Pioneering Nebraska and the Twister of 1933: Agnes Smith Callander

Jacob Smith > James Smith > William Lawrence Smith > Agnes Smith Callander

You can read about Agnes Smith's parents, William Lawrence and his wife, Agnes Watson and her

Agnes and mother Agnes Watson

difficult pioneer life, here.

Agnes was the oldest of the two Smith children and was born on 07 Jan 1879 in Nebraska. Agnes was not a particularly handsome woman. Fred Callander's family had come to Saline County, Nebraska from Indiana, when Fred was about 13. Fred's father Archibald had emigrated from Scotland and he and Fred's mother Elvira Beebe Jacoby had married in Minnesota in 1859. Agnes and her brother, William Lawrence "Willie" Smith, lived in New Era Precinct, Furnas County, Nebraska after the death of their father. Agnes met Fred Callander and they married on 08 Apr 1897 and as of 1900 resided next door to his parents, Archibald and Elvira Callander.  Her brother, Willie, was a lodger at the home of Archibald and Elvira Callander in 1900.

Tryon, Nebraska 1912

In 1905, the young Callander family, then made up of the couple and three children, moved just down the road to the relatively untouched prairie of near Tryon, Nebraska in the Sandhills, filing on the Kinkaid 640-acre property. According to Fred and Agnes' daughter Mildred, they set about building up their sod house and breaking prairie. Ultimately, the Callander's would have seven children.

McPherson County, Nebraska had a population of just over 2,000 in 1912, the time of this photo of Tryon. According to Nebraska Outback, at one point McPherson County had 20 post offices, five towns and 63 school districts. The trail road in the foreground is now Highway 97. McPherson County is now the third least populous county in Nebraska, with a population just over 500.

Mildred Callander Grabbe described their life in those early days:

"My father had a four-horse team of small horses and a freight wagon used to haul freight of various kinds, mainly I think, food supplies, and taking corn to market and returning with some coal for heating. He hauled freight from Stapleton and from North Platte, many miles on ungraded roads, through valleys and around hills, for both the Mike David and I.C. (Ide) Heldenbrand stores. He would take one day to go, and another to come back. The miles have been shortened much as more modern roads were made. In these little stores they had most anything you would want to maintain that way of life, from food, remedies, pills, liniment, kerosene for the lamps, hardware, dress material by the yard, (or dry goods) sewing notions, hardware, feed and some lumber and fence posts.

In winter it was unbearably cold, so to keep going the long hours the trip would take, he walked many miles alongside the wagon. When he made the trip with snow on the ground, the sound of the wagon wheels made a very weird or eerie sound that could be heard for miles on a cold quiet evening. I remember so well when waiting for him, if after dark, going outside listening in the stillness, and guessing how long yet? It was always a homecoming for we all loved him so much. 

It is hard for today’s generation to imagine, or visualize the “way of life” of so long ago (three quarters of a century). Flour came in 48 pound cloth sacks (the old David Harum brand and the Sioux Lookout brand) I remember, and sugar in 100 pound muslin sacks. These sacks were used for dish towels, or whatever the need. There were very few cereals, a few boxes of Corn Flakes, but mostly long cooking Quaker Oats or ground corn meal for mush. Of course we didn’t get eggs and milk in cartons, but from our own farm. There was no electricity, so no refrigeration, telephone, radio or TV. To keep foods cold they were kept in the water barrel with fresh cool water being pumped by the windmill, and it was kerosene lamps and lanterns that lighted our way.

He also did some carpenter work for others, helping to build barns, and other buildings as progress came. Even when building a sod house, there were doorways, window frames and sometimes floors. There have been many live on a dirt floor till there was money enough to buy the lumber for the floor. 

My father also worked for the U.P.R.R. “Rip-track” for a time, but he had to stay in North Platte away from home, so it was not for long. Then by 1914 and 1915, he and Archie worked planting pine trees at the Halsey Reserve. During the time of planting they rescued some of the smaller culls of Jack, Scotch and Yellow Pine that were being discarded, took them home, planted and nourished them. For many years they were the only pines in the Sandhills and they still stand out, tall, proud and glorious. One spring day 20 or more years later, pushed by high winds, a fire raged through the forest burning many of the trees planted during the years the Callanders worked there. But over the years, our home trees grew very well. Planting at the Forest involved first plowing a furrow over prairie hills and all, then working with a spade pushed into the soft sandy soil, worked back and forth, a tree was inserted and with a firm step pressed closed, it was left to grow."*

The Callanders farmed for many years, raising their seven children and moved into their old age. The work was hard and along the way they experienced their share of tragedy. Oldest son Archibald was drowned at age 31 at Whitewater Lake in western McPherson County, leaving a wife and two small boys. Daughter Ruby and her husband William Cass were killed in an auto accident in 1950.

In May of 1933, Tryon, along with many other towns stretching from Minnesota to Kansas, was struck by a twister, wiping out buildings and the old soddie. Fortunately the family did not experience any loss of life, but Agnes was injured along with 17 neighbors. Other neighbors and friends were not so lucky.

Ann Callander McGiff recalled the fateful day:

"On Monday, May 22, 1933, the old sod house was destroyed by the cyclone that caused so much damage on that fateful evening. On the previous Friday afternoon, on the last day of school when I walked home with little Iola Pyzer, I had no idea that the next time I would see her she would be with younger sister in their Mother’s arms lying in a casket. Along with the other five victims in the mass funeral services held in Miller Chapel. The Harry Pyzer family lived less than a mile north of us."

Mr Pyzer had been in North Platte that day and returned to find only his dog, Nick, and a few hogs remaining alive. His entire family was lost: Willis Bender, 29; Don Bender, 9 months; Iola Pyzer, 7; Mary Evelyn Pyzer, 5; Mrs Dora Pyzer, 25 and Mrs Edna Nelson, 23, were killed. The Benders and Mrs Nelson were visiting there.

Fred died 15 Jan 1944 and Agnes followed him 01 Jul 1962.

Sources: US Census; Find A Grave, and with thanks to *OutbackNebraska, who provided permission to use photos and stories previously published as reference.