Nancy

Today's picture was submitted by Betty Hartley. It was taken in about 1910, and shows her grandmother on a horse. The following story was submitted with the photo:

This is my grandmother, Nancy Ellen Baker, Grover King Bond.

She's on her favorite horse, Buttons and wearing a divided riding skirt.  This photo was taken near Cook's Peak, New Mexico, approximately 1910.

On her first day in the third grade, her father deserted the family and she had to quit school and become the "man" of the house.  She took care of the cattle, goats and horses.  Her two oldest daughters had lots of stories to tell about their mama.  They said she could pick up a goat by its horns and toss it over the fence.  I don't know why that was necessary, but I'll bet that certain goat never messed with her again.

She was married off at the age of fourteen.  At the time they lived in a tiny mining town in New Mexico and she said that she thought her only choice in marriage was Grover, or the village idiot, and she made the wrong choice.  (That's a quote.)

Grover was mean to their first daughter and would pinch her to make her cry and then spank her for crying. 

One day, Grover slapped their daughter so hard he tipped her high chair over.  My grandmother reached for the rifle behind the door.  Grover Laughed.  He had removed the gun first.

When she became "with child" a second time, she wanted to go visit her ailing mother.  Jeff would not let her leave.  The Ku Klux Klan came to him and told him that he was to let her go visit, or else.  (This was in Arizona, and its the only good thing I ever heard about the Ku Klux Klan.  No, my grandmother did not know anyone in the Klan.)

She boarded the train with her daughter and never came back.  She was only about 17 at the time.

Her two daughters said she could cowboy with the best of them and could wear a man's hat band for a belt.  After "cowboying" all day, she rode horseback for miles to the dance at the school house, then rode back home, arriving about dawn.

Years later, she married my grandfather, King, who died of tuberculosis.  Many years later, she married Bond, who was killed in a mining accident.

Her mother signed her name with an "X" --- she herself, had a second grade education --- her kids ranged from 8th grade education through high school graduate --- and three grandchildren received college degrees.

And she lived to see a man walk on the moon.