Nancy Ellis
The Kentucky Post, 8 March 1926
Mammy Ellis Starts on Second Century of Life
"Mammy" Ellis is beginning the 101st year of her life. Mammy
(Nancy) lived in a little frame house on Covert Run pike, near Taylor av.
Bellevue. She is believed to be the oldest inhabitant of that city. The Ellis
family composed of the aged --- and her daughters, is the only negro family in
Bellevue.
Although a centenarian, "Mammy" Ellis is still the possessor of an active mind and a remarkable memory, which carries her far back into the days "befor de war" in Shelby Co. Ky. Her life is a link, as direct remembrance goes with the beginnings of American history in the revolutionary war.
"My first master was Colonel Richard Booker, who fought in Mr. Washington's war. I remember when I was seven years old of brushing the flies away from the colonel. He was paralyzed then. Yes indeedy and I knew Uncle Pharaoh well. He was General Washington's personal waiter." Among her cherished possessions is a box that has been handed down from one family to another for more than 300 years.
Colonel Booker was a kind master, she remembers, but when his son-in-law, John Allen Hornsby, took charge of the plantation, things were different. "Slavery was a hard thing. Life has been a lot better for us since freedom."
But there were many unpleasant days after the war with the problem of feeding herself and her five children. This failed to weaken her faith in the Divine Providence for she says, "I prayed to God then and I do yet." With her husband Sam Ellis and five children, Mrs. Ellis moved to Bellevue in 1882 and in two years built the house where she lives at present. Her husband was killed 38 years ago in an accident while driving a wagon.
Her daughter Venia has been a teacher in a
Newport school for many years. Mammy learned to "read a little" when she was a
slave. This was against the wishes of her master, she says. While her mistress
was teaching the children the alphabet and letters, Mammy would sit in the same
room and pretending to be busy with something else would learn for herself.