The third of a four-part history of Nelson Holder Ritchie (1840–1913), written in 1975 by a daughter, Grace Ritchie Ashton. 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).
Mother, May, and Elsie went to Kansas to see her mother, Elizabeth Householder Russell. Esther, Russell, and Grace were with Father. At this time a big circus was in town, and I wanted to see it. I kept after Father to take us, and he was busy taking care of chickens and pigs. I had a wire in my hands that we could catch chickens with, and I hurt the dog's leg and made him howl. Father could not stand to see us hurt anything. He said, "No circus. When you learn to be good to all things, then I will be good to you."When I was about seven or eight years old, Mother went to Liberty Park, not too far from where we lived. I wanted to go with her; she was with a lot of other ladies. Well, after she left I got my only dress on, which was red, and I had a little bucket with some bread in it and went to the park looking for Mother. I had all kinds of people asking me to eat with them, and I went from group to group but never did find Mother. By this time it began to get dark, and some people told me they better take me home, and did I know where I lived? I did, so we got nearly out of the park when here came my dear father in his spring wagon to find me. I called out to him, and he thanked the people who were looking out for me. I don't remember what Mother did to me, for I was gone all day (I bet I was dirty).
I was very sick, and Father had to stay away so he could work. He sent a big orange-colored rocking chair to our house, and the men set it half way from the street to our house. That was some chair. Father loved to sit in it.
Years after Father died, we had a nice experience with it. Elsie was about 14 or 15 years old, and some girl from Bountiful came to the house and wanted to go to the dance in Salt Lake. Mother and I said she was too young to go alone to the dance. Elsie began to cry and made a big fuss about it and said she was going, but we told the girl to go home because Elsie could not go. Elsie said she would break the windows and go anyway. Just about that time, this rocking chair began to rock with no one in it. Mother and I both knew Father was there in that chair, and it nearly frightened Elsie to death when she saw it. She settled down and was a much better girl after that. Elsie married on her 17th birthday and had 11 children, two girls who died and nine boys. (In October 1973 I asked Elsie if she remembered the chair rocking, and she said, "I will never forget it." She is now 70 years old.) This experience helped me to know we are very close to the spirit world, and those may be able to help when needed.
I was told in my blessing that I chose my parents before I was born in the world. I have seen my father in dreams telling me things I should do and not do. I saw him in a beautiful white robe. He used to go to church with us and loved to hear J. Golden Kimball speak.
We always went up to Olive and Will Cleverly's place for Thanksgiving dinner, and Father used to heat bricks for us to put our feet on in the wagon. His grandchildren, all who knew him, loved him. He had a way with him that you could not help like or love Nelson Holder Ritchie.
He received his patriarchal blessing on May 13, 1912, just eight months before he died. Nelson Holder Ritchie was 72 years and 5 months old when he died January 28, 1913. His first wife was Mary Samantha Fullbright. She died August 18, 1871. They had one son who died the same year, 1871. He lived in Great Bend, Kansas. At one time he was a very rich man. He married Annie Cowan Russell six years later. They had 12 children. They joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about the year 1890 and came to Utah in 1892 or 1893 at the time the Salt Lake Temple was dedicated. Nelson was a very good, kind man and loved all men.
Father had cataracts and was in the hospital about two weeks to have them removed. He came home Thursday or Friday and went to the door and called to his horse, Prince, and the horse answered back. They sure did understand each other. Monday night I was reading The Wizard of Oz. It was so good I could not leave it alone and forgot what time it was. I was reading by an oil lamp when Father said, "Grace, go to bed. It's one o’clock."
I said, "All right," and in the morning when I got up at 7:00 a.m. to get ready for school, Mother said, "Girls, your father is dead." He must have passed on as he went to sleep, as he was laying on his back, and a ridge was right down the middle of the bed so that Mother did not touch him all night.
I must tell a few more things. James Alvie went in the Navy for four years. Father loved that boy, and while he had money to do for him he gave him everything. When Alvie went in the Navy and Father took the place in Parleys Canyon, Alvie got going with a fellow there who had it in for his father, and I guess Jim got to thinking about how Father had never done for him after they came to Utah, so when he came home from the Navy he would not let Father see or talk to him. That was hard on Father because of the love he had for him. When we called Jim to tell him Father had died, he was the first one there and sat there for hours and went to the services and even paid the bill. James Alvie had not forgotten the love he had for Father. Years later one of Alvie's daughters did the same thing to him that he loved much, and when Alvie died Vinnie nearly died herself.
Someday if we all live good lives and repent of all our sins and do the work of the Lord, we will all have a chance to know our father and grandfather and be with him and know for ourselves what kind of a man he was, and our mother, Annie Cowan Russell Ritchie, will be right with him.
Here are the names of their children:
1. William Holder (Willie) was born December 31, 1877, in Great Bend, Kansas, and died March 15, 1884.
2. Bertie Elwood was born April 19, 1879, in Great Bend, Kansas, and died July 12, 1880.
3. Olive Ellen was born March 21, 1881, in Great Bend, Kansas. She married Henry William Cleverly, and they had 13 children, including two sets of twin boys. She died March 28, 1945.
4. James Alvie was born February 12, 1883, in Great Bend, Kansas. He married Millie Shulsen, and they had seven children. He died July 10, 1928.
5. Elizabeth (Bessie) was born November 17, 1884, in Great Bend, Kansas. She married Willis Rogers January 13, 1904, and they had ten children, of whom nine were boys and one a girl. They had one set of twin boys. She died February 10, 1970.
6. Annie May was born December 19, 1886, in Great Bend, Kansas. She married Ivard Rathborn, and they had only one child who died at birth. May died a week later on March 3, 1912.
7. Blanch was born January 12, 1889, in Great Bend, Kansas. She married Charles Edward Davidson, and they had four children. She died while expecting a fifth child on March 28, 1918.
8. Esther was born June 27, 1891, in Great Bend, Kansas. She married Orson Edwards, and they had three children. She died December 23, 1959.
9. Nelson Holder was born October 16, 1893, in Centerville, Utah, and died March 29, 1896.
10. Grace Samantha was born July 11, 1896, in Bountiful, Utah. She married Victor H. P. Gerhardt, and they had two daughters before they divorced. She married Bert Searle, and they had one daughter before they divorced. She married Orvis I. Mann, who died. And finally she married Wilford S. Ashton 23 years later. He was her old sweetheart.
11. Russell Dewey was born November 21, 1898, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He married Lois Elva Myers, and they had one son. Lois died in 1972, and he married Sylvia.
12. Elsie Virginia was born April 14, 1903, in Salt Lake City, Utah. She married Angus Leroy Olson, and they had six children before he died. She then married William Robert Langston, and they had five boys.
At the time of this writing, all of the family are gone except for the last three children—Grace, Russell, and Elsie—who are all in their seventies. There are many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, even to the fourth and fifth generations. So I don't know how many we have who belong to these wonderful people, Nelson Holder Ritchie and Annie Cowan Russell.
