Nellie's Story

Part Two: The Farm Years

We have bonded, she and I, from letters kept for over a hundred years. Compassion, poetry, joy, and sadness come through her letters. She was my grandmother, though I never knew her.

She passed when I was still a baby.

Visting her grave this Memorial Day was like visiting a dear friend’s grave.

This is the continuation of her story, Helen Maude Leach Adkins. 

Helen Maude Leach; Circa 1940's

Kay Adkins Brown at the Milltown Cemetery, May 2022

In 1892, at the age of 16, Nellie left her Connecticut home to visit her mother’s sister Aunt Mattie, who was now married to Adelbert, one of the three Adkins brothers who were prosperous farmers in South Dakota.

In the late 1800’s there were not many life choices for young women with limited means. Having a career or following your personal dreams was a rare option. For many the best you could hope for was a ‘good’ husband who was financially secure enough to provide for you.

Aunt Mattie found that option for Nellie - Adelbert’s brother Zina. When Nellie arrived in December there is no indication that she was aware of this fact. None the less, two months later, she was Mrs. Zina Adkins.

Martha Manchester Adkins and Adelbert Adkins;

                            Circa 1890's

Zina and Helen Leach Adkins; Circa 1893

Nellie never returned to Connecticut, or saw her father, Henry Leach Jr., again, nor her half-brothers, Edward and Ernest. She never met her half-sisters, Nancy Jane, Carrie and Esther who were all born into her father’s second marriage after Nellie settled on the Adkins farm in 1893. 

However, Nellie and Henry corresponded over the years, endearingly. From one of his letters dated 1904: “My dearest daughter, Nellie how often I think of you and how glad I am that you have a good home, and all that you have, a husband who is so good and kind to you and a happy home life. God bless, you and yours from your loving father, H.L.”

Nellie saw much more of her mother, Emily Rider. Aunt Mattie took care of that. Sometime in 1893, Aunt Mattie arranged to bring her sister Emily and husband Hiram from Connecticut to South Dakota. Nellie’s half-sister, Cornelia Bertha born in 1894 and her half-brother, Arthur George born in 1899 lived close to Nellie in Hutchinson County. Hiram Rider died in 1906. As in Connecticut, Nellie remained a source of support for her mother’s family. According to letters, she often fed Bertha and Arthur, and brought her mother fuel and canned goods, continuing to be a dutiful daughter. Pictured l-r: Arthur, Emily, Nellie and Cornelia Bertha; Circa, 1910

Nellie was also a dutiful wife and mother! In 1893, seventeen-year-old Nellie became pregnant with her first child. She birthed the last of her fifteen children in 1918, at the age of 42. All survived into adulthood, but one. Pictured are her children, brother-in-law, Marcus with Zina and Helen Adkins. Circa, 1914

Back Row, l-r; Grace Mandane, b. 1893, Marcus Adkins, Paul Zina, b. 1895, Lewis Adelbert, b. 1897

Middle Row, l-r; Joyce Marguerita, b. 1904, Adeline Aline, b. 1906, Lillas Mae, b. 1899, Ina Lottie, b. 1903, Alice Laurene, b. 1901

Seated; Zina and Helen

Front Row, l-r; Steven Marcus, b. 1909, Horace Urbane, b. 1911, Hiram Everett, b. 1913, Ida Dottie, b. 1903

Insert placed after the orginal photo, l-r; Margaret Doris, b. 1915,  sister Lillas, Vina Mae, b. 1918

Not pictured; Homer Levi, b. 1907

By 1918, the family grew to include three more sons, Steve, Horace and Hiram and two daughters, Margie and Vina - now to the full fifteen children! Nellie enjoyed her children and often wrote to her Aunt Mattie about them with a sense of humor and caring. 

March 29,1913:

“Well, when are you coming out to see us again? We are all well with the exceptions of colds. Horace and the baby had colds. I guess you ought to see my big baby. (Hiram)”

December 28, 1911:

"Your pretty post cards received and they all enjoyed them also what you had written to them pleased them. Steven Old Pop tickled the boys. Old Santa didn't give many gifts this year what he gave were nice the children fixed up a tree and had a few pieces to speak. We had lots of fun and enjoyment. They are all out of school for a week and its noise all day.

I am trying to write and they are buzzing like a lot of bees. Each one has got something for one to write down. So I will fool them and not write it at all." 

Oct. 6, 1911:

“Well school has commenced once more. The children all go but Steven and the baby (reference to Horace). Dot has been sick but better. The children saw the ponies in the pasture and they look good (and ready to take them to school). The children have had such a long rest they may tip the buggy over on their way home.”

l-r, Hiram, Alice, Lillas; Circa 1916

Hiram and Horace on horse; Circa 1915

Imagine the diapers that needed to be washed in water that had to be hauled from a well, cooking for that many on a wood burning stove, and keeping all those children clothed! Despite all this, Nellie took time to write her poetry. 

Pajamas it seems are

A sight to be seen

Especially on fat men or lean

But for comfort and style

And a style worth while

Is a gown of flannel cut wide

And a common man inside

To snuggled down tight

On a cold winters night

Its then that

Pajamas are dreams

And no worry of unpressed seams

Solid comfort for men, I ween

Pajamas

One of her special poems was a tribute to her neighbors, the Hutterite families. The families were part of a communal religious colony that lived along the Jim River.

The Milltown Colony

Picture; Circa 1911

The two oldest Adkins children: Paul and Grace; Circa 1898

Grace; Circa 1919

Paul and Mayme's son, Clifford; Circa 1919

Ellis and Lillas Thompson, Circa, 1918

Nellie and Zina lived on the Milltown farm for 26 years. In 1919, it was time to move on. Zina was 65, Nellie 37. They left the farming to their oldest sons Lewis and Paul and Paul’s wife Mayme VanNatta. Waving goodbye as they left was Clifford Adkins, the first grandchild. Their daughter, Lilas, had married Ellis Thomson and had moved from the farm. Oldest daughter, Grace, was now working in Omaha, Nebraska. 

Nellie, with her last baby in tow, Vina (born in 1918), three children under the age of 10, 5 teenage girls, and Zina’s ailing brother, Marcus, set up a new household in the town of Parkston, South Dakota.



A new phase of Nellie’s life was beginning.

Part three of Nellie's story will be continued in another addition of the website.