Ida Lavisa Pettingill was born in Elba, Cassia, Idaho on March 2, 1884, the fifth of nine children. She was the daughter of John Christopher and Everline Taylor Pettingill.
She spent her young girlhood in Elba moving to Willard, Box-Elder, Utah and then back to Elba, Idaho. She lived on a farm and did what most farm girls did, helping with the younger children. She went to the Upper District School, there being the Upper and Lower Districts. She went to the lower district part of the time.
Her father was a good violinist and Ida and her other sisters had to accompany him on the organ as he played for dances at Elba and surrounding towns. Sometimes they took their own organ. She loved to dance, and the dances were all night affairs in those days. Everyone took food and all shared and ate about midnight. I can remember the old Ward House which my grandfather helped build. In the West end there was a bed where all of the babies were put while they danced. Grandma had a lovely voice and used to sing in the choir and sing solos at ward functions and funerals.
Grandma was a cowgirl. Grandma and Grandpa were childhood sweethearts, knowing each other all of their lives as they grew up together. She was a pretty girl and he was a good looking boy. On August 13, 1902 they were married at her parent’s home in Elba. They spent their honeymoon on a hay ranch in Malta, Idaho as he had a contract to harvest the hay, and she cooked for the crew. Later they went to the mine in Connor Creek, he working in the mine and she cooked for the workers there. She tied her belongings in a sheet and moved on her horse.
Pictures of where Ida grew up in Elba Idaho. The house burned down but some of the outbuildings are still there.
Later they were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on Aug 13, 1903.
In 1904 they bought an 80 acre farm of Hyrum Ward's in Elba. This was the family home for 45 years. The house was just two rooms at first, then two more rooms were added and later a five room home was built, using the original two rooms. All of her children were born, raised and married while still living in that home. She used orange crates for furniture and oat straw to fill the the bed. There was no running water in the house. They made their first carpet out of rags. They bought a sewing machine and the last payment was a cow. She made all of her soap.
Ida was active in the ward taking part in dramatics, President of Y.W.M.I.A.; Counselor in the Relief Society (1925), teacher in Sunday School, ward organist and secretary for the Sunday School for 7 years.
Picture of Elba Relief Society Building where Ida served as 2nd Counselor in the Relief Society for several years.
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| Elba Ward Relief Society Building |
The transportation was first by horseback, wagon buggy and then a Model-T Ford and later they had other cars. She made trips to Ogden for supplies. They borrowed a stove and bought a table. She had one new dress a year and purchased flour from the mill.
Ida was an expert seamstress making all of their clothes and coats. She knitted the stockings. She made over all the clothes she could get to do that were worth sewing. She not only sewed for 7 children but neighbors and relatives. She made all of the quilts. She was always making something for the children or for the home. She had good taste. They stored ice in a sawdust bin under the wagon shed. They had lots of blizzards and snowstorms.
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| Ida July 1945 in her yard in Elba |
She was a good cook and always had a big garden, berries and fruit patches, which they canned for the winter. It was no small task to keep 9 people clothed and fed. Most of the children had music lessons and other advantages that were available.
Ida didn't enjoy very good health, being anemic. They were a long way from a doctor and so she nursed her family through illnesses. When the children had measles, she got them too and then getting pneumonia she almost died. She was ill for a long time.
She used to go out helping the sick, especially pneumonia patients. Geral had it twice and she took care of him not getting undressed for many nights. She also helped lay out the dead and make burial clothes along with the other Relief Society Sisters. There weren’t undertakers then. They put a breast plate on top of the caskets.
After the children were married, they sold the farm and bought a 40 acre farm in Burley in 1950 where they lived until grandpa's death. Their son Oel and his family bought the farm. She moved into different places and then later into the Romney Apartments, where she lived until she went to live with her daughter Alta in Utah.
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Ida lived in the Romney Apartments 1501 Miller Ave in Burley until she went to live
with her daughter Alta before her death |
While in Burley she was chorister and visiting teacher. She has been a devoted wife and mother, teaching her children to do right and helping her husband in anyway she could She as broken her hip twice but recovered very well.
Grandma died peacefully at Aunt Alta's home in Salt Lake City, Utah on 20 Dec. 1974. She was buried at Gem Memorial Gardens in Burley, Cassia, Idaho on the 23 Dec. 1974 in a beautiful white velvet casket.
