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Monday, March 15, 2021

YOUNG PEARL DOBSON

Of Aunt Pearl’s birth, my grandmother wrote: “Pearl was born on the Pete Olson place [near Troy, Idaho] at midnight of Nov. 3 & 4, 1892. Two neighbor women were there to help me through, and Ma also was there. Ma named her ‘Pearl’ and I named her ‘Eva’ after my classmate, Eva Joseph.” Until I read this, I was not aware that Pearl was also named “Eva.” The family always called her “Pearl,” but now I see her name written as both “Pearl Eva” and “Eva Pearl.” It seems that Ina yielded to her mother’s wish to name her baby “Pearl.”  

The Dobson families – Jack and Ina / June and Bertha – took homesteads on Russell Ridge above the Clearwater River in November 1895, moving the women and children there from the “Potlatch River Country” near Troy in July 1896. Pearl was 3 ½. Her little sister Myrtle was two and little brother Irl was just two months. The route to the top of Russell Ridge in those days was up the steep grade out of the village of Peck, and at the steepest pitch, they all had to get out of the wagon and walk, except Pearl. She was sick, so she got to stay in the wagon. At any rate, Pearl was very young when they began their new life on the farm at Gilbert.

I don’t know much about Pearl’s girlhood. About 1912, the family began to take more pictures. Ina and all of her children, including Pearl, were interested in photography. But by 1912, Pearl was already a young lady in her 20th year. I’m sure she finished 8th grade at the Dickson School, but whether or not she attended high school, I don’t know.

The Dobsons tend to be small-boned, short people, but I can tell from pictures that Pearl was taller and more robust than her siblings. It isn’t that she was really tall – just tall for one of us. As time went on in adulthood, she put on weight. I know this problem firsthand, but it appears that Pearl didn’t fight it. Neighbor Pete, whose father was a contemporary of Pearl’s, said that though she was heavy-set, she was the most agile of them all and up for adventure. She loved to fish in Little Canyon Creek. It’s downhill from our farm to get there but a real climb to get back to the top, so she was evidently in shape in her younger years.

And I should mention that her hair was a enviable shade of light red-blonde. I happen to have a lock of it in my collection. And it appears she also had a lovely complexion. KW


4 comments:

  1. At what age do you think that lock of hair was collected? They say a person's hair darkens with age, so I'm guessing that was from childhood?

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  2. I found it in Grandma's book, "Happy Homes and the Hearts that Make Them" by Samuel Smiles -- a book she obviously read over and over. The book was published in 1889, the same year she graduated from high school, and it is inscribed to her and dated 1889. Perhaps it was a graduation gift.

    Anyway, pressed among the pages are various locks of hair. I'm sure this lock was clipped when Pearl was young. Pearl called herself "blonde" in the '40s, and you can see that her hair is still light.

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  3. We found hair in different places when we cleaned out Dan's mom's house. We didn't save any of it. I do like the title of the book you found Pearl's hair in!

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  4. I feel that Grandma Ina loved that book, "Happy Homes and the Hearts that Make Them." It appears well-read. I read the first article or two before losing interest. I should read it again. I think it was Grandma Ina's child-rearing manual, and she obviously found comfort and inspiration in its pages.

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