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Nancy Elizabeth <I>Murphy</I> Duff

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Nancy Elizabeth Murphy Duff

Birth
Texas, USA
Death
22 Apr 1966 (aged 93)
Livingston, Polk County, Texas, USA
Burial
Livingston, Polk County, Texas, USA Add to Map
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Nancy was born on Dec. 20, 1872 to Larkin Murphy and Charlotte Helen Coursey Murphy.

She married Calvin Duff on May 10, 1888, in Livingston, Texas. They were the parents of fourteen children: ten boys and four girls.

Nancy was a true pioneer woman. She worked in the fields with her husband and children and then would go home to cook, clean and take care of the children after working all day. She sewed and made all of their clothing on an old Singer foot-pedal sewing machine. She put up food in jars and cans, or smoked the meat they killed to feed the family. She made soap in a large black kettle over a fire in the back yard. Everything was handmade and homemade in her home for many years until electricty was run out in the country where she lived. She never learned to drive or had a motor vehicle during her life. In her later life, she always had to have someone take her to town to buy groceries or go to the doctor.

Nancy was called a "granny woman" because she delivered babies all over the area in Polk County, Texas and even went to the next county for some people. She would travel by wagon to deliver babies. She was also known as a healer because her mother had taught her about all kinds of plants and roots that had healing qualities. When anyone got sick or hurt, they would come to Nancy to have her fix them up some medicine.

She had a very strict faith in God which some people called the old Hardshell Baptist beliefs. She walked from her home to the nearest Baptist church even into her early 90's.

She passed away after contracting the flu and pneumonia. Her doctor said she would have probably pulled through but her heart was just tired.
Nancy was born on Dec. 20, 1872 to Larkin Murphy and Charlotte Helen Coursey Murphy.

She married Calvin Duff on May 10, 1888, in Livingston, Texas. They were the parents of fourteen children: ten boys and four girls.

Nancy was a true pioneer woman. She worked in the fields with her husband and children and then would go home to cook, clean and take care of the children after working all day. She sewed and made all of their clothing on an old Singer foot-pedal sewing machine. She put up food in jars and cans, or smoked the meat they killed to feed the family. She made soap in a large black kettle over a fire in the back yard. Everything was handmade and homemade in her home for many years until electricty was run out in the country where she lived. She never learned to drive or had a motor vehicle during her life. In her later life, she always had to have someone take her to town to buy groceries or go to the doctor.

Nancy was called a "granny woman" because she delivered babies all over the area in Polk County, Texas and even went to the next county for some people. She would travel by wagon to deliver babies. She was also known as a healer because her mother had taught her about all kinds of plants and roots that had healing qualities. When anyone got sick or hurt, they would come to Nancy to have her fix them up some medicine.

She had a very strict faith in God which some people called the old Hardshell Baptist beliefs. She walked from her home to the nearest Baptist church even into her early 90's.

She passed away after contracting the flu and pneumonia. Her doctor said she would have probably pulled through but her heart was just tired.

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