Rives, Hallie Ermine

Summary

Father: Stephen Turner Rives
Mother: Mary H. Ragsdale

Birth: 2 May 1878 1868, Christian Co., Kentucky
Birth Source: Reliques of the Rives

Death: 15 Aug 1956
Death Source: Headstone

Spouse1: Post Wheeler, m. 29 Dec 1906

Narrative

From Reliques of the Rives:
Hallie Erminie Rives, the well-known and popular authoress, was born in Christian county, Ky., and has since resided in many and various places throughout the world. The titles of her published works include: The Singing Wire; A Fool in Spots; Smoking Flax, 1896; As the Hart Panteth, 1898; A Furnace of Earth, 1900; Hearts Courageous, 1902; The Castaway, 1904; Tales from Dickens, 1905; Satan Sanderson, 1907; The Kingdom of Slender Swords, 1909; The Valiants of Virginia, 1912; The Long Lane's Turning, 1916; and The Magic Man, 1927.
Hallie Erminie Rives married December 29, 1906, in the American Embassy at Tokio, Japan, Post Wheeler (b. Aug. 6, 1869, at Oswego, N. Y., son of Rev. Dr. Henry Wheeler, a native of Somersetshire, England, and his wife, Mary Sparkes). Mr. Post Wheeler attended Rugby and the William Penn Charter School and was graduated from Princeton University with the degree of B. A. in 1891, and Litt. D. in 1893. He later studied at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Sorbonne, and became correspondent in Paris and Morocco of the Westminster Gazette and N. Y. Evening Post. He served as editor of the New York Press, 1896-1900; spent some time among the Tukudh Indians in the Arctic regions and has written much of interest concerning them. In 1906 Mr. Wheeler was appointed, after examination, Second Secretary of the American Embassy to Japan. He was subsequently First Secretary of the American Embassies to Russia and Italy. Since 1917 he has served as Counsellor of the Embassy in Tokyo ; of the Legation at Stockholm ; and the Embassy at London. Mr. Wheeler is a member of the Asiatic Soc. of Japan ; Japan Soc., London; Pi Gamma Mu; Loyal Legion; Royal Geog. Soc.; Am. Geog. Soc.; and is a 33d degree Mason. He is the author of: The Writer, 1893; Reflections of a Bachelor, 1897; Love-in-a-Mist, poems, 1901; Poems, 1902; and Russian Wonder Tales, 1910; The Ho-Dau-Zo (Ten-Thousand-Jewel Storehouse of Nippon), 12 vols.
Mrs. Wheeler, who has rendered me consistent aid and encouragement in the preparation of this work, has very kindly contributed, amongst other notes, the following:

In winding up my great grandfather William Rives' estate in North Carolina several young slaves were sent to Tennessee and Kentucky to his sons. A boy named "Hinton" arrived at "Ranston" when my father was about two years old. My grandmother (Sophy) called him and put the baby (my father) in his arms saying, "Hinton, this is your young master. You must take good care of him, you belong to him." The devotion of that body servant (19 years my father's senior) is as beautiful as any classic ever written about master and slave. He went with my father to Clarksville, Tennessee to see him off to the war and never left him after his freedom until a few years before his death when he went to live near one of his grandchildren. My father bought him a little home and visited him often.

Some of the scenes of Mrs. Wheeler's novel Hearts Courageous are laid at Gladden Hall, Mecklenburg county, Va., the old Tillotson seat, which is now owned by descendants of Mrs. William Jameson, daughter of Nancy Tillotson Yancey. The heroine of the story, Anne Tillotson, is drawn from her great-great-great aunt of the same name, who is buried on the family graveyard on the same estate. Another scene (Tarleton's Raid) in the same novel is laid at Castle Hill, the seat of William Cabell Rives. The scene of her novel The Valiants of Virginia, Damory Court, is named after the Ryves family seat in Dorsetshire.

Research Notes

Headstone gives birth year of 1878 but this is obviously incorrect as she appears on the 1870 census, age 2, and on the 1880 as age 12.

Sources

Death:      Headstone, Riverside Cemetery, Hopkinsville, Christian County, Kentucky
History:    Childs, James Rives. Reliques of the Rives, p174
Census:    1870 Census - Trigg County, Kentucky
                   1880 Census - Christian County, Kentucky