Edith (Riddle) Grover (1833 - 1907)

Born 9 Sep 1833 in Boone County, Kentucky, USA

Ancestors

Wife of Joseph True Grover — married 1852 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Wife of Jared Grover — married 1867 in Utah, USA

Descendants

Died 13 Sep 1907 at age 74 in Hamilton, Ravalli, Montana, USA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Shirley Park [send private message]

This profile is part of the Riddle Name Study.

Edith (Riddle) Grover was a Latter Day Saint pioneer.

Biography

Edith was born in 1833. She was the daughter of John Thomas Sr Riddle and Elizabeth Stewart. She passed away in 1907.

In 1860 she is living with Joseph and their children in Weber, Utah Territory, USA.^[1]

The following account of the life of Edith Eveline Riddle is taken largely from the account of Mary Eveline Blodgett Morris, who lived with her grandmother as a girl. Material in quotes is Mary's own words: "Grandmother's first memories were of a home where there were lots of trees and her father and mother cleared the land of trees and brush so they could farm the plantation where there were Negro slaves to do all of the hard work. Her father was an overseer on the plantation. She could remember the slaves tipping their hats and calling him "Marse John." Then there was a Negro mammy who helped care for the children and one who did the washing and ironing. She said at night she nearly always fell asleep listening to the banjos and singing "Old Kentucky Home," "Old Black Joe," "Massa in the Cold, Cold Ground," "Go Down Moses," and lots of other old songs.

Ediths's parents moved to Hickman County in western Kentucky and there heard the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and Joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1843. Shortly thereafter they moved to Illinois settling near Nauvoo, the center of the LDS church at that time. In the summer of 1844, Edith had the following experience: "She was a large girl and so with some other girls she was doing their family washing down by the river when a mob of men with blackened faces came down the the river. They were cursing and laughing and telling how they had shot old Joe Smith and what they were going to do with the rest of the Mormons. They frightened the girls and the girls ran back to their homes, telling their parents of what they had seen and heard and their parents told them it was all true. The mob had killed their beloved prophet and Hyrum, his brother. It was a sad time for all the Saints and from that time on they went through the same trials and hardships that the other saints endured at that time." "Finally they started in a wagon train to Salt Lake and it was a hard trip for the family. They had six small children to care for and feed. John Riddle had a fair knowledge of doctoring the sick and ailing and he was kept busy doing what he could for them. They had two cows, and they would milk them and put the milk in the churn and at night it would be butter. They would have butter for supper and butter milk to make corn bread. One day they saw a cloud of dust coming toward; thinking it was Indians, the captain called a halt and they made a circle of wagons and none too soon for the dust was caused by a large band buffalo. The Indians had stampeded them and they passed the circle of wagons so close that the brethren killed three of them. My grandmother was nearly 19 [17?] years old then, but she never forgot what an awful noise the hundreds of madly running feet of those buffalo made. When they finally arrived in Salt Lake, they found the town so scattered and the houses were mostly one story high and either made of adobe or logs. If there were any fences, they were pole. No shade trees or fruit trees. A few families were living in the fort, who had not been able to build themselves houses. Theis fort had been built to protect them from the Indians. Edith Riddle married Joseph Grover in the old Endowment House in Salt Lake City in 1851. They moved to Box Elder County and to Farmington, and helped to settle some new settlements. About half of grandfather's time was spent as an Indian Scout so my grandmother had a hard time sewing and helping others so she could earn a little flower to help feed her little ones."

Edith divorced Joseph about 1866 and married her step-son, Jared Grover, Joseph's son by his first marriage. "About 1866 with her husband and 6 children, she moved to California. They went to Inyo County and rented a farm and cows, and made cheese and butter. My grandmother gave birth to five babies in Inyo County but only two of them lived. Her health was so poor by this time (1879) that they made up their minds to travel a while so they started in a covered wagon, finally arriving in Butte, Montana. Here they heard of work to be had at Hell Gate Canyon. The Railroad company was going to build through there to Missoula, Montana. They went to the company and all got work. My grandmother cooked for 40 men and her sister [Lucinda] cooked for 30 men. Just those two white women and their four little girls along the two hundred miles of new railroad that was being built. After they got through that work they went up the Bitterroot River and took up homesteads. There was no town, only a small grist mill. No doctors or supplies closer than Missoula, 30 miles away. My grandmother was a good nurse and a good neighbor. She helped people for miles around. She helped with new babies and was a kind friend to anyone in sorrow. She helped to lay out the dead, and was a woman that could cook a meal, work in a garden or field and knew no fear. She could handle a gun as good as a man. She was loved and respected by all who knew her, and lived and died a true Latter-day Saint." Jared Grover died on March 1, 1902. Edith Eveline Riddle Grover died in September 1908. "They were friends to the needy, and no hungry person passed their door till he was fed. The first sixteen years of my life was passed in their care and I only hope I can do as much good in the world and be as faithful as they were. "

Sources

1. ↑ 1860 United States Federal Census

The Descendants of John Riddle (1803 - 1887) Volume 2 Compiled by Chauncey Cazier Riddle and Bertha Allred Riddle. 1997