A MUCH LOVED STEPFATHER

JAMES H. EUNGARD

Died 1 October 1921

Caldwell, Kansas

My great-grandma Nellie Stevens had an early marriage to Joseph Clinton Davis, a young man who lived in a farm adjacent to the Stevens farm.  Joseph and Nellie married in August of 1884.  In March of 1885 Nellie was back living with her father and mother, and in May of that year, my maternal grandma was born.  (Divorce records filed in 1887 indicate that Nellie was deserted by Joseph.)  In November of 1887, Nellie married James H. Eungard.  And it was Eungard who raised my grandma Jessie.

The family story was that when Jessie started school she was teased about not having a "real" father.  One afternoon he came home from work and found her under her bed, sobbing.  When he asked why, she told him about the mean kids who taunted her.  He picked her up and told her how much he loved her and counted her as his "real" daughter.  This is the only story of my grandma's early childhood that our family ever heard.  

As kids, we actually didn't remember much about our great-grandparents, although we did remember that James Eungard was killed in a train accident.  It wasn't until a few years ago that in my research I found this information:

DIES OF INJURIES

Train Strikes J. H. Eungard,

Caldwell, Former Wichita Grocer

---

J. H. Eungard, formerly of Wichita, was injured fatally Saturday afternoon at Caldwell by a Rock Island passenger train which struck him as he was returning from work. 

He died at 4 o'clock Sunday morning.  It was not thought at first that he was seriously hurt.

Mr. Eungard was employed for a number of years by the Lehmann-Higginson Wholesale Grocery company, and was later in the grocery business for himself at 458 North Main Street.

He was a member of the Knights of Macabees, Wichita chapter.,  He leaves his widow, one daughter, Mrs. Byrd Ryland, Mulvane, and one son, C. H. Eungard. Caldwell.

Funeral services will be conducted at 2 o'clock Wednesday at the Caldwell Christian church.  Burial will be at Caldwell.

The Wichita Daily Eagle, 05 Oct 1921.

In 1930 my grandma Jessie Ryland and her 5 youngest kids left Kansas for Long Beach, California.  She died there in 1946 at the age of 61.  She only had 3 grandchildren by that time, and it was the three of us who heard about how much she loved her stepfather.  But the big surprise in doing genealogical research was that she grew up knowing where her real father was and she had contact with him until he died in Colorado Springs in 1916.  When I told that to my sister and my cousin (those grandchildren referenced above), we looked at each other, shrugged and said "Go Figure!"

ELLEN "NELLIE" STEVENS

~ A RYLAND RELATIVE ~


Nellie is my great-grandmother. She was born in Mendota, Illinois and died in Caldwell, Kansas. This is a short story of her life.

Her dad was Chester Dana Stevens and her mom was Ellen Madden (widow Whitters) Stevens. She was born on September 15, 1862, while her father was off in the Civil War.

In our family there are fragments left of two letters that her father sent to her while he was away. The first was written on the occasion of her birth:

Commissaries
Bolivar Tennessee
Sept. 3, 1862

Little Ellen, Darling
You do not know that your father is in th army and you will nnot understand when MaMa reads you your little letter but ma will save it for you until you can understand and until you can read...

The second letter to her was written at Christmas:

Memphis Dec. 1862

Little Ellen

Pa would like to see you very much. You must be a good girl until I come home.

Ma says you are very good.

From your Father, C. D. Stevens

These two letters came down in the family through my aunt Marie Wilson and were passed on to her daughter Nancy.

Nellie had an older half-brother, Edward Whitters, and two older brothers, Frank and George. After Nellie was born, Sophronia, Chester Jr., Lucy and Pamelia "Millie" were added to the family. The Stevenses relocated from Illinois to Raymond, Rice County, Kansas sometime between 1870 and 1875.

In August of 1884, Nellie married Joseph Clinton Davis, the son of her next door neighbors. It was a short, apparently unhappy marriage, for in 1885 the state census shows Nellie living with her family again and Joseph nowhere to be found. In 1887 she filed for divorce on grounds of desertion; it was granted. Her marriage took place in Barton County, the divorce in Rice County. One child was born from this marriage: Jessie Cleona Davis in May of 1885. Jessie was my grandmother.

Nellie's second husband, Jim Eungard, was a railroad employee and friend of her brother. The record for this marriage came in her obituary, of all places, and took place on November 11, 1887 in Pueblo, Colorado.

Jim's job with the railroad caused them to move around a lot, and in June of 1892 her son, Chester H Eungard was born in Union, Oklahoma. In 1900 the family lives in Wichita, and at Nellie's death in 1914 the family is in Caldwell, Kansas, a small town south of Wichita on the Oklahoma border.




She is buried in the Stevens plot at Maple Grove Cemetery in Wichita, Kansas.