| Notes |
- John and Nancy were just 19 when they went to the courthouse to get their marriage license on 9 March 1870. No marriage return was recorded and it is not known if there was no return or if the clerk neglected to enter it. The census taken in June lists them as married with in the year and that John had $250, but no real estate. There was a seven year old boy living with them by the name of Stephen Clark. Of course, the relationship is not stated, but he is no doubt related to Nancy, nee Clark, in some way.
As with all the Noggle boys, there is a mystery concerning John. With the exception of George who late in life moved over the county line to Indiana, none of the Noggles of this family were known to live any where but Darke County. So it was a complete surprise to recently find John and Nancy living in Ellis County, Texas, in 1880. They had only been in Texas a few months because baby Blanche was born the previous October in Ohio. Assuming they would not travel in the winter with a new baby, a 15 month old toddler, and three other children under 9, they probably settled in Texas in April or May. With them is James Clark, a 19-year-old nephew, who is working on the farm. Is he the Stephen Clark of the 1870 census? Did John buy a farm in Ellis County? What attracted him to Texas? Further more, why did he leave and when? The 1900 census suggests that John and Nancy returned to Darke County within two years because in 1900 they were enumerated in Butler Township with two more children - born in Ohio, Maud in August 1882 and Ellie, born June 1886. Their widowed daughter Kate Brown and her children Ralph and Birdie lived with them, too.
John seemed to have given up farming and was now a"commissioner." But for what governmental entity was he a commissioner? His father and his brother George had been mayors of New Madison, which also had commissioners. County governments had commissioners, too. Although John owns a mortgage-free house not a farm, he is not living in a town. Again, more records in Darke County must be checked to illuminate areas of John's life. A search of extant newspapers is warranted, not only to check for election information referring to commissioners in 1900, but also for township news in the period when John traveled to Texas and back.
John's death date has not been ascertained, nor is it known where he is buried. He died sometime after the 1900 census, but before the 1910 when Nancy was a widow sharing a rented home with her daughter Blanch near her brother-in-law David Noggle's widow Rosanna. Nancy and John started their married life living next door to David and Rosanna, so theirs was a long standing friendship. Ten years later,Nancy had moved to Main Street in New Madison and lived with her niece Edith (Banks) Shelley or the Shelleys lived with her. Nancy owned her home and is listed as head of a family although after the Shelleys and with no separate house number. The Shelleys were renting, implying that they were renting from Nancy.
Another ten years went by in Nancy's widowhood and she still lived on Main Street where her house was worth $2,500. There seems to be some confusion as to whether or not Nancy is living alone; the census taker erased whatever was in the dwelling and family columns and entered question marks instead and Nancy was listed as a "head."But there is no break in the dwelling and family numbers between Charles and Pearl Roberts at number 87 and George and Verna Brown,number 88. Nancy with question marks is between them. Nancy, or someone, answered that her age at first marriage at 21. The marriage was so very long ago, and she has been widowed nearly as long as she was married, she may not remember that she was only 19. The Shelleys now lived with Edith's widowed mother Catherine Banks and her bachelor son Clifford, seven houses away. Like John, Nancy's death date andplace of burial are yet to be discovered.
Kay Germain Ingalls 2003
|
1850 - 1908 (~ 58 years)
