Helen K. Sedgwick

Helen Petty Sedgwick

Helen Sedgwick, ranch woman on the Cheyenne River in Northern Niobrara County for 37 years and daughter of pioneer ancestry, died May 5 in the Weston County Memorial Hospital, Newcastle, after a lengthy illness.

Helen Petty Sedgwick was born Dec. 15, 1908, to Mrs. and Mrs. Art Petty on their Homestead in Red Canyon, north of Edgemont. She was very proud and liked to tell of her pioneer ancestors who helped to settle the Black Hills, according to her family. Her mother was the daughter of Emmett and Clara Arnold who homesteaded south of Minnekahta in May, 1885. Her father was the son of Ted and Jenny Petty who settled in Hot Springs in the early 1880s. Ted Petty's face is sculptured in a stone in front of a store building in Hot Springs and he donated the land where Hot Springs now stands. Art Petty was deputy sheriff of Fall River County (Edgemont) under his father Ted, 1900-1904, and was elected to the office for two terms, from 1932 to 1936.

Mrs. Sedgwick attended country and Edgemont schools. She attended the Edgemont Congregational Church as a young girl and sang in the choir.

She and Leonard (Bus) Sedgwick were married in Sheridan on February 8, 1928, and made their home on the Cheyenne River ranch until the fall of 1965 when they moved to Newcastle. They were the parents of three children, Clara, Francie and Leonard.

The first years of their married life they sometimes lived in the sheep wagon and herded sheep, going to the Black Hills in the summer. She did enjoy telling her children of these good times, and the good fishing.

If anyone showed her a hobby she was soon doing it. A family friend Charlie McEndaffer, braided rawhide quirts and she helped him and soon did this as well as all kinds of leather craft. She also enjoyed writing poetry, and often composed a poem in memory of a friend.

She belonged to the Extension Club on the Cheyenne River for many years and was a 4-H Club leader for 15 years. She transported 4-H members to judgings, camps and various contests. Her children also did rodeoing and again she transported them, their horses and others to rodeos over many states.

She liked to play the piano and did so for many public gatherings. She enjoyed telling that the piano she learned to play on was a battered old black piano that her uncle George Paine had given her mother and she fixed up.

For several years she was a member of the Cow Belles and after coming to Newcastle she joined the Pythian Sisters.

Funeral service was held at the Shared Ministry Church in Edgemont last Wednesday.

Interment was in the Edgemont cemetery. Pallbearers were Franklin Manke, Donald Spencer, Jim Rumney and Stan Rennard, Edgemont; Jim Reed, Newcastle and Bob Horst of Gurley, Neb.

A memorial has been established at the Mallo Canyon 4-H Camp, c/o Pauline Marchant, 425 Cambria, Newcastle 82701.

She is survived by her husband Bus of Newcastle, two daughters, Clara Wilson of Mule Creek Junction, Francie Martin of Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and a son Leonard of Newcastle; her mother Mabel Petty of Medford, Ore., and two sisters, Jennie Koser of Medford, Ore., and Clara Lee of Hot Springs; and seven grandchildren, Mike, Kelly and Tracy James, Lonnie Wilson, Kacy, Amy and Marty Sedgwick.

Images & Attachments

Related/Linked Records