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Nellie Harriet Parker

Like my maternal grandmother, my paternal grandmother, Nellie Harriet (Sly/Mason) Parker (NHP) also lost her husband at mid-voyage in life (click here). She also rose to the occasion, moving from Minnesota to live with her parents in Eugene, Oregon. She found work as a secretary to the president at the University of Oregon. Later, she remarried and managed to see two children (from her first marriage) through college. She was an intelligent, studious person and a devout follower of Mary Baker Eddy.

Nellie was married shortly after graduation from high school. She married her teacher, who considered her his best student. One story, my daughter reminds me, was Nellie’s mother Carrie Amelia (Dykins) Sly grumbling because first she had to make Nellie a graduation dress and then in short order make her a wedding dress.

When my sister and I were small she lived in Stockton, California. When her husband retired they moved to Boulder Creek, California and upon his death she moved to a trailer park in Soquel, California. So, for a good portion of the time we were growing up, she was near at hand. Finally, toward the end of her life, she moved to Lafayette, Indiana to live with her daughter, Beatrice Amanda (Mason) Yearian, known to us as “Aunt Bee.” “Grandma Parker” passed away at age 88.

NHP was a painter (oils) and she was pretty good. Included are samples of her work:

(click on images for larger view)

I visited NHP just before she moved back to Indiana. It was a kind of a farewell visit, she was busy going through her things and pruning her excess belongings. She was quite deaf by then. It’s a curse that seems to have descended from the Sly family line, and my sister and I are the latest to feel its effects. Rather than shout, I wrote NHP notes and she seemed to like that procedure. Then she brought something to show me. I couldn’t have been more surprised. It was a very small pistol — a .22 single shot Derringer. It was so small it fit in the palm of my hand. I looked at her with a question on my face. She said it had belonged to her grandmother. She then got a bemused look on her face which turned into a wide smile and said, “My grandmother was quite a woman. She was married four times and one of her husbands was a Mississippi River boat captain.” The gun was the kind an attractive woman might carry if she circulated in dicey environs and Emma would still have been a young woman at the time of the Civil War. I wouldn’t consider it deadly, but it was probably more effective than a hat pin.

My grandmother (NHP) was a serious, straight-laced person. There was absolutely nothing about her that was flamboyant or risque. It is hard to imagine that she was descended from a person who might have had those characteristics.

A search of records turns up Emma Lydia (Harvey/Buchanan/Dykins/Branch) Newell. Nellie is descended from her second husband. I’ll bet Emma’s story would make an interesting post to my Family Stories category, but that story is probably lost, which is another good reason to write these things down.

Tags: Derringer Pistol, Mary Baker Eddy, Mississippi River boat captain, University of Oregon