Carrie Ava Fleming was born January 2, 1889, likely in Indiana, to David Columbus and Mary Josephine (Sharp) Fleming. At the time this picture was taken, Carrie, her parents and her younger sister, Sadie, were probably living in Sterling. It appears that, as early as 1897, Carrie’s father was nominated for appointment by the Federal government to the position of “Land Register.”
Carrie most likely received her teaching education at the then-named State Teachers’ College in Greeley. She may have moved to Ashland, Oregon, as early as a one or two years after this picture was taken. She died in August of 1975 at age 86 in Portland, OR, ,and her remains are interred at Valley View Memorial Park in Newburg, OR. Her headstone reads, “She lived to serve.”
The town of Fleming is about 20 miles east and somewhat north of Sterling on highway 6. At the spot where Fleming would one day stand, a lagoon would form during rainy periods, and travelers on the Oregon Trail would stop there on their way to the South Platte River. By 1887, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy “High Line” Railroad had laid track in the area and was building water-tank stations at Paoli, Haxtun and a point east of Sterling called “29-Mile Siding.” Mail sent to the siding would arrive addressed to “Calvert,” in care of railroad superintendent Elwood Calvert of Lincoln, Nebraska. Elwood had a brother-in-law, Henry Bascom Fleming, of Weeping Well, Nebraska, who represented the Lincoln Land Company. Henry acquired 240 acres of land a mile west of the siding. On June 14, 1888, he donated that land and surveyed a town site which he platted as the town of Fleming. I didn’t come across any information indicating a family connection between Carrie Ava Fleming and Henry Bascom Fleming.
REFERENCES:
- Ashland Weekly Tidings (Ashland, OR) Dated May 19, 1920, at www.newspapers.com
- Google Maps
- Greeley Daily Tribune dated November 2, 1916, at www.newspapers.com
- “Homesteading Haxtun and the High Plains,” by Jean Gray, Copyright 2013, pages 69-70.
- Lincoln Journal Star dated March 20, 1897, www.newspapers.com
- 1899 Official Register of United States Officers and Employees of the United States, Volume 1 (Google Books).
- U.S. Find a Grave Index at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/137950990/carrie-a-fleming
