The Chickens Have Crossed the Road!

by Pa Rock

Farmer in Summer

I have been very proud of two things this summer, the fact that I have kept all of my outdoor plants alive during this July sizzle, and the health and stability of my chicken flock.

Both outdoor endeavors, the plants and the chickens, benefited initially from the mild spring and early summer, and the abundant rains, but for the past several weeks we have been in the throes of a real summer and, for the most part, baking under the July heatwave.  The rain quit falling and the growth of the grass slowed - giving me a much needed rest from the mower, but at the same time the temperature began shooting up, sometimes hitting the three-digit mark, and that created a whole new set of chores and things to worry about.

For the past couple of weeks I have been a lot more focused on making sure the outdoor plants and the chickens survive.  As the temps started rising and the rains quit falling, I began carrying water to all of the flower and vegetable baskets every other evening just before sundown.   That quickly proved to be insufficient, and I increased the bucket brigade to every evening.   Now, for the past couple of days I am carrying water morning and evening - and not just to the plants in containers, but to the young trees as well.

The work with the chickens has also increased due to the heat.  During rainy times I keep a few pans out on the yard to catch and retain rainwater for the farm fowl - and the cat - and the many neighborhood birds.  Then, as the rains quit falling, I began carrying water to those pans.  At first I just had to top them off, but the heat quickly impaired the quality of the water, so I had to start emptying the pans, wiping them out, and refilling them on a daily basis.

Oh for some cool weather and the occasional shower!

I have been proud of all of my outdoor plants and feathered friends for surviving July.  We are supposed to see a break in the weather tomorrow, at least lower temperatures and a "chance" of rain, so with that I should be able to spend less time carrying water and devote more time to giving the yard a good mow - which it is starting to need.

But there are always things to worry about at my sylvan dell.  

This morning I happened to look out the window and notice that Ralph and his seventeen wards had crossed the street and were hunting bugs in my neighbor's yard.    I've dubbed the street out in front of my house the "Indianapolis 500," and with good reason.   The hillbillies roar up and down this road so fast that it's a wonder they don't become airborne!

And I suspect that more than a few of them would try to hit a chicken.

I will have a stern talk with Ralph and his family later today, but I am doubtful that they will heed my sage advice.

Oh for the relaxing days of autumn!

Be gone, July!

Red America Backs the Blue, but Only If It's White

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

One of the most striking things to come out of this week's opening session of the House committee charged with investigating the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol was the virulent racism expressed by many of the Trump mob as they attacked members of the Capitol Police Force.  The racial epithets directed toward black officers (who were trying to protect Congress, democracy, and our way of life) were insidious and plentiful.  The "N" word was often used when "sir" would have sufficed.

And what made all of this racism so striking, even from Trump supporters, was the fact that it was being directed toward uniformed members of the police by people who generally self-identify as conservatives and Republicans, a constituency that is always highly vocal in support of the police in cases where white officers stand accused of denying the civil rights of Black Americans - often through serious personal injury and even death.

When white officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on the neck of an already subdued black man, George Floyd, for nine-and-a-half minutes until he finally died, the good, ol' Trump slobbering White Americans rose en masse to let the rest of America know that they back the Blue.

What they were really saying was that they back the White elements of society that helped to restrain Black America, and if those White elements happen to be wearing police uniforms, so much the better.

But if the man or woman in the police uniform is Black, well . . . that's a different story.  Their skin color overshadows the authority of their uniform, and once again they are targets of the unhinged mob.

The Redneck roar about backing the Blue is really about attacking the Black.  

And it's not patriotism, it's racism.

Aunt Mary, A Very Independent Ninety-Six!

 

by Pa Rock

Nephew

It's been awhile since I've mentioned my wonderful Aunt Mary of San Diego, California.  She had a birthday this week, something that I shamefully overlooked, but I just happened to phone one day later anyway, and we had a very nice birthday conversation.  I began by asking how she was doing and her reply provided lots of information and set the tone and agenda for the remainder of the conversation.  Aunt Mary's answer was forceful:

"I'm ninety-six-years-old, and I'm still driving and living independently!"  

And everything else that came up in the conversation all related back to her pride at still being able to take care of herself and live life on her terms.

Aunt Mary was born in Kansas City in 1925, went to high school in Neosho, Missouri, where she met and married my Uncle Wayne, and then she moved to San Diego with her mother when Wayne joined the Army at the start of World War II.  Aunt Mary and Uncle Wayne had their family - two daughters - in San Diego, he died young in the 1950's, and she has lived in San Diego ever since.  Today she is a great-great-grandmother who gets in her car whenever she needs to go someplace, and zips around the sprawling city like she owns it.

And she has certainly lived there long enough to claim title!

Aunt Mary is a beautiful person, and she and my cousins are wonderful people.  I sense another roadtrip coming on!

Happy birthday, Aunt Mary, and may you enjoy many, many more!

Whitewashing American History

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

This past Sunday would have been Emmett Till's 80th birthday - had he not been beaten, shot, killed, and thrown into a river by angry white men in rural Mississippi when he was only fourteen.  Till was killed because he supposedly was too familiar with a white woman who was running a grocery store.  More than sixty years later the white woman admitted that she had lied both to her husband and to the court regarding Till's alleged advances toward her.

Till, a Chicago youth, had been visiting his country cousins in Mississippi and had just been in the state three days when he had wandered into the small rural grocery store to buy a soda.

Emmett Till's body was so badly mangled by the beating that Mississippi authorities tried to get him buried quickly in that state so the public would not know how gruesome the crime against him had been, but Emmett's mother, herself a native of the Delta region of Mississippi where the crime occurred, insisted that her son be returned home to Chicago for burial.  

A local undertaker tried to conceal much of the injury and brutality that had befallen the boy, and his mother was encouraged to leave the casket closed. But Miss Mamie, Till's mother, insisted on seeing her son to say goodbye. When she saw how savagely he had been beaten, Miss Mamie determined to have his casket open for the funeral so that the whole world could gaze in horror at what a group of backwater racists had done to her son.  More than 50,000 people marched by the open casket and viewed young Emmett, and Jet Magazine ran photos of his brutalized corpse.

Many regard the Emmett Till case as the beginning of the modern civil rights movement.

Significantly, I went to high school in the 1960's and never heard of Emmett Till in any of my classes.

Significantly, I went to college in the 1960's and was a history major with an emphasis in American history, and also never heard Emmett Till's name mentioned there.

Both of those educational experiences were in rural Missouri, "outstate" of the urban centers of Kansas City and St. Louis.

School curriculum, it seems, determines how much of our history gets passed on, at least in the classroom, and school curriculum is set by groups of concerned citizens, like school boards and state legislatures, who may not want students being made aware of certain aspects of their community's or their nation's history.

The murder of Emmett Till was a significant event in American history because it was one of the things that helped to foment the civil rights movement of the 1960's.  The Tulsa race massacre of 1921 was significant because it showed the absolute destructive power that white rage can inflict on black success and achievement.  I never learned about the Tulsa race massacre or the burning of Tulsa's "Black Wall Street" in school either.

More than a century of lynchings and mob "justice" helped to shape our national character.  The unfettered racism of American banks as they directed business opportunities and housing loans into specific areas based on race, and denied those same economic advances to other areas, again based on race, have also played a significant role in our nation's history and development.

"Blockbusting," "sit-in's," "freedom rides," "Brown v Board of Education," "segregation," "integration," and "miscegenation" were all part of the long and complicated story of race in the United States, along with so very much more.

Those are elements of our history that helped to shape and define the United States as it exists today, and yet so many in this country want to hide America's long and complicated history with race and racism and ignore the economic and social inequalities that have resulted from that racism - and pretend that everything is fine with the world and anyone who works hard will get ahead and succeed in life.

Ignoring the past does not change the past, nor does it benefit the present.   We must know where we came from if we are to understand the present and aim for a better future.  Without the benefit of hindsight we will continue to stumble along in the clutches of hatred and ignorance of a bygone era.

The whitewashing of American history by distorting or hiding the role that racism played in the development of our country is unfair to students of all colors.   History tells us where we came from, and it helps us to understand who we are, and if history has been "adjusted" so as to not offend someone's sensibilities or to fit a certain political narrative, it paints a false picture and provides a shaky platform on which to build the future.

Tulsa happened.  Emmett Till happened.  Rosa Parks happened.  George Floyd happened.  Whitewashing history is lying about our past, and in the end it benefits no one and makes us weaker as a people - and as a nation.

Ancestor Archives: David "Lee" Nutt (1876-1945)

 

by Rocky Macy

(Note:  I began this project last January with the intention of profiling one of my direct-line ancestors each week.   At one point I strayed from that standard and profiled a grand-uncle who was a noted educator in southwest Missouri and northeast Oklahoma at the start of the twentieth century - primarily because he was a very interesting member of my family, even if he was not one of my line of grandparents.  With today’s blog posting I am again going beyond direct-line ancestors and profiling a first cousin, three times removed, who was also a very interesting character - one who was infamous in the early twentieth century for committing two murders.   I also have a cousin of a more recent vintage who was a murderer as well, and at some point I will profile him in this space.

Last April I published a blog posting entitled “Getting Away with Murder:  The ‘Unwritten Law’ Defense."  It did not list the names of any of the parties involved, but rather just told the story of two murders, twenty years apart, and how they were dealt with in the context of the times.  Today’s profile of David “Lee” NUTT retells those same stories, but this time with genealogical content and the names of all parties involved.

Please enjoy your sniff around some of my family’s dirtier laundry!)

David “Lee” NUTT  was born November 2nd, 1876, to 16-year-old Celana Celasia NUTT, a single girl, and he began life in the home of Celana’s parents, Henry and Celana (RUTLEDGE) NUTT, of Neosho, Missouri.   Lee was married twice, first to Blanche Longacre in Neosho, on August 14th, 1898, and his second marriage was to Ollie Frances OWENS on November 2nd, 1909, also in Neosho.  David “Lee” NUTT passed away of natural causes at St. John’s Hospital in Joplin, Missouri, on May 5th, 1945.

David “Lee” NUTT was my first cousin, three times removed.  (Or, in simpler terms, he was a first cousin to my great-grandfather, Thomas Franklin NUTT.)  Coincidentally, Thomas Franklin NUTT was also a “fatherless” child born out-of-wedlock to Henry and Celana’s oldest daughter, Angeline NUTT.  Both boys were essentially raised in the home of their mutual grandparents, Henry and Celana (RUTLEDGE) NUTT, making them brothers of a sort, though Tom was just over six years older than Lee.

When Lee was five-years-old his mother married 18-year-old David McClellan SAYERS, and Mr. SAYERS became the new father figure in Lee’s life.   Celana, Lee’s mother, died  on April 21, 1887 when he was only ten-years-old.  According to information contained for David McClellan SAYERS, Lee’s stepfather, in the 1900 US Census, he had four children of his own in 1900, with the oldest two being born during the time of his marriage to Lee’s mother, Celena Celasia,  Those two half-siblings of Lee’s were May O. SAYERS (born ca. 1882) and Charles M. SAYERS (born ca. 1885).   

While Lee and his step-father, David SAYERS, became and remained close, Lee continued to use the surname of NUTT for the remainder of his life and spent most of his youth in the household of his grandparents, Henry and Celana NUTT.  When Lee applied for his social security card in June of 1937, he listed “Salina Ruthlidge” and Henry Nutt (his grandparents) as his parents.

Lee NUTT became a miner and worked in the lead and zinc mines of southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas during the early days of the twentieth century.  His grandfather, Henry NUTT, had been a local law enforcement officer serving as both deputy sheriff and jailer in Newton County, Missouri, as well as a brief stint as the city marshall of Neosho, so Lee also developed an early interest in law enforcement.  Lee NUTT served two terms as the city marshall of Granby, Missouri (1920-1924), and ran for a third term in 1926 in an election which he lost.  Lee’s interest in enforcing the law undoubtedly played a role in his unfortunate tendency to keep a loaded pistol nearby.

Both of Lee NUTT’s marriages ended in divorce.  His first marriage was to Blanche LONGACRE in 1898 and occurred when Lee was twenty-one and his bride was twenty-six.  They were divorced in 1909 after Lee shot and killed Blanche’s lover.   Lee’s second marriage occurred on his thirty-third birthday, November 2nd, 1909, when he became the husband of fifteen-year-old Ollie Frances OWENS.  They were divorced in 1929 after Lee shot and killed Ollie’s lover.

Lee and Blanche (LONGACRE) NUTT had three children:  Roy (1899-1934), Gladys Mae (1900-1920), and Glenn Raymond (1903-1999).  Lee and Ollie Frances (OWENS) NUTT had eight children, although there is reportedly DNA evidence which proves that at least the youngest child, Margaret Louise, was actually the biological offspring of Ollie’s lover, John Noah COLE, the second man that Lee shot.  The children of Lee and Ollie were:  David Wilmore (1910-1980), Carl Eugene (1912-2001), Mildred “Nadine” (1915-1975), Grace Lorene (1916-2006), Fern Aline (1919-?), Dorothy Lee (1921-2005), Norman Sile (1923-2014), and Margaret Louise (1925-2015).  Ollie obtained custody of the younger children after the divorce, and at least the youngest three began using the surname “OWENS.”

While Lee NUTT’s progeny are numerous and have spread far and wide, it is the two killings that he committed for which he is best remembered.  The following accounts of the killings of Jacob NICELY and John Noah COLE were taken from stories in the press, primarily local news sources, which are still widely available over the internet.  Within twenty-four hours of the shooting articles appeared in newspapers across the state of Missouri, and within days news outlets in other states were running the stories as well.

  
A major debt of gratitude is also owed by this family researcher and all of the others who follow for the work of Elizabeth Danielson of Arizona State University whose scholarly research on these killings did much to clarify the complicated family saga.  Danielson’s historical article, “The Unwritten Law of the Eternal Triangle,”  was featured in 2019 in the journal “The Confluence” which is published by the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs.   Her article is available on-line.  Ms. Danielson was the daughter of Margaret Louise, Lee and Margaret’s youngest child, and the child who was discovered nearly a century later through Ms. Danielson’s own DNA testing to have been the biological daughter of John COLE, Ollie’s lover whom Lee NUTT shot and killed.

The Killing of Jacob “Jake” NICELY:

Lee Nutt was thirty-one-years-old in the spring of 1908 when he invited his 21-year-old cousin, Jacob “Jake” NICELY, to move into the farm home near Neosho that Lee shared with his wife, Blanche, and their three children.  Jake accepted the invitation and became a paying “boarder” in his cousin’s home.   Blanche was thirty-five when Jake moved in.  Jake NICELY, who was described by one local newspaper as having a “prepossessing appearance,” quickly formed a relationship with Blanche, and a few months later, in July of 1908, the pair ran off together leaving Lee alone to manage the farm and household - and take care of three young children.  According to news reports that were published after the murder, Jake and Blanche initially went to Kansas City but subsequently came back to southwest Missouri and settled in Joplin.

When the elopement was discovered, Lee was angry and threatened vengeance on the couple, but he soon forgave his wife and begged her to return.  Relatives also interceded on Lee’s behalf, but it was all to no avail.  At one point Lee located the couple and pleaded with Blanche to return to him and the children.  She apparently agreed to come home, but then had a change of heart and did not return.  

Lee NUTT went to Joplin on business Monday, October 26th, 1908, and managed to see his wife.  They were observed by a witness, a police judge, that evening in front of the Tarketon Hotel having an “earnest conversation” in which Lee was doing most of the talking.   (The judge, who apparently did not know Lee personally, recognized him because of his artificial right arm (below the elbow) and hook-for-a-hand that he had due to a dynamite explosion at the mine where he worked five years earlier.)  Again Lee begged Blanche to return home, but she declined.  

Lee spent the night in his Joplin hotel room suffering from what he termed “unrest” while “fighting the problem.”

The following day. Tuesday, October 27th, 1908, Lee spotted Blanche and NICELY walking into Church’s Shoe Store on Main Street in Joplin.  Blanche had recently purchased a new pair of shoes and discovered that one was too tight.   She had sat down in the store and removed the ill-fitting shoe and given it to a clerk, the owner’s son, who had taken the shoe to his work bench so that he could stretch it.

Lee NUTT already had his 38-caliber revolver drawn as he entered the shoe store unobserved by his wife and cousin.  He began firing at Jake without warning.  The first shot hit NICELY in the neck which sent him to the floor, another struck his arm, and a third missed entirely.  Lee then stepped up to his victim, held the pistol directly above his head, and fired the final shot straight down into the man’s temple.  That last slug was dug from the floor and preserved as evidence for the prosecution.

People who were inside of the shoe store fled in terror, and a crowd from outside of the store quickly pushed in to view the blood and carnage.  Blanche, who was undoubtedly in shock, reportedly looked up at her husband and said, “You should not have done that.”

Lee stepped though the gathering crowd and went outside to await the police who began arriving within minutes. As he was exiting the building, the store’s owner John J. CHURCH asked Lee why he had shot the young man, Lee pointed at Blanche and said “That’s my wife.”   Lee NUTT was arrested and taken to jail.  One of the items that the police found in Lee’s pockets after his arrest was a copy of his and Blanche’s wedding certificate which he seemed to have been carrying in order to prove that she belonged to him.

Blanche was also requested to go with the police, but she insisted on collecting her shoe and getting it back on before she left the shoe store.  The store’s owner personally put the shoe back on Blanche’s foot. 

After Lee was placed in what the newspapers referred as “the boy’s cell” at the police station, his stepfather, David SAYERS showed up and spent ten minutes alone in the cell with his stepson.  He was reported as being teary-eyed as he left.  SAYERS was described in the local press as a “widely known mine operator-promoter.”  Another news article referenced Lee’s grandfather, Henry NUTT, as a “former Deputy Sheriff of Newton County,” and added that the family “is well connected” - and “the man in trouble has always borne an excellent reputation.”  The stage was being set for a “respectability” defense.

Lee NUTT was tried in circuit court in Joplin the following March (1909) for the murder of his cousin.  During the trial Lee and his attorney had all three of Lee’s children, ages five, eight, and nine, sitting at the defense table.  Blanche sat silently and observed from the public seating.

Lee NUTT was acquitted of the murder of his cousin, Jacob NICELY, largely because the jury considered the killing to have been justified.   Lee had been responding to the “unwritten law” of protecting what was his - Blanche.  Years later, Ms. Danielson, in her journal article, described the “unwritten law” this way: 

 

“Evidently, at the time it was unwritten, but accepted, that a man had the right to take action against, and even kill, another man if he had ‘interfered’ with his wife.”

(In 1909 women did not even have the right to vote, so the jury was undoubtedly all male.)

Lee had been living at a boarding house in Neosho at the time of his arrest.   While he was awaiting trial his landlady from the boarding house, Margaret (BARD) OWENS, assisted in caring for Lee’s children.  When he was acquitted, the following ran on page one of the Webb City (Missouri) Register under the heading “Takes Children Home”:

“Lee Nutt, Acquitted On Murder Charge, To Make Home With His Children In Neosho”

“Lee Nutt, who was acquitted in division No. 2 of the circuit court Wednesday afternoon of murdering his cousin, Jacob Nicely, left last evening for his home in Neosho with his three children.

“‘It is surely a relief to get a trial like this off one’s mind,’ Nutt said to the friends who surrounded hima after he was freed.  ‘I will go to work in earnest now.  I have a position as fireman at one of the mines near Neosho.  I have not been working steadily for a year past, what with my domestic troubles and getting ready for this trial.  But I can go ahead with no interruption now.

“‘My children are to be supported.  I have been having them cared for with a family where I board, a good family and a good home for the children.  I was born and reared in Neosho and was married there ten years ago, and I intend to stay there.’”

Blanche and Lee divorced after the conclusion of the trial, and less than eight months later he married his landlady’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Ollie Frances OWENS, who took over the responsibility of raising Lee’s children from her mother.

The Killing of John Noah COLE:

(Some background:  John COLE, who was thirty-seven at the time of his death at the hands of Lee NUTT, had himself killed two men in Granby, Missouri, in 1917 for showing attention to his wife and her sister.   COLE had been expecting to be found innocent due to the “unwritten law,” and apparently was stunned at his conviction.  He was sentenced to ten years in the state penitentiary for those murders, and he had served approximately one year of the sentence  when it was overturned by the state supreme court while on appeal.  The case was then re-tried in circuit court and COLE was acquitted.)

John COLE was a native of Granby, Missouri, having been born in that town on March 5th, 1891.  He and Lee NUTT had met and become friends while working in the lead and zinc mines around Granby.  COLE returned to Granby after being released from prison and he and Lee resumed their friendship.   John COLE’s younger brother, Garland, married Ollie NUTT’s younger sister, Ressie, so the two men were almost in-laws.  At some point in the 1920’s John COLE needed a place to live, and Lee invited him to move into his and Ollie’s home in Granby as a paying boarder.  When Lee and his family moved to Neosho in 1927, John COLE came along with them and both men took jobs at the new Pet Milk condensing and canning facility.  

It was probably while they were in Neosho that Lee NUTT began to be aware that John COLE was paying a lot of attention to Ollie.  At some point he told COLE that he would have to make different living arrangements.  Soon after that they all moved to Baxter Springs, Kansas, where the men could resume work in the mines.  There John COLE moved in with his younger brother, Garland, and his family.

Lee NUTT was probably unaware that his wife, Ollie, and John COLE had been having a long-term romantic affair, but things likely started coming into focus for him in 1928 when Ollie took the kids and left to live with relatives in Oklahoma.  Lee went after her and brought the family back, but it was beginning to be obvious that the marriage was in trouble.  Two weeks after their return, the shooting occurred.  Ollie testified later at the murder trial that she and John COLE had been involved in an affair for “ten or twelve years.”  She also testified that she had left Lee one other time when COLE  had promised her a “life of ease,” but that she had later returned to Lee.  

On Tuesday, December 11th, 1928, Lee NUTT and his 19-year-old son, David Wilmore NUTT, came home unexpectedly around 10:30 in the morning and discovered Ollie alone in a bedroom with John COLE.  A scuffle involving all three men ensued as COLE tried to make his way out of the house.  The  fight continued across their yard and into a neighbor’s yard with possibly as many as twenty people gathering to watch the angry altercation.   During the fight Lee’s hook-for-a-hand grabbed COLE’s ear and tore it.

Ollie joined in the fray and somehow managed to relieve Lee of his hook.   As she fled back into the house with the deadly hook, an angry Lee followed, leaving young David (referred to in all press accounts as “D.W.”) to fight with COLE alone.    Lee soon re-emerged from the house, still without his hook-for-a-hand, but this time carrying a .41-caliber pistol.  His son, who was restraining COLE from behind yelled to his father, “He’s got a gun!”   Lee, who later claimed to be trying to save his son’s life, advanced on COLE, who was still fighting to free himself from the son, and began firing.  NUTT got off three shots, one which missed entirely, one that hit COLE in the shoulder, and one that entered his head.

John COLE was dead at the scene, and when Lee was arrested, he said simply, “I killed him.”

Lee NUTT got out of jail on a $5,000 bond while awaiting his trial.  His son, D.W., who was also arrested for murder, was unable to make his $5,000 bond and remained in his cell until his father went to trial in January.  Lee claimed self-defense and the “unwritten law” of protecting his family from the advances of others, and he was acquitted of the crime of murder.  Charges were dismissed against D.W. after his father’s acquittal.

On January 19, 1929, David “Lee” NUTT walked out of the Circuit Court in Columbus, Kansas, a free man following his second acquittal for the crime of murder.  He settled in Oregon for a while where he lived and worked with the sons from his first marriage, and Ollie joined him there with the younger children.   However, she soon left Lee again, this time with only little Margaret, and returned to live in Missouri.  She and Lee divorced.

When David “Lee” NUTT passed away in 1945 he was a single man living with his daughter, Mildred “Nadine” (NUTT) FREEMAN, and her family in Joplin, Missouri.  The following unattributed obituary was taken from Ancestry.com, and it likely ran in one of the Joplin newspapers:

“David L. Nutt Dies;  Rites to be Monday.

“David Lee Nutt, 68 years old, a lifelong resident of Joplin and Neosho, died at 1:50 o’clock yesterday afternoon in St. John’s Hospital.  Mr. Nutt had been ill for the last six months.

“Born November 2, 1876, at Neosho, he lived there 33 years ago.  Surviving are five daughters, Mrs John D. Freeman, 2302 Schifferdecker Avenue, with whom he made his home, Mrs. R.L. Mathes, Mrs. K.C. Carlin, Mrs. L.H. Swope, and Mrs. Margaret Owens, all of Los Angeles, and four sons, Private Carl Nutt of the Schick General Hospital at Clinton, Ia, Private First Class Norman Nutt of Baker, Ore., and Glen Nutt of Portland, Ore.

“Funeral services will be conducted at 2 o’clock Monday afternoon at the First Baptist Church by the Rev. B.A. Pugh.  Pallbearers will be E.A. Barnes, Carl Fain, Elmer Deewitt, Zeke Parsons, Lewis Green, and S.L. Marley.  Burial will be in Ozark Memorial Park Cemetery under direction of the Parker-Hunsaker mortuary.  David Lee Nutt had two wives, Blanche Longacre and Ollie Frances Owens.”

(Note:  The obituary referred to Margaret as "Mrs." when she was most likely "Miss," and it stated there were four sons surviving but only listed three.  David Wilmore NUTT was also surviving, but omitted.)

The obituary did not mention the two killings that David Lee NUTT committed, but those stories had been well covered in the news during his lifetime.   And while Lee was most notably remembered for a pair of murders, he undoubtedly thought of himself as a family man - a man who did what he had to do to protect and avenge his family.  The first line on his tombstone gives his name:  “D.L. Nutt” - and the line below that personalizes it as:  “Daddy Lee.”   Lee NUTT would have undoubtedly liked that very much.

Greene Makes More Noise

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a  Republican member of Congress who has no committee assignments and thus very little government business of an official nature to keep her mind occupied, spends most of her government-subsidized time agitating and spinning her angry views, much like a worn-out washing machine in a run-down launderette.

Yesterday Greene turned her over-worked tongue on a fellow Republican congressman, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.   Greene was reacting to the fact that Rep. Kinzinger had accepted an appointment from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve on the now bi-partisan committee that is investigating the January 6th attack on the US Capitol.  In accepting the appointment to the select committee, Kinzinger had said, in part:  

"Today I was asked by the Speaker to serve on the House Select Committee to Investigate January 6th, and I humbly accepted.  I will work diligently to ensure we get to the truth and hold those responsible for the attack fully accountable."

Rep. Greene was not having any of Rep. Kingzinger's patriotic humility, and promptly interjected her own opinion on the matter via this tweet:

"You’re not serious, clear eyed, or nonpartisan. "Accepting a seat on a highly partisan witch hunt, assigned by an old Democrat woman who is filled with bitter hate and rage and failed to secure the Capitol, isn’t a call to duty, it means you’re a traitor."

The choice of the word "traitor" is interesting because it provides far more insight into the character and motivations of Congresswoman Greene than it does to Kinzinger. Greene, in her own unique worldview, may see Kinzinger as some form of traitor to his country, which would be a very spurious assumption on her part considering his military service as a combat pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his continuing service as a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard. (Marjorie Taylor Greene is not a US military veteran.) But it is far more likely that Rep. Greene meant to imply that her colleague in the House was a traitor to his political party, the GOP.

Marjorie Taylor Greene apparently believes that Adam Kinzinger is betraying his own political party by serving on the Select Committee to Investigate January 6th. She sees the attack on the United States Capitol as a partisan affair - and Marjorie Taylor Greene is therefore finally right about something.

The attack on the United States Capitol on January 6th, an attack on our Constitution, and our country, and our way of life, does appear to have been rooted in the ideology and falsehoods generated by one particular political party. Thank you, Marjorie, for pointing that out. Please continue to be that honest when you are called to testify.

Lambda Variant Waits in the Wings

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

First we suffered through the COVID pandemic, and then as that appeared to be coming under control, wold spread almost as fast as the virus that a more dangerous "variant" of the standard COVID virus had emerged, this one called the "delta variant,"  a collection of mutations on the original virus that was more infectious and therefore spread quicker than its parent strain.  Today it is estimated that 83% of the current COVID cases in the US are the delta variant.

Viruses mutate as they struggle to survive in a population of humans that become increasingly more resistant through isolation, improved sanitary practices like hand-washing and wearing face masks, and vaccinations against the virus.  There have been several variations of the COVID virus that have been deemed significant to the point that they have been followed and studied by the World Health Organization.   In addition to the now prevalent delta variant, others like the alpha and gamma variants have also captured the interest of scientistic research and medical communities at one time or another.

This week USA Today reported on yet another COVID variant, this one dubbed "lambda" for the eleventh letter of the twenty-four-letter Greek alphabet, so presumably it is the eleventh variant to be deemed significant enough by members of the World Health Organization to be awarded its own Greek letter.  The lambda variant was first discovered in Peru last year, and has since spread to at least 29 other countries.  It has been particularly prevalent in South America and has been the subject of significant research in Chile.  News reports indicate that as many as 700 cases of the lambda variant have already been confirmed in the Untied States.

(Peru, incidentally, has the highest per capita death rate from COVID of any country in the world - 596 per 100,000, and is far above second place Hungary which has a COVID death rate of 307 per 100,000.)

The article in USA Today seemed to downplay the lambda variant, stating that "does not appear to be nearly as transmissible as delta."  However, an article this week in "Infection Control Daily" quoted the study out of Chile which suggests that the variant, "is highly infectious and may also be able to evade vaccine antibodies."  That has not yet been confirmed by more rigorous research.

But, if the South American research does prove to be correct, we could be in for another long bout of masking, social's distancing, and hoarding hand sanitizer and toilet paper.

Being tired of the pandemic does not stop it or cause it to go away.   Following rigorous health and safety protocols like social distancing, masking, hand-washing, general sanitizing, and being vaccinated are clearly the path forward, and ignoring those protocols poses continuing dangers to individuals as well as to the society in which they live.

It's about us, the big US, and if we cede the battle, the virus will win.  And if the virus wins, the battle and the game will be over - permanently.

Birthday Wishes to a Son Who Fishes!

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Papa

My oldest, Nick, was born forty-eight years ago today on the small Japanese prefecture and island of Okinawa.  He arrived on the top (fifth) floor of the old Camp Kue Naval Hospital which has since been closed down and replaced by a far more modern Naval medical facility.  Nick was two months old before he came to the United States, and he had to have his photo taken and be placed on his mother's passport before he could even enter his new homeland.

Nick is the family outdoorsman.   He enjoys hunting and fishing and derives a lot of pleasure sitting along a creek bank at night waiting on the fish to bite.    Over the past couple of years he has taken charge of a mud hole at the farm and turned it into a thriving pond that his home to fish, frogs, and a variety of vegetation.  The pond also attracts deer and a lot of feathered wildlife.  This past week I surprised a little blue heron who was fishing at the pond.

Nick is the father of my oldest grandchild, Boone, who is currently a junior in college.  Nick and Pa Rock are both very proud of Boone.

Nick is currently living at the farm with me, a situation that often benefits us both.  It's nice to have someone step up and take charge of things when the unexpected happens - like when the old man fell and broke his arm last year, and Nick's presence here also leaves me with the ability to make the occasional trip out into the world and not have to worry about things at home while I am gone.  I appreciate having him around.

Happy birthday, Nick.  May you enjoy this one and many, many more!

Republicans Begin Changing their Tune on COVID Shots

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The Republican governor of Alabama, doddering old Kay Ivey, has begun to criticize the unvaccinated people of her state, saying they are holding the Alabama back in its fight against COVID, and she has also started to take a few potshots at the "news" outlets that  promote anti-vaccination conspiracies.  Sean Hannity of the dubious "Fox News" is now telling his viewers that it "absolutely makes sense for Americans to get vaccinated."    Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader of the US Senate, has gone on the record saying "shots need to get in everybody's arm as rapidly as possible."  McConnell also wants the public to ignore all of the other people who are "giving demonstrably bad advice" with regard to COVID vaccinations.  Rand Paul, he's most likely looking at you!

And those aren't the only Republicans who appear to be turning their backs on the former party orthodoxy of scorning the shots and the massive nationwide vaccination program.

This week Congressman Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the number two Republican in the House, revealed that he had gotten his first Pfizer shot and was anxiously awaiting the second - and he encouraged others to get their shots as well.  Fox White House correspondent, Steve Doocy, also made a statement encouraging people to get their shots.

Perhaps they are finally "woke" to the fact that it is the unvaccinated who are getting the sickest and dying - and the unvaccinated tend to be, by and large, Trump-supporting Republicans.

Of course there are still the naysayers, particularly on the GOP side of the aisle.  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was suspended from Twitter for twelve hours this week after she posted a tweet which said that COVID did not pose a serious risk for people who aren't obese and are under the age of sixty-five.   Congresswoman Greene is suspected of getting medical "eddgycation" from "Doctor" Rand Paul.

There remains lots of convincing to be done, but as the deadly Delta Variant spreads and the numbers of sick and dying continue to increase, some former skeptics are beginning to come around and admit that they don't want to endure another year like 2020.

The numbers of sick and dying are rising, and if our leaders won't lead - in a responsible manner that promotes public safety and saves lives - it is time to replace them with leaders who will!

Congress Premiers Its 'Summer Stock' Theatre

by Pa Rock

Fan of the Arts

The first production of this year's "summer stock" theatre program put on by the US House of Representatives got underway yesterday.  The effort, a romping comedy of manners written and directed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was originally called the "House BiPartisan Probe on the January 6th Insurrection" but may now have to be renamed because the House minority leader, a peckish dilettante by the name of Kevin McCarthy, withdrew his entire acting troupe from the endeavor after Nancy Pelosi stated that two of them could not appear in her play.

But in reality all of the fanciful maneuverings by Nancy and Kevin are essential parts of the production, and the entertainment factor is almost as important as anything that the esteemed congressional committee might actually uncover.  Republicans spurned an opportunity early on to co-produce this play on an equal footing with Democrats.  That left control of the play with Pelosi who promptly announced that the effort would go on with or without the active involvement of the minority Republican Party.  She drafted a plan for a committee with thirteen members, eight appointed by her with five slots reserved for the Republicans - if they chose to appear in her summer stock production.

Then, to cement the new play as "bipartisan," whether McCarthy chose to let his people play in the play or not, Pelosi appointed a Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, to fill one of the eight seats, or roles, that she reserved for her own control.  The problem with that was, at least for McCarthy, that even though Cheney is a registered Republican, serving in Congress as a Republican, and the daughter of a recent Republican Vice President of the United States, Donald Trump hates her and therefore so do many GOP members of Congress - and McCarthy recently engineered Liz's removal from a GOP leadership position in Congress.

Another problem, at least from McCarthy's perspective, is that Liz Cheney is still very angry about the insurrection, and voted (for a second time) to impeach Donald Trump as a result of that armed takeover attempt on the Capitol.  Her view of January 6th does not fit the growing GOP attempt to paint the entire day as just a conflagration of happy tourists getting a little too boisterous.

Kevin McCarthy decided earlier this week to go ahead and appoint five GOP members to Nancy's Pelosi's summer theatre production.  He sent in the names of his performers to Director Pelosi, and she promptly rejected two - Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, both of whom held public positions that seemed to support the insurrection, and both of whom had voted to overturn the electoral college's results which put Joe Biden in the White House.

Control then briefly shifted to Minority Leader McCarthy who promptly withdrew all of his players (five middle-aged white men) from the effort - all except for Liz Cheney whom he did not appoint and does not support - and who would tell him to sit and pin on his fountain pen if he did try to remove her.  

So as of the closing of Act One, Director Pelosi is firmly in charge of her own production, and the annoying gnat, Kevin McCarthy, has artfully removed himself from the whole process and is threatening to stage his own play to examine the same insurrection, but from the point of view of jovial Capitol tourists.   And Congressmen Banks and Jordan could have starring roles in both productions - as brilliant inquisitors in the GOP production and as hostile witnesses in the Demarcation version.

End of Act One.

(There will now be a brief intermission to allow both troupes time to hit the Sunday news show circuit.)

Ancestor Archives: Celana RUTLEDGE (1833-1894)

 

by Rocky Macy

Celana RUTLEDGE was born on March 1st, 1833 in the state of Tennessee to Thomas C. RUTLEDGE and Angeline GRINDSTAFF.  She married Henry Lee NUTT around 1850, probably in Missouri.  Celana passed away on April 12th, 1894, in Neosho, Newton County, Missouri.

Celana RUTLEDGE NUTT was my g-g-g-grandmother.

Celana’s date of birth may be off by one year.  Her tombstone states that she was born on March 1, 1833, but her obituary in the Neosho Times of April 19th, 1894, says that she died on April 12th at the age of 60 years, one month, and 12 days - which would have put her birth at March 1st, 1834.

While the date of the marriage of Celana to Henry NUTT is uncertain, they were husband and wife by the time the 1850 US Census was taken.  That census found them in the household of her parents, Thomas and Angeline RUTLEDGE, in “Jackson and Van Buren” of Newton County, Missouri.  Also present in that household was 6-year-old Jacob “GRINESTAFF,” who would have been a relative of Angeline’s, most likely a cousin, nephew, or little brother.

The 1850 census listed Henry’s age as twenty-four and Celana’s as sixteen - another indication that she could have been born in 1834.  Their first child, Thomas Benton NUTT, was born in 1850, sometime after the census was taken.

By the time of the 1860 US Census “Celina” (age 25) and Henry (35) were living in Neosho, Newton County, Missouri, along with their first five children:  Thomas (10), Angeline (8), Sarah (6), David (4), and “Celina” (1).  Also in the household were Mary COPLAND (19) and Penna COPLAND (6/12) whose relationship to Henry and Celana is unknown at this time.   The NUTT family surname was misspelled as “WUNTT” in the 1860 census.

The 1870 US Census found “Salina” (age 33) and Henry (40) still in Neosho, Newton County, Missouri, along with six children.  (Thomas had married and left home two years earlier in 1868, and their second “child,” Angeline was still at home, unmarried, and pregnant with a son, Thomas Franklin NUTT - my great-grandfather - who was born on September 20th, 1870, after the census data had been collected.)

The children listed in the NUTT household in 1870 were Angeline (18) Sarah E. (16), Jackson (13), “Salina” (10), Evaline (8), and “Phebe” A. (4).  (Note:  The person who transcribed the 1870 census for Ancestry.com mistakenly read Phoebe’s age as “21” when it actually was “4” and written by the census taker in such a manner as to resemble “21.”)  The NUTT family surname was misspelled as “NATT” in the 1870 census.

Celana (age 46) and Henry NUTT (55) were still residing in Neosho, Newton County, Missouri, when the 1880 US Census was taken.  At that time six of their children were residing in the household along with five grandchildren.  Present in the household were David J. (son, 22), Celana (daughter, 20) Phoebe A. (daughter, 12), Susan L. (daughter, 6), “Henrietta” (daughter, 4) Sarah E. HANKINS (daughter, 28), Elizabeth HANKINS (granddaughter - Sarah’s daughter, 5), Henry HANKINS (grandson - Sarah’s son, 4), Thos. F. NUTT (grandson, - Angeline’s son, 8), William H. LAWS (grandson - Angeline’s son, 6), and Mary LAWS (granddaughter - Angeline’s daughter, 4).  

Another likely member of Celana and Henry’s household in 1880 would have been three-or-four-year-old David “Lee” NUTT, the illegitimate son of Celana Celasia NUTT.   David “Lee” was born in Neosho on November 2nd, 1876, and may have not been presented to the census taker for the count.

Angeline (NUTT) LAWS’ three children grew up in the home of their maternal grandparents, and it seems likely that David “Lee” NUTT, whose mother, Celana Celasia NUTT, died when he was only ten-years-old, grew up there as well.   David “Lee” NUTT who made quite a bit of news as an adult will be profiled separately in this family chronicle.

The children of Celana and Henry NUTT included:  Thomas Benton NUTT (1850-1902, married Lucinda Ann BOYD), Angeline NUTT (1852-after 1876, married Isaac N. LAWS), Sarah Elizabeth NUTT (ca. 1854-1891, married Hiram F. HANKINS), David Jackson NUTT (1857-1936, married Ella L. PETERS), Celana Celasia NUTT (1859-1887, married David McClellan SAYERS), Mary  Evaline NUTT (1861-1944, Married 1. Moses HARPOOL;  and, 2. George Marion YOACHAM), Phoebe Ann NUTT (1866-1954, married Orlando Breese McKNIGHT), Susan S. NUTT (1874-1951, married L.A. FRENCH), and Henryetta NUTT (1880-1928, married 1. William Glen SHELDON;  and, 2. Ernest E. ROBERTS).

Celana RUTLEDGE NUTT spent her entire life, from the age of sixteen or seventeen onward, raising children and grandchildren.  When she passed away on April 12th, 1894, at least one of her children, Henryetta (aged 13) would have still been living at home.  Celana’s obituary ran in the “Neosho Times” on April 19th, 1894.  It read as follows:

“Mrs. Celana Nutt, wife of Henry Nutt, died Thursday morning, April 12, and was buried Friday afternoon.  She was a daughter of Thomas Rutledge who died at his home near this city a few years ago and who was one of the earliest settlers of the county, and at the time of her death was aged 60 years, 1 month, and 12 days.  She leaves a husband and several children, all now of mature years, to mourn the loss of a kind wife and mother.”

Celana is at rest next to Henry at the I.O.O.F. Cemetery in Neosho,Missouri, the town that was their home for many years.  Her parents and numerous friends, neighbors, relatives, and descendants are buried nearby.