Daddygrand’s (E. R. Nash Jr’s) family –
Mitchell Nash (brother of E. R. Jr.) and Maude:
Son – Joe Mitchell Nash
Daughter – Eugenia Nash
Daughter – Frances Marie Nash Orand
Alma and Joseph Mitchell:
Son -Bud Mitchell and Helen
John Nash and Lucille Durham:
Sons: John, Charles, (son who died), Reuel
Elihu Reuel Nash, Sr. was married to Frances Mitchell Nash. They lived in Hearne, Texas when E.R. Nash Jr. was born.
It seems that E.R. Nash Sr. was always interested in architecture and in building.
After their first son was born – E.R. Nash Sr. and his wife moved to Waco and built a beautiful Victorian home across from Sanger Elementary School which was eventually photographed and listed in books for its beauty and Victorian Period authenticity. It was inherited by their daughter Alma Nash Mitchell and she lived in it until she passed away. Elihu Reuel Nash Jr. married Louise Harris Higginbotham and they built a home on Morrow, a block from ER Nash Senior.
E.R. Nash Sr. and John Robinson founded Nash-Robinson Hardware in Waco. E. R. Nash Jr. worked at the Nash-Robinson family-owned lumber yard and later became the president of the company.
Elihu Reuel Nash, Sr. became good/best friends with Josephine’s grandfather Warwick Hoxey Jenkins in Waco. They and their families belonged to the First Baptist Church there.
Josephine told me that they were both delighted when Horace and Josephine became engaged and were to unite their families through marriage. On the day of their wedding a huge rainstorm hit Waco. It stormed all day and it was not looking like it would slow down or stop anytime soon. Both men went into the basement of the church and prayed – asking God to slow or stop the rain before the wedding – and HE did. Afterward they felt pretty sheepish that they had been so brazen.
When it was decided that a new and larger church should be built E. R. Nash Sr. either designed or had the idea of the round dome on the church. Warwick Hoxey Jenkins, a lawyer, was the head of the Deacons in the church for years and E R Nash, Sr. was the church treasurer until his son took over the position which he also held for years.
After her mother and father passed away Louise Higginbotham Nash gave the First Baptist Church in Waco a million dollars.
It was not long after she married and moved to Waco that Grandmother began the Louise Nash Sunday School Class of women which she taught for years and years (I remember the fiftieth anniversary!). The women were very loyal and worked on many projects – collecting clothing for missionary projects, food for those in need, and then more fun projects like putting together and publishing small cook books “Our Choice Salads,” “The Cookie Jar” etc. (I have copies of these two.)
One of the biggest parties the class enjoyed was the annual Christmas party at the home of Louise Nash on Morrow. It was in the form of a tea reception with entertainment like people playing the piano or singing. There were always these beautiful small iced cookies that she served along with hot apple cider, hot spiced tea, and other delicacies on a beautiful seasonally decorated dining room table. Several years I sang carols and special Christmas songs for them.
Alice Louise’s grandmother – Hattie Louise Higginbotham rode on the train to go and visit her cousins and family in Maine in August of 1930. She rode to New York and then changed trains to go up to Maine. She died on the train on August 8, 1930. Her body was shipped back to Waco where the funeral was held in the First Baptist Church. Alice Louise was so emotional over the death and the funeral that when she and Arlis planned to get married in September she did not want to go back and get married in the church so close in time to the funeral. So they decided to marry at home at Alice Louise’s parents’ house. After the wedding they moved to Nashville so that Arlis could attend medical school at Vanderbilt. (It must have been a “party school” then as well because that is where Arlis started drinking.) Later as her marriage to Arlia was breaking up she felt that the decision NOT to be married in the church perhaps contributed or may have “jinxed” her marriage. (Years later Alice Louise and Ruth accompanied by Louise and Alice took a similar but less fatal train trip to New York and finally to Maine to visit our relatives who ran a rustic motel in the woods near a skiing area. Even though it was summer I recall needing and having a fire every evening for warmth. In New York Alice Louise and Ruth went to see a Broadway show while I stayed with Alice in the hotel room. Mother took me to an afternoon show that was more appropriate for me, she thought – a musical which I enjoyed.)
Alice Louise and Arlis met at Baylor in the twenties. Arlis was named for the movie star George Arlis who was quite popular in the teens and early twenties and on whom Mammy (whose name was Minnie Mae Pass) had a crush. Arlis came from Temple, or, really, outside Temple on a farm where the family grew crops and sold milk and butter from their cows. Papa, as we called him, (his real name was James Wilson Mosley) got up before dawn and went to the barn to milk the cows.
Mother’s major was in English literature which she studied with Dr. Armstrong who later inspired the new English building at Baylor and the Robert Browning library and collection there. She also took elementary education classes under Dr. Lorene Stretch.(When I attended Baylor Dr. Stretch was still teaching and I took classes from her at my mother’s insistence. I was most disconcerted about her insistence that we take notes from her notes that she read verbatim, one of which was that material should NOT be memorized which, of course, she demanded on her tests!), After dating Arlis, who was a pre-med student, Mother took some pre-med classes so that she would be familiar with terminology and medical practice.
Arlis’s major strength was in chemistry and he was asked by the faculty to teach/lead the labs for the underclassmen. Mother told me of the delightful parties they went to during their courtship and also the dates to Cameron Park on the Brazos River. After they both graduated they decided to marry so that they could go together to Nashville where Arlis attended and graduated from the medical school there at Vanderbilt University. It was the 30’s with the Depression and money was difficult to come by for books, so mother copied the medical books that Arlis needed by hand. The university in Nashville was and is still known as a “party school.” Mother told me that this is when Arlis started drinking.
During the time spent in medical school in Nashville Alice Louise hand copied Arlis’ medical books. At the time they could not afford to purchase them. She had beautiful hand writing. The books were kept but after the divorce and during the move she gave the books to Nettie Ernst for her daughter whom Nettie said was planning to enter medical school., however, she never did go to medical school and I do not know what happened to them. Nettie Ernst was given much of the furniture that Mother could not move or did not want because of its emotional association with Arlis – like the half-teaster bed (which fell on him one boisterous night), his dresser, and other items. Nettie was from New Orleans and was married to a railroad engineer who lived on the outskirts of Victoria. Arlis had been her doctor and had helped her medically to conceive her daughter. She was enormously grateful and sought Mother’s friendship. When I was in college she took me to New Orleans and showed me the French Quarter. I have a picture taken with her in one of the night spots with “Hurricane” glasses on the table.
After he finished medical school, they moved to New York City where Arlis was to finish his medical training at Columbia University and its hospital. He worked through the Columbia University hospital to test the diphtheria vaccine on prisoners in the state prison. The prisoners who volunteered were paid. During this assignment Arlis accidently got a needle stick and became sick with Diphtheria. Mother nursed him back to health. He then took the vaccine and recovered. Of course, at this time the Depression was in full swing.
One night the preacher came to visit just as they were sitting down for their supper. Alice Louise just picked up the table cloth with the food and all and moved it to the kitchen. They didn’t have enough to share. Shortly after that Alice Louise cashed a $100 check just before the banks closed entirely. They and three other couples lived on that $100 for a month.
Wilson Higginbotham and his wife Harmo Taylor were living in New York at the time. Wilson was working for his father in the clothing trade. Their oldest child –Mary Jane was born there. Alice Louise was invited several times to their home and wanted me to be like Mary Jane, who was later a President of the Junior League of Dallas, a trained Docent who led tours at the Dallas Museum of Arts, a writer of family history, and an altogether lovely and intelligent mother and individual.
Alice Louise and Arlis lived in a small apartment in the city. Of course the Depression was even worse in New York City. One evening as they sat down to their meager canned-goods dinner, there was a knock at the door – it was the pastor of the church they attended. Mother just picked up the tablecloth with all the food on it and move it into the kitchen area and then invited the pastor in. (Of course he had come especially hoping to be invited for dinner)
Alice Louise and Arlis loved going to the opera when they could get tickets and also to plays on Broadway, but opera was Arlis’ favorite. Just before the banks closed Mother cashed a $100 check – she was one of the last ones to get cash. Four couples lived on the $100 for a month! They now were focused on moving back to Texas where one could more easily find work and food.
As soon as possible Arlis and Alice Louise returned to Texas from New York. They moved to Goliad in South Texas where Elihu and Louise Nash helped Arlis financially to set up an office. He also worked as the doctor for the WPA (CCC) camp set up by the government to help out-of-work men. Later during WWII this same camp was used for German POWs and Arlis was their doctor as well. He spoke German as well as Spanish and it is said five languages.
Bobby (Robert Arlis Mosley Jr.), their first child, was born in Beeville which actually had a small hospital. He had trouble breathing so a tube was placed to help him and a special nurse was hired to watch him constantly to prevent slippage. The nurse, however, was a smoker, and left to go outside for a smoke. By the time she returned Bob had turned blue and was near death. He was revived, however, and the nurse was subsequently fired.
Alice Louise wanted another child but was advised NOT to have one because of her diabetes. She got pregnant again and had a miscarriage. After the miscarriage she then got pregnant again, against the doctor’s orders, and Mae Louise was born also in the Beeville hospital. She was named for both grandmothers because she was the first girl born on either side. Louise was born by Cesarean Section after Alice Louise had eaten a can of beans which gave her a terrible gall bladder attack. Louise had to be taken in order for the doctors to get to Alice Louise’s gall bladder. Louise’s thymus gland, however, did not disengage (dry up) as it was supposed to so Arlis hired an ambulance and held her upside down as the ambulance rushed to San Antonio to the Nix Hospital where an x-ray machine was used to dry up/eradicate the thymus gland.
Both Alice Louise and Louise stayed in the hospital for a time. After they both came home Arlis had a nurse come to give me a large shot of vitamins and iron. I could be heard screaming for at least a block. The large amount of iron turned my baby teeth green and that green stayed near the gums until my permanent teeth came in.
While the two of us were still in the hospital Arlis hired a woman to cook and help Alice Louise who was still healing from her Cesarean Section . Arlis examined the prospective cook carefully to make sure that she had no contagious diseases. She was married and brought with her her husband. Arlis did NOT examine him. Much later it was found out (too late) that he did not have TB but that he was a “carrier” of the disease after Alice Louise and Louise both contracted it. (Louise contracted it from Alice Louise.) Alice Louise was taken to a TB sanitarium in west Texas and Bob and Louise were taken to Waco by Grandmother and Daddygrand. Arlis stayed in Goliad for a time.
The TB spread through Alice Louise’s right lung and into part of the left lung. She had to have an operation to entirely remove the right lung and to also remove the diseased part of the left lung. Of course for the rest of her life she had a long scar and indentation down the right side of her back. After the long recuperation from the disease and the operation she was fitted with a large heavy polished leather device that held her upper body from under her breasts to below her waist and laced to fit tightly like a waist cincher/long-line bra. The leather was polished almost like a saddle. This helped her until her muscles could be built up to hold up her body.
Soon after (I am not sure of the timing as I was just a young child) Arlis came to Waco on a visit to see Bob and me and he discovered that I, too, had TB. Arlis took me back and hired a nurse to take care of me. The nurse and I were taken to our bay house so that I could recuperate from the disease there.
Arlis during this time closed his practice in Goliad and sought a job in Victoria which had a hospital. He rented a small home there when Alice Louise was no longer contagious and could leave the sanitarium. Daddygrand and Grandmother brought the children down to Victoria and the rented house. There is a picture of most of the Nash family with the Mosley family on the side of this rented house by some tall blooming poinsettia plants with Alice Louise in one of her robes. Alice Louise slept in a hospital bed in her own bedroom until we moved to Grandmother’s house in Waco after the divorce. She also boiled her dishes after every meal from the time she returned to the family until Bob and I left Waco.
During the Depression The Nashes lost a great deal of money in the stork market. To recoop some of the losses Daddygrand bought a cow which they kept in the back yard to furnish milk for the children and bought a 100 or 500 LB. sack of rice. The family had rice for EVERY meal along with vegetables and a soup-like meat substance to go on it. (Later Alice Louise wondered if that were the start of her body developing diabetes.)
–Louise Mosley Smith
E R Nash Sr. and Family 