THIEL, ETHEL M. (BELL)

by Ethel Marie Bell Thiel

Entry F418 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Ethel M. Thiel, January 9, 1985

My father, William Carson Bell was born
August 29, 1870 at Oak Forest, Pennsylvania.
He came to the Sandhills in 1897 and worked
for his half-brother John Roseberry. He then
filed on a homestead in 1901. He went to
Fulton, Missouri where he met my mother,
Hattie Mary Smith and they were married
June 10th, 1901, at Guthrie, Missouri, near
New Bloomfield. Shortly after their marriage
they came back to Mullen, Nebraska and
worked for the 101 Ranch. My father fed
cattle and my mother cooked for the ranch
hands. There were several men to cook for as
there was 1500 head of cattle on the ranch at
that time. They worked there almost two
years.

My father's sister, Laura E. Bell came to
the Sandhills and taught school until 1900
when she married Andrew Yaryan. They had
two sons, Andrew Earl and James Merle.
Later my Grandfather and Grandmother
came to Nebraska to join them, Hiram J. and
Julia A. Bell.

I was born January 9, 1903, while my father
and mother were on the 101 Ranch. Mrs.
Babcock, a mid-wife lived in a sod house in
the Cole Valley near the Ranch. As there were
no Doctors closer than Valentine, Ne. she
delivered me on a cold wintery morning at
7:30 A.M.

In May 1903 my Grandfather J.E. Smith
came out from Missouri. I was five months
old at that time and we went by covered
wagon 800 miles to Northeastern Montana
where they squatted on land that was being
opened up for homesteading in 1904. This
land was 12 miles east of Medicine Lake.
There was no railroad until 1913. Everything
had to be brought by team and wagon from
Culbertson, MOntana 30 miles away.

My father used his homestead right in
Nebraska, so in 1909 he went to Alberta,
Canada and filed on a homestead. He came
back to Montana in 1912. By that time my
Mother had several head of cattle and four
work horses and 440 acres of land, a home-
stead water right and a desert claim. She
wanted my father to stay in Montana so he
then went back and sold his homestead and
went back to Nebraska to see his sister, Laura
and he never came back. In 1914, my mother
married again and I had one half-brother,
Alva. When I was 15 and he was 3 years old
we went to the Peace River Country in
Alberta, Canada. Mother and Alva came back
to Montana in 1922 and I came back to the
U.S.A. in 1935. I went to visit my Aunt Laura
Palmer. I stayed with her almost two years
- that was the `Dirty Thirties' as everyone
called them. We milked eleven cows while I
was there. She shipped cream and got $2.50
for a ten gallon can of cream.

I became ill in the fall of 1936 and Dr.
Walker took me to North Platte where I had
surgery. My father owned an eleven room
house so I stayed with him. When I got out
of the hospital, March 6, 1937, I married Dave
Marshall. Later that spring, we went out and
worked on Aunt Laura's ranch for four years.
She also owned a store and the mail came out
from Mullen twice a week. In 1941 we moved
to Montana and done some farming. We were
there eleven years and Dave didn't like
farming and wanted to go back to Nebraska
and buy a ranch, which never materalized.
We rented a place 13 miles east of North
Platte and lived there until fall. In 1952 he
again was dissatisfied and we parted our ways
and he went back on the ranch and worked
for his uncle, Cyrus Wolfenden. I went to
Cheyenne for a couple of months then I came
to Casper, Wyoming and worked in the Rocky
Mountain Packing plant in 1954 when my
mother and I purchased a small ranch west
of Casper. I lived there 3 years and took
horses to pasture and sold alfalfa hay. In 1957
I purchased a home in Casper and drove back
and forth to the ranch, until I sold most of
it, 10 years ago and the rest, 2 years ago. In
July 1968, I married Thomas Thiel at Ed-
monton, Alberta. He became ill in 1978. He
was in the Air Force in WWII, had a service
pension so was transferred to the new
Westminister Hospital in Landon, Ontario,
Canada where he still lives. My father W.C.
Bell passed away May 2, '49. My mother,
Hattie April 27, '56 and Alva Cartwright, July
22, '84. I will spend the rest of my sunset years
in wonderful Wyoming.