...Maggie Dannels was born in 1885 in German Township, Smith County, Kansas to
D.B. Dannels and Becca (Ketterman) Dannels, she was one of twelve children born to them. Her parents also raised a nephew and a grandson.
...As a young woman, Maggie became a school teacher after attending Normal School in Smith Center, Kansas and getting her teaching certificate in 1902. She then attended and graduated from Grand Island Business and Normal College in 1904 and worked for Boyd Publishing for a year. She then taught school in Kensington until 1907 when she headed out to Colorado to homestead. She kept up her homestead along with teaching at the Prairie Centre School in Haigler, Nebraska. In 1909 she went down to Texas with her parents and younger siblings after an excursion of Kansas people settled in Collegeport, Texas, looking for better land and opportunities on the gulf coast. From postcards written from Maggie to her suitor, Perry Nelson, they were sent to "my love".
...On April 6, 1910 Maggie and Perry were married by Rev. W.R. Bennett in Steelville, German Township. "Both the bride and groom were born and reared in the vicinity of where theyy were wed. After the wedding the happy couple started for Yuma county, Colo., to make their home on a homestead owned by the bride. They will reside there until she proved up and then return to this county to live." (Smith County Pioneer, 14 April 1910, Pg.1) Their first born son was born while they were in Yuma County homesteading.
...By 1912 they had moved back to Smith County, had another baby (a daughter) and Perry's father was building them a new house to live in on the Nelson farm near Reamsville.
... Margaret became the rural mail carrier for the Reamsville area and by 1920 is using a new Ford automobile on her route. She continued at that job for 18 years. From her obituary, "she drove that rural mail route, taking the mail through under conditions that sometimes daunted carriers of the male sex. But she did more. Her patrons were her special care. She often stopped along her route to put fresh bandages on wounds, comfort the sick, deliver a baby or help in any way she could."
...In 1937, Margaret and Perry Nelson moved to Lebanon where she became to mail carrier for about eight more years. She became the postmaster of Lebanon the last two years before she retired, making a total of 28 years delivering and handling the mail for Smith County.
...The best known achievement of Margaret Nelson's life was the publication of her book entitled, Home on the Range, in 1947. The book tells not only of the origin of the song, Home of the Range (the State Song of Kansas), but also the struggles, hardships, and joys of the early Smith County settlers. She grew up near Dr. Brewster Higley, the author of the song, and who was in attendance when she was born.
...Her health began to fail while she was writing other articles and poems, along with plans for another book. She was very active in the Smith County Historical Society, belonged to the Kansas Authors Club, the Social Twenty, and the Needlecraft Club.
...Almost a year before her death, she was the guest of honor at a huge musical event, called the Chicagoland Annual Music Festival, and sponsored by the Chicago Tribune. At that special dinner, tribute was paid to her for her part in telling the story of 'Home on the Range' the song, as it was very popular at the time, and the song was sung at the dinner.
...On her was back from the Chicago festival, she stopped by to visit her new great-granddaughter in Des Moines, Iowa.
...In 1961, at the age of 76, she died in Smith Center, Kansas, where she and her late husband were residents. Perry preceded her in death in 1954, they both were life-long residents of Smith County, Kansas.
Bio by Audrey Staples, great-granddaughter of Margaret Nelson.