A through F G through L M through Q R through Z

FAMILY PORTRAIT 1921. See description below.

Nancy Jane PEACHER Elkin(s), b. Howard County, Missouri in 1833, is seated center. She married at fifteen a man who grew up on a farm homestead nearby that of her family, along the Missouri River. A little over ten years and two children later, around 1861, they went west to the territory of Colorado, where they settled on fertile grassland along the Arkansas River, that the U.S. government had opened up for homesteading. They survived Indian wars, grasshoppers, drought and famine to build a ranch and raise a family.

To Nancy Jane's upper right ( your left ) is Annie Elkins Mock. She married in 1878 the son of another settler family that came west from Missouri at about the time hers did. They ranched and began their large family, and later crossed the high Rockies with several of their children to help settle Grand Junction, where they lived the rest of their lives. To Nancy Jane's upper left is Annie's daughter, Leora Mock Diamond. She married a musician twice her age from West Viriginia. They raised a large family of musically inclined, strong-willed children. The pretty girl at Nancy Jane's side is Leo's daughter, Edna Diamond Mock Miller. She married a cousin - Virgil Lee Mock, and bore her only child in 1921, the baby in Nancy's lap, Virginia Mock Harvey.

Nancy Jane outlived her husband by 42 years. She never remarried, but saw her children's children, and their grandchildren, before she died in Fowler, Colorado in 1922. Annie also lived to a ripe old age, dying in Grand Junction in 1939. Leo lived longer than either of them, until 1972. Like her Grandma Elkins, she saw her greatgreatgrandchildren. Edna died in 1994, after a long life of music, hiking, hunting, and family in the high Rockies she loved. Virginia is alive and kicking in Grand Junction. Her 86th birthday was in early 2007. She is horrified that I have put her photo on the internet.