Wahkiakum County Eagle-Thursday, July 1951

MESERVE, Harriet Alta
	
  Funeral services were held Thursday at the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
Grays River for the former publisher and editor of the Grays River Builder 
and pioneer resident of the State of Washington.  Rev. Frederick Avery of St. 
Luke's Episcopal Church, Vancouver, officiated.
  She died in Portland at the Good Samaritan Hospital at age 73, and was the 
daughter of the late Judge and Mrs. Solomon Smith.  She was born in Cherokee, 
Kans.  She moved to Goldendale with her parents prior to Washington's 
admission to statehood.  Her father later was the first clerk of the 
Washington State Supreme Court and also served as the first Superior Court 
judge of three Washington counties.
 She attended Portland University, then sponsored by the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, from 1894 through 1896.
 Prior to her marriage, she taught school in Oregon and Washington 
communities bordering the Columbia River.  In 1900 she was married to William 
Nelson Meserve.  It was the first* wedding to take place in the community 
church in Cathlamet, county seat of Wahkiakum county.
  A county-wide celebration of their Golden Wedding Anniversary, held in 
October of the past year, culminated 50 years of activity and service in 
civic, church and political affairs.  She was a member of the Astoria chapter 
of the Order of Eastern Star.
 She first became interested in newspaper work by serving as newspaper 
correspondent for several newspapers, including the Portland Oregonian, and 
later served as Society Editor of the former Morning Astorian in Astoria, 
Ore., where Mr. and Mrs. Meserve maintained a winter home.
  Mrs. Meserve was publisher and editor of the weekly Grays River Builder in 
1933 through 1945, when she discontinued publication due to ill health.
  She is survived by her husband, W. N. Meserve, now living in Vancouver; 
four children, Imogene Mathieson of Vancouver, S. W. Meserve of Portland, 
Ore., R. W. Meserve of Rosburg and Maurine Grant of San Francisco, Calif.; 
five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Harriet Alta Smith Meserve
Grays River Cemetery-Grays River, Wa.
1878-09 Jul 1951
(As transcribed by the Wahkiakum County Historical Society 2006 from original 
newspaper collection.)