From The Comments: Nathan B. Harvey

Nathan B. Harvey ca. 1880

Lori writes: "My family has lived near this area for 5 generations and I'm curious if anyone knows if the old large green farm house on the North side of Johnson Creek Blvd as it goes up the hill west toward the rail tracks, was owned by the Harvey family? My grandfather at 15, around 1918, was pulled from that house in the middle of the night by his father after his mother read of a murderer owning the house. My grandfather had been working in the fields of the owner and sleeping over at the house with some other boys at night. My great grandmother said something about the murder of a young girl being found in the fields and the perpetrator owning this home. I still drive by this house often, tempted to ask the new owners but I hesitant to freak anyone out."

Lori – First of all, thanks for the comment! Secondly, please don’t knock on anyone’s doors and ask them about axe murders. I’m uncertain about the house you are referring to, but it definitely never belonged to Nathan B. Harvey. Harvey purchased the land he lived on, about a mile south of the 32^nd Ave. bridge over Johnson Creek, in 1882 and, after 1900, he never lived anyplace else. I don’t know who might have been living there in 1918. I had started a short response to you but found it needed more exposition so here I go.

The crime to which Lori is referring was incorrectly reported in the 1911-1912 newspapers to have been committed in one of Nathan Harvey's fields. The girl's name was Mamie Walsh and she was murdered by a man named Charles Wilson in 1892. Mamie was living with her family on the Seth Lewelling farm, which ran along the east bank of the Willamette from where Johnson Creek empties into the river. The orchards, which were said to have over 1000 trees, are the current site of Waverly Heights neighborhood, and the Waverly Hills Country Club. There’s a gas station where the Lewelling house use to stand and I don't believe any structures from 1892 still exist in the area as most of those houses date back no later than the 1930s. Mamie was found under some brush on the other side of the road from one of the Lewelling fields. The place where the crime occurred, and the body was found, was almost a mile away from Nathan Harvey’s nursery, and separated by the Scott Woods. I believe Scott Park, in north Milwaukie, is the last remnant of these woods. The murderer, Wilson, had confessed to the murder, escaped while being transferred, was recaptured, and later hanged himself in his jail cell. The case was closed, and no one doubted it for a moment.

Sheriff Ernest T. Mass

 

However, Sheriff Mass of Clackamas County was running for reelection in 1912. The Hill murder was the biggest thing to hit his run as sheriff and he was desperate to solve the crime. Mass was backed by the Cowing family, who were desperate for closure. A private detective, hired by Thomas Cowing, had convinced Sheriff Mass, and the Cowing family, that Harvey was the murderer. Mass knew full well the circumstances surrounding the Mamie Walsh murder, but I’ve never seen any evidence that he tried to publicly correct the record. In 1882, Nathan’s father had died in Lee, Iowa and a rumor started that the death was suspicious. Nathan’s older brother, Willard, had drowned while bathing near the mouth of Johnson Creek in 1877. Mass tried to say this was a suspicious death even though Nathan Harvey was living in Iowa at the time. Later, another brother, Daniel, suffering some kind of nervous breakdown, would murder their mother and then kill himself. The paper reported that this event occurred on Nathan’s property when it in fact happened on his brother Daniel’s farm, over a mile away.

So, Lori, if you want to scare people about nearby murders, might I suggest the 5^th green at Waverly Hills Country Club. I have no reason to believe this is the spot Mamie Walsh was murdered, but you’d be closer here than at the house on the hill.

I want to get more into Nathan Harvey, and, thanks to Lori’s comment, I’ve cracked open some old research so maybe I’ll get into it. Right now, reader comments will pretty much drive this blog as there’s hasn’t been much new to discover, so keep those comments coming.