Harvey David Trevathan (1892-1960), Orphaned at Young Age

I remember my father saying that his father had a sad life.  Unfortunately, my grandfather's early life was very much like his father, James Augusta Trevathan's life.  Fortunately, he didn't die young and tragically. I was only seven years old when my grandfather died and remember very little about him. I have memories of riding piggyback on him while he worked in the gardens.  I don't know how he did this since he was in his early to mid-sixties at the time.  I know he loved to pour cream over his peach cobbler - guess it was no different than ice cream really.  I used to go with him on errands to the icehouse near the town square in downtown Tyler, Texas and the lumberyard to get supplies. He was strong in his faith and active in Calvary Baptist Church from teaching Bible classes to delivering boxes of food to people in need. And I have memories of him reading his Bible at night and he seemed to always have it with him. He was a gentle and kind man.

My grandfather was born in 1892 in Trinity County, Texas to James and Lucinda (Richardson) Trevathan. He was their third child but the first to live beyond infancy.   He and his younger sister, Mae, were raised by their Aunt Kat (Katherine Roberta Trevathan) and her husband, George Jones.  His mother died in childbirth when he was four years old and his father was killed in a shoot out when he was six years old.

Harvey & Narcia (Mericle) Trevathan

Harvey grew up to be a tall, handsome man and on 1 October of 1911 married the beautiful Narcia Vivian Mericle.   Their first son, James Augusta Trevathan (Sonny), was born on 27 September 1912 but died on 22 November 1912.  Their second child, Paul Levier Trevathan was born 29 October 1913 but he too died in November 1913.  This was a great disappointment for Harvey and Narcia but he told her that next time she would have twins.  By the fall of 1914, they were again expecting a child.  On 5 June 1915, they were blessed with twins, a daughter, Ora Nell and a son, Olen.

Harvey, Velma & Curtis Trevathan

Harvey and family moved to Woodville, Texas, a sawmill town where Narcia's sister and husband lived. His WWI Draft Registration Card states that he was a sawmill laborer for West Lumber Co. in Westville, Texas. 

In January 1918, Narcia had the measles that turned into pneumonia. She died and was buried in Bennett Cemetery, Apple Springs, Texas. Like his father, Harvey was alone with two small children to raise. The twins went to live with their grandparents, the Mericles, who lived in Apple Springs and were quite happy there.  They lived there until they were 5 years old.

Harvey is listed on the 1920 census living in the household of H. W. and Annie Day as a boarder in Lufkin, Angelina County, Texas, not far from Trevat or Apple Springs.  His profession is listed as a machinist in a foundry and mechanic shop.  He married my grandmother, Laura Velma Cobb, daughter of John Franklin Cobb and Susan Jane McCullough of Lufkin, Texas, on 1 February 1921.  After he remarried, he brought Olen and Ora Nell (the twins) back home to live with him and Velma.  Harvey and Velma had one child, Curtis Day Trevathan, my father, who was born on 8 November 1922.  Curtis's middle name, Day, was in honor of the family Harvey boarded with while working in Lufkin.

In 1930, Harvey, Velma, the twins, and Curtis were living in Tyler, Smith County, Texas.  He worked for the railroad until he retired.  In the late fall of 1960, Harvey went into the hospital for surgery and developed complications.  He died on the 20th of November at the age of 68 years.