Sibling Saturday - Alice, Bill & Cal Negley

Three siblings of my Great-Grandma Sadie never married or had any children.  They have no direct descendants.

First let me say a little about their hometown.  Eldorado, which around here is pronounced with a long A like in tornado, is in northern Clay County just a couple miles south of the Hamilton county line.  Google maps take you to the "township", not the exact location of the town.  It reached its peak population of 100 people in 1910.  Today it's an unincorporated village.  There's a sign at the edge of "town", but no change in speed limit as you drive through on Highway 14.  There's no store, school, church or post office there anymore, not even the old buildings. 

Alice May was born May 20, 1877 in Decatur County, Iowa.   She attended school with her brothers and sister in Eldorado, Nebraska.  She was a member of the Eldorado Methodist church.  Alice lived with her parents until their deaths, then lived with her brother Cal.  The two of them moved to North Platte about 1955 and she lived there until her death on February 9, 1962 at age 84. 

William Dean was born October 9, 1883 in Decatur County, Iowa.  He farmed with his father for several years, and later was employed as Section Foreman for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad until 1914.  Bill and Sebastian Miller purchased the mercantile store in Eldorado, the Negley & Miller Sinclair station, which was also the Eldorado Post Office.  "Bass" was killed in a car/train accident in 1935.  Bill operated the store until 1937 when he retired.  In 1947 he moved to Aurora.  He was a member of the Methodist church in Eldorado and also a member of the Modern Woodmen Lodge.  He died at age 78 on December 10, 1961, and he's buried in the Aurora Cemetery.

Josiah David Calvin, "Cal" was born September 12, 1887 in Eldorado, Nebraska, just a month after his older brother Newton died.  Cal served in WWI, even though on his draft registration card he stated he was "Strictly opposed to war".  He was in the 7th Trench Mortar Battalion, which according to "US Army in WWI, Orders of Battle", by Richard A. Rinaldi, organized in April, 1918 at Camp Wheeler in Georgia.  They moved overseas in August and returned to the US in January, 1919.  The company demobilized at Camp Knox in Kentucky in February. 
Cal worked for the railroad before WWI and again afterwards in Nebraska and Colorado.  Later he operated a poultry feed business until he retired in 1925.  He was a member of the Eldorado Methodist church.  He lived to be 80 years old, passing away on December 3, 1967 in an Omaha hospital.