NANCY AMANDA BULLARD BROWN, first daughter of William and Cora Bullard,
was born on January 23, 1881 in the Blue Ridge Community of Hamilton 
County, Texas. One brother and three stillborns preceded her entrance 
into the family. She was a lady of medium build with dark blue eyes, 
and dark hair which she wore as a bun in the back. Nancy's parents were
early settlers of Hamilton County, who migrated from Pike County, 
Alabama in 1877. The Civil War had exacted the ultimate sacrifice from 
both progenitors of their family, and they opted to move west into the 
heartland of Texas, where the grass was tall and plenteous, and the 
ground was fertile for crops of cotton and corn. Her paternal 
grandmother and her father's siblings also came to Texas at about the 
same time.
When she was born, Nancy's parents lived on a quarter section of Blue 
Ridge land, purchased for $1 per acre, a tidy sum. Their house was a 
small single room dwelling with dirt floor, a fireplace that warmed 
them and doubled as a place to cook, and featherbeds on scaffold frames
that kept them warm in the cold winter nights. Early in life, she was 
nicknamed "Nannie" and she never got away from it.
Nannie attended school at Blue Ridge and following completion, she 
became a teacher for about two years at Pottsville. Her uncle, John B. 
Allen, Jr., had come from Alabama after his mother's demise, and also 
taught with her, prior to opening a law practice in Hamilton. When he 
fell ill with consumption (Tuberculosis) and died at age 41, she was 
his care-giver. 
In Hamilton County, on June 4, 1902, Nannie married Joseph Valentine 
Brown, a handsome young fellow of German and Irish descent. He had come
to live with his grandparents, William and Frances Hinkle, following 
the death of both of his parents. Nine children followed, six being 
born at Blue Ridge and one at Aleman, before they relocated to Tarrant 
County, Texas about 1923. 
Nannie was a plain spoken woman who did not mince words. She called 
children "young-uns" and early in life learned how to milk a cow, grow 
a garden, and cook. People joked that she planted by the light of the 
moon, but she always had beautiful flowers in her yard and many potted 
plants which had to be taken inside in the winter. Her tomatoes, okra, 
peppers, squash, cucumbers, beans, and onions always produced in 
abundance for all the family. Even though she lived in the city during 
World War II, she kept a Jersey cow that ate grass while chained on 
nearby vacant lots. Nannie churned milk in a crock to make butter for 
her delicious biscuits. Made fresh from scratch every morning, she 
always hid back some biscuits for her grandchildren who got up late. 
When she made curds and whey (cottage cheese) and hung it on the 
clothesline to drip, her grandchildren would stand under it with their 
tongue extended, just to catch a drop from the drippings. Reminiscent 
of another era, she washed clothes with Lye soap in a cast iron pot, 
heated over a wood fire in the back yard, and heated the house in 
winter with a large cast iron wood stove. 
She was a Primitive (often called Hard-shell) Baptist and worshipped 
at the "old" Sardis church as a young girl and mother. Nannie possessed
a strong faith in God. When her hip was broken at about age 88, she 
determined to walk again, and she did. When the doctors wanted to 
remove one of her toes which had turned black, she refused, saying 
"Just leave it alone, and God will take care of it." HE did, and it got
well. Her three younger sons served in World War II. She prayed 
constantly for their safe return and never lost hope, even when the 
older of them was missing-in-action and wounded, captured, and 
imprisoned by the Nazis. Her God was concerned with even her smallest 
care. Psalm 55:22 & I Peter 5:6&7.
After her husband's death in 1952, Nancy lived alone in a home next 
door to her third daughter, Ethel. 
Her fourth daughter, Fannie, lived across the road. One day when she 
was in her 80's she received a Jury Summons. It upset her tremendously 
and she came running across the road to show it to Fannie, who promptly
handled it because her age exempted her from serving. Following a short
illness and a stroke which left her comatose, she crossed over Jordan 
on Feb 3, 1972, and is buried at Laurel Land Cemetery in Ft. Worth, 
Texas, between her beloved husband Joe, and youngest daughter, Doris.