Alexander, Wm.

ALEXANDER

Posted By: Annette Lucas (email)
Date: 6/14/2020 at 15:49:42

From the St. Paul (NE) Press, January 8, 1897, page 5, from a series of articles about area residents entitled "Sketches of Howard County Citizens":

I next pulled in at the home of Wm. Alexander. Bill is 48 years old; was born in Clinton county, Iowa; has been in Nebraska 26 years; was the first settler in this part of the county; has 3 children dead and 8 living. He says George, his second boy, was the first born child in Howard county, as he was born in June 1872. Bill knows all about the ups and downs of a wilderness life and has had more bad luck than anybody. The 6th of last June the North Loup river took a fit and jumped out of its banks and strewed a whole lot of Let. Procter's rubbish all over his crop and pretty near done it up. I have found him to be as good hearted a man as there is in this valley. He and his boys farmed a good deal of land in '96, but the hail, rust and high water cut down on his yield to a great extent. His 4 oldest are of age: Charley, George, James and Mary. Mary taught our school 2 years ago, and my children never learned faster from any teacher than they did from her. Mary can't be cruel enough to whip a child in the hand like some teachers. A teacher who will whip a child in the hand ought to be dragged through a bonfire heels first.