The Edyvean Family originated in Cornwall England with Edmund (d. 1863) and Bridget (Wallis) Edyvean. Their son, John (1854-1921), immigrated to the United States and settled in Dodgeville, Wisconsin before relocating to the Lake Linden and Torch Lake areas of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula approximately 20 years after arriving in the U.S. John established himself as an exemplary employee of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company where he was a gold medal recipient at the time of his death.

John’s wife, Emily Augusta Hadwick (1860-1930) of Marquette, Michigan, was the daughter of Raine Allan Hadwick (1832-1926) and Eliza Webb (1837-1917) of Lake Linden, Michigan. Raine was a veteran of the U.S. Civil War having served with the 27th Michigan. They had five children, including Allan, Rosco, Arteau, Frank, and Edmund H., though by accounts Raine deserted the family following the war and remarried a younger woman, Nellie Emerance Barber, with whom he had seven children prior to his death in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 1926.

Emily and John’s son, Edmund H. Edyvean, was born in Michigan in 1886. He was a graduate of Lake Linden High School and a college graduate of the Michigan College of Mines, earning both a bachelor’s and master's degree in 1906 and in 1909 respectively. Edmund was an employee of the Bristol Mining Company of Crystal Falls, Michigan and also lived in the Iron Mountain area for a period of time. He married Clara Alexander (1886-1968) in Iron Mountain, Michigan in May 1910 and had one daughter, Catherine Alexander (1912-2000) who married Frank Fisher Foster in 1935.