Lucy Hite

            Hites Cove on the south fork of the Merced River is mostly noted for its exceptional beauty and many people often hike there to enjoy not just the beauty of it but the fine swimming in the icy cold snow waters among rainbow and brown trout.  But, there is still another reason Hites Cove is to be remembered and that is Lucy Hite.

Lucy Hite was a Miwok Indian woman who became the wife of John Hite.  After living in a common-in-law relationship for twelve years Lucy left John Hite because he wouldn’t marry her.

            John discovered that he truly missed her and went to her agreeing to marry.  And so they were married in an Indian ceremony.

However, after a while John felt that he should not have married a “savage” Indian woman after all. 

Then one sad day for Lucy, she read in the local paper that John had married a nurse from Oakland.

 She filed for divorce and became the first Native American woman to be recognized by the California courts.  The case went into trial and was bitterly fought.  Local newspapers attacked her, calling her among other things, “a savage gold-digger” The real villains in the case however, were her attorneys who saw this as a great moneymaking opportunity and actually argued in court over who would get the most..

Eventually Lucy won and received only a $26,000 out of court settlement even though John Hite was then worth well over several million dollars.

Lucy died after a long illness in the home of her niece in Mariposa June 1929.