Andrew Hay

HAY BARRER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/21/2010 at 21:17:40

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Andrew Hay
By Phyllis Manzer Fleck

Andrew Hay and Mary Barrer were born in Germany and spent their entire lives there. Andrew was a blacksmith and farmer who lost his life at the age of 53 in 1836 while blacksmithing. His wife lived to be 81 and died in 1870. Both were members of the Catholic Church and lived consistent Christian lives. Andrew’s brother, Valentine, was a colonel in Napoleon Bonaparte’s Army for seven years.

Andrew and Mary were the parents of eleven children: Anthon, Peter, Valentine, Mary, Catherine, Andrew, Barbara, George, Theresa, Mary and John. Their son, Valentine, was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, on July 28, 1814. At the age of twelve, he apprenticed to learn the blacksmithing trade. Eight years later he began as a journeyman traveling the first year in Germany and the next three years in France and Switzerland. In 1840, at the age of 26, he immigrated to the United States sailing from Harve de Grace on the ‘Louis Phillippe’. After the 21 day voyage, he landed at New York City and engaged in blacksmithing there until 1847 when he started a smithy of his own in sockes, Wayne County. He married Solona Foulstick in Lyons, New York, on June 22, 1846. Salona was born in Alsace, Germany, on November 9, 1826, and was three years old when she came to America with her parents.

In 1855, Valentine purchased a sixty acre farm and worked it until 1857 when he bought seventy acres located nine miles from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There he spent the next two years farming and blacksmithing. He moved on to Pekin, Illinois, and built a shop where he worked two years, then bought a farm in Tazewell County, Illinois, where he remained until 1872.

Desiring to try farming in a county particularly adapted for it, he came to Nebraska with a team while his wife traveled by rail. He crossed the Missouri River at Plattsmouth and proceeded to Weeping Water where he rented land for two years. He had previously rented land for two years. He had previously purchased one hundred sixty acres of raw prairie land from the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad in Section one of Stove Creek Precinct and moved to this land in 1874. With the help of his sons, it became a fine productive farm. They cleared six acres of forest trees, fenced in the land, and built a good home, barn and other outbuildings, hauling lumber from Nebraska City. He raised Polled-Angus cattle, Poland0China breed hogs, and Norman horses. He became a prosperous farmer and stock raiser and was one of Cass County’s reliable and law abiding citizens remaining a devout member of the church.

Valentine and Salona had ten children: William, Mary, D E, George A, C V, P E, J T, Lucy, E B, and L A. They both died at their homestead: Salona on August 24, 1888; and Valentine on May 31, 1892.

Valentine and Salona’s son, George Albert, born June 1853 in Lyons, New York, was industrious like his father. He worked on the homestead. After leaving, he became a merchandise clerk in Wabash, Nebraska, and later operated a store with his brother in South Bend, Nebraska. He was Registrar of Deeds in the Cass County Court House in Plattsmouth. George married Eliza Cowell on October 12, 1866. Eliza was born August 5, 1857, in Albion, Michigan, and was the daughter of Sidney J Cowell and Abiatha Bingham.

George and Eliza had seven children: Adel, Nellie, Herbert, Leo, Lottie, Georgia and Lucy Bell. In 1901, George moved his wife and family to Central City, South Dakota, believing he should have his share of the Gold Rush. He opened the General Store and served his customers well. Lucy, being the smallest of the children, often told of the excitement when Wild Bill Hickock, William Custer, Buffalo Bill, and some of the famous people would come into the store. She said Calamity Jane often insisted on holding her and she was so scared of her. After the Rush was over, about 1911, the family moved to Sioux City, Iowa, and George retired in poor health. He died October 3, 1919. Eliza died July 20, 1920.

George and Eliza’s daughter, Lucy Bell, was born July 16, 1891, in Wabash, Nebraska. She married Lawrence E Manzer on October 9, 1912, and gave birth to eight children: Lucile, Zella, George, Leo, Donald, Robert, Phyllis and William. (Reference: Harvey Manzer Family)