Palmer

 

 

 

 

 

The Palmer Family

 

Nellie Palmer was born May 6, 1891 in Lake County, Florida. She was the second child of Daniel and Mary Jane Dykes Palmer. She was raised to be hard-working and loved the lakes and hills of central Florida. She loved to pick wild blackberries and made the best blackberry cobbler in the world. Every afternoon in the summer she would walk down the hill to the lake and take a swim and climb the steep hill to go back home. She did this well into her old age, probably the reason she lived to be ninety-one. Fishing was another one of her loves and she could spend a whole day out on the lake fishing for brim, as long as someone else rowed the boat! Nellie played the piano for the Altoona Baptist Church and taught Sunday School at the Altoona Baptist Church where her father was a minister.

Altoona Baptist Church, Nellie and Friend, 1960

Her porch swing was the gathering spot on a Sunday afternoon and many stories and naps were enjoyed there. Grandchildren loved to visit her house and swim, eat her good country cooking and play the board game " Sorry" at night under the dangling light bulb over the dining room table.The old piano in the hall played "chopsticks", "Heart and Soul" and other made-up "melodies" until the sun went down. Sleep came easy at night after a day of swimming, eating watermelon and playing tag in the afternoon rain. The tin roof on her house made the sound of rain seem like a musical lullaby. Not even the buzz of mosquitoes or the smell of Granny spraying "Gulf Spray" could keep you awake. Those were the "good old days".

Nellie Palmer about1909

 

Nellie married Floyd Atkinson Shores on January 6, 1909 in Altoona, Lake Co., Fla. They lived in the house that her father built on highway 19 in Altoona and raised their three daughters,Eileen, Mildred,Billie, and Mutt there. (See Shores Family History) In the 1920's they lived for a brief time in Miami, but they returned to Altoona and lived the rest of their lives there. When Floyd died in 1960, Nellie had to work to make ends meet. She got a job at the Grand Island Packinghouse and packed oranges until late at night when there was danger of a freeze. Nellie died Nov 14 1981 in Daytona Beach, Fla ( where her daughter Billie lived) of a stroke. She was ninety-one.

Mom and daughters,Nell Marie,Mildred , and Eileen

Nellie and Floyd Shores

 

Daniel Palmer was born November 5 1835 in Ontario, Canada according to his pension application. His parents were Mahlon Palmer andDinah Moore Palmer. He grew up in the Niagra region of Ontario and married his first wife, Mary Smith in Hamilton, Ontario on the 19th of April, 1856.

Daniel and Mary migrated down to Annawan,Illinois and he signed up in the Union Army in Chicago on September 4, 1862 under Captain Levi P Holden. . He served in the 88th Illinois Infantry , Co. E. and was wounded at the Battle of Stone River, Tenn "about or on the 1st day of January, 1862". He was captured at Murfreesboro, Tenn between Dec 25, 1862 and January 10 1863. He was sent to the hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. He was discharged January 28, 1863 in Nashville. His injuries were listed as fracture of skull with loss of bone, and gunshot wound through the thigh. ( source: Army of the United States Certificate of Disability for Discharge) He carried a musket ball lodged in his head the rest of his life and suffered from headaches. His pension of $30.00 per month began on the 3rd day of March 1883 " this pension being for gun shot wound of head resulting in incapacity for performing any manual labor". His pension was increased to $50 per month in 1915 , when he was 80 years old. Sources:Memorandum from Prisoner of War Records, Pension Bureau, Department of the Interior, June 30th, 1883, letter signed by Daniel Palmer June 16, 1913, letter to Civil Ward Division May 7, 1915)

Daniel and Mary Smith Palmer had only one known child, Mable Evelyn who was born in Annawan, Ill .on January 31, 1864. She died age nine.

In 1880 Daniel and Mary were listed on the census of Walnut, Kansas. Daniel's occupation was listed as Photographer. His father and mother and sister Hannah were living with them. By 1884 the family had migrated to Altoona,Florida, probably because a sister and her husband did. It is believed they came together on the train. A reference to this is found in the book " A History of Altoona and its Surrounding Area" , published in 1987. He is listed as a charter member of Altoona Baptist Church in 1884 and served as its second pastor and was a circuit preacher. Mary died 29th May 1888.

Reverend Daniel Palmer

Daniel married his second wife, Mary Jane Dykes on March 15, 1889 in Altoona, Fla. She was only twenty years old and he was fifty four. They had nine children; Edna Dixie Palmer (married John Clark), Nellie , (married Floyd Shores), Bessie,(married Robt. McTureous), Daniel Jr, Mahlon, Louis, Lula,and Louise, triplets (married William Clark), Clara Belle (married Frank Treen).Daniel died on November 5, 1916 (his 81st birthday) in Altoona, Florida and is buried in the Glendale Cemetery beside his 1st and 2nd wives, both named Mary.

Palmer Family

 

Mahlon Palmer was September 8, 1804 in Grimsby, Ontario, Canada, the son of Daniel Palmer and Elizabeth Woolverton. He married Dinah Moore in Grimsby on July 11th, 1830.They had eight children; Elizabeth, died 1833, buried in St. Andrews Churchyard Cemetery, Grimsby, Ontario, Canada, William 1832-1856, Daniel 1835-1916,Serring 1836-?, Louisa 1842-, Mary 1844-1895, Hannah 1849-?, Elgin 1849-? TWINS.

Mahlon Palmer is listed on the 1851 census in Nelson Twp, Ontario. He is listed in the Canada Directory of Progessional and Business Men, Wellington Square, Carpenter. (Montreal: John Lovell 1857 pg. 873)

Later in Life he decided to leave Canada and move to the States. He was in Cherry Valley, illinois in 1860. In 1870 he was in Orange Twp., Iowa , occupation listed as hotelkeeper. The 1880 census finds him and Dinah and daughter Hannah living with his son Daniel in Walnut, Kansas. Mahlon and Dinah traveled to Florida with Daniel and he died on the 7th of October 1890 and is buried in Lake County, Fla.

Mahlon Palmer

 

Daniel Palmer born August 20 1776 in New Jersey .( according to 1880 census "birthplace of parent of Mahlon Palmer") He was the son of David Palmer and Elizabeth ? . Daniel traveled with his father to Canada about 1789 and lived in Grimsby Canada the rest of his life. He married Elizabeth Woolverton . They had the following children: Mahlon 1804-1890, Dennis 1806-?, Edmund 1808-?,Jonathon 1810-?,Brock 1812-?,

Orpha 1814, Susanna 1818, William 1823, adopted: Jonathon Thompson b 1830 and Andrew Thompson b 1833, Elizabeth Thompson b 1833. Daniel died in Grimsby and is buried in the St. Andrews Churchyard Cemetery, Grimsby.

 

David Palmer the Loyalist - was born 1734 and died 25th October 1814 . His birthplace and parents are still a mystery, but someday will turn up. It is possible he may have been a descendant of Walter Palmer of Connecticut.

David was married to Elizabeth ? . He was a Loyalist who remained faithful to England and lost all of his land and possesions after the Revolution. He is listed on the Tax Roll of Oxford Twp, Sussex Co., NJ in 1783. He moved north to Ontario Canada and petioned the Crown for land .

He recieved a Land Grant at "The Forty" later Grimsby , Ontario. He died there and is buried in the St. Andrews Churchyard Cemetery beside his wife Elizabeth.

Links

Read David Palmer's Petition

Visit St. Andrews Churchyard

The Olive Tree Genealogy - Loyalist of the Revolution