by Shirley Simmons
Miss Ellie Grayson Nicolson taught, according to Mrs. Edith Parker, for 30 years in the Cardenas and Fuquay Springs School. The earliest picture of her class was that of 1915 when she taught grades 1-3 at Cardenas. The students in grade one at Cardenas continued there several years when the Fuquay Springs School opened in 1918. Our belief is that Miss Ellie transferred to Fuquay Springs when Cardenas finally closed and remained there until she retired. The search for her retirement year is on-going.
The 1915 picture has the identifies of students at the time. Betsy Gunter, also, identified her father as one of Miss Ellie’s students at some point. We have found graduates of Fuquay Springs School who were proud pupils of Miss Ellie in the first grade. There may be others who can be uncovered.
Shirley Mudge (deceased), Donald Cotton Jimmie Wagstaff, Betsy Johnson (Gunter), Charles Parker
All of those years she was a boarder in the home of Dr. and Mrs. J. M. Judd. Proof of her residence there comes from Dr. Judd’s grandson, Charles Parker, who actually was “piloted” to Fuquay Springs School (Miss Ellie’s word for riding with her in her car.) Further evidence can be found in the 1930 and 1940 Federal census records which list her as a boarder in the Judd home.
Since the school year at the early Cardenas School would have not run the same as the Fuquay Springs School did later, Miss Ellie was listed as living with her parents in the 1920 census but was teaching here. Back in Macon again in the 1950 Census, she was head of the household and still listed as a teacher at age 71.
Charles believes that his grandfather secured Miss Ellie to teach at Cardenas (Dr. Judd was on the school committee for several early schools in Fuquay Springs.) but we could not confirm when her first year might have been. Since she was listed in the 1928 Yearbook (the first one edited by Fuquay Springs High School) we can document her tenure further. The next yearbook for the school in 1948 does not find her on the staff so she left sometime between 1942-1948. Possibly the terms 1915-1945 would have been the 30 years stated by Mrs. Parker but we can not be certain.
Miss Ellie was described as an excellent teacher by Charles. His favorite story was how she confiscated any marbles finding their way into her classroom and dropped them into her aquarium. At the end of each year, when she removed the fish, Charles became recipient of the marbles. He had great “marble trading stock.” he recalls. Betsy and Donald remember marbles as being dropped into a hole in the window sill in the “old red building” never to be seen again! Donald recalls her kindness as a teacher. (The museum has a jar of marbles rescued from the old red building when it was demolished.)
Miss Ellie always maintained her family connections in Macon, NC or actually their home at Sixpound, in Warren County. Charles expressed great appreciation for her loyalty in that when engaged to her boyfriend who was killed in World War I, Miss Ellie never considered marriage to another.
At the time of her death she was survived by two nephews and one niece. Interestingly one of those nephews, Pryor Goode Nicholson, had followed her to Fuquay Springs where he married Delma Cotton (the sister of all the Cotton boys) who worked at Cotton’s Furniture in Varina. Pryor was recorded in the census as a bookkeeper in Varina and was buried at Wake Chapel Cemetery in 1979.
The daughter of John H and Elizabeth Shearin Nicholson, she was one of 3 girls and 3 boys. Born on October 8, 1879, she lived until her 91st year. Her burial was at the Nicholson Family Cemetery in Macon. NC. following her July 18, 1971 death.
The Greenhouse Picker Sisters have been interested in our “Miss Ellie” in connection with their new business to open in the old Cardenas School House in Fuquay-Varina. Our research is open for any further memories or details of “Miss Ellie” should anyone be able to provide this.
Shirley Simmons
September, 2024