Earthly Life History of George Washington Kidd
and his wife
Mary Elinda Elizabeth Morrow
George Washington Kidd was son of LeRoy Anderson Kidd and Rebecca Adaline Lones and was born on 16 Aug. 1852 at Bolivar, Polk County, Missouri.
His wife was Mary Elinda Morrow.
She was a daughter of George Washington Morrow and Martha Betsy McCord Taylor and was born 10 Apr. 1858 at Manchester, Coffee County, Tennessee.
{George Washington MORROW and Martha Betsy McCord TAYLOR, parents of Mary Elinda Elizabeth MORROW}While quite small, the parents of George Washington Kidd moved from the state of Missouri back to Manchester, Tennessee.
{Old KIDD Home in Tennessee}
This move was prior to the Civil War. When the Civil War ended, soldiers were mustered out and marched home. They were very ragged and dirty, also very weary. George Washington, a small boy would stand by the roadside at their farm and watch the soldiers so long that it sometimes seemed they were standing still and just lifting their feet up and down.
One time, a soldier paused, and he asked George Washington if he was a good boy. He answered, “I try to be”. The soldier then gave George Washington Kidd a very worn Bible that he had been carrying in his hand. George Washington kept that worn Bible for many years. It finally became fragments of yellow pages and disappeared like so many things do with the dim and distant past.
George Washington Kidd, had one sister just older than he was. Her name was Evaline (Evy for short). They had good times after the war riding their fine horses. Their father LeRoy Anderson Kidd had been a breeder of horses prior to the war.
{This is a photo of Aunt Evy - I have her purse, hair comb and glasses}
Aunt Evy was quite a rider and would ride the best stallions and also the bull they had with the cows (against her father’s wishes). One day she put a saddle on a prized stallion and the horse ran away with her and another time, she was driving the stallion hitched to a buggy. A neighbor passed by with a mare also hitched to a buggy. Well, the stallion took Evy for a fast ride and the lady driving the mare was nearly scared to death before she got to her home and shut the gate.
Evy was quite a tomboy for those early years in American History, in spite of the long skirts and having to ride a horse side saddle. She was also quite an accomplished seamstress, doing all the sewing by hand with yards and yards of material that had to be put into their skirts, fine tucks and pleats in the waist.
Evaline married a northern soldier (Yankee) years after the war. She married Francis Marion Gravitt on 8 Dec. 1892. She was forty-three years of age when she married. Through ignorance of not knowing the right things to do, Evaline developed female problems early in life. Probably some of the problem was caused by her riding. She was bed fast for several years prior to her marriage. Also, after her marriage, she never had any children.
After her husband Francis Marion Gravitt died, she spent the remaining years with her brother George Washington and his wife Mary Elinda, and their family.
{This is Francis Marion GRAVITT}
George Washington Kidd with the help of his brothers worked together. Therefore, they were able to buy the farm in Ragsdale, Tennessee. Later George Washington and his wife Mary Elinda, after years of toil and sweat, were able to purchase this farm property from their father and make it their home. His brothers were: James, Leander, and Edward.
{R-L: Leander KIDD, Leroy Anderson KIDD, and Edward (Doak) KIDD - I have Doak's Bible}
George Washington Kidd like to laugh and talk of old girl friends when he was a young man. One especially, a Miss Jennie. He was very popular with the females.
He joined the Klu Klux Klan. [Note: this is definitely a black mark on the family!] One time he was to go with the Klan members to get rid of a black man for something he had supposedly done. George Washington told the Klan leader that he would not go with them that night and the leader told him that he would be “sorry for it” and the Klan rode off. The next time the leader of the Klan saw George Washington, he said, “George, do you know what has kept you out of trouble all this time?” George Washington said, “No, what?” The man responded back to him, “Well, it’s your eyes.” George Washington Kidd had a mean look in his eyes if he became aroused or ticked off and when he looked at anyone while in this mood, it was as if he always looked right through them.
He found a very charming sweet curly red-head and she was the dearest and sweetest girl in all the world. And at the age of 27 years, he married his sweetheart Mary Elinda Morrow. They were married on the 9 Nov 1879 in Ragsdale, Tennessee by a Mr. Edward Croslin and spent their honeymoon week stringing pumpkin up to dry. From then on, life was hard work and rearing a family of ten children (five boys and five girls). The years passed. The family grew.
Their struggle became greater. Days of sunshine and days of shadow and despair. Death entered their home and took a girl/baby and later a three year old daughter, Laura Evaline. She was stricken with the croup and died within three days.
George Washington Kidd and wife Mary Elinda always managed to keep out of debt, always had sufficient to eat, and clothing to wear. Their house was opened doors to all who would come and partake of their hospitality. A week, a day, or as long as they wished to stay. Their home was usually a stopping place for many Baptist Ministers, as they were at one time Baptists and when the Ministers would come to hold a revival for perhaps a week at a time, the Ministers were always invited to stay.
Mary Elinda was a very devout Christian and was a past member of several different Churches before becoming a member of the L.D.S. Church. She said that she was always depressed with religion and felt like there was a burden on her heart that she could not get rid of.
Late one autumn on a Saturday evening, as the last rays of sun reflected the shadow of the old oak tree across from their front porch, George Washington looked up and said to his son Henry Mike Lee, “Yonder come two Mormon preachers. If they act like gentlemen, I’ll treat them as such.” These two missionaries had traveled all day without food. No one would give them food or shelter. They were tired, hungry and foot weary. They wore long black coats and derby hats.
George Washington Kidd greeted them with a friendly hand. They said they were representing the Latter-day Church, better known as the Mormon Church, and requested lodging till Monday, as they did not like to travel on the Sabbath. The response from George Washington, was, “I wouldn’t turn a yeller dog away from my home, let alone people asking for food, or a place to sleep.” Then he quoted from the Bible “Neglect not to entertain strangers, for in doing so you might entertain Angels”. They were informed to stay away from the women, and his wife would bring them food, and they could wash up in the creek, and bed down in the barn.
In the course of conversation on that Sunday evening, it came up about the Indians, and how they ever got to the American Continent. This had always been a puzzle for George Washington. One of the Missionaries said, “We have a book that will tell you all about it” and they handed him a Book of Mormon. George Washington said, “I don’t want your Mormon Bible.” They responded and explained that it contained the history that he had asked to read, and they would pick it up the next time they were in that area. They said “Good-night” and also “Good-bye” as they were leaving the next morning. They were invited back if they were ever in the community again.
On Monday, George Washington and his wife immediately began to read the book, compared it with their Bible, and tried to condemn the book. The more they read it, the more they were convinced it was true. They discussed the book with neighbors, relatives and also the ministers, only to be made fun of.
A few months later, in the spring, Mary Elinda on 18 May 1901, was Baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was baptized among deep hatred and bitterness because of her faith in the L.D.S. Church. She said that depressed feeling inside of her was finally gone. Mary Elinda said “If the whole world turned against her, she would still do the same thing because she knew it was true.” Some two years later, on 3 Nov. 1903, her two daughters, Maude Rebecca and Cora Alma were Baptized member of the L.D.S. Church.
After the baptism of Mary Elinda, many Elders came to their home. It sort of became a home away from home. {Photo of the George W. KIDD and Mary E. MORROW KIDD Home}
Finally, the Mission President got permission to hold conference in the New Hope Baptist Church building. This Church was at that time inactive. No meetings were being held there. Occasionally someone would start a community Sunday School and so it was named “New Hope”.
The L.D.S. conference came and all the Elders (missionaries) within walking distance came. (They traveled without purse or script). Some came by train and walked from the train station. It was a successful conference among the Elders and also several converts that had traveled many miles by wagon and team to be there.
After the Conference was over, and the Elders went their separate ways, there was a type-written note on the Church door with a bunch of willows neatly tied and set on each side of the door. The note read, “We forbid any more Mormon Elders coming into this community,” signed K.K.Klan. It did not alarm the Kidd family. However, George Washington did take precautionary measures and told the man in the community who had the only type-writer around that if anyone came to molest the Elders while at his place, they better prepare their burial box before they came.
The family was never bothered again by the K.K.Klan, however, all the stores in the community refused to sell groceries, clothing and other goods to the Kidd family. When the stores, neighbors, also relatives refused to help, or give assistance to them because of hatred and bitterness, the family of George Washington Kidd decided to move to Utah. He sold some farm land and rented out the farm where their house was to a share cropper. His father LeRoy Anderson Kidd, after living with his son for many years, had died. Therefore George Washington along with his widowed sister, Evaline (who also lived with the family), his mother, Rebecca Adaline Lones and his wife along with their children prepared to move west.
A son, George Clement, had moved to Utah earlier to herd sheep and had prepared, also, furnished a little house (temporary home) at Avon, Utah in Cache County. They traveled by train with all their personal possessions possible. His mother, Rebecca Adaline Lones brought her trunk that survived the Civil War, and her favorite kitchen chair, and a cane made from a shark’s back bone. She lived to get to Avon, Utah, but died shortly there after.
While living at Avon, Utah, George Washington and his sister Evaline became very homesick and returned to their native Tennessee, and spent the summer, as he retained his home there. When they arrived in Tennessee, they found their mentally ill brother seriously ill. He had been transferred to an institution on the departure of his mother to Utah. A short time later their brother Leander died. They took care of the funeral arrangements and he was laid to rest in the Ragsdale, Tennessee Cemetery with his father, LeRoy Anderson Kidd.
By this time, the family in Avon, Utah had decided to move to Darlington, Idaho so George Washington sold the house and the remaining farm land in Tennessee. Then he and his sister Evaline traveled by train to Idaho, feeling that Idaho was the best place for them after all.
After living at Darlington, Idaho for a year, they moved to Moore, Idaho, some nine miles south of Darlington. George Washington bought a little home. His family and sister learned to love this place and especially, the people whom thy met and became acquainted with. Three years later, they sold their little home and moved to Drummond, Idaho (a dry farming area).
They had lived in Drummond, Idaho some six months when they received word that their daughter Cora Alma, who was twenty-seven years old had died in childbirth, while her husband, David King, was on a Church mission in Virginia. She had been married for about a year and eight months.
{This is Cora Alma KIDD and her husband, David KING}
On 22 Dec 1909 their daughter Maude Rebecca married William Neuman Patten and on 26 Dec 1911, their daughter Cora Alma had married David King. Both of these families remained at Moore, Idaho when George Washington moved to Drummond, Idaho.
Maude Rebecca was a woman of rare charm with a magnetic personality. She, in her young life, had a host of friends. Cora Alma was more of a reserved, quiet, but loving kind and a real angel, if it were possible for an earthly one. Maude Rebecca passed away 22 Mar 1930.
Maude Rebecca and Cora Alma were very close and loved each other very much. They were always understanding, never a cross word between them. They were never allowed to go out to parties or dances (dances in those days were square dances in the neighborhood homes) unless they had the consent of their father George Washington, who ruled the household with an iron hand. What he said was law. Their amusements mostly were writing letters to girl and boy friends. Maude Rebecca liked to sew a lot, making quilts and sewing for the family. Both she and Cora Alma did lots of knitting.
Maude Rebecca never cared for fancy work, but that was one of Cora Alma’s hobbies. Often times these sisters would spend afternoons (while young) with a girlfriend, and if she lived any distance, they sometimes were allowed to go and spend the week. They would attend revivals together of other denominations and sometimes with their girl and boyfriends. In return many times girl friends would come home with them for a week. Luckily, their father George Washington, loved company. His home was always open door to any one.
Maude Rebecca and Cora Alma worked hard in Tennessee during the summer helping to put in the crops. Then, when harvesting came, it was picking tomatoes, pulling corn from the stalks, stripping corn fodder or leaves from the stalks while green and tying them in bundles for feed for the horses and cows for winter. Also, gathering in the pumpkins and squash, etc.
The first year in Avon, Utah was very hard for the Kidd family. They did not have much money so Maude Rebecca and Cora Alma each got a job in Brigham City, Utah. Maude Rebecca worked in a rooming house and Cora Alma worked in a private home.
After the family moved to Drummond, Idaho, the health of Mary Elinda Morrow, wife of George Washington Kidd, began to fail. Also her eyesight. On 12 Mar. 1923 she received a card in the mail that her daughter Maude Rebecca was very will in the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. This news was devastating to her and that night she passed away at 10 pm at the age of sixty-five of a heart attack. She was buried in the Pineview Cemetery in Ashton, Idaho. Her testimony of the Restored Church was still strong and valiant and she is still carrying that same testimony into the Eternities.
{Mary Elinda Elizabeth Morrow KIDD}
The following months and years were very lonely for George Washington Kidd.
{G. W. KIDD}
Children of George Washington Kidd and his wife Mary Elinda Morrow:
Maude Rebecca Kidd b. 6 Dec 1883 Hillsboro, Coffee, Tennessee; d. 22 Mar 1930; md William Neuman Patten 22 Dec 1909
Cora Alma Kidd b. 15 Sep 1885 Ragsdale, Coffee, Tennessee; d. 2 Aug 1913; md David Rees King 26 Dec 1911
Girl/baby b. 12 Dec 1889 Ragsdale, Coffee, Tennessee; d. 12 Dec 1889
Henry Mike Lee Kidd b. 9 Dec 1890 Ragsdale, Coffee, Tennessee; d. 26 Mar 1966; md Veda Hendricks 16 Jun 1920
Laura Evaline Kidd b. 25 Sep 1894 Ragsdale, Coffee, Tennessee; d. 5 Oct 1897
James Andrew Hobson Kidd b. 24 Dec 1898 Ragsdale, Coffee, Tennessee; d. 22 Feb 1976; md Elgy Ora Whittle 26 Mar 1923
{Notes in YELLOW are my addition, as are the pictures, and I'll try to add more if I can find them}.
Our INSPIRATIONAL FAMILY thought for today comes from Elder Richard G. Scott: "Live each day so as to give evidence to Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son of how very much those blessings mean to you. It is necessary to identify those ancestors, qualify them, and come to the house of the Lord to perform the ordinances they are longing to receive."
1 comment:
Most of the family knows that I work on genealogy every day! Many, many blessed hours surround me with those experiences that testify that indeed the veil is thin for those living on the other side!
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