Note. These notes were
dictated by 43.Nina Massey Hough
for her son, Warwick Massey Hough;
probably c. 1920. I quote them verbatim.
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I was born at Sarcoxie, Jasper County,
Missouri, April 12th, 1840. My Christian name was Nina Eleanor
Massey.
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My father's name was Benjamin Franklin
Massey, who was born in Kent County, Maryland. He died in St
Louis, Missouri in 1879 and was buried at Jefferson City, Missouri.
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My father's parents were Benjamin Massey
and Elizabeth Massey. (See letters which I have.)
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My mother's name was Maria Hawkins Withers
who was born in Warrenton, Fauquier County, Virginia, and died in 1864
at Boonville, Missouri, where she was buried.
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My mothers parents were Daniel Withers and
Eliza Hawkins Withers, who came to Missouri about 1837 and settled in
Cooper County.
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My mother and father met at Boonville,
Missouri, he at that time living at Fayette. She was married when
she was 17 years old, and went with him to Jasper County, Missouri to
live; married in 1839.
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My father was in public life in Jefferson
City as a Senator and Representative and Chief Clerk of the House at
different times in his life. In 1857 was elected Secretary of
State and was again re-elected and serving two years at the time the
War broke out. He went out of the State with the Confederate
army. I had two brothers run off and join the army. I was
married two weeks before the war broke out.
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My father and mother had ten children:
Benjamin U., Julian P., Clarence R., Logan Lee, Frank R., Scott
Withers, Eliza Adelaide and Maria Louise: all are now dead with the
exception of Eliza Adelaide (now Mrs. D. B. Holmes of Kansas City) and
myself.
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My mother died at age of 43, my father at
age 69. I lived on a farm until I was ten years old on what was
called Spring River Valley, half way between Mt. Vernon and
Sarcoxie. Attended school at Boonville, Missouri, until my father
was elected Secretary of State in 1857, staying with my grandmother,
Mrs. Pierce, my mother's mother, when I moved to Jefferson City in
1858, where and when I met Judge Warwick Hough in 1858. I was 17
and he 21 years old.
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My father found it impossible to rent a
house at Jefferson City and as Gov. Polk had been elected to the
Senate, Lieutenant Governor Jackson offered father the Governor's
mansion, as no one was occupying it.
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I married Judge Warwick Hough on May 30th,
1861 during what was known as the Price and Harney agreement, Gen.
Harney representing the Federal Government and Gen. Sterling Price
representing the Confederate Government. Two weeks after our
marriage, Blair and Lyon's with five or six thousand troops came to
Jefferson City and took charge of State Governments. The small
force under Gen. Price retreating to Boonville, Mo., where they were
followed and had a small fight, Price's forces retreating into the
interior of the State, and for seven months I had not heard from Mr.
Hough. In the meantime the army organized and came up to
Lexington, where the Federal Government had a fortified position; and
Price had organized his men and came back and captured the whole outfit.
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I rejoined your father at Osceola, Mo.,
and remained in the South during the war, except for two months I spent
in prison when I came through St. Louis to see my mother in 1864, who
then resided at Boonville, Missouri. After being released from
prison they would not allow me to go to see my mother and banished me
to the South. I located at Columbus, Mississippi, where my eldest
son, Warwick M. was born. I met with much kindness and attention
from Southern people at close of the War.
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