Harriet's Letter dated Oct 1874

Dear Owen,

I didn't think I wold write another lettr but I have to tell you why your with Mr and Mrs Smith. I learnd that William and Permelia left without you nor talking with me. Gone to Exira, Iowa. Well after gampa Owen died I had money from seling the place. .
Well I bout tickets on the train to Atlantic. Riding that train the best time I see you have. I hired a buggy take us to Exira It wernt a long ride but William have no farm. He live on Edgerton st in Exira. His 5 children and Permelia all in this house. She says she have no more room for children. Youd be lucky to have a bed there. William working as a carpenter she says. New buildings in Exira and Oakfield and at the Hollocks place and the Dodges place maybe more.
Well I got to find someone so I ask the clerk at the store. He said maybe ask Mrs. Smith. Shes a teacher and have no children of her own. He says sometime back they have Rosette Heath stay with them. Not sure why maybe to finish school. At the livery I hired a buggy so we don't have to walk. Your gama cant walk that far. I writ a lettr to Mrs and the Rev in Masechusets so they know where you are. I put this letter with your other lettrs from me. If this the last lettr you have then you know it work out the way God wanted.

Love,
Gama Harriet

This letter is an invention.

Harriet's Letter dated May 7. 1873

Dear Owen,

My wish for you

I wish you could be on a farm like Ebenezer's father. Nathaniel Jr. Your grandfather. He lived on his Ide farm all his life. It weren't his fathers but next to it You remember that Ebenezers grandfather, Nathaniel Sr had 17 children a bunch of them boys. Theres only so many times you can cut pie til you have none but there was plenty of land then so they lived close by each other. Can you believe that hill by them was called Ides Hill. That's what everybody called it. Because the Ides your grandfather and great grands and more had lived there so long.
You see it was first Nicholas and his mother come from England just after the pilgrims. Then they went to Rode Island after that first Baptist Roger Williams because Masechusets don't like the way they worship. Then Lt. Nicholas he fought in a war with the Indians. Then Jacob Ide and Nathaniel Sr. and then Nathaniel Jr your grandfather and Ebenezer and you Owen Fowler Ide. Emilene said Fowler was her family even though she was adopted so she didn't want to name you Owen McKinon Ide or Owen Riggs Ide.

I went far from my wish. I wish you have a farm like you grandfather Nathaniel Jr and live there til you die of old age happy. God will it will happen

Love, Gama Harriet

This letter is an invention.

Harriet's Letter dated May 7. 1872

Dear Owen

Today you are 8 years old You need a father I apresiate that you work the McCunes showing how a farmer works and sometimes you workd with gampa Owen in the tobacco. But I think you will be in Iowa. William stopped talking to me about it. Maybe because they have 5 kids know but you need a lot of kids if you going to be on a farm. He keep saying he aint a farmer he is a carpenter I don't know why. Everyone else is talking abot farming in Iowa.
Sad day when my Owen died 2 months ago. Cholera come round the country agan. Gampa old and ben sick. Cholera kill him easy. God keep you me alive so you can be in Iowa I know that.
Since he ded thers no hapiness in this lettr. You father died when you just 6-7 month old. Consumption just as he afeard since Jemima die. Sick from befor you was born. Terrible wory it was for Emilene a new mother. She was so happy with her baby Owen.

Shoe the old horse, shoe the mare,
Drive a nail here, drive a nail there;
But let the little knobby colt go bare.

And she shakes your litle feet Then you and she be happy 1-2 years then she gets sick. Worse and worse for 2 years suffering all that time thinking abot what happens to you.
But even then all her friends visit even from Cambridge come more than once. They say they just paying Emilene for all that elixir she give them. sometimes they sit and talk or sing. Good for both of them visitor and Emilene. Then she died January 28 1868 You not even 4 years old And that's when I start writing these letters.

That all the writing I can do abot the saddest times.
Love,
Gama

The nursery rhyme is real. The letter is an invention.

Harriet's Letter dated May 11, 1868

Dear Owen,

Ide manufacturing Co It was good for 2-3 years and then it don't make any money so Nathaniel and Ebenezer they had to sell it. 1825 about. Ebenezer and Jemima and Mary and Maria those two born by then they moved from rode island back to the Ide farm in Masechusets. At the farm Hariot was born and then Amanda. Ebenezer was saving his money and looking for a new place to live and have a business. Your father could do his own work to make money or he could do other peoples work. Not like my Owen. He waits for other people to ask if he want work to do. Tobacco, pennyroyal, corn, hawlin, pickin, packin.
Not sure when exactly they moved to Smithfield. But I remember 1836 becaus that's when Ebenezer told me how keen he was about church. When he got to be a Revrend isn't coming to my thinking but Smithfield was important. He and some other men signd the papers legal and all to start the Lime Rock Baptist Church. Then he lay down that pen and paper and picked up his hammer and nails to build that church building. That's a smart way to think about it. It shows how specil he was. He got to be the deacon for a longtime. Deacons sometimes preach if there is no real preacher. Maybe that's how he come to be called Revrend.
They lived in Smithfield at least 17 years. Well they all didn't live ther that long. Maria died there and then Hariot. I told you about them already. Owen I hope when you are a father children don't die all the time. We re used to it and Ebenezer too. Just last week my friend showed me a lettr from her sister. It said
Lots of sickness but the deths has ben amung the children
Then she count 16 children she knew and some she don't . Like it dont no matter it only children.
Well the paper ran out of room so I will tell you the saddest part next letter.

Love,
Gama

Harriet's Letter dated February 8, 1868

February 8, 1868

Dear Owen,

More abot your mother Emilene.

What with Broodhall and her living in Cambridge we see each othr almost ever day. And on Sundays to the regular Baptist church. Women in town liked to visit Emilene. They told me they come get a dose of Emilene elixir. I know it wasn't her looks since it was women. She was pretty wit her black hair and frekels. She said no wise words or funny and she cook as good as most but nothing specil. Those women just like to walk talk work next to her awhile. That made them happy. Because she learnt to be happy even tho her parents taken sudden like that. It was the blood of Jesus I know becaus I pray a long time so she wont be sad.
Sometimes Broodhall has to go to Marietta to get iron for the blacksmith. When the weather was good Emilene goes too. Other times she stays with me. In the morning that last time we look at each other and knowed we wer worrying abot the same thing. Broodhall is late coming back. Dinner time here come his wagon with Broodhall dead in back. Man from the iron place says accident with crane dropping the iron killed him.

Emilene cried and cried. I wonderd if she ever stop. She say she miss her Broodhall then she say she miss her family. Sometimes I don't know who she miss most. But we talk and walk and work together sometime sing a hymn from church we know.

Where dost thou dear shepherd resort
with thy sheep to feed them in pastures of love.
Say why in the valley of death should I weep
or alone in this wilderness rove.

I tell her she still got me long past 60 years old and not goin to leave. And Jesus too.

Thats all tonite
Love, Gama Harriet

The hymn is real. The letter is an invention.

Harriet's Letter dated February 1, 1868

Dear Owen,

You are only 4 years old. Your father ded almost 4 years. Your mother just died. Suffering so much since you was 2. In these letrs I will tell about your family. If your reading this then God ansered my prayers. You are with a good family who made you go to school and learn reading. I want my son William to be your father. I went to the office yesterday sent him a letter asking him to adopt you. He has some children. Wilbert is just 3 years ahed you.
I will write just as it comes to me. I cant remember it all at once. I want you to remember your mother and father Not like your Emilene. Her mother and dad Riggs that's ther name taken so sudden she remember nothing. Maybe she don't want to. I wont sadden you with how it happen because your mother was specil and I want you to think on that. Emilene come to us when we lived in Belmont Conty. 8 years old. And William only 4 yr. Now I had daughter. She learnt to cook and sew and make butter and soap and all those women chores. Help me take care of Will. then faster than a horse flik a fly away she is 16.
In love she says with Broodhall McKinon his family come from Barnesville Broodhall work with the blacksmith. We lived in Cambridge then. I told her the law say she have to be 18. but she cant wait. One evenin Broodhall and she come and they didnt go to work says they got married in Washington conty Justice of peace. She showed me the paper and all. I hope you dont ever go aganst your parents that way.
I am not done telling you about Emilene but I can write only when you are sleep. 4 year old and so busy all the time If I dont watch youll wory the checkens or get cat scratched or kickd by the cow.

Too tired tonite to write more.

Love,
Gama

These letters are inventions.

A lonesome batchelor

Here is what I have in my story from Grandma Mort; this is what she told me:

"Sarah Elizabeth Cotton, born in Eddyville, Iowa, December 20, 1868, met and married "a lonesome bachelor" by the name of Owen Fowler Ide, born May 7, 1864, in Fairview, Ohio.  His father, a Baptist minister, the Reverend Ebenezer Ide, 70, died when Owen was seven months old.  His mother, Emiline R. S. Ide, died at age 35 on January 28, 1868.  Both died at the residence of Owen Fowler in Fairview, Guernsey County, Ohio.  Left an orphan by age three, Owen was brought by his grandmother to Exira, Iowa, to some Fowler relatives who evidently did not wish to keep him.  A childless couple, Oliver and Emily Jane (Beers) Smith, took him in.  Emily Jane, born 1832, was a teacher from New York, and it was her desire that Owen should be educated.  He went to high school in Exira from the Smith farm near Brayton.  He also attended Ames (Iowa State University) for part of a year."

The farm where the Smith's lived was the farm that the Owen and Sarah Ide, after their marriage, rented and later purchased from the Smiths and where Grandma Mort grew up.  Grandma referred to them as "Grandpa and Grandma Smith."  Owen lived on that farm for 65 years.  The Smith grandparents moved later to California but would come back every year and spend time at the farm.  Grandma said her parents always had to move out of their bedroom so the Smiths could have it.

Love, Aunt Mary

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