Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1900-03-27
WORK AND REWARD.
MIS-. Nancy p. Reeder Asks the Fulfill
ment of a Promise on the Strength
Of Which She Toiled Fifteen Years.

MIS-. Nancy P. Reeder Asks the Fulfill
ment of a Promise on the Strength
Of Which She Toiled Fifteen Years.
Almost unusual and interesting story
| out in the trial of the cause Nancy
p. Reeder VS.. the estate of Henry
Clay Norris, o in progress in the
Wayne circuit court on a change of
venue from Henry county. The
plaintiff wants to ecoyer money and
property alleged to be due her. and
If she be in any degree a prototype
of the county she represents, she
will get all she asks, and more
In 1867 there came from West Vir-
ginia to northern Henry county a
young man named Henry Clay Morris.
he was a bachelor, an ex-Confederate
soldier, was "a years old and pos
sessed some means. He engaged for
a decade or so in mercantile pursuits
and saved his money so carefully
that by 1877 he owned 240 acres of
terra firma and had money u on in
terest- About that time he began
making his home with Zimri Reeder,
. young married man to whom his
bachelor fancy had turned, and who
lived on a rented farm adjoining the
$40 acre tract. He continued his
home with Reeder and his constantly
augmented family till 1884, when
the man of the house died, leaving
the widow twenty six years old and
the mother of five children, the eldest
seven Years and the youngest one
month old. Still the friend of the
late husband continued to reside with
the family whose home had been his.
Not long after the,death of Reeder, who
! had owned a farm as well as renting
!, one, and who had left the widow
fairly well provided for besidesi in the
way of children, Morris made
|, a proposition to her like this: IF
! you viii remain single, let me make
my home in your house. make ahome
: for me and take care of me while /
live, III give you all my property,
which consists of 200 acres of land
and about IS, 900 to SO, 600 of money
on interest"
|. Qt is necessary to explain here
!. that in the meantime the widow had
purchased 40 of Clay's broadcast acres,
and was about to build a house
thereon.)
{ The young widow accepted this
, proposition, went ahead and built heI
: new house and the strange partner
ship began. And now We ladies' who
are worked to death with two Dorcas
society meetings per week and SUI
p~erintending the hired girl, prepare
} to know what labor is: This woman
2 took car of her five little children
washing, ironing, mending, sewing
. nursing, baking, spanking and all
: besides which light task she helped
: pick and burn brush, saw wood, feed
the large herds of stock, make rail
road ties, make hay, hoe corn, GU
Y and husk ditto, milk, cook for hiret
5 hands taking the practical superin
t tendency and leadership of the entire
work on both farms her own anG
q that of her protege. The latter fell
: it his duty, evidently, to see that sh.
: earned the estate he had promised
her. He would acquire a burden O
drunkenness whenever opportunity
! offered, and when in that condi
ton he would ''throw up things
! to the young MISUNDERSTANDING
things that demanded the -ervic q
a broom and a scrub rag; he would
get her up at all hours of the nigh,
! to do these unwholesome duties o.
to brew him acup of coffee; she would
, have to cook him meals at any anC
= all hours of the day or night; sh.
? would remove his muddy boots from
q his feet after he had gone to bed with
them on when In a state of alcoholic
pickle; she would cut his meat fol
him at the table, would feed him like
a child, would treat him as she would
have treated an insane or an incom
= petent father, whenever the cranky
> bachelor had or feigned any illness
/ Besides, she had to wash, mend, iror
4 and clean up after this man, whose
personal habits were not exactly
{ fastidious. Usually he chewed whole
{ Jaw-fulls of tobacco, whose liquid ex
{ tract he squirted like a babcock ovel
beds, carpets, rugs or ANYTHING else
that lay in the same direction as his
I nose when his facial fush-tank was
ready to give up its charge. In 1877
she removed to the tollgate just
S north of New Castle on the Muncit
!, and Summitville pike. She and hel
family remained there one year and
Mr.. Morris lived with them. He
went back with them to the farm in
/, 1883. He treated the children as
I his own, and was kind in his
l way. The widow and children of his
; dead friend, all Industrious and
, hustllng, continued to the
! work on that big tract of land COM
l prising the two farms. Mrs. Reeder
even took Mr.. Morris's personal check
| at his request, went to Muncie,
! cashed the check, brought home the
money and paid the hands.
This sort of motherly or rather
daughterly care on the part of Mrs.
Reeder continued for fifteen years.
There were advantageous opportuni-
ties for marriage in the meantime,
but the widow was rue to her prom
Use, both in remaining single and in
making the old man a home. H.
Clay would writeon a slate s'$2O, OOO''
and show it to her too ardent suitors,
signifying that sum as the other al
tentative of Mrs. Reeder if she let
the applicant slide. He invariably
slid, as that was more than the self
appraised valuation of any of the
seekers after matrimonial alliance:
while Norris 200 acres worth $50
per, and his nearly SIC, 900 on inter
est, was a formidable rival.
Last April "a, Mr.. Morris returned
from Muncie in a state of intoxica-
ton that was appalling. He had pre-
vlousiy had delirium tremens, through
which Mrs. Reeder had uncomplain-
ingly nursed him. but this time he
Was in a worse state than ever He