Nell Cropsey #9

   Jim was named after his relative James Wilcox.  Jim’s lawyer for the case with Nell was the same one who defended James in his case.  James killing John Brothers, out of what James said was self-defense, gave Jim a bad name in his case; “People talked about bad blood in a family…”  (pg. 82; Simpson)  According to Ollie, the first Christmas they were in Pasquotank, “…Jim gave Nell a dish with a silver frame and handle.  The second Christmas he gave her a gold pin with a red jewel of some sort set in it.”  (pg. 82; Simpson)  During the summer of 1900, the Cropseys stayed down at the Outer Banks where Jim came to see Nell once a week and gave her a ring that had her initials on the inside; he gave it to her on her birthday.  The book then adds in a couple of pages saying Nell’s father became the largest truck farmer in the Albemarle after moving down and renting sixty-five acres from John Fearing.  When Jim and Nell started becoming sour towards each other, Mrs. Cropsey told Andrew Cropsey, Nell’s uncle, that “…she was becoming fearful of him and that she had forebodings that he would harm Nell someday.”  (pg.  86; Simpson)