Oma Lea (She changed it to Lee later) was born to Lowern and Eva (Seamon) Wilhelm on July 12, 1929 at the family’s home at 721 E Ridge St. Harrison AR. Her parents got married on September 28, 1924 in Jackson County, AR, near Eva's childhood home of Olyphant, Arkansas. They moved to Harrison, Arkansas in 1925 as they appeared in the Harrison city directory residing at the above Ridge St home, where Lowern paid $5 monthly rent. At this time their dad Lowern worked as a planer at the mill. This is where one shaves the lumber down to the correct thickness.
During her parents’ move to Harrison, Eva was pregnant with Oma’s big sister Araminta. They likely took a train to either Bergman or Leslie then a stagecoach to Harrison, as the railroads didn't yet go through Harrison as they were still actively building this.
Their neighbors were Jack Brown and his wife Grace Hudson with their daughters Dorris and Joyce, Elizabeth Jackson and her son, AD Taylor and his wife Josie, and The Martin family, John, Eva, Jessie, Vada, and Arlie. This neighborhood was in the Eagle Heights area.
Oma has three sisters: one younger, Ramona, born August 1931 and two older sisters, Araminta Lou, born February 1926 and Betty Jean born on New Year’s day of 1928. All four sisters, along with their cousins graduated from Harrison High School. They grew up alongside their cousins- more on that in the below paragraph.
Araminta and Betty are 22 months apart, Betty and Oma are 18 months apart, Oma and Ramona are 22 months apart. Minta was 3 years old when Oma was born. Their mother, Eva, passed away January 31, 1938. At this time, Ramona was six years old, Oma was 8 years old, Betty was just turned 10, and Minta was about to turn 12. Eva was only 34 years old when she passed away, leaving behind their dad a widow at 31 years old.
When Eva passed away, the extended family moved to Harrison to help with the 4 girls, as Lowern was struggling with tuberculosis . Eva’s dad Julius Seamon moved to Harrison in 1938 next door to Celia Wilhelm; Lowern’s mother. Two of Eva’s brothers, Loyd Seamon and Claud Seamon also moved to Harrison in 1938 to help with the Wilhelm sisters. They lived on the same street, E Bunn Street. So on Bunn Street in the 1940 Census, at 225 E Bunn Street lived the 4 Wilhelm girls, Minta, Betty, Oma, and Ramona with their grandmother, Celia Wilhelm, their dad Lowern, their uncle and aunt, Bill and Aline Smothers, their cousins Thelma Corene and baby Billie Charlene, and their other set of cousins James and Gene Howell.
So in that one house, there was Celia, Lowern (starting to get sick with TB), Bill and Aline raising 8 children in all, in a 3 bedroom house, so it’s very likely the 8 children shared a bedroom, growing up as brothers and sisters. At this time, Lowern was still working at the stave mill, Celia was working as a laundress on the square of Harrison, Bill was a truck driver back and forth from Texas. The children were Minta Wilhelm, 14 years old, 6th grade, Betty, 12 years old, 5th grade, James Howell, 11 years old, 5th grade, Oma Wilhelm, 10 years old, 4th grade, Ramona, 9 years old, 3rd grade, Gene Howell, 9 years old, 3rd grade, Corene Smothers, 5 years old, and baby Charlene born shortly after census taken.
James and Gene Howell’s father Voyd Howell abandoned Thelma when she became ill with TB, so Celia took them in because Thelma was in the hospital at this time, where she eventually passed away from TB. This house was not too far from the hospital.
Next door at 223 E Bunn Street lived Eva’s father and brothers Julius Seamon, Claud and Loyd Seamon. The Seamons shortly thereafter moved to the greater Seattle area way up northwest in Washington state.
Across the street lived Nellie Jones with her children Lester Jones, Fern Jones, and Charles Jones, all around the ages of the 8 children living together. They likely walked to school together. The other children up and down the street within the same ages, meaning they were in the same class were: Edna Fullerton, age 9, 3rd grade, Charles and Herman Freeman, ages 11 and 10, 4th grade, Gerard James and Lewis James, ages 11, 5th and age 5, not in school yet, Charles Pierce, age 11, 4th grade and Hoyt Freeman, age 11, 4th grade. The distance from Bunn Street to the school is 0.8 mile, down Main Street, past the government building, the hotel seville, through the Harrison square, then up Stephenson Ave to Cherry Street. So the square was on their way.
Minta, being the oldest at 14, likely herded the children to and from school and probably stopped at either Bennett’s drug store or Coffmann’s Drugs for sodas on the way home from school until their grandmother Celia got off work at the laundry on the square where she worked as a laundry to help escort the children home.
Their dad, Lowern Wilhelm, entered the hospital alongside his sister Thelma Howell where he passed away March 5th 1942. Oma was 12 at the time. Aline raised the Wilhelm girls alongside her own daughters and the Howell brothers.
There was a bowling alley above the drugstore her sister Mocha worked in and Oma came to enjoy bowling for a long time, well into adulthood. She worked as a waitress next door to the alley/drugsstore called Hotel Seville. She very briefly married Riley Palmer and moved to New Orleans. She appears back in Harrison just a few months later as a divorcee and she then married the love of her life, Ray Clinton Evans. She and Ray went on to have 11 children.
As most of the children are still living, I am going to refrain from listing them all on here, however, I’ve listed them and her grandchildren on the familysearch account I have if you want to peek.
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