Sarah Crouch

Funeral services will be Monday, February 27, 2023, at 2:00 pm at Govier Brothers Chapel in Broken Bow with Pastor John Parsons officiating. The service will be livestreamed at www.govierbrothers.com  Burial will be in the Broken Bow Cemetery. Memorials are suggested to Asera Care or the Donor’s Choice. A visitation will take place on Sunday, February 26^th from 1:00 to 6:00 pm, with family greeting 4:00 to 6:00 pm at Govier Brothers Mortuary. Govier Brothers Mortuary are in charge of arrangements. Condolences may be left at www.govierbrothers.com.

Sarah was born September 19, 1925, in Finchville, NE to Robert and Jeanetta (Christensen) Shaw.

She died February 21, 2023, at the Quality Senior Village in Broken Bow, NE.

She graduated from Arnold High School in 1942 at the age of 16.

She taught school at Rye Valley and Hoosier Valley schools before marrying Ora Crouch on December 23, 1945. To this union were born six children.

She carried mail for 44 years and always raised a large garden.  She loved to crochet, read, and do jigsaw puzzles.

She is survived by; three sons, Bob (Cindy) of St. Paul, Jim (Mary) of Merna, and Marvin (Judy) of Kearney; two daughters, Barbara (Myron) Mason of Anselmo, and Carla (Jim) Stark of Washington, KS; son-in-law Tim Connealy of Richmond, MO; one brother, Bill (Darlene) Shaw of Broken Bow; two sisters, Genevieve Lindly of Eugene, OR and Colleen Grubb of Wenatchee, WA;  20 grandchildren,  numerous great grandchildren and great great grandchildren, many nieces and nephews.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Ora, her parents; Robert and Jeanetta Shaw; her daughter, Patricia Connealy; three brothers, Eddie Shaw, twins Larry and John Shaw; four sisters, Abbie (David) Zoerb, Harriett (Loyal) Robinson, Olive (Howard) Simms, and Bonnie Reed; and two brothers-in-law, Dub Lindly, and Dale Grubb.

Chapter 8

Sarah Shaw Crouch

I was born at home in Finchville, NE. I was apparently a "preemie" because my sister Harriet said the she remembers Mom wrapping me in a blanket and putting me in a shoebox, then placing the shoebox in the warming oven on the stove.

When I was very little, I got into the Daisy fly killer. It was a 4" x 6" pan that was painted green and had daisies painted on the top. Each daisy had a yellow cork in the center which was removed to fill with water, and then it would be put out to kill flies. I sucked on one of the corks. Mom gave me some ipecac and had my sisters walk me to keep me awake. They called the doctor, but when he came out, he said that Mom had done everything he would have so he went back to town. I survived.

One time Elmer Halouska was running in school and fell against a desk that had a broken seat. He cut his head but I was the one who passed out at the sight of blood.

We usually walked to school which was 2 miles away. We milked cows and feed the calves each morning before heading for school and then again each night after getting home from school. We attended the Lower Finchville school through grade school.

The home place was located southeast (mainly south) of Uncle Lawrence and Aunt Libbies. I would go stay at their place. One time I told Aunt Libbie that I would help her do the dishes if she'd put me on a chair. I always was short. Uncle Lawrence made up a poem about it: Little Miss Sarah sat on a chair, No one can see her but still she is there.

Dad would give me some change when he left to go to the Post Office to work. I would hide it under the living room rug. Mom said when they took up the rug to replace it there was enough money under it to pay for the new one.

Mom always sent me out with Dad when he went out to work I think it was because of his age. Dad always called me "Ben". One day, Dad was working a field with four horses pulling a harrow, when some guys pulled up in a car and asked him to go help them. He told me to drive the horses to the middle of the field and drop the tugs and then take them to the barn and Mom would help me unharness them. They asked Dad if he was sure I could do it because I was so small. He told them not to worry, she can handle it.

The horses Dad used were big horses. We would have to crawl into the feed box to put the bridles on them. "Old Turk" was a skunk tail roan he sired most of our colts. "Baldie" was a bald faced sorrel we had. One day we saw the hired man hit Baldie with a chain, so we hid the chain in a tree so he couldn't do it again. Dad had good horses and he was very proud of them.

I remember one time that Fred H. wanted a horse. Dad wasn't too keen on giving one to him but Fred kept pleading and finally Dad gave him Belle. He told Fred that he would have to keep Belle in the barn when he wasn't using her because she was blind and if left out in the pasture,

she might get bit by a snake. A few months later Fred came to ask if he could get another horse because Belle had been bitten by a snake and died. Dad said I don't have another horse to give you to which Fred retorted, "There are two people I have no use for, Jesus Christ and Bob Shaw". Dad felt that this put him in pretty good company.

During the summers, if we weren't milking cows, we were herding sheep. When out herding sheep, Dad always told us to stay on our horses so we wouldn't get bit by a snake. One time, while herding sheep, we found some baby rabbits. We took 2 of them home with us and raised them on a bottle. One died shortly after we got them home but the other one we managed to raise until it was about big enough to eat only our dog Brownie beat us to it.

One time, Bonnie and I went to get the cows in for milking and when we stopped to open the gate, I picked up a big stick. Bonnie asked me what I thought I was going to do with that stick to which I replied, "Kill a snake". And sure enough, before we got back home, I had killed a rattlesnake.

One day, Dad bought Bonnie a welsh pony. Bill wanted it but Dad said no that it was to be her pony. Bill kept begging and finally Dad told him that he'd have to wait for the first colt. When the pony was delivered it had a colt by its side. We had 2 welsh ponies, Babe and Beauty.

If we wanted to go to town, we would go to the railroad tracks and flag down the train, pay our fare and ride into town. One day as Harriet and Olive were returning home from the river, they decided to place their shoes on the railroad tracks so the train would run over them and they could get a new pair. (They had painted their shoes to make them look like oxfords but it hadn't turned out so good.) After walking a ways, they suddenly had the thought of what if the shoes caused the train to derail and it would be their fault. They ran as fast as they could back and grabbed their shoes off the rails and hurried on home before anyone could see them.

We also had a pony named "Prince". I remember him because we raised turkeys and he would be so careful not to step on the baby turkeys. He contracted encephalitis and died.

It would always be just us girls as we walked to school but on the way home from school we would walk with some of the neighbor kids like Woodwards, the other Shaw kids and the Hill kids. We would dawdle along more then as we weren't in such a hurry. I remember that one teacher promoted Loye and I up a grade.

I remember the summer that Colleen was born. Bonnie, Genevieve, and I had to go to stay with Uncle Lawrence while Libbie came to take care of Mom. We crawled in bed with Uncle Lawrence and just about then, the rooster crowed. Uncle Lawrence told us not to pay attention to him, he talks in his sleep.

Mom always made bread from yeast foam. The next morning at Uncle Lawrence's, I made bread for the first time. My batch wasn't as big as Mom's because my hand wasn't as big as hers. For you see, she taught us to measure the salt, sugar and other ingredients in our hand.

I remember one Christmas when Harriet was supposed to help fill the stockings, but she fell asleep instead. So the next morning some of us wrapped a bundle of sticks to get even with her.

During my 8^th grade year, I had pneumonia. It was the same time that Bill had Brights disease. I got well just in time to take the 8^th grade exams.

In High School, kids thought that Loye and I were twins. We were in the same grade and had the same last name. They didn't realize he was my nephew.

We attended High School in Arnold. The first year, Winnie, Loye and I rented a room and did light housekeeping at Mrs. Chillicote's. She became ill so we rented rooms and moved there to finish the year. My sophomore year we rented rooms from the McMahans. I roomed with Lucille and Loye. Later that year I stayed with Abbie and David and rode to school with Geisers. My junior year, I also rode to school with Geisers. I think that was the year that Olive froze her legs. My senior year, Dad bought us a car and Loye drove with Donna, Norma, Esther, Bonnie and I. I graduated in 1942 at the age of 16. Mom died in April just before I graduated in May.

After Mom's death, I stayed at home for the first year after I had graduated. The next 2 years, I taught school at Rye Valley. Dad passed away in June of 1945 and I worked for Glen Graybeal in the store that summer then my third year of teaching was at Hoosier Valley. I boarded with Bill and Ruth Winchester until I got married halfway through that school year.

We then stayed with Ora's folks on their place in Hoosier Valley. When his folks moved to outside of Merna, we made the move with them. (This was to a house that stood on the west side of the highway across from what is now the Cole place, just northwest of Merna.) Pat was born while we lived there. Ora's folks then moved to a farm by Broken Bow, but we stayed in Merna and lived with Wilda and Junior Diefenbaugh for a few months. We then moved above the telephone office in Merna. Next, we lived in a big three story house west of what is now (2007) called Petro Plus. We lived on the ground floor of that house. Williams lived on the second floor and Johnsons lived on the third floor. We then bought a house across and west from the Lutheran church. Bob was born while we lived there.

We then moved to Anselmo and rented a room from Mrs. Christen in the house where Howard Dickey lives now. From there we moved across the tracks to Hubert Miller's house. Barb was born while we lived there. It was about this time that I started carrying mail. Next we rented the Thompson house northwest of the school (Hogg's house). Our next move was just a half of a block east to Ruby Ganow's house. It was while we were living here, that Ora was hurt while fighting a fire at Budge Knoell's shop out by New Helena. He and 2 other men were lifted on a farm hand of a tractor to try and spray water down on the fire, when the farm hand tipped backwards and dumped them off. Ora suffered a bad gash in his back and had his ear nearly tom off. They brought him by ambulance to the house where Dr. Spivey stitched him back up.

Carla was born just before we moved to Edith Beardsley's house. We were there for a couple of years before moving out by the park to Budge Knoell's house which was located just east of his shop. Ora worked for Budge, running heavy equipment at this time. Jim was born while we lived here. We then bought a house just north of Anselmo, which I still live in. Marvin was born while we lived here.

Ora worked at a number of different jobs during this time. He drove his own truck and then drove truck for Joe McDermott. He ran a filling station, a pool hall, and did construction work.

He helped build the Milburn dam, carried mail (starting in 1948 to 1951 when I started carrying). Helped move snow, and build a number of roads.

I always had a large garden and did a lot of canning. When possible I raised chickens, both frying chickens and laying hens.