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Born: December 8, 1859 - North Bend, PA
Died: February 19, 1935 - Kane. PA
Married: Charles M. Thomas
April 25, 1878 — North Bend, PAChildren:
Maude Thomas German
Harry Melvin Thomas
Nelle Thomas Brady
Harold Clyde Thomas
Siblings: Abraham, Elias, Charles, Elizabeth, Sarah, William, Thomas, Martha and Liberty Isabella
Parents: Sarah Ann Haviland and Charles Kitchin
Ida was the only child of her father's second marriage. Sadly, through infant mortality and the heavy death toll of the Civil War, Ida and her older half-sisters, Sarah Margaret (Sadie) and Liberty Isabella Kitchin, were the only siblings to survive the 1860's. Three of their brothers were Union soldiers. Two died of battle wounds — Abraham in 1862 and William in 1864; Thomas, also a Union soldier, died of typhoid fever in 1865. A fourth brother, Charles Henry Kitchen, was a Methodist minister and died in 1863. Tucked into some old family records was a note my grandmother made about her mother. Following the death of one of her brothers, his blankets and belongings were sent home. Ida curled up in the blankets, which probably were insect-infested, caught whatever disease they carried, and nearly died.
Ida's husband, Charles, was a lumberman who relocated from Maine to Pennsylvania to take advantage of opportunities in the logging industry there. He ran a series of logging camp in northwestern and western PA and WV, and Ida cooked for the crew for many years. Cooking for a logging crew was no small feat in those days as you had to shoot, catch, trap or grow most of the meal before you could prepare it. My dad told me she would go to the nearest stream, catch a mess of fish, and have them cleaned, cooked and on the table for the men for their main meal. Clearly, she was an amazing lady!
My Uncle Ron said his grandmother, Ida, taught him most of what he knew about forecasting weather and the seasons by observing nature. She also taught him that if you were picking strawberries and smelled cucumbers, you should run like the dickens, because there was probably a rattlesnake almost underfoot!
Ida and Charles moved to Emporium, PA, fairly early in their marriage, and raised their family there. In later years, she shared her home in Emporium with her daughter, Nelle, and her family, as well as visiting with my dad's family. They all thought she was a very special person, and much of her folk wisdom has been passed down through generations.
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