Hamilton Dome, Wyoming
Picture: Noah Hilyard in Hamilton Dome, Wyoming, posing
with grandchildren, clockwise from bottom, Ruth Hilliard (daughter of Adam
Hilliard); Dolores Hilliard (daughter of Jack, only surviving child of
Jack at this writing); Dorothy Hilliard (died in South America); Walter
Carl "Tuff" Hilliard (my grandfather, son of Jack); Bill Hilliard (brother
of Ruth, son of Adam); Austin Earl "Sandy" Hilliard (son of Jack, twin
brother of Tuff).
Cousin Ruth Hilliard Winters told me about this photo
in a conversation in 1992, not long before she passed away. Ruth's father,
Adam (Noah's youngest son) got the notion from his brother A. F. "Jack"
Hilliard, that life and work in the West were good, so around 1925 or '26,
he packed the family up and went out to Hamilton Dome, Wyoming, just outside
Thermopolis in the Northwest part of the state.
By this time, Jack Hilliard was the field superintendent
at the Hamilton Dome oil field (a "dome", incidentally, is a geological
rise or a hill, often found in proximity to oil fields, as in the infamous
"Teapot Dome"), having worked in the oil business in various capacities
since his teenage years in Indiana with Vonda's rowdy,
miscreant forebears. (Joking here, Vonda.) Jack was able to get Adam
work in the fields doing various jobs.
Adam and the family, according to Ruth, did not
find life in the West to be all that bad, but eventually all of them missed
the farm life and verdant countryside of Indiana, so they headed back home,
where Adam went back to farming.
As you can see from the photo, Wyoming is anything
but verdant. I have been to the spot where this picture was taken. Any
of you flatfoot, midwestern Hilliard/Hilyard cousins who want to come out
for a picnic some time, let me know. Cousin Ruth always said she loved
living out West and remembered it all her life.
Noah Hilyard took to the West. He lived in a bunkhouse
when Jack homesteaded in Forsyth, Montana, (around 1914) and later, lived
with the family in all their oil field houses in Wyoming. The boys, Tuff
and Sandy, loved life with their grandfather, who mended shoes, did other
odd jobs around the field, and told vivid stories about growing up in Ohio,
especially about his Union veteran brothers, Tom, John, and David. Noah
died in 1931 and is buried in Casper, Wyoming, in the cemetery at the north
end of town.
CONTINUE THE JOURNEY
Written by Bronson Hilliard