This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/Bl.2ADI/545.2 Message Board Post: ARCHIE L. McMASTER FAMILY My grandfather, Wm. McMaster, immigrated from near Ulster, Ireland to the United States about the time of the potato famine in Ireland. He worked as a mule team driver on the Erie Canal for awhile. He met and married Emily Wheeler of Pennsylvania. Following their marriage, they moved west to a farm between Bedford and Mt. Ayr, Iowa. My father, Lee Frazer McMaster, was born at this location. The Wm. McMaster family, including my dad, moved from the farm in Iowa to Western, Saline County, Nebraska. My dad often told how he was given the job of herding a swarm of bees from Iowa to the farm in Nebraska. My maternal grandfather, Josiah Virgil Housel, lived in Iowa. He volunteered with an Iowa Unit and fought in the Civil War. He told me he believed in a strong federal union. He was wounded in the face and almost left for dead on the battlefield at Shiloh, Tennessee. However, he received treatment, regained his health, and later marched with Sherman through Georgia to the sea. Following the Civil War Granddad Housel married Harriet Romine. A few years later the Josiah Housels moved to a farm near David City, Butler County, Nebraska on a homestead. Granddad Housel told me about fording the Missouri River, as directed by a man from a hilltop on the west bank of the river, and Granddad was really pleased they made it without losing their belongings. My mother, Lillie Bell Housel, was born on this farm near David City. Mother, when just out of school, traveled to Western, Nebraska to assist her brother and sister-in-law in the care of their children. The brother, my uncle, was a school teacher in Western at the time. Dad successfully courted mother and they were married. Dad worked for a while on the railroad in Wymore, Nebraska. He then traveled to Valparaiso, Nebraska to find work on the Union Pacific Railroad. In traveling from Lincoln to West Lincoln he had to be taken in a rowboat since both Salt and Oak Creeks were in flood stage. The folks m! oved to Valparaiso where I was born October 23, 1907. My brother, Harlan Gayle, was about four and one-half years older and my sister, Genevieve Ione, was about two years younger than I. Our family lived in Valparaiso until about 1923 when my parents moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. I met and married Aural Jacquetta Rusho in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1935. "Jacquie" was born and reared in Loup County, Nebraska. I served as a Company Commander, Philippine Scouts, Philippine Division in World War II. Following the fall of Bataan I was interned by the Japanese as a prisoner of war for two years and ten months. Though not in the best of health when liberated, I was soon able to complete my education at the University of Nebraska. "Jacquie" and I returned to Saunders County in 1951 as I was assigned here as a Soil Conservationist with the Soil Conservation Service. "Jacquie" and I have three children (living), and now married. They are Patricia Rae, Robert Rusho, and Richard Lee. We also now have eight wonderful grandchildren. "Jacquie" and I are still going strong and enjoying the good life of Saunders County submitted by Archie L. McMaster