Jeanne Frances Eldredge July 19, 1920 - Dec. 15, 2006
Graveside services will be held for Jeanne F. Eldredge on Thursday, December 21st, at Delano-McFarland Cemetery, at 12:00 p.m.
Born Jeanne Frances Knowlton on July 19, 1920 near Roanoke, Indiana. Her parents were Bertha Ethel Lawrence and Otis Socrates Knowlton. After graduating from Lafayette Central High School in 1938, she married Harry Milton Johnson and had a daughter, Dorathy Jeanne. After a divorce and moving to New Mexico, she met and married the love of her life, Max Eldredge. From this marriage came two children: Robert Louis and Susan Joanne. Max died after five years of marriage, leaving Jeanne to raise three children on her own.
She worked many jobs, which whetted her appetite for education. When her younger children had graduated from high school and were in college, she deciced to go back to school, too. She eventually earned degrees from Bakersfield College and California State University, Bakersfield.
After retirement, she devoted many volunteer hours to the Genealogy Room at Beale Library and to the Kern County Genealogical Society. She belonged to various other genealogical societies around the United States. She was a charter member of The Sixty+ Club at CSUB and volunteered in many of its subgroups.
Viewing will be at Myers Chapel in Porterville, California from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., on Wednesday, December 20th. Burial will be on Thursday, December 21st, at 12:00 p.m., at Delano-McFarland Cemetery, North Kern Cemetery, next to Max.
Survivors are daughters, Dee Jay Blaylock of Porterville, CA, Susan Chaidez and husband, Stan; son, Bob Eldredge, of Bakersfield, CA; grandchildren, Jill, Jeanna, Andrew, Jolie, Sarah, Max; 8 great-grandchildren and sister, Caroline Winters of Cincinnati, Ohio and numerous nieces and nephews. Predeceasing her are her parents, her sisters, Mary Renz and Helen Coulter and brother, Lawrence.
The Life of Julia Ann Phippen Eldredge Evans. (Taken from Microfilm at the Utah State Historical Society MIC A 255) Transcribed to Ancestry.com by Anne Smittle. Any mistakes are the fault of the transcriber or transcribed! Julia Ann Phippen Eldredge Evans was born July 22, 1848 in what was then Kanesville, Marion County, Illinois. Her first memories are of Nauvoo; of her father holding her hand lightly in his as he hurried her from his shop down the slope to their home; of the family hiding in the woods near the doomed city while they waited to cross the river; of the birth of a baby brother in that place of hiding. Julia Ann Phippen was the daughter of Freeman Phippen and Ann Dayton. They experienced the stirring days of the exodus from Nauvoo but did not come west as soon as many, for Freeman Phippen and his father, Isaac Phippen, were blacksmiths and wheelwrights and were held in the east by Brigham Young to give assistance to their more unfortunate brothers for there was much use for their profession for many were the broken down wagons that were brought to them for repairs. Winter Quarters where the Phippens stayed for two years meant just two things for Julia Ann, tents and wagons, and miles of flat prairie land. The Phippens could have gone on for they had better equipment than the average, but again they stayed to see that others were sent on in better condition. In the wagon train in which they did come west, Mr. Phippen served as captain over fifty wagons. He possessed a good wagon, two good oxen, a cow which they trailed, and a horse which he rode. In the wagon were his wife and three small children, and a young widow, Mrs. Hodges and her child. Among the many things carried by the Phippens wagon was a barrel of maple sugar Ann Phippen had made. Julia Ann remembers Mrs. Hodges sprinkling some of it on the wagon tongue in the evening to keep the children pacified while the evening meal was being prepared.
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The first day out from Winter Quarters their cow got loose and promptly made her way home; but the next day she was returned and all the way across the plains she furnished milk and butter for the two families. Although so young when the journey was made, several incidents are remembered by Mrs. Evans. One was the coldness of the Platte River when she fell in it. Another was of a band of Indians following the train and trying to buy her. She had coaxed her father to allow her to pick flowers along the wayside and her bright red calico dress attracted the attention of the Indians and one offered to trade some ponies for her. He held up the fingers of one hand to indicate how many ponies he would be willing to give and could never understand why his offer was refused. Young as she was, it was her duty to help gather buffalo chips and put them in sacks for use in the evening. She still remembers the gleam of many campfires, the dark, silent plains, and the entire personnel of the wagon train kneeling in a big circle to give thanks for the day protection and to ask aid and protection for the slow miles ahead. She was introduced to Jim Bridger and his two wives and remembers how bright and pretty their blankets were. Most vivid of all her remembrances was the first glimpse of Salt Lake City. This was natural, for the long, hazardous journey had been made bearable by the expectations of the end. Then it was but a collection of tents and log houses, and clumps of cottonwood trees, but to all of them it spelled home and peace to the weary traveller. It was in 1852 that the Phippens reached Salt Lake City and in less than a year afterwards they moved to Grantsville where the father and the grandfather took up land. There they went through "The Cricket War." With the other children Julia Ann hunted sego and wild onion roots to eke out their scanty supply of "Injun Meal." Grandmother Phippen was in charge of the sack of Injun Meal (yellow corn meal) and dealt it out carefully, or a handful at a time. While the Phippens still lived in Grantsville, Julia Ann remembers an old woman sitting under a tree crying weakly from discouragement and lack of food, and of some men, carrying her back to her home. From Grantsville, the Phippens moved to Cottonwood Canyon where Mr. Phippen had charge of several sawmills. The mills were numbered A, B, C and D. The family lived at mill A, and from this mill Mr. Phippen sawed the first five tamarack trees that went into the building of the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. During the "move" as Mrs. Evans designates the Johnson Army scare in 1858 the family lived at what is now Sugarhouse. The sawmills were being repaired and during the year in which the Phippens lived at Sugarhouse, Freeman Phippen ran a grist mill. When word came that Johnson's Army was near, barrels and barrels of flour were taken from the mill and hid in a hole dug in the hillside. This cave was covered over with brush and rocks scattered about to hide the opening. This was in the preparation for the burning. It was a sad day when the inhabitants of Salt Lake City loaded their worldy goods into wagons and again turned their backs on their hard earned homes. Freeman Phippen was one who refused to go. He had given up all he possessed once and he preferred to stay with what he had, regardless of the circumstances. Neither would he consider leaving the mill as long as there was any hope of saving it. So it happened that Julia Ann and her brothers and sister saw Johnson's Army enter the valley. The family had climbed to the top of the shed and she remembers the gleam of the sun on their guns and bayonets. It so happened that the little sister fell from the shed into the creek and was nearly drowned before she was rescued. When the family moved back to Cottonwood Canyon, Julia Ann and her brother, Hyrum, were sent down to "Holiday burg" to go to school, but that was cut short by the untimely death of her mother. Approaching twelve years of age, this ?girl? went home to keep ?unreadable? for her father and her younger brother and sisters. There were eight in the family and they ate a good deal of bread, the making of which was her hardest task. She knew how to mix it but after it had risen and was in the bake oven hanging over the fire she would forget to keep the coals about it. It was more fun to play with the other children. Neither could she judge by the looks of it when it was done. But a kind neighbor woman was her unfailing source of appeal. She was her father's housekeeper until she was seventeen and then both he and she were married the same year. Julia Ann was married to Hyrum Eldredge in 1865 and went to live in Coalville. Here their eight children were born without benefit of the medical profession. At Coalville she remembers some troublesome times with the greedy Indians who took advantage of the Mormons policy of feeding them. Once when she was alone a squaw came to her door and demanded bread. It so happened thta she had none and tried to explain to the Indian woman who thought that she was merely stalling for time. The squaw threatened Mrs. Eldredge's life. Julia Ann had no weapon with which to protect herself but she had an inspiration. She walked toward the squaw, made a horrible face at her and let her false teeth drop. The squaw ran out of the house screaming and left the premises at once. She recalls a striking example of Indian discipline. A squaw had been to the Bishop's store house for food, including bread. With her was her young son and like other young sons, he wanted bread when he wanted it. When they passed the Eldredge home he was creating quite a disturbance; throwing rocks at his mother and screaming and yelling. In other words he was in the middle of a very bad temper tantrum. The mother was perfectly indifferent to his actions until they reached a foot bridge crossing the creek. Then she suddenly snatched him up by his clothes, ducked him up and down in the cold water. He began screaming again and again she ducked him. She kept this up until he was ready to cry quits. All this was done without a word on the part of the mother. Hyrum Eldredge died at Coalville and later his widow was married to Benjamin Evans and to this union two more children were born. In 1891 moved his family to Carey, Idaho, where he and his stepson could find better and cheaper range for their sheep. Here Mrs. Evans was plunged once more into pioneer conditions; here, also, tragedy overtook her again. Her husband had a band of sheep stolen and rode out into the desert east of Carey on the trail of thieves. He never returned. He was far too good a desert man to have become lost so it was thought that he overtook the thieves and was killed by them. She still lives alone in her little house her husband built her near Carey. In June 1937 she bought her first reading glasses. She is deeply interested in world events and the lives of her neighbors and friends. To know her is to love her. Through nearly a century of time she has run a gamut of human experience and achievement; knowing at first hand the trials and recompence of the pioneer and colonizer. During her life time the greatest advancement in science and invention the world has ever known have taken place; the invention and improvement of the tractor and other farm machinery; the invention of the camera and the modern development of photography; the invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio, Edison's talking machine and electricity for lighting and power; the inventions fo automobiles and airplanes; the discovery of radium and modern anestethics; the growth of manufacturing from the small home industry to large plants and mills; and the extension of transportation to transcontinental proportions. Born during the last year that James K. Polk was president, she has lived to see 21 other presidents elected, several of them to a second term. She lived through the slavery question and the year that she was married to Hyrum Eldredge, saw its ultimate settlement in Abe Lincoln's "Emanicipation Proclamation." In her lifetime she has lived through four wars, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, the First World War and a goodly share of the Second World War. She has lived through the rise of mighty European kingdoms. She has lived long enough to know that the easy life is not always the best life; and that from hardships strong characters may rise. Mrs. Evans is the mother of Ben Evans, Mrs. T.C. Parks, Ira Eldredge and F.H. Eldredge, all of Carey and Mrs. Myrtle Arthur of Boise and Clarence Eldredge of Rupert.
Mrs. Julia Phippen Eldredge Evans died in Boise, Idaho, 8th of June 1951, at the age of 102 years. Survivors include 5 children, 41 grandchildren, 85 great-grandchildren, and 38 great-great-grandchildren.
Vivian Elizabeth Eldredge, 77, of Carey, died Saturday evening in a Pocatello nursing home, folling and [sic] illness.
She was born Oct. 14, 1896 in Lamar, MO., to Rueben Thomas and Rosa Pikman Cross and came to Idaho with her family as a young girl. They lived in Bellevue for a short time before taking up a homestead in Crooks, now known as Fish Creek.
On July 22, 1914 she married Forest Howard Eldredge at Hailey. He preceded her in death Dec. 15, 1972. Mrs. Eldredge was a member of the LDS Church.
Survivors include seven sons, Gail V. of Gibbonsville, Clifton of Novato, Calif., Willard of Idaho Falls, Omar D. of Hailey; Burl T. and J. Allen, both of Twin Falls and Keith of Charles City, Iowa; four daughters; Mrs. Esther Dedman of Salt Lake City, Mrs. Thomas (Mary_ Stanger of Idaho Falls, Mrs. Falph (Jeanine) Keller of Pocatello and Mrs. Lloyd (Julia) Spencer of Richfield; five sisters, Mrs. Lionel Hutton of Meridian, Mrs. Tracy Dilworth and Mrs. Wiley Guffy both of Reno, Nev.; Mrs. Charles Hurst of Phoenix, Ariz.; and Mrs. Fred Hurst of Bellevue; a brother Gilbert of Carev; and 56 grandchildren and 42 great-grandchildren. A son, a daughter and a sister preceded her in death.
Funeral services will be Wednesday at 2 p.m. in Carey LDS Ward chapel with Bishop Verd Murdock officiating. Burial will be in the Carey Cemetery. The family will receive friends at the Carey Ward chapel from 11 a.m. Wednesday until service time. Arrangements are under the direction of the Manning Funeral Chapel, Pocatello.