The following page described her as ‘without doubt the strongest player of her sex in America’ and reported:

‘Mrs Showalter comes of a prominent Kentucky family, but was born in the state of Missouri in 1872; although her maiden name was Nellie Love Marshall, she claims no family relationship with the new champion bearing the same surname.’

From page 7 of the January 1894 BCM: ‘She is only 22 years of age and was married to him [Jackson Whipps Showalter] at 16. Soon after this event her husband taught her the moves, and then gave her the odds of the queen; but she progressed so rapidly that he cannot now give her the knight, and she has won two games of Mr Lasker at that odds. Not long ago, at Kokomo, Indiana, she played four games on even terms with Mr Jackson, the champion of that State, with the result that she won three and the other was drawn. She is said to be very handsome but, if so, the portrait of her in the New York Recorder does not do her justice …’

A photograph of their son, Freeman Showalter, who was born in 1895, was published on page 228 of the November 1918 American Chess Bulletin, where he was described by J.W. Showalter as follows: ‘He plays a very good, unpolished and natural game, but without any book training or knowledge acquired from books at all. I think he has considerable talent, in fact, but, of course, undeveloped.’

The obituary of an elder brother of Jackson Whipps Showalter, Judge John William Showalter, was published on page 312 of the January 1899 American Chess Magazine and stated that he was ‘a devoted follower of the game of chess’ and that ‘he taught the moves of chess to Jackson W. Showalter when the future champion was eight years of age.’

With respect to Jackson and Nellie, Brennen adds that

Thank you very much for that information. Here is a report from the June 3, 1894 edition of the NY Times giving some more information about the Showalter-Worrall match:

… [Also in 1884,] Showalter moved .. to Laredo, Texas, to oversee some of his father’s holdings there. He also married; his wife, Nellie, eventually learned the game from him, and developed enough prowess to defeat Emanuel Lasker at odds of a Knight.>

Although I copied this information from www.1heckofaguy.com, the information actually comes from Edward Winter's <Chess Notes> column, which can be found at www.chesshistory.com.

"At the critical juncture in the games, Mrs. Showalter would smile coyly, and then flash a bit of ankle. I was extremely flustered by such antics. When I complained to Mr. Showalter, he just guffawed and said, 'My Nellie is such a card! Have a cigar'.">

"My first great victory was in a match game I played with Arthur Peters, who won the free-for-all tournament in the United States association Lexington, Ky., in 1891."

"I go with my husband when he plays and when he went to Kokomo, Ind., to take part in the Lasker-Showalter match for the championship of the world I met Mr. C.A. Jackson, champion of Indiana, and answered his challenge to play a match: I drew the first game and won the next three."

"When I first came to New York I played with Mr. Lasker a match of five games up. He gave the odds of a knight and I beat him five to two."

"At the critical juncture in the games, Mrs. Showalter would smile coyly, and then flash a bit of ankle. I was extremely flustered by such antics. When I complained to Mr. Showalter, he just guffawed and said, 'My Nellie is such a card! Have a cigar'.">

<I would be very interested as to the source of this quote. I have not yet come across it in my Showalter research. Thank you.>

I suspected as much, but had to ask .... you never know.

<rookhouse>,
I found an interesting reference in an article about a simultaneous display that David Janowski gave at the Brooklyn Chess Club in December 1898.

Janowski won their 1898 match by a score of +7-2=4. In 1899 they played two matches, with Showalter winning both, the first by a score of +4-2, and the second by a score of +4-2=1. In 1916, they played their final match, with Janowski winning by a score of +7-2=2.

Does the above information, and the 37 gamescores, agree with the research information that you have developed?

[Event "Simultaneous exhibition"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date "1894??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Showalter, Jackson Whipps"]
[Black "Intropidi, F"]
[Result "1-0

1.e4 c5 2. Nc3 e6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 a6 6. Be2 Be7 7. O-O Bf6 8. Be3 ge7 9. f4 d6 10. Qd2 O-O 11. Rad1 e5 12. Nf3 exf4 13. Bxf4 Qb6+ 14. Kh1 Qxb2 5. Na4 Qxa2 16. Nb6 Rb8 17. Bxd6 Rd8 18. Qf4 Ng6 19. Qg3 Be6 20. Bxb8 Rxb8 21. Nd5 Be5 22. Nxe5 Ngxe5 23. Bd3 Nxd3 24. Rxd3 Rf8 25. Nf6+ Kh8 26. Qh4 h6 27. Nh5 Ne5 28. Nxg7 Nxd3 29. Qxh6+ Kg8 30. Nh5 Nf2+ 31. Kg1 1-0

[Event "Simultaneous exhibition"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date "1894.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Showalter, Jackson Whipps"]
[Black "Jones"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 d5 4. Qa4 Bd7 5. exd5 Nd4 6. Qd1 Nxf3+ 7. Qxf3 Nf6 8. Bc4 e4 9. Qe2 Bd6 10. d3 O-O 11. dxe4 Nxe4 12. O-O f5 13. Nd2 Qh4 14. g3 Qe7 15. Nxe4 fxe4 16. f3 b5 17. Bb3 Kh8 18. f4 e3 19. Bxe3 Rae8 20. Rfe1 Qf6 21. Qf3 Qg6 22. Bd2 Bc5+ 23. Be3 Qd3 24. Kf2 Rxe3 25. Rxe3 Qd2+ 26. Kf1 Bxe3 0-1

A bit of ankle, indeed! Ah, for those simpler times-today, it would take rather more than a bit of ankle, I should think.

While on the topic of the estimable Mr Showalter, I believe he was of six men from whom Steinitz stated that he would accept a cigar.

<"Showalter recently played fifteen chess and ten checker games at Cincinnati simultaneously with the best talent Cincinnati and Kentucky cities could muster, and won them all. This was in the afternoon. At night he played blindfolded simultaneously ten chess and fifteen checker games, and won all."> -- Marysville (Ky) Evening Bulletin, January 2, 1900.

They were actually set to play another match of five games up for $500 a side in 1899. It was scheduled to begin on April 22, but was canceled due to "the two experts having arrived at the conclusion that they had kept up hostilities long enough".

To date, I have only uncovered one of the games from Nellie's match with Lasker. It was the third game of the match with Lasker's Queen's Knight removed. She won that game in 35 moves.