MRS. CHARLES B. (Nellie M. Forbes) BROWN

WATERWORTH, FORBES, BROWN, NYBERG, MCCOY, FISKE, LACER, WALTHEW

Posted By: Mary Durr (email)
Date: 12/24/2002 at 17:49:47

MRS. CHARLES B. (Nellie M. Forbes) BROWN

Obituary of Nellie M. Brown

Nellie M. Brown died Tuesday, Dec. 6, 1977, just six months short of her 100th birthday. She died at the Lewiston Convalescent Center, Lewiston, ID, where she had been living since 1971.

Mrs. Brown was the widow of Charles B. Brown who died July 3, 1944.

Mrs. Brown was born May 22, 1878, at Elgin, IA, the daughter of David O. and Mary A. Forbes.

Mrs. Brown is survived by her daughter Helen Nyberg who lives in Lewiston, ID, along with three other daughters, Roberta McCoy, Bishop, CA, Grace Fiske and Alta Lacer, both of Tucson, AZ; three sons, Harold F. Brown and Robert H. Brown, both of Twin Falls, ID; and Charles E. Brown, Ontario, OR; 15 grandchildren; 28 great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren.

The funeral was held at the English Funeral Home, Coeur d'Alene, ID, with burial in Coeur d'Alene.

The following are excerpts from the autobiography of Mrs. Nellie Brown along with some explanation by C. B. Schori who remembers various things discussed by Mrs. Brown.

Mrs. Brown was born the sixth child to David and Mary Forbes who had nine children. The Forbes owned 80 acres of land between Elgin and Lutra which in early days were two separate communities. Their early home was located where the Jake Schaers now live. The house was later moved to Franklin Street and remodeled and is now owned by the Don Pages.

The Forbes also purchased the 80 acres south of Otter Creek and now owned by the Don Fausers. This was known as "Forbes Hill" and was a popular place for the youngsters of that day to sled and ski.

Mrs. Brown's mother's name before she was married to Forbes, was Waterworth and her grandfather and uncle were drowned in the "Deep-Well" tragedy that happened in the early history of Elgin, July 30, 1862. Both the men and a hired man were overcome by poison air, or "damps," and fell into the water below. Mrs. Brown's grandmother Waterworth was pregnant at the time of the accident and she died from the shock of it shortly after the baby was born. This left Mrs. Brown's mother an orphan at 15.

Nellie Brown mentions the building of the Elgin schoolhouse "adjoining our farm and a block back of our house."

Following graduation from high school, she attended summer school at the college in Fayette and a seminary in Nora Springs, where she went to school with another girl from Elgin, Louise Abbey. The Abbeys had a home on the corner where the William Torkelson's now live. They ran a furniture store. The two girls roomed in the home of another Elgin girl, Rose Schneider, who had married and lived in Nora Springs.

In the spring, Nellie enrolled in the Cedar Rapids Business College. Another Elgin girl, Jennie Benson, daughter of August Benson, who built the house owned by the late C. O. Torkelson, and who ran a grocery store, attended CRBC with her. Jennie and Nellie decided to go to Chicago where she worked for a Wholesale Tailor Supply company. After a summer in Chicago she was offered a job as stenographer in the office of Clements & Clements at West Union.

Her sister Myra also worked in a bank at West Union and she tells of their rooming with a young widow named Mrs. Ash who had a beautiful modern home that was heated by hot-water pipes and was very comfortable. They boarded at the Arlington hotel and later at Leishers for $2.75 per week and had everything one could desire.

At the urging of her brother-in-law, John Walthew, she moved to Seattle, WA, to be a part of the city's excitement during the Alaska Gold Rush. She worked for a shipping concern until she married Charles Brown in Elgin on Jan. 1, 1901. After the newly married couple spent four years in New York City, NY, they moved back to Cloverland, WA, where they farmed in 1911, They established a store at Robersburg, which no longer exists. They then moved to Lewiston, ID, where Mr. Brown was employed as an auditor for the Camas Prairie Railroad. Later they moved to a farm in Coeur d'Alene where they lived until his death.

Several family names mentioned in Mrs. Brown's autobiography are familiar to Elgin people, as street names in Elgin. Forbes, Clements, Walthew and Almira are short streets branching off Main Street and were originally part of the Forbes farm and Forbes Addition to Elgin.

Mrs. Brown's complete autobiography and obituary will be filed in the Elgin Public Library for use by interested persons.

Postville Herald newspaper clipping from my mother's obituary collection