The Nineteenth Child: Nelle

Nelle and Wilson Clark

Nellie "Nelle" TURPIN was born 20 July 1893 on her parent's homestead in Rock County, Nebraska shortly after her father’s death.  She was the last child in Newt and Mary Ellen’s family.

She was nine years old before her mother remarried.  James Estlack became her step-father and the family, with only Nelle and Newtie at home, then moved to Haigler in Dundy County in western Nebraska. 

Nelle married Wilson Clark on 19 April 1919.  Wilson was born 24 Oct 1897 on his parents’ homestead outside Stratton, Nebraska in Hitchcock County.  His parents were Percy Bennet Clark (1865-1938) and Alta Estella Price (1874-1963).

Willowdale Cemetery

In June 2010 I drove up to Rock County, Nebraska to visit the Willowdale Cemetery north of Newport.  This is where Newt Turpin is buried.   His tombstone is marked with a Masonic emblem which I had not noticed years ago when I was there.

 

It's amazing to me that this is my great grandfather.  He was born 190 years ago!  But my grandfather Will Turpin was one of the youngest of his 19 children.  Newt's oldest was Thomas Benton Turpin, born in 1843, who died of measles while serving for the Union in the Civil War.  His youngest was Nelle Turpin, born in 1893, who married Wilson Clark and lived in Stratton, Hitchcock County, Nebraska.  Nelle died in 1966 in Denver, Colorado.