Fanny May Nelson

Fanny May Nelson was born in Mocksville, North Carolina 15 May 1853 to David Porter Nelson and Pauline Rice. Her father was a minister, her mother a teacher. They lived for a short while in Cairo, Illinois before moving to Texas. They lived in Guadalupe and Gonzales Counties. Her mother taught and strove for better education of Texas children, she worked along beside her after she got old enough.

Her marriage to Pleas Ripley is recorded in Wilson County, Texas . They married the 13th of October 1872. They moved to San Antonio where he became an attorney and she continued to teach. They had seven children, 4 died early, but the other three kept me in their lives until their deaths and hers.

Vivia and her daughter Cecile made four generations of teachers starting with Fannie's mother. She was active in several fraternal orders and societies and was given several awards for my service to them.

Her 87th birthday was a big to do. The Alamo Post No. 2 of the American Legion crowned her Queen mother on Mothers Day. At the time she was the oldest member of the Chapter of American War Mothers and still teaching!

Her first child, Vivia died of liver cancer in 1936. It was such a shock. She wrote to Vivia's son in California about the quickness of it all (1,2,3,4). Her son Roy died of Brights disease in 1922 after serving his county in World War I in France. Her daughter Janie was the only one that survived her. She lived until 9 April 1950 and was buried in the Nelson-Ripley cemetery plot of the Confederate Cemetery in San Antonio.

Images with utsa in the file name are from the John M. Steinfeldt Family Papers, 1819-1993, MS 35, Archives and Special Collections, University of Texas at San Antonio Library. Other photos in possession of family members. Other documents obtained from Court Records, digital images on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and microfilmed records.

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Research and website done by Tresa Tatyrek. This site was last updated 01/23/12