Nancy Ethel Gearhart
1871-1959
1900 Census (#104)
1910 Census (#101)
1920 Census (#111)
1930 Census (#100)
Rowan Co. Marriages 24 Aug 1892 (http://tpettit.best.vwh.net/rowan/grooms/marr-H2.html#Han-table)
Mentioned on William Norvel Hargis death certificate #20496
(#250)
Nancy's funeral memorial card (#303)
Nancy Hargis letter to daughter 1945
(#306)
(#306A)
Death Certificate (#368)
Nancy (Gearhart ) Hargis lived most of her life in Rowan County, Kentucky. She moved to Mesa, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, in the 1950's. There she lived with her son Jack Hargis and daughters Avonelle and Eugenia. She died there on 24 Oct 1959. Nancy was buried in Brown Cemetery, Rowan County, Kentucky.
Family Stories
Nancy Gearhart was working as a cook for logging crews who floated logs down the
Licking River to the saw mills. William Norvel Hargis worked as a crew member,
floating logs. That is how they met. Nancy was 1/2 Cherokee
Indian who took the name Gearhart. She may have never lived with her Gearhart
parent? She was probably from North Carolina. She had a brother named John. (info
from grandson,
Jack Hargis, 2007).
Nancy Gearhart lived with her Indian mother for some period of time and her
mother taught her how to use herbs and teas to heal people. Throughout her life
she was the local healer and midwife, using the knowledge she had learned from
her Indian mother. (info from granddaughter, Peggy Philhower, 2007).
Nancy never lived with her Gearhart father. She was raised by a family named
Ellington. She had brothers John and Billy. She was part Indian.(Vernon Hargis
2007)
