This was Nellie Bivens. She was my great-grandmother. The children with her in this picture are: Catherine (behind Nellie) Hazel Agnes(my grandmother) ,and the child on Nellie's lap is Bloyd .
   Nellie Bivens was the daughter of William L. (Lon ) and Anna Bivens. She was born June 11, 1893 in Lewis Co. Ky.
   Nellie first married on Dec .5, 1912 to James Lacey son of Alfred and Mary Lacey of Ohio.The children in this picture are his children.

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  Nellie married the second time to William Wright on Jan. 30 , 1920. William was the son of Robert and Lizzie Wright of Vanceburg, Lewis Co. ,Ky.  To this marriage a daughter was born, Nellie Wright. William Wright was killed and Nellie married a third time.
   Her third marriage was to James Webster . The date and place are yet unknown to me, although it is thought to have been in Maysville, Mason Co., Ky. A son was born to Nellie and Jim Webster. His name was Acel.
   Hazel Agnes Lacey married at a young age to Clarence Berryman . The marriage took place in Maysville, Mason Co. , Ky. on April 7, 1930. For reasons unknown to us and probably to her due to her youth she left Clarence. My mother Helen was borned the following years. We do not know how long Hazel and Clarence were married but do know that Clarence never saw the child.
  

  My grandmother , Hazel married again when my mother was about three. She married William Owen Webster on March 10, 1934 in Greenup Co., Ky.  Owen was the son of Anderson and Maggie Gibson Webster. He was a very kind and loving man. He took care of my mother as if she were his own.

This is my mother Helen. She  can tell wonderful stories of life with her grandmother Nellie. She called Nellie "Mom". And that is all we ever called her too. My mother said she lived with either Nellie or her Aunt Catherine for about the first three years of her life. She has the fondest memories of "Mom". She  tells stories of what it was like at the home of Nellie and what her jobs where there.
  

  They had no electricity or running water where they lived on Town Branch Hill. She only drank skinned milk because Nellie would skim off the cream to make butter to sell in the town of Vanceburg, Ky. And on Saturday morning they would walk into town and sell the butter. The mold she used for the butter had a flower on the top of it.
   Her other jobs were to go to the creek and wash the globes for the oil lamp that they used for lights and to wash out the spittoons. She didn't  like that job much.
   Mother also said that Nellie and Jim sold fire wood . Another one of her jobs was to stack or help load the fire wood into cords. Mother hates bug, spiders , snakes and anything that crawls. She tells a funny story about a lizard that was always around the house. One day she swatted at it with a bloom and knocked off its tail. She said that lizard followed her everywhere she went all that summer. Everytime she went outside he was there. The tailless lizard. She said it got so bad that she was afraid to go to the outhouse.

  This is "Mom" Nellie , as I remember her. She had long thin white hair that she used to let me brush at night. She wore it braided and then rolled in a bun at the top of her head. My mother and all four of us children spent a week with her at her home in Greenfield, Ohio. It was a lot of fun. She had cows to milk and she still churned butter. She let me take a turn at it, but it was really hard work. I remember  Mom getting mad because us kids  made our mother go to the store and buy a gallon of milk. We refused to drink the milk there. We had never drank milk that didn't come in a jug.

  We also made our mother carry a potty for us because we were all to scared to go into the outhouse. We all laugh about it now, but it was an experience for the little city kids. We were all really glad to see our father show up to get us on Saturday. Probably no one as happy as our mother. It was a hard week for her I'm sure to put up with us spoiled city kids on a farm where the nearest neighbor was miles down the road. What I wouldn't give to be able to go back there now and really learn what farm life was all about. And to have Nellie back with us to teach us the finer things of life.

To see a picture of and read a little about my mom and dad look at their page.  MOM and DAD

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