Cassady and Nelson families papers and photographs

The Cassady and Nelson families were the descendants of John Van Horn Cassady and Margaret Louise Nelson Cassady, prominent nineteenth-century Muncie residents. John Van Horne Cassady was born in Preble County, Ohio, and moved to Muncie with his parents as a boy. He served in the Civil War and then returned to operate the family drugstore. He also sold queensware, a hard, cream-colored earthenware perfected by Wedgwood, in the Muncie area until his death in 1885. In 1871, Cassady married Margaret Louise (called Louise) Nelson, whose parents (Robert and Sarah) had resided in Muncie since 1860. Mrs. Cassady, a prominent woman, was one of the organizers of the Woman’s Club of Muncie, which was founded in 1876 and is still in existence.

The 1860 Delaware County census lists Nelson as Erastus [rather than Derastus] W. Nelson in the household of Daniel R. Youse, carriage maker. This is the D.R. Youse at whose house Nelson’s funeral was held in 1865. The 1860 census lists Nelson as a 17-year-old apprentice to Youse (age 26). The rest of the Nelson family must have moved to Muncie soon after. They are listed in the 1870 census as: Robert (a saddle maker), age 76; Sarah, 59; Albert, 22; M. Lou (Margaret Louise who married J.V.H. Cassady in 1871), 19; Leonidas, 18; Lyman, 14; and Irenaus, 13. Louise Nelson is listed as a schoolteacher.

D.W. Nelson, then, was about 18 when he went to war in 1861 and about 22 when he was murdered. At the time of his death he was working as a traveling stencil engraver.