From: "Jim Hiatt" <jhiatt@@integrityonline.com> GOLDEN WEDDING

Last Tuesday, March 2nd, Mr.and Mrs. W.T. Hiatt celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage. There were sixty-five invited guests present, most of whom were relatives of the family. The event was one of more than usual note, inasmuch as Mr. and Mrs. Hiatt have resided here for so many years and perhaps are as well known as any family in Holt county. Not only are they well known but they are well respected by everybody, and if they have an enemy it is unknown. The guests began arriving early and with their usual hospitality Mr. and Mrs. Hiatt made them feel at home. At the noon hour feasting began, and although many times in years past have the Hiatt House tables been laden with good things, such a feast as this was perhaps never spread there before. After the wants of the inner man had been supplied as many as possible repaired to the parlor, and those who couldn't get in the parlor got near it, to hear a little speech making. Much to the gratification of the hearers Mr. Hiatt in a pleasing manner told of his family history and some incidents connected therewith, after which talks were made by Dr. J.M. Tracy and others. As the guests took leave they expressed themselves as having enjoyed the ocasion immensely and wished Mr. and Mrs. Hiatt many more years of life together. They were the recipients of many valuable and useful presents. To Mr. and Mrs. Hiatt were given: Pintray, W.L. Wright and wife, St. Joe; butter knife and sugar shell, F.E. Vandersloot and wife; berry spoon, W.H. Wales and wife; sugar shell, J.B. Denny and wife; bon bon tray, Mrs. B.E Wood, Skidmore; butter knife, Susie Lewis; handkerchief, J. Heaton and wife, Skidmore; handkerchief, David Cooksey and wife, Forbes; boquet, Myrtle Rodgers. To Mr. Hiatt was presented the following: Gold spectacles, Dr. Chittenden and wife; gold ring, J.T. Hiatt and wife; cuff buttons, W.S. Hiatt and wife, watch chain, Mrs. J.J. Coffield, Nebraska City; handkerchief, John Heaton, Skidmore. Mrs. Hiatt received the following: Gold watch and chain, Mrs. Alice Hoover, Mrs. Ella Miller, J.B. Smith, Wm. Clark, Claude Clark, Miama Welding, Susie Lewis, J.F. Hazlett, C.C. Rude, J.M. Harvey and C.O. McIntyre; breast pin, Dr. Chittenden; breast pin, Mrs. Jennie Dunham; thimble, Mrs. J. Coffield, Nebraska City; work basket, Wm. Walker, Skidmore. Being interviewed in regard to his ancestry Mr. Hiatt said: "The old stock of Hiatts came across the briny deep with Wm. Penn and located in Pennsylvania. My grandfather, Wm. Hiatt, "packed" over the Blue Ridge in 1808, going to Ohio. My father, Stephen Hiatt was born in Pennsylvania in 1798, and was about ten years old when grandfather left for Ohio. After reaching Ohio grandfather built a log cabin and lived in it for two years when he sold out and went farther west, lived awhile and went west again, and got as far as Cincinnati. >From Cincinnati he went over into Kentucky and figured around considerable with Daniel Boone. My father, in the spring of 1818, soon after moving to Kentucky, hired out to run a hand ferry from Covington to Cincinnati." "And now," said Mr. Hiatt, "you needn't print this if you don't want to, but while father was on this ferry he saw the first steamboat that ever got that far up the river. It was on Christmas morning when this little steamer came up and anchored out in the middle of the Ohio and began shooting a little cannon. The people flocked down to the banks and a number of men got into skiffs and went out there. They wanted the captain to land either on one shore or the other, but he said, 'No,' and said if he did the people would crowd on the boat to see the machinery and their weight would sink it." "My father was married in Boone county, Ky., to Miss Lucy Morris, daughter of Thos. Morris, an old settler there. Soon afterward grandfather and father moved to Greenup county, 150 miles from Cincinnati, and settled within seven miles of Catlinsburg and seven miles of Irvington. They lived there until 1841. In the fall of that year father loaded up his goods with five yoke of cattle to one wagon and a span of mules to another wagon and started for the Platte Purchase. I remember we stopped about two weeks in Boone county and visited some of mother's relatives there." Here Mr. Hiatt digressed a little and told us that as they crossed the river at Lawrenceburg, Ind., they could plainly see the monument of William Henry Harrison near North Bend. "And another thing," he continued, "when we arrived in Indiana there was a lot of Buckeye wagons standing there. They had those old time cabins on the wagons and had just returned from the Battle of Tippecanoe grounds." "On the road from there it began raining so much and the roads got so muddy that father concluded to stop at a town called New Bethel about 8 miles east of Indianapolis, where we stayed all winter. In the spring he started out again taking the old Vaudalia line, intending to cross the Mississippi at Quincy, but he fell in with some emigrants who persuaded him to go to Iowa and locate, and went to Burlington and crossed there. It cost $5 to cross the ferry there. This was a steam ferry and was called Mill Boy. We settled in Louisa county a few miles above Burlington. Lived there until 1844; then moved to Des Moines county." "On March 2nd, 1817," said Mr. Hiatt, "I was married to Susannah Heaton. We lived in Des Moines county until 1851 when a big flood came and washed away a great lot of my rails and other stuff. That spring we moved to Mercer county, Illinois, and I engaged in various kinds of business, the best paying of all being a corn-sheller which made the good money - in fact I called it my gold mine. On the 20th day of February. 1866, we started for Missouri and settled one mile east of Oregon on a farm known as the Beeler farm." In 1873 Mr. Hiatt moved to Mound City and engaged in the livery business for a number of years. Before the railroad was built he ran a transfer line from Bigelow to Mound City and also carried the mail. In 1874 he embarked in the hotel business and with the exception of a few years has been connected with the "Hiatt House" since that time. Mr. W.T. Hiatt was born in Greenup county, Ky., Sept. 8, 1826. Mrs. Hiatt was born in Brown county, Ohio, Feb. 1, 1832. She resided in her native county until eight years of age, when the family moved to Henderson county, Ills., and in the spring of 1844 the moved to Des Moines county, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Hiatt have had twelve children, six of whom are living, viz: Mrs. J.M. Clark, Mrs. D.J. Hoover, John W. Hiatt, Will S. Hiatt, Mrs. Ella Miller, and J.T. Hiatt. They have about 25 grand children and 18 great grand children. Grandmother Heaton, who has been living with her daughter, Mrs. Hiatt for more than a year, was born in 1810.