William Henry Fassler (1874 - 1966)

memory of his son-in-law, Terry Byrd: Born around Blue Hill NE to a farm family. He would have been a child when Willa Cather made a comment in ______ one of her books that if you separate too much cream from the milk you may look like the skinny Fassler kids.

Bought farm property in Hitchcock and Red Willow counties in NE and raised a family in the house where Clarence and Kay Jankovits live now. Walter, his son, born in 1900, told me he remembers going to Blackwood Creek, a tributary to the Republican river, with horse and wagon in 1904 to dig up small elm trees to take home and plant in the yard.

Over the farm that William attained (over time?) was a total of about 1,500 acres. Only 90 acres was " bottom land" meaning it was on the flat zone on one or both sides of the river so the soil was rich and black with carbon from river flooding over centuries that left silt and vegetation when the water receded. His primary crops were corn and wheat and he raised many hogs and some milk cows and beef cattle. The cattle since some of the property was canyons so couldn't be planted but served as pasture for the cattle.

He had three sons, Virgile, Walter, and Bud. (Don't know Bud's real name but Gram would know) He also had daughters but at that time daughters were expected to marry and move on. In about 1932-3 William had three new houses built on the property so that each house was about 1/4 mile from each other and the group was about a mile from his house. Each house house had a barn, windmill, and water storage cistern. The boys were to collectively do the farming. Human nature, being what it is, caused friction between the boy's families so William divided the property into three separate farms and each son did his own farming and paid an annual amount to William for living expenses. He basically retired at about 55 and lived until about 95. The property transfer was set up so that full title passed to the sons "when his eyes closed in death".