Amy Nack celebrates Mabel Claire Nelson

Mabel Claire

Statement by Amy

Mabel Clair

Amy Nack

I discovered Mabel Claire Nelson in my search for a young girl who lived in Boise at the turn of the 20^th Century.  Born in 1899, Mabel kept journals of life the as a young women growing up in the Boise area.  The Idaho State Historical Library has nine of her handwritten journals in their collection. The first journal entry, written in red ink on April 5, 1912, begins with twelve year old Mabel recording her early morning chores of cooking, bed making, cleaning, sweeping and ironing, before a mid morning walk up a nearby hill to gather an armful of daisies for a beloved neighbor.

The nine journals, spanning the years between 1912 and 1916 tell the story of an industrious, bright, generous and reflective young woman who died shortly before her 18^th birthday.  It has been my pleasure to become a friend of Mabel Nelson.