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HOMEPAGE

Family of Stephen Franklin Hibbs and
Ruanna Hadley Hibbs
 

The following was taken from

"From Sagebrush to Green Fields"
A History of Greenleaf, Idaho

by Dilla Tucker Winslow
Published 1984 by Artcraft Press, Nampa, Idaho

pgs. 129 and 130
Transcribed by Dennis McIndoo

HIBBS      
      The year 1906 appears to have been a rich one in new families. It was in early October of this year that the Stephen Hibbs family moved to Greenleaf.  Their coming was a great addition to the community both in quality and quantity. The spirited life of the young people left little boredom around them.  Stephen and Ruanna each sewed his or her terms as officers and on church committees.  They started out in a home similar to that which most families did.
      Bernice Williams, whose mother was a cousin of Ruanna, gives a picture of home life in this family:

Ruanna Hibbs and part of their 14 children were settled in a small house, probably 18 x 20 feet, and some tents and a sagebrush barn.  Now a sagebrush barn is built by putting two rows of barb wire about 18 inches apart and filling in with sagebrush, tumbleweed and greasewood.

When Mama went to call on Ruanna, nothing would do but for her to spend the night there. Now this was in June and the climate was dry and warm.  There was one bed in one corner of the room and Mama wondered where she would sleep.  As the evening wore on and these two cousins who had not seen each other since childhood visited, the smaller Hibbs' began to get sleepy.  One little one came in from the dusty out of doors and said, "Maw, I'm sleepy." "Well, get thy quilt and cuddle down here in the corner," and so on until three or four little folks had cuddled down.  And Mama and Ruanna still talked on.  Finally Father Stephen Hibbs and two older boys went to the barn to sleep and some others slept in a tent.  This was homesteading in the West.

      When the Hibbs came from Iowa, the two older children, Ethel and Lawrence, remained there where he did some preaching and he and his sons raised hybrid seed corn.  Ethel Hibbs Wood also remained in Iowa as she had married and was happy in her home there.
      Generva taught in the new two-room schoolhouse and later married Leetus Williams, who was a farmer in the early days.
      Dwight chose Nancy Little for his life partner in the farming business.
      Chloe taught school in various localities, among which was Greenleaf public school, before she married Walter Perisho.  He farmed mostly in Idaho and Iowa around Oskaloosa, where he passed away. Chloe came back to Greenleaf.
      Blanche married Bennie Martin and they lived on a farm west of Greenleaf.
      In later years, Chloe and Blanche moved to Sunny Ridge Manor in Nampa.
      Gladys married Edgar Rhoads and they decided to also make their home on Idaho farms as long as they lived.
      Neal and Ethel Hibbs made farming their vocation and lived most of their lives in the early Faw home. Leland, their son, married Iverna Hirst.  They became missionaries under the Northwest Yearly Meeting and served many years in the South American field.
      Zoe married Emmett Gulley who was perhaps the most widely and world-known Greenleaf man.
      Lilith married Willard Ragsdale and moved to Oregon and California.
      Ralph married Carol Swanson and farmed here in Idaho a few years before they decided to try Iowa farming.  In later years he turned to newspaper business.
      Ruth selected a brother of her brother-in-law Willard as her life partner and has spent her days mostly in Oregon and California with John Ragsdale.
      Raymond married Ida Seidenburg and trucked his way through life.  Among other worthy deeds he helped to haul the stone for the church building (The Quaker Church in Greenleaf).
      Eugene's wife was Gertrude Brown who was a good helpmate in his pastoral work in Idaho and Oregon. After he retired from the ministry, he worked on the police force in Newberg, Oregon.

      On a beautiful summer day in August, 1930, 14 children, their grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren, with other relatives, gathered at the church to celebrate the first golden wedding anniversary in Greenleaf. The forenoon program consisted of the group gathering in the church building to help relate the early lives and courtship of Stephen and Ruanna Hibbs.  Several poems were read and incidents of days and courting were related.  The main speaker for the program was Mrs. Hibbs' youngest brother, John Hadley.  A picnic wedding dinner was served in the yard commemorating the occasion fifty years before when on September 4, 1880, Miss Ruanna became Mrs. Stephen Hibbs.
 

Obituary for Ruanna Hadley Hibbs
September 9, 1859 - 2 December, 1931
From The Caldwell News-Tribune, 
dated Thursday, 3 December, 1931
Contributed by Dennis McIndoo

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Also this article a few days later.
The Caldwell News-Tribune
dated Thursday, 10 December, 1931

Larger headstone images free upon request