Family History
4 Pictures are on top of page 1-
Top left is of Peder Hansen Pederson Illum, July 1926, Malad, Idaho
Top right is a picture of the gravestone of Illum at the St. John Cemetery
Bottom left is Jane Grey Noble Illum
Bottom right is Ruins of Peter H. & Jane Grey Noble Home in St. John, April 1964.
These pictures appeared in the Idaho Enterprise on October 19, 1995 page 8.
Editor’s Note: Mary Pearl Illum Brown was the eighth of Peter H. and Jane Grey Noble Illum’s thirteen children. She married John Brown, and they lived in Tooele, Utah for many years. They had 3 children; Dan, Jean and Patricia. Now her home is in Salt Lake City, Utah. This history was written October 20, 1978.
This article was submitted and edited by Steve Illum. He welcomes comments. Send them to him at 4826 S. Farm Road 141, Springfield, MO 65810. Note to Publisher; My great aunt Pearl IllumBrown lives at 5181 S 1870 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84117. Phone: 801-278-0625.)
My father, Peter Hansen Illum was born in Denmark, February 19, 1852. He married Betty Brigitte Jensen in 1876. Of this marriage there were four sons: (Sevil) Sigvald Fredrick Illum, (John) Peter Johannes Illum, (Carl) Carl Nicolai Illum. The fourth boy I have no record of at this time. We do know he died when he was a baby. Father’s second marriage was to Caroline Christine Swendsen in Utah. We have a record of a divorce here in 1893. Four children were born of this marriage, two sons and two daughters.
In 1893 h3 married my mother, Jan Grey Noble and in 1895 moved to St. John for 43 years or until his death in 1938. From this marriage thirteen children were born, eleven girls and two boys. Presently there are eight girls living. Three are living in Portland, Oregon and two in Malad; one in Salt Lake City; one in Roy, Utah and one in San Francisco, California.
I was born in St. John, January 26, 1907 as the 8th child. Our home was, at that time, considered large and very comfortable. It was built of red brick and sand plaster or stucco.
The house was well built by my father and his three sons, Sevil, John and Carl, who moved here with my father and mother and two eldest sisters, Annie and Ophelia. There were six rooms on the main floor, a large entrance hall and summer kitchen on the west side leading into a large room used for dining, cooking and lounging. This room you could well call the family. We did all our visiting, eating our meals, sewing and ironing. On one side of the room my father had built a large blackboard, what one might call a chalkboard today. My father or older sisters would help us with school work, arithmetic, spelling, etc.. This board was great and we loved it. Our friends in the neighborhood also enjoyed the chalkboard. The room was on the south side of the house. It was light and sunny on the long winter days that we would have in this part of the country. A large south window and one on the east side of the room was always full of beautiful house plants, which were my mother’s pride and joy. At night mother would carefully place newspaper in the back of the pots to keep them from freezing. Under the south window was a long couch that opened up into a bed if needed. At the end of this was an old treadle sewing machine, which my father replaced with a new Singer machine. This machine is now at my youngest sister, Elsie’s home.
My mother did a lot of sewing, quilting and was an expert at knitting. She taught us all well. Her cooking was excellent and so was my father’s. He too loved to cook and taught us so many things which, to this day, I still remember and put to use. Next to the sewing machine, in the corner was the old rocking chair with a cushion on the seat and one across the back. We all fought over this chair because it was next to the old cook stove that also furnished the heat for this room. We could sit here on a cold night with our feet in the coal bucket and study our school lessons for the next day. It was also in this corner on the rocking chair that my mother would put the babies across her lap, change diapers, give them a sponge bath from a pan of warm water and then get them off to bed. On the left side of this chair was a door leading into a small bedroom where the small children slept. Sometimes there were three in a bed. It was always warm in the bedroom because it was next to the stove.
On the north side of this room was a cabinet built by my father. This stored all our dishes, etc. In the center of the room was the big table where sometimes ten, twelve or more would eat their meals. This table was always covered with oilcloth. Not white linen buy bright blue, red, green, yellow oilcloth. When that pattern wore off and it was down to the cheese cloth, we would get a new one, just change the colors, wipe it off and it would be ready for the next meal or whatever might come next. As you might know, this table was used for so many things, even playing cards, checkers, or sometimes my dad would play with us if he didn’t have work of his own to do. He then would go up to his room and build a fire in the stove and shut his door. If we got too noisy he would come down and send us all off to bed.
My mother would sit and knit, mostly socks or booties, little sweaters for babies soon to come into the family. She loved her daughters-in-law; Nellie (Sevil’s wife), Rachel (Carl’s wife) and Lizzy (John’s wife). I don’t think my mother was as close to Lizzy as she was to Nellie and Rachel. They seemed to visit us often. They lived closer to us. Carl and Rachel were closer to us and not too far to walk. Carl was always good natured and often funny with his stories.
There was another small bedroom on the east side of this room. This was a cold room for my brother, Gilbert. He was the only full brother living. He would often wrap the flat irons that he put on the stove in an old blanket or towel, and put them in his bed to help warm the blankets.
There was a hallway leading to two large rooms across the north end of the building. One was the parlor, the other my father’s and mother’s bedroom. This room had a bed, a dresser and two trunks; one was my mother’s and the other my father’s. There was a table next to the bed under a west window. On the wall next to it were some shelves my father had packed with papers, motley pertaining to his work. There was a clothes closet, a stove and a rocking chair like the one in the other room. The floor was wood, covered with linoleum and a couple of rag rugs. One rug was in front of the bed and the other under the rocker.
The front room of the house was used only for company and special occasions. Since this was a northeast room of the house it was always cool in the summer. Here again the east and north windows had houseplants. The east bay window was a pretty one. The doors and framework were all done in golden oak. The curtains were white lace. The walls were white wallpaper with a large gold pattern in it. Family pictures graced these. My mother’s picture hung on one side of the bookcase and my father’s on the other. These two pictures I have in my possession today.
My father’s mother and father’s picture hung on the wall, one on each side of the window. On one side of the bay window hung a picture of my father’s sister Minnie. The other side was a family group picture of my father’s cousins. On the west wall on one side of the heating stove hung a picture of Betty, my father’s first wife and mother to Sevil, John and Carl. A picture of my brother Peter Earl who was killed in a sand hill while playing with our sister Isabella, was hung on the other side. He was about seven years old.
There was a small porch on the front of the house and some steps going down to the front yard. This door was used very seldom. Most people, neighbors and family, always used the west side entrance.
We had a pretty good sized pantry which was nearly always stocked with storage food. There was a good sized basement under the house. The stairway going down was just off the pantry. We had much storage there, shelves for canned fruit, etc.. There was a large sandpile here in one corner we sometimes used. In the fall we would go to the canyon and pick wild cherries. We called them choke cherries. They made a delicious jelly and syrup which we would use on french toast or pancakes. Sometimes when these cherries were plentiful, my father would make wine. He put it in glass bottles and buried them in the sand (in the basement) to age. Then at Christmas time, we would all get a small glass of wine with our cake. We were a large family but there was always enough to go around.
On the west side of the basement was a large coal room where the winter coal was stored. This would be hauled in the fall by a team of horses and a wagon. A coal chute or door to the outside would be opened up and the coal would be shoveled down by hand. We would have to pile the coal up carefully so we would have room for the winter supply. There was also wood hauled in, sawed, split and piled up neatly under the back porch. This was all done by hand. There was no electricity until many years later.
The home had an upstairs, but only one finished bedroom and in use. It was a good sized room. The kitchen fire chimney went up through the center, which furnished some warmth in cold weather. Sometimes we had three double beds here and we each took care of our own. This is where the older girls slept. It was a south room with a double window.
My father was a religious man. He read the Bible and studied the scriptures. He read aloud and explained them to us. We had three Salt Lake Tribune papers a week. He read aloud and explained them to us. At this time, it was called the “Semi-Weekly”. There were several farm papers and The Oneida County Enterprise, which is still printed and delivered to its subscribers.
We were well informed about the news. We always had a telephone in the house which all the neighbors around us would come and use. One day my father had to make a rule, “When you use this phone, you pay ten cents”, which they were all willing to do. Then we started to get telephone calls. We would take a message to so and so. Sometimes they lived two or three miles away or ‘to heck and gone in the fields.” This picked up until it was coming at all hours and much too often. The penalty was twenty-five cents to run the errand. It would be safe in saying there were only about six phones in the St. John Community. I recall Dave Deshamps and one of the Hill families had a phone the St. John Store and Pool Hall. Well, there were very few around until about 1919 or 1920. An attorney, ray moved into the community. A phone was installed in his home.
Our Family wasn’t very musically inclined. We did have an organ which my sister Phelia played. She took lessons from a music teacher, Miriam Monson. My father had two violins and one accordion which he played some.
My mother was born in Scotland, the 12th day of February, 1873 to Donald Noble and Isabella Henderson. Mother had a beautiful voice. She and her sister, Isabella Monson, would sing Scottish songs in church. Sometimes her brother, Don Nobel, would sing with them. Uncle Don and Aunt Bell lived in St. John, not too far from us. They also had large families. We had many family get-togethers with them. Uncle Donald had about the first phonograph in the valley. We often went to his house to hear music. I remember he had many sons by Harry Lauder, another Scotsman and very popular at that time.
We all worked hard on Dad’s twelve acre farm, besides our schooling. We also had Primary and Religion class which we Mormons would go to twice a week.
Primary was on Monday and Religion Class was on Thursday, each being one hour or longer after school was let out. Our school was from nine in the morning until four o’clock in the afternoon. Sometimes it would be six o’clock when we’d get home. We changed our clothes to work clothes and started chores. We milked one to three cows, fed all the livestock, sometimes five or six horses and two to six pigs, and gathered the eggs. My mother usually took car of the chickens.
There was a well with a hand pump on it and also a windmill. We would carry anywhere from five to six buckets of water for the tank and tea kettle on the stove, and always have two buckets in the hall on a wooden homemade stand. There was always a water dipper hanging near the bucket and a cup on the window sill. There was also coal and wood to carry in to keep the fire going.
My mother nearly always had the dinner ready, but not one of us even sat at the dinner table until my father was there. Then if he didn’t give the prayer, one of the others would give it. With the prayer, we more or less took our turn. Father or mother nearly always gave the prayer in the mornings. After dinner, my mother started to get the little ones off to bed. Then she would relax in a conversation of the day with my father. Father worked as a contractor and builder during the winter months. By the time he got home at night and put his horses and buggy away, it would be well after eight o’clock when we had our dinner (supper as we called it then).
After supper, two girls would clear the table and wash the dishes. We always took turns on this job-two one night, then two the next night, etc. Believe me, there was seldom an argument about it. All my father had to do was drop his paper or whatever it was he was doing and one look from him put us back on the job real fast. He never fooled around with us when it came to getting our work done.
There was no bathroom in the house. The toilet, better known in those days as the ‘backhouse’ was outside. Ours was south of the house down across the bridge, over the irrigation ditch and in the apple orchard. It was a pleasant walk back. We had a choice of a few things, like sitting on the bridge, taking our shoes off and dangling our feet in the cold water or taking a swing. Pa built us a good strong swing in one of the old poplar trees. I guess there were about six to eight trees along the ditch that gave us good shade in the hot summer. There was also a woodpile if we were inclined to be really helpful.
For a bath we used the old tin wash tub. There was a washstand and a mirror close to the warm water on the stove where we washed our faces and hands in a big gray enamel bowl. The towels were hung just back of the stove so they would dry out for the next wash. Oh! This was a gas! Here comes the big scrub on Saturday, getting ready for Sunday Church.
Sunday School, Sacrament Meeting and Mutual were the meetings. The first two meetings were just fine, but my father was a little reluctant about the girls going to Mutual in the evening. He would always sit up and wait for us just to make sure some of the rowdy boys in the neighborhood didn’t come home with us.
The outside buildings included a barn where we stored the hay. On the south side of the barn was a shed, a manger and corral for the animals, a pig pen, chicken coop and a root cellar where we stored potatoes, carrots and turnips. Just about anything from the garden could be stored in this type of cellar. There was a honey cellar where the honey was extracted and run into glass jars and tin cans, anywhere from a quart jar to a five gallon can. We had lots of bees.
The first house that my father built on this farm was a good sized log house where my parents and six or more of the older children lived until they built the brick home. This old house was then used for a carpenter shop. My father rebuilt and finished furniture for people around the community. Among many other things he also spliced derrick ropes, built cabinets, made picture frames and even caskets and pine boxes for the dead.
After the year 1918 or 1920, the first car was bought for the family. It was a Dodge. Pa sold the dry farm ranch he had out in Elkhorn near Sevil’s ranch. This was a very good year for us. There was a garage built for the car and a harness shop where we hung the saddle and bridle along with the harnesses. I don’t think we owned a buggy whip. The land had an orchard and garden and the rest was in alfalfa.
There were two doctors here in the valley-Dr. C.C. Ray, our family doctor and Dr. Kerns. All babies were born at home. My mother always had a doctor and a midwife. Her name was Jane Larsen, who was also a good friend and neighbor. Aunt Jane, as we called her then, would see to it that each one of us got a straw and calico sunbonnet. She always made mine blue.
I remember there were two dentists in town. One was a lady by the name of Masie Halterman. The other, I think, was Heb Owens. My father sometimes traded honey for our dental work. Most of our shopping was done in Malad City, about three miles from St. John. There was a bank, J.N. Ireland and Co, several butcher, the Malad CoOperative, J.C. Penny Co., two show houses and a dance hall in Malad City. In fact, I think Malad had more of a town in the 1920’s than it has today. The only thing we didn’t have in the early days was a hospital and a rest home for the aged, which they have today.