1 Nelson Holder Ritchie

The first of a four-part edited history of Nelson Holder Ritchie (1840–1913), written in 1975 by a daughter, Grace Ritchie Ashton, when she was in her seventies. Nelson married as his second wife Annie Cowan Russell (1857–1950), and they were the parents of Olive Ellen Ritchie Cleverly (1881–1945), who was the mother of Ivard R Cleverly (1915–1988).

In the year 1840, on August 24, Nelson Holder was born in Lawrence County, Missouri. He told us he was raised by an old Scotch lady, as his mother died when he was a baby and his father died before he was born. Nelson went to Topeka, Kansas, and met a John Ritchie, whom he lived with. The man loved Nelson and wanted to adopt him. Nelson said no, but that he would take his name—Ritchie—because he was so good to him. It was at the close of the Civil War, and Nelson got in on the last part of it. He was in the Cavalry and had a good horse. He had his hat with a few bullet holes in it, but he never was hurt. He was in his twenties at the time of the war.

He was a very good looking man over six feet tall, about 200 pounds, black curly hair, a good clean man. John Ritchie wanted to send Nelson to school, but I never remember why he did not go.

He later met a very lovely girl by the name of Mary Samantha Fullbright and married her about the year 1866. They had a son born in 1871, whom they named John Eddie. Father used to tell us about him. He was only a few weeks old and seemed to be looking at everything in the room. They had a pretty ceiling and he loved to look at that. His wife and baby both died in the year of 1871. Father told us children he always thought an old black Mammy poisoned them.

I don't know where he lived in Kansas at that time, but when our mother came into the picture he was in Great Bend, Kansas. Nelson had gathered around him a big business and was a rich man. He had a hotel and barns with many beautiful horses, and people worked for him. He took the U.S. mail to the trains every day and carried mail back to the town. He had a livery stable where he had horses and carriages for hire, or where people could leave their horses to be fed for a fixed charge. One time little Tom Thumb, who were dwarfs (or very small people), came and stayed at Father's hotel and had their horses taken care of. Tom Thumb was a man who knew what he wanted. He smoked a big cigar. They were cute little people.

It was now six years since Nelson's wife died. One day Nelson was over to St. John, about 25 miles away from Great Bend, visiting with friends named Kindle. There he met a very beautiful young woman who had come from Pennsylvania with a group of people for to build up Zion. William Bigerton was their leader. He was given the priesthood by Sidney Rigdon, who had been cut off The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Well, Nelson fell in love with Annie Russell, and Annie began to think he was a good catch, so she married him December 21, 1876. They lived in a cute pink house not far away from the hotel (I think this house was across the street from the hotel) in Great Bend. The town was on the bend of the river.

Annie soon had her people out there. Her father worked in the coal mines, and she had a brother, William or Billy, as he was called, who was killed in the mine. Her sisters worked in the hotel, and Annie helped with the cooking. They had a French cook, and Mother said she was a good one. One day just when breakfast was about ready, they had a fire. Mother and her sisters swept up the tablecloths with everything in them to save them. They soon had the fire out, but what a mess.

Their first son, Willie, was born December 31, 1877. When he was a year and a half old, he fell off the porch and broke his hip. Father took him to Topeka to a good doctor, but they did not know what was wrong. He died when he was six years old, and then they found out his hip was broken. They had three other children born before Willie died: Olive Ellen, Bertie, and James Alvie. Bertie was before Olive, and he died when he was about two years old. Father felt so bad, here Willie was sick and Bertie taken from them.

Now I must tell about Willie. Not long before his passing, he said to Father that he was going to die and asked him to let him go. Father said, "I can't let you go."

Willie had Mother take him all over the house and said to her, "Do you own this house?"

Mother said, "Yes."

Willie asked, "Do you have plenty to eat, such as pies and other good things to eat?" He was told they had plenty, then he said, "I want you to give my little dog to Grandma Dickens." They started to take the dog when he said, "Not yet." Then Willie told them he loved them both just the same. He still asked his father to let him go, and when Father told him he could go he soon passed away and was free of all the pain he had.

So now Nelson still had James Alvie, and he loved him dearly. He did everything he could for him. Nelson loved children, and they loved him. He was kind and loving to all. Father and Mother had eight children in Kansas: five girls and three boys.

One day May got lost in the high grass and could not find her way out. The whole town turned out to look for her, and when she was found she went to Father and cried saying, "You went right past me and never picked me up!" She was a very quiet child and never called out to her Papa. May and Father loved each other dearly, for when she married and was leaving for Mississippi, she could hardly pull herself away from him, and she said, "If I go away I shall never see you again." She cried, and her husband said, "Come on or we will miss the train." She had a baby a year later there. The baby died, and she died a week later. When the news came, we had to sit Father down, so we could tell him the sad news. A few weeks before this he had a dream and saw a fire coming very fast, and he told us he knew something was wrong. Father died less than ten months after in his sleep, but I have gone ahead of my story.

Father was very good to Mother's people. He helped them get on their feet, and most of them stayed in Kansas. Three sisters went to Kirtland, Ohio, in later years.

Another railroad was talking of coming through Great Bend, and the people wanted to buy Father out. They offered him $80,000 for his place, but Father said it was worth $100,000 to him. Well, they would not give him that. Mother tried to talk him into taking it, but he would not. A few years later another hotel came up in town, and Father spent a lot of money on his and had a man take charge, and before he knew it he had lost all his property. He was bankrupt and lost everything. The railroad never did go through, and the people of the town came to Father and said they were glad he never sold it, for it would have broken the town.

Father worried so much Mother was afraid to leave him alone. One day he told Mother he wanted to go to Old Mexico, and Mother said, "If you want to leave, let's go to Utah."

Why Utah? Well, I forgot to tell about the missionaries coming a while before all this happened. Elder William C. Mann and another elder (I never knew his name) came to see them. Father was a very generous and honest man and believed everyone was that way. These elders taught the gospel of Jesus Christ to them and the family accepted it. The elders stayed with him every time they came to Great Bend. Elder Mann lived in Bountiful, Utah. The name of Father's hotel was the Union Hotel. Over the side of his big barn was "Nelson H. Ritchie."

I must go back a bit. When Nelson wanted to go to war, he had a hard time to get in the service because he had some Cherokee Indian blood from his mother's side. The lady who took care of Nelson when he was young used to say, "You look just like old Vincent, your grandfather." He made it right at the last of the war, and he used to tell us about the boys singing in the camp. He loved to sing and lots of times in later years, when his grandchildren were left with him to be looked after, he would sing to them and they loved it.