"He was an ambitious youth of 18 years when, in 1877, he came to Gage County, Nebraska, and entered claim to a homestead on the Otoe Indian Reservation, which had recently been opened to settlement. There were no roads, no houses in sight and no improvements made on the land which he determined to reclaim into a productive farm. In that early period of his residence in Gage County Colonel Hiatt followed the Indian trails to the little village of Charleston, where he obtained his mail and his necessary supplies. Charleston is now one of the vanished towns of this part of the state, and it was situated one mile south of the present thriving town of Odell. Though a mere youth Colonel Hiatt girded himself valiantly for the responsibilities and services of a pioneer, and it was his to know and experience all of the incidental lonliness, privation and hardships incidental to the early days on the old Otoe Reservation. He endured all and faltered not in his resolute purpose, with the result that the passing years rewarded him with generous prosperity, so that today he is one of the substantial landholders and influential citizens of Gage County. In July 1911, he removed from his farm to the village of Odell. He bought land adjoining the town and has here platted and developed an attractive addition to the village, the same being known as Hiatt's Addition and having proved a distinct gain to Odell, as well as an evidence of the progressiveness of Colonel Hiatt, who has been successful in the development of the addition. Though he is retired from active farm enterprise he gives his attention to the buying and selling of cattle and hogs. For fully 30 years he has been a buyer and shipper of cattle, his shipments having been made principally to Kansas City and St Joseph, Missouri." - taken from the History of Gage County by Dobbs, in 1918.