Lydia McMurray Call
1893-1981
I was born December 22, 1893, in Liberty, Bear Lake County, Idaho. I was the second child in a family of seven children: five girls and two boys. My parents were John Stevenson McMurray and Clara Drucilla Hymas.
Liberty was just a small little country town about ten miles west of Montpelier. Its entire population was only about 200 people and most were related in some way. All were engaged in dry farming, so none were very prosperous.
My parents were very poor, but I often heard it said that they were the most loved, congenial, contented couple to be found anywhere. Our home was just three rooms, built upon a hill with no shade and very little grass around it. We always had a good garden and some raspberry and currant bushes; we seldom tasted any other fruit.
Our house was built of boards about an inch thick and a foot and a half-wide, placed straight up and down on the outside with narrow boards nailed over the cracks. On the inside, the same kind of boards were nailed crosswise, and a plaster like material called factory was pasted over the cracks. The space between was filled with dirt. The inside was whitewashed with lime and always looked and smelled clean. Steps going up the outside of the house reached a room in the attic, and there was father’s workshop and grainary. We had a woven rag carpet on part of the floor and the rest was bare boards. A coal oil lamp, wood burning stove, a bench holding a water bucket and a tin cup, an outside toilet and tin wash tub were all the conveniences we had.
To get the complete history download below.
Liberty was just a small little country town about ten miles west of Montpelier. Its entire population was only about 200 people and most were related in some way. All were engaged in dry farming, so none were very prosperous.
My parents were very poor, but I often heard it said that they were the most loved, congenial, contented couple to be found anywhere. Our home was just three rooms, built upon a hill with no shade and very little grass around it. We always had a good garden and some raspberry and currant bushes; we seldom tasted any other fruit.
Our house was built of boards about an inch thick and a foot and a half-wide, placed straight up and down on the outside with narrow boards nailed over the cracks. On the inside, the same kind of boards were nailed crosswise, and a plaster like material called factory was pasted over the cracks. The space between was filled with dirt. The inside was whitewashed with lime and always looked and smelled clean. Steps going up the outside of the house reached a room in the attic, and there was father’s workshop and grainary. We had a woven rag carpet on part of the floor and the rest was bare boards. A coal oil lamp, wood burning stove, a bench holding a water bucket and a tin cup, an outside toilet and tin wash tub were all the conveniences we had.
To get the complete history download below.
call_lydia_mcmurray.pdf | |
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