Matthew Nace Mystery Part II

A continuation of Matthew Nace Mystery Part I

After a decade or so of living in Oregon, Matthew Harvey Nace—albeit under his assumed name, James H. Neyce—finally made it to California.

James H. Neyce doesn’t appear in an 1870 census, but he was clearly in California by then. James H. Neyce, a watchmaker, appears in the October 1868 voter registration for Salinas, California. 

James Hempstead Neyce, a watchmaker who was born in Virginia, appears again in the 1871 voter registration for Lakeport, California.

By 1880, he seems to have aged about four years. Page 41 of the 1880 California-Sonoma-Santa Rosa Census, shows 60-year-old James H. Neyes was a “searcher of records” and lived on Cherry Street in Sonoma. The census information indicates both his parents were from Virginia, as was he and his wife Ella B. (age 38—now her husband is over 20 years older than she!). James and Ella now have two daughters—13-year-old Berta Lee (born in Oregon) and 8-year-old May (born in California). Source: Year: 1880;Census Place: Santa Rosa, Sonoma, California;Roll: 84;Page: 110C;Enumeration District: 124

Years later, Mae Ida Neyce’s social security info gives her parents’ names (her mother is Ella B. Christian), birthdate, and birthplace:

In 1882, part of his job as "searcher of records" must have involved researching patents. Here is a patent application that he witnessed:

The 1890 census is unavailable, but James appears to be living alone in the 1900 census. Ella B. must have died and his daughters—now grown—must have left home.

Perhaps it’s best that his family was gone before they were disgraced by James being imprisoned for embezzlement in January 1901 and serving two years in Folson Prison. Title/Description:Identification Cards, (Folsom) 24801-25277 and (San Quentin), 4499-14744 p. 1343-44

Why he was imprisoned is a mystery. Did Matthew Nace’s past finally catch up with him, or did he commit a new crime in California? I couldn’t find any trial records (yet), only that he served nearly two years. His former business partner Israel Coe, who was 60 years old in the 1855 New York census and who took out newspaper ads in 1856 in an attempt to apprehend Matthew H. Nace, would be long dead. Did James H. Neyce’s job as a “searcher of records” provide a temptation to embezzle? 

Despite his imprisonment, he didn’t lose his voting rights. The 1894 Sonoma voter list provided a description of 76-year-old (note age change from prison record—he should be 74, not 76 here) James Hemstead Neycefrom Virginia. He was 5 ft. 8 tall, had a light complexion and blue eyes, gray hair, and was blind in his left eye. (The Nace family in Botetourt County, Virginia, had blue eyes. Matthew’s younger brother John Christian Nace had blue eyes and a light complexion.) James is still listed as a searcher of records and lives in Santa Rosa no. 6 precinct.

But he only lived six years longer. James Hempstead Neyce, whose birthdate is “unknown,” died on March 10, 1910, and was buried in the old county cemetery in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. 

The plaque on the rock near the path reads: 

Unlike his first wife Evaline, whose grave in Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery was graced by the lavish monument he had erected to her memory, James/Matthew was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave.

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Note: Much of the above is speculation based on evidence I discovered at various sites on the Internet, but what I have deduced about Matthew Harvey Nace is certainly plausible. (His marriage record to Ella B. Christian and their daughter May Ida Neyce’s social security record provided the most helpful hints.) We’ll probably never know the full story of his life and exploits, but some public records have given us at least a glimpse of part of it. Pictures of the cemetery are from https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2098457/old-county-cemetery.

Matthew Nace Mystery Part I

In my earlier post about my great-great uncle, Matthew Harvey Nace, it seemed as if he’d vanished after writing a letter (on April 26, 1856) to his business partner, Israel Coe. 

But did he really vanish? Or did he remarry in Indiana, move to Oregon, change his name, climb Mt. St. Helens, move to California, spend some time in Folson Prison, and die in 1910? I can only track him by his given name to Indiana, but numerous clues suggest his other adventures. 

His letter to Israel Coe (posted in full on “Matthew Harvey Nace”) ended:

Three months after he wrote the letter (and two years after his wife Evaline’s death), 32-year-old Matthew remarried—in Vigo, Indiana—to 20-year-old Ella B. Christian. Was she kin to his late wife Evaline, whose maiden name had been Christian? Or to the 20-year-old “L. P. Christian Nace” (his “sister” according to the census) who was living in his house in Brooklyn, New York, in 1855 (and might have been his 20-year-old brother Robert’s wife)? Odd how “Ella B. Christian Nace” sounds like “L.P. Christian Nace.” And both were born in 1835. (Could the 1855 Brooklyn census taker have made a mistake in spelling and really meant “Ella B”? But that would mean—?)

An Internet search provided records of the marriage. 

This, while unofficial, is from a book of marriages in Vigo County, Indiana:

There can’t be many men named Matthew Harvey Nace. (Our Matthew was named after Matthew Harvey, the owner of Mount Joy Plantation, who employed Matthew’s father, William Nace, as overseer.) After the marriage, Mattthew Nace dropped out of sight. Since this was the last record I could find about him with his legal name, it’s likely he changed his name.

Apparently, at some point, Matthew and Ella appear to have moved from Indiana to Oregon, and Matthew apparently assumed a different, but similar, name: James H. Neyce. In 1868, they had a son who died in infancy. 

Oregon Historical Society; Portland, OR; Index Collection: Biography Index

The child’s middle name is McDowell, almost the same as Matthew’s brother, William MacDowell Nace. (He wasn’t their only child. A daughter, Berta Lee, had been born the previous year.)

How did Matthew and Ella B. get to Oregon. At any rate, James H. and Ella B Neyce were there by 1860. Perhaps they joined a wagon train and traveled the Oregon trail to where it ended in The Dalles area. Why did they choose Oregon as a destination? Was it because they’d be hard to trace? Did Matthew decide to seek his fortune as a gold prospector? An article in which James H. Neyce is mentioned as a climber of Mt. St. Helens gives a hint:

P. 40, Cascade Alpine Guide, Colorado River to Steven's Pass by Fred Beckey

From the above sources, we know that Matthew—er, James—and Ella were in Oregon from 1860 until 1868. Some other info on the Internet suggests James H Neyce was a postmaster in Wasco County, Oregon for a while, but I cannot yet find definite proof. In March 1867, he appears on two Oregon tax lists, on one as a “pedlar 3rd class” and on another as “watch” (which might be the article he was selling).

Sometime between 1868 and 1871, James, Ella, and Berta moved to California.

To be continued. . . . 
https://nacelithia.blogspot.com/2019/04/matthew-nace-mystery-part-ii.html

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