Julia Schmitz was born on July 16, 1867 in New York City, the daughter of Julius and Theresa (Valiant) Schmitz. She and her mother accompanied Julius while he was stationed with the 18th Regiment in South Carolina and Georgia where the army was sent to deal with race riots and labor strikes during Reconstruction in the 1870s. They then went to the Montana Territory when he was assigned with his regiment to guard against attacks and incursions from Canada by the Sioux, under Sitting Bull, and the Nez Pierce. Anecdotal evidence provided to her granddaughter, Elizabeth LaVerne Schmidt, involved stories about traveling in covered wagons and a tale concerning the theft of sugar from the Fort Assiniboine commissary with which to bribe Indians on post to let her ride their ponies. Julia recounted that she first attracted the attention of Edward Harvey during one of her bareback riding exploits when she was seventeen. The couple was married on July 21, 1884 in Choteau (Chouteau) County, Montana Territory, most likely at Fort Assiniboine near present day Havre in Hill County. Interestingly, Julia, whose parents’ wedding was in a New York Lutheran Church, was married by a Jesuit priest and became a devout Roman Catholic. In addition to the oral tales transmitted to her granddaughter, Julia kept and preserved documents such as her husband’s original US Army enlistments, discharges, re-enlistments, and separation papers. Also, her book “Explanation of the Epistles and Gospels ....” contains the names and dates of birth of the Harvey children and some grandchildren, as well as several marriages Similarly, a photograph of her mother and her parent’s marriage certificate provide us with the only bona fide evidence of her mother’s image and details of the wedding.
Julia’s first child, Theresa V Harvey was born at Fort Assiniboine in February 1885. Julia and her growing family moved with Edward’s Regiments for the rest of his army career—except for the period when he was stationed in the Philippines. The bases included Fort Assiniboine in the Montana Territory, Fort Leavenworth and Fort Hays (birthplace of her son Edward (1887) and daughter Emma (1889)) in Kansas, Fort Clark (birthplace of daughter Elizabeth Loyola (1891)) and Fort Bliss in Texas and finally Fort Wm H Seward, Alaska Territory. Julia enhanced the family income during those years by working as a laundress. According to the Kansas Historical Society, “Laundresses were often enlisted men’s wives who were allowed to live at the post by doing laundry for a group of 15 to 20 soldiers. Each soldier paid the laundress $1.00 per month for doing most of his laundry, paying extra for overcoats, pants, and bed sacks. With most privates earning $15 per month [as a Sergeant, Julia’s husband earned about $30 per month in 1881], a laundress could double her family’s income.” Lodging was provided for them and their families at the forts in areas that were usually called ‘Laundress’ Row’ or ‘Sudsville’. The several buildings at Fort Hays each housed “four laundresses and their families in two 12' by 12' rooms.”
Other aspects of Julia’s life during those years are not known but rearing and ensuring the education of her four children and working as a laundress on a succession of military installations was undoubtedly a labor-intensive undertaking. Her difficulties were compounded at Fort Bliss when she became sole support of herself and her children while Edward was in the Philippines and Army pay was not forthcoming. Julia and Edward lived in Washington, DC, for eleven years after his retirement from the army in 1906. Following Edward’s death in 1917, Julia lived briefly on 7th Street SW and then with the Daniel and Elizabeth (Harvey) Schmidt family on Quincy Street NW until about 1936. Around this time, she became known as “Granny.” Eventually she resided with Wilson and Elizabeth LaVerne (Schmidt) Littleford in Hillside (apparently now called Coral Hills) and Wheaton, Maryland until 1959. Beginning in 1918, she began receiving a widow’s pension from the War Department via the Pension Bureau of the Department of Interior that consisted of $18 per month which was increased to $50 by 1944. She supplemented this income through employment as a midwife and providing hospice-type and other kinds of care, primarily to military families and working as a nurse’s aide at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington. It is surmised that she may have learned these sorts of skills at the army bases where she had lived; she had no formal education in nursing. Julia was a devout Roman Catholic, traveling to church in Washington from wherever she was living in the area at the time to attend mass every week and trying to ensure that her Littleford great-grandchildren were brought up in the faith. She died on February 24, 1959 (age 91) at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC of peritonitis following a ruptured gastric ulcer and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia with her husband.
Julia was predeceased by her daughter Theresa McKenzie; son, Edward; and granddaughters Helen McKenzie and Juanita (Schmidt) McCawley. Survivors included her daughters Emma Annis Erickson and Elizabeth Loyola Schmidt; granddaughters Julia McKenzie, Zula Harvey, Ursula Erickson, Elizabeth LaVerne (Schmidt) Littleford; and grandson Harvey Schmidt.

Prepared by: Stephen Potkay with input from Elizabeth LaVerne (Schmidt) Littleford, Julia’s granddaughter.