Life in Nebraska

Part Three

The hardships and struggles Julia endured were outstanding simply because of the world of opportunity and prosperity from which she left in England. She was an accomplished musician. When a cousin was about to sail for England she exchanged some of her expensive good dresses and wraps which she didn’t need in the wilderness of Nebraska for an organ. She then gave music lessons to her children and to other children in the area becoming the first music teacher in that part of the state.

William returned to England for a visit in 1890 to see his mother, but Julia never did return to England. William was glad to return Frontier County, the new country with which he was always perfectly satisfied to live. William was elected County Superintendent of Schools (the school “system” was a three month long school year located some distance from the Tibbetts household). William went back and forth from the farm to Stockville to serve this job. He was also elected as a justice of the peace for the Muddy Precinct. William homesteaded a small farm when they first arrived in Nebraska, and built a timber house after their first sod home. The farm eventually grew to almost a full section south of Eustis where they grew hogs. William was also the main one to get a phone line installed in Eustis.

For Julia, she always longed for her homeland. She actually did plan a trip back after the death of William. A cousin was making the trip in the spring of 1915, but before they left, she changed her mind. Her cousin and his wife sailed from New York on May 1, 1915 on the British luxury liner Lusitania. On May 7 the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine and the ship sank in 18 minutes off the coast of Ireland. Of the 1,959 passengers, 1,198 died. Julia’s cousin and his wife were two of those survivors.

Life in Nebraska for Julia was difficult. She endured the drought of 1894 where crops failed because a May 17 frost killed the corn was planted, then what survived the frost didn’t survive the lack of rain and the 105 -112 degree summer. In addition to creek floodings and prairie fires that always destroyed something, there was a banking panic in 1907 that caused great financial hardship, a flu pandemic in 1918, and the great depression of 1928. In 1935 when Julia was 87 years old, she was interviewed for the book Pioneers, Indians and Buffaloes by Baynard H. Paine. He found Julia living 12 miles south of Eustis in the Muddy precinct, still living on the land she and William homesteaded. William died at age 69 on November 1, 1908 just a few months after the marriage of his youngest daughter, Flossie to Carl Farner. Julia lived on the homestead with her oldest son, Fred, who was still a bachelor. Julia fixed a “fine meal” in short notice for Mr. Paine when he came to interview her. He wrote that Julia was a “good woman with a keen, vigorous mind and an astonishing memory….and she delighted to tell of the old times in Frontier County.”