Person Page 310

ROBERT P. SHULER

METHODIST MINISTER

1880 + 1965. EXCERPT - The Fighting Robert Shuler, by Robert Pierce Shuler, III (via Tracy DeVault):

In Bob's second year at Norton, he agreed to hold a revival for a college friend, Jim Groseclose, who was a pastor of a small church in Austin Springs, Tennessee. The country church was located in a prosperous community of plantation estates. One of the wealthiest land owners among them was the DeVaults family, William and Barbarie.* William's niece was Nelle Reeves, who lived a distance away. Nelle had agreed to lead the singing and play the organ for the Bob Shuler revival. This necessitated Nelle's staying the week with the DeVaults in their home. Thus, the stage was set for Bob and Nellie to cross paths. How did Bob and Nelle meet? The following is Nelle's own description:

"Jim Groseclose had the Jonesboro appointment with two additional chapels: Marvin Chapel, where our family worshipped, and the Chapel at Austin Springs, where the revival was held. Marvin was three miles from our Wheatland home, and Austin Springs was seven miles the other way. My mother had for years been a dressmaker who made all her own clothes and now was making mine also. [There appears to be something missing here.] She lived in Jonesboro four miles away. Papa would go in twice a year and bring her and her sewing machine out. Mama had her own sewing machine, and together, they would sew for a week at a time.

"Mother was going to Bristol for the material, and I wanted to go along to pick out my own material. It was a train ride of thirty miles one way, and we stayed with relatives overnight and visited. The Sunday night preceding the week of our dressmaking, I got up from the organ at Marvin Chapel to speak with some boys from Washington City that I had gone to school with when Brother Groseclose stopped by and said, 'Miss Nell, I've got to have you, beginning tomorrow morning, at Austin Springs. We are starting a revival there.'

"I said, "I can't. I'm going up to Bristol Tuesday, and I need Monday to get ready.' But he would not take 'no' for an answer, so I said, 'Talk to Papa about it.' I intended to get to Papa first and have him cover for me, but I visited with others too long and didn't get back to Papa. In fact, I forgot all about Papa, an easy mistake for a young lady to make in the presence of beaus.

"When we got home that night, Papa said, 'Daut, I told Groseclose that you would be over for the revival Tuesday morning.'

"Nelle replied, 'Oh Papa, I meant to get to you and tell you I couldn't do that. Mama and I are leaving Tuesday morning for Bristol.'

Said Papa, 'Well, you're not. You're not going back on your church.'

"'But Daddy, we have made arrangements with the dressmaker, and I have to get the material.' But he said I was not going. I could sew anytime, and I was going to get ready for the revival.

"Monday night I brought the suitcase down into the parlor, since there was no heat in my upstairs room, and I was so mad that I wouldn't talk to anybody when Papa said, 'Daut, I heard that Preacher's not married; be sure you come back with your heart.'

"I answered back, 'No preacher can have my heart. I'm not going to be dragged all over the country.'

"The next morning we rode over; Mama, cousin Barbarie and I. The preacher was staying at the Akards who lived half-way between Wheatland and Cousin Barbarie. He had preached his first sermon at Austin Springs and Cousin Barbarie said, 'Nell, he's a mighty nice preacher, and good looking.'

"To which I replied, 'It makes no difference how good looking, he's a preacher.'

"Cousin Barbarie drove me to the church, and Groseclose was there but not the preacher. We started the meeting. I had a bunch up for the choir, and the organ faced the pulpit and the door so that I could see both. I was watching the door closely because I wanted to see how many people that I knew who would be coming. The crowd was not big, and I knew most of them there.

"There were two sets of doors into the chapel. The outside doors open in the width of the balcony, and the inside doors opened into the chapel. The door opened, and I was watching as a stranger walked in, removed a derby hat and put it on his arm over his overcoat, which was draped over a Bible. He had released the outside door and it swung back and hit his arm. The hat flew off and by grabbing for it, he dropped his Bible and his notes spread out over the floor. He grabbed his notes and lost his hat again. As he looked up from his confusion, I was laughing at him. Finally he got his possessions in hand, walked up the aisle, starring a hole through me. As he passed, I thought, 'You are rude to stare at me like this.' He continued into the pulpit and I knew then that he was the preacher. We met after the service.

"On that same Tuesday afternoon, Cousin Barbarie and I were sitting in front of the fire when the preacher walked in with the evangelist. He had worked it around so that he could get over to the DeVaults' place and stay for the remainder of the revival.

Bob and Nelle visited each other every day in the DeVault home through the next Monday afternoon. Thursday morning of the revival, while they were sipping coffee in the living room of the DeVault home, Bob said to Nelle, "Girlie, you have pulled my heart out by the roots, and we're getting married."

A startled Nelle looked askance and answered, "Oh, we are?" By the end of the revival they were betrothed, though none else knew this except cousin Barbarie.

The Monday after the close of the revival, Nelle's mother arrived in the carriage to take her home. Nelle quickly brought her mother up to date on the courtship details. They stopped the carriage to embrace and to enjoy the news together. The remainder of the trip home was spent in preparing a suitable plan to capture Mr. Reeves' commitment. He would surely oppose anyone who sought his daughter's hand, and had said so more than once. Nelle had been absent in private schools until her graduation, and her father now wanted her around so that he might enjoy her. Nelle was her father's favorite over her three brothers, and she did all she could to please him. A lovely description of Nelle was written years later by daughter Dorothy:

"I wish you could have known my mother. Born and raised in Tennessee, the adored and pampered daughter of a Tennessee legislator and his Irish wife, Nelle Reeves was a legend in the area. She had the tiny waist, generous breast, rounded hips, and graceful carriage that every young girl of her time longed for. Equipped with a cameo profile, blue eyes, black hair, the proverbial southern peaches and cream complexion and beautiful hands that had never washed a dish or made a bed, she was the princess in the parlor during the Sunday 'at homes' when her young suitors came calling -- so many that her mother and aunts would come downstairs to help her entertain them. She graduated from a prestigious finishing school, performed beautifully on the piano, played the organ for services in her church, and generally lived a charmed life with assurance, grace and confidence.

Bob, meanwhile, returned to Norton. Now, however, his work was interrupted daily by his letter writing and dreaming. Bob always spoke openly about whatever was on his mind, so his Norton congregation was caught up in the emotion of it all as well. The Norton Church granted him a leave to spend a few days with the Reeves family, and within two weeks of his last visit, he returned.

In the meantime, Mr. Reeves was informed of the engagement by his wife, and the siege was on. He knew little of young Bob's background and had many questions to ask this young man. Mrs. Reeves, on the other kept raising a single question: "If God has called this man to preach, and has selected our wonderful child to share this work with him, how can you stand in God's way?"

The matter was still stalemated when young Shuler arrived. The father, owner of hundreds of acres of choice wheat land and a Legislator in Tennessee, asked Bob, "Can you support her in the manner she is used to?" Bob thought he could and said so. He announced that he had acquired a loan of $100 for the honeymoon and was paid $75 a month by the church. The father's reply was "Son, she spends more than that on clothes. It has been my habit with her to send my checkbook along when she shops. Do you believe she could adjust to $75.00 a month?" With such a tone, this conversation concluded that first evening.

The next day Mr. Reeves saw how much these two loved each other, and how eager his daughter was to have her father's approval. So it was that Mr. Reeves consented. But, he warned them that it would take all their skill and patience to merge their backgrounds, for this marriage would have to be a case of opposites finding common ground. And, Mr. Reeves was right. Bob's background was that of a sharecropper family, limited in education, with little wealth or prospect for wealth. The Reeves line was of prosperous plantation stock. Nelle had taken Latin and earned an "A" in each year -- Bob had skipped Latin in order to preach.

So at the age of nineteen, Nelle met Bob Shuler, and in exactly one week from the day they met, she promised to marry him in just six months time. They believed that they had not just stumbled into each other, but that God had brought them together. That same morning, they hitched the horse to the buggy and took a long ride together, praying that neither would disappoint God. The wedding was to follow in six months.

As for Bob's background, daughter Dorothy composed a review of her father and her family in the 1970s:

"Bob was the eldest child of a struggling Virginia farmer who suddenly decided, at age 29 . . . to go to college. My grandfather had only a third-grade education, but, with my grandmother's approval, he took and passed the entrance exam at Emory and Henry College and earned his degree. My grandmother cooked for boarders, and my father hired out to other farmers. When my father was sixteen, his mother died and his father, needing someone to care for his children who now numbered six, remarried and suggested to my father that he was old enough to support himself. My father worked at any job available, put himself through college and was ordained as a Methodist minister, even before he graduated . . . he became one of the last of the circuit riders in the hills of Virginia and Tennessee. I have a picture of him, which is one of my greatest treasurers, seated in an ornate chair, obviously in a photographer's studio. . . . He wears a suit with a high, stiff collar, laced high-top shoes, his dark, thick hair is parted in the middle and waves softly above his brow. His brown eyes are fixed on something to his right and he is, believe me, absolutely beautiful. He is, forever, nineteen years old.

During their engagement period, Nelle and Bob exchanged letters daily. The Shuler family has preserved at least four of Bob's 1905 letters to Nelle. She received the first of these four letters on July 3, 1905, and it is the one worth quoting. He and she were obviously anticipating their October wedding date, and his letter concluded in the following way:

"It is past eleven at night, so here's the old, old story of my love for you, pet, which seems to be thriving finely in this July weather. Maybe August will be a better month for it though, although love in August is rather warm business. But, August will have this advantage; there will not be so much distance to lend enchantment to the view. Really, I don't think our love needs much enchantment, view or distance either. Close range rather pleases my fancy. Well, I'll be at your house in August if the boo-boos don't catch me. And, until August, I love you. . . . I think sometimes my heart is a fiery furnace heated seven times hot. By the way, little Cupid is a corker, anyway, isn't he? Well, good night, my lady, and may you be troubled with thoughts of me both waking and sleeping, and I hope you'll love me half as much as I love you. That's all. Yours, forever and forever. Bob

Meanwhile, Poppa Reeves had become suspicious of the volume of letters given him to mail by his daughter. "Daut, (short for daughter) are you taking on more boys to write to?" he asked.

Nelle was said to answer, "I may drop some." In the meantime, both Bob and Nelle did have other romances to terminate. Nelle had accepted a ring from a Florida dentist, but the ring was never considered by Nelle to be an engagement ring. As well, she corresponded with a young attorney. But, none of them were a serious consideration to Nelle. Of Bob's love life, his father, J. W. W., provided the following recall:

"Because Bob was by this time ordained, he sought a parsonage partner. He wanted a companion to share the next years of his life, a mother for the children he desired. One day, while Bob was visiting his mother's Emory grave, he noticed a young woman seated at a nearby grave. She was weeping. Bob sat down beside her to provide comfort. They spent the afternoon together within the confines of the cemetery. Finally, they walked down the hill to the train. While on this half-mile walk, Bob proposed marriage, and she accepted. They kissed goodbye at the train station in Emory and were never to see each other again.

There was, as well, his courtship with Miss Lizzie, who was in Norton visiting members of Bob's congregation. They met after the Sunday service and the following week, Bob began making frequent pastoral calls at the Ed Ould residence where Lizzie was staying. After Bob's 1965 death in Los Angeles, members of Bob's family visited Lizzie, who was coming to the end of a long marriage to a physician and was the mother of a wonderful family. She shared with them how Bob handled that courtship:

"She remembered that Bob and Henry Gilmer double dated in the parlor. Bob arranged to have two pairs of chairs, back to back with each other, so that Henry could not see what Bob was doing or hear what Bob was saying. She recalled that when Henry was silent for too long, Bob would ask him to say something, and loud. 'I want to say sweet things to Lizzie, and I can't when the whole room is listening.'

"Lizzie remembered Henry's reply, 'Bob, I am too full of love for utterance.' Henry then turned back to the silent worship of his date.

"This date was taking place only six weeks before he proposed to Nelle Reeves, though at the time, he knew nothing of Nelle's existence. Bob composed a Valentine for Lizzie and gave it to her on February 14th, six weeks before the Austin Springs Revival.

"Bob returned to Norton from Austin Springs to inform Lizzie of his engagement to Nelle Reeves. Soon thereafter, Lizzie left Norton and returned to her home in Virginia. She remembered how thrilled Bob was that his future wife was already canning peaches and other foods for their cellar.

With their marriage date visible on the horizon, Bob began to worry about the extravagant plantation life. He knew that his life had begun at the latter's lowest rung and that Nelle had known life at a much higher station. Nelle's father, William R. Reeves, managed 275 acres between Johnson City and Jonesboro. He had been a Tennessee Legislator and was a descendent of one of the oldest families in East Tennessee. Mr. Reeves married Mary (Molly) Murphy in 1881, and they moved into the old homestead with his parents and two of his sisters. The house they shared was built by William's father and uncle, who had been contractors and builders of state capitals throughout the south. William Reeves and his brother, Peter, had married sisters of the DeVault family, a family that owned the face of the earth in East Tennessee. The brothers were the original purchasers of 500 acres of land on which they built the brick home place.

The layout of the home began with an entire sub-floor given over to slave quarters. The ground floor and two large and identical rooms. The parlor was in front and the dining room in the rear. Each Room had a fireplace. A narrow stairway opened to the second floor, where there were several bedrooms. On each side of the house were massive porches. The out-buildings included a spring house, a smoke house, a blacksmith shop, two barns and lesser sheds. The setting for this home enjoyed mammoth oak trees, and it offered a large back lawn that no one bothered to level before the blue grass had begun to grow.

Molly Reeves, Nelle's mother, was remembered as an unselfish person who rode horses throughout the neighborhood, seeking out shack-houses of the poorest families. Never was race an issue. Having located those who needed help, she would then load a basket of food and clothing, balance it on her lap, and ride to homes to deliver the needed food. Others would wait for the needy to knock at the back door. But, Molly wouldn't wait for them to find her; she sought these out.

As well, Molly Reeves had a prankish humor, as embedded in her as was her unselfish service. She attended to her days with a most carefree spirit. Young Bob, whose father had a serious view of life, responded happily to Molly's humor. This prioritizing of humor continued to exist in each generation of Shulers to follow.

The wedding was planned for October 4th at 2:00 in the afternoon. This would allow the newlyweds one week before they were to attend the Annual Conference of their Methodism, to be appointed to a parish of their own. In preparation for the wedding, the Reeves sent out over five hundred invitations. Bob, meanwhile, returned to Norton to complete his year there. With the anticipated marriage, the Bishop's cabinet suggested that Bob be appointed elsewhere.

October 4 arrived, and Nelle's antebellum home was festooned with goldenrod on the wedding day. Goldenrod is a Tennessee weed growing in their fence rows, and the Reeves brothers had cut a wagon full of the branching stalks bearing clusters of small, yellow flower heads.

The wedding was held in the parlor, while the presents were placed in the living room. Four huge tables were filled with wedding gifts and with a large hogshead, itself filled with cut glass. Apparently, all 500 invited to the wedding attended, as the crowd outside was larger than that within the house. Molly Reeves did not come downstairs for the wedding, however. Molly's own mother had died weeks earlier. Word of her mother's illness had caused Molly to drop her part in her daughter's wedding preparations and return to her parents' home to care for them. Her mother died days later of typhoid. After the death and funeral, Molly returned to Wheatland to resume her part in her daughter's wedding preparations, unaware of the meaning of her fatigue. She was confined to bed, ill with typhoid fever, thought it had originally been diagnosed as fatigue.

The presiding minister over the ceremony was Will Shuler, Bob's father, though Jim Groseclose assisted. Nelle and her close friend, Clara, came down the stairs, followed by Bob's sister. They met Bob and Henry Gilmer, the best man. The wedding party stood before Will Shuler, who was standing with his back to the fireplace. Will's high collar was too tight, and when he spoke, he squeaked. Both Bob and Nelle laughed, and in this supportive atmosphere, they spoke their vows and were pronounced husband and wife. They would have ahead of them the celebration of 60 anniversaries.

After the wedding, Bob and Nelle were driven to Jonesboro and place on a train to Abingdon where they honeymooned in the hotel. They left the next day, October 11th, to answer the roll call at the Methodist Conference held in Bristol, Tennessee. On the 12th came the report that Nell's mother was weakening, and the newlyweds left Bristol for Wheatland. On the afternoon of the 15th, this worthy woman, servant to all, died.

In the Christian community, death, especially one as central as that of a mother, does not mark the story's end. It was untimely that Molly's death came at the outset of the lives of this newly married couple, but all life is that way -- the pausing to give thanks for the loved one and then the returning to the business of life. The Christian has the advantage of knowing he'll see his loved one again and will rejoice for eternity.

In the meanwhile, Bob and Nelle had a new congregation to meet, their first of many to come.

* Thought to be William Valentine DeVault and his second wife, Barbara Higginbothan.

Obituary – Statesman Journal, Salem, Oregon; Wednesday, 5 AUG 1981, p.2B (Newspapers.com):

Nelle Reeves Shuler

DAYTON – Nelle Reeves Shuler, 96, of Route 1, Box 284A, died Tuesday in Sheridan Care Center.

Born in Jonesboro, Tenn., she lived in Los Angeles for 33 years before coming here several years ago to live with her daughter.

Survivors include sons, Maj. Gen. W. R., Fairfax, Va., Robert P. Jr., Santa Monica, Calif., Edward H., Bakersfield, Calif., and Phil R., Poway, Calif.; daughters, Dorothy Shuler Pitkin, Dayton, and Nelle Shuler Fertig, Glendora, Calif.; 25 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

Graveside services will be in Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, Calif. Adamson mortuary, Sheridan, is in charge of local arrangements.

; per www.devaults.net:

San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco, California; Monday, January 28, 1918; Page: 6 ; (GenealogyBank.com):

Quiet Wedding

A quiet wedding solemnized at Grace Cathedral at 7 o'clock on Saturday evening united in marriage Miss Arline Abbott, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harvey E. Abbott of Salinas, and Lieutenant William Rollin Reeves, surgeon to the 145th Field Artillery.

The bride, who is a pretty brunette, is one of the most popular young women of Salinas; her family is well known there and in San Francisco. In Salinas her father, Hervey (sic) E. Abbott was at one time Supervisor.

The bridegroom is a native of Tennessee, who previous to the outbreak of the war was surgeon for a large manufacturing firm at Salinas.

Only immediate friends and relatives witnessed the ceremony, which was performed by Dean Wilmer J, Gresham. The bride wore a one-piece French frock of dark blue serge, with hat to match. She was attended by her sister, Mrs. J. P. Tripp, who came from Redlands to attend the wedding. Paul Cafter of this city was best man.

Lieutenant and Mrs. Reeves left at once for San Diego where the bridegroom is stationed.

San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco, California; Sunday, February 3, 1918; Page: 16; (GenealogyBank.com):

Cathedral Service Unites Salinas Girl And Medical Officer In American Army

Grace Cathedral was the scene of a pretty wedding on the evening of January 26, when Miss Arline Abbott became the bride of Lieutenant William Rolland (sic) Reeves, Surgeon in the 145th Field Artillery.

The bride is a daughter of Supervisor and Mrs. Harvey E. Abbott of Salinas, and the family is well known here, as in that place. Mrs. Reeves attended Miss Hamlin's School in San Francisco. Lieutenant Reeves formerly lived in Tennessee, and until offering his services to the Government was surgeon for a large manufacturing firm at Salinas.

The ceremony was performed by Dean J. Wilmer Gresham, and was witnessed only by relatives and very close friends. Mrs. J. P. Tripp of Redlands was the only attendant of the bride and Paul Cafter was the best man.

Lieutenant and Mrs. Reeves are living at present in San Diego.

OBITUARY - Salinas Californian, Saturday, January 4, 1975, page 2 column 8

REEVES SERVICES

Struve and Laporte Funeral Chapel has announced a memorial service at 2 p.m. Monday for Dr. Rollin Reeves who died yesterday morning in a Salinas Hospital.

Reeves was 87. His death followed a three month illness. He was well known for his work as a doctor throughout the county and as builder of the Salinas Valley Hospital.

Rev. Jerome Politzer will officiate at the service. Entombment will follow at the Garden of Memories Mausoleum.

; Gladys was first married, in 1915, to Eric Wilton Pollard (1891-1919), who died of pneumonia following influenze, leaving her with an infant son, Eric Wilton Pollard, Jr. (1917-2000). Eric, Sr. was a son of William H. and Emma Louise (White) Pollard of Alameda, CA. Eric, Jr. was raised with Gladys' second family with John Reeves. Eric, Jr. married Cariline Russell Walker in 1941 and had a son Eric, III, born 1945, who lived in Oswego, NY and Charlotte, NC. He had a son, Eric "Rick" W. Pollard IV who marrid Kathleen Marie Whelan in 1998. Eric, Jr.'s first marriage ended before OCT 1949 when he remarried to Estrella Nenette Bendelac (1922-2006) at Alexandria, VA. Eric, Jr. appears to have been a career Navy seaman and officer beginning during WW II -- he and/or Estrella were listed at various times at Norfolk, VA, Alameda, CA, San Diego, CA, Arlington, VA, Monterey, CA, and Oakland, CA. It appears from a public member tree, Kimball Family Tree, genealogy prepared by Roxande Kimball, online at Ancestry.com, that there was a daughter born to the second marriage with Estrella. This was possibly Michelle R. Pollard, born 21 JAN 1954 and listed living at Santa Barbara, CA where Estrella passed away in 2006. DLB 2026.

ROBERT P. SHULER

METHODIST MINISTER

1880 + 1965. EXCERPT - The Fighting Robert Shuler, by Robert Pierce Shuler, III (via Tracy DeVault):

In Bob's second year at Norton, he agreed to hold a revival for a college friend, Jim Groseclose, who was a pastor of a small church in Austin Springs, Tennessee. The country church was located in a prosperous community of plantation estates. One of the wealthiest land owners among them was the DeVaults family, William and Barbarie.* William's niece was Nelle Reeves, who lived a distance away. Nelle had agreed to lead the singing and play the organ for the Bob Shuler revival. This necessitated Nelle's staying the week with the DeVaults in their home. Thus, the stage was set for Bob and Nellie to cross paths. How did Bob and Nelle meet? The following is Nelle's own description:

"Jim Groseclose had the Jonesboro appointment with two additional chapels: Marvin Chapel, where our family worshipped, and the Chapel at Austin Springs, where the revival was held. Marvin was three miles from our Wheatland home, and Austin Springs was seven miles the other way. My mother had for years been a dressmaker who made all her own clothes and now was making mine also. [There appears to be something missing here.] She lived in Jonesboro four miles away. Papa would go in twice a year and bring her and her sewing machine out. Mama had her own sewing machine, and together, they would sew for a week at a time.

"Mother was going to Bristol for the material, and I wanted to go along to pick out my own material. It was a train ride of thirty miles one way, and we stayed with relatives overnight and visited. The Sunday night preceding the week of our dressmaking, I got up from the organ at Marvin Chapel to speak with some boys from Washington City that I had gone to school with when Brother Groseclose stopped by and said, 'Miss Nell, I've got to have you, beginning tomorrow morning, at Austin Springs. We are starting a revival there.'

"I said, "I can't. I'm going up to Bristol Tuesday, and I need Monday to get ready.' But he would not take 'no' for an answer, so I said, 'Talk to Papa about it.' I intended to get to Papa first and have him cover for me, but I visited with others too long and didn't get back to Papa. In fact, I forgot all about Papa, an easy mistake for a young lady to make in the presence of beaus.

"When we got home that night, Papa said, 'Daut, I told Groseclose that you would be over for the revival Tuesday morning.'

"Nelle replied, 'Oh Papa, I meant to get to you and tell you I couldn't do that. Mama and I are leaving Tuesday morning for Bristol.'

Said Papa, 'Well, you're not. You're not going back on your church.'

"'But Daddy, we have made arrangements with the dressmaker, and I have to get the material.' But he said I was not going. I could sew anytime, and I was going to get ready for the revival.

"Monday night I brought the suitcase down into the parlor, since there was no heat in my upstairs room, and I was so mad that I wouldn't talk to anybody when Papa said, 'Daut, I heard that Preacher's not married; be sure you come back with your heart.'

"I answered back, 'No preacher can have my heart. I'm not going to be dragged all over the country.'

"The next morning we rode over; Mama, cousin Barbarie and I. The preacher was staying at the Akards who lived half-way between Wheatland and Cousin Barbarie. He had preached his first sermon at Austin Springs and Cousin Barbarie said, 'Nell, he's a mighty nice preacher, and good looking.'

"To which I replied, 'It makes no difference how good looking, he's a preacher.'

"Cousin Barbarie drove me to the church, and Groseclose was there but not the preacher. We started the meeting. I had a bunch up for the choir, and the organ faced the pulpit and the door so that I could see both. I was watching the door closely because I wanted to see how many people that I knew who would be coming. The crowd was not big, and I knew most of them there.

"There were two sets of doors into the chapel. The outside doors open in the width of the balcony, and the inside doors opened into the chapel. The door opened, and I was watching as a stranger walked in, removed a derby hat and put it on his arm over his overcoat, which was draped over a Bible. He had released the outside door and it swung back and hit his arm. The hat flew off and by grabbing for it, he dropped his Bible and his notes spread out over the floor. He grabbed his notes and lost his hat again. As he looked up from his confusion, I was laughing at him. Finally he got his possessions in hand, walked up the aisle, starring a hole through me. As he passed, I thought, 'You are rude to stare at me like this.' He continued into the pulpit and I knew then that he was the preacher. We met after the service.

"On that same Tuesday afternoon, Cousin Barbarie and I were sitting in front of the fire when the preacher walked in with the evangelist. He had worked it around so that he could get over to the DeVaults' place and stay for the remainder of the revival.

Bob and Nelle visited each other every day in the DeVault home through the next Monday afternoon. Thursday morning of the revival, while they were sipping coffee in the living room of the DeVault home, Bob said to Nelle, "Girlie, you have pulled my heart out by the roots, and we're getting married."

A startled Nelle looked askance and answered, "Oh, we are?" By the end of the revival they were betrothed, though none else knew this except cousin Barbarie.

The Monday after the close of the revival, Nelle's mother arrived in the carriage to take her home. Nelle quickly brought her mother up to date on the courtship details. They stopped the carriage to embrace and to enjoy the news together. The remainder of the trip home was spent in preparing a suitable plan to capture Mr. Reeves' commitment. He would surely oppose anyone who sought his daughter's hand, and had said so more than once. Nelle had been absent in private schools until her graduation, and her father now wanted her around so that he might enjoy her. Nelle was her father's favorite over her three brothers, and she did all she could to please him. A lovely description of Nelle was written years later by daughter Dorothy:

"I wish you could have known my mother. Born and raised in Tennessee, the adored and pampered daughter of a Tennessee legislator and his Irish wife, Nelle Reeves was a legend in the area. She had the tiny waist, generous breast, rounded hips, and graceful carriage that every young girl of her time longed for. Equipped with a cameo profile, blue eyes, black hair, the proverbial southern peaches and cream complexion and beautiful hands that had never washed a dish or made a bed, she was the princess in the parlor during the Sunday 'at homes' when her young suitors came calling -- so many that her mother and aunts would come downstairs to help her entertain them. She graduated from a prestigious finishing school, performed beautifully on the piano, played the organ for services in her church, and generally lived a charmed life with assurance, grace and confidence.

Bob, meanwhile, returned to Norton. Now, however, his work was interrupted daily by his letter writing and dreaming. Bob always spoke openly about whatever was on his mind, so his Norton congregation was caught up in the emotion of it all as well. The Norton Church granted him a leave to spend a few days with the Reeves family, and within two weeks of his last visit, he returned.

In the meantime, Mr. Reeves was informed of the engagement by his wife, and the siege was on. He knew little of young Bob's background and had many questions to ask this young man. Mrs. Reeves, on the other kept raising a single question: "If God has called this man to preach, and has selected our wonderful child to share this work with him, how can you stand in God's way?"

The matter was still stalemated when young Shuler arrived. The father, owner of hundreds of acres of choice wheat land and a Legislator in Tennessee, asked Bob, "Can you support her in the manner she is used to?" Bob thought he could and said so. He announced that he had acquired a loan of $100 for the honeymoon and was paid $75 a month by the church. The father's reply was "Son, she spends more than that on clothes. It has been my habit with her to send my checkbook along when she shops. Do you believe she could adjust to $75.00 a month?" With such a tone, this conversation concluded that first evening.

The next day Mr. Reeves saw how much these two loved each other, and how eager his daughter was to have her father's approval. So it was that Mr. Reeves consented. But, he warned them that it would take all their skill and patience to merge their backgrounds, for this marriage would have to be a case of opposites finding common ground. And, Mr. Reeves was right. Bob's background was that of a sharecropper family, limited in education, with little wealth or prospect for wealth. The Reeves line was of prosperous plantation stock. Nelle had taken Latin and earned an "A" in each year -- Bob had skipped Latin in order to preach.

So at the age of nineteen, Nelle met Bob Shuler, and in exactly one week from the day they met, she promised to marry him in just six months time. They believed that they had not just stumbled into each other, but that God had brought them together. That same morning, they hitched the horse to the buggy and took a long ride together, praying that neither would disappoint God. The wedding was to follow in six months.

As for Bob's background, daughter Dorothy composed a review of her father and her family in the 1970s:

"Bob was the eldest child of a struggling Virginia farmer who suddenly decided, at age 29 . . . to go to college. My grandfather had only a third-grade education, but, with my grandmother's approval, he took and passed the entrance exam at Emory and Henry College and earned his degree. My grandmother cooked for boarders, and my father hired out to other farmers. When my father was sixteen, his mother died and his father, needing someone to care for his children who now numbered six, remarried and suggested to my father that he was old enough to support himself. My father worked at any job available, put himself through college and was ordained as a Methodist minister, even before he graduated . . . he became one of the last of the circuit riders in the hills of Virginia and Tennessee. I have a picture of him, which is one of my greatest treasurers, seated in an ornate chair, obviously in a photographer's studio. . . . He wears a suit with a high, stiff collar, laced high-top shoes, his dark, thick hair is parted in the middle and waves softly above his brow. His brown eyes are fixed on something to his right and he is, believe me, absolutely beautiful. He is, forever, nineteen years old.

During their engagement period, Nelle and Bob exchanged letters daily. The Shuler family has preserved at least four of Bob's 1905 letters to Nelle. She received the first of these four letters on July 3, 1905, and it is the one worth quoting. He and she were obviously anticipating their October wedding date, and his letter concluded in the following way:

"It is past eleven at night, so here's the old, old story of my love for you, pet, which seems to be thriving finely in this July weather. Maybe August will be a better month for it though, although love in August is rather warm business. But, August will have this advantage; there will not be so much distance to lend enchantment to the view. Really, I don't think our love needs much enchantment, view or distance either. Close range rather pleases my fancy. Well, I'll be at your house in August if the boo-boos don't catch me. And, until August, I love you. . . . I think sometimes my heart is a fiery furnace heated seven times hot. By the way, little Cupid is a corker, anyway, isn't he? Well, good night, my lady, and may you be troubled with thoughts of me both waking and sleeping, and I hope you'll love me half as much as I love you. That's all. Yours, forever and forever. Bob

Meanwhile, Poppa Reeves had become suspicious of the volume of letters given him to mail by his daughter. "Daut, (short for daughter) are you taking on more boys to write to?" he asked.

Nelle was said to answer, "I may drop some." In the meantime, both Bob and Nelle did have other romances to terminate. Nelle had accepted a ring from a Florida dentist, but the ring was never considered by Nelle to be an engagement ring. As well, she corresponded with a young attorney. But, none of them were a serious consideration to Nelle. Of Bob's love life, his father, J. W. W., provided the following recall:

"Because Bob was by this time ordained, he sought a parsonage partner. He wanted a companion to share the next years of his life, a mother for the children he desired. One day, while Bob was visiting his mother's Emory grave, he noticed a young woman seated at a nearby grave. She was weeping. Bob sat down beside her to provide comfort. They spent the afternoon together within the confines of the cemetery. Finally, they walked down the hill to the train. While on this half-mile walk, Bob proposed marriage, and she accepted. They kissed goodbye at the train station in Emory and were never to see each other again.

There was, as well, his courtship with Miss Lizzie, who was in Norton visiting members of Bob's congregation. They met after the Sunday service and the following week, Bob began making frequent pastoral calls at the Ed Ould residence where Lizzie was staying. After Bob's 1965 death in Los Angeles, members of Bob's family visited Lizzie, who was coming to the end of a long marriage to a physician and was the mother of a wonderful family. She shared with them how Bob handled that courtship:

"She remembered that Bob and Henry Gilmer double dated in the parlor. Bob arranged to have two pairs of chairs, back to back with each other, so that Henry could not see what Bob was doing or hear what Bob was saying. She recalled that when Henry was silent for too long, Bob would ask him to say something, and loud. 'I want to say sweet things to Lizzie, and I can't when the whole room is listening.'

"Lizzie remembered Henry's reply, 'Bob, I am too full of love for utterance.' Henry then turned back to the silent worship of his date.

"This date was taking place only six weeks before he proposed to Nelle Reeves, though at the time, he knew nothing of Nelle's existence. Bob composed a Valentine for Lizzie and gave it to her on February 14th, six weeks before the Austin Springs Revival.

"Bob returned to Norton from Austin Springs to inform Lizzie of his engagement to Nelle Reeves. Soon thereafter, Lizzie left Norton and returned to her home in Virginia. She remembered how thrilled Bob was that his future wife was already canning peaches and other foods for their cellar.

With their marriage date visible on the horizon, Bob began to worry about the extravagant plantation life. He knew that his life had begun at the latter's lowest rung and that Nelle had known life at a much higher station. Nelle's father, William R. Reeves, managed 275 acres between Johnson City and Jonesboro. He had been a Tennessee Legislator and was a descendent of one of the oldest families in East Tennessee. Mr. Reeves married Mary (Molly) Murphy in 1881, and they moved into the old homestead with his parents and two of his sisters. The house they shared was built by William's father and uncle, who had been contractors and builders of state capitals throughout the south. William Reeves and his brother, Peter, had married sisters of the DeVault family, a family that owned the face of the earth in East Tennessee. The brothers were the original purchasers of 500 acres of land on which they built the brick home place.

The layout of the home began with an entire sub-floor given over to slave quarters. The ground floor and two large and identical rooms. The parlor was in front and the dining room in the rear. Each Room had a fireplace. A narrow stairway opened to the second floor, where there were several bedrooms. On each side of the house were massive porches. The out-buildings included a spring house, a smoke house, a blacksmith shop, two barns and lesser sheds. The setting for this home enjoyed mammoth oak trees, and it offered a large back lawn that no one bothered to level before the blue grass had begun to grow.

Molly Reeves, Nelle's mother, was remembered as an unselfish person who rode horses throughout the neighborhood, seeking out shack-houses of the poorest families. Never was race an issue. Having located those who needed help, she would then load a basket of food and clothing, balance it on her lap, and ride to homes to deliver the needed food. Others would wait for the needy to knock at the back door. But, Molly wouldn't wait for them to find her; she sought these out.

As well, Molly Reeves had a prankish humor, as embedded in her as was her unselfish service. She attended to her days with a most carefree spirit. Young Bob, whose father had a serious view of life, responded happily to Molly's humor. This prioritizing of humor continued to exist in each generation of Shulers to follow.

The wedding was planned for October 4th at 2:00 in the afternoon. This would allow the newlyweds one week before they were to attend the Annual Conference of their Methodism, to be appointed to a parish of their own. In preparation for the wedding, the Reeves sent out over five hundred invitations. Bob, meanwhile, returned to Norton to complete his year there. With the anticipated marriage, the Bishop's cabinet suggested that Bob be appointed elsewhere.

October 4 arrived, and Nelle's antebellum home was festooned with goldenrod on the wedding day. Goldenrod is a Tennessee weed growing in their fence rows, and the Reeves brothers had cut a wagon full of the branching stalks bearing clusters of small, yellow flower heads.

The wedding was held in the parlor, while the presents were placed in the living room. Four huge tables were filled with wedding gifts and with a large hogshead, itself filled with cut glass. Apparently, all 500 invited to the wedding attended, as the crowd outside was larger than that within the house. Molly Reeves did not come downstairs for the wedding, however. Molly's own mother had died weeks earlier. Word of her mother's illness had caused Molly to drop her part in her daughter's wedding preparations and return to her parents' home to care for them. Her mother died days later of typhoid. After the death and funeral, Molly returned to Wheatland to resume her part in her daughter's wedding preparations, unaware of the meaning of her fatigue. She was confined to bed, ill with typhoid fever, thought it had originally been diagnosed as fatigue.

The presiding minister over the ceremony was Will Shuler, Bob's father, though Jim Groseclose assisted. Nelle and her close friend, Clara, came down the stairs, followed by Bob's sister. They met Bob and Henry Gilmer, the best man. The wedding party stood before Will Shuler, who was standing with his back to the fireplace. Will's high collar was too tight, and when he spoke, he squeaked. Both Bob and Nelle laughed, and in this supportive atmosphere, they spoke their vows and were pronounced husband and wife. They would have ahead of them the celebration of 60 anniversaries.

After the wedding, Bob and Nelle were driven to Jonesboro and place on a train to Abingdon where they honeymooned in the hotel. They left the next day, October 11th, to answer the roll call at the Methodist Conference held in Bristol, Tennessee. On the 12th came the report that Nell's mother was weakening, and the newlyweds left Bristol for Wheatland. On the afternoon of the 15th, this worthy woman, servant to all, died.

In the Christian community, death, especially one as central as that of a mother, does not mark the story's end. It was untimely that Molly's death came at the outset of the lives of this newly married couple, but all life is that way -- the pausing to give thanks for the loved one and then the returning to the business of life. The Christian has the advantage of knowing he'll see his loved one again and will rejoice for eternity.

In the meanwhile, Bob and Nelle had a new congregation to meet, their first of many to come.

* Thought to be William Valentine DeVault and his second wife, Barbara Higginbothan.

Obituary -- Johnson City Press, Johnson City, Tennessee; 1 FEB, 1993:

GEORGE E. DEVAULT

BRASELTON, Ga. - George E. DeVault, 84, 243 DeGrasse Drive, Johnson City, Tenn., died Sunday, Jan. 31, 1993, at the home of his daughter.

Mr. DeVault was a member of First Presbyterian Church, Bristol, and was retired from Unisys.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Alma Green DeVault.

Survivors include his daughter, Mrs. Elaine Miller, Braselton; one son, George Valentine “Val” DeVault, Johnson City; one brother, William DeVault, Johnson City; and four grandchildren.

Oakley-Cook, Bristol (764-7123).

FUNERAL NOTICE - Johnson City Press; 1 FEB, 1993:

OAKLEY-COOK FUNERAL HOME

Bristol

George E. DeVault

Funeral services for George E. DeVault will be conducted at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the chapel of First Presbyterian Church with Dr. Richard A. Ray officiating. The Commitment service and burial will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the American Legion Cemetery, Big Stone Gap, Va. The family will receive friends from 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, at Oakley-Cook Funeral Home. Oakley Cook Funeral Home is in charge.

Michigan, County Marriage Records, 1822 - 1940 (Ancestry.com), and Michigan, Marriage Records, 1867 - 1952 (Ancestry.com). The second record shows that this was David's first marriage and Martha's second marriage. It also shows that Martha's maiden name was Lipinski. Finally, it shows that David and Martha were both residents of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.

Obituary:

Mrs. Fred W DeVault, Jr, 40 died at a local hospital at one o'clock Sunday morning following an illness of several months. She is survived by her husband, Fred W. DeVault, Jr, her mother, Mrs. J. P. Robertson, sister Eleanor V. Robertson, all of Johnson City; another sister, Mrs. S. L. Gray of Fordtown, and one brother, W. B. Robertson of Indian Springs. Funeral services will be conducted from the Central Baptist church at 2 o'clock p.m. Monday, in charge of Dr William R Rigeil, assisted by Chaplain E H Brandon. Brief services will also be held at Buffalo Ridge Memorial at Gray Station and interment will be held in the Gray Station Cemetery. Pall bearers are K. D. Hurley, George P. Rouse, W. P. Crockett, R. C. Phillips, T. H. Kitts, Neal A. Beasley. Flower bearers will be members of the T. E. L. Class of the Central Baptist Church.

OBITUARY - Bethany Republican Clipper, 21 August 1927:

OLDEST RESIDENT DEAD

A. C. Broyles passes away here at age of 96 years.

Believed to be oldest man in county, Father of Bethany Physician never wore glasses.

Andrew C. Broyles, the oldest resident of Bethany and believed to have been of greater age than any man living in Harrison county, died here at 1:30 o'clock Saturday afternoon at the home of his son, Dr. F. H. Broyles. He was a native of Tennessee, having been born at Chuckey Valley on June 22, 1831, the son of Jacob F. and Lucinda Broyles.

Mr. Broyles was a farmer during most of his life, or until his wife died more than 20 years ago. Since that time he had made his home here with his son, although until six years ago he was gone frequently on extended visits among his other children. For six years he had been unable to walk, and his travels ceased although his mind was good until the last, with the exception of a few short lapses of memory during recent months.

He was a well read man who retailned to his final days his interest in public happenings. He perused many newspapers and magazines, and personally attended to large correspondence from which he derived much comfort. It never was necessary for him to use eye glasses.

The first notice of his fatal illness was noticed Wednesday afternoon of last week, about 5:00 o'clock, when he complailned of not feeling well. The next afternoon he had an interval of stomach sickness, but he grew better from that. At 10:00 o'clock Saturday forenoon he became weaker, but at noon drank a glass of milk and commented upon its good taste. Only a short time later he commenced again to fail rapidly.

Short funeral services were held at the Dr. Broyles home at 12:30 o'clock Sunday before the body of Mr. Broyles was taken on the 1:45 o'clock train to Jonesborough, Tenn., for burial. They were conducted by the Rev. Clyde S. Sherman, pastor of the Christian church, and the Rev. Joseph W. Thompson, Methodist church pastor. Miss Irma Kenyon, Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Prentiss and S. M. Haas sang " O God, Our Help in Ages Past" and "O How Happy are They Who Our Savior Obey." Mrs. J. G. Hinkle was accompanist.

The body was accompanied to Tennessee by Dr. and Mrs. F. H. Broyles and their daughter, Dr. Elizabeth Broyles. It was their expectation they would arrive at Jonesborough yesterday and perhaps that funeral services and burial would be that afternoon. It was expected the funeral would be preached at a small church where Mr. Broyles worshiped for many years.

Mr. Broyles is survived by the following children who reside at other places than Bethany: Robert Broyles of Maryville, Mo., Mrs. Jacob Hunt of Elk City, Okla., the Rev. Hubert Broyles of Philadelphia, Pa., Mrs. Betty King of New York City, and Mrs. Mollie Ballard of Knoxville, Tenn.

From a letter written by Rev. E. Hubert Broyles to Dorothy DeVault Bicknell dated May 24, 1953:

"Betty and her sister Mollie were married in a double wedding ceremony. Mollie will be 95 next Tuesday the 26th. Not at all well, but still goes around some."

OBITUARY - The Knoxville News Sentinel, Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee, June 11, 1957, page 7

(Photo)

MRS MARY BALLARD WAS 99 LAST MONTH

Mrs. BALLARD DIES IN HER 100TH YEAR

Only two weeks after celebrating her 99th birthday, Mrs. Mary Broyles Ballard died at 3 a.m. this morning at her home, 2336 Woodbine Avenue. She was the widow of the late S. H. Ballard.

Mrs. Ballard had recovered from a broken hip, suffered five years ago. She was walking on her own six months after surgery. Mrs Ballard was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

She is survived by her daughter, Mrs. Annie Sarrett, Knoxville; granddaughters Mrs. Jack Joyner, Knoxville; Mrs. J. A. McKay, Fayetteville, N.C., four great-granddaughters, one great-grandson; sister, Mrs. W. R. King, Church Hill, Tenn; brother, Dr. E. H. Broyles, Philadelphia, Pa.

The body is at Mann's where the family will receive friends at 9 p.m. tomorrow.

Mary's brother, Rev. Herbert Broyles, said about her, "Mollie has been quite a Bible student, and until two or three years ago, taught a Bible class in her Church at Knoxville, in spite of her 90's."

Paul Sarrett says that Mary was also known as "Big Mama," and her daughter was called "Little Mama."

OBITUARIES:

Bethany Republican Clipper, Nov 1937

Funeral Rites Friday for Dr. Franklin H. Broyles

Funeral services for Dr. F. H. Broyles were conducted last Friday morning at 10:00 at the Broyles home by the Rev. W. W. Marvin of Vandalia, Mo., assisted by the Bethany Christian church.

Music was furnished by a quartet coomposed of Mrms. W. H. Hass, Mrs. Raleilgh Bartlett and L. C. Casady. Miss Ruth Ida Butler sang "More Love to Thee."

Following services here the funeral party left for Auburn, Nebr., where graveside services and burial rites were held at four o'clock in the afternoon.

Pallbearers were P. M. Place, Joe Maxey, Ed Slatten, Charles John, Claude Prentiss and Mark Butler. The floral escort was composed of Mrs. Mark Butler, Mrs. P. M. Place and Mrs. C. M. Propst.

Among those from out of town here to attend services were a brother-in-law R. S. Ramsey of Maryville, Miss Frances Broyles and Dr. Elizabeth Broyles of Boston, Mass., Dr. and Mrs. G. H. Broyles, Kansas City, Miss Marie French, St. Joseph and Mrs. Charlena Ramsey, Auburn.

St. Joseph News Press, Nov 17, 1937

Dr. F. H. Broyles, Bethany, Dies at Age of Seventy-Nine

(Special to the Gazette.)

BETHANY, Mo., Nov. 17. - Dr. F. H. Broyles, seventy-nine years old died here today. Funeral plans will not be completed until the arrival tomorrow night of a daughter, Dr. Elizabeth Broyles of Wellesley, Mass. Burial will be at Auburn, Neb.

Doctor Broyles was a native of Tennessee and had practiced at Auburn before coming to Bethany thirty-seven years ago. He had served as president of the board of education, city and county health officer and as a member of the Christian Church board.

Besides his wife, he is survived by two sons, Dr. Glen Broyles, Kansas City, and Dr. W.A. Broyles, Bethany, and the daughter, who is house physician at Wellesley College.

Doctor and Mrs. Broyles observed their golden wedding Oct. 27.

LETTERS FROM DR. FRANKLIN H. BROYLES TO RELATIVES

Dr. Franklin H. Broyles

Bethany, Missouri

February 7th, 1925

Mr John Fain Anderson

Washington College, Tennessee.

Dear Mr Anderson;-

While I have never had the pleasure of knowing you personally, I have known of you since I was but a small lad. I am the oldest son of A. C. Broyles, and am writing for him. He has tried to answer your letter received a few days ago, but his hand is feeble and trembly, and it is dificult for him to write although he has several correspondents, who seeme to have little trouble to read his letters. I know this is true, for when he asks questions, they are always answered. If they could not read his letters the questions would not be answered.

Father will be 94 yeares old the 22nd of June. Three and a half years ago, he had a very severe sickness, and for weeks we little to encourage us to think he could get well, but he finally recovered, and since then has had good health, considering his advanced age, but has never walked since that spell of sickness. I believe if he had tried very hard to walk, he could have done so, but I was afraid he might fall and hurt himself, so let him have his way. His reason for not trying to walk was that his feet hurt so much when he tried to walk that he could not stand on them. He gets up at 6 A.M. and retires at 9 P.M. of course he takes several little naps during the day. Moves about his roome in his chair, and goes to the hall and toilet in his chair, and waits on himself. I always help him dress when at home. He takes the Herald and Tribune, the Pathfinder and two Methodist papers, and reads almost every line in them, and is always ready for the next copies of these papers. He eats and sleeps well and very fond of company. His mind is remarkable clear, but of course he is living more in the past than present. Does not remember recent events as well as those of yeares ago. We often talk of the people we used to know from Horse Creek to Embreville, and a large circle of country on either side of the river, but since I have been away from that country forty three yeares most of those I knew are gone.

Father and Mother were married in 1856 instead of 54, Mother passed away in 1906, at Monmouth, Illinois and was buried in Jonesboro Tenn. I was in Jonesboro a few hours the day we laid her to rest, the last time I have been there. I appreciate your writing Father, and hope if it is not too great a task for you to write, the he may heare from you again. He has read your letter over several times, and remarks how glad he is that you wrote him. He says he would be so glad if he could only have a long visit with you. His children are scattered from Oklahoma to New York, but they come to see him and write him often. It seemes best the children all think for him to live with me, since we are very centrally located, and have a splendid home, with every convenience for his comefort, and that I can watch his health better than any of them. The Broyles family so far as I know have had few if any very black sheep, and I and my family are trying to maintain the reputation of the family. I have been very successful professionally and financially, and wife and I have raised three children of whom we are very proud. Two sons and one daughter. We have given them every opportunity they desired, all are university graduates, and graduates in Medicine. The oldest son is practiceing Medicine in Kansas City, the second son is practiceing Medicine in Saint Louis, and the daughter has just located in Saint Joseph Mo, where she has a nice office, and I am sure in a few yearses will be one of the leading Physicians there. The oldest son is 36, the second 30 and the daughter 26 yeares old. They are all three fine looking, healthy and happy, and all are good Christians. The boys were both commissioned officers in the world war. The oldest a major in the Medical service and the second one a Lieut, and both saw HELL in France, but only the youngest was wounded. That was three days before the armistis was signed, when he received a slight scalp and hand wound, but at the same time had three holes shot through his legs above the knees and the calf of his left leg shot off. He lay in a French hospital for four months before he was able to be sent home The wounds give him very little trouble now. The sons are married but the daughter is single.

Please pardon the personal part of this letter, but I wanted you to know this part of the Broyles family is trying to do good and if posible leave this world at least a little better when we are no more.

We have had I believe he nicest winter I have ever seen in this western country. Have not had a blizzard this winter, and now it is very much like spring. We had snow and ice for about six weeks and cold, temperature rangeing from 30 degrees above to twenty six degrees below zero. The snow was not over six inches deep, and not drifted.

If we could pick out the few real statesmen in the congress, and hang the rest of its members on the back yard fence, how wonderful this country might become, but it almost looks like the American people has not enough sense to be self governed. We hope for the best. With the best personal good wishes, from Father and myself, I am,

Sincerely yours.

F. H. Broyles. M. D.

Bethany, Mo.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE:

WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM OLD FRIENDS

The following letter was received a few days ago from Dr. Franklin Broyles, Bethany, Missouri:

“Editor, Herald and Tribune

Dear Sir:

I am writing for my father, A. C. Broyles to ask you to advance his subscription to the Herald and Tribune one year and am enclosing his check to pay for same.

Father, tho feeble, is enjoying good health. He will soon be ninety-four years old. He send the season’s greetings to all of his old friends in Jonesboro and Washington County. He would be glad to receive a letter from anyone or all of them.

Note – Mr. Broyles is still interested in Jonesboro and the people of Washington county. Every year he sends us check for the old home paper in order to hear from us each week. Let many of his old friends write to him. It will give him pleasure to hear from you. Editor.

LETTER FROM DR. FRANKLIN H. BROYLES TO ROBERT FRANKLIN "FRANK" DeVAULT

DR. FRANKLIN H. BROYLES

BETHANY MISSOURI

May 8th, 1933.

R. Frank DeVault

Morganton N. C.

Dear Cousin Frank:

Your letter was received the latter part of March, and should have been answered sooner. Excuses are always at hand, but really I have been rather busy professionally, besides business has called me up to Iowa once, to St. Joseph, Mo. twice, and to Kansas City twice, besides one trip to our farms in South East Nebraska. We have to go to Kansas City again soon, as well as to the farms. The price of corn is advancing and when we think the right time comes will go out and sell the few thousand bushels we have cribed on the farms.

Elizabeth has been very seriously sick in Boston since February. We were advised of her sickness but told her condition was not serious and that she was doing all right, and no need for us to come to her, but we were not satisfied and the 15th of March I took her mother as far as St. Louis on her way to Boston. She found Elizabeth better but still in a more serious condition than we were led to believe when she was at her worst. Her trouble started with a septic sore throat with a generalized joint infection. Her mother was with her six weeks. She is just now beginning to look after her patients. I may not have told you she has been Resident Physician at Wellesey College for eight years. And has just been reappointed for five more years at a salary of five thousand dollars per year but only works nine months each year and during those nine months has one vacation of ten days and another of twenty days. Well her mother left her able to be up and she reports a continued improvement. She will be home for her three months vacation in seven weeks. She drives a Studebaker car and drives home early in June. Our little eleven year old grandson is going to Boston for a visit with his aunt and will come home with her. This trip and the anxiety was rather hard on my wife, and she has not gotten rested yet.

We have had a dry cold spring but rains have reached us and the sun is warming things up nicely the last two days.

I am glad to have the information you gave me about your brothers and sisters, Cousin Sophia and I corresponded many many years ago but I turned the correspondence over to a chum, and I don't know what became of it. I left home in 1882 and was not at home when your father visited there in 1883. I think Will spent a summer with the folks soon after that. So I have never seen any of your family. You spoke about yourself and youngest brother living on the old home place. Am I to understand you are two old bachelors? You say nothing about any family. If you are mayGod have mercy on you for I have none for either of you. Your father's recollection concerning his family is mostly wrong and I will give you a correct genealogy on another sheet of paper, altho I can only go back to your grandfather Henry DeVault.

I visited Uncle Michael K. DeVault in Illinois more than fifty years ago but had not corresponded with any of them for fifty years but once in a while I would send Cousin Laura a birthday card, or a picture of some place of interest I visited but never heard from her. Just this last Christmas I sent her a Christmas card, and two or three weeks later I received a letter from her niece saying her Aunt Laura died three years ago. That her grandparents, her father and her uncle and aunt were all dead and that as far as she knew one brother was the only living relative she had on earth and that if I was a friend of the family or knew any thing about the DeVault family she would be glad to hear from me. I went back to her great, great, grandfather and gave her a quite complete history down to herself, so complete should she wish to join the D.A.Rs she can do so. Although I stopped with the birth and death of my own mother of that branch of our family. I will give this to her in another chapter. I have not heard from her since I sent her that letter, and she has no idea she and I are second cousins. It is too bad relatives get so scattered they loose all trace of each other, but I can I think understand how it is she knows not of her father's family. Uncle Michael DeVault was one of the best men I ever knew, and his wife was just as good as long as she was boss and every one bowed to her, but when they did not she was a regular she devil. Their oldest son Elbert married a young lady his mother had taken a dislike for and I heard her say she never wanted to see him again and that she never wanted to look in her face either in life or death. This marriage took place at the time I visited them, and it is my opinion he gave his family a wide bearth and told his children nothing about them, altho the rest of the famiy never said a word in my presence against the young lady Elbert married. The other two children never married. I know cousin Larua had an opportunity to marry a young man who has made a splendid success of his life, and her mother was willing that he and Laura marry, provided they would move right in and live with or very near her for he would would not be domineered over by her and Laura did not want to live with her for she knew no one could do so in peace, but at the same time she said she could never marry with out her mother's consent and if she did not marry this particular young man she would never marry any. That decided the young man to break the engagement and some years later married a jewel of a young woman. None of the children were at all like their mother in disposition but seeing the heart aches caused by her brother's disobedience caused her to sacrifice a happy married life with a home and children of her own. Yes I would love to meet and talk with you, I meet so few of my own boyhood friends and relatives. I have wondered off here in northwest Missouri not because I like it better than Nebraska but this is or has not been as healthy a country as Nebraska and consequently this has been a better place for a physician. We have 245 acres of fine Nebraska land and there is no mortgage on it neither is there on any thing we have.

I drove over to Maryville three weeks ago and spent a night with Bob. He wrote me he had fallen and fractured his leg and I went over at once to see him. He reports doing fine.

People here have been hit badly by this depression but here is much more confidence and we hope for better times but it is no secret that this as well as every other nation is in a serious condition.

I am remembering where Hugh's boys are in Kansas and I might be through their town some time and if so will stop and shake hands with them. I will be glad to hear from you when you find time to write. I have strung out a rather long letter and said very little.

Remember me to all the relatives you see.

Sincerely your cousin

F. H. Broyles.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - Bethany Republican Clipper, July 1933:

FAMILY OF DOCTORS WAS IN REUNION HERE SUNDAY

The spacious residence of Dr. and Mrs. F. H. Broyles on Oakland avenue was the scene of a happy reunion Sunday, when all of their children and grandchildren were present to enjoy a delicious dinner prepared by Mrs. Broyles.

Dr. Broyles, his two sons and daughter are all actively engaged in the practice of medicine. He received his medical education in Kansas City and proudly states that the first babies he brought into the world are a half century old this year. Dr. Glen H., who is located in Kansas City, has a large following in the city and is known as one of the prominent physicians there. Dr. Watkins has a general practice in Eagleville and the northern part of Harrison county. His place in the community is vital, as he is "Doc" to a large percentage of the citizens. Their sister, Dr. Elizabeth, has served as resident physician at Wellesley college in Massachusetts for eight years and has been reappointed to serve in this capacity for the ensuing five years.

Dr. Elizabeth received her higher education in the medical department of the university of Nebraska, while her brothers were students at the university of Kansas.

Mrs. Glen H. Broyles and son Lloyd of Kansas City, Mrs. Watkins Broyles and children Frances and Watkins Ramsey of Eagleville were also present for the dinner and reunion Sunday. Frances who attended high school in Bethany last winter, hopes to devote her life to the practice of medicine, according to an essay which she wrote in citizenship class. Lloyd and Watkins Ramsey have made no definite plans for their future.

LETTER FROM FRANKLIN HUNT BROYLES TO RACHEL SOPHIA (DEVAULT) MCLEAN - December 18, 1933

Dr. Franklin H. Broyles

Bethany, Missouri

December 18th, 1933.

Mrs Rachel Sophia McLean;-

Gobsonville, North Carolina,

My dear Cousin;-

Takeing people by surprise has always been a pleasure to me. In looking through an old album yesterday I found a picture of yours which you sent me more than fifty yeares ago. When looking at your picture, I just promised myself I would send you a surprise in the way of a short letter. If this reaches you, and you are interested enought to answer, I will be glad to write you a longer letter. I have done a great deal of letter writing during the past years, traceing the history of the DeVault family. I want our daughter to become a member of the D.A.R. and I am very sure have all necessary records which will give her triple record, through the McGrews, DeVault and Broyles families. This is all I am going to write at this time, for it may never reach you, nor interest you should be so fortunate as to reach you. I wish for you all the happiness and all the good things posible at the christmas time. The last letter received from you was written in 1883. Hope to heare from you. Your Cousin

F. H. Broyles

LETTER FROM FRANKLIN HUNT BROYLES TO RACHEL SOPHIA (DEVAULT) MCLEAN - February 19, 1934

Dr. Franklin H. Broyles

Bethany, Missouri

February 19th, 1934,

Mrs Sophia McLean,

Gibsonville, N,C,

My Dear Cousin;-

When I sent you a note some weeks ago, I hardly expected to ever heare from you, Do you remember it has been more than fifty yeares since a letter has passed between us, I believe I turned over correspondence over to one of my friends, and as we were soon separated I dont know how long that correspondence was kept up, I have had a few letters from you brother Frank, but we have not exchanged letters for a few months, I must write to him soon, It was through him I learned you had married, your name and where you are liveing, I want to assure you I was so pleased to receive your letter, but regretted to know how sorely sorrow has entered your home, After two people have lived to gather for so long, and one is taken the home never seemes the same, The children may do every thing hmanly posible but there is a place they cant fill in the home life, You have my deepest sympathy in the loss of both husband and son, I may have seen an account of your sons death, for four daily papers come to our home, but I am sure the DeVault part of his name was not given, Of course my experience in air plaines is limited, and I intend it shall remain so, Of course I see one or more plains every day, and the government is locateing a landing field here, but they have no special attraction for me, I know your children are a source of much pleasure, and especially so, since they are not far from you, If one of my boys had an aviator bee in his bonnet, I would do my best to knock it out, From Franks letters you brothers and sisters never wondered as far from the old home, as my brothers and sisters have, You wanted to know about my brothers and sisters,

My mother died while on a visit with sister Birdie in Monmouth Ill, in 1906, and was buried at Jonesboro Tenn, After her death father lived with the children, comeing and going at his pleasure, untill the infirmities of age farbade his doing so, Then he come here to us, and spent the rest of his life here, He died in 1927, at the age of 97 yeares, His mind was active and his eye sight good up to the time of his death, We took his body to Tenn, and buried him by mothers side, God never made two better people then they were,

Sister Mollie married a Prof Ballard, and they live in Knoxville Tenn, They never had but one child, who now is a widow, and lives with then, She has two daughters, both nurses, but one married a physician and lives in Penn, I believe, The other I think is unrseing [nursing] in Baltimore.

Bettie married Jacob Hunt, and moved to Oklahoma, They have three boys, One a lawyer in Tulsa Okla, and the other two farmers, Jake left Bettie well provided for, Their children are such they can be proud of, Jake died several yeares ago, He was considerable older than Bettie,

Birdie married Rev W.K.King, a presbyterian minister, and they live in N.Y. City, King is quite a noted preacher, They have one son, married and has two children, He is an electrical engineer/employed by some big firm in Cleveland, Ohio,

Robert married a Miss Crumley, Several yeares later moved to Nebr, and later to Maryville Mo, They raised a large family, but several of the children are dead, The others scattered, Their oldest daughter married a tailor and lives in Maryville, Mo, another daughter married the Secretary of the Nebraska Farmers Insurance Co, and lime in Omaha, One son is a surveyor and is with some highway development company, another son is principle of a school in Mo, and another is in business in Kansas, Will married a Miss Perryman [Tracy DeVault: This is a typo. Will married Julia Clements. The rest of the information about Will's wife is correct.] of St Louis, a very noted young woman, and they lived in Denver Colo, Some friends was visiting them, and she was going to take them for a drive over the city, and in some way fell on some stone steps, and was severly injures, internally, the trouble finally developing into a cancerous condition, which caused her death, in I think 1912, Her people were catholics, and she was an only child, and Will allowed them to bury her in a catholic cemetery in St. Louis, Will never recovered from her death, and finally give up his business and come to us, where he lingered a few yeares, and died in 1920, and I buried him in a beautiful Cemetery at Auburn Nebraska, He was a member of the Christian Church, and refused to be buried in a catholic cemetery, altho he worshiped his wife, They had no children.

Hubert married a Miss Perryman of Tulsa Okla, Is a presbyterian minister in Philadelphia, They have a nice home, Have one daughter who I think finishes college this yeare,

This briefly is the history of my brothers and sisters, We are so scattered we are not to gather very often, and some times are careless about our correspondence, Not that I do not do a lot of writing, I have been trying to trace our ancestry back to the revolutionary war, and have it completed, So if you or your children wish I can furnish them all the information to membership in the Sons or daughters of ther respective S.A.R. or D.A.R. A little more than a yeare ago I received a letter from a woman in Ills, saying a christmas card had come for her aunt Laura DeVault, with my name signed to it, and that she supposed I must be a friend of the family, That her aunt, uncle, father and grandparents were all dead, and that so far as she knew, she was the only liveing member of that family, and that if I knew the family, she would love to heare from me, We have had quite a correspondence, and had had, before I ever told her she and I were second cousins, I have written her pages of information, and sent her pictures of several of her cousins, your picture among the rest, Yes I had kept your picture all these yeares, The reason she knew nothing about the family, her grandmother had the meanest disposition of any woman I ever knew, and she did not want her son to marry the mother of this woman, not that there was any reason for him not doing so, except she just for some reason objected, but he did the right thing, and married to suit himself, and his mother never forgave him, and as she out lived his father (Who was your uncle Mike DeVault) - she disinherited him, and before her death fixed it so her property would to to a cemetery association,

I have said nothing of myself and family, but will in a future letter if I hear from you again, This letter is already too long,

We have had almost spring weather all winter, Not enough snow to cover the ground, and it has been a very healthy winter, which makes no money for physicions, and I am still in active practice, You say you are 68 yeares old, That is nothing, I am 74 yeares young, so I have you bested six yeares, If you want to listen to personalities, in a future letter I can tell you a good many things that have transpired in the last fifty yeares, There has been a lot of water ran under the bridge of life during thise yeares, I am going to stop now, If this letter does not tire you out write again, for I want to heare from you, With the best posible good wishes, and a prayer for

God to bless you and yours, I am,

Your Cousin,

F. H. Broyles

LETTER FROM FRANKLIN HUNT BROYLES TO SOPHIA MCLEAN - J

Dr. Franklin H. Broyles

Bethany, Missouri

une 25, 1924

Mrs Sophia McLean

Gibsonville, N.C.

My Dear Cousin Sophia:-

Your letter of the 21st' just received and I hasten to express to you and your family my deepest sympathy, in the loss of a son, brother and husband, at a time of such sorrow there is after all so little one can say or do, but it is always some pleasure to know there are those who are feeling deeply for you in time of sorrow, I have such a horrow of air planes, and have never indulged in thay way of traveling but once, and have no desire to indulge farther, The necessity for doing so, would certainally have to be very urgent, Just such tragedies should compell people to make preperation to meet their God, and what a comefort it is to you to know David had made this preperation, When we read of so much sin in the world, and see how many people are rushing on to meet their God, all unprepared, it is enough to make ones blood stand still, It seems you have had more than your portion of sorrow in the space of a few months, but remember cousin, God will take care of you, and if you keep the faith, some day you will be reunited with those you have loved and lost for a little while, My prayer is that God will give you strength to meet every sorrow, I will answer your letter soon, Our daughter, Dr, Elizabeth Broyles, and our garndaughter Frances Broyles, left Boston Mass, in their car Friday noon, and we are expecting them to drive in this evening, May God Bless you,

Your cousin,

F. H. Broyles.

OBITUARY - The Maryville Daily Forum, 28 May 1942

ROBERT S. BROYLES, DIES AT HOME IN MARYVILLE

Robert Summerfield Broyles, 79 years of age, died at 5:30 o'clock this morning at his home, 521 South Market street. He had been in failing health the past three years and had been confined to his bed since the first of the year.

Mr. Broyles, who was born May 26, 1863, in Washington county, Tenn., the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Andrew C. Broyles, had resided in this city since 1917. For several years he was in charge of a dry cleaning business here.

He was married August 29, 1886, to Miss Ella May Crumley, who died in December, 1936. Mr. Broyles was a member of the Methodist church.

Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. Winifred Turner, Sacramento, Calif., and Mrs. Lucile Millington, Trumbull, Neb., three sons, W. S. Broyles, Miami, Okla., Robert A. Broyles, Maryville and E. H. Broyles, Poplar Bluff, Mo., and four grandchildren.

Burial will be in the Miriam Cemetery but other funeral arrangements have not been completed.