The end of Nelson

Nelson Barbour’s paper, first The Midnight Cry and then Herald of the Morning, ran from 1873 to 1903.

Nelson died on August 31, 1905. Some sources say 1906, but the correct year is 1905. This is confirmed by newspaper reports of his death. Until recently the main news of his death was a short notice in John Paton’s World’s Hope magazine. But a couple of newspapers have gone online which confirm the event and the date.

He died while on a visit to Tacoma, Washington State. The story was taken up first by The Tacoma Daily News on the day he died, August 31, 1905:

With nearly the same wording, the next day’s Tacoma Daily Ledger for September 1 also carried the story:

There was only a very brief reference to his death in the papers in Rochester. He was no longer a “name” – if he ever had been – and no special attention was drawn to his passing.     The Tacoma papers however gave two names of associates – a Mrs J E Moore and a Mrs N W Fuller.

Nelson had been staying at the home of a Mrs J E Moore for about two months. She appears to be Julia Elizabeth Jenks Moore (1850-1937). Originally Julia Jenks, she married James W Moore in 1871 who was about 26 years her senior. In the 1900 Tacoma census she is 49 years old and James is 75. In the 1910 census she is a widow living with her son and his family. For several years during the first decade of the 20^th century she is in Tacoma trade directories as running her own business as a piano teacher. It may be that she was recently widowed at the time Nelson Barbour and Mrs N W Fuller came to stay with her.

Mrs N W Fuller, the friend who came with Nelson for the stay, has a more obvious connection with his Church of the Strangers. In the 1900 census for Rochester, she is living at home with Nelson and Emeline Barbour as a “boarder.” When Emeline died in late 1901, Nelson wrote her obituary in the January/February Herald page 174. He mentioned how Sister Fuller had been with them for nearly four years, and had accompanied Emeline on her last trip when she died in Florida. He also wrote that she would be making her home with him. The 1900 census shows Sister Fuller to be Nancy Fuller, a widow with no children. Nelson is 75 and she is 68, the same age as Emeline.  Nancy was born in New Hampshire in November 1831. In the 1905 census, the year of Nelson’s death, she is with him in Rochester, listed as: relationship “servant” and occupation “house-keeper.” Something strange has happened to her age. By all accounts she should now be around 73 but only admits to 66.

So the 1905 newspapers tell us that when Nelson died, Nancy arranged for the body to be taken back to Rochester for the funeral. Nelson would be buried alngside his late wife, Emeline, in the Throopsville Rural Cemetery, Auburn, New York.

However, that wasn’t the end of the story. There was an interesting sequel with Nancy center stage.

As recounted in the Rochester newspaper The Democrat and Chronicle for June 12 and July 11, 1906, there were big problems in Nelson’s church after his demise. He had made a will about a year before he died, providing money for a special book to be called “Washed in His Blood” as a final message to the world. It wasn’t a simple affair, there was work to be done putting it together from material that appeared in the Herald. His last will and testament also left all his household belongings to Nancy Fuller.

So far so good. But then, reportedly on the day he died, Nelson executed a codicil to his will which now included Nancy as one of the executors. The other two executors were Charles A Naramore and Leonidas B King.

     The book project involved someone being employed to put it all together. King claimed Naramore agreed to pay him $15 per week to do this. This became a bone of contention – if paid weekly, how long was it all going to take and how much from the estate would it cost? Then Nancy decided that she would produce the book herself. She had one key thing on her side – having inherited all Nelson’s household goods she also inherited his library. She then refused King access and took steps to get back what had already been used. On his side, King took steps to try and wrest back the project and also secure a fee now upped to $18 per week. So it went to court as yet another drain on the estate.

The newspaper had a touch of glee in its tone when it reported on what it called “a tempest in a teapot”:

“Of legal controversies there have been enough and to spare, but the personal jealousies and heart-burning that the brethren have endured are not to be mentioned in the same breath. Those who figure chiefly in the proceedings are Charles Naramore, Leonidas B King and Mrs Nancy W Fuller, all of whom were on friendly terms with one another and Mr. Barbour before his death… Because the brethren could not agree on who should continue the work of preparing the manuscript…it seems likely that the most of the $4,000 left for that purpose will be exhausted in “claims” against the estate and lawyers’ fees before the matter is settled…

“There are not lacking those who take sides…One faction declares that if Naramore has anything to do with the publication of the book he will get no help from it, and the same attitude is taken by the King faction. Then there are those who declare they will not touch the work if either Naramore or King has any hand in its preparing. And there you are… For the peace of mind of the brethren it is certainly well that they believe the dead sleep unconscious to the judgment day, for otherwise their consciences might be troubled over the effect of this strife on the consciousness of their late pastor.”

The newspapers do not appear to have published a resolution to the conflict, but “Washed in His Blood” was eventually published in 1907. There was a very small advertisement in The Democrat and Chronicle for May 4, 1907:

The book was published by the Unique Book Company. There is no mention of Nancy or any other faction in the book, which does not even carry Nelson Barbour’s name,

I have not been able to establish any more of Nancy’s family history. It is always more difficult with married female names, expecially if they had no descendants to trace. I could not find her in the 1910 census for Rochester. It may be that she moved away. It may be that she died. In case there is a story of interest to tell here, other readers are very welcome to try. And of course, a key question – whatever happened to Nelson Barbour’s library that Nancy Fuller inherited?