Nellie Jane was born the older of two female children to young first generation parents Charles and Martha Jane Kirkpatrick in Lansingburgh (now Troy), New York in August 1873. She was raised in the Presbyterian Church, as evidenced by her profession of faith and the notation of her marriage in the Westminster Presbyterian Church records.
Nellie Jane moved a number of times as a child, but in 1886 her family was living in the house where Nellie would spend a great deal of her life, 246 2nd Avenue. Here she was surrounded by first generation Irish, like herself. She would have felt comfortable. Nellie’s aunt and uncle also lived with the family, Anna and William J. Wright. Neither had any profession, but perhaps helping around the house and caring for the two little girls.
Nellie Jane’s marriage to Oliver is announced in the Lansingburgh Times on September 8th, 1894. There is no way to know how they met, but we can perhaps imagine that Oliver delivered mail to her family’s home or perhaps Nellie and Oliver attended the same church. Nellie Jane is seven years younger than Oliver. They were married at her parent’s home by Reverend George Fairlee from the Westminster Presbyterian Church.
Oliver and Nellie Jane’s first child, Charles Herbert Lee, is born in July 1896 in New York City, not Troy, NY. Perhaps the young couple went to New York City to have the baby and introduce Nellie Jane to Oliver’s family.
By 1900, Nellie has two sons, Charles and Horace. She keeps house, living under the same roof as her parents, Charles and Martha. Charles continued to work, but Martha must have helped Nellie Jane with the children.
Perhaps because her family is growing, Nellie and Oliver move out of her parent’s home 1901, moving to 125 6th Avenue. Three years later in 1904 her third child, Olive, is born. With the family still growing, by 1910, Nellie Jane has moved again, down the street to 93 6th Avenue where Margaret is born in 1911.
Nellie Jane’s parents die within a day of one another in January 1912.
By 1915, Nellie Jane is still living at 93 6th Avenue, but her oldest son has started college at Syracuse University. Herbert attending college is a source of pride for the Kirkpatrick family, as he is the first in the family to ‘attend’ college. Herb’s period as a college student ends, however, as he serves in World War I in France as an ambulance driver. Nellie would have been aware of her great uncle who served in the Union Army during the Civil War; his body having been brought back from Virginia where he died and interred and marked magnificently in the family plot in Oakwood Cemetery.
In 1920, Nellie continues to reside at 93 6th Avenue with her husband and three younger children. Horace, or Harry, is working as a salesman for a drug company, perhaps helping with the family expenses. Herbert marries in 1923 and Nellie’s first grandchild, Virginia, is born in New York City in 1924.
In 1925, Oliver and Nellie have moved back with the three younger children to Nellie’s former house at 246 2nd Avenue. Herbert and his wife Florence have their second child, Charles Herbert in 1927. These are the only two grandchildren that Oliver and Nellie will have.
Though in 1930 Nellie has two grandchildren living in New Jersey, her reality in Troy is still caring for her two daughters and husband. Presumably she has some cousins and aunts and uncles living nearby to make holidays more festive.
According to the 1940 census, Nellie and Oliver are living on Oliver’s Government pension as their older daughter Olive remains with them, working as a secretary in a collar factory for $1,500/year .
Nellie Jane is blessed to see the graduation of both her grandchildren from well-respected colleges – Smith and Princeton. Her grandson joins the Navy at the end of World War II while her granddaughter gets married to a veteran in 1945. Virginia and her husband move across the country to Arizona.
In 1947, Olive is caring for her parents at the same address, however sometime after that time the three Lees move from Troy, New York to Yonkers, New York. The three of them live together at 1428 Midland Avenue, Yonkers, New York. Presumably Olive relocated because of a job and it fell upon her to take care of her aging parents. In the Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, New York, Oliver dies in January 1953 at the respectable old age of 86.
Charles, Nellie’s grandson marries for the first time in 1954 to a Smith graduate, Mary Lind M. There are no children from this union, and Charles marries again in 1963 to Natalie. Nellie gets to hold her great grandson PCL shortly after his birth when she visits her grandson in Brooklyn Heights in 1966.
Nellie dies in July of 1968 from generalized arteriosclerosis at the age of 94. She is buried with her family in downtown Troy, NY in the Kirkpatrick family plot at Oakwood Cemetery. She joined her sister, parents and grandparents in Plot 242 in Section D-3.
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