William Madison Harrell
b. 30 December 1844, White River Township, Johnson County, Indiana, to Mosses and Margaret (Street) Harrell
d. 19 March 1934, near Anselmo, Custer County, Nebraska

m. 3 August 1865, Peru, Miami County, Indiana
Mary Catherine Hoover
b. 28 August 1840, Miami County, Indiana, to Eli and Sarah (Beaver) Hoover
d. 24 January 1910, near Anselmo, Custer County, Nebraska

Children with Mary Catherine Hoover:
• Louisa Jane (1867-1910) married William Peterson
• Alta Viola (1870-1932) married Thomas Truman Winchester
• John Sherman (1873-1919) married Letha Alma Long

William was the sixth of eleven children. He outlived all of his siblings and three of his own children, dying at the age of 89.

He farmed for a while in Howard County, Indiana, and was part owner of the old Stonebraker Mill on Wildcat Creek. In the early 1880’s, with wife and three children, he left Indiana for Nebraska, where he homesteaded 160 acres about five miles north of Broken Bow, Custer County, Nebraska.

A few years later, he settled on 160 acres about seven miles northwest of Anselmo. Several of his cousins of the Greenbury Rush Street family also lived in the area—there were so many families from Indiana they called it “Hoosier Valley.” There was even a post office named Hoosier at William’s farm for about five years at the turn of the century.

Submitted by:
Ray Duncan Harrell
Centennial CO
E-mail: rayharrell@comcast.net