Franklin & Romanzy Revard
Franklin Napoleon Revard was a descendant of Joseph Revard (Revoir, Revir), an early trader on the Verdigris and Grand Rivers. His father, Joseph Revard, part French-Canadian and Osage, and his mother, Lenora Lessert, an Osage woman, moved to California and then to Washington and Oregon where Franklin was born Nov. 26, 1868 in Douglas County, near Portland, Ore. The family returned to near Elgin, Kansas when Franklin was about nine years old, and a year later moved to the Osage Nation. He was one of 16 children.
Franklin served a three year apprenticeship in the government blacksmith shop in Pawhuska, and also engaged in the carpenter trade.
Romanzy Mae Nichols was born in Lincoln, Neb., Pawnee County, on Nov. 23, 1867 and came with her parents John and Rowena Nichols to settle near Chatauqua Springs, Kansas as a young girl.
Franklin and Romanzy met at the Fair in Chautauqua and on Oct. 16, 1883, they secured a buckboard and eloped to Pawhuska where they were married in the home of Judge Thos. L. Rogers, on Osage Avenue. They set up housekeeping on a leased farm on the banks of Spring Creek, south of Elgin bear Tinker Hollow. Two years later they purchased a farm nearby on Pond Creek where their first three children, Mark, Pearl and Nicholas were born.
Franklin again became affiliated with the federal government, being employed at the Osage Agency. He began his career as a peace officer in 1888, and at that time was one of the few law enforcement officers between the Kansas Line and Fort Worth, Texas. In 1890 he was elected Sheriff of the Caney District in Osage County, and in 1892 was appointed as a deputy United States Marshall for the Territory of Oklahoma. Three years later he was named Sheriff of the Strikeaxe District. He was appointed constable of the Osage Nation in 1900 and was a special peace officer for the Indian Agency for many years.
Franklin served on the Osage Council from 1906 until 1936, and was Council Secretary, 1936-1948. He championed the cause of the Osage and made many trips to Washington, D.C. and met every President personally from 1900, including Franklin D. Roosevelt. Ill health caused him to stop making the trips. Franklin was engaged in the real estate and insurance business until shortly before his death in April 1957, at age 93.
Mrs. Revard was active in the Catholic Church and the Ladies Sodalities. She was an expert in indian beadwork and made many heirloom pieces. She enjoyed playing bridge, and her flowers and gardening on the slope of their hillside home, which faced the Osage Agency on Grandview Avenue.
Franklin and Romanzy had five children and raised five orphan children. They celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in Oct. 1956.
Romanzy Nichols Revard, whose greatest interest were her children, was an expert marksman in her younger days, and often was left to “stand guard” over the prisoners her husband would bring into the home, until he could take them to Guthrie or Fort Smith for trial. She died March 22, 1959, at the age of 91. Mr. and Mrs. Revard were buried in the Pawhuska Cometary. Few couples lived together through the transition of the Osages’ move into Indian Territory in 1871-72 through the oil boom of the 20s, the depression of the 30s and again the boom of the 50s.
Mark S. Revard and Nicholas Revard preceded their parents in death. They both were veterans of World War I. The Revards were survived by their daughters, Pearl I. Revard Devine, Myrta J. Revard Harrison and Kathryn L. Revard Yarbrough. Kathryn is now deceased.
The grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Revard were: The children of Mark; Mark S., Jr., Winon Plumlee, George E., Franklin N., and Robert Fitch, whose twin sister, Myrta J. died at birth. Nicholas had one daughter, Marion R. Bishop, who preceded him in death. The children of Pearl; Juanita M. Wright, Julia M. Ryan, and Dr. James P. Divine, Jr. The children of Myrta; Patricia M. Patten, deceased, and Robert V. Harrison, Jr. One son of Kathryn; Dan W. Yarbrough.
