Writings of Art Cavenee (Wilson Family)

The days until cousin Pam, her husband, Dave, and myself leave for South Dakota are coming up pretty quickly. One of the people we are excited to meet is Art Cavenee, my second cousin once removed. While continuing to organize Mom's (Helen Daugherty Hostvet) house, we came upon the book, "Our Wessington Heritage - a History of Wessington, SD". The book was written in 1892 and is full of short family historys. The following is from Art Cavenee and is helpful to me in understanding more about the Wilson family.

"My grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur McNeely, arrived (at Wessington)in 1910 with their children, Cecil, Loretta, Vernice, Ruth and Hazel, from Illinois. Mabel, my mother, was born in 1911, a year after they arrived from Illinois, on the farm where Ed Brown lives now...

My father, Lloyd Cevenee, married Mabel McNeely. They lived on his parents' homestead until his death in 1974....They had seven children; Bonnie, Marilyn, Joan, Wesley, Arthur, Sharon, and Nedra.

I was named Arthur Franklin Cavenee after two grandfathers. I was born on the homeplace in 1942 and with the exception of four years in the Navy, I have lived in the Wessington area...I married Maxine Peterson from Wessington and we have two children; Jason Everett and Matthew Lloyd.

My first ancestors to come to the Wessington area were my great grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. William Wilson. In 1883 he, his wife, and their children came here from Iowa by covered wagon.

William was born in 1833 in Pennsylvania. He fought in the Civil War with the Yankees in the Illinois Calvary. In 1883 he homesteaded 11 3/4 miles north of Wessington in Nance Township, Beadle County. He died in 1911.

My next relative to come to Wessington was my grandfather, Frank Cavenee. He had been a farmer in Illinois and later fought in the Spanish-American War in the Philippine Islands. After the war, he married Pearl Wilson and they lived on a farm close to her father, William Wilson. Pearl had homesteaded a quarter section close to her father a few years before Frank Cavenee came here and that is where they lived and raised their family; Lloyd, Cliff, Nina, Bill, and Hazel. Frank died in 1920 and Pearl died in 1968."

I'm anxious to meet Art, whose sister is Bonnie Cavenee Runge, writer of the Wilson Family History book. It was Bonnie who was such a wonderful host in Wessington during my last year's trip.