Walter Helle: He wrote about his grandparents: "I remember well my grandmother and grandfather on my mother's side of our family. My grandfather, Joseph Kaler, died when I was only ten years old. To my knowledge, Grandma never said an ill word about anyone or ever raised her voice in anger. She loved to sing hymns. She was truly a great woman. Her mother, Lodema and her two sisters, Mary and Louisa and her two daughters, Nellie and Ethel were all school teachers. Grandma even taught Grandpa how to read and write after they were married. Grandpa was a preacher for a time and they were all of Baptist by faith. I am proud to have such a heritage."

"Memories of a Country Girl", by Ethel Walton: "I always loved to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Kaler. I was used to a lot of activity at our home, but oddly I did not miss it when I visited them. Grandma was english, a very neat little lady. She was always a lady in the truest sense of the word. She had large dark eyes, which my mother inherited, and have been passed on through the family. I never heard my Grandma speak ill of anyone, or ever use foul or vulgar language. She was an educated lady, who read books right up to her last days. She wrote many articles for Youths companion, which was a magazine for young people.Grandma told of the singing bees held at churches when she was young. This was a form of entertainment for the entire community. She was always participating in these and was a very good singer. At one of these bees, the director of the music came to her and told her she had a lovely voice. One of her songs, which I have a copy of, was sang at the funeral of her youngest son,William."

Source: "Jesse Braman and Nancy Ward", by Thelma Rockwell, Nov. 1973:
Nancy had an idential twin sister named Mary. They couldn't be told apart by most. So one of them wore their long floor length dresses just slightly shorter than the other so people could tell them apart. Nancy and Mary wrote poems and letters, which have been incorporated into family history books. The following poems were written from one twin to the other.
To Nan from Mary, July 15, 1864:
Forget me not what varied feeling
These little magic words impart
Absence and love at once revealing
May sadden while the soothe the heart
Forgetme not whateer of woes
In life's precarious path hath set me,
They'll soften if affection knows
That those I love will not forget me.
Mary P. Bayless, Cuba, Illionois
To Mary From Nan:
Remember me is all I ask
This..I give to thee
Oh may it be an easy task
To sometimes think of me.

Joseph and Nancy Bayless Kaler purchased 80 acres near Cass township, Fulton County, Illinois. Six of their grandchildren were born at this home. Joseph and Nancy must have been wonderful loving grandparents, as I remember when Lloyd Helle took me to the cemetery many years after their death and stood by their graves with tears in his eyes, telling me how much he loved them.

Quoted from: CASS TOWNSHIP - A FULTON COUNTY HISTORY (http://cop42.tripod.com/cass.htm) "Nancy, taught at the Williams Schoolin Harris Township and told her grandchildren of riding a horse to school, of being lost in the Spoon River bottoms, staying with her horse, and at daybreak finding her way home. Nancy married one of the Buckeye boys and went onto raise a family, three sons and four daughters. Two of Nancy's daughters married and raised twenty-two sons. At latest count there are 450 living descendants scattered around the globe."

Note: Nancy's name is spelled Balis and also Baylis on her marriage license.
(Sharon Bearce)