Nancy (Johnson) Brown's Trip to California, 1895

©  Kathy Duncan, 2025

After sorting through newspaper clippings, I have come to the conclusion that when Elizabeth Jane (Johnson) Selvy and her sister Nancy (Johnson) Brown were reunited in 1895, after 34 years, they must have been corresponding with each other on a regular basis during all of those years. In 1894, Nancy Brown of Weldon, Illinois, knew that her sister Elizabeth Selvy and her sons were living in Gallup, New Mexico. Here's how I connected the dots.

The first dot includes Nancy Brown's sons, Joel Herbert Brown and Isaac Sherman Brown, had gone to California to seek adventure and new opportunities in the late 1880s. Sherman and Herbert Brown were mostly loggers or woodmen. Herbert, aka J. H. Brown, wrote long letters describing California and the loggers' camps. Those letters were mostly published in the Dewitt County, Illinois newspapers, but at least two were published in the newspaper at Selma, California. 

After several years, J. H. Brown had his fill of roughing it in California and headed east. He wrote a letter from Albuquerque, New Mexico, on 26 October 1894 that was published by the Weldon, Illinois, newspaper. In that letter, he detailed his arrival at his first stop in Gallup, New Mexico. He described it as a division of the Atlantic and Pacific railroad and as a mining town. He noted that even though the sky was clear, the odor of coal burning and the sight of its black smoke were the first things he noticed. Then he visited the "Sunshine" mine, which he described this way:

"Arriving at the base of a sand stone mountain we entered the opening of the slope and descended gradually, walking along side of a steel laid track. I had been furnished with miners caps and lamps, and in company with an old miner friend we soon left the light of day and plunged into darkness; so dense that I begin to feel that I was lost to all the world except my cousin. I think I appreciated his company more than any one I ever knew at that moment. Our little lamps only penetrated the gloomy tunnel with its ribs of staunch timbers, for a few feet ahead we would hear the rumble of a train of coal cars coming down the slope, and I would flatten myself like a flap jack against the cool walls of the tunnel. I guess my cousin laughed, but it was too dark for me to appreciate the initiative joke of taking a man from the 'fruit vine, and alfalfa belt, down into the abdomen of New Mexico and hugging a wall while a train of coal cars had passed you in the dark at the rate of a thousand miles an hour' so it sounded to a man in the dark." -  The Weldon Record, Weldon, Illinois; 2 November 1894.

J. H. Brown's cousin was probably either George W. Selvy Jr. or his brother Lee Selvy. Both of them worked as coal miners before working for railroads.

Obviously, J. H. Brown knew he had an aunt and cousins in Gallup when he headed there. In a time when staying at hotels and eating out were expensive, people headed to where they knew they had family. Often, they just turned up on a relative's doorstep, where they were offered a place to stay and a meal. It's impossible to know if Herbert Brown surprised the Selvys or if he was expected.

The second dot - A little over a month after J.H. Brown's letter was published, his cousin Cabe Selvy and wife visited John DeLoss and Nancy (Johnson) Brown in Weldon, DeWitt County, Illinois. Albuquerque was such a foreign place that the newspaper spelled it phonetically: "Abbey Kirk." 

The arrival of Cade Selvy and his wife, Mary Bailey, was probably a welcome diversion for the Brown family as they ending a difficult year. Their beloved daughter, Catherine E. "Kate" Brown died on 18 April 1894 after a long illness and a valiant fight to save her life. 

On 5 January, 1895, the Weekly Citizen of Albuquerque, New Mexico, noted that Cade and Mary Selvy had returned from DeWitt County, Illinois. 

 

The third dot - On 12 April 1895, Nancy Brown departed for a trip to California by way of New Mexico. John Deloss Brown accompanied her as far as Chicago. All of their daughters were married by this time, so it is doubtful that any of them accompanied her. 

The following day, the Albuquerque Daily Citizen reported Nancy Brown's reunion with her sister Elizabeth Jane Selvy. This is also the first reference that I have that her son J. H. Brown had gone to work for the A & P Railroad. Evidently, coal mining was not for him. My guess is that Cade Selvy, who worked for the A & P,  helped Herbert Brown get this job.

The son in Fresno that Nancy was going to visit was probably Sherman, who lived near Selma, California. 

After Nancy reached California, she wrote a letter to J. H. Brown, who responded with a letter of his own. That letter was published in the Selma Enterprise on 17 August 1895. Mostly, it described witnessing a faith healer who had arrived in Albuquerque after Nancy left and who was so popular that wagonloads of people were flocking into the area to see him.

The fourth dot - By late September, Nancy Brown was headed home. On 20 September 1895, The Clinton Public predicted that Nancy Brown would be home by 25 September 1895.

The Mrs. Dick Greenwood who had returned from Iowa was John D. and Nancy Brown's daughter, Carrie Viola Brown, who married Richard Greenwood in the summer of 1894.

The same newspaper noted on 27 September 1895, that John DeLoss Brown had gone to Chicago to meet Nancy's train. I'd be willing to bet that they spent some time with their daughters, Mary Ellen Miller and Minnie Norfleet, in Springfield, and that they both went to the state fair.

Nancy brought several souvenirs back from her trip: a redwood tree branch, an Indian bow and arrow, an Indian basket, and a photo of the "Great Healer."

 

The fifth dot - The Great Healer? Like the fanatical faith healer J. H. Brown had described in his letter? The "Great Healer" turned up in a quick Google search. He was a German named Francis Schlatter, who was visiting the little villages south of Albuquerque in the late summer of 1895. Crowds began flocking into Albuquerque's Old Town, hoping to be healed. Then he abruptly moved on to Denver. The photograph that Nancy brought back from her trip was probably like this one:

The sixth dot - One last tantalizing newspaper clipping turned up in my search. On 27 October 1895, George Selvy, the thirteen-year-old son of Cade, was at the depot to meet his grandmother, who was coming in from the west. 

At that time, young George F. Selvy had two living grandmothers: Elizabeth J. (Johnson) Selvy and Ellen (Briggs) Bailey. Elizabeth is the only one I am sure was living in New Mexico. Was she expected from Gallup or from further west? Did she go with Nancy to California and stay longer than Nancy?