John Long MAC NAIR
Mabel Edna THRESHER

Husband:  John Long MAC NAIR
Birth:  5 Mar 1897, Atlantic Highlands, Monmouth Co., New Jersey
Death:  31 May 1979, Topeka, Shawnee Co., Kansas         (obituary)
Burial:  Jun 1979, Fairmount Cemetery, Jetmore, Hodgeman Co., Kansas
Father:  Wilmer MAC NAIR
Mother:  Eleanor A. ROBERTS

Marriage:     18 Mar 1920, Jetmore, Hodgeman Co., Kansas   

Wife:  Mabel Edna THRESHER
Birth:  28 Jun 1891, Center Twp., Hodgeman Co., Kansas 
Death:  11 Nov 1982, Topeka, Shawnee Co., Kansas         (obituary)
Burial:  Nov 1982, Fairmount Cemetery, Jetmore, Hodgeman Co., Kansas
Father:  John A. THRESHER
Mother:  Hettie Ellen HERBER

Children:   
1. John A. "Jack" MAC NAIR, b: 12 Nov 1926, Jetmore, Hodgeman Co., Kansas 
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Notes:    

1925 State Census Data (KS1925_62, Page 3), Valley Twp., Hodgeman Co., Kansas, Jan-1925, Family #16

1930 Federal Census Data (T626_0704, Page 264B), Valley Twp., Hodgeman Co., Kansas,
                                                                                      Enumeration District: 10, Enumeration Date: 13-May-1930, Family #38

When Mabel died, a short history was printed in the paper about her family. From The Jetmore Republican, November 18, 1982:
     MABEL THRESHER MAC NAIR FAMILY HISTORY

     The Thresher family history in Hodgeman County started on a homestead claim south of Jetmore in 1886.
     John A. Thresher later brought his sixteen year old bride, Hettie, to the homestead.  Five children were born
     to this couple:  Mabel (Mac Nair), Ina (Mix), Etta (Rogers), Arlie (Mooney) and a son, Charlie.  The location
     of the original homestead was four and a half miles southeast of Jetmore.  A concrete silo, built about 1910,
     still stands as a land-mark near the original homestead.

     In regards to the first-born Thresher child, Mabel, she was born on the homestead in 1891, attended the
     grade school nearby and was the wagon-master in charge of the mule and cart by which the three sisters
     traveled to school.  As Mabel was one of the very first born girls in Hodgeman County, there were no high
     schools to attend, so she attended boarding school and later Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas.  She
     returned to Hodgeman County and taught a number of years in both rural and town grade schools.  Mabel
     later served on the high school board for a number of years.

     In 1919, she met John Mac Nair, who came home from Kansas State College with her brother, Charlie, to
     help the Threshers harvest wheat.  The fact that John Mac Nair met Mabel Thresher was accomplished
     by the toss of a coin.  John was from New Jersey and wanted to attend a good agricultural college.  The
     coin flip was between Wisconsin {and Kansas} and Kansas State College at Manhattan, Kansas won
     and so eventually did John and Mabel meet.  They married March 18, 1920 and moved to rock house and
     farm on Pawnee Creek fifteen miles northwest of Jetmore.

     To John and Mabel a son, Jack, was born in 1926.  John was elected to the legislature in the late forties
     and later moved to Topeka to be on the State Tax Commission, when Jack returned to the farm.  John and
     Mabel retired then to Topeka where John passed away in 1979.

     Mabel Mac Nair, at age 91, in 1982 may have been the last living Kansas woman to have crossed the state
     in a covered wagon during pioneer days.  She was three years old in 1894 when her family made a trip to
     Topeka and back to Jetmore in a covered wagon.  It took ten days each way to make the journey.  Her
     death on November 11, 1982 marked the end of a personal chapter for another remarkable old-timer with
     Kansas and Hodgeman County roots.    
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