Historical Details

Harvey Family

Courtesy of Our Heritage: Niobrarans and Neighbors, 12/01/2020

 HARVEY FAMILY

by Thelma Lynn Scott

Mr. and Mrs. William Wesley Harvey came to north Goshen County in October, 1913 to homestead. They lived in the Lige Church house that winter, as the Church's had returned to South Sioux City, Nebraska for the winter.  It was a mild Wyoming Christmas and all the family gathered there for the day, the men in their shirt sleeves.

Their son-in-law, Walter Scott Church, their oldest daughter, Maude's husband and son, Frank W. Harvey came out to the home­ stead in Oct. 1912, and built their houses before their families came out later that spring and summer. The Church's remained until they had proved up in the fall of 1915, Lige the father and his sons Harry and Walter all came from east Nebraska.

The W.W. Harveys built· their home and dug a well in the early spring of 1914.

The F. W. Harveys went back to east Nebraska in 1916, but returned to Wyoming in 1918.  They left for Washington state in 1920 and have since resided there. They returned to Wyoming in Sept. 1970 to visit and look over the old homestead. It was his first visit to Wyoming in over 50 years. They live in Seattle.

The W.W. Harvey's daughter, Fae Harvey, came to Wyoming and had an adjoining homestead which she filed on June 20, 1913.   Wyoming was her home the rest of her life.  She passed away on Sept. 7, 1965 at Hat Creek, Wyoming at her daughter's, Thelma Scott.

The W.W. Harvey's daughter Nina Marie, born Jan. 16, 1897, married Raymond Virgil "Tex" Olds in 1916 or 1917.  They had one son Jack George Olds. They lost a son and daughter still-born that are buried in unmarked graves on the Old R. S Bell place south of Node. Due to her health, (she had the flu during the flu siege in the latter teens) they went to Oregon in the fall of 1920, along with her parents, the W.W. Harveys, and stayed with Mr. Harvey's sister Aunt Mattie Harvey Williams. They all re­ turned to Node in the spring of 1921, and Mrs. Olds died on May 10, 1922 and is buried in the Node cemetery. The W. W. Harveys later lived on the Fred Christensen place just east of Node in the latter 22's and left there for Washington state in November, 1924 where they lived the balance of their lives. The latter years were in Seattle, Washington.  They were married over 62 years.  She died Nov. 15, 1947 and he May 27, 1951 at 95. He was born in Prairie Au Chine, Wisconsin on March 14, 1856 in a fur trading town. He was the son of Robert Greenleaf Harvey, who was born in Bangor, Maine and Sarah Ann, also known as Sarah Sophia Rouse was born across the river in Canada from Detroit, Michigan.

His brothers were Charles Spofford, George James Otterbien, Frank Mortimer, Rolland Gordon, a sister Martha Ann and Sarah Marie.  The family came to Madison County, Nebraska when grandpa Harvey was 14 in 1870.  They crossed the Missouri river at Omaha. There was a large group of people among them, the Rouses. Great Grandfather R. G. Harvey homesteaded near Meadow Grove, Nebraska.  They had come from Maine in a covered wagon. In the teens, R. G. Harveys, their son Charles and daughter Martha and daughter, a widow; Sarah Runkin and three small sons moved to near Portland, Oregon. The R. G. Harveys celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in Oregon before they died. They are buried in Damascus, Oregon some 30 or 40 miles from Portland.  Also

Uncle Charlie and Aunt Mattie.  Aunt Sadie later married George Dallas and lived in Gladstone, Oregon and they are buried there, she died April 1, 1960 at 95.

Grandfather William Wesley Harvey married Martha Elizabeth Rightmire, born December 20, 1863, at Hardon County, Ohio. They were married Dec. 13, 1884. They had six children, Maude Spealman, born Aug. 4, 1885, Fae born Aug. 26, 1882, Frank born Sept. 23, 1889, Nina, Jan. 16, 1897, Manford,  "Jack" May 7, 1903 and Wilma, June 3, 1905. All lived in Wyoming.

Grandfather William W. Harvey homesteaded in Cherry County, Nebraska, south of Nenzel near the Niobrara River in 1887 and remained there until 1896 when they returned by covered wagon to Tilden, Nebr. They drove a herd of horses back with them from the homestead.  Aunt Maude drove them with her pony. She celebrated her 11th birthday on the trip. In 1900 they moved to Sioux City, Iowa and south Sioux City, Nebr. where they remained until coming to Wyoming in 1913.

Grandma Harvey was the daughter of Harrison Rightmire and Melinga Wilson Rightmire of, Harden County, Ohio. They came by covered wagon to East Nebraska and homesteaded part of what is now Omaha, Nebr., later selling property and moving to Tekamah, Nebr. and later to Madison County, Nebr. on a timber claim.   It took five years to prove up on a homestead then.

Grandma moved near Tilden; then later into Tilden. Grandma had a brother, Benjamin, who died at 13, when kicked by a mule in the head and a brother James Marion born Sept. 17, 1866 who married Minnie Sell  Moore in eastern Nebraska.  They, along with their daughter Edna Charlotte, came to North Goshen County, Wyoming to homestead in 1914.

Edna married Archie Voorhees, born Jan. 28, 1885, on Sept. 27, 1916.  He had an adjoining homestead and died on Nov. 23, 1965 in Lusk.   The Rightmires are buried there.    Edna has lived in Lusk since 1926 or 1927.   Uncle Marion died June 5, 1945 and  Aunt Minnie on Jan. 30, 1937.

Edna had two daughters, Alice Athelia who married Joe S. Leimser, and had two daughters, Eleanor now married to Stanley Aamodt, and has a daughter Connie, now in Casper; and Rosemary who married Herbert Tadewald in Sept. 6, 1947 and had Shirlee, Carmen and Danny.  Shirlee is married to David Racket of Torrington and has a son Kelly Jo; Carmen is married to Jerry Mundelin of South Dakota. Alice also has a daughter Naomi who is married on May 18, 1959 to Dennis Lorenzen, they live at Hat Creek and have a son Howard and a daughter Jacque.

When small, we spent many Sundays at Aunt Minnie Rightmires with a family gathering.

Grandma Harvey's sister Mary married Adolph Snider and. they had a son Harold who married Florence Noble, a niece of L. M. Lynn. They also lived in North Goshen County in the teens, but returned to Tilden, Nebr. after he got the flu. They had a son Dean who now lives in Oregon. The Sniders also had a daughter Myrtle, who had three sons.    Their names; Cline, a son Leland who lives in Spokane, Wash., visited his cousin Edna V. in Lusk in 1970; a son Leighton, who died as a baby; and a son Robin.

The Harrison Rightmires had a daughter Sarah who died when less than a year old; a girl Jennie, who was a nurse and superintendent of Samaritain Hospital in Sioux City, Iowa in early 1900 s and later an X-ray technician in Little Rock, Ark. who died in Tampa, Fla., where her daughter lived. A brother Walter and sister Nellie both died when quite young, less than a month old.

There was a small one-room school house on the Lige Church place where Mabel Barrett taught one year.  Among the children going to the school were Manford "Jack" and Wilma Harvey, Opal, Lyle and Lowell Church, Ed  and Libby Lang and Otto Vondra.

The Plezal post office was established on August 27, 1915 by Vaughn Morrow on his land in North Goshen County.  He had a general store, also. On Sept. 28, 1917 my aunt Georgia Lynn Joseph became postmaster, on Oct. 2, 1918 my uncle Frank W. Harvey became postmaster, and on July 15, 1919 through Oct. 31, 1921, when the post office was discontinued and moved to Van Tassell, the postmaster was Georgiana Whiteside. Her husband was a mail carrier.

The W.W. Harvey's daughter, Fae, who married L.M. Lynn in Lusk at the D.E. Goddard residence on Oct. 27, 1915, was the only Harvey remaining in Wyoming after 1924. Daddy came to homestead on April 6, 1914, then came to Wyoming the year before in 1913. Their homesteads adjoined after they were married and they moved onto daddy's homestead.

Fae Harvey and Lewis M. Lynn had three children.  Mom was born south of Nenzel, Nebr. near the Niobrara river on her fathers homestead on Aug. 26, 1887 and she lived there until 1896 when they left the home­ stead to go to Tilden and later on to South Sioux City, Nebr. and Sioux City, Iowa where she attended school and took nurses training at the Samaritan hospital in Sioux City, Iowa graduating with the class of 1911. It was in this hospital, where her aunt Gen Rightmire M. Wise was the superintendent, that she met my father L. M. Lynn when he came to visit his sister M. Er Dana Lynn, who was the assistant superintendent of the hospital. He worked on the Panama Canal for eight years until its completion. They corresponded and when she came west to homestead, he followed her here and homesteaded also, making this their home for the rest of their lives, outside of a short stay in Florida, from the fall of 1925 until the spring of 1928. He came here during the summer of 1927. We came to Wyoming in the spring of 1928 and that fall returned to Florida until spring of 1929 and have since remained here.

Lewis Murphy Lynn was born in Kamps­ville, Ill. to Grandfather Francis M. Lynn who was born Oct., 19, 1948 and died on Jan. 30, 1925.

They had box socials, dances at some­one's home, and people came for miles, sometimes staying overnight.

The Harveys, Churches and Lynns among others, went to the Rawhide Buttes to get wood. They drove teams and wagons, and went one day, spent a day or two loading and a day returning home.  All farming was done with horses and walking plows.  The women raised chickens, and turkeys for meat, raised gardens, canned, washed on the wash board, boiled their clothes, baked bread, put up jelly, if any fruit was available, milked, made butter and cheese, and sold butter and cream if there was more than the family needed.

G. G. Harrison Rightmire served in the Civil War, was a Yankee, was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh.   Loosing three middle fingers of his right hand, he crawled to the creek, held his hand in the cold water to stop the bleeding, and was found the next morning by soldiers, after spending the night alone. He was a member of Company A of Ohio Volunteers, enrolled on Nov. 4, 1861 and received an honorable discharge from duty on Aug. 29, 1862.

Grandfather Harvey taught school in a predominantly German neighborhood near the Niobrara River south of Nenzel, Nebr. He was a good mathematician and could do figures in his head most could not do on paper. He came to this part of Nebraska due to his health. He helped to institute several Masonic and Odd Fellow Lodges throughout Nebraska and worked for the Manford Creamery Company in Sioux City, Iowa. When in his early 90's, he visited Wyoming in 1948 and 1949, by himself and came by train and bus from Seattle, Wash. where he lived.

Uncle Walter S. Church passed on June 1, 1965 and Aunt Maude who was 86 on Aug. 4, 1971 still lives in Creighton, Nebr. Uncle Frank and Uncle Jack Harvey and their sister Wilma Harvey Williams and families all live in Seattle, Wash., and Aunt Wilma in Federal Way, Wash. They are all of the original family left at the W.W. Harveys. Mr. and Mrs. Harvey are both buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Seattle, Wash.; my mother Fae M. Lynn in Lusk; also my father L. M. Lynn and our daughter Arlene Mae Scott; and Mom's sister Nina M. Olds in Node.

The Church family of near south Sioux City Nebr. intermarried with the Harveys, and Rouse families so we have many relatives and near relatives among them.

Lewis M. Lynn and Fae Harvey Lynn had three children, Thelma Irene, Lewis Marion, and Dale Harvey. Thelma Irene Lynn married Robert Scott on Sept. 22, 1934, their children, Richard Norleigh born July 20, 1935, married Judith Lee Shrewsbury born Nov 17 on April 8, 1961, they have three children, Shellene Lynnae Scott born Sept. 27, 1962, Robyn Renne on May 15, 1965 and Richard Eric on May 12, 1968.  They live in Tucson,  Ariz.  Richard works in construction. They have lived there since Aug. 28, 1965.   Robert Lynn Scott born Jan. 31, 1928 married Sammie Lee Bayne Cook on May 18, 1958. Their children Kelley Marie on April 11, 1958, Arlene Mae on Feb. 26, 1960, Kevin Robert on March 11, 1965, Shane Owen on Aug. 5, 1968 and Robert Lynn Scott, Jr. on May 23, 1971. They live in Scottsbluff, Nebr. where Bob is parts manager at Whitehead-Blaha. They have lived there since Oct. 15, 1963. Arlene Mae Scott our daughter, born June 2, 1939, died Sept. 22, 1940 of rattlesnake bite. Roger Lewis Scott born on April 5, 1947, married Aleta Viann Alter on Nov. 11, 1967 and have two children, Stacie Ann Scott born March 20,  1970 and Miranda Lynn Scott on Sept. 3, 1971.  Roger is on his 2nd enlistment in the U.S.A.F. stationed at Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico since April 10, 1971. Lewis Marion Lynn was born Aug. 9, 1917 and married Shirley Faith Evert on July 21, 1946 in Torrington, Wyo.  Their son Manford Lewis was born March 30, 1948 and married Kathleen Kay Edis. Nettie Fae Lynn born June 2, 1950, married Norman Charles Nelson on June 1, 1968, Althea Louis born Sept 28, 1953, Coral Ann Lynn born April 22, 1958. Dale Harvey Lynn was born Oct. 7, 1919 and married Marian Virginia McDonald on May 20, 1948.  She died Oct. 25, 1956 and is buried in Waterloo, Iowa.  They had a son James Arthur on April 19, 1949, and daughter Virginia Fae Lynn born Feb 15, 1952, and Janet Marie Lynn born Dec. 16, 1953.

After his first wife's death Dale married Mrs. Gertrude Peterson, a widow, on Nov. 9, 1962, she had four children, Nancy, Barbara, John and Diane.

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Related/Linked Records

Record Type Name
Obituary Harvey, William (03/14/1856 - 04/27/1951) View Record