John Albert Nelson

Notes:

JOHN A. NELSON, an old-established general merchant at Eckhart Mines, Allegany county, is one of the honorable, substantial citizens of that place, where all of his useful life has been passed. Mr. Nelson was born at Eckhart August 17, 1862, and the family is well and favorably known there, his father, Andrew Nelson, having been a miner and merchant there to the end of his days. He was a native of Scotland. To his marriage with Jane Porter, now also deceased, were born five children: George and James are both miners; John A. is mentioned below; Ellen is the wife of Isaac Porter; Catherine is married to Thomas Philips, of Eckhart.

John A. Nelson was reared at Eckhart Mines, and for a few years attended public school. His opportunities for an education soon came to an end, however, for he was only a young boy when he commenced to dig coal at the Eckhart Mines, following that occupation for several years. In 1891 he entered the mercantile business, in which he has since continued on his own account, and though he had little or no capital to start with, he has made good and built up a steady patronage, gaining and holding customers by carrying reliable merchandise and giving accommodating service. He has the confidence and respect of all of his fellow citizens at Eckhart, among whom he has always lived and worked. In politics a Democrat, Mr. Nelson has been a dependable party worker in his locality for over thirty years. He holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal church.
In 1883 Mr. Nelson was married to Miss Rose B. Crowe, of Eckhart Mines, Maryland, a daughter of Nelson (sic) Crowe of that place, and they have fifteen living children, namely: Effie, who is the wife of William Wheling, and they have three children, Idelia, Jean and William; Raymond, who resides at Barton, married Christina Wagner, and they have two children, Lucile and Beatrice; Daisy B., who is unmarried, is postmistress at Eckhart, Maryland; James who is a resident of Mount Savage, Maryland, married Martha Wills, but they have no children; Andrew, who resides at Eckert; Ada, who is the wife of John Wagner, of Grahamtown, Allegany county, has five children, Margaret, Marion, Helen, Marvin and John; John G., who is a resident of Barton, married Miss Maitland James, but they have no children; Harvey E., who is a resident of Frostburg, married Miss Emma Shuckhart, and they have one child, Emma I., who is the wife of William Engle, of Eckhart; Roger, who married Miss Ethel Lewis, has a son, Roger; Herbert, who is unmarried; and Ruth, who is also unmarried; Marian, Olin and Estella. Mr. Nelson has reared his large family well, and they are a credit to their home training and to the community. Excerpted from History of Allegany County by Williams and Thomas (1923)

He died on 20 Aug 1932 at the age of 70 in Eckhart Mines, Allegany Co., Maryland.

He was buried in Eckhart Mines Cemetery, Allegany Co., Maryland.

John married Rose B. (Rosie) Crowe in 1883. Rose (daughter of Nelson Crowe and Mary Ann Winebrenner) was born on 16 Feb 1866 in Allegany County, Maryland; died on 29 Jun 1942 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Effie May Nelson was born on 5 Nov 1885 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 17 Apr 1939 in Barberton, Summit County, Ohio.
2. Raymond Nelson was born on 22 Apr 1887 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 21 Dec 1974 in Barberton, Summit County, Ohio.
3. Daisy Belle Nelson was born on 2 Sep 1888 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 9 Dec 1951 in Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland.
4. James Nelson was born on 31 Mar 1890 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 30 Jan 1959 in Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland.
5. Andrew M. Nelson was born on 3 Jan 1892 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 4 Jul 1970 in Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland.
6. Ada Nelson was born on 21 Feb 1894 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 29 Nov 1985 in Barberton, Summit County, Ohio.
7. John Gilbert Nelson was born in Jun 1895 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died in UNKNOWN.
8. Harvey Earl Nelson was born on 29 Jan 1897 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 15 Jul 1944 in Summitt County, Ohio.
9. Rosa Nelson was born on 8 Dec 1898 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 23 Dec 1899 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland.
10. Emma Idella Nelson was born on 25 Aug 1900 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 6 Dec 1990 in Allegany County, Maryland.
11. Roger Nelson was born on 31 Aug 1902 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 8 Oct 1957 in Baltimore, Baltimore County, Maryland.
12. Herbert Nelson was born on 23 May 1904 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 19 Dec 1984 in Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio.
13. Ruth Evelyn Nelson was born on 31 Mar 1907 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 25 Dec 1989 in Barberton, Summit County, Ohio.
14. Marion Nelson was born in 1908 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died in UNKNOWN.
15. Ralph Olin (Red) Nelson was born on 12 Jun 1911 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 21 Jul 2001 in Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland.
16. Estella Nelson was born on 9 Jan 1914 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 28 Jul 2004 in Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland.

Notes:

News was received here Saturday of the death of Mr. Andrew Nelson from asthma at the the home of his niece Mrs. Walter Miller, in Cumberland. The deceased was born in Scotland, August 21 1835, coming to this country when about ten years old, where he has spent the remainder of his life. He was engaged in mining for many years residing at Eckhart. Later he engaged in merchandising business at the same place which was his home at the time of his death. He is survived by his mother, Mrs. Mary Ann Nelson and the following brothers and sisters; Mrs. Thomas Morris and William Nelson of Eckhart, Mrs. Sarah Murphy of Johnstown, Pa., Mrs. Jennet O'Hara and Mrs. Mary Keri??? of Cumberland. He is also survived by the following children; Misses Katherine and Ella and Messrs. George, James J., John A. and William A. all of Eckhart; also thirty-five grandchildren and two great grandchildren. The deceased left his home in Eckhart to go to Cumberland to be treated by a specialist. Funeral will take place Tuesday morning from St. Michael's Catholic church at 10 o'clock. Burial at St Michaels. Cumberland Evening Times, February 27,1905

Andrew married Mary Jane Porter on 24 Feb 1858. Mary (daughter of Josiah M. Porter and Sarah Porter) was born on 10 Jul 1839 in Eckhart Mines, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 25 Aug 1903 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Nelson 25 Aug 1903 Mrs Andrew Nelson died this morning at 6:00 after a lingering illness of several weeks. She was 60 years old and well loved and is survived by her husband and several children. She will be buried on Thursday. Her maiden name was Jane Porter and she was a sister of Josiah Porter of South Cumberland.

(transcription by Charles Often)

26 Aug 1903 (Cumberland newspaper obituary courtesy of Phyllis Rosley) - Mrs. Jane Nelson died at her home in Eckhart yesterday morning about 6:00 after a lingering illness. She was 60 years of age, being born in Porter's Settlement in 1839. She enjoyed good health until a few years ago when she was afflicted with lung and heart problems which caused her death. Survivors include 6 children; Mesdammes Kathleen Phillips and Ellen Porter; and Messers George, J.J., John A. and William Porter of Eckhart, and 4 sisters and 2 brothers; Mrs James V. Carter; Mrs George Carter, Mrs. W. Rephorn of Eckhart; Mrs. Elizabeth Tibbets of Alabama; Messers. MMT Porter of Eckhart and JM Porter of Cumberland. Funeral services are tomorrow at the Methodist Church with interment in the Porter Cemetery.

from "A Genealogy of the Porter Family" by Samuel Doak Porter, sent by Phyllis Rosley in October 2012:

Buried in Porter's Cemetery, Eckhary, Md.

Notes:

From Cumberland Times transcription:

PORTER 15 Nov 1880 Josiah Porter died 07 Nov 1880 at his home in Eckhart. He was born 01 Oct. 1799, and was 81 years, one month and 6 days of age. He was born and died at the "Porter Settlement". From 1830-1840, he was disburser of appointments for the National Road. He was also a pioneer in the shipping of coal to the East via the Potomac flatboat system.

The following excerpt is from John Marshall Porter's "Sketches of Maryland Porters", circa 1976. Scott Carter Williams brought it to the attenetion of Michael A. McKenzie in 2018.

Josiah Porter... "Grandpap Si'

As anyone who has Samuel D. Porter's genealogy can note, Grandpap Si was the son of Gabriel Porter and Rebecca Frost. Gabriel was a brother of the Samuel, who was father of John, who was the father of the Michigan Porters. So we learn that John and Grandpap Si were first cousins.

All that I am writing about these early Porter ancestors comes form what Frank Porter wrote, and what I learned from my father. Gabriel had other sons and daughters, but I know of no account of their descendants such as was kept of Grandpap Si. Squire Mike and Grandpap Si were first cousins, and we shall learn that intermarriage of close relationship took place between some of their descendants.

Grandpap Si married first, Mary Margaret Combs, who became mother of his first nine children. His second wife, Sarah was a daughter of his first cousin, Souire Mike. Sarah, whom he married in 1836 bore him twelve children over the next twenty five.years...three of whom died in infancy. In total, Grandpap Si was father of 21 children.

Grandpap Si lived on a farm adjoining Rose Meadows which he rented from a mining company. It did not come into ownership of Porters until more than a century later when around 1930 three of his grandsons purchased it from the coal company that was selling their holdings in that area. Since then, Marshall Robert bought the shares of his brothers, and is now sole owner. He is nearly 80, and is still living there and farming the land.

Grandpap Si and his sons mined coal from under the farm, paying a royalty to the coal company who owned the land. Much of that coal was hauled to Cumberland in wagons. There it was loaded on rafts that were built on the
low tides of the Potomac River. The rafts were made from slim tree trunks, bound together with cables and ropes to make a flat platform about 30 x 30 feet. The coal was hauled to the river over the old National Pike by horse and ox teams, in wagons during summer, and sleds in winter. There it was loaded on the rafts whiFsei held around 50 tons. When the snow melted and spring rains came, the river arose to near flood stage, and the raft was ready to be unleashed from its moorings. Then four to six young, strong, fearless men loaded provisions of food and clothing and bedding, climbed aboard vrith only long poles to guide the cargo down the swift, treacherous waters of the Potomac to Washington. If they delivered the raft and coal intact to the destination, they received the money for it. Then they walked back to the farm near Frostburg, a distance of 150 miles. But it wasn't always that easy.

I have heard my father say, and he knew only what he had heard from Grandpap Si and others, that many times those rafts would flounder on rocks in the middle of the river when the water current would recede. The raftsmen would have to abandon their cargo, and wade ashore and walk home in wet clothing with no money for the coal. Also, there were many raft loads of coal that would be washed ashore on a gravel bar that could not be moved back into the current, and had to be abandoned by the raftsmen. Then there were the rafts loaded with coal that would be torn apart by unseen rocks in the river. The coal would be lost, and the raftsmen barely escaping with their lives...and not all of them escaped with their lives. Some of these raftsmen drowned in the swift current. Others died of exposure when they were forced into the icy water. If they reached the shore, they didn't have a dry match to start a fire and they perished in their wet clothing.

Rafting could be done only under treacherous conditions, when the water was deep enough to carry the rafts above the rocky river bed.

The C&O canal, that ran from Cumberland, Md. to Georgetown, near Washington was completed and ready for transportation in 1850. That ended the rafting on the Potomac. After that coal was hauled to Cumberland and loaded on canal boats.

Grandpap Si was a devoutly religious man, from all I have heard of him. Frank Porter spoke of him as "One of the few Saints of earth I have known." My father said he would not let one of his men nor horses work on Sunday nor Christmas. But that on New Years day, unless it fell on Sunday, he wanted every man and team to be working... a sort of omen or superstition that, if he began the New Year making some money it would be a prosperous year for him.

It seems apparent that Grandpap Si's children, 15 of whom were girls married one by one until most of them were scattered and gone from the farm when his younger son M.M.T. (Doc.) Porter began taking over the management of the farm that had been home of the large family. Grandpap Si died in 1880. He is buried in the Porter graveyard, just up on the hill above the farm he spent his life on.

I can find no dates of the deaths of either of his wives, Mary Ellen Combs and Sarah Porter.

He died on 7 Nov 1880 at the age of 81 in Eckhart, Allegany Co., Maryland. Phyllis Rosley, in a note dated May 16, 2012, offers this information:

Josiah Porter, "Grandpap Si" was the s/o Gabriel McKenzie Porter and
Rebecca Frost was born Oct. 1, 1799 and died Nov. 7, 1882 (sic: 1880).
He married first, Aug. 1, 1822, Mary Margaret Combs. She is the d/o John
Combs and Mary Margaret Trimble and was born May 3, 1803. They had 9
children. Josiah married, second, Oct. 4, 1836/37, Sarah Porter. She is the d/o Michael Porter and Elizabeth Devore, and was born Aug. 1, 1816. They had 12 children.

Josiah Porter, "Grandpa Si", was the son of Gabriel McKenzie Porter and
Rebecca Frost. He was twice married and was the father of 21 childre
was first married to Mary Margaret Combs, b 1803. His second wife was Sarah Porter, born 1816 and daughter Michael R. Porter, "Squire Mike", and
Elizabeth Devore b Aug. 19, 1816 d. Dec. 8, 1870. Buried Porter Cem., Eckhart Mines, Md. It is through Josiah's offspring, with his second wife, that the Carter family began marrying into the Porter family and two families soon became inter-twined. Children of the first marriage to Mary Margaret Combs are: John Wesley, b 1823 d. 1883; Rebecca b 1824; Sophia b 1825; Margaret Emily, b 1827; Gabriel, b 1830; Elisha, b 1832; Eleanor, b 1834; Helen; and Nancy Porter.

He was buried in Porter Cemetery, Eckhart, Allegany Co., Maryland.

Josiah married Sarah Porter on 10 Oct 1837 in Allegany County, Maryland. Sarah (daughter of Michael Porter and Elizabeth Devore, daughter of Michael G. (Squire Mike) Porter and Elizabeth Devore) was born on 19 Aug 1816 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland; died on 8 Dec 1870 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

This is from Sheryl Kelso:

The information for Gabriel's line comes from Phyllis Roslay, with this note attached, dated September 5, 2012:
"I forgot that years ago that Phyllis Davidson in Ohio had sent me a lot of her research on the Porter family. It is much more reliable than the Porter book. Phyllis Davidson co-authored the book "Western Maryland Catholics", with Dick Koch."

This information was forwarded to Michael A. McKenzie by Scott Carter Williams in August 2018:

The name "Gabriel McKenzie Porter" appears as early as 1889 in the book entitled "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of fayette County, Pennsylvania" by Samuel T. Wiley. The original viewed by ths writer reflects that it is in the Cornell University Library and also is available through Google Books. The page number is 396 in the electronic version and 374 in the actual book.

He is buried in the Porter Cemetery.

The followig information was sent to the writer, Michael A. McKenzie in August, 2018, by Alan Williams:

To the best of my knowledge we have no document of John Porter’s (b. 1737) marriage to Nancy McKenzie, but there is the clear indication of a family interaction in the name of our 3xGreat Grandfather Gabriel McKenzie Porter. He was John (and Nancys?) fourth son. Its possible he’s named for his grandfather, or for a Porter neighbor, as the ‘old country naming traditions’ certainly broke down at some point.

For a while we were confused by Gabriel Porter McKenzie’s residence in Allegany County and death in PA. What we learned is this: His move to PA was preceded by his son Moses (b. 1804), who moved to present day Fayette County PA, apparent home of his wife’s family, the Wades. The Wades are also related by marriage to the Lindley’s and Gabriel McKenzie Porter’s estate showed he did in fact owe end of life Doctor’s bills for services of Dr. Lutellus Lindley. One of Moses children is named for that doctor, and another child attended medical school under Dr. Lindley’s guidance.

Tracking this, I found Moses Porter’s grave (1804-1880) in what is now an abandoned graveyard in PA, called “Owensdale” but which had locally been called the “Stickler/Porter burying ground”. Moses is one of the final burials there, and we think it’s likely that also marks Gabriel Mckenzie Porters resting place. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2234359/owensdale-cemetery

Neither Moses, nor so far as we could find, his father Gabriel McKenzie Porter, owned slaves, although Gabe’s brother Squire Jack, did. That may have been part of the decision to move to PA, we cannot know for certain.

From what I’ve gleaned in other emails this past few days, a number of McKenzie’s (including Catherine Winters husband Jesse) seem to be recorded as PA birth. My brother, Scott Williams, is far advanced in understanding the Porter brothers movements back and forth across the MD/PA border, which will hopefully help us narrow down the point at which the two families ‘hooked up’, whether at Hobsons, McKenzie’s Discovery, or some later point.

Alan

Alan Williams sent the following to the writer, Michael A. McKenzie in August 2018. The subject deals with Gabriel McKenzie Porter's middle name and whether there were/are any source documents which corroborate the "McKenzie" portion of the name.

Alan wrote:

In all Instances of documents included in Gabriel Porter’s probate, he is given either as G.M. Porter or Gabriel M. Porter. The only instances I recall of him without his middle initial are listings in census. For whatever reason, the “M” seems to be important to his name! And to the best of my knowledge, we had no other Gabriel Porters around the landscape for him to distinguish himself from.

Scott Williams sent the followig to the writer, Michael A. McKenzie concerning the same subject also in August 2018:

See attached reprint from an 1889 book of Biographical Sketches of Fayette County PA. He is the only one of John Porter Jr's children to have a middle name in SDP's book and it is "McKenzie".

Here is the link:

Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Fayette County, Pennsylvania

Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Fayette County, Pennsylvania

Writer's note: this book states at the beginning that it is located in the library at Cornell University. Scott obtained it via Google Books and sent it to the writer.

Per Nathan Williams September, 2018:

To the question of Gabriel McKenzie Porter, I found two things in Western Maryland Catholics by Koch and Davidson. Number 1 is a reference to a person in the book called "Kenzie Porter" who sponsored the baptism of Josiah [Price] McKenzie, son of Moses and Margaret McKenzie in 1828. P. 89. The authors of the book amended the record to read as follows [Gabriel Mc]Kenzie Porter. I would consider this (as well as the communion record captured below) as record primary source evidence that Gabe Porter's middle name was McKenzie.

Gabriel McKenzie Porter only appears in the church records twice. Once is the first communion record, the other is sponsoring the baptism listed above. His marriage record to Rebecca Frost by Father Galitzen is included as well, that date is recorded as May 10, 1797.

Gabriel married Rebecca Frost on 11 May 1797 in Mt. Savage, Allegany County, Maryland. Rebecca (daughter of Josiah Frost and Elizabeth Parsell) was born in 1774 in Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland; died about 1813 in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Michael + Elizabeth Devore. Elizabeth (daughter of Jacob Devore and Mary L. Stillwell) was born in 1795 in Midland, Allegany County, Maryland; died in 1870 in Allegany County, Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]