Laura Hughes Boggess and Franklin Yates Nelson

In spite of the death of her parents and close relatives, Laura continued her education past high school and attended the Chillicothe State Normal School for two years. When she was 22 she married a neighbor, Franklin Yates Nelson. Photos taken of her when she was young show a very attractive and elegant woman.Following the December 21, 1898 wedding the Nelsons lived on a farm in the Morton Community northwest of Hardin, Missouri. [Laura right]

Laura and Franklin had three children, Mary Elizabeth, [my mother] born April 6, 1905, was named after her late grandmother. Two years later William Franklin was born in 1907, and a late child, Harold Owens, born in 1922. All three children grew up on the farm near Hardin.

Mary Elizabeth’s farm home was some distance from the high school in Hardin. During the years when she attended school in 1920 to 1923, Mary did not always have access to a horse and buggy to ride to and from her farm, so she stayed in William Berry Hughes’ home in Hardin. William was one of Dr. Berry’s sons and had a fine home a few blocks from the Hardin High School. After graduation Mary continued her education at Central Missouri State Teachers College in Warrensburg where she was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science in Education.

As a certified teacher she accepted an assignment to return to her home community and teach at a rural grade school called “The Little Brick School.” It was part of the Central School District in the Rockingham area outside Hardin. While she taught there she rented a room in a two story white frame house about ½ mile from her school.

Sometime during the mid to late 1920s she used her musical talents by playing the piano for silent movies in the Hardin’s Odeon Theatre. The theater opened in 1813 for home talent plays. By 1919 they installed a Wurlitzer player piano and in the 1920s it began to show silent movies. Mary would often play during the Saturday night shows that consisted of two features and a serial. It cost 10¢ a ticket, and each ticket holder would receive a free dish.

One of the popular entertainments for the rural residences during the 1920s was the Chautauqua. These events were named for traveling companies that would come to town for five days a year and give dramatic presentations, lectures, vaudeville acts, musical programs, and Shakespearean readings in a large tent set up in a grove of trees. They were quite popular with families in the rural areas to keep up with their more cultured urban friends. Local political candidates found this to be a good place to meet the public and campaign for office. Families would travel by horse and buggy from a far distance for the summer entertainment. Tickets were fairly expensive—$1.50 to $2 per person for the morning, afternoon and evening presentations. At one of these events in the summer of 1927, Mary met the local Superintendent of Schools Sam Thornton. Their story continues later in the Thornton narrative.

Laura and Frank Nelson’s second child was William Franklin, born April 13, 1907. After graduating from Hardin High School in 1925 he attended Chillicothe Business School where he studied bookkeeping. His first job, at Midland Flour Milling Company in Kansas City, lasted for several years. He moved to Sausalito California in the early 1940s where he first worked in the shipyards. In 1945, “Bud,” as his sister and brother called him, married Edie Sanders and lived in an apartment in Sausalito. He worked at Phoenix of Hartford Insurance until an early retirement because of his health. We loved to visit them because of the exciting location of their apartment overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and the opportunity to eat at the fascinating waterfront restaurants. He died in 1985.

Harold Owens was the third child of Laura and Frank. He was a late child, born August 25, 1922, when Laura was 46 years old. When his mother died he was 7 years old and he lived with his sister Mary for a while and returned to his father and stepmother. Soon his father died he returned to Columbia to live with his sister. While he was in high school he started drinking and our father was so furious he kicked Harold out of the house. Harold moved in with another family in Columbia until he finished high school.

As soon as Harold graduated he joined the Army and was assigned to the Eight Armored Division, a tank destroyer group, lead by General George Patton during World War II. As a Master Sergeant he served in Europe from France through Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany. Mother followed his progress during the war and corresponded with him. When Harold returned after the war my brothers and I asked him about his experiences but he would remain silent as if the war memories should be forgotten.

Soon after he returned he married Marjorie Brown and lived in Columbia, Missouri. He first worked as a used car salesman then opened up his own car business, Harold Nelson Auto Sales, which he operated for 20 years. In 1949 he married Carolyn Hoeffer and lived on West Broadway in Columbia. While I attended the University of Missouri he and Carolyn would let me use their ringer-washer to wash my clothes. Juanita and I bought our first car, a 1948 Plymouth, from Harold in 1955. In 1972 he married Mary Jo Smith, who he divorced in the mid 1980s. He eventually moved to Las Vegas and later Palm Desert, California, to be near his daughter, Patricia, and grandson, Nelson Bond. He died in 1991 at age 69 as the result of cancer of the liver.

Laura Nelson’s uncle, W. H. E. [Ed]Reynolds, moved to Washington State sometime around the beginning of the Twentieth Century. It is not know what he did there but apparently he would live in the Yakima area and spend time in hotels in Seattle. In the 1920 census he was found as a “lodger” living in the First Ave. Hotel, two blocks from Elliot Bay, Puget Sound. He is listed as age 57 but he was actually 63. The manager of the hotel was Yoshinosuke Sate with his wife Asano and their three young children. There was an extensive migration of Japanese immigrants to Seattle. Many purchased hotels in the area now known as the International District. There were 15 male lodgers in the hotel, most were second generation immigrants from Europe. Almost all were single and listed their employment as laborers in the shipyards, railroad and foundries. Ed was the only one listed as “farmer.”

In the early 1920s Ed opened a savings account in Yakima and he had an address at Camp 14 in Harrah, Washington, 30 miles south of Yakima on the Yakama Indian Reservation. He was back in Seattle in 1922 to have his picture taken at the Hart Studio on First Avenue. He became ill early in 1928 and died on January 11, 1928 at King County Hospital in Seattle Washington. He was not married, his sister Mary Elizabeth, (Laura’s mother) was dead, and his brother Charles may have also been dead by then too. Charles had married Enna Haga and had two daughters, Nora and Della. Apparently Laura Nelson was designated as the person to contact because the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery Co. in Seattle billed her for burial charges. The statement said that they dug a grave 3 x 6 x 6 and the charge was $45. She also received a bill for $300 for “Professional Services” from the Mortuary.

There is a March 1928 letter in the file to Laura from Roberts & Roberts, Attorney and Counselors at Law, in Yakima Washington regarding settling the estate of W. H. E. Reynolds. She was asked to get signatures from her two nieces, Uncle Charles Reynolds’ daughters. In her note to them she asked for their signatures on a form. She said to write “Nora Reynolds Sallee and Della Reynolds _____”on the form. [Does the line mean she did not know Della’s married name—“Pierce”?] By April the attorney wrote to Laura that once the bills were paid she would receive ½ the estate and Nora and Della would receive ¼ each. By June the estate was settled. Laura received $68.45 and Della and Nora each received $34.22. Since the estate was so small they were able to avoid Probate.

A notice of his death was reported in the Hardin News, Feb 23, 1928 that said: “Mrs. Frank Nelson, of Morton Community, a niece of Mr. Reynolds, recently received this information from Seattle WA where his death occurred. Mr. Reynolds collapsed upon the streets of this city about 4:10 pm Jan 11. Apparently death was due to some heart complications. Well know in the community 25 yrs ago...lived in Seattle about 12 years...gone there in quest of health...grandson of Dr. Berry Hughes never married...It was his request not to be brought away from the beautiful county he loved.”

There are some papers that my mother saved that give us some clues on her mother’s latter life. On March 2, 1927 Laura Nelson took out a life insurance policy from Bankers Life. She would die three years later. Why did she wait until she was 51 years old to buy a policy? Did she have a premonition about her health?

Sometime in 1929 Laura became ill and visited Doctor Craven in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. He diagnosed her as having chronic lymphatic leukemia. In October she traveled to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for further review. They confirmed the diagnoses in a letter dated October 16, 1929, and advised, “the only thing worthwhile in these cases is the use of x-ray or radium…” Jack remembers Mother saying that Mayo Clinic doctors told her to go home and be with her family, there was nothing they could do.

In a post card from Laura while she was in Mayo Clinic, dated October 12, 1929, to Hontas [Brown] she asks her to call Frank Nelson as soon as she receives the card. She said that Frank has a letter from Laura that was addressed to both of them. She said: “I need to have an answer as quickly as can to help us decide or make an important decision.” Apparently Hontas was watching Harold because in the card Laura asks about him and said she hopes to get a letter from him. We can speculate that Laura was making plans for Frank to marry Hontas after her death so that Harold could be cared for. Frank did marry Hontas but not until 1934, four years after Laura’s death.

Laura’s health quickly diminished. By early 1930s she was preparing for her death. We have a draft copy of her last will written in long hand on a weekly calendar sheet for February 2—8, 1930. Its primary purpose is to divide her part of the “undivided Hughes estate.” Her husband Frank would receive ¼, her daughter Mary, and sons Franklin and Harold each to receive ¼. In the will are special notes to “my little son, Harold Owens Nelson.” His funds would be held until he is twenty-five and through college “(I am hoping my little son would be deeply interested in vocational agriculture.)” Additional piece of paper with the will listed “My Pieces of Furniture and other articles I had when I was married.” On the other side was a note regarding a watch and Masonic pin.

Mother saved letters from her mother between April and May 6, 1930. Laura died on May 12. In one undated letter (most likely early April), Laura thanks her daughter for the “little confidential letter.” She says that she “burned it so Irene [a nurse?] wouldn’t get it while I am out.” Apparently Mother told her that she thought she was pregnant because her mother urges her to walk everyday and get lots of sunshine. Laura said, “Bless your heart dear child. I hope I may live to see you a happy mother.” Bob was born in December, 8 months after her death.

In an April 26 letter Laura tries to comfort Mother by explaining that backaches and vomiting are signs of pregnancy. She urges Mother to see a doctor but “do not insist or have Sam go with you” and see if she is going to be a mother. She offers remedies to make her feel better. She says, “But you know dear. I have never been nervous and you are, that makes such a difference.”

Her last letter to her “sweet children” was written May 6, six days before she died. It is written in a strong hand with a pencil on a small sheet of paper. In it she relates that because of pain she called the doctor and he gave her some codeine and said that she had bronchial pneumonia. She said, “Miss Hontas and Beebe were here Monday afternoon. Hontas came back and stayed last night and we made Dad go to bed. He was up most of Sunday nite.” She ends it with “I love you both dearly, Mother.”

Laura Hughes Boggess died on May 12, 1930. She was not quite 54 years old and her 8-year-old son, Harold, was still at home. It was decided that Harold would move in with his sister, Mary, and her husband, Sam Thornton, in Columbia Missouri. Four years after Laura’s death Franklin remarried and Harold would return home for a few years.

Franklin Yates Nelson and Pocahontas Brown

On February 14, 1934 Franklin Yates Nelson married Pocahontas Brown, a close friend of his wife Laura, and a daughter of Thomas Jefferson Brown and Clementina Rust who had settled in Ray County many years ago. She lived near the Nelson farm and took care of Harold when Laura was in the hospital and sick at home. “Miss Hontas,” as we would call her, was 53 years old when she married Franklin, who was 60.

The Brown family has retained some stories about their early ancestors. Her great-grandfather, Tyree Rhodes Brown, born 1793, married Sarah Nicholas, born 1792. They had three children. In 1835 both the mother and father developed typhoid fever and died within 36 hours of each other.

Their oldest son, Madison Nicholas Brown, was born in 1815 in Brown’s Cove, Virginia. Around 1844, he planned to marry his future wife, Martha Sewell Hopkins. When he asked her family, he was met with resistance because Madison was not a religious man and did not believe in the Bible. Martha’s father was a giant of Methodism and strongly objected to the marriage. Since Martha was of legal age and devoted to Madison, her father consented to the marriage. They had five children.

In 1854 the Brown family migrated from Rockingham County, Virginia in an open surrey to Missouri. Along with necessary supplies they bought his wife Martha’s cherished piano and a little African-American slave, named “Matilda” who was inherited by Madison. When they crossed the Potomac River at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, they feared that Northerners would take Matilda from them. Madison took her across in a rowboat while drivers carried the surrey and wagons across by ferry. Their journey ended near Hardin in Ray County where they bought 360 acres of land in the Morton Community at $7 an acre. It is there they built a log house and called it “Lone Star.” They were the first family from Virginia to settle in the area.

Martha brought a $5 gold piece with her on the migration and purchased two thoroughbred ewe lambs when they arrived. From this strain of sheep came the wool for the carpet woven by her daughter, Clementina Rust Brown, now on display in the Jackson County Historical Society Museum.
There was another family in Rockingham County, Virginia that may have known the Brown family. Dr. Bushrod Rust practiced medicine in what was the “burnt district” of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. His second wife was also a physician, Dr. Elisabeth Shoupe. She inherited 160 acres in Ray County Missouri from her brother who was killed in the Civil War. In 1873 they traveled by railroad to St. Louis and by riverboat to Lexington to the farm about nine miles north of Hardin. Dr. Rust gave up his practice and became a prosperous farmer. There is no information if his wife, Dr. Shoupe, also gave up her profession, but they did have 10 children.

One of the Rust daughters, Clementina, married Madison Brown’s son, Thomas Jefferson, a farmer who lived in Ray County. They had two daughters, Pocahontas, born 1881 and Kate, born 1884. When the girls were 7 and 4 their mother, Clementina died and the daughters went to live with their grandparents, Dr. Rushrod Rust. Both daughters graduated from Stephens College in Columbia Missouri.

It must have been difficult for Pocahontas to take over the responsibilities of raising her young stepson Harold, when he was beginning his teen years. Miss Hontas was essentially an “old maid” of 53 when she married Franklin and had little experience with children.

Three years after their marriage, Franklin Yates died on April 21, 1937 in Carrollton Missouri. He was 63 years old. After his death, Harold at 15 would return to his sister’s house in Columbia to attend high school. Miss Hontas would remain in her home in Richmond where she shared the house with her younger sister, Kate Strouther Wall.
I remember visiting Mother’s stepmother in her brick home and how clean it was and the furniture seemed of good quality. There was not much we could play with in the house and we would go out and climb in a tree in the back yard. She drove an old Ford coupe in wonderful condition. Jack remembers that she was an excellent cook and we enjoyed her hot rolls made with mashed potatoes. He also remembers that she would dry apples and pears in the attic.

She lived in that house until her death on December 28, 1965. She was 84 years old. Franklin is buried next to his first wife, Laura Hughes Boggess Nelson, in Hickory Grove Cemetery and Miss Hontas is buried in Wakenda Cemetery, both sites are near Hardin, Missouri.