Nellie Meacham FIELDS

  General Notes:

Photo: In this original, vintage photo--gift to DeeAnna in 1965 from Bonnie Darr Fields, 1882-1967--are the Fields sisters. Left to right, are Nellie, Bonnie, Grace, Harriet and Bessie. Bonnie and Bessie were twins.

Photo from DeeAnna Allum Granston


1875 BIRTH of Nellie Meacham Fields

The 1900 census documents "June 1875" as Nellie's month and year of birth. Her 1960 Minnesota death certificate provides "June 23, 1875". Her gravemarker reads "1876".

Verifying 1875 as Nellie's year of birth is a document within her father Alexander's Civil War pension file. (See "Alexander Teagarden Fields, Civil War Pension, 3 of 7"). However, it leaves another discrepancy: Was Nellie's exact date of birth June 23 (death certificate) or June 26 (pension document)? I have used June 23 in this online file, but the exact date could easily have been June 26.

1878 DEATH of grandmother, Mary Ann (Teagarden) Fields

1880 CENSUS, Iowa, Iowa County, Hartford Township, Ladora (June 11) ("Nellie M.," age 4, is with her parents)

1885 CENSUS, Iowa State Census, Jasper County, Colfax (no specific date) ("Nellie Field," age 8, is with her parents)

1886 DEATH of mother, S. Emma L. (Meacham) Fields

1893 MARRIAGE of father Alexander and stepmother Margaret

1895 CENSUS, Iowa State Census, Jasper County, Colfax (no specific date) ("Nellie M. Fields," age 19, born in Iowa County, Iowa)

1900 CENSUS, Iowa, Polk County, Beaver Township, Mitchellville (June 5) ("Nellie M.," age 24, "At School," is with her father Alex and stepmother Margaret)

1902 DEATH (approximate) of grandfather, Lewis Fields

1904 DEATH of father, Alexander Teagarden Fields

1905 CENSUS, Iowa State Census, Polk County, Beaver Township, Mitchellville (no specific date) ("Nellie M. Fields") (names only are in the 1905 Iowa State Census)

1910 CENSUS, Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minneapolis (April 18) (Nelle, age 34, "Teacher, Public School") ("Nillie" in some census indexes)

1920 CENSUS, Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minneapolis (January 3) ("Nellie M.," age 43, "Teacher, School")

1930 CENSUS, Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minneapolis (April 17) ("Nellie M.," age 54, "Principal, Public School")

1960 DEATH, Nellie Meacham Fields at 84 years 7 months 6 days



SIGNATURE (Nellie): From her sentiment in her sister Hattie's autograph book

OCCUPATION: "Nellie was a principal in the city schools of Minneapolis, Minnesota for 35 years and taught school in Anaheim, California for 26 years." --Bonnie Darr Fields (1882-1967)

LOCATIONS: Iowa; Minnesota; California

CHURCH AFFILIATION: Methodist

BURIAL: Colfax Cemetery, Colfax, Jasper County, Iowa, Oak Hill Section, Plot 144



BOOK: GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF DESCENDANTS OF ABRAHAM TEAGARDEN, From Arrival in America, Including European Background, by Helen Elizabeth Vogt, published 1967, page 341, regarding Nellie Meacham Fields:

"Attended Cornell College in Iowa, graduated Iowa State Teachers College; M. A., University of Minnesota; studied at University of Chicago. Taught in Iowa public schools, then moved to Minnesota where she was Minneapolis Elementary School Principal many years. Retired in 1956, living with a companion, and in Santa Monica in the winter with her sisters, Bonnie and Harriet. Named for Eleanor (Nellie) Tea-. Craft near whom they lived in Iowa. Sandy hair, blue eyes, small-boned, compact and energetic."



VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPHS, gifts to DeeAnna in 1965 from Bonnie Darr Fields (1882-1967):

See photos described in Alexander Teagarden Fields section of genealogy

Gravestone of Nellie M. Fields at Colfax City Cemetery, Colfax, Jasper County, Iowa, inscribed as follows:

NELLIE M. FIELDS
June 23, 1876
Jan. 19, 1960

Nellie married.