Printed in the Benkelman, NE Post, June 18, 1970

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Memory of the Late Elmer E. Hester Recalled In Magazine

The career of the late Elmer E. Hester, outstanding Hereford breeder and Dundy county philanthropist, was the subject of a feature article in The Nebraska Cattleman, issue of March which was written by Anoma Hoffmeister of Imperial. The article is herewith published as it appeared in that issue.

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Elmer E. Hester never had time for mottos but his life spelled out one in four words, "hard work and thrift."

Sarah Ann Hester, originally from Illinois, came to Dundy County in 1899 with her youngest of eight children, twin sons, Elmer E. and Eli A. Hester. Her sons were born three months after their father's death and were the youngest of a family of eight children which included another set of twin boys, John and Charles.

The three of them filed on homesteads in Thayer Precinct in Dundy County. The mother, who was not a young woman when they came to the county, sold her homestead to Eli and went to live with Elmer.

The Hester ranches were around 40 miles from town and the men rigged up a telephone line on the barbed wire fence in 1903. The switchboard that connected the ranch with Benkelman was in the Elmer Hester home and one connecting the ranches with Champion and Imperial was in the George Watts home. A grind of the telephone crank could summon a doctor or help in the isolated community.

Elmer began his long list of philanthropies by a gift of land for the Rollwitz school and church in 1910.

Marie Denny, daughter of Eli, in her reminiscing said, "Uncle Elmer was considered the sickly one in the family and was the only one who was given an education in order that he might make a living without hard physical labor."

Instead of avoiding hard work, he taught school along with homesteading.

Etta Hester, widow of Boone Hester, eldest son of Eli, said when Elmer was a young man he walked in his sleep and if the family heard him in the night, one of them would get up and direct him back to his room. Once in a while when the house was wrapped in sleep, he would go out and saddle his horse and ride away. As soon as he was missed, someone went searching for him."

Etta continued, "Often they had to stay overnight when they went to Benkelman with teams. Elmer was staying at the Ough Hotel when he walked in his sleep down the hall of the hotel and shouted, 'She's on fire boys, she's on fire,' emptying the hotel in minutes."

His nieces with their voices full of compassion said, "We all knew Uncle Elmer was thinking of the dreaded prairie fires in his sleep, not a fire in the hotel."

He built a large barn on his homestead, which was the nucleus of the Wineglass ranch, when his mother was still matriarch of the ranch and celebrated its completion with a community get together. All the neighbors came and brought basket dinners, and in the evening it was an old fashioned country party for the young people.

In order to make life easier for his mother, he built a fine house in Benkelman for his mother, his widowed sister, Margaret Scott, and her two little girls, but he continued to drive to the ranch every day.

The family was as close as a covey of quail and looked out for each other. When his oldest brother, Sam, lost his wife, his three small sons came to make their house with their Uncle Elmer. Margaret Scott did the cooking and helped care for Sam's boys and in addition to that did the sewing for the Ell Hester family.

Elmer's generosity didn't deter his climb upward, besides the Wineglass ranch, he added the Riverside, Evans and Cottonwood in Dundy County. He also had the Canarado Ranch in Kansas.

Boone Hester, whose real name was Elmer Charles, was foreman of the Riverside ranch and Evans ranch for nine years.

When Sarah Ann Hester became elderly, the Elmer Hester Home was the scene of many family gatherings for her birthday and various wedding anniversaries and birthdays of other family members. They were apt to come bringing food with them and stay three to five days.

Elmer planned to be married in the spring of 1914, but before the wedding plans were carried out, Sarah Ann Hester died. Instead of a large wedding, Elmer, now 48, and Minnie B. Kimberling went quietly to McCook and were married.

Death laid its cruel hand on the family again, when in 1917 Minnie's sister died leaving an infant son which the Hesters adopted. His adopted son, Vinton, acquired a rare kidney disease at the age of ten and was never able to take part in ranch activities.

Elmer entered the purebred cattle business around 1930 with the purchase of the Hereford cattle of the late Glenn Kimberling from Kimberling's widow, Ida. Hester was to own Real Prince Dundy 2720000 get of Real Prince Domino, the Kimberlings most outstanding herd sire, during his cattle business career.

The depression began soon after his purchase of the expensive purebred cattle and with a decline in the market, it was a difficult time for him as well as for most people.

Mrs. Denny said, "After he had weathered the depression years, he seemed changed. He was known to give a lecture on thrift along with their pay checks to some of his employees."

By 1936 his climb in the purebred cattle business was noted by cattlemen when he purchased the top young Hereford bull in the Denver Stock Show for $1650. Progeny from his purchase started the famous Prince Dundy line of Herefords.

Elmer and his wife attended the Denver Stock Show each winter and he came home with a severe cold bordering on pneumonia each time. Mrs. Hester liked craft work and busied herself at craft shops in Denver always coming home with new ideas for her busy hands.

In 1948, the year before his death at 83, the Benkelman Post says, "Elmer Hester took 43 of his registered Herefords to Chappell, Nebraska, for sale. He was afraid to go to Denver to the stock show because of weather conditions. The Chappell section had always been a good market for his cattle."

Although Hester didn’t have registered stock other than cattle, he had about 100 Poland China hogs at each ranch, said Mrs. Denny

Hester, realizing that the youth preparing for adult life and the aged overcome with infirmities were the two most difficult times in a person's life, devoted his philanthropies to these two age groups.

He said, "When I was teaching school, I became convinced that 'all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.' "

Thus his first major philanthropy was furnishing funds for boys and girls to attend district and state 4-H meetings and $7000 was given for the purchase of a quonset building used at Benkelman High School for vocational agricultural training.

Minnie Hester passed away in 1943. Before her death, she and Elmer set up the Elmer E. and Minnie B. Hester Ministerial Scholarship Fund for the education of young people wanting to enter the ministry. Later Mr. Hester gave Iliff School of Theology at Denver and Wesleyan University at Lincoln for building construction a sum of $75,000 for the two.

In 1941 he made provisions for the erection of the Sarah Ann Hester Memorial Home in honor of his mother by giving to the home an endowment of 3240 acres of ranch land later increasing it 760 acres which was the Kansas Canarado Ranch.

The original structure containing 29 rooms for the aged was increased in 1966 to a capacity of 84 guests. The corner stone was laid November 6, 1955, about six years after his death.

He also created the Elmer E. Hester Foundation and set aside his Wineglass Ranch of 4404 acres and a school section along with 200 head of Hereford cattle together with equipment. The foundation loans money to two boys and two girls, who have been in 4-H to attend college. The loan is paid after they are established in their chosen vocation. It has enabled many young people to go to college who otherwise would not have been able to do so through the last two decades.

Hester also specified the foundation was to sponsor and help in every other worthwhile movement for the community good.

Harold Brunswick is now manager of the former Wineglass ranch for the foundation. The Cottonwood Ranch was sold before his philanthropies were made.

Marie Denny said, "He drove to the ranches and was gone from early in the morning until late at night until he broke his hip, six months before his death."

The break in his busy day came for him after the noon meal when he sat in his favorite wicker rocking chair, put the paper over his face, and took a nap.

Mrs. Denny and Mrs. Boone Hester said their Uncle didn't seem to have the will to recuperate after he broke his hip but the boy that was frail outlived all his brothers and sisters and passed away at the age of 83 in 1949, the greatest philanthropist Dundy County has ever known.