When I am doing housework, I always have the television on for “company.” One day, Steve Harvey, long-time TV and radio personality, was talking about his family and stated that his mother was born and raised in Woolwine, Virginia. My ears really perked up because Harvey pronounced Woolwine the way the old mountain folks pronounced it, “Wool-e-whine.”
I went right to work finding out more about Harvey’s mother, Mrs. Vera Eloise Conner Harvey. On the 27th of March 1915, Eloise was born to Frederick D. Conner and Hattie Lillian Prillaman Conner at Woolwine, Patrick County, Virginia. Eloise was the third child of Fred and Hattie Conner to be born in Woolwine: their first Ruby, was born in 1911; Lessie in 1913; Eloise in 1915; Nannie Mabel in 1917; Theodore Eric in 1919; and Verna Lowell Prillaman Conner in 1921.
Frederick and Hattie Conner moved their growing family to McDowell County, West Virginia where Frederick went to work in the coal mines and their daughter Adell Claudia was born in 1924. The Conner family would go on to have five more children, all born in West Virginia: Willis Clifford, born in 1926; Sybil Hortense in 1929; Jasmine Gloria in 1931; Douglas Laman in 1934; and Donald in 1939. Hattie Prillaman Conner was 46 years old when her youngest child, Donald was born.
Vera Eloise Conner married coal miner, Jesse Willard Harvey, Sr. in 1936 in McDowell County, West Virginia. According to the 1950 census, Eloise and Jesse Harvey and their four children, lived in Tipple Hollow in Elbert, West Virginia. The couple’s son, Broderick Stephen “Steve” Harvey, came along later in 1957, when Eloise was 42 years old.
Now that we have the connection established between Eloise and her son, Steve, let’s go back to Woolwine, Patrick County, Virginia and find out more about Eloise Conner Harvey’s parents and grandparents.
Eloise Conner Harvey’s father, Frederick D. Conner was born on the 18th of December 1893 to Matt Conner and his second wife, Sarah “Sally” Snell. Frederick’s father, Matthew (Matt) Conner was born in July of 1858 in Patrick County, Virginia. Matt’s parents were Benjamin Conner and America Prillaman of the Elamsville district of Patrick County. I was able to find records for three of Matt’s siblings: Jefferson Conner married Queen Victoria Morrison (what a great name!) on the 29th of January 1880 in Patrick County, where they raised at least four children. Queen Victoria Morrison was born in 1860 to Americus Morrison in Patrick County. Matt’s sister, Milly married Preston G. Ross on the 28th of April 1882 in Patrick County. Milly and Preston had at least ten children, according to the Patrick County census records from 1900 and 1910. Matt’s sister, 2-year-old Eliza and their mother, America Prillaman were living with Charles Patterson Nolen, his wife Nancy, and their children in the 1870 census records for the Smith River district.
Frederick’s Conner’s father, Matt was married three times; his first wife was Ellen Ross with whom he had four children, Genora, John Jefferson, Tissie Jane, and James Edgar Lee Conner. All these children remained in and around Patrick County with John Jefferson marrying Beulah Prillaman, Tissie Jane marrying Robert Smith, and James Edgar Lee marrying Millie Jane Houchins.
After Ellen Ross Conner died in childbirth on June 10th, 1890 (from Patrick County Death Register) Matt Conner married Sarah “Sally” Snell on the 6th of December 1891. Frederick Conner (father of Eloise) was Matt and Sally’s oldest child, followed by Maggie, born in 1894; Ellis George, born in 1895; Hattie, born in 1898; and Early Conner, born in 1900. Sally Snell Conner passed away after Early was born. It is interesting to note that Matt and Sally Snell Conner’s daughter, Hattie married John Fred Rucker, the subject of a past Patrick Pioneer story. When Hattie Conner Rucker passed away at the age of 52, Mr. Rucker married Miss Alberta Tatum and they were the parents of my dear friend, Lillian Rucker King.
Matt Conner married for the third time to Dicey Ross Prillaman on the 20th of October 1907. Matt and Dicey had two children, George Washington Conner who married Ruby Price and Bessie Conner who married Nathaniel Saunders.
Eloise Conner Harvey’s mother, Hattie Lillian Prillaman, was born to Charles L. Prillaman and Rosa Belle Wood on the 8th of June 1893. Charles and Rosa Belle’s marriage is recorded in the Floyd County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office. Hattie and her siblings, Fred Lincoln, Wayland, Clara, Raymond, Horace, and Clarence grew up in Patrick County, but left in the 1920’s to work in the West Virginia coal mines or marry men who were coal miners. In the 1940’s, several of the siblings moved to Washington, D.C. Fred Lincoln Prillaman served in WWI and is buried in Arlington Cemetery.
In an LA Times article on October 5th, 2014, Steve Harvey talks about his parents, “I was a surprise,” he stated. “My mother was 42 years old when she had me. My father, when I asked him stuff, he used to tell me, “Son, why are you asking me? You are not even supposed to be here!” The family moved to Cleveland, Ohio when Steve was four years old, and his father switched to construction work. “My parents were very loving,” Harvey recalled. “They didn’t have any money, but my mother taught me faith and my father gave me a strong work ethic.”
While Steve Harvey grew up in Ohio, in interviews with the press, he often talks about spending summers on his Grandpa Conner’s farm in West Virginia. I suspect he heard many stories from both of his grandparents, Frederick and Hattie, about life in Patrick County. Eloise Conner Harvey passed away on October 8th, 1997, and Jesse Harvey followed on April 7th, 2000; they are buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.
Woody may be reached at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or (276) 692-9626.
