Nickel Harvey

Nickel Harvey and "Puppy"

Harvey Bauer, and five siblings (Aloyes, Kathleen, Robert, Alberta and Kenneth) were raised by their tiny, spunky mother Mary, after the death of father, Al, on July 27, 1918. The obituary stated Mary had a premonition and the family story was that Al had a young wild horse in the team of four and the horse had been acting up. Whatever was the cause of her concern, she did get Al to agree he would only haul one load of stulls for the Beaver Creek Mining Company in the morning. Then he would come home early to celebrate Harvey’s 11th birthday, which was that fateful day. About noon one of the team of horses returned to the house and Mary immediately notified neighbors, who took off looking for Al. They found him just above the old Altona Boarding House at the head of Browns Gulch. 

Apparently the ring came off of the neck yoke, near the wheel horse which caused the tongue to drop on a very steep part of the road. The coroners inquest believed Al was sitting on a piece of belt stretched between the bolsters and: When the front wheel struck a tree he lost balance and was thrown violently against the wheel and then the second tree was hit by the hind wheel, the shock throwing the body clear to the road. His watch was found on that side of the road, where the body struck the ground and it is probable that he was rendered unconscious for a while, as a heavy bruise was found under the right arm across the ribs. After coming to, he managed to cross the road where feeling faint he leaned against a tree for support, gradually slipping into the position in which he was found, life being extinct for some time. The watch stopped at 10:10 and this is thought to be the time of the accident. This watch is in the possession of Harvey’s daughter Karen Bauer Gresch. 

Al’s body was shipped to his home town of Medford, Wisconsin on July 29. Mary traveled with the body to Medford, accompanied by the six children ranging in age from eleven years to three months of age. Al was thirty-eight years of age and had lived in the Philipsburg area about six years. His obituary was difficult to find as the name is misspelled as “Bowers”. The obituary stated when Al and her first arrived in Granite County (1912), they homesteaded on Willow Creek and then moved into Philipsburg where Mr. Bauer operated a livery stable. 

In Kathleen Bauer Barlow’s recollections are these statements: “We must have spent one winter out there [the homestead] too as I remember coyotes howling and mountain lions screaming. By this time Dad had bought a saloon and restaurant in town. We lived in a sort of apartment near town and the saloon…After dad bought the saloon and restaurant, Mom would do some of the cooking and send it over to serve. Harvey and I would take his little red wagon with pots of soup and deliver it.” Karen Bauer Gresch, remembers her Dad, Harvey telling stories about Mary making big pots of soup and the children putting the hot soup in a wagon to pull it down to the business, where Al sold it to his customers for lunch. 

Harvey, the eldest, was enterprising from a young age which is how he became known as “Nickel Harvey.” There is a picture taken of him and his dog at about the age of five. A postcard made of the picture is dated 1912. The story goes that Harvey would take his dog downtown and find someone unsuspecting and ask them if they wanted to buy his dog for a nickel. If they agreed and paid a nickel he would take the money and walk away. When he got around the corner, Harvey would whistle for the dog and the two would run off with the nickel clutched in his hand. One day he approached a rancher with a wagon and team and asked if he wanted to buy the dog for a nickel. The rancher said yes; gave Harvey the nickel; put a rope around the dog's neck, tied the dog to the wagon and took off out of town. A very upset boy went in search of the sheriff D.A. McLeod and told him the sad story. Sheriff “Mac“ went after the rancher and obviously bought the dog back and returned him to Harvey. It is unknown if that was the end of his dog sales. 

Harvey (1907-1992) married Vernus Bentz in the early 1930’s and she died in January 1936. After World War II, Sgt. Bauer married Winnifred (Fet) Sandin (1918-2001) July 27, 1945.