Item Detail
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Harris, Ida May
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1873-1888
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MSS SC 902
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Biography
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Ida May Harris was born October 1, 1873 in Parowan, Iron County, Utah to Charles and Louisa Harris. She was the eighth of fourteen children. When she was four years old, the family moved to an isolated ranch on the Sevier River. In the ten years that they lived there, they had very little social interaction with other families and were unable to attend church meetings. Ida's only schooling there was when the children played at school with their sister Addie as the teacher. As her older sisters married and moved away, Ida took on more chores and became a help to her mother. In the spring of 1887, their father sold the ranch and bought two homes in Junction. Without living in these homes, the family moved to Richfield and the children were sent to school. In the spring of 1888, the family moved back to Junction. In September, Ida went to visit her sister Addie in Provo, Utah. She contracted diphtheria on her journey and was diagnosed with the disease upon her arrival. She was taken to her sister Belle's house where she died September 11, 1888 at age fifteen.
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This biography is part of a collection of biographies on the Harris family, and includes a biography of each of Charles and Louisa Harris' children written by their siblings. Ida's biography was written by her older brother Silas. It is five typewritten pages long and gives a brief outline of Ida's life, emphasizing the moves that their family made and Ida's calm but steadfast character. Ida and Silas were clearly close siblings; Silas begins the biographical sketch with this sentence: 'I approach with tender emotion a belated portrayal of her beautiful, brief sojourn in life's moving drama.' He describes Ida as having 'brown hair, blue eyes, was of average height, was neither plump nor thin, every line exactly right.' He also praises her kind demeanor: 'There is one thing that I have been wanting to say from the beginning of this story. I don't remember a word of quarrel between her and me, not with Gene or mother ever. She seemed to have passed the quiet tenor of her way in peaceful repose.' Silas takes the details of Ida's death from a detailed document that Belle dictated to a granddaughter shortly before her own death. Belle explained that Ida 'was very unhappy and grieved because she had brought that trouble there.' Ida became worse and worse. One day, Belle was walking in the street to fetch a doctor when she received the impression, 'Ida will die and you must have her sealed to Brother Nelson [Belle's husband].' Belle did not like the idea of sisters marrying the same man, and she was very troubled over this communication. Finally, she realized that Ida was lingering because she had not acted on this impression. She told Ida and her husband about it, and they agreed to the marriage. Ida died that afternoon and was buried in Belle's wedding dress. Plural Marriage.