Item Detail
-
Sheets, Martha Tonks
-
1879-1951
-
MSS SC 835
-
Tonks Family Collection
-
Martha Tonks was born October 24, 1879 in Morgan, Utah. Her parents were George Moroni Tonks and Emily Ann Littlefield. Her father owned twenty acres of land and she and her brothers and sisters enjoyed all the fruit trees growing on the farm. In 1898 her father decided to move to Victor, Idaho. He and his eldest sons left to go and prepare for the rest of the family to arrive. In July Martha followed them to keep house and cook for them until her mother and the other children could join them. She traveled by train and her father met her in Idaho Falls; she remembered the road from Driggs to Victor as the worst that she ever traveled. Her mother and the rest of the family joined them in October. Martha was married on June 4, 1902 to Milton Leaver Sheets in Salt Lake City. On her twenty-fifth birthday her husband left on a mission to the southern states. After he returned the family moved to Nevada and lived in the Mopa Valley near the Muddy River. On January 1, 1910 a large flood occurred and they decided to leave as soon as possible, so in March they moved back to Idaho. Milt died on May 25, 1941. Martha followed him ten years later on March 28, 1951.
-
The fifth and final folder in the collection contains biographical information relating to Martha Tonks Sheets. The folder holds short biographies for many members of the Tonks family. Information on Martha Tonks Sheets' life is written in a three-page history about the memories of her childhood and in a six-page history of her life, which covers her life after her marriage. She spent most of her life living on farms. One of her earliest memories is of milking the cow 'Rosie' with her brother George. They would sit on opposite sides of the cow and milk into the same bucket. Martha also described in detail her life with her husband on their farm in Nevada, the crops they grew, how they were harvested and what life was like for her there, away from her family.
-
-