"In this age of
hurry when steam and electricity have put the swiftness of the eagle
into the background; when portraits are painted by the sun as quick as
thought; when the phonographs can catch and hold the speech of a
President or song of Melba that may be reproduced word for word and
note for note a century hence; it will do us good to halt! And make the
acquaintance of our family."
(Madella Susan Nims, NFA Historian,1906)
WELCOME TO OUR WEB SITE. An
Internet presence is always changing and evolving. NFA was fortunate to
begin our web existence several years back with one page established by
Historian Susan Oathout. Later, past president Bill Nims took the
initiative to develop several pages on his AOL member site, primarily
publicizing our newsletters and reunion news. In March of 2001, NFA's
Board of Directors voted to establish a
website with our own domain registration to introduce the association
and its achievements to association members and new web visitors. A
major portion of the funding for this website came from the
K. Godfrey Nims Memorial Fund,
used to help defray costs of special projects such as this one. It is
our hope this site will
enable us to share what family genealogical information we have, to
attract new members to join the work of our association, and to receive
additional contributions of family data from visitors to this site.
NFA welcomes your comments and suggestions about our association's work
and this
website at www.nimsfamily.com.
ABOUT OUR WEBSITE
April, 2008
I thought NFA members might like to read about
some of the activity generated by emails to our
website at www.nimsfamily.com. First, just a few
statistics. We have been tracking visits to our
website since November, 2004, a total of 1,510
days, through April 4, 2008. In the 4 & ½ years,
8,813 visitors have made contact with the site
including ‘reloads’, those who visit more than
once. 6,696 are ‘unique’ visitors, coming for the
first time. While that may include a few spammers,
the bulk are people who either wish to learn about
the family association, to seek answers to
questions about their Nims connection, to offer
lineage material for our data base, or to find
answers to questions about the next reunion
meeting, what they owe for dues, how to join, etc.
Other stats: during this current week 20 have
stopped by; last week, 35, and the weekly average
is 29. Our highest day yielded 18 visits. For the
current month, we’ve had 13 ‘hits’ (as of April
4); last month, 135; the highest month, 186, and
the average month bring about 125.
Why is any of this important? First, it shows we
are getting some publicity and use from the site,
and second, it is a way of showing the support
members give us by paying dues. Our reunions,
newsletters, publication efforts and the website
all cost. Your dues payments help us to meet these
obligations.
What is the activity through the website? For one,
it has helped NFA connect with a number of people
who are descendants from Abigail Nims and Josiah
Rising, or connected in some way to that line. In
the past several months, I have had email contacts
through the site with Nathaniel Smith, Suzanne &
Laurence Canell, Diane (Kennedy) Jones, Anne
Dallas, Cathy Moher, Patty Miles, Shelley Burke,
Michael Chevier, Jody Didier, Lise & Michael
Charlton, Terri Buchanen, Tanya Annette Breese,
James & JoAnn LaVerdure (who have a great deal of
information on the Rochon line, connected to our
Abigail line through Cleophee Seguin, great
granddaughter of Marie-Anne Raizenne). James wrote
that over 95% of the Rocherons-Rochons in Canada
or the U.S. are blood-related to either of two
brothers, Simon or Gervais Rochon. We heard from
Peter Black, who is looking for information for a
mini-documentary on hockey star Joe Malone, whom
Lise and Michael Charlton told us about in the
last newsletter. Our latest Abigail contact is
from Rachel Brown, this first week of April, 2008.
She has recently learned of the fascinating story
of Abigail and Josiah, and will contribute
additional family information. Some of these names
have joined NFA, others have sent their lines of
descent, and a few have just congratulated us on
the website for showing their connections. (I may
have missed mentioning a few Abigails who made
contact with NFA and are on the computer I use in
Massachusetts. This list came from a computer in
Florida, our winter residence.)
But it certainly has not been only about Abigail
descendants. A few recent examples: Paul &
Claudine Burnett wrote asking for any information
about E. B. Nims. Our data base located Eli
Bronson Nims, a descendant from Godfrey through
Ebenezer, Moses, Ariel, and Leonard Nims. That
information helped put pieces of their family line
together.
“Eli Bronson Nims married Emily Brainard in 1843.
After the first child was born in 1844, the family
moved to Princeton, IL, where Eli was a clothier.
Later they moved to French Grove, a small
settlement outside of Princeton when it was
thought the railroad was going to come through
there, although that did not happen. Another move
was made by Eli and Emily Nims in 1853 - always
going west with the lure of good land and
opportunities - this time to Wyoming, in Jones
County in eastern Iowa. Why there? A dynamic
fellow by the name of James Bronson founded the
town of Wyoming and he was always going east to
induce people to come out to settle there. There
is a possibility that Eli Nims’ middle name,
Bronson, came from this man’s father, Thomas
Bronson, since he had been a greatly revered
Methodist minister living in Wyoming county, NY in
the 1790’s and 1800’s. An interesting note about
the name of the town -- Wyoming was first known as
Pierce, after President Pierce, but after he
favored the South in the 'Kansas-Nebraska
Compromise' in 1854, the people who were strongly
anti-slavery dropped the name and called it
Marshfield. Settlers were afraid to come to settle
there, thinking that it was all marsh land, so
Bronson changed the name again to his home county
in New York.
Records show that Eli farmed 160 acres of land in
Jones County, which was a large farm for those
days. That meant a lot of work and good management
in order to make a living. Eli died in 1861, just
eight years after their move to Iowa, leaving
Emily with eight children, some of them very
small. The oldest son, Delos, was 17 years old,
Dwight 16 and John Wesley 13, the rest quite a bit
younger. The boys worked on the farm as well as
working for neighbors. The boys went to high
school, which was a three mile walk, when not
working. They had above average education at their
mother’s insistence. Emily helped to support the
family by sewing and tailoring. She made men’s
suits and coats. She carded the wool, spun the
yarn and wove the cloth.”
Elizabeth Chapman Reilly wrote concerning an error
on p. 580 of The Nims Family: Seven Generations of
Descendants from Godfrey Nims published in 1990
and now out of print. The history mentions Luther
as son of Calvin Chapman and Sarah Nims, and then
includes the sentence, “David was married in March
1834 to Rebecca Crossfield.” Still farther in that
listing, the book states, “Children of Luther and
Rebecca” when obviously it should have read David.
Information about the two brothers got tangled a
bit, and NFA appreciates the help Elizabeth gave
us in correcting our data.
Eric Nims of California wrote wondering which
branch of the family he was connected to. Several
emails later, and using his knowledge of his
grandfather Walter and great-grandfather Louis, we
were able to fill in ‘the rest of the story.’ Eric
descends from Godfrey Nims through Ebenezer,
Moses, Ariel, Joel, Vincent Woodruff, Louis,
Walter D., and Louis Cass Nims. The brother of
Vincent Nims, Frederick Candee Nims of
Painesville, OH (named for his mother, Emily
Candee) gave one of the major speeches at the 1914
dedication of the Godfrey Nims memorial boulder in
Deerfield, MA. Eric, with the overall picture now
in hand, is helping to provide additional data to
complete the portrait.
Karen Smead Mondale wrote to asking how she might
be related to the Nims Family. She sent what she
had available for information, and that, combined
with our data base, helped develop her family
connection. Karen is descended from Judith
Stoughton Smead, and Judith’s granddaughter,
Mehitable Smead, became the second wife of Godfrey
Nims. Karen, a published poet in her own right,
came to learn about her exact relationship to Poet
John Frederick Nims, for year’s editor of Poetry
Magazine. Here is just a little bit about Karen:
“KAREN SMEAD MONDALE, long-time community activist
and retired educator, is the Editor of the Saint
Louis Poetry Center Newsletter, and a member of
Loosely Identified, the women’s poetry workshop.
Recently published poems have appeared in
Breathing Out, an anthology published by Cherry
Pie Press, and the Mid Rivers Review, a Literary
Journal. She won honorable mention in the James
Nash Poetry Contest for her poem, He Would Tell
You He Never Was an Artist. She has given poetry
readings in the River Styx series at Duff’s, at
Genesis House, the Regional Arts Commission and
for a charity event held in the Forest Park Golf
House.” (Karen’s email of April 4, 2008, sent at
my request.)
Karen’s last email to NFA added the following: “I
don't know if it would be important to your
database, but Walter (we call him Fritz) Mondale
is my uncle (my father's brother), and Edward L.
Smead (my grandfather, my mother's father) was
Chief of Banking with the Federal Reserve in the
thirties and forties. He was a Roosevelt man. He
was the one who closed the doors of the banks in
1929 (during the depression) to prevent further
hysteria, and was Administrator of War Loans after
WW II. My sister, Julia Smead Mondale Jensen, was
a long-time friend of poet John Frederick Nims,
which is how they discovered that there was some
sort of relationship. In both homes, each had
found a copy of Boy Captive of Old Deerfield.
Although they knew there was some sort of
connection, they never searched out the
particulars.”
This is just a brief sample of the activity
generated through the NFA website. We are always
happy to hear from visitors to our site, for it is
an easy way to provide and receive data for our
members. We also welcome input as to what members
might like to see added at those times we change
the site content.
On another issue: members are invited to contact
NFA through the website to signal interest in
helping with the work of the association. We are
now involved in major publication efforts under
the chairmanship of Allan Wiscombe. We can use
help in preparing material about the many lines
descending from grandchildren of Godfrey Nims
through John, Ebenezer, Thankful and Abigail.
Accepting some proofreading work would be a
welcome contribution. Further, we need volunteers
to assume positions as directors and officers on
the NFA Board. Many who have served years wish to
step aside and allow others to help with the
association’s work. We can use assistance with the
newsletter, the NFA website, planning of reunions,
etc.
If you would like to contribute to the ‘NFA family
efforts’, please make contact with President Ron
Graham, or with the Board through our website. WE
CAN USE YOUR TALENTS.
David Nims, Ashburnham, MA, July, 2008
|
LOT 28
Those
who wish to know more about the present John Nims house should obtain
Family and Landscape: Deerfield Home Lots from 1671 by Susan McGowan
and Amelia F. Miller, published in 1996 by Pocumtuck Valley Memorial
Association, Deerfield, MA. Both women have extensive backgrounds
in Deerfield research, and are especially qualified to offer a
definitive view of the Nims House, now owned by Deerfield
Academy. Susan McGowan offered a presentation about the book and
Lot 28 at a reunion of Nims Family Association several years ago.
Nims House, Part 2
In an earlier article about the John
Nims House, we mentioned recent efforts
to gauge the age of the house,
reexamining the date mentioned as ‘about
1710’ in George Sheldon’s History of
Deerfield. Newer evidence indicates
three houses were built on Lot 28, the
first about 1695. The second may have
been about 1710 when John Nims rebuilt
on the site where the home of Godfrey
Nims was burned in 1704. John Nims
probably built a new house, the third on
the site, about 1740-1750.
Here is a bit more about Lot 28, as
recorded in Family & Landscape,
Deerfield Homelots from 1671 by Susan
McGowan and Amelia F. Miller. Jeremiah,
son of John Nims, inherited the Nims
House. “Jeremiah’s son, Seth Nims
(1762-1831) married about 1784, and in
1786 Jeremiah wrote his will, leaving
his homelot to Seth, who inherited the
house and lot in 1797, and was
responsible for major changes to the
third, or present, house.
The house on the main street remained in
the Nims family until 1894. Seth Nims
left it to his daughter Lucinda, as long
as she remained unmarried. In 1844,
following the death of her mother,
Electa Arms Nims (1763-1843), the
unmarried Lucinda Nims deeded one-half
of her real estate, including the
homelot and buildings, to her brother,
Edwin Nims (1791-1852), reserving for
herself a life lease in the homestead.
Edwin’s daughter, Eunice Kimberly Nims
(1845-1917), who married Rufus Franklin
Brown became the next owner of the
combined lots 27 and 28. In 1880, Eunice
mortgaged her home to the Smith
charities of Northampton, and fourteen
years later, in 1894, the mortgage being
unredeemed, the Smith Charities sold the
property to Mary E. Miller, the daughter
of Thaddeus Graves of Hatfield and the
wife of Sylvanus Miller who came from
Brooklyn, New York.
Mary E. Miller willed the homestead to
her two daughters, Ellen Miller and
Margaret Miller. In 1907, the Greenfield
newspaper reported that a barn on the
property was taken down…In 1922 the town
took, by eminent domain, two acres for
“the purpose of erecting thereon a
building to be used for a public school
and for use as a public playground.” In
1925, Ellen and Margaret Miller, who had
been founders in 1896 of the Deerfield
Society of Blue and White Needlework,
which disbanded in 1926, sold the
property to John M. Hackley.
Nims descendants Eugene D. Nims of St.
Louis, Missouri, and Harry D. Nims of
Bronxville, New York, acquired the house
and land from John M. Hackley in 1936,
and presented the property to Deerfield
Academy in 1938 (as a ‘deed of gift.’)
The 1938 deed specified that any
proposed changes to the house must be
approved by the president of PVMA. Since
1938, the Nims House has served as a
dormitory and as a faculty residence.”
Revisit this website in the
future to learn more about the Nims House, its construction, occupants,
and later history. Also, the publication The Story of the John
Nims House, a pamphlet published in 1993 by Nims Family Association and
available on NFA’s Items for Sale page, offers additional insights into
this beautiful home.
NFA People to Contact:
General questions about the association: President
Ron Graham, 5344 Hickory Ridge, Virginia Beach, VA 23455-6680
Items for newsletter-births, deaths, marriages,
stories about family, etc.: Vice President Brenda Babineau, 202
Washington St., Gardner, MA 01440-2736
Dues, contributions, address changes, etc.: Treasurer
Nancy Garreaud, 921 East 100 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84102
Family genealogical information, letters of inquiry:
Secretary Cynthia Smellie, 135 High St., Norwell, MA 02061
Books, sale items, etc: John & Ellen Schultz,
10631 W. Roundelay Circle, Sun City, AZ 85351-1851
Mailing Address: Nims Family Association, Box 99, Deerfield, MA
01342-0099 (Mail is checked only occasionally. Use other contacts if
possible.)
|
|
