Lucy Virginia Harmon

b. 1834, d. 2 October 1923
  • Lucy Virginia Harmon was born in 1834 in Florence, Lauderdale County, Alabama.
  • Daniel Harmon and Lucy (?) appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1850 in Lauderdale County, Alabama. Other members of the household included Lucy Virginia Harmon, Albert Harmon, Augustus Harmon, Henrietta Harmon, Elizabeth Harmon, Hilliard Harmon, Sarah (?), James Harmon, Sarah Harmon and Alice Harmon.
  • She married George Goldthwaite, son of George Thomas Goldthwaite and Olivia Price Wallach, on 25 May 1870 in White Pine County, Nevada.
  • George Goldthwaite and Lucy Virginia Harmon appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1870 in Shermantown, White Pine County, Nevada.
  • George Goldthwaite and Lucy Virginia Harmon appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1880 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, at Fourth Street.
  • The following appeared on 3 May 1884 in the Nevada State Journal: Many old Nevadans will remember Judge George Goldthwaite. He practiced law in White Pine during the flush days, and also afterward lived in Pioche and in Eureka. Goldthwaite married in Hamilton a Miss Harmon. Her given name is forgotten, but she was a sister of Judge F. H. Harmon, who was in Austin and Hamilton in the early days, and who is now Justice of the Peace of Eureka. Mrs. Goldthwaite is by birth an Alabamian, and was once a famous beauty and accomplished conversationalist. After leaving Nevada Judge Goldthwaite went ot the mining town of Silver Reef, in Southern Utah, which place he left in the Fall of 1879 for Leadville, where he became the law partner of Franl Ganahl, now of Wood River. Here is an article from the Chicago Times concering Mr. Goldthwaite and his wife:
         Mrs. Goldthwaite, wife of Judge Goldthwaite, a prominent lawyer of the Western coast, a woman who President Buchanan said was the only one he ever loved well enough to marry, and the one whom Alexander H. Stephens spoke as being the most beautiful and accomplished and thoroughly good woman he ever knew and was 'worth her weight in diamonds,' is now living in humble retirement in Leadville, Colorado. She was one of the most celebrated women of her day. Men at fashionable watering places raved over her beauty and varied accomplishments. Once, in 1860, while the Prince of Wales was in St. Louis, he saw this gifted woman, and turning to Lord Lyons, exclaimed, 'Isn't she exquisite!' Her husband is a son of ex-United States Senator George Goldthwaite, Alabama's once noted and mourned son, and is the Criminal Judge of Lake county, Colorado."
  • The following appeared on 8 September 1892 in The Mt. Pleasant News: Green-Room Gossip. . . . Mrs. George Goldthwaite, a prominent society woman of Leadville, claims that "Alabama" was stolen from the play seh wrote several years ago. Mrs. Goldthwaite formerly lived in the South. Her play, it is charged, was sent to a New York play agency long before "Alabama" was though of.
  • Lucy Virginia Harmon became a widow at the 31 October 1892 death of her husband George Goldthwaite.
  • The following appeared on 9 April 1893 in The Davenport Daily Leader: Mrs. George Goldthwaite of Colorado intends to press her claims to the authorship of the play called "Alabama," which she declares to be practically the same as a piece she wrote and called "Blue and Gray."
  • The following biographical sketh appeared in American Women, by Frances Elizabeth Willard and Mary Ashton Rice Livermore (Vol. 1), published in 1897:
         GOLDTHWAITE, Lucy Virginia (Harmon), author, born in Florence. Ala. She is the youngest of her family. Her maiden name was Lucy Virginia Harmon. Her ancestors for generations were born and bred in Petersburg, Va., where her parents and their children, with the exception of Mrs. Goldthwaite, were reared. Her sister, called "Lizzie of Woodlawn," for years was a writer for the Louisville "Journal." Woodlawn, the beautiful home where Mrs. Goldthwaite passed her childhood, may still be seen in Florence. Several little poems, written at five and six years of age by Miss Harmon, are still retained by relatives Verses written at eight were published, with many sketches and poems at intervals in later years. Her most popular poem was on the death of Gen. Pat. Cleburn. For fifteen years the public have read nothing from the pen of Mrs. Goldthwaite, except at long intervals. During that time she was not idle, however, as she has numerous sketches and songs and several novels in manuscript. Her first novel, "Veta, a Story of the Blue and Gray," was published in "Sunny South," in 1890. Mrs. Goldthwaite has written many songs that have received public approval, and a tragedy for Lillian Lewis, which that actor pronounces exceptionally fine, and several other plays for leading actors. Mrs. Goldthwaite is a thorough scholar, a fine artist, a proficient linguist, and reads, writes and speaks fluently several languages. She has a high soprano voice of great sweetness and power. She was a pupil of the German composer, August Newmayer. She is happily married, and is the wife of George Goldthwaite, a prominent judge, an able lawyer, a nephew of ex-United States Supreme Court Judge, John A. Campbell, and son of ex-United States Senator, George Goldthwaite. Mrs. Goldthwaite resides at present in Leadville, Col.
  • Lucy Virginia Harmon appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1900 in Lake County, Colorado, at 204 East 4th.
  • Lucy Virginia Harmon appeared in the US federal census of 15 April 1910 in Leadville, Lake County, Colorado.
  • Lucy Virginia Harmon appeared in the US federal census of 1 January 1920 in Leadville, Lake County, Colorado, at 214 East 4th Street.
  • She was interred at Evergreen Cemetery, Leadville, Lake County, Colorado.
  • Lucy Virginia Harmon died on 2 October 1923 in Leadville, Lake County, Colorado.
  • Last Edited: 18 Nov 2015

Family: George Goldthwaite b. 21 August 1836, d. 31 October 1892