Melissa Johns Black

JOHNS, NICHOLS, BLACK, ELDER

Posted By: Charlene Nichols Hixon (email)
Date: 3/9/2009 at 14:34:28

MELISSA JOHNS

Mary Melissa Johns was born 8 September 1849 to Hosea and Elizabeth Nichols Johns, their only child. She was born in the log cabin of her grandfather, Samuel Nichols, in Pike township, Muscatine county, Iowa.

The 1850 census of Pike Township, Muscatine County, Iowa, Dwelling 42, Family 42, shows the family:

Hosea Johns, age 37, farmer, born in Maryland,

Elisabeth Johns, age 22, born in Ohio,

George S. Johns, age 14, born in Maryland,

Loretta Johns, age 12, born in Maryland,

Malise M. Johns, age 1, born in Iowa.

When still a young child, Melissa and her family left Iowa. They were traveling in a covered wagon, planning to go to Texas. What happened on that trip is not known, but Melissa’s mother, Elizabeth, died at St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri. There is no record of her burial.

Melissa was returned to Iowa where she lived with her grandparents, Samuel and Nancy Nichols. Her obituary states she “returned to Iowa with her uncle, Benjamin Nichols.” This contradicts the fact that Benjamin Nichols had gone to California with the Gold Rush and was located in Yuba County, California, at the time of the 1850 census; he returned to Iowa in 1868. Melissa obviously came back to her grandparents, but we do not know the circumstances of her return.

Her grandparents saw that she was educated. She attended school at Grandview Academy, located at Grandview, Louisa County, Iowa, and then at St. Agatha’s School in Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa.

Melissa Johns was married 25 January 1873 to Robert Connelly Black. They lived in the new brick house Grandfather Samuel Nichols had built which was located across the road west from the log cabin. This house has been placed on the National Register of Historic Homes.
Later they moved to a small brick home on a farm of 160 acres located two miles north of Nichols; they built a large home later, and moved to town, still later, to another new house.
Melissa and Robert Black were parents of three children: Benjamin Hozea Black, Nancy Elizabeth (Nannie) Black and Clara Belle Black. All of her children preceded her in death.
Melissa became a member of the Methodist Church in Nichols and was an active member of the church’s Ladies Aid Society until her health failed.
After Robert C. Black died 30 May 1927, Melissa made her home with her granddaughter, Frances Elder, until her death 30 January 1941. Both are buried in the Nichols Cemetery, which is located at the site of the log cabin in which she was born.

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