Nelson Everett Jennings Diary, 1877 to 1936

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Reverend
Nelson Everett Jennings
Diary Project 1877 to 1936

by Bertha (Jennings) Thomas and Cary Thomas
( with many thanks to Laura M. & Evan Clark's genealogy )

Melissa and Nelson E. Jennings

Wife & Husband
Melissa (Luke) Jennings & Nelson Everett Jennings
[photo, circa 1930 - 1939; Bandon, Oregon ?]

(Thanks to my cousin, Kathryn D. Cooper, for the scanned photo)

Sept. 2005: Carlton Meyer's Jennings pages (photo of Charles Jennings)

[Introduction] [Download scanned Journal / Diary pages]
[2 sample Journal pages - 254 k jpg images, loads slow]

[M. Luke letter to Nelson, 1875, before marriage]

[Reverand N. E. Jennings Wedding Records]
( 1880's to 1890's; Dakota Territory )

[Service record of Nelson Jennings with Wesleyan Church]
( 1876 to 1896 )

[Thomas Luke letter to Nelson & Melissa Jennings, 1929]

[Letter of appreciation, F. A. Schmidt to Nelson, 1936]
( 78k jpg image; set screen resolution 800 x 600, 16 bit color,
or higher; or letter may appear blotchy & illegible.
256 grayscale scan. Looks good in Netscape 4.5 )

[Nelson Jennings genealogy]

Introduction

[ This project is dedicated to the memory of my grandmother,
Bertha (Jennings) Thomas - Cary Thomas ]

Between 1877 and 1936, Nelson Everett Jennings (b. Nov. 29, 1852) kept diaries that were passed down to his daughter, Bertha (Jennings) Thomas. Bertha began transcribing the diaries as typewritten pages sometime in the 1950's or 1960's. Bertha completed the transcriptions for years 1877 to 1888. Approximately 20 to 24 diary volumes, 1889 to 1936 remained untranscribed. After Bertha's death in 1971, the diaries were passed on to her son, Richard V. Thomas (Seattle), and remain with Richard's family. In 1999, Cary Thomas, paternal great-grandson of Nelson Jennings, got in contact with 2 of his 3 cousins via the Internet. After the cousins expressed interest in getting copies of the diaries of their great-grandfather, Cary decided to complete the transcription project begun by his grandmother, Bertha.

Cary decided to split the project into 3 phases:

PHASE 1: [ PHASE 1 COMPLETED, March, 23, 1999 !! ] In order to quickly get copies of the transcribed & typed pages to his cousins, he decided to scan the typewritten transcription pages to *.pcx image file format. This would also facilitate the 3rd phase of the project, converting the transcriptions to word processor and HTML format. The *.pcx page images could be converted to editable files with OCR software (TextBridge 98), saving time re-typing Bertha's transcriptions (OCR files would still have to be proof-read, but less effort than re-typing all of Bertha's pages)

PHASE 2: Transcribe, to word processor format, the remaining 20 to 24 diary volumes. From the word processor format they could be easily converted to HTML.

PHASE 3: Convert all transcriptions to word processor & HTML format to facilitate searching the text, and posting on the Web.

Nelson (b. Nov. 29, 1852; d. Jan. 6, 1939) & Melissa Luke (b. Oct. 4, 1856; d. Mar. 12, 1944) were married July 11, 1875 in Vernon County, Wisconson (from Evan Clark's genealogy, see below). During the time the diaries were written by Nelson, he lived with his wife, and children, in various parts of the United States. In 1877, Nelson & Melissa were in Ithica, Wisconson. By 1880, they were in Dakota Territory Township 94. By 1900 they were farming around Bedford, Oklahoma (near Jennings & Pawnee, OK). By WWI they were living in Bandon, Oregon, where they remained for the rest of their lives.

Nelson was a circuit pastor of the Wesleyan Church, conducting many marriages throughout his life, and ministering at many venues.

Nelson Jennings Genealogy

Be sure to visit Evan Clark's genealogy, which shows Nelson Jennings as ancestor (Generation 5). Evan descended from Nelson's son Nathan. Use the link at the very bottom of Evan's home page to see the tree graphically.

Nelson & Melissa's children were:

Thanks to Laura M., great-great grand daughter of Nelson Jennings (descended through Nelson son, Nathan) for identifying Nathan and Mary as the 2 Nelson children I did not know about. Also identified in Evan Clark's genealogy

Bertha was the last/youngest child, born in 1902. Charles and Paul remained in or around Bandon, OR, after their parents deaths.

Cary Thomas met Charles in the early or mid 1970's before Charles death. Read Cary's account of Charles Jenning's "Damn Sure Puncture Cure"

These web pages produced by Cary Thomas
These pages begun March 1999

Last updated: Sept. 17, 2005; January 16, 2000
Moved hosting to new location, June 16, 2007

e-mail: jennings {a*t} exordia.net
copy and paste address; remove blank spaces; change {a*t} to @