Life of Nancy Campbell Higginbotham Peery

(William Elliott Higginbotham, James Garrison Higginbotham, Moses Higginbotham Jr., Moses Higginbotham Sr., John Higginbotham, Charles Higginbotham, Captain John Higginbotham)

(Louisa Ward Higginbotham, William Ward, David Ward, William Ward)

Compiled by Paul Davis Peery, May 1996

Nancy Campbell Higginbotham Peery was born May 19, 1835, in Tazewell County, Virginia; died September 30, 1862, in Burke's Garden, Virginia. Her parents were William Elliott Higginbotham, who was born February 26, 1811, in Tazewell County, Virginia; and Louisa Ward Higginbotham, who was born March 12, 1808, in Tazewell County, Virginia. Her father died in Tazewell County, Virginia, July 3, 1862; her mother died in Ogden, Utah, January 8, 1887.

Nancy was a beautiful girl with a cheerful, happy disposition, and was universally liked. Her parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, both being baptized by Jedediah M. Grant, a missionary of the church. She was a very strong Latter-day Saint. Her parents moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, to join the Latter-day Saints. They were in Nauvoo when the Prophet Joseph Smith was killed at the Carthage, Illinois jail by an angry mob. Her father worked on the Nauvoo Temple.

The family left Nauvoo with the Saints, going to Council Bluffs, Iowa, when they were forced to leave because of persecution by the mobs. From Council Bluffs, the family went to Missouri in order to obtain food supplies. Nancy's brother, Frank, was born in Andrew County, Missouri. Her sister, Elizabeth Letitia, two years older than Frank, was born in Nauvoo. She was only three months old when they left for Council Bluffs. Soon after Frank's birth, the family returned to Burke's Garden, Virginia, where they rented the old Floyd Farm in Burke's Garden.

One day, Nancy visited the merchandising store in Burke's Garden owned by David Harold Peery. Mr. Peery was instantly attracted to her and and started an acquaintance. They were married on the Floyd place in Burke's Garden, Virginia on December 30, 1852 by Reverend J.J. Greever.

At the time of marriage, her husband did not belong to a church. He would never agree to her being baptized until after the death of their little son, Tommy. He was quite exercised over her belonging to the Mormons, and sent and brought celebrated preachers from Richmond and Washington City to convince her of the error of her religion. When they arrived and began to reason with her, she was far the superior to them in her knowledge of the Bible. As D.H. Peery often remarked thereafter, she was much better and more conclusive in argument than they, and they were glad to stop the argument and depart.

Nancy Campbell died September 30, 1862, at 27, in Burke's Garden, nine days after the birth of her third child, William Harold Peery, who himself lived only 22 days. Her firstborn child, Thomas Carnahan Peery, had died on May 1, 1861, about sixteen months before her demise. Tommy lived two years, 7 months. It was during the Civil War, when Typhoid fever was prevalent and took their lives.

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