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MARY ELIZABETH EVERHART

    Mary Elizabeth Everhart, daughter of  Jacob Everhart and Christina Norricks, was born 2 August 1860 in Nodaway Co., Missouri [note 1], and died 23 January 1935 in Maryville, Nodaway Co., Missouri [note 2]. She married Cornelius Loman Brackin, son of Richard Brackin and Sarah Jane McCort,  on 1 October 1885, Maryville, Nodaway Co., Missouri. He was born 6 April 1855 in Carroll, Ohio, and died 13 January 1902 in Maryville, Nodaway Co., Missouri [note 3]. 

Biography of Mary Elizabeth Everhart and Cornelius Loman Brackin

     Mary Elizabeth (Libby or Lib) Everhart, 3rd child and oldest daughter of Jacob and Christina (Norrick) Everhart was born 2 August 1860 in Ohio and died 23 January 1935 at age 75 at the home of her son, William Jacob Bracken, on a farm East of Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri. According to her Granddaughter, Mary Christine Brackin/Neff," Grandma went outside, stepped on a stick and fell and broke her hip. In those days, when you broke your hip, they put you in a cast up to your chest. Grandma just laid there and died." Her death certificate says she was 74 years 5 months and 15 days old and died of hyperspleenomegalia, chrrliosis of the liver, biliary in origin, abdomenial ascites and pulminary edema (spelling of reasons for death are as handwritten on her certificate.) Libby had moved from Ohio to Missouri with her family in 1867 when she was about 7 years old.
     Cornelius Loman Brackin, who was called Loman, was the 3rd child of Richard and Sarah Jane (McCort) Brackin. He was born 6 April 1855 and died 13 January 1902 at the age of 47." He died from typhoid fever caused by drinking impure water," according to Mabel Farmer. According to Charlotte Bracken, his son William, age 12, also drank the water and became very ill with typhoid fever, but recovered." His daughter Nellie was age 16 at the time. Loman and Libby are buried in the Miriam Cemetery, Nodaway County, Maryville, Missouri. Loman’s stone reads C. LOMAN 1855-1902 and Libby’s stone reads MARY E. 1860-1935, with the family name BRACKIN across the top. "A farmer by occupation, he went from Ohio to Iowa in 1879 and from there to Maryville, Missouri in 1882" according to Family History of James and Anne McCort.
     It is interesting to note that there is documented proof that the Brackin and Everhart families knew each other in the Carroll County and Harrison County areas in Ohio. According to the Carroll Historical Society brochures, "The village of Algonquin, now Petersburg (no one seems to know why or when the name was changed), named for the Indian camp, was platted on 23 Sept. 1867, by Joseph Tope and Cornelius Brackin, but the plat evidently never was recorded." Jacob Everhart, Sr.’s wife was Elizabeth Tope. They were the parents of Jacob Everhart, Jr., Mary Elizabeth (Libby) Everhart’s father. Also a Cornelius Brackin, age 21, served as a wagoner in 1864 under Captain Jacob Everhart (Libby’s father) in the 157th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company I, during the Civil War according to the Ohio Roster Commission Official Roster of the soldiers of the state of Ohio 1886-1895. However, the age of this Cornelius Brackin indicates that he was not Cornelius Loman Brackin nor was he Richard Brackin’s father, Cornelius Brackin.
     Cornelius Loman Brackin married Libby 23 September 1885 "…at the bride’s residence N C 01 Oct, 1885", according to a newspaper article indexed at the Nodaway County Historical Society. Family history says that Libby had inherited a 160-acre farm South of Maryville, Missouri from her father, Jacob Everhart. The Loman Brackin family lived on this farm until they lost it during the Great Depression, circa 1932. According to Charlotte Bracken, "…when Libby turned the farm over to Pop (her son, William Jacob Bracken) the judge forgot to dot the i and it looked like an e. He (the judge) said it wouldn’t matter but it did, and its (the Bracken name) been spelled en ever since." Libby remained a widow the last 33 years of her life.
     Loman and Libby had two children:

  1. Nellie Brackin/Haller– born 5 August 1886 and died 1970, buried in the Miriam Cemetery, Nodaway County, Maryville, Missouri along with her husband and infant son. Nellie started her career in 1921. She worked 32 years in the newspaper office of The Maryville Daily Forum as a bookkeeper and cashier. She also assisted in the news and advertising departments. She retired in 1953, and then moved first to Texas then to Maine to live close to her adopted daughter and family before returning to Maryville, Missouri where she was living when she died. After returning to Maryville, she wrote a "gossip" column for the Forum until shortly before her death. She was an active worker in the Business and Professional Women’s club and her home served as the workshop for the Doll club.
    Nellie married Guy Haller 21 December 1907.
    Guy was born 19 April 1879 and died 26 October 1951 of a sudden heart attack in their home in Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri.
    An infant son was born 5 December 1908 and died 5 December 1908 in Maryville, Missouri. They adopted a daughter, Helen, in 1935. She married Verne Arne, circa 1954 and later divorced. They had 2 sons, Dwight and Larry Arne. Her second husband is Keith Allen. The family believes they are retired and living on an island off Maine.
  2. William Jacob Brackin (later Bracken) – born 2 January 1890 and died 25 December 1957 of a cerebral hemorrhage, according to his death certificate, in his home on a leased farm between Gentry and Alanthus Grove, Missouri. He was a farmer throughout his lifetime. He is buried in the Miriam Cemetery, Nodaway County, Maryville, Missouri along with his wife. William, called Will or Pop by family members and close friends, married Augusta Ann Bernoska Rutledge [see note] (called Gusty by close friends and family) 25 December 1915. Augusta was a registered nurse, according to her death certificate. She worked at the St. Francis Hospital, Maryville, Missouri, for many years. After the family moved to the Stanberry, Missouri area, she served as a midwife and took in foster children. Augusta died of complications due to diabetes September 8, 1956 after having both of her legs amputated and spending much of the last 2 years of her life in the hospital. Both were members of the Stanberry Methodist Church. William was a member of the Nodaway Lodge No. 470, F and AM.
          Augusta and a twin brother were born on ship as her family migrated from Germany to the United States; her twin died and was thrown overboard, according to family history. She (age 9) and her older brother, John (age 11) were placed in an orphanage, the Fairmount Children’s Home, Alliance, Ohio in 1895. Their mother had died and his new wife didn’t want them, also according to family history. Augusta, "was contracted with H. Rutledge and Wife from Algonquin, Ohio for the amount of seventy-five dollars on January 17, 1899", according to the orphanage’s records as provided by Brenda McIntee from the Stark County Department of Job and Family Services December 1, 2000. Augusta was still living with the Rutledge’s when she married William Brackin in 1915. H. (Henry) Rutledge’s wife was the former Rebecca Anne Brackin, sister of Cornelius Loman Brackin, who was the father of William Jacob Brackin. The family has always believed that she was adopted by them, however, to date I can find no record that she was ever legally adopted, although they treated her as a daughter, sent her to nursing school and she used the Rutledge name. After their marriage at Locust Lawn Farm, Carrollton, Ohio, the couple returned to his Mother’s farm near Maryville, Missouri and lived with her there until they lost the farm circa 1932. Libby then moved with them to a leased farm near Ravenwood, Missouri where she died three years later. "Pop" and "Gusty" had 4 children:
    1. Richard Loman Bracken, born 16 October, 1916 and died 25 September 25, 1991. He married Esther Basha Hammonds and had 3 daughters: Carolyn Sue Bracken Queen, Judy Ann Bracken Cain, and Donna Kay Bracken Eiberger. Esther continues to live on the family farm near Stanberry, Gentry County, Missouri. Richard is buried in the High Ridge Cemetery, Stanberry, Gentry County, Missouri.
    2. The second son was Harold Henry Bracken, born 4 September 1919 and died 30 June 1983. He married Mary Charlotte Osborn and had 4 children: Osa Ann Bracken, Diana Lynn Bracken Palmer, Harold Ray Bracken, and Billy Roy Bracken. Charlotte lives in Savannah, Missouri. Harold is buried in the Greenridge Cemetery, Gentry County, Missouri, between Gentry and Alanthus Grove, Missouri.
    3. The third son was Charles Truman Bracken, born 5 May 1921 and died 29 April 1997. He married Geraldine (Jerry) Winiford Evans and had 6 children: Charles William Bracken, Daniel Lee Bracken, James Douglas Bracken, Stephen Evan Bracken (died when 3 days old), David Lloyd Bracken, and Michele Leahann Bracken Buhman. Jerry died 14 October 2000. Charles and Jerry are buried in the King City Cemetery, King City, Gentry County, Missouri.
    4. Will and Gusty’s youngest child is Mary Christine Bracken Neff. She married Marcus Merrill Neff. They had 2 sons: Samuel Richard Neff (born 2 March 1947 and died 18 September 1996) and William Robert Neff. Christine and Marcus live on a farm North of Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri.
           Besides raising their 4 biological children, Will and Gusty cared for several foster children in their home, raising 2, Thelma Lawson Abrams and Jesse Lawson, to adulthood.
           Nellie and family, and William and his wife are buried close to Loman and Libby in the Miriam Cemetery, Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri.
      According to Charlotte Bracken, a violin said to have belonged to Loman Brackin is in the possession of her son, Billy Roy Bracken. Charlotte said that in her later years, Nellie Brackin Haller, daughter of Loman and Libby, became a member of a church that believed in reincarnation. She gave the violin to her great nephew, Billy Roy Bracken when he was still a small child, because she thought he was the reincarnation of her father. A table, said to have been made by Loman Brackin is owned by another son, Harold Ray Bracken. She thinks she remembers the family saying that Loman taught school in addition to farming. A pocket watch dating from the mid-1880’s and said to have belonged to Loman is in the possession of Harold’s oldest daughter, Osa Ann Bracken.      

    Information provided by "Family History of James and Anne McCort 1760-1921", Cora M. Hough, Author and Associate Editor, Emerson Capper, Historian and Editor, Charles T. McCort, Publisher, the Nodaway County Historical Society, Maryville, Missouri, Mary Charlotte Osborn/Bracken, widow of Harold Henry Bracken, Savannah, Missouri, letter from Mabel Farmer, granddaughter of Sadie Everhart Davis dated 9-23-1989, death certificates of Mary Elizabeth Brackin, William Jacob Bracken, and Augusta Ann Bracken [note 4], Ohio Roster Commission Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio 1886-95, Carroll County (Ohio) Historical Society brochures, conversation with Mary Christine Bracken/Neff, Brenda McIntee, and the Miriam Cemetery, Maryville, Missouri.

Copyright © 2001 Osa Ann Bracken


Notes
  1. Ancestry.com, One World Tree (sm), Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., n.d., Online publication - Ancestry.com. OneWorldTree [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc. [Return to text]
  2. op cit. [Return to text]
  3. op cit. [Return to text]
  4. Interesting letters to Augusta from Harry Hess may be read here.

Updated Wednesday, 06-Feb-08 08:25:58 PST  
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