"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.
NFA members,
listening to Saturday morning presentations
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 Lise Rochette & Louis
Menard
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Allan
Wiscombe gave a presention about the
NFA
Publishing Project on Saturday afternoon
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More
Reunion News -
Saturday Morning
Saturday
morning found many NFA members enjoying breakfast at Bement
School, prior to a brief walking tour of some of the Historic
Deerfield Main Street. Barbara Hoadley, a Master Guide from
Historic Deerfield, was our guide for the walking tour. She
gave us some background history regarding the settlement of the
village, called our attention to the approximate site of the
stockade that surrounded the central portion of the settlement,
and commented on architectural features of a few buildings.
At our stop outside the Frary House, she told us that the carved
chest belonging to John and Elizabeth [Hull] Nims is in the south
bedchamber. Next door to the Frary House is the house built
by John Nims, currently owned by Deerfield Academy. Barbara
talked briefly about archaeological work that has been conducted
on this property by UMass. Barbara asked me to inform the
participants regarding the "cave house" that Benjamin and Thankful
(Nims) occupied at the time of the 1704 raid since that wasn't a
piece she knew about. We crossed the road and walked in the
direction we had come, back to the Town Common where Barbara
called our attention to a stone marker. This small monument
marks the site of the fortified house of John and Hannah Sheldon
where the captives were held overnight before starting their march
to Canada. (Comment on the tour provided by NFA Director Sally
Phillips.)
Upon returning to the school, President Graham
called the meeting to order about 10:45. He read letters
from former President Bill Nims, and from Norris Nims, now living
in Florida. Norris, as a very young child, was present at
the unveiling of the Godfrey Nims Memorial Boulder in Deerfield in
1914. (I know that, because his photo, with others at the
unveiling, is included in the David compilation.) Ron
reviewed the activity of the Friday Board meeting, and Nancy
Garreaud presented the treasurer’s report, which shows money in
three accounts: a CD at BB&T in Virginia Beach, VA; a checking
and savings account at Mountain America in Salt Lake City, and a
savings account at GFA Federal Credit Union in Gardner, MA, all
funds totaling about $29,000 before reunion expenses.
Because we are a non-profit corporation registered in
Massachusetts, we have to keep some funds, a MA resident named as
clerk, and a mailing address within the state. In general,
publication costs will be taken from the K. Godfrey Nims fund used
for special projects, which has $8,457 as of the October
meeting. The Salt Lake City fund is used for operating
expenses, reunion costs, newsletter, website fees, etc. Dues
aid that fund, while contributions fuel the K. Godfrey Nims
special projects fund.
The first presenters Saturday
morning were Lise Rochette and Louis Menard, in their costumed
roles of Abigail Nims and Josiah Rising. They promised to
separate ‘fact’ from ‘fiction’, and told of their capture and
march north to Canada in 1704, including clothing, travel, the
fact Abigail was carried by a Mohawk Indian, their married life in
Canada, etc. They held a question and answer period, while
reminding us that while it was a Mohawk Indian who carried
4-year-old Abigail away, it was another Mohawk Indian who gave
Lise and Louis the details leading them to return to Deerfield in
2000 as Lise continued her research learning more about her
‘roots.’ Louis reminded us of the importance of 400 years of
history, culture, and encounters, as seen through the history of
Jamestown, VA in 1607, Quebec, Canada in 1608, and Santa Fe, New
Mexico in 1609, pivotal years in the English, French and Spanish
historical excursions.
The second presentation Saturday
morning came from Diane Rapaport, an historian and former trial
lawyer. From court records in Colonial days, she has created
an award-winning column for New England Ancestors, the journal of
the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Further, she
has published in 2007 a volume titled The Naked Quaker: True
Crimes and Controversies from the Courts of Colonial New
England. The title story concerns a Quaker woman who walked
into a Puritan Sunday meeting and dropped her dress in front of
the gathering to protest actions of the colonial
authorities. From Ms. Rapaport’s introduction: “This book
highlights twenty-five true colonial courtroom tales—amusing,
poignant, shocking—of remarkable men and women nearly lost to
history. Although our own modern world differs in profound
ways from Puritan New England, these feisty characters prove that
human nature changes little, no matter how many centuries
pass.”
As the author recounted some of the stories about
Lydia Wardell, Deborah Buffam Wilson, Alse Young, Elizabeth
Godman, the stubborn and rebellious son John Porter, Jr.,
Magistrate Thomas Danforth, and Scottish soldier William Munro,
her attentive audience learned much about an era when ‘going to
law’ was the common remedy for disputes large and small, from
neighborhood squabbles about insulting remarks to wandering
livestock. Clearly, the old court records reveal that our
ancestors were far more unruly and irreverent—and litigious—than
most history books suggest. Following her entertaining and
informative comments and slide show, author Diane Rapaport signed
many copies of her book for a appreciative audience.
More
Reunion News - Saturday
Afternoon
Saturday afternoon saw
a major presentation by Project Coordinator Allan Wiscombe on the
Nims Family Association Publishing Project. Allan has
created an excellent organizational plan, under which we will work
toward the following objectives:
- Publish a history in computer
format of the descendants of each of the 26 grandchildren of
Godfrey Nims who had descendants. (Printed books will not
be published.)
- Edit and correct as much information as
possible prior to publication in a common format.
- Add as much information as possible during
the editing process for the descendants of each
grandchild.
- Update and maintain the current Roots Magic
databases with updated and corrected information
- Make the information available to Internet
sites such as Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org to allow for
access of information to anyone using the Internet
- Make the printed documents available in a
text document that can be accessed from the NFA website to any
computer.
- Allow family or other interested persons to
print out the reports on their own computer.
- Make available a GEDCOM file for each
grandchild that can be downloaded to any genealogy database
program such as Roots Magic or Family TreeMaker.
Allan further outlined in his slide presentation
some of the project issues to overcome. There is a massive
amount of data, over 90,000 names in four separate databases;
missing locations for births, dates, marriages; significant number
of data and typographical errors; large number of ancestors of
spouses and their descendants that increase the size of the
databases, while not tied in a close way to the Nims family;
previous editing efforts, which corrected printed reports
but did not keep the databases current. Publishing a single
volume, as was done with the first Nims history, would require
over 7,500 pages with just the data available in 2000. Also,
there has been no central coordination or common format and work
was duplicated.
To overcome some of the issues, the NFA
Board has appointed Allan as project coordinator to manage the
project and the databases. He will maintain and update the
primary Roots Magic databases for each of the four children of
Godfrey Nims. All updates to the data will be done in a
RootsMagic database. Databases will be backed up to insure
no data is lost. The coordinator will periodically make
versions of the data available to the association and other
genealogical Internet sites. Versions of the published
documents will be generated through RootsMagic. Reports will
be made available in both Generation and Henry number
format.
Here is the current status of the
project. John, 1679, has eight surviving lines; total
estimated printed pages, 2500; total size of database,
30,000. Of the eight lines, Elizabeth is completed and
available, while the other seven are not yet started.
Ebenezer, 1686, has four surviving lines; total estimated pages,
1800; total size of database, 18,000 names including collateral
lines. Ebenezer, 180 names; David, 2900 names; Moses 6750
names, and Amasa, 3450 names. Ebenezer is complete and
available; work has been well started on David, Moses and Amasa,
but the master database does not reflect all of the updates.
We also have a brief comment about Ebenezer’s son Elisha, who was
killed at the age of 26 near Ft. Massachusetts in 1745. The
comment details the controversy over where to re-inter in 2000 a
bone fragment and bullet which had been in a museum for
decades. Thankful, 1684, has nine surviving lines, with a
database of 25,000 and total estimated printed pages numbering
2000. John and Thankful are not started; Mary is started
with further work to be done; Benjamin, Samuel, Rebecca, Sarah,
and Mercy are complete and available. Abigail, 1701, has
five surviving lines, with a database of 15,000 and total
estimated printed pages numbering 1200. No start on updating
the Abigail database has taken place except for individual
contributions from a few descendants. Marie Catherine, Marie
Ann, Charlotte Anastasie, Suzanne, and Jean-Baptiste are the lines
to update.
At a later time, we will describe further the
project file folders being built and maintained. For now,
consider the fact that anyone will be able to retrieve the latest
information by accessing the Nims Family website and downloading
the file they request, either a GEDCOM file to update their own
genealogy database, or a formatted printable document they can
print on their own computer. Also, we will further outline
the Henry numbering system, and some issues regarding Henry
numbers. Watch for further progress on our publishing
project in future newsletters and on the NFA website, including
when material will first be made
available.
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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.
 Reunion 08 Saturday morning's
second presentation was
by historian Diane
Rapaport
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Lise Rochette
receiving speaker Diane Rapaport’s book
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NFA People to Contact:
General
questions about the association:
President Betsy Wiscombe, Box 186, Eden, UT
84310-0186
Items for newsletter-births, deaths,
marriages, stories about family, etc.:
Vicki Coutu, 137
Nugget Drive, Charlton, MA 01507 Click HERE to Email Vicki
Dues, contributions, address changes,
etc.:
Treasurer Nancy Garreaud, 921 East 100
South, Salt Lake City, UT 84102
Family genealogical information,
letters of inquiry:
Secretary Sally Phillips, 104 Mechanic
Street, Shelburne Falls, MA 01370-1224
Books, sale items, etc:
Nancy
Garreaud, 921 East 100 South, Salt Lake City, UT
84102
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