Stapleton, Nebraska

Blanche Brummet was from South Dakota and Reece was from Nebraska. For many years I've wanted to visit those places, and last September I finally had the opportunity. I was planning on following the Brummet trail through Indiana and all the way back to Virginia, but found out I was not as fond of travelling as I used to be and after visiting De Smet, S. Dakota, I turned around and came home. Here are a few pictures of my visit. I'll do Nebraska first.

Stapleton is about fifty miles north of North Platte and is right on the edge of the Nebraska sand hills. These hills cover about half of the state and are only suitable for grazing land. After being raised on grass, the cattle are moved to feed lots near rail lines where they are bulked up on the feed corn that is grown in more productive areas of the state. So my memories of Nebraska are of sand hills, corn fields, and endless trains trundling down the tracks. It's hard to realize the scale of the agricultural wealth of the midwestern states unless you see for yourself the fields of corn stretching as far as the eye can see, and train after train heading toward the Eastern cities.

The North Platte River comes out of the Rockies of Colorado and flows into the Missouri at Omaha and its flood plain forms some of the richest farm land in Nebraska. Alas, Stapleton was not in one of the richer areas, and today it could well serve as a location for a western movie. Many of the buildings date from the late 19th century and would have been familiar to Reece. Interesting to me is that it would be hard to tell the difference between Stapleton of today and, say Stony Plain of years gone by.

The pictures are of Stapleton and Gandy.

I regret to inform you that Lucille Olson, the daughter of Blanche's older sister Lulu, did not make it to her 100th birthday.

Reece's Family

Reece Brummet was born near North Platte, Nebraska in 1891 and came to the Edmonton area in 1913. That would make him 19 years old at the time. What motivated him to make the move, or how he got there is unknown to me. I tried to ask him a few times but he was a tight lipped sort of man. I do know from his mouth that he left school after the third grade, and that he was paid a nickel a week to carry two buckets of water every day to the school. So he wasn't an educated man, but I remember him as a very intelligent and canny man. He was bluff and hard-nosed, believed in hard work and had no use for a loafer like me. I can vouch for the fact that he didn't believe in sparing the rod. Or, in my case, the dreaded electric cord.

Reece had a farm, but when I knew him he had a farm machinery shop in Edmonton. Chancery Hall now occupies the site where I used to pretend to drive the tractors and buggies that crowded his yard. Inside it was like a scene out of a western movie, with walls festooned with horse collars and other bric a brac. When he sold the property this stuff was worth nothing, and the property wasn't worth much, either. Nowadays it would rate a special visit from the Antiques Road Show.
He was one of four children of Ren Buchanan Brummet and Sarah Eliza Holbrook Brummet. Ren was from Bean Blossom, Indiana and I believe Sarah was from Clay County, Illinois. Their other three children were Lewis, Iva, and Clarence. Reece's whole family followed him to Canada, and except for Iva, they all died there.

Ren and Sarah were in their 90's when they died. I was very small at the time, and although I can't remember much about them, I remember visiting their house in Edmonton. The one thing that sticks out in my mind is that their house was full of knick knacks. I was very impressed by that. They died at pretty much the same time, which led me to theorize that all married couples died at the same time.

I have lots of memories of Uncle Clarence and Aunt Iva but I never met Uncle Lewis who settled in the Okanagan. When I knew Aunt Iva she lived in Puyallup. To confuse matters, her husband's name was Clarence, the same as her brother's. The Meeds' had an acreage on the South Hill which is now the site of a Target store. Their youngest son Gail was just a year or two older than me and I always looked forward to visiting them. She made the most wonderful cherry pies with the yellow cherries that grew at the side of their house.

Clarence and Alma Brummet farmed near Stony Plain. I tried to find where it was when I visited Edmonton in '09 but couldn't find it. What I remember most is that there was no plumbing, no electricity, and the taste of sulphur in the water. Their youngest son Keith was only a few years older than me and I loved visiting the farm. Chasing pigs, sliding down a rope from the hay loft were among the activities I found most notable. They had a big party line phone on the wall which Uncle Clarence would listen to even when it wasn't his ring. And boy, did Aunt Alma ever know how to feed a hungry family. They churned their own butter from their own cows, and picked saskatoons and choke cherries in season. It was a wonderful place... except for the smelly outhouse.

I've always had a hankering to see what kind of a place Reece was from, and in a few weeks I'm going to find out, God willing. I'll travel through South Dakota, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana and ultimately Virginia to retrace the family wanderings. I'll take lots of pictures and try to rummage through documents and historical records. I'm kind of lazy about that stuff, but I'm also intensely curious, so maybe the curious part will win out over the lazy part. I'm 67 and a little unsure about how I will like living in a little van for two months at this age, but as I don't think a cure for old age is in the offing, I think I'd better do it now before I'm really decrepit.

The top photo is Reece and Lewis. The next one is Reece as a young man with an unknown friend. (My guess is that it's Clarence Meeds) The middle photo is Blanche, Reece, Ren and Sarah. The fourth photo is most of the Brummets living near Stony Plain, including Clarence and Alma and family.

The Brummet name

Brummet is not a common name, and I am often asked what kind of a name it is. With the et ending it looks vaguely French, but it isn't. As far as I can discover, it is English through and through, and in it's original form was spelled Bromeheude, which means Broomhead. That doesn't mean we Brummets have an ancestor who carried a broom on his head. Broom is a plant with a yellow bloom, and broom head means a high place where broom grew. It is a specific place in England not far from Sheffield. Not very romantic, is it?

At one time I thought it might have something to do with the Plantagenet kings of England. That translates from the French as sprig of broom. The first king of that line got that name because he wore a sprig of broom on his cap, and broom became the badge of that dynasty. Alas, it doesn't appear that we are some lost descendant, the result of King Henry taking advantage of his right to enjoy a young bride's favours before the groom could. Instead, the following account seems far more likely.

What's in a Name ?

BROOMHEAD

This is a copy of an article published in The Peak Advertiser, the Peak District's local free newspaper, on 27th October 1997, reproduced by kind permission of its author, Desmond Holden.

WHAT'S IN A NAME … Are you called BROOMHEAD?

A Reader living in Birchover has written to the Peak Advertiser asking for information about the name "Broomhead". Variations on this name include Bromehead, Bromet and Brummitt. There are about twenty entries under "Broomhead" in the local directories and one for Brummitt.

At first glance it could be very easy to assume that it is based on a nick-name as describing somebody with a great mop of hair. Such an explanation would appear to be confirmed since there are also names such as "Mopp" and "Moppet" but they are unrelated and do not carry such a meaning. Incidentally the modern word "Muppet" illustrates the danger of seeking fanciful resemblances and concocting explanations. The term was, in fact, coined "out-of-the-Blue" by the designer (J.Henson) who has firmly dismissed the notion that it was a combination of "Marionette" and "Puppet"!

"Broomhead" is actually a location-name and refers to a Hall in the West Riding. It is clearly indicated on the Ordnance Survey (Sheet 110) being about 2 miles south-west of Stocksbridge. Standing on the 1000 foot contour it now over-looks the Broomhead Reservoir which was constructed out of Ewden Beck, a minor tributary of the River Don which it joins at Wharncliffe. Access is by secondary roads only, with very steep gradients. The Map shows it as set in wild moorland with no provision for road traffic. The establishment is of considerable antiquity. A local history (1860) makes mention thus: "an estate in Hallamshire, County of York, which passed from the family through an heiress as early as the time of Richard II". Since that Monarch's dates are 1377 to 1399 it follows that anybody who now bears the name and is descended from the original family can trace their ancestry as far back only to a junior member. In the majority of cases however the surname will have been given to a man who had emigrated and settled elsewhere and had been identified among his new neighbours as "him from Broomhead". Or, as seems equally as likely, people who worked on the estate took its name as a matter of convenience as, for example, at "Ditchfield" near Widnes.

The meaning of the name presents no problem. There are two units: "Broom-" and "head". The first, "Broom-" is easily recognised as describing the shrub with yellow flowers which grows extensively on moorlands. It is derived from the same Old Germanic sources which give us "briar" and "bramble". Its twigs, when bundled and bound on a stick have provided an instrument for sweeping from the earliest times. Hence the name of the plant was adopted to describe all such implements. The second unit "-head" is derived from the Old English word "Heafod" which occurs in countless placenames. It has several meanings but in the present context signifies "summit". The evidence available indicates that the first unit took the form "bromig". The suffix "ig" was an Old English grammatical device for constructing adjectives which, in Modern English, is accomplished through the termination "-y" The word "bromig" then, by extension from "broomy", was linked with "heafod" and together they were interpreted as "The Hill" which is covered in broom".

As might be expected from its location, the name is first recorded in Sheffield (1290) and refers to a Henry de Bromeheude. Here it should be noted that "de" which occurs so frequently in older surnames does not necessarily signify that the bearer had any aristocratic connections. Although in the present case the name is recorded during the time when the original family held the estate and so it is possible that it really does mean "Henry of Broomhead", nevertheless, the "de" more frequently means nothing more that "from" or "to be found at". The name re-appears in Sheffield yet again for Records of 1440 and has dropped the "de" as for John Bromehed.

Although today it is usually pronounced as written, the long "-oo-" in Broom formerly took on the same sound as in "soot" and the final "-d" in "-head" changed to "-t". This is reflected in some versions of the name such as for "Mary Brummett" (1717).

In 1890 a list of surnames special to each of the English Counties was compiled and "Broomhead" was included as peculiar to Derbyshire. Probably as pressure on resources grew too great to support the people in Broomhead, they emigrated to Sheffield or to the South, over the moors and down into the Peak. It is interesting to imagine how they might have trudged along the track which is now Mortimer Road and made their way into Bakewell or across to Buxton. Equally it is also possible that the owners of the estate could have transferred workers from Broomhead to property they might have in this Area. But that is something for local historians to investigate.

Finally, those families bearing this name and who have a Scots connection might be able to trace their origins to the County of Clackmannon. There is a small settlement called Broomhead in the vicinity of the town of Dollar - about 10 miles east of Stirling.

© Desmond Holden
From "The Peak Advertiser", 9th March 1998.

The conjunction of the Nichols and the Brummets occurred when Blanche Elizabeth Nichols married Reece Raymond Brummet- my grandparents. The photo is of them with their daughter Leora.

Marriage licenses

It probably has nothing to do with us, but I was watching a show on the Discovery Channel about the salvaging of a ship that sank shortly after the Civil War and there are some curious coincidences. First, the ship was a walking beam side wheeler similar to the Delaware which James Rooney served on, and secondly the diary of William Nichols, a survivor of the wreck, still exists and was used to reconstruct the events leading up to the loss of the ship. Nichols also had a daughter named May. As I said, it probably has no connection to our family, but it was an interesting show which brought into focus the realities of life in those days.

I have a few more documents about the Rooney's I got from Randy which I am posting before moving on to the Brummets. These are the marriage licenses of James Rooney and Helen Rooney, issued in 1883 and 1881 respectively, and they were each 23 when they were married. Woodbury County, Iowa is just east of Sioux City. This is not far from Bancroft, South Dakota where the school in the Christmas card was located. They must have been James Rooney senior's children, Cecelia's brother and sister.

James Rooney is buried in De Smets, S.D. which is only a few miles from Bancroft.

I purchased a van this week which I am hoping to use to travel to these places in the fall. I'll be poking around county record offices and such to see if I can find out any information to add. Most of the work so far has been done by Randy Townsend and Blane Ryan and I'd like to make my own contribution. The more I get into this the more curious I become.

Daughters

This is the only photo I have of all six daughters of George and Cecelia Nichols. I wish I could identify the faces, and I wish I knew their birth dates. I know Margaret was the oldest, and Barbara was the youngest. Barbara is the one in front with the wry neck. I know Blanche was born in 1896. The names of the other girls are Lulu, Frances, and Mabel. This is the only photo I have of Lulu. Any help I could get would be greatly appreciated.

Although this is the only photo I have of Lulu, I do have a picture of her daughter Lucille. I had the pleasure of meeting Lucille on Monday. Her Mother died when Lucille was five and she went to live with Blanche and Reece for a year afterward. At that time, her father came and fetched her to California. She will be 100 years old on October 3 of this year.

I think it would be pretty nice if as many of her mother's descendants as possible could get together and send her a card for her birthday.

So far I have been focusing on my grandmother's family. I'll start on the Brummets next time.

James Rooney

I have no reliable information on George Nichols, except that his year of birth was 1856. Where he was born, who his parents were, are unknown to me. There is the story that he was born on a wagon train and left with the Indians, and one relative thinks she heard he was from Pennsylvania.

Cecelia Nichols was the daughter of James Rooney. The documentation I have shows he was born in Ireland in 1817 or 1818, but there is no indication of when he arrived in America. However, he must have arrived before the famine set in, because he served on the USS Delaware for the entire duration of the Civil War. He died in South Dakota. Cecelia's mother's name was Mary, and the only other information I have about her is that she was born in Illinois in 1841, which means she was 33 years younger than James. Since Cecelia was born in 1862, he must have had some quality shore leave with his 20 year old wife. Cecelia must have had a sister named Helen who married a Peter Hagan in 1881. The marriage license states that she was 23 at that date, which would mean Helen was born when her mother was only 17. They also must have had a brother whose son George attended the same school as Cecelia's children.

And that pretty well sums up all I can extract from the material I have at hand concerning my Grandmother's parents and grandparents.

The USS Delaware was a gunboat with the duty of keeping the embargo against the South in the area of the Chesapeake Bay. It was a very early implementation of steam technology in ships.

George and Cecelia Nichols

One of the reasons it's so hard to disentangle all the Nichols family relationships is that George and Cecelia had so many children. Large families were the rule in those days. These children were the generation of my grandmother and her brothers and sisters. I remember some of them but not others. I think all of them were born in South Dakota. Perhaps the photo of this sod house was taken there, maybe about the same time as when some of their children received this Christmas card from their teacher. My grandmother's name is on it and she would have been seven years old in 1902. If she is one of the two younger girls standing to Cecelia's right then both the card and the photo are from about the same time.

The next group photo was taken ten years later and they are all in Canada. I think all of the Nichols clan appears here, including May and her mother. They must have all come up together. Now that I know something about the Williams, if someone could tell me who the Moores and the Hyatts might be I would be very grateful.