sunday School before. These little things are as magnets drawing me closer to God.
Mr. Davis and family moved to Mitchell, South Dakota in 1884. Mr. Davis was State Representative at one time. Samuel was county Judge and afterward State Representative. Homer is a doctor. He has two boys who are also doctors. They are in Los Angeles, California.

Whitfield Wilcox and family moved west in the late seventies. L. B. Wilcox moved to Dakota in 1884.

 

 

Wilcox.  Lyman Plat 1884.

 

An orphan boy went with this family. He and I were close friends. He and I corresponded until he entered the army. After that our letters grew farther and farther apart. He served in the war with Spain. After the war ended he enlisted this time in the artillery. He went to the Philippines. He said he was going to learn more about the art of "killing men." I wrote him but my letter was returned undelivered after following him around about a year. It was covered with postmarks. About twenty-five years ago he returned from the Philippines and sent word that he would stop here on his way to the east to visit his sister. He failed to stop. He went to his sisters in New York and I have not heard from him since.
The Wilcox family returned to their old home in Lyman Township. Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox have both passed to their reward. Three of the children are living. Ernest in California, Mrs. Bessie Beasley in North Dakota and Mrs. Alice Remsburg in Thawville. L. B. Wilcox taught school in Dist. No. 1, (now 36) in 1872.
H. N. Wilcox, brother of Whitfield and L. B. moved to Onarga in or about 1876. Mr. and Mrs. H. N. Wilcox were regular attendants at Church. Mr. Wilcox's pocket-book was easily opened for Ladies Aid or socials and when a social was there one was assured of a good time. One time at a social there Mrs. Hersperger asked me to do something and said "I will be your aunt." Mrs. Wilcox said, "then I will be your aunt too." From that time on I always called them aunt and they always called me nephew. I have often thought, "If a little like I did could win me two such worthy aunts, what should a really worth while act win for a boy?" They are all gone and I am left to think of them.
Rev. and Mrs. Wilcox and all their children except William who lives in California, have all gone on to their reward. It was a family of purity and that includes their daughters-in-law. Mary Wilcox, a teacher in Dist. No. 1 died in 1871.

Thomas Adamson and family came to Lyman in about 1869. They lived in the northeast corner of section 11.

 

Adamson.  Lyman Plat 1884.

 

They had two boys and four girls. The oldest, Robert, lives in Paxton. He works in the "Consumers Store". He was a conscientious young man and has held to the principles of right living. His father, his mother and his sister, Maggie, have passed to the home beyond. One sister lives in Missouri. Two sisters and one brother live in Michigan. They were all my school mates and were my pupils.

--Roberts Herald. 22 May 1935. Bela Foster.