Families

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Nancy Alice Barnes Coldiron

John Gilbert "Jack" COLDIRON was born 7 Feb 1847 in Harlan County, Kentucky, to Jesse B. and Levina (LANSDOWN) COLDIRON. He served as a Flag Bearer during the Civil War, and I would presume in the same company as his father because he was only 14 years old. After the war, John moved to Pleasant View Township, Cherokee County, Kansas, in 1866. He soon left and went to Buchanan County, Missouri, where he met and married Nancy Alice BARNES on 13 Oct 1872. She was the daughter of Aaron and Levitha W. (COBB) BARNES.

The couple had nine children: Sidney (born 1878 in Missouri), Olie (born 1882 in Missouri), Vernie M. (1885-1885), Neva B. (1887-1889), Ralph (Dec 1889 born in Kansas), Edna (Dec 1892 born in Kansas, married Ray REEDER), Gracie (1893 born in Kansas), Maude (Oct 1895 born in Kansas, married HOPKINS then George SCHULKE), and Nellie (1901 born in Kansas).

John and Nancy moved numerous times from Buchanan County, Missouri, to Cherokee County, Kansas, to Rooks County, Kansas, and back again, as many as six times. He and Nancy homesteaded in a dugout at the south mound of Twin Mound in Rooks County, Kansas, for several years.

John was quite a feisty person, he seemed to always be fighting with someone. At the age of 62, as published in the Stockton Review 23 Sep 1909, "A dispute that arose last Saturday at the B. C. elevator over the matter of the division of wheat that J. G. COLDIRON raised on the John MADDY place, resulted in blows being struck, all of which we are sorry to hear. We know nothing of who was the aggressor, Mr. MADDY seemed to be injured the worst, and Mr. COLDIRON was brought into police court where he paid a fine." John MADDY sued in court and lost, the crop was John's. His four daughters dating seemed to bring him plenty of opportunity to get into it with someone.

He had been feeling poorly for some time but was having a good day, so he went to visit a neighbor and fell gravely ill and died a short time later of a cerebral hemorrhage on 2 June 1914. He is buried in the Stockton Cemetery.

After Jack's death, Nancy and their youngest son, Ralph Edwin COLDIRON went to homestead in 1915 at Lidy Hot Springs in Clark County, Idaho. They traveled by immigrant train in one car with all their possessions and animals. Her daughter Edna, along with her husband Ray REEDER and three young children, Kenneth, William, and Valeria also went with them, traveling in their own immigrant car with furniture, a wagon, mules and assorted animals. All of Ralph's fine horses were rustled in the middle of the night and he set out after them, he came back in a few days with all of them. He had tracked down the Hole in the Wall gang and got them back. He never had any trouble after that. They moved several times after homesteading to Menan in Jefferson County, Idaho, and then into Idaho Falls.

Nancy was a crack shot. She could shoot a chicken's head off with her trusty pistol she carried all the time. She told that Cole Younger taught her to shoot when they lived in Buchanan County, Missouri. She traveled on the passenger train back to Kansas many times to visit with her pistol in her purse.

Nancy died 26 Mar 1935 in Idaho Falls and is buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery.

Submitted to Rooks County KSGenWeb by Brenda Kay Stewart Reeder
Death certificate image added Aug 2024, courtesy of FamilySearch