Nancy Arminda "Minda" Dobbs was born Jan 12, 1857 in Tennessee.
There is a complete book online in pdf format: "Our Pioneer Heritage, The Ehlers Family 2006"
http://www.gress.org/home/FamilyTree/Files/The%20Ehlers%20Book%20Final.pdf
Compiled by Delores Ann Nims
Find excerpt of book below:
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
Our Pioneer Heritage: The Ehlers Family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 - 12
Family Tree for Henry C. Ehlers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Descendants of Henry C. and Nancy Ehlers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Family Tree for Fredrick B. Ehlers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Descendants of Fredrick B. Ehlers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Family Tree for James "Jim" Parker Ehlers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Descendants of James "Jim" Parker Ehlers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Framily Tree for Laura Henrietta Ehlers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Descendants of Laura Henrietta Ehlers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Appendix:
Chronology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Map of American Settlements 1890. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Area Road Map. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Mineral Map of Mt Baker Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Book Review of "The Mechanism of Nature"
by Henry C. Ehlers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Letters and Poem Written by Henry C. Ehlers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
To his niece, Julia Jacobs in Ellensburg,WA on October, 4 1896.
Poem : "Thy Standard". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
To his family from the Lone Star Gold Mine
in Mt. Baker in 1897. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
To Jimy From St. Elmo, Alabama on June 13, 1920. . . . . . . . . 93
Phone Numbers and Addresses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Five years after Henry homesteaded in Whatcom County, Washington , Nancy Arminda Dobbs Paget arrived. Nancy was born in January 12, 1857 in Tennessee. She had four siblings and their mother died in 1861. Nancy's father remarried and the family moved to Texas where they had relatives. "Nancy described her step-mother as cruel, for example, even though there were hostile Indians in the area, her stepmother insisted Nancy go out to the well to pump water. The child was terrified."
letter from Effie Ehlers Fowler dated June 15, 1965 includes excerpt from History of Whatcom County,
Gramma Nancy riveted the attention of three generations of children with Indian stories from Texas. "I remember my great Gramma, Nancy, sitting on our bed when Skip and I were recovering from chicken pox. Gramma told us, "When I was a girl, I shot a gun out the window at the 'painted savages'. The Indians, mounted on horses, circled the cabin with frightening whoops."13 On another occasion, Nancy's uncle, Chesley S. Dobbs, was not as lucky and ended up being scalped.
Texans take rustling pretty seriously. Nancy's first husband, Mr. Paget, was hung for horse or cattle rustling in 1885. That same year Nancy came to Whatcom County and married Henry.
"Nancy made application on 160 acres adjoining her husband's homestead and the couple's property extended east from Pangborn Lake to the present Nordlund brother's farm, where the Ehlers' log cabin was located in a 'hole in the woods' (see maps in appendix). The nearest trading center was at Nooksack Crossing, near the present site of Everson." Nancy was unique. As far as we know, she was the only single white woman who came to Whatcom at this time.
We don't know why Nancy decided to come to Whatcom County, but Henry, now age 31, must have been ecstatic to meet her as there were few white women in the area. Most of the early pioneers married Indian women. Henry and Nancy were married August, 16, 1885 and had four children, Fredrick "Fred" born in 1886; James "Jim" born in 1887; John, born in 1889; and Laura, born in 1891. This small family was unusual as most farm couples had eight to twelve children.
Those who knew her, describe Nancy as strong, independent, and courageous. An educated woman, she wrote beautiful letters and diaries about the trip from Texas which were, unfortunately, destroyed in a house fire. Her grand-daughter, Patricia Ehlers Wilson, describes her as "a loving Christian woman who enjoyed singing songs of faith. Grandma Nancy's favorite hymn was 'When the Roll is Called up Yonder'. Even when quite old, she was able to carry a tune." She gave her love of music to her children who all played musical instruments; Fred played guitar, Jim, the trumpet and Laura, the violin.
A tall, slender woman, Nancy, wore high top shoes and long dresses which she made herself. She tied her long silklike hair back in a bun. In her later years, she lived with her son, Jim and his wife, Adele. Nancy and Jim loved to discuss religion with the Jehovah Witnesses who came to the house. On other occasions, Nancy liberally dispensed "medicinal" whiskey to anyone who could fake a cough. These folks probably were not Jehovah Witnesses.
Her grand-daughters have given us two stories about Nancy. "In Texas when Grandma was a very young girl, she and some other youngsters were riding in the back end of a wagon. Mr. Dobbs often took the children along when he went out on the plains to look at the cattle. This day he took an extra horse along. He tied this horse to the back of the wagon with a rope. The horse was annoyed with the heat and dust and something spooked him. He gave a quick throw of his head and somehow the rope wrapped around the ankle of little Nancy and cinched up real tight. So tight, in fact, that she carried the indentation and white mark all the rest of her life."
"Grandma Nancy lived at the Park (area surrounding the cabin) in the log cabin for quite a while. Vera has fond memories of going up and staying overnight and sleeping with Grandma. She remembers the storms outside and the blazing fire in the old stone fireplace. One time Vera asked her if she wasn't afraid to stay alone. Grandma Nancy replied, 'Heavens no, child, if someone came in I'd throw the pot in his face.' After that Vera was careful to call out if she came at night. She wasn't about to have that pot's contents in her face."
30 Mar 1946: Nancy dies at the home of her daughter, Laura, in Kent, WA at age 89.
