Caroline Brown Nevins 1873-1960

For some reason, Gammy Nevins has been on my mind. To the general public she was Caroline (Carrie) Brown Nevins, but to us she was Gammy.  My mother's grandmother died on New Year's Day 1960 and I have only a very few personal memories of her. Her records have been a bit elusive and I only have one census record from 1892  showing her in the same house with her father William S. Brown (Grampie Brown).  The New England Historic Genealogy Society dug that record up for me and I am very grateful to them for it.  Finally it occurred to me that perhaps they didn't spend that much time together. So, here's a story for you. Much of it is conjecture based on half-educated guessing and some of it is based in fact. Who knows??

Caroline's father was William S. Brown (Our grandmother always called him "Grampie Brown" so I do too). Grampie Brown came to the United States from England in 1845 as a very young boy. He wasn't quite 2 years old yet when his family arrived. Two of his younger siblings were born in the Albany area before the family found its way to Buffalo New York. William W. Brown (Dad) was a blacksmith. I believe he may have worked as a blacksmith along the Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo since the trip seemed to take at least 3 years, perhaps a bit longer. The family settled in Buffalo and basically remained there.

Just about a year after Grampie Brown returned from his Civil War service, he married Mary Burrows in Buffalo. At this time, Grampie Brown may have been a teamster  but in later years he also worked at the lumber yard and as a guard at the Penitentiary.

Caroline S. Brown was born Oct 12 1873, after about 6 years of marriage. She was apparently the only child of William and Mary Brown. This was a bit unusual for the time but I suspect that her mother Mary may not have been terribly healthy. The "S" middle initial for William and for Caroline in unclear in origin. Carrie, as she was called, might have been Caroline Summer(s) Brown. It was during this time period that I believe Grampie Brown worked in the lumber yards. He was not healthy either as he suffered from catarrh (as far as I can tell, this is a very severe stuffy nose/post nasal drip condition); rheumatism and "disease of heart and digestive organs"--this information was gleaned from his Civil War pension request records.

In September of 1879, Carrie's grandfather William W. the blacksmith dies. She is about 6 years old but I imagine the families were close. Just a few months later, in April 1880, her mother dies of "dropsy" (heart failure) in her early 40s. Grampie Brown is now left a widow with a young child and his father gone.

Grampie may have had no choice but to have young Carrie live in an orphanage. The situation at the Buffalo Protestant Orphan Asylum was rather grim for the 6 year old Carrie Brown in residence in 1880. Children such as Carrie may have been placed there by family members who agreed to pay a stipend for care. There was serious overcrowding and sanitary conditions were abysmal. The playground was a small patch covered in gravel. Education was, however, provided. Some children were placed with other families.

Grampie Brown remarried in 1882 and you can see by this Family Search New York State census record that Carrie resided with her father and her stepmother in 1892.  By 1900 when she was about 27 years old, Carrie Brown was a servant in a home in Ellicottville. My mother always said Gammy Nevins "never worked a day in her life", but I think she may have worked pretty hard in the years before she met and married Henry Nevins. Henry was a lawyer in Ellicottville at this time and they married in 1901. Isn't it funny how what goes around, comes around--or father worked in Ellicottville some 70 years later?

I've been told that Gammy Nevins had an electric car, which must have been kind of unusual "back in the day". My grandmother told me that her mother would take to her bed when she didn't fee like company and that her dad would take all seven children on Sunday afternoon picnics so she could rest. Gammy only took responsibility for the children's health. Every other decision was in the "ask your father" category.

This picture may have been taken in the early 1920s--maybe about 1922, making Carrie almost 50. She looks older, don't you think? Amazing how bearing and raising seven children will age your looks.