Nettie Ellen (Coons) Tobey (1868 - 1948)

Born 24 Sep 1868 in Bartlett, Fremont Co., Iowa, USA

Ancestors

Daughter of William Joseph Coons and Julia Ann (Wallace) Coons

Wife of William Walter Tobey — married 7 Mar 1889 in Stop Table, Custer Co., Nebraska, USA

Descendants

Died 13 Oct 1948 at age 80 in Cozad, Dawson, Nebraska, USA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Juliet Wills [send private message]

Biography

Nettie Ellen Coons was born 24 Sept. 1868^[1] at Bartlett, Fremont Co., Iowa,^[2] where her father, a carpenter, was helping build railroad bridges. Daughter of William Joseph and Julia Ann (Wallace) Coons, she was the second youngest of seven children. Her mother died when she was three years old, after which her father brought his family back to Davis County, Iowa, where his father and siblings lived.

Nettie had two elder sisters, and at the time of her mother's death, her eldest sister Mahlie was 14. Her father didn't remarry until many years later, when Nettie and her sisters had all married. This example doubtless had a strong impact on Nettie, who as a young widow likewise declined to take another spouse, devoting herself to her children.

After Nettie's grandfather and most of the Coons relatives moved to Kansas, her father brought the family to Custer County, Nebraska in the early 1880s. In 1885 Prince Tobey, a dairy farmer from Illinois, settled nearby. Nettie married Prince's son William Wallace Tobey four years later, on 7 Mar. 1889 at Stop Table, Custer Co., Nebraska.^[3]

"The crops were fairly good on Stop Table, but prairie fires were dreaded. Then there were hailstorms and some years the grasshoppers and about 1892 a drouth set in through 1893 and 1894 was the worst. Not a thing was raised, no grass grew either in 1895…. A lot of people pulled stakes and left Custer County, during these drouths. The Tobeys, Coons, Hancocks and others left for a year or so and then came back.”^[4]

Nettie and her family headed for California. The expedition, led by Nettie's 77-year-old father-in-law, included Will and Nettie, their 3-year-old son Arthur, and Will’s brother-in-law Ed Laughlin.

They were in Napa, California on 5 May 1897, when Nettie gave birth to daughter Lola Fern.^[5]

Following are excerpts from a journal that Nettie kept as they drove their covered wagon through northern California and Oregon, transcribed by her granddaughter, Mrs. Betty Lyness of Boone, Iowa:

"Left June 15 for Oregon, Washington or [torn, probably “land of”] promise wherever it is. Left Napa at [torn]…"

"Artie got one foot in a bucket of plum butter. Camped at night under some oaks at a ranch and bought hay and barley.”

“We are six in number with baby and have only six guns and one pistol, But have had no game as yet. Ed got out to get a rabbit but when he got there it had gone. But bang there goes the gun which brought him down this time….”

“…Camped for dinner by the R.R. on fair grass but the horses concluded they didn’t want to eat & started back to town. But was stopped by some teamsters. Camped for the night at German Town by a bridge. This was a damp night & the ground was so hard it was impossible almost to get the tent staked. But the boss [Prince] got a little hot and by tying part of the ropes to the wagon succeeded in getting it up. It kept raining & Will went back to town to get oil cloth for wagon to keep baby dry.”

“Tuesday Morning rain over with & is warmer. Shoed mule this morning. That took time. On to Anderson is rough & poor soil but some fair timber… we are getting in rocks and mountains…”

“…Darn the rocks I can’t write. Had some bad luck Wednesday afternoon coming up grade, busted wagon tire on rocks. Wired it on & drove on about 4 miles to shop, & camped for night. Got wheel fixed for $1.50.”

“…Got through to Burney a while before camping time. Stopped for hay, coffee, meat, & salmon, & drove on 2 miles to camp. Had a lady caller that wanted us to attend service. They are traveling & camping and have gospel wagon #1.”

“…Laid over & washed & baked bread Tuesday fore noon. Hitched up after dinner & pulled 8 miles to next camping place. No water for twenty-two miles from here…”

“Friday morning cold but better soil. Baby cross with cold. Indians pas us going to celebrate. Got young jack rabbit this morning. Some farming done here but need more water. Hadn’t gone far this morning till discovered the loose horse not coming & one team had to wait. Got on a mule and went back after her….”

“Saturday morning left Sinkville & got on wrong road. Travelled till about Eleven & our road ran out. Will got our mule. Went on to see if we could get on over ridge but concluded our lives were too dear to risk it, so after dinner pulled back to the other road….”

“…After this, we struck an Indian settlement. It is good level land but they don’t do much. Some of them had little patches of grain. All of their buildings were little old ones & no improvements.”

“…There is lots of rocky land in here to be leased at from $60 to $100 for a quarter section. This is fine sage brush land & could make a nice home if it wasn’t so far from market….”

“…Drove about 1 mile & found rabbits thick as spatter. They killed 9, all young ones but three. Thought this make a good mess & left the rest for some other feller.”

“…Drove up to Hay Creek Store…. This is a fine sheep ranch & had one of the finest gardens, berries, & orchards I ever saw & some fine barley & alfalfa. Irrigation makes everything as pretty as a picture & has convinced us it is the best.”

“…Tuesday afternoon up a long rocky road. Met a freighter & had hard work to pass. Wanted us to pull up on rock where there was danger of tipping over & give him the road because he was loaded. Will & him got pretty mad & thought I was going to see some fun but he found Will had a tounge like a whip cracker & he came to time a little.”

“…After supper the ferryman invited us in to hear some music & talk with a phonograph. It is an electric machine that can sing, whistle & talk. Was about 15 in all together. Was several freighters & had a jolly time.”

“…Nothing here but alkili bluffs. This has been a tuff day. Alkili dust 4” deep, the wind blowing & everything covered till you can’t tell what color we are. Baby had a hard spell of colic & cryed awful. Everything is gritty with dirt.”

This was the end of Nettie’s journal. They had arrived at the Oregon-Washington border.

The Tobeys returned to Custer Co., Nebraska where their daughter Bessie was born in 1899. The family appears in the 1900 census in Elim Twp., Custer Co., as follows: William W. Tobey, farmer, b. Oct. 1861 Ill., father b. Michigan (inaccurate, but revealing), mother b. Penn.; Nettie E., wife, b. Sept. 1868 Iowa, parents b. Indiana; Arthur L., son, b. Nov. 1892 Nebraska; Lola F., daughter, b. May 1897 California; Bessie C., daughter, b. May 1899 Nebraska.

Nettie's husband tried to bring the family west again. In 1900 Will “shipped a [railroad] car [full of cattle] to Oregon, sold his stock [the cattle] and returned to Pocatello, Idaho where he passed away on July 22, 1901.”^[6][7]

After her husband's death, Nettie moved to Cozad in Dawson County, where Will's body was buried upon its return from Pocatello, and where hers would be laid alongside 47 years later. She never remarried.

Nettie's father and brothers moved to Cozad around this time as well. The following is an excerpt from the handwritten autobiography of Nettie’s daughter Bessie, dated 1 July 1979:

“Born May 13, 1899 in a little sod house, in a little community called Stop Table. Between Cozad and Callaway. My father died at the young age of 39 years, and I was only 2 years old. He left my mother with three little children to raise. My brother seven, sister 4 and myself 2. She bought a little house in Cozad, to be near her father and brothers, and we lived here till I was 6. For some reason she decided she wanted to raise her little family in the country. So she sold her home, and with the insurance money from my father, bought 80 acres out in the Danish community 8 miles in the country.

"There I grew up. We lived in a graney [?] while my grandfather and uncles [William Joseph Coons and his sons] built us a house. It had a kitchen, pantry, dining room, living and bedroom, and two bedrooms upstairs. My deaf uncle lived with us and taught my brother how to farm. We had a little pasture and so Moma got some cows, and of course horses. And we had chickens, and a big garden. So we lived very comfortable.

"In winter we walked 2 ½ mi. to school. It being the old fashioned type with 20 or 30 in one room, and all classes by one teacher. I remember some good and some bad times there. But I had some lifetime friendships from those days. Momma sewed and helped the neighbors cook for thrashers. Baked bread and washed for 3 or 4 bachelors, living north of us. It was hard work, but I never remember coming home from school, when she wasn’t nice and clean, and had a good meal for us.

"She was a kind loving mother, and devoted her life to her family. I was the tomboy, Fern the bookworm, and Artie the mischief maker, like all boys. Our pastime was visiting our neighbors, and school programs in winter. We also as we got older went to the Danish dances and young peoples meetings. And one summer Mom let me go to Dan school with some friends.

“I got so I could understand some and speak a few words. The Danish people were always kind and good to us. Fern and I took gymnastics with a class once a week and did so good the class went to a convention one summer. It was quite a treat for us.

“As my brother grew up, and met a lovely girl he wanted to marry, Mamie Spradlin. She was a nice girl whose parents were Kentuckians. Red headed and pretty. So Mom made the sacrifices, and let them get married and we moved in a vacant house, west of us. Fern was away teaching, so Mom and I settled down for a while, till she could find something to buy in town. That was when I started going with Lloyd. I had many other young men, or boys take me out, and some of them I had quite a crush on, but I guess I waited for the bashful boy who has been with me the rest of my 80 years. He courted me for five years before he finally decided he wanted me. I sometimes wonder why? But he has always been kind and thoughtful of me and his family.

“We were married Sept. 2 – 1922 and as of to date have had 57 years together. Fern was going to Grand Island Business School, and Momma went with her, so Lloyd’s folks moved in Mom’s house while they were having a new house built, and we moved in the farm house in the country, after a trip to Lincoln State Fair….”

The following are reminiscences of Nettie’s granddaughter Betty Lyness:

“Grandma was prim – a lady in every way. She was small of stature and didn’t weigh 100 pounds. She was fastidious in her personal appearance, in her home, and in her garden. She did her work in the morning and always “cleaned-up” in the afternoon before she took her nap. I never saw her or her home when they weren’t tidy and spotless….

“Grandma Tobey was a quiet lady. Her tastes were simple. She didn’t like crowds, she cherished her family, and was a very Christian lady (First Methodist). She read her Bible daily, lived her faith, never preached. Neighbors, young and old, liked her….

“I was at Grandma’s the evening Orson Welles broadcast the Martians were landing. The neighborhood was excited. Grandma didn’t believe a word of it.”

“Grandpa Tobey had a $2000 life insurance policy that Grandma used wisely. At first, she purchased a home in NW Cozad but decided she didn’t want to raise her family in town. She sold it and bought a farm north of Cozad. It was in a Danish community…

“She was frugal. She made that $2000 last almost to the end of her life. Much, toward the end, went for Dr. bills and she always knew exactly what she owed. Dad put money in the bank for her in her later years….I’m sure she probably knew.”

She is buried next to her husband in Cozad Cemetery.^[8]

Children:

1. Edna Mae, b. 17 Jan. 1890; d. 18 Mar. 1891. Her epitaph reads, "Planted on Earth, blooming in Heaven."

2. Arthur Leroy, b. 8 Nov. 1892; m. Mamie Spradlin.

3. Lola Fern, b. 5 May 1897 at Napa, California; m. Jacob Daniel Schmeeckle.

4. Bessie Clair, b. 13 May 1899 at Callaway, Nebraska; m. Lloyd Rasmussen.

DNA matches

Nettie's great-grandson John Schmeeckle shares autosomal DNA matches with a descendant of her sister Mahala, and with descendants of two cousins on her mother's side.

Sources

1. ↑ Transcript of Coons Bible record sent to me by Betty Lyness of Boone, Iowa. Also death certificate of Nettie E. Tobey.
2. ↑ Death certificate of Nettie E. Tobey.
3. ↑ Marriage record from Custer Co., Nebraska.
4. ↑ Recollections of Bill McFate, compiled by Dorothy Bonde and published in Settling the Seven Valleys (1982), p. 380; photocopy sent by the Custer County Historical Society.
5. ↑ Death record of Lola Fern Schmeeckle. Also, her birth is recorded on this date in the Napa Co., California records, but the record (as was normal at the time and place) doesn’t state her given name.
6. ↑ “Tobey Family History.”
7. ↑ See also: Ancestral Memories: William Tobey and Nettie Coons
8. ↑ FindAGrave profile of Nettie (Coons) Tobey.

See also: Ancestral Memories: William Tobey and Nettie Coons

Acknowledgments

Thank you to John Schmeeckle for creating WikiTree profile Coons-328 through the import of Tobey ged.ged on Dec 4, 2013.