Ada's father, William Hedges was a participant in the Civil War, Company E, 5th Illinois calvary, saw action and was discharged Feb. 24, 1863 due to a disability, whereupon he returned to farming in Illinois with his father, Benjamin Hedges. Benjamin was twice married, his first wife died within a few months of their marriage, and he then married Melissa Bennett, who died August 17, 1882. William was their first child of nine, born in Cumberland Co., Illinois on May 25, 1842. In 1869 he came to Nebraska City, his father Benjamin already having moved to Saunders Co. NE and farmed there in 1868. Benjamin died on the farm October 12, 1884. Benjamin's father was Phillip Hedges, a native of Virginia, and was a pioneer in Indiana, farmed there, kept a hotel, and for some years of his life ran a flour mill. He died at Lafayette, IN. of cholera in 1849. William homesteaded in West Oak Precinct Sect. 2 and 12, near the States homestead. He was the 1st Vice President of the first Old Settlers Reunion in 1886, school director for his district and filled the office of supervisor. He belonged to the Christian church of Agnew.


Tape recorded by Guenevere Gilfry States, 1994 and edited: (See Genevieve Gilfry (Gilfrey), her mother, for similar information.)
Abandoned by her father Grant when she was 18 months old, Guen was cared for by other people while her mother worked in a Bank in Omaha. Desperate for a way to support herself and daughter, her mother placed an ad in the column of Mary Lane, Omaha paper (see copy) for a placement for her 3-year old daughter and herself, a shared home with possibly an elderly lady. She found the Denning family of Omaha and stayed with them until her mother found employment with the Beadle family of Wahoo NE. She recalls getting sick and being taken to Lincoln hospital where she was administered saline through her stomach lining to prevent dehydration. She recalled that teenager George caused her to have her first bee sting (she was deathy allergic to stings from then on). George also gave her a ride in his new car (cars were rare in those days) and he honked at another approaching driver and ran the poor man off the road. George Beadle won the Nobel Prize for his work in the discovery of the Genetic Code (listed on faculty of Univ. Miami in 1994).
In spring of 1923 Guen was left in the care of her mother's friend that she called "grandmother" Escovits of Crawford NE. She was reunited with her father in the Fall of 1924 in Horton Kansas where he had obtained accomodations at a boarding house. She started to school at the young age of 5, intimidating except for the fact that her 1st grade teacher lived in the same boarding house. They purchased a new home next to the railroad tracks where her father worked and it was just across from the library,a perfect location for a budding bookworm. She recalls the housewarming party where people brought canned food from which the labels had been removed,making interesting results for meals later on. At 11 years old, they moved to Sheridan (1930), at the encouragement of Genevieve's half-aunt, Ester Penoiter who was living in Wyoming, because her dad lost his job to a person with higher seniority on the railroad, and he needed a place to escape the serious hayfever he suffered from prairie ragweed. She recalls the train trip with her father riding in the box car with all their belongings, plus a pig and the chickens (the government provided free transportation of livestock for families in the depression era). She and her mother rode in the passenger car. Her new beautiful, two-story home was on the outskirts of Sheridan, the Mountain View Poultry Farm, where they raised and sold chickens and chicken dinners. She occasionally had to kild the chickens herself, when the demand arose, and waited on tables in their home. ( She made use of this experience later in California where she raised and sold chickens on a farm near Sonora, CA, while her husband was off beekeeping). Making a living in Sheridan was difficult and the $10/month they got for mortgage payment on their Horton house went for groceries and the $.10/dollar the banks allowed on savings which went to the purchase in Sheridan. They rented two spare rooms and board to school teachers.
She attended and graduated from the 8th Grade in May of 1932. It was a 4 mile roundtrip walk to school. Her dad found out about an abandonded homestead (from Genevieve's half-aunt, Helen White Buell),requiring improvement and occupancy located west of Story. It had a one-room cabin and forested acreage. In the summer of 1932, they took up the homestead and built a second room for Guen. The logs didn't have time to cure and the bugs crawled through the dry cracks. Guen spent her freshman year in Sheridan, living in an apartment. Her dad hauled coal for $2.50/ton. He found a small ranch near Buffalo, the people were being foreclosed) and the family moved there that fall. She stayed in Sheridan for the rest of the freshman year with the Navicky family (daughters Susan and Victoria) for which they received milk and butter from the ranch. They had 2 cows, 3 horses, and chickens on the ranch. Christmas treesn were harvested from the homestead were sold. Her parents wanted her closer to Buffalo, so she went to high school in town, staying in a rented apartment alone and worked for two poor families in her sophomore and junior year. She was very lonely and had few friends. In her senior year, her mother moved to town and things improved with many friends made and graduation in Spring of 1936. Her parents were approached by the principal to see if she could use the honor scholarship, but because of finances they couldn't send her. The scholarship went to her best friend, Helen Terry. That summer, she went to Yellowstone with the Terrys and when she got back she found out that because of the government bonus check of $500, given to WWI veterans by President Roosevelt, she would be able to attend UW.
She enrolled in a 2-year business degree program and financed her second year with $75 from her folks and student loans, and employment. She roomed her first year in Hoyt Hall with Helen Terry and Josephine Chalcott (a friend from a neighboring ranch in Buffalo). They added to their circle of friends, Vicky Navicky from Sheridan, who had a car. In her second year they all lived together in a rooming house and Vicky, who worked at the Bee Culture Laboratory on the Laramie Campus introduced her to her soon-to-be husband, James States. She got a job in the summer of 1938, following receipt of her business degree, working for a doctor as maid and nanny. While peeling potatoes on a Laramie Boomerang newspaper, she inadvertently noticed an ad for a one-year job opening in Dean Hill's College of Agriculture office. She applied and got the job which she enjoyed very much. Dean Hill ( whose son John was later to marry James sister, Mignon) and Dr. Orville Beath (who many years later helped her son Jack in his Master of Science degree research), put together some funds to help support her in completing a 4-year degree. But, foolishly,she declined. She was tired of living hand to mouth and going to school, so she took a job in the Purchasing department at the University with Mr. Fuller in the fall of 1939.
That winter she met James. He took her skiing and she twisted her ankle on the first try. That winter he proposed, she declined. He was persistent, tried again and she finally accepted. They were married in June of 1940 at the home of Herbert J. States Sr., 921 Lewis St.(photos). They took an extended honeymoon trip through the west in a new 1940 Chevrolet sedan (photos). They resided at 313 S. 6th in a very small house with a large, curved front window. James was working at the bee lab and part time at Hollidays furniture and appliance store where he serviced radios. She became pregnant in March of 1941 and had a very difficult first three months. Everything progressed well until, at James insistance, she had an X-ray and discovered she was carrying twins. She was awestruck with the idea of twins, expecially since she had no experience with babies at all, although the prospect was exciting. They were born 2 weeks early. Jack Sterling , first born, at 7.6 lbs, resembled the Gilfry side of the family and James Bruce, born at 6.5 lbs resembled the States, so the twins were named accordingly. Stayed in the hospital 10 days. James commuted to Saratoga to help his father conduct his beekeeping business. He rented a home there in the summer of 1942, returning to a larger house in Laramie in the winter. commuted again in summer of 1943, back to Laramie in the winter and finally staying at the Torbett house rental in spring of 1944, there to stay until the purchase of the present home, in 1946, on the bank of the north Platte River. On October 16, 1944 Thomas Herbert was born in Laramie.

Elmer StateII notes:
Tape recorded by Guenevere Gilfry States, 1994 and edited: (See Genevieve Gilfry (Gilfrey), her mother, for similar information.)
Abandoned by her father Grant when she was 18 months old, Guen was cared for by other people while her mother worked in a Bank in Omaha. Desperate for a way to support herself and daughter, her mother placed an ad in the column of Mary Lane, Omaha paper (see copy) for a placement for her 3-year old daughter and herself, a shared home with possibly an elderly lady. She found the Denning family of Omaha and stayed with them until her mother found employment with the Beadle family of Wahoo NE. She recalls getting sick and being taken to Lincoln hospital where she was administered saline through her stomach lining to prevent dehydration. She recalled that teenager George caused her to have her first bee sting (she was deathy allergic to stings from then on). George also gave her a ride in his new car (cars were rare in those days) and he honked at another approaching driver and ran the poor man off the road. George Beadle won the Nobel Prize for his work in the discovery of the Genetic Code (listed on faculty of Univ. Miami in 1994).
In spring of 1923 Guen was left in the care of her mother's friend that she called "grandmother" Escovits of Crawford NE. She was reunited with her father in the Fall of 1924 in Horton Kansas where he had obtained accomodations at a boarding house. She started to school at the young age of 5, intimidating except for the fact that her 1st grade teacher lived in the same boarding house. They purchased a new home next to the railroad tracks where her father worked and it was just across from the library,a perfect location for a budding bookworm. She recalls the housewarming party where people brought canned food from which the labels had been removed,making interesting results for meals later on. At 11 years old, they moved to Sheridan (1930), at the encouragement of Genevieve's half-aunt, Ester Penoiter who was living in Wyoming, because her dad lost his job to a person with higher seniority on the railroad, and he needed a place to escape the serious hayfever he suffered from prairie ragweed. She recalls the train trip with her father riding in the box car with all their belongings, plus a pig and the chickens (the government provided free transportation of livestock for families in the depression era). She and her mother rode in the passenger car. Her new beautiful, two-story home was on the outskirts of Sheridan, the Mountain View Poultry Farm, where they raised and sold chickens and chicken dinners. She occasionally had to kild the chickens herself, when the demand arose, and waited on tables in their home. ( She made use of this experience later in California where she raised and sold chickens on a farm near Sonora, CA, while her husband was off beekeeping). Making a living in Sheridan was difficult and the $10/month they got for mortgage payment on their Horton house went for groceries and the $.10/dollar the banks allowed on savings which went to the purchase in Sheridan. They rented two spare rooms and board to school teachers.
She attended and graduated from the 8th Grade in May of 1932. It was a 4 mile roundtrip walk to school. Her dad found out about an abandonded homestead (from Genevieve's half-aunt, Helen White Buell),requiring improvement and occupancy located west of Story. It had a one-room cabin and forested acreage. In the summer of 1932, they took up the homestead and built a second room for Guen. The logs didn't have time to cure and the bugs crawled through the dry cracks. Guen spent her freshman year in Sheridan, living in an apartment. Her dad hauled coal for $2.50/ton. He found a small ranch near Buffalo, the people were being foreclosed) and the family moved there that fall. She stayed in Sheridan for the rest of the freshman year with the Navicky family (daughters Susan and Victoria) for which they received milk and butter from the ranch. They had 2 cows, 3 horses, and chickens on the ranch. Christmas treesn were harvested from the homestead were sold. Her parents wanted her closer to Buffalo, so she went to high school in town, staying in a rented apartment alone and worked for two poor families in her sophomore and junior year. She was very lonely and had few friends. In her senior year, her mother moved to town and things improved with many friends made and graduation in Spring of 1936. Her parents were approached by the principal to see if she could use the honor scholarship, but because of finances they couldn't send her. The scholarship went to her best friend, Helen Terry. That summer, she went to Yellowstone with the Terrys and when she got back she found out that because of the government bonus check of $500, given to WWI veterans by President Roosevelt, she would be able to attend UW.
She enrolled in a 2-year business degree program and financed her second year with $75 from her folks and student loans, and employment. She roomed her first year in Hoyt Hall with Helen Terry and Josephine Chalcott (a friend from a neighboring ranch in Buffalo). They added to their circle of friends, Vicky Navicky from Sheridan, who had a car. In her second year they all lived together in a rooming house and Vicky, who worked at the Bee Culture Laboratory on the Laramie Campus introduced her to her soon-to-be husband, James States. She got a job in the summer of 1938, following receipt of her business degree, working for a doctor as maid and nanny. While peeling potatoes on a Laramie Boomerang newspaper, she inadvertently noticed an ad for a one-year job opening in Dean Hill's College of Agriculture office. She applied and got the job which she enjoyed very much. Dean Hill ( whose son John was later to marry James sister, Mignon) and Dr. Orville Beath (who many years later helped her son Jack in his Master of Science degree research), put together some funds to help support her in completing a 4-year degree. But, foolishly,she declined. She was tired of living hand to mouth and going to school, so she took a job in the Purchasing department at the University with Mr. Fuller in the fall of 1939.
That winter she met James. He took her skiing and she twisted her ankle on the first try. That winter he proposed, she declined. He was persistent, tried again and she finally accepted. They were married in June of 1940 at the home of Herbert J. States Sr., 921 Lewis St.(photos). They took an extended honeymoon trip through the west in a new 1940 Chevrolet sedan (photos). They resided at 313 S. 6th in a very small house with a large, curved front window. James was working at the bee lab and part time at Hollidays furniture and appliance store where he serviced radios. She became pregnant in March of 1941 and had a very difficult first three months. Everything progressed well until, at James insistance, she had an X-ray and discovered she was carrying twins. She was awestruck with the idea of twins, expecially since she had no experience with babies at all, although the prospect was exciting. They were born 2 weeks early. Jack Sterling , first born, at 7.6 lbs, resembled the Gilfry side of the family and James Bruce, born at 6.5 lbs resembled the States, so the twins were named accordingly. Stayed in the hospital 10 days. James commuted to Saratoga to help his father conduct his beekeeping business. He rented a home there in the summer of 1942, returning to a larger house in Laramie in the winter. commuted again in summer of 1943, back to Laramie in the winter and finally staying at the Torbett house rental in spring of 1944, there to stay until the purchase of the present home, in 1946, on the bank of the north Platte River. On October 16, 1944 Thomas Herbert was born in Laramie. Tape recorded by Guenevere Gilfry States, 1994 and edited: (See Genevieve Gilfry (Gilfrey), her mother, for similar information.)
Abandoned by her father Grant when she was 18 months old, Guen was cared for by other people while her mother worked in a Bank in Omaha. Desperate for a way to support herself and daughter, her mother placed an ad in the column of Mary Lane, Omaha paper (see copy) for a placement for her 3-year old daughter and herself, a shared home with possibly an elderly lady. She found the Denning family of Omaha and stayed with them until her mother found employment with the Beadle family of Wahoo NE. She recalls getting sick and being taken to Lincoln hospital where she was administered saline through her stomach lining to prevent dehydration. She recalled that teenager George caused her to have her first bee sting (she was deathy allergic to stings from then on). George also gave her a ride in his new car (cars were rare in those days) and he honked at another approaching driver and ran the poor man off the road. George Beadle won the Nobel Prize for his work in the discovery of the Genetic Code (listed on faculty of Univ. Miami in 1994).
In spring of 1923 Guen was left in the care of her mother's friend that she called "grandmother" Escovits of Crawford NE. She was reunited with her father in the Fall of 1924 in Horton Kansas where he had obtained accomodations at a boarding house. She started to school at the young age of 5, intimidating except for the fact that her 1st grade teacher lived in the same boarding house. They purchased a new home next to the railroad tracks where her father worked and it was just across from the library,a perfect location for a budding bookworm. She recalls the housewarming party where people brought canned food from which the labels had been removed,making interesting results for meals later on. At 11 years old, they moved to Sheridan (1930), at the encouragement of Genevieve's half-aunt, Ester Penoiter who was living in Wyoming, because her dad lost his job to a person with higher seniority on the railroad, and he needed a place to escape the serious hayfever he suffered from prairie ragweed. She recalls the train trip with her father riding in the box car with all their belongings, plus a pig and the chickens (the government provided free transportation of livestock for families in the depression era). She and her mother rode in the passenger car. Her new beautiful, two-story home was on the outskirts of Sheridan, the Mountain View Poultry Farm, where they raised and sold chickens and chicken dinners. She occasionally had to kild the chickens herself, when the demand arose, and waited on tables in their home. ( She made use of this experience later in California where she raised and sold chickens on a farm near Sonora, CA, while her husband was off beekeeping). Making a living in Sheridan was difficult and the $10/month they got for mortgage payment on their Horton house went for groceries and the $.10/dollar the banks allowed on savings which went to the purchase in Sheridan. They rented two spare rooms and board to school teachers.
She attended and graduated from the 8th Grade in May of 1932. It was a 4 mile roundtrip walk to school. Her dad found out about an abandonded homestead (from Genevieve's half-aunt, Helen White Buell),requiring improvement and occupancy located west of Story. It had a one-room cabin and forested acreage. In the summer of 1932, they took up the homestead and built a second room for Guen. The logs didn't have time to cure and the bugs crawled through the dry cracks. Guen spent her freshman year in Sheridan, living in an apartment. Her dad hauled coal for $2.50/ton. He found a small ranch near Buffalo, the people were being foreclosed) and the family moved there that fall. She stayed in Sheridan for the rest of the freshman year with the Navicky family (daughters Susan and Victoria) for which they received milk and butter from the ranch. They had 2 cows, 3 horses, and chickens on the ranch. Christmas treesn were harvested from the homestead were sold. Her parents wanted her closer to Buffalo, so she went to high school in town, staying in a rented apartment alone and worked for two poor families in her sophomore and junior year. She was very lonely and had few friends. In her senior year, her mother moved to town and things improved with many friends made and graduation in Spring of 1936. Her parents were approached by the principal to see if she could use the honor scholarship, but because of finances they couldn't send her. The scholarship went to her best friend, Helen Terry. That summer, she went to Yellowstone with the Terrys and when she got back she found out that because of the government bonus check of $500, given to WWI veterans by President Roosevelt, she would be able to attend UW.
She enrolled in a 2-year business degree program and financed her second year with $75 from her folks and student loans, and employment. She roomed her first year in Hoyt Hall with Helen Terry and Josephine Chalcott (a friend from a neighboring ranch in Buffalo). They added to their circle of friends, Vicky Navicky from Sheridan, who had a car. In her second year they all lived together in a rooming house and Vicky, who worked at the Bee Culture Laboratory on the Laramie Campus introduced her to her soon-to-be husband, James States. She got a job in the summer of 1938, following receipt of her business degree, working for a doctor as maid and nanny. While peeling potatoes on a Laramie Boomerang newspaper, she inadvertently noticed an ad for a one-year job opening in Dean Hill's College of Agriculture office. She applied and got the job which she enjoyed very much. Dean Hill ( whose son John was later to marry James sister, Mignon) and Dr. Orville Beath (who many years later helped her son Jack in his Master of Science degree research), put together some funds to help support her in completing a 4-year degree. But, foolishly,she declined. She was tired of living hand to mouth and going to school, so she took a job in the Purchasing department at the University with Mr. Fuller in the fall of 1939.
That winter she met James. He took her skiing and she twisted her ankle on the first try. That winter he proposed, she declined. He was persistent, tried again and she finally accepted. They were married in June of 1940 at the home of Herbert J. States Sr., 921 Lewis St.(photos). They took an extended honeymoon trip through the west in a new 1940 Chevrolet sedan (photos). They resided at 313 S. 6th in a very small house with a large, curved front window. James was working at the bee lab and part time at Hollidays furniture and appliance store where he serviced radios. She became pregnant in March of 1941 and had a very difficult first three months. Everything progressed well until, at James insistance, she had an X-ray and discovered she was carrying twins. She was awestruck with the idea of twins, expecially since she had no experience with babies at all, although the prospect was exciting. They were born 2 weeks early. Jack Sterling , first born, at 7.6 lbs, resembled the Gilfry side of the family and James Bruce, born at 6.5 lbs resembled the States, so the twins were named accordingly. Stayed in the hospital 10 days. James commuted to Saratoga to help his father conduct his beekeeping business. He rented a home there in the summer of 1942, returning to a larger house in Laramie in the winter. commuted again in summer of 1943, back to Laramie in the winter and finally staying at the Torbett house rental in spring of 1944, there to stay until the purchase of the present home, in 1946, on the bank of the north Platte River. On October 16, 1944 Thomas Herbert was born in Laramie.



Elmer knew four of the children of Adeline States Johnson because their farms were nearby; Walter, Robert, Minnie, and Sheldon. Robert (Bob) and his wife, Blanche were the closest to his family,. He didn't know their two boys very well and they are both dead. He remembered when he was little that Walter and his sister Minnie and her daughter, Adeline, lived together just west of Valparaiso on a farm and they visited them. Adeline (Jurich) kept in touch at Christmas but he hasnt been receiving cards anymore. Her last address was Adaline Jurek 4099 Huerfano Ave, Apt #224, San Diego, CA 92117. PH: (619) 274-0910. She was a nurse, widowed with four girls. She would have a lot of information on the Johnsons.
Mary States Baxter lived in Seward NE, and Eliza stayed with them for awhile. She died from pneumonia and they shipped her body from Seward to Valparaiso by train for burial. Of Mary's six children, he only knew Edna Barnes and Ralph. Ralph was divorced and Edna might of had some children. Edna lived in Columbus NE. All of Mary's children are dead.


Born to german parents who were talented muscians, Carl had first lessons on violin at age 7. At nine he appeared with considerable success in public; and in this same year he began study of piano. Wneh sixteen he entered the New York German Conservatory of amusic, Carl Hein, Director, where he studied the violin, piano, harmony, counter point, fugue and composition. On finishing his study at 21, he became for two years professor of the violin and piano at the same institution. He has done notable work in concert, as organist and as conductor of choral societies. Then, along with more than two hunderd compositions in the smaller forms, he worte two symphonies, three string quartets, one violin concerto, one piano concerto and a trio for two cellos and piano. Of the work for the stage, Mr. Brandorff has written one light opera, "The Gypsy Queen", and two religious music dramas, "Noah" and "Jesus Christ".
FROM: American Opera and Its Composers by Edward Ellsworth Hipsher