Geneivieve Claire HART

Received from Susan Sobotka 13 Jul 2018. Thank you for sharing. Here are some excerpts from my mother's story as she wrote in 1984 about her 1931 trip to the Hyannis, Nebraska area and the Circle-C Ranch owned by John Church and Alfred "Arch" Church. Mom would have been about 9 years old I think. Her parents were Frank Perina and Mayme Woksa. Grandma Mayme accompanied mom on this trip since Grandpa Frank owned a grocery store and had to remain in Omaha for that weekend to keep the store open. Here are some of the sections that mention the Church and the Shackelford families. Mom mentions the children in the Shackelford family, but there are no first names attached for the parents, unfortunately. Perhaps you will find information to complete it. Part of the story: "The two brothers owned and leased land for the ranch operation, 27 miles north of Hyannis in Cherry County, Nebraska. John and his wife Rena had two children, Jim and Mary, who were in their teens in 1931. John's brother Arch was not married. Jim and Mary came to Omaha to go to South High School and stayed throughout the school year with the Fred and Genevieve Zangger family, their aunt and uncle. Gen was the sister of their mother, Rena Church. Jim and Mary became acquainted with several of my older cousins who also attended South High. One of my cousins, Glen Veylupek, came with them out to the ranch the summer of 1931 to work as one of the ranch hands. My dad, Frank Perina, was the owner of the grocery store on 3903 "Q" Street in Omaha, and Fred Zangger, Sr. managed an auto service station across the street along with Fred's business partner William Bailey. Our families, the Zangger and Perina families, were close friends and neighbors. That is how my mom and I were invited to ride along with Fred and Gen as they went to visit Gen's sister, Rena, married to John Church. Fred and Gen had three children, Fred, Jr (known as "Sonny"), about one year older than I, Catherine, about 3 years younger, and Billy, age 3." . . . There are several details regarding the travel and arrival at the Church ranch. . . . "On Sunday, the Church family took us to see Gen and Rena's relatives, the Shackelford's, who lived near Mullen, Nebraska. We spent quite some time there and they served us a meal. Their daughter, Agnes, was in a wheelchair, and she painted beautiful pictures, mostly western scenes or horses. My cousin, Glen, was fortunate enough to receive one of her paintings. They had a little boy by the name of Ernest, and he had a pet burro, so we spent part of the time taking pictures and playing with it." . . . After departing, my mom writes that they made a visit to Ord, Nebraska to visit a cousin of Fred Zangger, Wilber Zangger and his wife, Merle. Wilber and Merle had two children Charles and Esther. . . . Here is what mom wrote as a "Prologue" in 1984: "In 1932, Fred and Gen Zangger moved to Marcus, Iowa, to go into farming. In the 1940s, they relocated to the Los Angeles, California area. Gen died soon after they moved to California, and Fred, Sr., Sonny and Catherine are living there (note: as of 1984 when this was written.) The youngest son, Billy, died when he was young when they lived in Iowa after a tragic car accident. The John Church family sold their ranch holdings and moved to Minnesota where they owned a resort, and later they also relocated to the Los Angeles area. John Church died some years ago, but Rena still lives in L.A. (note: again as of 1984.) Their son, Jim, lives in Arkansas and Mary lives in the state of Washington. My mother and I had seen Arch Church in the mid-1960s in Hyannis. He continued to live in town, and he worked for the railroad. When we introduced ourselves, he remembered us, and then drove us out the new road that lead to the old ranch-stead. Agnes Shackelford still lives in the Mullen-Hyannis area and still gets around quite agilely in her wheelchair. The Wilber Zangger family continued living on their farm in Ord. Charles and Esther still live in the Ord vicinity today (1984)."

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