Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger was born, according to her, "At the foot of the Allegheny Mountains" on 16 May 1862 and died on 25 January 1952 in Knoxville, Tennessee. It appears, from the 1860 census, that she was born at the Mouth of Wilson Creek in Grayson County, Virginia.
Her obituary thus reads from THE KNOXVILLE JOURNAL, Sunday January 27, 1952:CLONINGER, MRS. NANCY ELLEN
Age 89, died at 1009 Calloway Avenue at 9:30 p.m. Friday. Member of the Deadrick Avenue Baptist Church. Funeral 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Rose Chapel, Rev. Bruce Dozier officiating. Internment New Gray Cemetery. Pall bearers: Bill, Ted, and Paul Mynatt, Delmar Allbright, Robert Walker, Roy Moon. Body remains at Rose Funeral Home. (Note, New Gray Cemetery is on Western Ave. and very visible with stones for both Nancy and James Moses and several of their children.)
According to her Death Record, Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger died at the home of her daughter. She lists Nancy as being born in West Virginia. The informant, Mrs. P.E. Farrington only knew that her father was a "Shields" and "don't know" was listed under mother's maiden name. Cause of death, according to her death certificate (# 52-00918) was a "Cerebral Hemorrhage due to hypertension." She was survived by three daughters: Mrs. P.E. Farrington, Mrs. W.M. Weisgarber and Mrs. W.E. Sliger, all of Knoxville and three sons: Jessie James Cloninger of Knoxville, Frank Cloninger of California and Vergil Cloninger of Oregon. She had "several grandchildren, great grandchildren and four great great grandchildren." The total cost for the funeral was $400.00.
Nancy Ellen Shields married James Moses Cloninger on 23 February 1879 in Knoxville, Tennessee by Paschal Carter. Bondsman was A.B. Cash. Nancy Ellen told Jewell Vermillion that she met James Moses Cloninger "while she was staying with some people to help with the children and housework." I do not know where this occurred as of yet and have not found how Nancy Ellen came to be in Knoxville. James Moses was born on 8 March 1859 and died of "stomach trouble", according to his Death Certificate (#48898), on 26 March 1910. But, Jewell Vermillion, daughter of Minnie Mae Cloninger Farrington, stated that he died of TB. His death record lists him as a "Merchant." He owned two grocery stores and rented four houses. He lost all of this, plus his own house to a crooked lawyer because he believed he had everything in order in the way of paperwork, etc.
Nancy and James Moses Cloninger had twelve children according to Granny Sliger Mode, the
granddaughter of Nancy Ellen Shields. She used to say, "They had 2 boys then 2 girls, then 3 boys then 3 girls, then a boy and a girl."
Granny said that her Grandma Cloninger (Nancy Ellen Shields) was "a good Christian woman" and that "she had more confidence in Grandmaw Cloninger than any living person." Said that she was a Methodist and often went into church shouting". In an interview with my granny I asked her what she remembered about Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger and she said, "Well, she was a good women, I know that. And she loved people and she always growed a lot of flowers in the yard and if anybody was ever sick in the Summer time when the flowers was bloomin she would go and take a little bouquet of flowers. She wouldn't stay long, maybe take em some hot biscuits or somethin. But she wasn't the type to just go and sit. She would do what she was gonna do and didn't say much about it. And she went to church on Sundays and Sunday nights if they was havin a revival, and maybe she'd go in and she was so happy she'd start shoutin before she got in the door hardly."
Jewell Vermillion said that Nancy Ellen was "a wonderful Christian woman" and that she belonged to Brookside Methodist Church before joining Deadrick Baptist Church later. She read her bible every day and would often eat breakfast and then go read her bible on the porch swing and then eat lunch and go read some more. Jewell also mentioned that Nancy Ellen played a big part in the Wesley House here in Knoxville. Granny's sister Jessie Sliger stated that Grandmaw Cloninger went into church one day shouting, hands raised, praising God and someone told her she should stop, saying "You shouldn't do that, you're making people nervous" and "Honey, you're just nervous." Grandmaw Cloninger said "If this is nervousness, Lord make me more nervous."
Jessie also related a story about the day that Grandmaw Cloninger went to the train station to see her son Frank Cloninger arrive after serving in W.W.I. She again shouted and praised God when she saw the first
man step off of the train. Her daughter told her to be quite because people were looking. A man said, "Lady, leave the old woman alone, you ought to be praising God too." Jessie said a street in Knoxville was named after our Shields family. I don't know if this is true. Granny said that there is an area in Knoxville known as the Shields Addition that is named after our Shields.
According to Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger her mother had had a new baby, perhaps the twins Eli and Levi, and she was sent to live with her Grandmaw Baker and uncle, who was a Baker too. She told Jewell Vermillion that her Grandmaw Baker and uncle raised her. Nancy Ellen used to say, "Grandmother Shields, pick her up by the heels, Grandmother Baker, pick her up and shake her." Not sure if she meant that her Grandmaw Baker and uncle lived together or separately. Have also heard that Nancy's mother was sick and may have died, thus causing her to leave home.
Nancy Ellen Shields told my Granny Mode Sliger Caldwell that her uncle had been in a war, probably the War for Southern Independence, and that she remembers him coming home in his uniform. In an interview with my granny I asked her who the story was about and she said the story was about Nancy's uncle and that "she was a little bitty girl too, then. She said that when he (her Uncle Baker) come across there (the field) it scared her. She thought it was some stranger, you know. She went runnin into the house. He had been to war." Nancy had also told my granny that her uncle had to burn his clothes.
Nancy Ellen Shields told Jewell Vermillion that "She and her Grandmother Baker were working out in the fields and saw her uncle coming down the road from the war. They didn't know if he had been killed or not, but were waiting for the men to come home. They started screaming when they saw him and she wanted to run and hug him but her Grandmother Baker told her she couldn't and made him burn his clothes and bathe before they could hug him."
She related that she had one younger sister, two older sisters and two twin brothers named Eli and Levi who were killed in a mill accident. Jewell verified this saying that her grandmother, Nancy Ellen, told her that she had a sister named Martha and twin brothers named Eli and Levi who died in an explosion at a mill.
Nancy Ellen related to Jewell that when the twins were born she and her sister Martha felt like they had their own babies and they would wrap them up like little dolls and play with them.
She said that once they had built a little cabin in the woods and had the babies with them when two hunters came along and told them they had better get the babies out of the woods, saying "There's bears in these woods and they'll eat those babies up." Nancy again related to Jewell that she "lived in the Allegheny Mountains."
Nancy Ellen apparently had contact with her family for she knew of her brothers' deaths and also had pictures of them, which Jewell Vermillion now has.
Material from other sources verify what Nancy stated regarding her twin brother's dying and her not being within the Shields household. Said material stated that the twins were killed when a boiler exploded at a sawmill. The twins were born on 15 January 1869. Eli Shields died on 29 December 1888 and Levi died two days later on 31 December 1888 in Sandlick, Mercer County West Virginia. This material also lists Nancy Ellen as the 6th child of Joseph Winston and Henrietta Aldridge Shields.
Having found her family and noting that she was not in said household in the 1870 Grayson Co., Virginia Census also verifies Nancy Ellen's story regarding her leaving home to live with her Grandmother Baker and Uncle. She is absent in the 1860 census because she was born in 1862 and absent in the 1880 census because she was married in 1879. (This new material and family information is listed below)
Children of Joseph W. Shields and Henrietta Aldridge:
Taken From Joseph W. Shields Bible:
Births
Joseph W. Shields born Stokes Co., North Carolina March 31, 1820
Henrita Shields born March 9, 1826
William Shields born February 18, 1850
Harper L. Shields born Aug 29, 1852
Alexander Shields born October 6, 1854
Amanda Shields born March 28, 1856
Mary Shields born July 18, 1860
Nancy Eleen Shields born May 16, 1862
Joseph Shields born October 16, 1864
Levy and Ely Shields born January 15, 1869
Her obituary thus reads from THE KNOXVILLE JOURNAL, Sunday January 27, 1952:CLONINGER, MRS. NANCY ELLEN
Age 89, died at 1009 Calloway Avenue at 9:30 p.m. Friday. Member of the Deadrick Avenue Baptist Church. Funeral 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Rose Chapel, Rev. Bruce Dozier officiating. Internment New Gray Cemetery. Pall bearers: Bill, Ted, and Paul Mynatt, Delmar Allbright, Robert Walker, Roy Moon. Body remains at Rose Funeral Home. (Note, New Gray Cemetery is on Western Ave. and very visible with stones for both Nancy and James Moses and several of their children.)
According to her Death Record, Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger died at the home of her daughter. She lists Nancy as being born in West Virginia. The informant, Mrs. P.E. Farrington only knew that her father was a "Shields" and "don't know" was listed under mother's maiden name. Cause of death, according to her death certificate (# 52-00918) was a "Cerebral Hemorrhage due to hypertension." She was survived by three daughters: Mrs. P.E. Farrington, Mrs. W.M. Weisgarber and Mrs. W.E. Sliger, all of Knoxville and three sons: Jessie James Cloninger of Knoxville, Frank Cloninger of California and Vergil Cloninger of Oregon. She had "several grandchildren, great grandchildren and four great great grandchildren." The total cost for the funeral was $400.00.
Nancy Ellen Shields married James Moses Cloninger on 23 February 1879 in Knoxville, Tennessee by Paschal Carter. Bondsman was A.B. Cash. Nancy Ellen told Jewell Vermillion that she met James Moses Cloninger "while she was staying with some people to help with the children and housework." I do not know where this occurred as of yet and have not found how Nancy Ellen came to be in Knoxville. James Moses was born on 8 March 1859 and died of "stomach trouble", according to his Death Certificate (#48898), on 26 March 1910. But, Jewell Vermillion, daughter of Minnie Mae Cloninger Farrington, stated that he died of TB. His death record lists him as a "Merchant." He owned two grocery stores and rented four houses. He lost all of this, plus his own house to a crooked lawyer because he believed he had everything in order in the way of paperwork, etc.
Nancy and James Moses Cloninger had twelve children according to Granny Sliger Mode, the
granddaughter of Nancy Ellen Shields. She used to say, "They had 2 boys then 2 girls, then 3 boys then 3 girls, then a boy and a girl."
Granny said that her Grandma Cloninger (Nancy Ellen Shields) was "a good Christian woman" and that "she had more confidence in Grandmaw Cloninger than any living person." Said that she was a Methodist and often went into church shouting". In an interview with my granny I asked her what she remembered about Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger and she said, "Well, she was a good women, I know that. And she loved people and she always growed a lot of flowers in the yard and if anybody was ever sick in the Summer time when the flowers was bloomin she would go and take a little bouquet of flowers. She wouldn't stay long, maybe take em some hot biscuits or somethin. But she wasn't the type to just go and sit. She would do what she was gonna do and didn't say much about it. And she went to church on Sundays and Sunday nights if they was havin a revival, and maybe she'd go in and she was so happy she'd start shoutin before she got in the door hardly."
Jewell Vermillion said that Nancy Ellen was "a wonderful Christian woman" and that she belonged to Brookside Methodist Church before joining Deadrick Baptist Church later. She read her bible every day and would often eat breakfast and then go read her bible on the porch swing and then eat lunch and go read some more. Jewell also mentioned that Nancy Ellen played a big part in the Wesley House here in Knoxville. Granny's sister Jessie Sliger stated that Grandmaw Cloninger went into church one day shouting, hands raised, praising God and someone told her she should stop, saying "You shouldn't do that, you're making people nervous" and "Honey, you're just nervous." Grandmaw Cloninger said "If this is nervousness, Lord make me more nervous."
Jessie also related a story about the day that Grandmaw Cloninger went to the train station to see her son Frank Cloninger arrive after serving in W.W.I. She again shouted and praised God when she saw the first
man step off of the train. Her daughter told her to be quite because people were looking. A man said, "Lady, leave the old woman alone, you ought to be praising God too." Jessie said a street in Knoxville was named after our Shields family. I don't know if this is true. Granny said that there is an area in Knoxville known as the Shields Addition that is named after our Shields.
According to Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger her mother had had a new baby, perhaps the twins Eli and Levi, and she was sent to live with her Grandmaw Baker and uncle, who was a Baker too. She told Jewell Vermillion that her Grandmaw Baker and uncle raised her. Nancy Ellen used to say, "Grandmother Shields, pick her up by the heels, Grandmother Baker, pick her up and shake her." Not sure if she meant that her Grandmaw Baker and uncle lived together or separately. Have also heard that Nancy's mother was sick and may have died, thus causing her to leave home.
Nancy Ellen Shields told my Granny Mode Sliger Caldwell that her uncle had been in a war, probably the War for Southern Independence, and that she remembers him coming home in his uniform. In an interview with my granny I asked her who the story was about and she said the story was about Nancy's uncle and that "she was a little bitty girl too, then. She said that when he (her Uncle Baker) come across there (the field) it scared her. She thought it was some stranger, you know. She went runnin into the house. He had been to war." Nancy had also told my granny that her uncle had to burn his clothes.
Nancy Ellen Shields told Jewell Vermillion that "She and her Grandmother Baker were working out in the fields and saw her uncle coming down the road from the war. They didn't know if he had been killed or not, but were waiting for the men to come home. They started screaming when they saw him and she wanted to run and hug him but her Grandmother Baker told her she couldn't and made him burn his clothes and bathe before they could hug him."
She related that she had one younger sister, two older sisters and two twin brothers named Eli and Levi who were killed in a mill accident. Jewell verified this saying that her grandmother, Nancy Ellen, told her that she had a sister named Martha and twin brothers named Eli and Levi who died in an explosion at a mill.
Nancy Ellen related to Jewell that when the twins were born she and her sister Martha felt like they had their own babies and they would wrap them up like little dolls and play with them.
She said that once they had built a little cabin in the woods and had the babies with them when two hunters came along and told them they had better get the babies out of the woods, saying "There's bears in these woods and they'll eat those babies up." Nancy again related to Jewell that she "lived in the Allegheny Mountains."
Nancy Ellen apparently had contact with her family for she knew of her brothers' deaths and also had pictures of them, which Jewell Vermillion now has.
Material from other sources verify what Nancy stated regarding her twin brother's dying and her not being within the Shields household. Said material stated that the twins were killed when a boiler exploded at a sawmill. The twins were born on 15 January 1869. Eli Shields died on 29 December 1888 and Levi died two days later on 31 December 1888 in Sandlick, Mercer County West Virginia. This material also lists Nancy Ellen as the 6th child of Joseph Winston and Henrietta Aldridge Shields.
Having found her family and noting that she was not in said household in the 1870 Grayson Co., Virginia Census also verifies Nancy Ellen's story regarding her leaving home to live with her Grandmother Baker and Uncle. She is absent in the 1860 census because she was born in 1862 and absent in the 1880 census because she was married in 1879. (This new material and family information is listed below)
Children of Joseph W. Shields and Henrietta Aldridge:
Taken From Joseph W. Shields Bible:
Births
Joseph W. Shields born Stokes Co., North Carolina March 31, 1820
Henrita Shields born March 9, 1826
William Shields born February 18, 1850
Harper L. Shields born Aug 29, 1852
Alexander Shields born October 6, 1854
Amanda Shields born March 28, 1856
Mary Shields born July 18, 1860
Nancy Eleen Shields born May 16, 1862
Joseph Shields born October 16, 1864
Levy and Ely Shields born January 15, 1869
Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger was born, according to her, "At the foot of the Allegheny Mountains" on 16 May 1862 and died on 25 January 1952 in Knoxville, Tennessee. It appears, from the 1860 census, that she was born at the Mouth of Wilson Creek in Grayson County, Virginia.
Her obituary thus reads from THE KNOXVILLE JOURNAL, Sunday January 27, 1952:CLONINGER, MRS. NANCY ELLEN
Age 89, died at 1009 Calloway Avenue at 9:30 p.m. Friday. Member of the Deadrick Avenue Baptist Church. Funeral 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Rose Chapel, Rev. Bruce Dozier officiating. Internment New Gray Cemetery. Pall bearers: Bill, Ted, and Paul Mynatt, Delmar Allbright, Robert Walker, Roy Moon. Body remains at Rose Funeral Home. (Note, New Gray Cemetery is on Western Ave. and very visible with stones for both Nancy and James Moses and several of their children.)
According to her Death Record, Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger died at the home of her daughter. She lists Nancy as being born in West Virginia. The informant, Mrs. P.E. Farrington only knew that her father was a "Shields" and "don't know" was listed under mother's maiden name. Cause of death, according to her death certificate (# 52-00918) was a "Cerebral Hemorrhage due to hypertension." She was survived by three daughters: Mrs. P.E. Farrington, Mrs. W.M. Weisgarber and Mrs. W.E. Sliger, all of Knoxville and three sons: Jessie James Cloninger of Knoxville, Frank Cloninger of California and Vergil Cloninger of Oregon. She had "several grandchildren, great grandchildren and four great great grandchildren." The total cost for the funeral was $400.00.
Nancy Ellen Shields married James Moses Cloninger on 23 February 1879 in Knoxville, Tennessee by Paschal Carter. Bondsman was A.B. Cash. Nancy Ellen told Jewell Vermillion that she met James Moses Cloninger "while she was staying with some people to help with the children and housework." I do not know where this occurred as of yet and have not found how Nancy Ellen came to be in Knoxville. James Moses was born on 8 March 1859 and died of "stomach trouble", according to his Death Certificate (#48898), on 26 March 1910. But, Jewell Vermillion, daughter of Minnie Mae Cloninger Farrington, stated that he died of TB. His death record lists him as a "Merchant." He owned two grocery stores and rented four houses. He lost all of this, plus his own house to a crooked lawyer because he believed he had everything in order in the way of paperwork, etc.
Nancy and James Moses Cloninger had twelve children according to Granny Sliger Mode, the
granddaughter of Nancy Ellen Shields. She used to say, "They had 2 boys then 2 girls, then 3 boys then 3 girls, then a boy and a girl."
Granny said that her Grandma Cloninger (Nancy Ellen Shields) was "a good Christian woman" and that "she had more confidence in Grandmaw Cloninger than any living person." Said that she was a Methodist and often went into church shouting". In an interview with my granny I asked her what she remembered about Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger and she said, "Well, she was a good women, I know that. And she loved people and she always growed a lot of flowers in the yard and if anybody was ever sick in the Summer time when the flowers was bloomin she would go and take a little bouquet of flowers. She wouldn't stay long, maybe take em some hot biscuits or somethin. But she wasn't the type to just go and sit. She would do what she was gonna do and didn't say much about it. And she went to church on Sundays and Sunday nights if they was havin a revival, and maybe she'd go in and she was so happy she'd start shoutin before she got in the door hardly."
Jewell Vermillion said that Nancy Ellen was "a wonderful Christian woman" and that she belonged to Brookside Methodist Church before joining Deadrick Baptist Church later. She read her bible every day and would often eat breakfast and then go read her bible on the porch swing and then eat lunch and go read some more. Jewell also mentioned that Nancy Ellen played a big part in the Wesley House here in Knoxville. Granny's sister Jessie Sliger stated that Grandmaw Cloninger went into church one day shouting, hands raised, praising God and someone told her she should stop, saying "You shouldn't do that, you're making people nervous" and "Honey, you're just nervous." Grandmaw Cloninger said "If this is nervousness, Lord make me more nervous."
Jessie also related a story about the day that Grandmaw Cloninger went to the train station to see her son Frank Cloninger arrive after serving in W.W.I. She again shouted and praised God when she saw the first
man step off of the train. Her daughter told her to be quite because people were looking. A man said, "Lady, leave the old woman alone, you ought to be praising God too." Jessie said a street in Knoxville was named after our Shields family. I don't know if this is true. Granny said that there is an area in Knoxville known as the Shields Addition that is named after our Shields.
According to Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger her mother had had a new baby, perhaps the twins Eli and Levi, and she was sent to live with her Grandmaw Baker and uncle, who was a Baker too. She told Jewell Vermillion that her Grandmaw Baker and uncle raised her. Nancy Ellen used to say, "Grandmother Shields, pick her up by the heels, Grandmother Baker, pick her up and shake her." Not sure if she meant that her Grandmaw Baker and uncle lived together or separately. Have also heard that Nancy's mother was sick and may have died, thus causing her to leave home.
Nancy Ellen Shields told my Granny Mode Sliger Caldwell that her uncle had been in a war, probably the War for Southern Independence, and that she remembers him coming home in his uniform. In an interview with my granny I asked her who the story was about and she said the story was about Nancy's uncle and that "she was a little bitty girl too, then. She said that when he (her Uncle Baker) come across there (the field) it scared her. She thought it was some stranger, you know. She went runnin into the house. He had been to war." Nancy had also told my granny that her uncle had to burn his clothes.
Nancy Ellen Shields told Jewell Vermillion that "She and her Grandmother Baker were working out in the fields and saw her uncle coming down the road from the war. They didn't know if he had been killed or not, but were waiting for the men to come home. They started screaming when they saw him and she wanted to run and hug him but her Grandmother Baker told her she couldn't and made him burn his clothes and bathe before they could hug him."
She related that she had one younger sister, two older sisters and two twin brothers named Eli and Levi who were killed in a mill accident. Jewell verified this saying that her grandmother, Nancy Ellen, told her that she had a sister named Martha and twin brothers named Eli and Levi who died in an explosion at a mill.
Nancy Ellen related to Jewell that when the twins were born she and her sister Martha felt like they had their own babies and they would wrap them up like little dolls and play with them.
She said that once they had built a little cabin in the woods and had the babies with them when two hunters came along and told them they had better get the babies out of the woods, saying "There's bears in these woods and they'll eat those babies up." Nancy again related to Jewell that she "lived in the Allegheny Mountains."
Nancy Ellen apparently had contact with her family for she knew of her brothers' deaths and also had pictures of them, which Jewell Vermillion now has.
Material from other sources verify what Nancy stated regarding her twin brother's dying and her not being within the Shields household. Said material stated that the twins were killed when a boiler exploded at a sawmill. The twins were born on 15 January 1869. Eli Shields died on 29 December 1888 and Levi died two days later on 31 December 1888 in Sandlick, Mercer County West Virginia. This material also lists Nancy Ellen as the 6th child of Joseph Winston and Henrietta Aldridge Shields.
Having found her family and noting that she was not in said household in the 1870 Grayson Co., Virginia Census also verifies Nancy Ellen's story regarding her leaving home to live with her Grandmother Baker and Uncle. She is absent in the 1860 census because she was born in 1862 and absent in the 1880 census because she was married in 1879. (This new material and family information is listed below)
Children of Joseph W. Shields and Henrietta Aldridge:
Taken From Joseph W. Shields Bible:
Births
Joseph W. Shields born Stokes Co., North Carolina March 31, 1820
Henrita Shields born March 9, 1826
William Shields born February 18, 1850
Harper L. Shields born Aug 29, 1852
Alexander Shields born October 6, 1854
Amanda Shields born March 28, 1856
Mary Shields born July 18, 1860
Nancy Eleen Shields born May 16, 1862
Joseph Shields born October 16, 1864
Levy and Ely Shields born January 15, 1869
Her obituary thus reads from THE KNOXVILLE JOURNAL, Sunday January 27, 1952:CLONINGER, MRS. NANCY ELLEN
Age 89, died at 1009 Calloway Avenue at 9:30 p.m. Friday. Member of the Deadrick Avenue Baptist Church. Funeral 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Rose Chapel, Rev. Bruce Dozier officiating. Internment New Gray Cemetery. Pall bearers: Bill, Ted, and Paul Mynatt, Delmar Allbright, Robert Walker, Roy Moon. Body remains at Rose Funeral Home. (Note, New Gray Cemetery is on Western Ave. and very visible with stones for both Nancy and James Moses and several of their children.)
According to her Death Record, Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger died at the home of her daughter. She lists Nancy as being born in West Virginia. The informant, Mrs. P.E. Farrington only knew that her father was a "Shields" and "don't know" was listed under mother's maiden name. Cause of death, according to her death certificate (# 52-00918) was a "Cerebral Hemorrhage due to hypertension." She was survived by three daughters: Mrs. P.E. Farrington, Mrs. W.M. Weisgarber and Mrs. W.E. Sliger, all of Knoxville and three sons: Jessie James Cloninger of Knoxville, Frank Cloninger of California and Vergil Cloninger of Oregon. She had "several grandchildren, great grandchildren and four great great grandchildren." The total cost for the funeral was $400.00.
Nancy Ellen Shields married James Moses Cloninger on 23 February 1879 in Knoxville, Tennessee by Paschal Carter. Bondsman was A.B. Cash. Nancy Ellen told Jewell Vermillion that she met James Moses Cloninger "while she was staying with some people to help with the children and housework." I do not know where this occurred as of yet and have not found how Nancy Ellen came to be in Knoxville. James Moses was born on 8 March 1859 and died of "stomach trouble", according to his Death Certificate (#48898), on 26 March 1910. But, Jewell Vermillion, daughter of Minnie Mae Cloninger Farrington, stated that he died of TB. His death record lists him as a "Merchant." He owned two grocery stores and rented four houses. He lost all of this, plus his own house to a crooked lawyer because he believed he had everything in order in the way of paperwork, etc.
Nancy and James Moses Cloninger had twelve children according to Granny Sliger Mode, the
granddaughter of Nancy Ellen Shields. She used to say, "They had 2 boys then 2 girls, then 3 boys then 3 girls, then a boy and a girl."
Granny said that her Grandma Cloninger (Nancy Ellen Shields) was "a good Christian woman" and that "she had more confidence in Grandmaw Cloninger than any living person." Said that she was a Methodist and often went into church shouting". In an interview with my granny I asked her what she remembered about Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger and she said, "Well, she was a good women, I know that. And she loved people and she always growed a lot of flowers in the yard and if anybody was ever sick in the Summer time when the flowers was bloomin she would go and take a little bouquet of flowers. She wouldn't stay long, maybe take em some hot biscuits or somethin. But she wasn't the type to just go and sit. She would do what she was gonna do and didn't say much about it. And she went to church on Sundays and Sunday nights if they was havin a revival, and maybe she'd go in and she was so happy she'd start shoutin before she got in the door hardly."
Jewell Vermillion said that Nancy Ellen was "a wonderful Christian woman" and that she belonged to Brookside Methodist Church before joining Deadrick Baptist Church later. She read her bible every day and would often eat breakfast and then go read her bible on the porch swing and then eat lunch and go read some more. Jewell also mentioned that Nancy Ellen played a big part in the Wesley House here in Knoxville. Granny's sister Jessie Sliger stated that Grandmaw Cloninger went into church one day shouting, hands raised, praising God and someone told her she should stop, saying "You shouldn't do that, you're making people nervous" and "Honey, you're just nervous." Grandmaw Cloninger said "If this is nervousness, Lord make me more nervous."
Jessie also related a story about the day that Grandmaw Cloninger went to the train station to see her son Frank Cloninger arrive after serving in W.W.I. She again shouted and praised God when she saw the first
man step off of the train. Her daughter told her to be quite because people were looking. A man said, "Lady, leave the old woman alone, you ought to be praising God too." Jessie said a street in Knoxville was named after our Shields family. I don't know if this is true. Granny said that there is an area in Knoxville known as the Shields Addition that is named after our Shields.
According to Nancy Ellen Shields Cloninger her mother had had a new baby, perhaps the twins Eli and Levi, and she was sent to live with her Grandmaw Baker and uncle, who was a Baker too. She told Jewell Vermillion that her Grandmaw Baker and uncle raised her. Nancy Ellen used to say, "Grandmother Shields, pick her up by the heels, Grandmother Baker, pick her up and shake her." Not sure if she meant that her Grandmaw Baker and uncle lived together or separately. Have also heard that Nancy's mother was sick and may have died, thus causing her to leave home.
Nancy Ellen Shields told my Granny Mode Sliger Caldwell that her uncle had been in a war, probably the War for Southern Independence, and that she remembers him coming home in his uniform. In an interview with my granny I asked her who the story was about and she said the story was about Nancy's uncle and that "she was a little bitty girl too, then. She said that when he (her Uncle Baker) come across there (the field) it scared her. She thought it was some stranger, you know. She went runnin into the house. He had been to war." Nancy had also told my granny that her uncle had to burn his clothes.
Nancy Ellen Shields told Jewell Vermillion that "She and her Grandmother Baker were working out in the fields and saw her uncle coming down the road from the war. They didn't know if he had been killed or not, but were waiting for the men to come home. They started screaming when they saw him and she wanted to run and hug him but her Grandmother Baker told her she couldn't and made him burn his clothes and bathe before they could hug him."
She related that she had one younger sister, two older sisters and two twin brothers named Eli and Levi who were killed in a mill accident. Jewell verified this saying that her grandmother, Nancy Ellen, told her that she had a sister named Martha and twin brothers named Eli and Levi who died in an explosion at a mill.
Nancy Ellen related to Jewell that when the twins were born she and her sister Martha felt like they had their own babies and they would wrap them up like little dolls and play with them.
She said that once they had built a little cabin in the woods and had the babies with them when two hunters came along and told them they had better get the babies out of the woods, saying "There's bears in these woods and they'll eat those babies up." Nancy again related to Jewell that she "lived in the Allegheny Mountains."
Nancy Ellen apparently had contact with her family for she knew of her brothers' deaths and also had pictures of them, which Jewell Vermillion now has.
Material from other sources verify what Nancy stated regarding her twin brother's dying and her not being within the Shields household. Said material stated that the twins were killed when a boiler exploded at a sawmill. The twins were born on 15 January 1869. Eli Shields died on 29 December 1888 and Levi died two days later on 31 December 1888 in Sandlick, Mercer County West Virginia. This material also lists Nancy Ellen as the 6th child of Joseph Winston and Henrietta Aldridge Shields.
Having found her family and noting that she was not in said household in the 1870 Grayson Co., Virginia Census also verifies Nancy Ellen's story regarding her leaving home to live with her Grandmother Baker and Uncle. She is absent in the 1860 census because she was born in 1862 and absent in the 1880 census because she was married in 1879. (This new material and family information is listed below)
Children of Joseph W. Shields and Henrietta Aldridge:
Taken From Joseph W. Shields Bible:
Births
Joseph W. Shields born Stokes Co., North Carolina March 31, 1820
Henrita Shields born March 9, 1826
William Shields born February 18, 1850
Harper L. Shields born Aug 29, 1852
Alexander Shields born October 6, 1854
Amanda Shields born March 28, 1856
Mary Shields born July 18, 1860
Nancy Eleen Shields born May 16, 1862
Joseph Shields born October 16, 1864
Levy and Ely Shields born January 15, 1869
Family Members
Children
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Rush W. Cloninger
1879–1914
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Luther Cloninger
1882–1907
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Elizabeth Maggie Cloninger Weisgarber
1884–1974
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Sarah Louise Cloninger Sliger
1886–1976
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Willie C. Cloninger
1889–1928
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Jesse James Cloninger
1889–1968
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Frank Cloninger
1891–1966
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Virgle Lee Cloninger
1893–1955
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Annie Clonniger Newman
1900–1915
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Alvin Clarence Cloninger
1903–1944
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Minnie Mae Cloninger Farrington
1906–1984
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