A Tennant Family

George John Housley was born in Draper, Utah as the third of twelve children of George Frederick and Maria Christina Jacobsen Housley. When he was about 2 years old, they moved to Cache Valley in response to a call by the leaders of the LDS Church for settlers to go this beautiful valley.

They lived first in a place called Avon, a farming district where his father built a log house in which they lived during the summer months and moving to Paradise in the winter. Later on, they bought a house and some land in the west part of the town of Paradise, and added to their land a little at a time while renting the land in Avon.

George J. had to work hard in his youth, hiring out to other farmers as well as helping on the dry farm in Avon and the farm in Paradise where they raised corn, hay, and grain. They also supplemented the income from the farm by getting out timber in nearby hills and selling it. He had about four years of schooling and then had to go to work to help support the family. In those days, this was not unusual.

George's father had to work very hard to raise such a large family and accepted work, which often took him away from home. George, being the oldest son, had the responsibility of the family while his father was gone. The home in Paradise wasn't very good. It had cracks in the walls upstairs and was very hard to keep warm in winter. George took the lead in beginning a new house for the family. Because of their mother's poor health, they moved into the house before it was finished. She died in March 1896 before this was accomplished.

George was a fun-loving person and had a delightful sense of humor, making light of burdens and hardships. He was not a large man, but was strong and always tried to do his share and more. He was no dancer or singer, but he liked parties and fun, and was often the life of the party.

George was a truly honest man and believed in fair play. It always bothered him when people would turn in sick and crippled cattle for tithing. He was very good to help neighbors and friends in time of sickness, and spent many nights sitting with the sick. He was so good at nursing the sick that it was usually he, instead of their mother, who cared for the children when they were sick. He also helped with preparing bodies for burial.

In those early days, survival often depended a great deal on community cooperation. Neighbors helped each other with many undertakings such as well digging, home building, harvesting, and many other things. The spirit of cooperation and interest in others of the community was strong in Paradise. In fact, when one goes there to visit now it is still in evidence to a greater degree than in many other similar communities.

Her sense of humor and love of people were probably the traits which attracted George to the yong lady he chose as his companion for life and eternity, Ida Brenchley Obray. To live fully, be pleasant company and be loved wherever she made her home was the way of Ida.

In a character sketch given at her funeral at the age of 83, the speaker said, "She is the product of daily, hourly action in word and thought. Daily forgiveness, unselfishness, kindness, sympathy, charity, sacrifice for the good of others, and struggle against temptation are the things that filled her life. Like the blending of colors in a picture or notes in music, she was building a beautiful character."

Ida was born the 18 th day of May 1872 at Paradise, Cache County, Utah as the daughter of Thomas L. Obray and Caroline Brenchley. To her mother, she was a happy little bundle. Because of the size of the family, she had to take her responsibility early along with her brothers and sisters. This being the time when the LDS Church advocated plural marriage, her father had taken three wives at the same time and after the government passed a law against it, the children were taught when very young to watch out for the officers so they could warn their father in time for a quick get away.

She was baptized into the LDS Church by Orson Smith in 1880. By this time, her duties in the family had advanced to such jobs as pulling weeds for the pigs and herding cows. Then as she grew older, she was given the task of helping with the milking of the cows.

Ida was the ninth child of Caroline Brenchley, her father's third wife. His other wives were fist Louisa Shelton, who died twenty-four days after their marriage and was buried on the plains, her sister, Martha Shelton, who had five children, and Ruth Bradshaw who had fourteen children.

George and Ida were married 21 May 1890 at the Logan LDS Temple. They made their home for a time in Paradise, and then moved first to Wilson lane, and then to Harrisville where George farmed and bought and sold cattle. Their fist three children, Carrie, Hattie, and Maria, were born in Paradise. Then their only son, George L, was born in Harrisville.

Soon after young George was born, they were called to go to the Bear Lake Country in Idaho to run a church owned farm located between Montpelier and Soda Springs. They raised hay and cattle. A man named Harmon Hansen, who had worked for George several years and was almost like one of the family went with them.

Their first home on the Church farm was a log house on a hill. There was a dirt cellar to keep the milk cool. Ida was a very particular housekeeper and kept the milk house over a spring where they kept the milk cool by suspending the buckets down in the water on ropes. They churned the cream and traded the butter, sometimes 100 pounds a week, for supplies at the Brenan and Davis Mercantile in Montpelier.

While living on the farm, church socials at Nearby Nounan were their main entertainment. Since they always took their children with them to the dances, beds were made for the youngsters on the benches in the church. Other good times enjoyed by the family were on oyster supper held at Paris, Idaho, and picnics held under the quaking aspens near their home. In the winter, they would slide down the snow-covered hills on cow hides.

When it was time for Dora to be born, George took Ida and young George to Logan. Dora was born on 15 September 1360. When she was nine days old she and Ida had small pocs and were very sick. Ida spent one month in bed and a Mrs. Burgess took care of her. While they were gone, all of the other children still at home had small pocs also.

One of their most pleasant recollections was of their trips to Soda Springs. They had to ford the Bear River and the water would come so high they would have to sit on their feet. There was always a big celebration on July 4 th and 24 th. The people built bowery sheds with willows for shade. Before they would go home, they would fill a number of bottles with soda water from the spring. Then with a little lemon and sugar, they would have a tasty drink.

In speaking of the Housley family, Ida said they never went in debt, and they taught their children to take care of what they had.

After living on the church farm for five years, they moved to Far West where they bought a fruit and vegetable farm. The house was called "the half-way house" and was located close to the church.

Soon after they moved to Far West, George had his appendix taken out. From that time on, his health seemed to get poorer and the strain on his nerves caused him much suffering. The neighbors came to help when he was sick. He died 5 January in Far West and was buried in Ogden.

After George's death, Ida rented the ranch to Art Taylor, who later married Carrie, the eldest daughter. Then she decided to sell and moved to Arts fathers' place. She stayed there only a short time and moved to Harrisville and then to Ogden. When they first lived in Ogden, their home was on the 20 th street across from the big gates of the cemetery where George was buried. Later, they bought a home on 21 st street.

Ida had been active in a number of positions in the church. She was secretary of the primary in Cache Valley, and at Far West she was supervisor of the religion class form 1367 to 1910 in the Weber Stake. She was also YWMIA teacher at Far West. When they moved to Ogden, she joined the Relief Society in the Fourth Ward in November 1914.

At Far West, Carrie had to quit school to stay home and help her mother when George became ill. Hattie graduated from the eighth grade, but when they moved to Ogden, Marie quit school to go to work with Hattie in an overall factory. George and Dora also were able to finish the eighth grade.

In order to make a living in Ogden, Ida worked as a nurse in confinement cases. She also did washing, ironing, and the cooking in the homes where she worked as a nurse. She was a hard worker and good worker.

Carrie was married two years after her father's death in 1910. Hattie went to Idaho to work for her Aunt Lizzie Crapo. While there, she met Ira Davenport. When she returned to Ogden, Ira visited their home as he went to school at BYU. He had this to say, "I asked Hattie to marry me, but she said I had to get her mother's consent. Ida knew I was going to ask and avoided me, in her jolly was planning to have some fun out of the situation. One day while Ida was sewing and quite alone, I came in quickly and said, 'What do you say if I marry your daughter?' She started to stammer and say things she didn't mean, which embarrassed her and pleased me, since it was hard to catch her off guard when she couldn't get the best of a situation."

Ida's comment when Hattie came home with the ring was, "So you have been to the ten cent store." Ida Said when Hattie was married and moved to Idaho, it was as sad to her as when Hattie died at the age of forty-two years.

Ida Came to Idaho to care for Hattie when her first son, Elmo was born on 13 February 1915. It was at this time she met "Daddy", Jim Powell. They were married two years later in 1917. Marie had already been married on 22 March 1916 to Lewis Powell, James Powell's brother. Marie had come to visit Hattie in April after her mother's first visit. When Ida married Jim, he had four children at home and she had two children. Jim's son, Raymond, and her daughter, Dora, went together with their partners to be married two years later in the Salt Lake Temple.

Ida said they were a happy family and there only problem was with Sylvia, Jim's oldest daughter, who found it hard to adjust and tried to run the house hold as she had before Ida came.

When Ida married again, she divided the money from George's insurance among the children. She gave $500. With this money, Hattie bought new windows for the front room of the house in Heman. She lined the walls, and a partition was built to separate the front from the bedroom.

Carrie's mother-in-law died when she was first married and she took the youngest in the family to live with her. The child was four years old and was called Lorin Summers.

It seemed that Daddy Powell had to run in debt to raise his family. Before he died he paid the old bills, but there were a few new ones which Ida worried about, since she had never been in debt before. He made his living as a water master.

When they moved to town, Ida worked with Joe Andrason's wife making robes and dresses for the dead. She was also on the genealogical committee with Sister Christensen.

Ida enjoyed sewing. She made all of her children's clothes for the 4 th of July celebrations and Christmas, which were the only times they had new dresses.

After Jim died in July 1931, she went on a trip with Marie to Canada to see her sister and brother. She also spent one spring in Portland with Dora. She always wished she had known someone in California so she could go there. She loved to travel and enjoyed being with people.

She had a lot of faith in the Elders and at one time Maria had rheumatism and was not able to turn over in bed for about six weeks. The neighbors came and administered to her and as soon as they were through, she was able to turn herself. Her name was on the tithing record as a faithful contributor to the church.

When Hattie died, Ira went to Salt Lake to live and Ida went along the first winter to look after the children. She tried to get them to save money and introduced them to Nunoa by fooling them into thinking it was butter.

She spent many happy hours at Lava Hot Springs. This was her favorite place up to the time of her death. During there declining years, her body had been ill. She had many days and weeks of suffering from pain. She died 24 July 1954.

At the time of her death, she had 26 grandchildren and 75 great grandchildren. Her funeral service was held in St. Anthony, and burial was in the Ogden Cemetery.