MACIE BELLE HAYS  

Macie was born December 6, 1887. in Sterling, Logan, CO at the home of her grandparents, John and  Ansina Hague. She was the third child of William and Cornelia (Hague) Hays. They had gone to Sterling to see about a homestead. After Macie's birth they went back to their home just n/e of Cozad, Dawson, NE.   (see the William Hays family picture)

Her older brother, Homer Chauncy Hays was born in Worth Co., Missouri, June 20, 1883.  When he was two years old, the Hays family moved from Missouri to Nebraska.

"They came in a covered wagon and they drove a team of mules across Nebraska," Jim Hays said.

Macie's sister "Mabel was born in a sod house at Cozad."  (1885)

"Except for Homer and Macie, all the Hays children were born at Cozad."

She went to school in Cozad.

1900 Jun 25: Cozad census show her as 12 yrs, b Dec 1887 in CO; parents in KS and OH.
1906: Macie, 19, & parents moved 5 mi north of their first home on S.4.of Dawson Co, NE.  see picture of the farm
1907-1910: Macie & her sis, Mabel, sewed for Buffalo Bill Cody's wife.
1910 June 1: Macie Bell Hays, age 22, md ELGIN WOODCOX, age 23, Dawson Co, NE.
1910-1914: They lived at Willow Island, Dawson Co. Elgin worked at Grain Elevator.
1911 Aug 4: Helen Mary Woodcox born at Willow Island, the first of two children.
1914 Mar 29: Macie's mother, age 51, died of peritonitis. Macie was 26-md four years.
1915-1923: Macie & Jack Woodcox lived 1 mi w. of Lewellen, NE on s. side of highway 26.
1918: Macie's sis, Ann came to live with them . Ann's husband went off to France-war.
1920 Aug: Macie was 3 mo pregnant when she had to have her (ruptured) appendix out.
1921 Mar 4: dau Doris Cornelia Woodcox born at Lewellen, NE.
1923 Mar: Woodcoxes moved to the Berge place 7 mi north of Lisco.
1927 Nov: Macie, 40, went to Mayo Clinic, Rochester, NY for mastectomy-breast cancer.
1929: Dau Helen, 17, enrolled at U of NE.
1930 Jul : Helen Woodcox md Ralph H. Dexter at the home of her parents.
1933 Nov 17: Macie's father died. Funeral in Cozad. Took Helen from North Platte.
1940 Sep 25: dau Helen remarries: James M. Udy (later Div)
1941 Dec 30: dau Doris married Fred Dixon Jr.
1943: Jack and Macie moved from the Berge place (7 mi n. of Lisco) to Lisco town. Pop 150.
They lived there 1943 to 1952-- 1 block west of main street on the s/e corner.
1945 Oct 13 to Dec 1972: Fred & Doris Dixon lived on the farm 7 mi n. of Lisco.
1951: daughter, Helen remarries: Gerald Alva White.
1952: Jack 65, and Macie moved to 1602 Lake Avenue in Gothenburg, NE.
1952: After retirement, Jack & Macie spent a month in Estes Park, CO,several summers.
1959 Feb: Serious Stomach Cancer operation for Macie.
1960: Macie has another operation---Gothenburg.
1961: Macie has a heart attack.
1968 Jan 1: Jack Woodcox 81, dies
1974: Macie has been living in Oshkosh, NE.
1978 Apr 19: Macie Woodcox died- Oshkosh, Garden Co. NE. 90 years old, 4mo, 13 days. Buried beside her husband in Ash Hollow Cemetery outside of Lewellen, NE.

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1869--Macie Bell Hay's mother, CORNELIA HAGUE left Washington Co, Oh with her parents and siblings. They headed west and settled for awhile first Linn Co, MO, then Bates Co, MO.

1881 CORNELIA married WILLIAM HAYS at her parents home in Bates Co, MO.

1884 Her parents, JOHN& ANSINA HAGUE and seven of their 10 children, moved to Cozad, Dawson, NE.

1887 The JOHN HAGUE FAMILY moved on to Sterling, CO, but left two married daughters in Cozad. One dau was Nettie who md Andrew Hays. The other was CORNELIA who md William Hays, the brother of Andrew. Sisters md brothers and both HAYS families stayed in Cozad and are buried there.

1900 Jun 25: Cozad, Dawson,NE ED #89
WILLIAM HAYS JAN 1858, 42 MD-19 KS, PA, OH, farmer Own, Own
CORNELIA JUN 1862 37 md-19, 7Ch, 7 LIVING OH OH OH
HOMER C JUN 1883 16 MO KS OH
MABEL SEP 1885 14 NE
MACY DEC 1887 12 CO
JOHN JAN 1889 11 NE
RUSSELL MAR 1891 9 NE
RAY FEB 1895 5 NE
ANNA OCT 1898 1 NE

1914 CORNELIA (HAGUE) HAYS died at age 51 of peritonitis. She had been ill for some time and was taken to the hospital in Omaha for an operation, but did not survive. She had 7 children, 4 boys and 3 girls.

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DEAR CHRISTY, (11 yr old great great granddaughter) 29Dec 1999

YOU ASKED WHAT WAS MY GRANDMOTHER LIKE?

No one has ever asked me that before. I really had to stop and think about it. I was born in her home--out on the farm, 7 miles from the nearest and tiniest town--in Nebraska. Her home was always very clean and very neat--and it seems to me I was there a lot as I grew up. My mother and Father were divorced when I was 4 or 5, and my childhood memories always take me back to my Grandparents home in Nebraska. I loved being there. That was my "home base." I felt secure and of worth there. It was my place.

My grandmother was smaller than either of her two daughters--and smaller than I. About 5'3, I think. And not too heavy either. She had the merriest laughter--- I loved to hear her laugh--it just made me feel good all over.

She loved pretty dishes. And as I remember, she had a LOT of pretty dishes. I can remember a dish of hers got broken once and she cried. Maybe it wasn't the dish she was crying about. But I don't remember that she cried very easily. In fact that is the only time I remember that she did.

She was a marvelous cook as were both her daughters. Fried chicken and hot lovely dinner rolls are what I remember. And her buttermilk pancakes! Oh yes! They were soo good!

1 cup flour with 1tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk with a bit of soda in to sweeten ("one of everything"she used to say as she beat them up with a large spoon.)

I always called her "GRAMMIE" and I don't know why either.

She was #3 of 7 children (3 girls and 4 boys just like I've had).

She was born at her Grandmother's house in Sterling, Colorado.

MACIE BELL HAYS WOODCOX. 1887-1978.

(And I was born in her house, out on the farm, Lisco, NE.)

This was a nice trip for me down memory lane.

Thank you for asking.

Anything else?

Love Grandma Minson.

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My grandmother was a bit Puritan about some things ....not too many....and she had the merriest of laughs---I  loved to hear her laugh---lots of times as she got older she was kind of down at the mouth, but not when she was younger. I came along when she was just 40---and I was the oldest by 15 years of the 6 grandchildren, so I remember when she was young. (I always felt that I was special---and a good little girl. Must have been told that dozens of times the way it set in my brain. It's been a plus mostly.) She was a very clean and neat---a hard worker---yet very much a lady---carried water in a pail to the basement to wash clothes , but would not have gone to the field and driven a tractor for anything---like my auntie, her other daughter--did. Marvelous cook---and fried chicken or a banana cream pie---sour dough pancakes in the morning---oooooh I remember so much good food in her house. We had a cat, Nellie Lee, who was allowed to come in the house in the morning--would go straight to the cob box and eat the pancakes left there for her---then out she went. Scat!

In 1962, Carol wrote the following about her grandmother

"If I were to describe my grandmother, I would say she is about 5'5" with the cutest laugh you have ever heard.  She is very conscious of style and wears the very best clothes.

"She has beautiful beautiful hair which she wears close to her head in many waves. She has a smaller foot than any of her posterity and still has a slim ankle at the age of 74.

"She has always been so alert and active, not a lazy bone in her body.

"I heard one of her friends say recently, "Macie gets so much enjoyment out of life."

1998 Apr 5: Carol found the following note written in 1962 by a cousin-

Gerna Wynkoop Brann about Carol's grandmother, Macie "When Nancy Jane Hays died in 1930, I had worked in CA a year, so I came back here to Denver. A few days---My mother and father took a trip to Michigan. The next day I got a telegram saying my grandmother wasn't expected to live. So I went to Sterling and to the hospital. Her funeral was following Sun afternoon. Afterwards at home in Sterling I met Macie. She took charge of my boy who was 4-5 years old. Brought me home (to Denver) paid supper, everything. So awfully sweet to me. I have never forgotten that girl. ( Macie was 42) She was the sweetest thing."

Macie Belle (Hays) Woodcox buried in Ash Hollow Cemetery

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Obit: A funeral for Macie Woodcox 90 of Oshkosh, who died Wed in the Oshkosh hospital will be at 2 p.m. Friday in Holechek Funeral Home at Oshkosh with the Rev. Joseph P. Abele officiating. Burial will be in Ash Hollow Cemetery at Lewellen. A rosary will be recited at 7:30 this evening in the funeral home. Survivors include daughters Mrs. Helen White of Oshkosh and Mrs. Doris Dixon of Lisco."