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EVERETT & HATTIE (STEVENSON) BIOGRAPHY  Everett W. Peavey was born on 3 Oct 1866 in West Waterville (now Oakland), Maine. He was the second oldest child in his happy family, the home of Charles H. and Sarah Messer Peavey. As a little boy he left his native Maine. He referred to himself as still an infant. This same little boy sat in his living room, an aging handsome stately gentlemen, and spoke his life history to his beloved wife, Hattie. He requested that it be preserved in the family records. It is because of this, as well as the love and respect that clings ever in the memories of their surviving issue, that an attempt to immortalize through written page has been made. He spoke but a brief outline of his activities and the following is as he dictated it: "After moving from my birth place, West Waterville, Maine, now Oakland, at infancy, I lived with my family at Cherokee, Iowa. I remained at Cherokee until 1877 when we moved to Millgrove, Missouri. Residing only one year at Millgrove, we went to Gravity, Iowa. Here we remained until 1884 when we moved to Clearfield, Iowa. In 1887, I married Hattie Stevenson in Clearfield, Taylor County, Iowa. She was the daughter of Vincent and Amanda Williams Stevenson. In 1888 we moved to Nebraska where we built our home of sod. We returned to Clearfield, Iowa in 1893. We stayed there until 1915 when we moved to Cathay, North Dakota. We moved to Clarkston, Washington in 1934 and have spent the duration of our lives here. We are members of the Free Methodist Church and here have attended the Pilgrim Holiness Church. Hattie was converted in 1894 and I was converted in 1897. " A note by Hattie Peavey says: "Papa wanted me to write this while he was still rational." Everett's wife Hattie Stevenson was from an influential family with a Christian background. A great grandfather was a minister. He came from Scotland. The Stevenson line goes into Maryland very early in New England history. Hattie's great grandfather, George Stevenson and five of his brothers all served in one company under General Washington during the Revolutionary War. After Everett and Hattie were married they moved into Nebraska with Everett's parents, brother and sister. The purpose of this move was to prove up homestead rights on prairie land there. Just before the move, Everett had been a section foreman for the CB & Q Railroad. While on the homestead he also worked as a section foreman. They took their small son with them. He was named Charles Vincent after both of their fathers. The second child was born in the sod house. His name was Nelson Wooster. Two years later their only daughter was born, Beulah Pearl and two in two more years a son Frank was born. Their goal had been achieved in Nebraska so the families returned to Iowa. Another son named Hallie was born in Kellerton, Iowa and the baby of the family, William Cecil was born at Elston, Iowa. This made the family complete. At the time the family returned to Iowa, Everett and Hattie joined the Free Methodist Church. Everett quit working for the railroad and started farming. They became very active in the Church and often spoke or preached. They were both known to be very good speakers and it has been told that they were both leaders of men. None of the church services were missed. No matter how busy the season, Sunday was the Lord's day to the family. The family was based on the love of Christ and the home was full of Christian love. The family all knelt down around a circle of chairs placed near the heating stove in winter. Here they all prayed before going to bed and Everett would read to them from the Bible. Hattie's parents held a big family reunion and dinner on the occasion of their wedding anniversary each year. This was a happy time for the family. As Everett and Hattie became old and their children spread, they too began to copy this tradition. May 19th became known to the descendants as the most looked forward to event. Everett's mother and father had both passed away and Everett moved his family to Clarkston, Washington. His son Hallie had moved west because his Uncle Arthur sent heads of wheat of enormous size and Hallie was a farmer. Frank and a nephew Ulace Lerew had taken the venture even before Hallie, then Bill and his wife had moved. It was a happy day when Everett joined them. This made the Peavey family complete again. Hattie, however, had to leave her loved ones. She was a very artistically inclined lady. Everett worked for the Highway Department in Clarkston until the time of his retirement. There was a strong missionary effort to take the Gospel to the world. Everett bought mounds of materials for Hattie and she sewed them all into a multitude of quilts. These were for the missionaries. In their home there was an ever present little round can with a slit in it like a bank. It had a picture of a crying foreign child. This was where pennies or change was put for support of the missionaries. A little holder sat in the open desk displaying their favorite Bible verses. When the reunions were held, the minister was invited and would say the blessing before the meal. Everett and Hattie would pose in their front year together, holding their large, well worn and cherished Bible. The family had even then multiplied to a size which overflowed the house's capacity. Since May is spring, the yard contained the rest. Always for desert, sometime after the meal had settled, a five gallon, round tub of ice cream, sometimes two, were purchased from the nearby 7th Street Market. All the grandchildren stood in line remembering what it was going to taste like from their memories of previous years. To them it was a ritual, just like getting special permission to get out of school was. Or like Grandpa and Grandma not forgetting to put the flag out on holidays or go to the cemetery on Memorial Day. Hattie tried to sew a quilt for all her family members as a gift of remembrance to last after she had passed on. She even made one or two out of all silk stockings of different hues and colors, a strikingly beautiful and unique creation. I remember as a child, I wanted to make a quilt so I got to go with daddy to Grandmas and she helped me do one. It was about the time that every family is saddened. It was the time when these two lovely people were beginning to take the first steps towards the end. The three sons in the area took turns staying with them to care for them. I remember Grandma still had her chunks of home made lye soap drying in the side porch. Her old wash tubs hung on nails on the side of the house with an open porch. An old foot peddled grind stone sat by the wood shed. Inside I could always count on Grandma to have honey. She served it to me in a small clear glass dish, the size I never see now. The spoons were all put on the table the old English way, in a tall spoon holder, rather than by your plate. Grandma's home canned dill pickles were always exceptionally salty and a favorite table item was sharp cheddar cheese. I was then too old for toys but I remember secretly checking to see if the toy box was still there. It was, and it had even grown more full of spool dolls, each made from all the empty spools from the quilt making. They were painted with faces. eyes and everything. Oh how we children made a path for that toy box on our visits. We treasured those spool dolls more than all expensive toys because we grew up with them. There was never a cross word or a cuss word heard in that home. It was a place of love and security, one could feel God's holy spirit there. A rounded wood carved clock with Roman numeral numbers ticked loudly from a shelf in the living room and sort of in the middle of the room sat Grandpa's big high backed easy chair. He would sit there and watch out the window at people on the sidewalk or cars in the street. We children would play with him. He had a favorite trick of secretly meowing like a cat and watching us all hunt for the kitty. His very English brogue amused us. An odd shaped chaise lounge piece of furniture gave us nap room. Sometime we children were around when the big door was opened to the almost always closed parlor. In there the furniture was all covered with white sheets or thin blankets to keep the dust off. Here was the storehouse of family heirlooms. Oh, how I wish I could have access to them now. Trunks, cedar chests, fancy dishes, and old pictures, as enticing to me now as when I was a wide-eyed child. Henry the sparrow lived in a cage in the living room but also had access to the house. A real tame pet that they had to take in because he was wounded. Three huge pictures enhanced the living room, all of Jesus. It was a sad time when Everett and Hattie had to be put in a Nursing home in Clarkston. They had a room together and they were visited every day without fail. Prior to the Nursing home, Hattie got arthritis, she actually cured herself of it through prayer and diet. Everett suffered a stroke which left one side of his face in a paralyzed state, and caused his mind to sometimes wander. He was the one to die first, on March 28, 1957. He was buried in the Peavey plot at Vineland Cemetery which already contained his brother Arthur Peavey and sister Alice F. Peavey, and his granddaughter Virginia Pearl Peavey. His wife, Hattie joined by his side on October 11, 1959. She passed on at age 91. In her end years, she had been confined to a wheel chair due to a fall which broke her hip. Her mind was sound until the end. She was always loved by all as was her husband. They possessed the highest moral character, hard working, honest, good credit, and their word was as good as gold. They instilled these ideals into their children and produced a group of Peavey's who upheld the high family ideals. They are greatly missed and it will be a real thrill to see their descendants all gather around them after the resurrection. EVERETT & HATTIE'S FAMILY PAGE SOURCES: Personal knowledge of writer June Peavey Patterson Everett Peavey's verbal statement Hattie Peavey's written records Tombstones & Obituaries Written statements from Nelson and Charles Peavey. Edited for PVMID |