Nicholson family moves to Arkansas

Late 1800's

According to Orval's obituary, the family moved to Arkansas when he was a small child. Little is known about the family's activities during that time.

Orval's mother Mary Wood Nicholson died in Arkansas in 1892. Afterward, Orval's father Joseph returned to Indiana with the four children, establishing a home in Hancock County.

Arkansas Records

There is no record explaining exactly why the family moved from Indiana to Arkansas, or where in Arkansas they lived.

tree image with ak connections?

It is possible that Orval's father Joseph had decided to move to Arkansas along with Orval's grandfather Young Nicholson and his family (Young's second wife Sarah Jane Manship McCoy Clark Nicholson, Young's daughters Ona, Vanita, and Millie, and step-daughter Samantha Alice McCoy).

There are a few records from the late 1800's for Young Nicholson's family members, however none for Young himself.

1890

Ona Nicholson (Orval's step-aunt; Joseph's half-sister) marries William Henry Cook in Marmaduke, Greene County, Arkansas on March 17, 1890.

1891

Vanita Nicholson (Orval's step-aunt; Joseph's half-sister) gives birth to daughter Vernie Potter on October 30, 1891 in Marmaduke, Greene County, Arkansas.

1895

Samantha Alice McCoy Whelchel (Orval's step-aunt; Joseph's step-sister), gives birth to daughter Walter Whelchel on April 8, 1895 in Paragould, Greene County, Arkansas.

1897

According to Young Nicholson's Civil War Pension record, his second wife Sarah Jane Manship Nicholson was living in Arkansas when she filed as a widow on February 1, 1897.

Millie Nicholson (Orval's step-aunt; Joseph's half-sister) marries Will Parkey in Paragould, Greene County, Arkansas on March 9, 1897.

Samantha Alice McCoy Whelchel (Orval's step-aunt; Joseph's step-sister) gives birth to daughter Belva Whelchel on July 13, 1897 in Greene County, Arkansas.

1900

According to the 1900 Federal Census, Orval's step-grandmother Sarah Jane Manship Nicholson (2nd wife of Orval's grandfather Young Nicholson) was living in Paragould, Greene County, Arkansas, along with her daughters Ona and Millie Nicholson (Orval's half-aunts).

Another one of Orval's half-aunts, Samantha Alice McCoy Whelchel (daughter of Morris William McCoy and Sarah Jane Manship) had also moved from Indiana to Arkansas and was living in Paragould with her husband, according to the 1900 Federal Census.

Letter from Orval to family

Messages from Hong Kong, China

Orval attends wedding as groomsman

Effie Gilliland is bridesmaid of sister Iva

Osgood, Indiana

From the Life Story of Valeeta Nicholson

Memories of her father Orval

When mom and dad were married they moved to a farm near Greenfield, Indiana. They rented the Marshall Field farmhouse so they could make a living farming. I was born on that farm in the Marshall Field farmhouse in Hancock County south of Greenfield, Indiana on August 23, 1923. My parents named me Valeeta Mae Nicholson. My brother Carl and sister Virginia were also born in this home. Carl Joseph Nicholson was born January 16, 1916. Mildred Virginia Nicholson was born on July 10, 1918. She changed her name to Virginia Lee Nicholson and that birth certificate showed she was born on July 11, 1918. Thus, she had two birth certificates. She chose to celebrate her birthday on July 11th. There were no hospitals in the area at that time. When I was a baby, I unfortunately had colic every evening and would not stop crying. At that time, my brother was seven years old and my sister was five years old. They put me in my baby buggy with the help from mom. Then they would run through the house with me as fast as they could so I would quit crying.

When I was two years old, dad had the opportunity to rent a farm with more acreage located on State Road 9, about one-half mile south of the Mt. Lebanon Methodist Church. It was the first farm south of the church. A few years later, mom and dad bought the farm. My chores on the farm were to keep the grass cut, the front, which was very large, and the backyard. I used a push lawnmower with no engine. Another chore was to pump cold water into a tank, where each five gallon can of fresh milk was placed, located in the milk house. I did this in the morning and evening. We had a special stirrer that we used to cool the milk. Last, but not least, I was assigned a Holstein cow to milk. If I objected to the cow swishing her tail in my face, my brother, who was milking at the same time I was, would squirt me instead of squirting the milk into the bucket. For these chores, I was paid 50 cents a week.

Every Saturday evening, we would drive into town, buy our weekly groceries and do other errands like going to the hardware store. All places of business were closed all day on Sunday.

We attended Mt. Lebanon Methodist church every Sunday. My Dad said "church it is." He was very active in the church. Dad taught a Sunday school class and my mother was involved in church activities. At times, dad would insist I play a solo at church on my cornet. I was in grade school and really did not want to do this. I was embarrassed. Practically every Sunday, the people that went to church would go home and get their picnic baskets and say they were coming to our house. We had on the farm, what we called the park ground. Dad would keep the grounds manicured so nice. We had a great big front yard and we all had lunch together. The farm had a creek that ran behind our farmhouse called Brandywine Creek. It overflowed into a gravel pit. Baptism services were held at the Brandywine Creek behind our home. The minister would submerge those being baptized in this creek.

The gravel pit became a source of income for us. Dad kept our gravel pit filled with fish and would charge people 50 cents to fish there. Then, he would take that money to replenish the fish in the gravel pit. At that time, before they bought the farm, they were renting it. The lady that owned the farm had a chauffeur. He brought her out to the farm and unbeknown to anyone, the chauffeur went down and unlocked the gate and didn't tell anyone. The following Sunday, we came home from church and looked down at the park ground and it was full of people with picnic baskets. The chauffeur had let everybody in. Dad didn't mind people coming, but he did not like them doing it behind his back. So he told my brother, Carl, "I know what we can do." We had a mean bull. He said "Turn that bull loose." My brother did and the bull went snorting down through that park ground. You never saw so many people scrambling in all your life. So then all the people left.

Dad hired Mr. Jackson to set up his gravel rig at the gravel pit. He would pull up the gravel and empty it into the back of dad's pickup truck. My brother and sister drove the pickup truck and dumped the gravel on the road so the workers could continue spreading out the gravel. Dad sold the gravel to the county to be used on this road. Dad's truck was named the "red devil" not only because it was bright red but because it was a political thing. Dad was a Republican. He was the County Road Commissioner and supervisor. The Democrats did not want gravel on the road so some of their party members would tear up parts of the road which later would be repaired. Dad would drive the "red devil" and nothing would stop him when he needed to take care of issues or problems in getting the gravel on the road. He finally told the Commissioner of the Democrat party "Look, this road is for all neighbors, both Republican and Democrat. Why are you trying to disrupt this project?" Dad was persistent in getting the gravel down. Later on, the State paved this road and it became Indiana State Road 9.

After State Road 9 was paved, we had several tramps stop at the farm house seeking a free meal. My mom would have the men sit on the back porch step while she filled their plates with good warm food, and then placed a piece of pie on top. Our front yard was large with a lot of trees. When the tramps were fed and they left, they always marked one of the trees somehow so that the next tramp that came along would know he could get a good meal at Mom and Dad's home.

There was a dance hall on the farm, but my dad didn't like that so he turned out the hogs and that took care of the dance hall. Dad wanted to keep the farm focused on family activities. Even though he didn't want the dance hall on his property, he and mom loved to square dance. He was a caller at the square dances and his brother, Uncle Ora played the fiddle.

Every year we would make one or two trips to Cincinnati to visit family. When we first started going there we had no heater in the car, so dad would wrap us in a blanket. It would take us all day to get there. We would have to spend the night and come back the next day. These trips began when I was about 8 years old.

My dad decided to teach me how to drive when I was thirteen years old. We had cars that had a stick shift that you moved to change the gears. First, second, third, and reverse gears. I had a terrible time trying to learn that. But I finally did. My mother never learned to drive and I don't know whether it was intuition on his part or what, but I learned to drive. You didn't have to have a driver's license back then. It's a good thing he taught me to drive because he died one year later on December 16, 1937 when I was fourteen years old and a freshman in high school. He had a defective heart valve that led to congestive heart failure. He was fifty years old when he passed on. I was with him when he died. I was asked to hold his oxygen while the nurse left for a short while. He died when he was alone with me. For many years I thought that I had caused his death by not holding the oxygen correctly. Later I realized that I did not cause his death. When dad died, mom bought a car and I would have to drive her around to the places she had to go.

After dad died, my brother Carl and his wife Julian moved in with mom and me on the farm. We didn't have electricity but we had what they called a Delco system but no one knew how to run it except dad. So we just had to use kerosene lamps in our house.

Orval Laroy Nicholson

Obituary