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| Yvette Shively |
Found in The Denver Post, Friday, February 23, 1906, Page 6, Columns 2-3:
Heiress From Oregon On Vaudeville Stage
Yvette Shively of Astoria, Now Appearing at the Orpheum, Makes a Hit With Her Good Voice and Pleasing Appearance
The daughter of a prominent pioneer family of Oregon, Miss Yvette Shively a youthful singer, is appearing this week at the Orpheum, and though the young woman is an heiress in her own right, the adventurous blood of her ancestors leads her to seek fame upon the stage.
Miss Shively is known to the vaudeville world as the "Pride of Astoria," the title of her turn, and an appropriate title it is.
Astoria, Ore., is the home of the Shively family. John M. Shively, grandfather of Miss Yvette Shively, opened the first United States postoffice west of the Rocky mountains in October, 1847, at Astoria. He brought with him the first mail that came west of the range.
This historic consignment of mail was delivered to him at Independence, Mo., April 27, 1847, by Col. Sterling Price, then commanding officer at Santa Fe, N.M., and was brought to Oregon by Shively himself. Mr. Shively received his commission from Postmaster General Cave Johnson. The building occupied by this pioneer postoffice still stands in Astoria and is occupied by a great aunt of Miss Yvette Shively.
Miss Shively's father, C. W. Shively, made the first steamboat trip ever taken on the Columbia river, in 1861.
At the death of her grandfather, Miss Shively's father was left $200,000, the young woman receiving a generous share of it. But she was not contented to settle down to life in an Oregon town, and after spending a few years in the cultivation of her voice, appeared in vaudeville.
Besides her wonderful voice, Miss Shively has an excellent figure and a pretty face. Because of her typically Western beauty she was chosen as a model for the noted picture, "The Western Girl," the work of a San Francisco artist.
The Evening News, San Jose, California, Tuesday, March 27, 1906, Page 5, Column 5:
Fortune Inherited By Actress
Louisville, Ky., March 27 -- Miss Yvette Shiveley, a vaudeville actress, who is in Louisville this week, has just come into an inheritance of over $100,000. Next Saturday she will leave for her home in Portland, Ore.
Rare experiences have come to her in the past eight weeks. Scolded because she had spent her allowances on the races, she ran away from Mills Seminary at Oakland, Cal. and joined the first theatrical company she found, which happened to be a burlesque, in which she reigned as the star for three weeks.
"I suppose I have been spoiled by the extravagance of my parents," she said, "and then some of us girls began to bet on the races. When my father learned about it he reprimanded me, and I decided to leave school. They did not know for some time that I had left, and they cut off my allowance. About a month ago they sent the money to return, but I spent it."
"Now they have sent me a ticket and I am going to start home immediately after the performance on Saturday night. I did not know what burlesque was, or I would never have gone into it; but it was the first opportunity that presented. If I ever do anything on the stage again it will be in the legitimate. Yes, it is true that I have come into a fortune."
I am a descendant of Henry Shively and Mary Banta who married in Shelby Co.,Ky. and moved and died in Paoli, Orange, Indiana. They had two daughters, Anna and Elizabeth R. Shively who married two Johnson Brothers, John Johnson married Anna and Elizabeth married David Johnson. Brother John M.Shively married a Martha Meade Johnson. Their child was Charles Wm. Shively father of Yvette of Astoria. Am seeking all information on her mother Martha Meade Johnson to see if she could possible be a sister or kin of John and David Johnson all of Shelby Co., Ky.
ReplyDeleteI will share with you what I have in regards to John M. Shively, son of Henry Shively and Mary Banta.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago I had the good fortune of communicating with Lottie Compton McDowell (now deceased). She did extensive work on the family of Henry Shively and Mary Banta Shively. She wrote her book entitled Descendants of Henry and Mary Banta Shively by Lottie Compton McDowell, 1972. In her book she mentions that "John M. Shively married Martha Ann Johnson, daughter of William F. Johnson, 25 December 1836 (marriage Book 2, Page 157, Jefferson County, KY). William F. Johnson is listed in the 1832 City Directory of Louisville, as having a grocery store on the corner of Jefferson and Preston Streets. Due to financial difficulties, they dry goods store failed. John M. moved to Saint Louis, Missouri, where Martha Ann died in November 1842, while giving birth to twin daughters.
In April of 1843, John M. Shively decided to go to Oregon. He left his small son, Charles W.., with his Aunt Sarah and made up a wagon train for the trek to Oregon, leaving Independence, Missouri the first of April 1843, and arriving in Oregon the 12th of October of that same year."
If you were asking about Martha Johnson who married John M. Shively it seems there may be a difference in documentation of the Johnson lineage. I have not personally worked on the Johnson's who married the Shively's so am afraid I cannot be of much help.