"In this age of
hurry when steam and electricity have put the swiftness of the eagle
into the background; when portraits are painted by the sun as quick as
thought; when the phonographs can catch and hold the speech of a
President or song of Melba that may be reproduced word for word and
note for note a century hence; it will do us good to halt! And make the
acquaintance of our family."
(Madella Susan Nims, NFA Historian,1906)
WELCOME TO OUR WEB SITE. An
Internet presence is always changing and evolving. NFA was fortunate to
begin our web existence several years back with one page established by
Historian Susan Oathout. Later, past president Bill Nims took the
initiative to develop several pages on his AOL member site, primarily
publicizing our newsletters and reunion news. In March of 2001, NFA's
Board of Directors voted to establish a
website with our own domain registration to introduce the association
and its achievements to association members and new web visitors. A
major portion of the funding for this website came from the
K. Godfrey Nims Memorial Fund,
used to help defray costs of special projects such as this one. It is
our hope this site will
enable us to share what family genealogical information we have, to
attract new members to join the work of our association, and to receive
additional contributions of family data from visitors to this site.
NFA welcomes your comments and suggestions about our association's work
and this
website at www.nimsfamily.com.
Nims Chest, made for John and Elizabeth Nims for their wedding in 1707.
A Piece of Family History !
On
Thursday, May 24, 2007, a small group of five individuals stood in awe
at the Flynt Center in Deerfield, MA. The object of our attention
was an acquisition by Historic Deerfield, Inc. of the NIMS CHEST.
This Hadley chest is one of only a handful of the more than 200
surviving tulip-and-vine carved chests from Hampshire County incised
with three initials. Retaining its full height and, possibly,
traces of original black paint on the drop-ground surfaces of its
relief carving, this chest is significant for its excellent state of
preservation. Moreover, its history of original ownership in
Deerfield and its unbroken line of descent from the original owner to
the donor, Barbara Humes Euston, make it a particularly important
acquisition for the museum. The chest was made and decorated with
the initials IEN to mark the December 19, 1707 wedding of John Nims
(1679-1762) and Elizabeth Hull (1688-1754). As there is no J in
the Latin alphabet, I was used on most forms that required letters
until nearly the end of the 18th Century. Made by an unidentified
maker, the chest stylistically relates to other vine-carved chests
crafted in Hatfield and Deerfield between 1680 and 1740. Made of
white oak and yellow pine, the chest has a plain top, which would have
been locked at one time, and an elaborately carved front with a drawer
at the bottom. The object is supported by- four plain post
legs. That afternoon we learned about the acquisition from Joshua
W. Lane, Curator of Academic Programs and Assistant Curator of
Furniture at Historic Deerfield, Inc.
John Nims was the son of
cordwainer Godfrey Nims (d. 1705), one of Deerfield’s original Anglo
settlers, and his first wife, Mary (Miller) Williams, widow of Zebediah
Williams. In early October, 1703, Indians took John captive and
brought him to Canada. By reason of that event, John was not at
Deerfield in 1704 when so many of the family were slain or
captured. Four months later, on February 29, 1704, Indians took
five other members of Godfrey Nims’ family, from the home that Godfrey
had built in 1695 on house lot 28, burned the house, and led them along
with other Deerfield captives to Canada. John escaped from his
captivity in 1705 and traveled on foot back to Deerfield. By 1706
other members of the family had been ransomed and returned to
Deerfield, including his step-sister Elizabeth Hull, daughter of his
father’s second wife, Mehitable (Smead) Hull and her first husband,
Jeremiah Hull.
John Nims married Elizabeth Hull in
1707. The couple probably lived in a house that Godfrey Nims, who
had escaped capture, had occupied on house lot 1 before his death in
1705. Probably in 1710 John and Elizabeth (Hull) Nims moved back
to house lot 28 and began to rebuild on the foundations of the burned
site. The present Nims House was probably constructed around
1744, the year that John Nims’ son Jeremiah married, or in 1749, the
year that John deeded one-half of his home lot and one-half of his
house and barn to Jeremiah. It is not clear if the chest was used
in the present house, for sometime between 1730, before the present
house was built, and 1762, the year of John Nims’ death, it passed to
John and Elizabeth’s daughter, Elizabeth Nims (1712-1779) who married
John Hawks in 1730 and moved into a house that John Hawks built on lot
17 that same year.
 Joshua Lane, Assistant Curator of Furniture, Historic Deerfield, Inc.,
explains the intricate detail of the tulip and vine carving on this
Hadley chest to NFA member Judy Graves.
From Alice Stebbins, the chest passed to her first
cousin once removed, Wesley Goodrich Humes (1879-1972) and Florence
(Wood) Humes. Wesley Goodrich Humes was the son of Alice
Stebbins’ niece, Emma Leonora (Goodrich) Humes. The chest passed
to the daughter of Wesley and Florence Humes, Barbara (Humes) Euston
(1911-2006) and Alexander Elmer Euston (1906-1978); and from a bequest
by Barbara Humes Euston, to Historic Deerfield, Inc. in 2006.
The
chest was first on view in the southwest chamber of Frary House in
Deerfield, then to the Flynt Center where it can be observed until late
fall, at which time it will be placed once more in the Frary House, as
close as possible to its original site in the Nims House.
The
significance and Provenance used in this article about a Nims family
treasure was provided by Historic Deerfield, Inc.
 Nims Family Publishing Project
The
purpose of the Nims Publishing Project is to publish in computer format
an expansion of the original book The Nims Family: Seven Generations of
Descendants from Godfrey Nims published in 1990. That book
included the first generation from Godfrey Nims. Our current
project is to publish all of the information that is currently
available in our NFA archives and allied resources. Each volume
planned will start with one of the grandchildren of Godfrey Nims who
lived to adulthood and had a record of descendants. As one
example, Abigail Nims and Josiah Rising had eight children. Two
daughters became nuns, and the eldest son became a priest. Thus,
it will be our plan to publish data on Catherine, Marie Anne, Charlotte
Anastasie, Suzanne, and Jean Baptiste Jerome, all of whom had
descendants. Pages on these children will range from 34 to 760,
depending on what is in our files. The total number of Godfrey’s
grandchildren about whom we have some record of descendants totals 26.
The
volumes will not be published in book form but will be available on
computer disk from the association in three formats. The file
information will also be uploaded into publicly available databases
such as Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.com so that it will be available
through the internet. This information will include two reports
files and a file (GEDCOM) that can be uploaded into a current genealogy
data base such as PAF, Roots Magic, Legacy and Family Tree Maker for
each grandchild’s descendants. The reports will be created in a
rich text format (RTF) and will be printed by generation (Modified
Register Format) and also by descendancy. The descendancy report
will be numbered using the Henry Number; however, the Henry Number will
be computer generated and will not necessarily match the number found
in the original book. Each document will contain an index for
easy cross reference. The modified register report will be
numbered starting with the grandchild; however, each next generation
will refer back to the ancestry up to the first person in the
report.
Work has been progressing on updating the
original files with current information. Many of the entries in
the original book did not contain complete dates and place names.
Each name in the file is being evaluated to add as much data as
possible with the current facilities. Not only is the basic data
being updated but new information is being added. Currently over
1,000 new entries have been added to the basic files. The
information is further complicated by the fact children of one family
married into another family and the original data was contained in only
one place. It is necessary to provide the data in both
documents. After the basic file has been updated then the file is
being sent to an editor for updates to the narrative information such
as histories and obituaries and the reports are generated and then
returned for inclusion in the final repository.
The status of these reports are as follows:
John lines; Elizabeth, 58 pages, complete. 7 additional grandchildren not yet started.
Thankful
lines; Rebecca, 50 pages. Waiting to update basic data with new
histories. Mercy, 30 pages. Waiting to update basic data
with new histories. Benjamin, 100 pages. Basic data is
updated and is waiting for an editing assignment. Mary, 350
pages. Basic data is 80% complete. 5 additional
grandchildren not yet started.
Ebenezer lines; Ebenezer, Jr.,
60 pages. Complete. David, 500 pages. David Nims is
completing the editing. Basic data will need updating.
Moses and son Ariel, 200 pages. Bob Haner is working on this
line. Moses and son Elisha, 180 pages. Bob Haner is working
on this line. Elisha, brother to Ebenezer, Jr., David and Moses,
died at the age of 26 when ambushed and killed at Fort Massachusetts in
1745. Followers of the Ebenezer line may recall the controversy
in the year 2000 about where to rebury a fragment of bone with bullet
embedded, which had been lying in a museum for over a century.
“According to local histories, Nims, 26, was mortally wounded in June
1745 during a raid by French and Indian forces on Fort Massachusetts,
established by British colonial authorities to protect the settlers
here. The stockade fell during the rain and was burned.
More than 30 settlers, including women and children, were taken
captive. About half survived a forced march to Canada and
eventually were ransomed.
Nims’ original grave and
headstone were discovered in 1852. A. L. Perry, a professor at
nearby Williams College, unearthed the skeleton and cut out the portion
of spine bearing the bullet. Eventually he gave the remains and
the headstone to the local historical society. Over the years,
the remainder of the skeleton and headstone have disappeared. The
site where Fort Massachusetts once stood is now a supermarket parking
lot. The little graveyard where Nims was originally buried is now
believed to be under the Fortune Garden Chinese Restaurant.”
Greenfield Recorder, 8 Nov 2000.
Elisha Nims’ bone fragment was reinterred in an impressive ceremony:
Reburial of Elisha Nims, Killed at Fort Massachusetts, 1745
Veterans Circle, Hillside Cemetery, November 11, 2000, North Adams, Massachusetts.
And Ebenezer’s son Amasa, 350 pages. Editing complete, but basic data needs updating.
Abigail
lines. Material is being added frequently to our Abigail file,
but no one is currently working on preparing these lines for
publication. Actually, we still need volunteers willing to take
on a portion of the work underway to help build these
compilations. If we wait for everything to be done by the few
currently working on the project, the end result will be years down the
road. Contact your NFA Board of Directors through this website,
or by writing to President Ron Graham, 5344 Hickory Ridge, Virginia
Beach, VA 23455-6680. Tell us what you would be willing to help
with. This is a NFA family project! Join in the fun.
Experience the progress.
|
LOT 28
Those
who wish to know more about the present John Nims house should obtain
Family and Landscape: Deerfield Home Lots from 1671 by Susan McGowan
and Amelia F. Miller, published in 1996 by Pocumtuck Valley Memorial
Association, Deerfield, MA. Both women have extensive backgrounds
in Deerfield research, and are especially qualified to offer a
definitive view of the Nims House, now owned by Deerfield
Academy. Susan McGowan offered a presentation about the book and
Lot 28 at a reunion of Nims Family Association several years ago.
In
part, the text states, “Questions about the present Nims house, its
date of construction and its later alterations, as well as its floor
plan, have led to a great diversity of opinion and to a recent change
in conventional thinking. Sheldon (George Sheldon, Deerfield
Historian) wrote that the present house was built ‘about 1710’, and his
judgment has been repeated and sustained until the house and lot began
to be reexamined in the late 1980s. The floor plan is irregular
with an off-center chimney, conforming to the small group of houses in
Deerfield noted by George Sheldon when discussing the Smead house on
Lot 25.
All efforts have been made throughout the present work
to avoid speculation concerning the history of Deerfield’s houselots
and their buildings, but speculation concerning Lot 28 has been
unavoidable. Taking into consideration the absence of substantial
surviving Nims family documents, and the enigmatic and confusing
architectural picture visible within and without the Nims house, the
use of circumstantial evidence seems warranted, especially since
on-site inspection of the house has lately benefited from experts in
architectural history. Their questions and conclusions are
coupled with evidence from recently discovered archeological findings
and available public documents….
Sheldon’s reason for suggesting
such an early date as ‘about 1710’ is not known. The reexamined
evidence indicates that, beginning in 1695, there have been three
houses on Lot 28, including the present one. The earliest of the
three houses was built about 1695, the year after the house of Godfrey
Nims was burned on Lot 27. Nims soon built a new house which, in
turn, was burned in the French and Indian attack of 1704. It was
reported that four of Godfrey Nims’ children were ‘slain’ and that his
wife and three other children were captured and taken to Canada.
The Nims house and barn and all their contents were destroyed…Before
any of his captive children returned from Canada, Godfrey Nims
died. His inventory was taken on April 10, 1705.
John Nims
(1679-1762), Godfrey’s oldest son, escaped from his captors in Canada,
returned to Deerfield later in 1795, and probably lived in his father’s
house, on Lot 1 South, until about 1710, when he probably moved back to
Lot 28 to reinhabit and to rebuild on the burned site. In the
summer of 1988, a team of archeologists from the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst excavated the foundations of what is believed
to have been the 1695 house of Godfrey Nims, just south of the present
house. Minimal evidence of burned material in the cellar hole
strongly suggests that John Nims cleared out the 1695 foundations,
burned in 1704, and rebuilt on the same site—the second house.
That John Nims constructed a dwelling about 1710, although not the
present house, does support Sheldon’s date for an early house on Lot 28.
After
living in a house built on the 1695 foundation for twenty or thirty
years, John Nims probably built a new house—the third house—about
1740-1750. The new, or present house, may have been built about
1744 when John Nims’ son Jeremiah Nims (1721-1797) married, or possibly
in 1749 when John Nims deeded one-half his homelot and one-half ‘a
mansion house and barn’ to his son Jeremiah for the consideration of L
100. This figure would represent a modest homestead. The
present house was built slightly north of the 1695 foundation.
Its framing, including exposed summer beams in the north parlor and
north chamber, suggests the 1740-1750 decade for construction as do
family events in the 1740s” (Family and Landscape: Deerfield Home
Lots from 1671, pages 138-139.)
Revisit this website in the
future to learn more about the Nims House, its construction, occupants,
and later history. Also, the publication The Story of the John
Nims House, a pamphlet published in 1993 by Nims Family Association and
available on NFA’s Items for Sale page, offers additional insights into
this beautiful home.
NFA People to Contact:
General questions about the association: President
Ron Graham, 5344 Hickory Ridge, Virginia Beach, VA 23455-6680
Items for newsletter-births, deaths, marriages,
stories about family, etc.: Vice President Brenda Babineau, 202
Washington St., Gardner, MA 01440-2736
Dues, contributions, address changes, etc.: Treasurer
Nancy Garreaud, 921 East 100 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84102
Family genealogical information, letters of inquiry:
Secretary Cynthia Smellie, 135 High St., Norwell, MA 02061
Books, sale items, etc: John & Ellen Schultz,
10631 W. Roundelay Circle, Sun City, AZ 85351-1851
Mailing Address: Nims Family Association, Box 99, Deerfield, MA
01342-0099 (Mail is checked only occasionally. Use other contacts if
possible.)
|
|
