Our First Look at Sweet, Idaho and our Connections There

To relax and enjoy a quiet Father's Day this year, my husband and I took a ride to explore a town he'd seen only on the map: Sweet, Idaho. Of course, being a family historian, our first stop was at the Cemetery. 

It's my custom to photograph a few headstones as we walk around to see some of the names of local residents of the past. William and I each study the facts revealed by the birth and death dates and we get a picture of the trials the early residents endured.

The headstone of Ezekiel and Isabelle Sweet, along with their 2-year-old daughter Etta, drew our attention, as it was fenced and was the most notable in size and decoration. 

When we came home on the evening of Father's Day, which was June 16 this year, I browsed online for information on this Sweet town and family. Wikipedia tells us this:

"Founded in 1885 by Ezekiel Sweet, the community initially was a supply location and post office for framers and ranchers in the nearby Lower Squaw Creek Valley. I grew significantly as a result of the later Thunder Mountain Mines gold strike. By 1900 it supported 3 saloons, 3 hotels, several businesses, and a newspaper, which lasted until the gold mines had petered out. Several subsequent fires destroyed most of the historic downtown. Today a smaller Sweet is the location of a restaurant, butcher shop, repair shop, lumber mill and a post office." 

I found that this picture of the Sweet headstone was already included on FamilySearch in that family's "Memories". But I learned, and was amazed by, the fact that Ezekiel was my 7th cousin, twice removed! MY COUSIN! FamilySearch offers the chart that shows our connection.

Pictured above are the headstones from 1915 of Ephraim and Florence Yergenson. There are quite a few headstones belonging to members of this family. On Family Search I discovered this beautiful family portrait of them. 

The fact that amazed me the most was that Ephraim was born on June 15, 1865. We were standing at his grave on June 16, 2024! 

My eye caught this tiny headstone of Ada Ann Baird. It tells us that she died Sept. 20, 1871 at the age of 1 year, 5 months and 12 days.

Again, I found this Relationship Chart available on FamilySearch, showing that I am Ada's 7th cousin, twice removed. Here's my little cousin's headstone!

I'm happy that I'm a person who is easily amazed when I learn of "family connections". I lived the first 40 years of my life in small town Kansas. Then moved to Colorado where I resided for 33 years. I've just been an Idaho resident for 3-1/2 years. I had no idea I would find Cousins in Idaho, even though they lived here long before I was born! 

Of the 19 headstones I photographed on Father's Day, all but one are of people who were related to me or a member of my family! We loved the serene, fresh, peaceful feelings we experienced as we explored Sweet, Idaho and will certainly return sometime to explore it further! 

Surprised at a Church Connection to my Dad's Western Music Days

I have quite a collection of books on the topic of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as I want to continue to learn, to understand what's behind me and ahead of me and what that can mean in my life today. A few years ago I was able to weekly watch "Scripture Roundtable" on BYU-TV and became very fond of the comments and thoughts of Robert Millet. As I've delved into the many books he's written, I've felt like he's talking directly to ME and I easily understand his messages. So he's become one of my favorites.

If you've followed any of my blog posts, you know I'm easily impressed by "connections"! It amazes me when I learn of a family connection between people who may not have known it, or at least that I hadn't known about. 

I was looking up the ancestry of my favorite author Robert Millet recently and saw that his father, Lou Millet, was listed on the site Hillbilly-music.com. This site lists many of his recordings and hits from the 1950s. https://www.rocky-52.net/chanteursm/millet_lou.htm 

The reason I was so fascinated by this discovery is that my Dad, Ernest Margheim, is also listed on Hillbilly-Music.com. 

I feel like I have something more in common with Robert L. Millet now. Not only do we share the same religious beliefs, but our fathers were both involved in the western music of the "early" days of the 1930s-1950s. I just found this to be really cool! My dad would be fascinated to know this too!

Never Ignore a Prompting

If I still had my blog entitled "Promptings" in an active status, I'd publish this brief story on it. But I discontinued using it as I retired and turned my attention to other things. 

Today my husband and I made a trip to the neighboring town of Nampa, Idaho to shop for a tool shed. It's our habit to visit Nampa 2-3 times each month. I shop for $1-$2 books at the Deseret Industries Thrift Store while my husband ventures across the parking lot to the Lowe's store!

It was Lowe's where we were going to hopefully purchase a small tool shed, so my husband suggested I take a few minutes first and browse the books at 'DI'. I had been there recently and was not expecting to find a new book to buy. And I only shop for books related to the subject of my LDS Church. At this point in my life, I want to spend my reading time LEARNING and I am always happy to learn more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our plan for life here on earth and life in the hereafter, etc. 

As my husband finished his quick visit to Lowe's (we went back later to buy the tool shed), he came into DI and stood by me to see if I was done shopping for books. At the same time I told him I hadn't found anything new, I noticed a colorful book that piqued my interest. It was titled "Why I'm a Mormon". Well, I KNOW why I'm a Mormon, but as I browsed through the Table of Contents I saw many popular names listed who had contributed to the book, and I became curious to read their reasons! So I put the book into my shopping basket.

Here's the back story: I have 678 religious-topic books in my home library. I got to the point where I couldn't remember if I had a book or not, as I shopped the books shelves in the store. So this Spring I typed up a list of the books in my library and saved it to Dropbox, so I could refer to it from my phone as I browsed the books in the store. 

This afternoon as I grabbed the above-pictured book off the shelf, my husband said "Are you sure you don't have it?" I replied "Oh no, I've never seen this book!!" But....I felt prompted at that moment to grab my phone, open the listing and double-check. MUCH to my surprise, it was listed! I already owned the book.

I was reminded to always listen to mental or heart-felt "Promptings". 

My Stepmother kept Marion and Mary in her Family

In March, 1951, Phyllis Jean Jones became the Stepmother of me, Mary Rebecca Margheim, and my twin brother, Marion Dennis Margheim. She's pictured here as she took us around the block on roller skates when we were 4 years old.

As I look into the genealogy research I've done, I'm always amazed when I find interesting Connections, or make fascinating Discoveries. I noticed today that Phyllis's paternal grandfather was Marion Malone Smith and her paternal grandmother was Mary Frances Hawkins. They're pictured below. 

So our "Mom" went from being the granddaughter of Marion and Mary, to being the step-mother of Marion and Mary! 

It's a somewhat insignificant realization, but one of those that I wish I could mention to her in person.