Nash family

Nash family

John Nash was the son of Samuel Nash and was raised on the family homestead in Hadley, Massachusetts. He was born in January 1847 and became a farmer. John met Lizzie Scott at the North Hadley Church. Lizzie was born in North Hadley in July 1858. Her mother died when she was fifteen and she was therefore left to care for her younger siblings. The two were married in May 1881 and went on to have seven children, George, Alice, Ethel, Luella, Ruth, Herman, and Helen. Lizzie died in July 1927 and John died two years later in 1929.

Not all of the Nash children survived into childhood. Alice died when she was only nine years old after being bitten by a dog. George had several health issues growing up and died when he was 37. Ethel became a teacher in Connecticut after going to Smith College and Northampton Commercial College. Ruth went to New York City for a time after graduating. She helped keep up the family farm along with operating a poultry farm.

Luella worked at the Amherst Library after graduating from Mount Holyoke College. During World War I, she helped in the war effort by taking a job as a secretary in the Department of Agriculture in Washington D.C. After the war in August of 1920 she married Walter Buchanan, a high school math teacher. The two lived in several towns in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Luella died in 1971.

The youngest Nash sibling, Helen, never lived far from home. Like Ethel, Helen became a teacher after studying at Northampton Commercial College in 1920. She taught in Brooklyn for a while but returned home to help her mother who was ill. She became in Elementary school in Hadley for almost forty years before become the librarian at Hopkins Academy for two years before retiring. Helen lived to be 86 years old when she died in June 1987.

Herman Nash, the second of John and Lizzie's two boys was born in 1895. He graduated from Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1917 and immediately joined the Army. During World War I, Herman served in France from 1918-1919. He ended up teaching agriculture in Allerey, France at the American Expeditionary Forces University.

Upon returning home Herman met Grace Leonard; she taughter at Hopkins Academy while he served on the school committee board. Herman taught school in Connecticut and Massachusetts before the family settled in Springfield where he worked for the Post Office until he retired in 1961. Until 1955 he served in the Army Reserves and served in a training post during World War II. Herman was 82 when he died in 1977.

Before marrying Herman, Grace taught at various schools in Massachusetts. She was originally from Marshfield, Massachusetts and went to Boston University to study teaching. The couple had three children, Howard, Herman Jr. and John. Grace spent the rest of her life raising her children. In 1973 Grace died at the age of 77.

From the guide to the Nash-Scott Family Papers MS 581., 1781-1987, (Special Collections and University Archives, UMass Amherst Libraries)