Flashback: How the Hastings descendants came to California

Oil brought the Hastings family West.

family tree of Mary Hazel Wolfe Nevis

Mary Hazel Wolfe's mother was Jennie Hastings. Like her husband James Tarr Wolfe, Jennie and her family were from Pennsylvania, perhaps Oakdale (near Pittsburgh). 

Jennie Evelyn Hastings

Jennie's siblings include John, Cyrus, Laura, Alfaretta "Allie", Jesse, Emma, Elwood, William, Quincy, Frank, and Wayne. Since Quincy's middle name is Dickson, he might the "Dick" in the photo below:

Jennie Hastings, Allie Hastings, Frank Hastings, Wayne Hastings, and Dick Hastings

possibly Frank Hastings

back of photo of Frank Hastings

The Hastings family was already in Venango County by 1850 at the time of the oil boom there. Although the family set themselves up as farmers, they were enterprising and got into other businesses such as barge work, transporting goods such as oil barrels down stream to Pittsburgh or Cincinnati. Frank Tuller Hastings (Mary Hazel's uncle) got into the oil business, which took him from Venango County to New Mexico, California, Montana, and Alberta. When Frank was still in Albuquerque, in the second decade of the 1900s, his sister Jennie and her husband James Tarr Wolfe had moved there, too. After Jennie died in New Mexico in 1924, her husband relocated to Los Angeles with their daughter Hazel's family. Hazel's brother Leslie moved to nearby San Bernardino, California, and their brother Ellwood to Las Vegas.

Merrill Hastings on "Pride", Hastings Farm, Pennsylvania

(Merrill Hastings is Wayne's son, Hazel's cousin. The photo would be from the first decade of the 1900s, as Merrill was born in 1899.)

believed to be Mary Davidson Wolf, perhaps 1870s

Leslie H. Wolfe, 1917, U.S. Navy, World War I

J. Ellwood Wolfe circa 1920

The Nevis family lore says that William Guy Wolf and Mary Davidson's son James Tarr Wolfe (1864–1936) was a farmer but had also invested in a company drilling for oil; his wife Jenny Hastings Wolfe (1867–1924) and mother-in-law Mary Jane McQuaid Hastings (1832–1915) complained after a while that the company was not striking any oil and they nagged him into selling his shares. Three weeks after the share sale, that company struck oil. Arnold maintained that James Wolfe never recovered from the "theft" of his good fortune and never forgave his mother-in-law. After Jennie died, he panned for gold in California certain his luck would return.

(On the other hand, the Canal Best web site says that James Tarr Wolfe's great grandfather John Brookmire Hastings (1797–1872) "owned land near Franklin [Pennsylvania] which became a valuable oil field — after he sold it" so I wonder if the generations got mixed up a bit and Jenny Hastings Wolfe and her mother Mary Jane McQuaid Hastings got a bad rap unfairly here in the family legend.)

Another myth from the Hastings side of the family involves ancestors of Jenny Hastings. There is indeed a line of noble Hastings in British history: Francis Hastings (1560–1595), son of the Earl of Hastings (George Hastings, 1540–1604), who was himself son of Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon (1514–1561), the son of George Hastings, 1st Earl of Huntingdon (1488–1544), son of Edward Hastings, 2nd Baron Hastings (26 November 1466–1506), son of William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings (circa 1431–1483), and so forth. So the peerage is beyond dispute, and frequently their wives' lineages are even more distinguished, but unfortunately there is little evidence of this ancestry for the Hastings family of Pennsylvania, though I suppose it is not out of the question either, through perhaps some younger brother who did not inherit the title, estate or wealth, or was exiled in disgrace to the colonies.

a family tree for Mary Hazel Wolfe Nevis, sketched circa 1970

Instead, Hazel's great grandfather John Brookmire Hastings was born out of wedlock to Mary Sutley and John Hastings. A Wikitree entry for Mary Sutley shows a deed book entry describing a case of John Hastings having knocked up Mary, who sues him for child support after her marriage to another man, John Brookmire:

Venango County, PA Deed Book A, pp. 59

Whereas MARY BROOKMIER, daughter of Christian SETLEE(sic), formerly of Franklin County and state of Pennsylvania, now of the county of Venango and state aforesaid, about 9 years ago at the town of Chambersburg did enter an indictment against a certain John HASTY(sic) for unlawfully begotten her, the said Mary, with child...and the said John Hasty found guilty and judgement being entered in favor of said Mary (for certain sum or sums of money supposed to be 50c per week for a space of __years and $14. for expenses at birth of said child)....and whereas the said Mary having since entered into the marriage state with a certain John BROOKMIER and in order to bring about a final close of said business and to receive the remainder sum of money due in consequence of the decree aforesaid, the said John Brookmier becomes party to these presents..... Appoint George Setlee(sic) of Venango County, as their true and lawful attorney to demand the money from John Hasty.....

John Brookmire Hastings, the same one that sold his land before oil was discovered on it, was raised in the Brookmire family, but retained his biological father's surname. I could find nothing further of his father, the scoundrel John Hastings — no family history, no later activity.

The family religion (Presbyterian) comes down through the Anglo-Irish branch of the family: the McQuaids, the Duffields, and the McClintocks, but it appears that all of Hazel's ancestors were Protestants of some sort. The German side of her family emigrated from the area near the Rhine — they were Protestants fleeing the many wars devastating that region, particularly the Thirty Years War. And through her grandmother Hannah Smith, the lineage goes back to the early Plymouth Colony leader Thomas Prence and church deacon Henry Cobb. 

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Flashback: Plumer, Venango County, Pennsylvania

Some time in the early 1970s or perhaps 1969, Hazel took a trip east with her brother Leslie to visit the old family homestead in Plumer, Pennsylvania. These are some snapshots Hazel sent her son Arnold, with descriptions written on the back of the photos. 

Natural Bridge, Virginia, circa 1971

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Flashback: How the Wolfe family came to California

The Wolf family originates in the territory around the Electoral Palatinate region of (modern) southwestern Germany and in the area near Strasburg (now Strasbourg, France). They were Calvinists in an area of Catholic-Protestant conflict, perhaps suffering in the 1688–1689 Nine Years War (especially the 1688–1689 Rhine Campaign by the French). With some variation in the surname spelling Wolf/Wolfe, the family arrived in the United States after 1700 and married into Protestant English immigrants (arriving after 1600) and Scots-Irish immigrants (arriving after 1700). 

The family religion was Presbyterianism, from those Northern Irish Protestant ancestors. They settled in northwestern Pennsylvania, near the city of Erie, and took up farming. During the Pennsylvania Oil Rush of the mid 1860s they invested in oil drilling, as seen by the share certificate below, issued to Hazel Nevis's grandfather William Guy Wolf (1829–1899). 

200 shares of Oil Creek & Gordon's Run Petroleum Company, William Guy Wolf, November 25, 1865

200 shares of Oil Creek & Gordon's Run Petroleum Company, William Guy Wolf, November 25, 1865

Mary Hazel Wolfe with a dog, circa 1898, Venango, Pennsylvania

After 1910, the family moved to Minnesota for a brief stay (maybe just a year) and then to New Mexico (the U.S. Census places him in Navajo County by 1920). His children finished their education in Albuquerque. (Daughter Hazel — Arnold's mother — trained to be a school teacher in Albuquerque.) When Hazel's family moved to Los Angeles, he was by then widowed and lived in the apartment over the detached garage. My father remembered him as the one who ran the family victory garden (continued from World War I into the Great Depression) and also as disappearing for weeks at a time to pan for gold, certain he would recover his lost fortune, still due to him in some manner. 

James Tarr Wolfe and family (Jennie Hasting Wolfe with children Hazel, Leslie and Ellwood),
probably New Mexico, circa 1912

A family myth I grew up with was our direct descent from Major-General James Wolf, the officer responsible for the British victory over the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec in 1759 that helped to end French rule and put it firmly under British control. In the 1960s my older brother Allan saw in the encyclopedia that General Wolfe had never married, so this great-great grandfather was converted immediately into a great-great-great uncle. Further investigation shows that General Wolfe was not of German origin and did not originate in the Hessian auxiliaries who settled in the United States after the Revolutionary War ended; he was English, from the County Kent, England. There appears to be no evidence for a relation between our German Wolfs and the accomplished general.

Mary Hazel Wolfe Nevis's family tree in Ancestry.com according to her grandson Joel A. Nevis y Flores

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Flashback: How the Nevis family came to California

The Nevis family came to the United States from the Azores. Like most of his brothers and sisters, Jacinto Neves took his family first to Boston, Massachusetts, then to the Central Valley of California. They were all born on Pico Island, an isle dominated by the seismically active volcano Ponta do Pico, in Candelaria on the southwest of the island, though his wife Mariana Enos de Brum hailed from the southeastern Lajes do Pico or its vicinity, perhaps Upper Almagreira according to a 1993 manuscript by Adrienne Alston; Mariana's brothers and sisters also immigrated to California. 

Jacinto was sailing on merchant ships in his youth. Family lore places him on shore leave in Washington, D.C., at the time of Abraham Lincoln's assassination: he saw Lincoln's body, either being carried by stretcher out of Ford's Theater or later to the White House. There is a question about Jacinto's birth year. Some say in 1853, others much earlier in 1844. 

My map of Nevis ancestors by date and location of birth; interactive source is here.
Light blue indicates before 1500; dark blue between 1500 and 1900.

Jacinto's family came to the Azores largely from northern Portugal. Mariana's family can be traced back to Flemish settlers who arrived in the Azores in the 1480s as well as to the settlers from the Portuguese mainland. I once put together a map of researched ancestors, based on the date and location of birth though I have less confidence in that family lineage the further back in time it goes.

The Azorean fortune rose and fell over the centuries with successes in woad agriculture, viticulture, fishing, and whaling. Pico Island was once known for its white wine made from verdelho grapes, which grew in the island's rich volcanic soil among its microclimates. That industry collapsed in the mid 19th century due to the spread of powdery mildew and phylloxera. Whaling and specifically sperm whale hunting took over as a main industry of Pico, but Jacinto was a merchant sailor from a young age. 

Jacinto and Mariana collected their two daughters born on Pico Island and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where another bit of family lore has him working as a fisherman when a terrible storm frightened the family and they prayed in church that if their men return safely from the storm, they would make them give up seafaring and stick to the land. And maybe the men prayed the same on their boats.

Whether or not that story is true, Jacinto packed up his family of seven (with another daughter and two sons born in Boston) and moved to California in 1892 to take up farming in the San Joaquin Valley. Jacinto may have spent a little time as a shepherd in the region and he certainly worked as a foreman in a vineyard before acquiring his farm near Hanford. Jacinto and his family tried out various spellings of their surname Neves, Naves, and Nevez before settling on Nevis. I think it suited him as an anglophile to acquire the Scottish spelling. I was told he loved America and insisted his family speak English, even though he himself had a strong Portuguese accent. Mariana's family Inacio de Brum or Enos de Brum anglicized their name to Enos Brown.

Jacinto's wife Mariana died in 1896, so their four youngest children were sent to live with their older, by now married daughters Mary and Mary Ann. Thus Tony, Bill, Della and Laura Nevis were raised in the Madruga and Silva households. Bill conflicted with his brother-in-law Manuel Madruga (and perhaps his other brother-in-law Joe Silva) and ran away at a young age, living for some time the Burris family. He got malaria at the age of 16 and dropped out of school. After that he headed north to work on a vineyard in Pleasanton with his Uncle Frank (Francisco Nevis, brother of Bill's father Jacinto). Rolling the wine barrels onto the trains he chatted up the railroad workers, who recognized his intelligence and ambition, so he got employment with the Southern Pacific Railroad in various capacities — including station master and conductor. After World War I, Bill was living in Bluewater, New Mexico, running a general store and a lime kiln (for quicklime — calcium oxide — used by the railroads). His general store eventually failed (around 1923) because the local Mormon community was obliged to patronize his more expensive Mormon competitor's shop. He sold his lime kiln to pay off the debts from the general store.

William "Bill" Edward Nevis, circa 1920

Before being drafted into the U.S. Army, Bill met a lovely, smart school teacher named Hazel Wolfe and married her in Albuquerque in 1917. I do not have much information about his army service, but I am under the impression that he served in Europe. Later in life he was active in his local chapter of the American Legion, even being elected commander of the Glendale chapter.

Bill Nevis in his American Legion (Glendale) dress uniform, 1946

Bill Nevis, American Legion, 1946

After he sold the kiln, Bill worked as a tax collector in New Mexico. He traveled around the state on horseback and packed a pistol, primarily for the occasional rattlesnake. On his rounds he noticed how badly the business owners kept their records, often on just a scrap of paper, so he developed and patented an accounting/records form, which he called the Ideal System. He sold the patent to that form but subsequently purchased them from the patent owner to run his records keeping and accounting business, the Ideal System Company. 

Albuquerque Morning Journal masthead, November 15, 2921

column mentioning Bill Nevis in the Albuquerque Morning Journal,
November 15, 1921

1940s photo of a house, perhaps Bill and Hazel's house
in Albuquerque or Bluewater, New Mexico, from the 1920s

Around the Great Depression he had relocated his family to Los Angeles and found that the Ideal System forms were sitting neglected in a warehouse as the owner was no longer selling them, so he bought the supply to continue his accounting and records business in Los Angeles. Although his own formal education was truncated, he was an astute business man and managed to expand the company through the following decades, retiring in 1957. The business expanded to the East Coast after World War II, with a second office in New York City for a few years. The main office in Los Angeles had its own printing press to keep up with demand for the forms. In the late 1940s he learned that his business property was subject to eminent domain for the City of Los Angeles to start building its convention center, inaugurated in 1971. Consequently he could no longer renovate his buildings and eventually the structures were torn down for the freeway ramps leading to and from the convention center.

Bill and Hazel Nevis lived for a few years in a wood frame house in Los Angeles with Hazel's widowed father living in an apartment over their detached garage. They moved to nearby upscale Glendale at the start of the 1930s to 501 East Mountain Street, a handsome mission-style multi-level house on a sloping double plot. Half of the plot was a fruit orchard with a large outdoor goldfish pond and patio. Inside the house, Hazel decorated with scenery and artifacts of the American Southwest. We still have her Indian rugs and weavings from their time in New Mexico.

Bill and Hazel had three children born in New Mexico and one in California. Leonard was born in 1920, Arnold in 1921, and Mary Hazel "Dolly" in 1922. Dolly was born on her mother's birthday and was named for her mother — both were Mary Hazel Nevis, but the daughter was nicknamed "Dolly", a name that stuck with her for life. Bill and Hazel's youngest, Laura, was born in 1938 in Glendale, California. 

Arnold Nevis's birth certificate, showing 509 West Marquette Ave., in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Dolly Nevis circa 1925

class photo from Eugene Field School, Glendale, California, October 6, 1930
Dolly is in the front on the far left

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Arnold's Story: July 1951 afterword

Arnold returns twice for Harvard Medical School class reunions in 1956 and 1976. The class of 1951 also includes the first African American woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School: Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson.

Arnold is in the back row, far left.

Arnold is on the far right, third row, with a dark shirt and glasses, sporting a full goatee

In July 1951 Arnold starts his year-long internship in surgery at Stanford University Hospital, where he meets his future wife Newlin Ashmore. They marry in September 1952 and move to Boston for Arnold to complete a PhD in Physics as a key part of his interest in biomedical research. By then he has decided that his contribution to the world would not be as a medical missionary but as a medical researcher. Arnold's career takes them across the country to Texas, California and Florida. In Florida they settle down permanently in September 1960. 

Arnold passed away in July 1986 at the age of 64, just one month before his official retirement from the University of Florida.

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