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INDEX OF INDIVIDUALS

FAMILY TREE WHITE

FAMILY TREE BROOKE

UNIDENTIFIED PHOTOS

Born: 01/June/1862 Sparta, White Co., TN	In Wyoming she was known as Katherine Holm.  She is seated next to "Tex" in this photo.  Photo courtesy of Park County, Wyoming Archives in Cody, Wyoming http://www.parkcounty.us/histarchives.htm	Susan is pictured above with her family.  Susan is seated on the left.  Bessie is standing behind her. The man is unknown.. Ethel is standing behind him and Ray is on the far right.	Mr and Mrs. Holm   Photo courtesy of Geyer Bob's Yellowstone Park Historical Service.  Bob Goss geysrbob@hotmail.com
Married 1st: 12/June/1879    Spouse 1st: James Stephens        d.  21/Sept/1881	When James Stephens died Susan inherited the buggy.    Pg 1 of affidavit	Pg 2 of Susan's affidavit
Married 2nd: 03/May/1882    Spouse 2nd: William Garrett Spillman
Married 3rd: 1898    Spouse 3rd: Aaron "Tex" Holm	Carl Buckingham, Katherine and Tex in Wyoming.  Photo courtesy of Park County, Wyoming Archives in Cody, Wyoming http://www.parkcounty.us/histarchives.htm	The postcard is from Ethel in Indiana to her mother, Susan, out in Wyoming.	Susan is shown sitting on her horse out in Wyoming.

Died: 19/Sep/1928 Buried:  Riverside Cemetery, Section 12, Block 31 Lot 7, Cody Wyoming     Name on plot: Katherine Holm

Obituary from The Cody Enterprise 9-26-1928

In her later years Susan suffered from rheumatism.  Then in 1917 she was stricken with a paralytic stroke. She died eleven years later, with her obituary stating, "she has gone cheerfully about her housework, and with very little help has made a home for her husband even under the most trying circumstances." Source; Bob Goss, Annals of Wyoming

Photo courtesy of Geyer Bob's Yellowstone Park Historical Service.  Bob Goss geysrbob@hotmail.com

FATHER

Jacob Huff Powers

MOTHER

Sarah Fanny Bronson

HUSBAND

1st: James Stevens

2nd William G. Spillman

3rd Tex Holm

Susan Powers was a fifth cousin to Louisa May Alcott.  Susan's grandfather, Elijah W. Bronson, was a third cousin to Anna Bronson who married Joseph Chatfield Alcott.  Susan's grandmother, Fanny Moulthrop who married Elijah W. Bronson, was born in Wolcott, New Haven, CT in 1801.  Amos Bronson Alcott, son of Anna and Joseph Chatfield Alcott, and father of Louisa May Alcott was born in Wolcott in 1799.                                                               

Biography

Susan married James Stephens when she was 17 and had Bessie Stephens 22/Sept/1879.  James died September 21, 1881 leaving her a widow with a young daughter one day short of her second birthday. All he left her was "one top buggy of the probable value of seventy five dollars." On May 2, 1882, eight months later, Susan married W. G. Spillman.  She had been raised in a family which encouraged women's independence.  Her grandfather, Elijah Bronson, specifically stated in his will that his married daughters would have the right to keep their inheritances even though they were married. It was her mother, Sarah Bronson, named on most of the land transactions in Johnson Co., IN even though Sarah was married to Jacob Powers.  Susan grew up in an environment that encouraged women to be independent.   William G. Spillman may have felt differently.  Susan's family were Republicans.  The Spillman's Democrats. 

Their marriage was short and tumultuous. They disagreed about everything including politics. One election day they were arguing about how to vote. Women did not have the right to vote and I can only assume W. G. thought that was just fine. At any rate, Susan got so mad, she got an axe and chopped up her own buggy so he could not take it into town to vote.
They had three children. Ethel was born in 1883 and the twins in 1885. One of the twins died at 21 months of age and that finally ended the marriage. Susan and W. G. had sung at square dances and Susan liked music, so she filed for divorce, joined a wild west show, took Bessie, the child from her first marriage who would have been about 8, and left for Wyoming. Ethel and Ray were left with their father, W. G. Spillman.

In 1888 Susan was about 25. In 1900 Susan and Tex Holm were in Bowler, Carbon, Montana where Tex is listed as a stagecoach driver.  The 1900 census states that they had been married for two years.  Eventually they built the Holms Lodge at the North entrance to Yellowstone Park and started giving tour guides.  Tex helped plan the original road through Yellowstone.  Susan wrote her two children back in Indiana of knowing Buffalo Bill. 

In 1902 there is a reference to her as the daughter-in-law of John Holm.  She was planning on running a boarding house in the home of her father-in-law.  She also was an integral part of the Holm Tour Company.  She accompanied Tex on their 16 to 21-day pack trips into Yellowstone and the Tetons. She did the cooking, and other camp chores, no doubt.  See copy of scrapbook at right.

From Francis Hayden scrapbook as found in the Park County, Wyoming Archives in Cody, Wyoming http://www.parkcounty.us/histarchives.htm

See more information about her life in Wyoming with Tex Holm at http://www.geocities.com/geysrbob/Biography-H.html

CHILDREN with James Stephens

1. Bessie Stephens b 22/Sep/1879

CHILDREN with  WILLIAM G SPILLMAN

1. Ethel Blanche Spillman b. 1883

2. Ray Spillman b. 31/July/1885  

3. Ralph Spillman b. 31/July/1885

                            d. 02/April/1887

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