Item Detail
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Nixon, Mary Moore Barker
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1832-1916
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MSS SC 923
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Biography
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Mary Moore Barker Nixon was born November 11, 1832 to William Moore and Mary King in Nuneaton, Warwick, England. She was married to Thomas Masters Barker who ran ribbon looms and managed a garden called Stoke Park. They were the parents of 12 children including one set of twins. All of her children were born on Gilbert Street in Coventry, Warwick, England. In her later life, her husband was an invalid which required Mary to work very hard to keep her family together. She was required to provide for her husband and three daughters as her older sons were all gone at this time. In Coventry, she and her three daughters worked for a widow who ran a boarding house. During this time (around 1888), a daughter, Martha Ellen (Nellie), drowned after suffering from cramps in a swimming pool. This was a great tragedy for her and her family. One daughter, Rose Ann, who was present when her sister drowned suffered greatly and lost her memory for a time. After this Mary started a laundry business and with her daughter, Mary, and often stayed up all night to save on labor. This was hard work as many others also had laundry businesses at this time. She also rented out rooms to make money. Her husband died of cancer around 1895 and she continued in the laundry business. She remarried nine years later to James Nixon who was a widower. His family was very good to Mary and she was finally able to live a quiet, easy life. Nine years later he died, and she lived with her daughter Rose Ann who never married. She passed away in June of 1916 after suffering from bronchitis. She was buried in Mere, Wiltshire, England.
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Mary's brief biography is included in the Barker Family Biographies compiled by Hazel B. Bott about 1969. Mary's biography is written by her daughter, Mary Barker Edwards. Pictures of Mary are also included in the biography. Mary lived a hard life full of sacrifice. Her daughter said, 'I don't want to cast any disparagement on my father'but it was mother who kept the home together.'
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