A Lady Pioneer and an Opera Singer

I'm 1/2 Bohemian (Czech) and 1/2 Heinz 57......a real mutt. Some of my "American" lines have been here for over 400 years. (My Czech lines - not so long - I'm 2nd generation.)

One of the groups of people that came to America early were the Quakers. The last Quaker in my family was my great-great grandmother, Martha Ellis Harvey. Martha was born in Indiana in 1843. She had a hard life. At the age of 5 she lost her mother, and by 10 her dad was also dead. She was raised by relatives and became a land owner. In 1860 she married John Harvey and in the space of 15 years had 5 children - the youngest was my great-grandfather. Sometime after the birth of my great-grandfather in 1875 the family bought land in near Blue Springs, Nebraska and moved there. I think that Martha was not only the last Quaker in the family, but the last pioneer woman in the family as well. I like to think that, as she had red hair, she had the dispostion to go along with it and that got her thru a lot. Upon arriving in Blue Springs Martha set up housekeeping in a SOD house where the family lived until their "real" home was built. Can you imagine trying to keep clean in a dirt and sod house??? Unfortunately, Martha died in 1880 at the young age of 37. The family buried her in Blue Springs. John was left with small children to raise and no help, so he moved the family back to Indiana to be near relatives.

The second child, Simeon, never got over losing his mother. He was 15 when she died and was attending the Arapahoe School in Nebraska where he was awarded a Diploma of Honor for regular attendance, good deportment and good recitation. He also spoke an Indian dialect. When he died, at the age of 23 in Holton, Kansas, his family honored his request and buried him beside his mother in Blue Springs, Nebraska.

Martha Ellis Harvey's parents were Mordacai Ellis and Ruth Hinshaw. If you know anything about genealogy research - Quaker research, imparticular, you've heard about the Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy compiled by William Wade Hinshaw and you know how the series changed the way we research Quaker records today. Here's a story you may not know.......

William Wade Hinshaw was a first cousin to Ruth Hinshaw Ellis and second cousin to Martha. If it hadn't been for Martha's granddaughter, Edna Harvey Joseph, William Wade might not have ever written those books. You see, Edna had a love of genealogy and did a huge amount of research on the family from about 1920 until her death in the 1973. William Wade Hinshaw had an interest in his Quaker forebearers, but didn't know how to go about researching them. Edna pointed him in the right direction and "was able to fan that small flame into a roaring fire" in her cousin. Oh, and William Wade Hinshaw was also a very well known Metropolitan opera singer.