Thursday, July 21, 2011

Idaho, People Pictures, Sugar City

While shuffling through pictures to show you some structures that used to exist in Sugar City , I also found pictures of my grandparents and great grandparents taken before I was born. I decided to share them in lieu of not having Sugar City Cemetery pictures. We went to the cemetery twice in three days. The sprinklers were going both times and the grass was very green. I was too wimpy to dodge the sprinklers for a photos as sprinklers in Idaho are tall, forceful, and not for the faint of heart!

This is my grandmother, Georgianna Ricks, daughter of Alfred Ricks and Winnifred Roberts. I'm guessing that it was taken in the 1920's based on the haircut and dress.

This is a picture of my grandfather, George Lloyd Ostler, when in the Navy before marrying Georgianna.

This is an earlier picture of Georgianna probably taken about the same time of the sailor photo of George. As a little girl who would go to visit her grandparents fairly often, I was often confused as they called each other "George."

George and Georgianna bought a new home and moved to Idaho Falls when my father, Gary, took over the family dairy farm southwest of Sugar City. George began to work for Ahlstrom's Furniture in Idaho Falls. He was a top salesman of both furniture and carpet. Unfortunately, he lost Georgianna in 1964 just after we left Idaho for Arizona. She was only 60 years old. My last memory of Georgianna is her waving from her hospital window to us in the car below on our way out of town. We received word of her death midway on our journey, having stopped in Colorado Springs for a doctor's appointments for my father. My parents made the very hard decision to continue on and not return for her funeral. Winter snow storms were in the forecast but I think my mother always second guessed this decision.

Winnifred Lovenia Roberts was Georgianna's mother. My grandmother always told me how she wished Winnifred would have lived long enough to meet me, my grandma's first grandchild. She would tell me stories about her and I know that Georgianna loved her mother very much.

Winnifred married Alfred Ricks. It is a bit of a story as Alfred first was married to her sister, Mary Adeline Roberts, who died at age 21 in child birth. Winnifred then became his second wife. It gets even more interesting. Alfred died in 1927. His brother, Ephraim, had lost two wives to death the latest in 1936. He married Winnifred in 1937 and they were married for ten years before Winnifred passed away in 1947 leaving Ephraim to outlive yet another wife. He passed away in 1948.

So Alfred was married to two Roberts sisters and Winnifred was married to two Ricks brothers!

I have posted about my great grandma Lucy Walker Hendry several times. She was alive during my childhood and I have many cherished memories of her. She was George Ostler's mother and had an amazing story. To read more go here. She is on the right in this photo from the late 1800's.

This is her second husband, Milo Jonathan Ostler, and the adoptive parent of my grandfather. Her first husband's name was Jarvis B. Mansfield and that is about all that I know.

They moved to Sugar City from Salt Lake City at some point and Milo had a shoe repair business in Sugar City. He died about a year before I was born. Soon after, Lucy married Leo Jacobs, the great grandfather that I do remember. Milo and Lucy had two daughters who are buried near them in the Sugar City Cemetery, Marvol Alice who died at age six and Maxine (also adopted) who just passed away this year.

Now I'm feeling like there are more things that I should scan and make a part of this blog - more things to share. My trip to Idaho has really pushed my memory button!

3 comments:

Vagabond Mother said...

Milo was a handsome devil, too bad his genes didn't make it into the family!! Thanks for sharing mom!!

Hibbe said...

Wow! Thanks for sharing your old photos. This may sound random but I have walked by your families graves for years and wondered about the names. I used to be a caretaker at the cemetery. I love your old pictures of the Park School, Church and Townsite building. The school is one of my earliest memories of Suggar City. It was torn down shortly after we moved here in 1969. Thank you for sharing these. As you know the Teton Dam disaster took most Sugar City historic photos and so it is only through "offsite" pictures that this history has been preserved. Thanks for again for sharing them!!
Kurt Hibbert
bunnybouncer@mac.com

Phy said...

Hi,
I guess I am a cousin of sorts, from Rexburg. My grandmother was a Ricks. I love your old pictures of Sugar. I have copied some of them to use in a biography for Madison's Centennial next year. Thanks for sharing If you'd care to do a 1 page biography of them I would love to put it in our book.
Diana Fuller
fuller5746@msn.com