The mystery of Waterford's Princess Nellie

Kimball, Carol W.

Waterford's Princess Nellie, a "little person" or "midget"

Kim12-070

Scrapbook

8: Communication Artifact

Documentary Artifact

The Day

New London, CT

01/04/2010

Carol W. Kimball

Princess Nellie, was a "little person" who lived in Waterford much of her adult life. She was just 30 inches tall and, at age 40, weighed 42 pounds. In her day she was called a "midget". She spent a great part of her life in show business. She was born Nellie Frances Way on March 25, 1885, in East Haddam, one of 11 children of Frank and Roxana Way, of whom three were "little people". She grew up in Salem, attending Pond School. She expertly played the organ, harp and violin. On the road she met Maj. Stanley Jober, born in Warsaw, Poland, who measured 3 feet 10 inches, a bit taller than she. They married April 14, 1920 in the Huntington Street Baptist Church in New London. They formed a team called the Jober midgets and eventually traveled with the Otis Smith carnival circus which wintered in Syracuse, N.Y. In 1937, Nellie's brother built them a tiny three-room house on the Boston Post Road, opposite the south end of Fog Plain Road. It was billed as the smallest home in America with a foundation measuring 10 by 30 feet. It was next door to Nellie's parents' home where her brother Harry ran a gas station. She attended the First Baptist Church in New London. Nellie was an expert seamstress who made all her own clothes, quilts, curtains. She died Sept. 29, 1941 at her home and was buried in Jordan Cemetery. Her gravestone reads "Princess Nellie". One mystery remains. The Syracuse Herald of November 9, 1924 shows a picture of Nellie with a toddler stating the midget family is interesting and the baby less than a year old being almost as tall as the mother. An Internet source says the couple had an averaged sized daughter. Yet Nellie's obituary makes no mention of a child. Carol Kimball thanks John Drabik and Michael Spellmon for help in reviving the story of this celebrated couple.

Jober, Stanley Maj., marries Nellie
Way, Nellie Frances, "Princess Nellie"
Way, Walter, Nellie's brother
Way, Harry, Nellie's brother
Drabik, John
Spellmon, Michael

Princess Nellie and Maj. Jober
midget or "little person"
Jober midgets
Huntington Street Baptist Church in New London
Jober midgets
Otis Smith carnival circus
Waterford
First Baptist Church in New London
Mystery daughter