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Picture at left shows four generations:
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Mary Ann Sewell Henson
Mary Ann Sewell Henson was bom 13 May 1844 at Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, England, daughter of William and Mary (Painter) Sewell, the oldest of four children: Mary Ann, Emma Eliza, Clara Caroline and Harry Hosea Sewell.
Mary Ann was very pretty, had even features, brown sparkling eyes and dark brown hair, which stayed brown until she was 70 years old. She was five feet in height, average weight was about 140 pounds, a little on the plump side, a beautiful olive skin, a merry laugh, hands made beautiful by useful work. Mary Ann was the only one of her family to join the Church and this made her very sad. The sister Clara was an actress on the stage until she was seventy years old--I saw a photo of her on a program she had sent to Grandma from England.
William Sewell was a tailor by trade, when Mary Ann was five years old she would go to the tailor shop and pick out the basting threads on the clothes her father was making, not a thread could be left. As she grew older her job became basting in place the padding on the shoulders and front of coats, this was a mixture of horse hair and light canvas and again not a stitch could show on the top side.
Many times her knuckles were rapped for a stitch showing until her work became perfect - the father was an exacting workman as the clothes he made were worn by the nobility of England. Next she was taught to make the perfect button hole, one that would not fray or ravel on the lightest or heaviest garment. Her father always attended to the insignia or trimmings.
William Sewell was a very thin little man about 5'4" tall, of a sandy complexion with red hair and blue eyes. It was no trouble for him to sit many hours crossed legged and sew. He had a special feat he could do which caused much laughter and fun He would put his feet on the back of his neck, put his hands down through by his knees and hop around on the floor.
The mother Mary Painter came from a family of lacemakers. The lace was used to trim dresses and so beautiful. Mary Painter Sewell was taller than her husband (and several years older, according to notes of Mary Ann on the book cover, five years older) with a large frame build, brown eyes and dark brown hair.
Mary Ann Sewell Henson was a very good judge of materials, could tell by the feel of the material just how good it was, if worth reusing. Good seamstresses were in demand in the early days of settling Idaho and she was kept busy and sewed for the public as long as her health would permit, with a special talent for making men's suits and trousers.
The pay was to trade work for the things they needed. One man said to me: "Your Grandma made our clothes for the family and my Dad made her a 500 pound flour bin." Perhaps that is why Aunt Laura Henson Scott said: "Mother could bring in more with her thimble and thread, than Father could with his shovel." The girls did the housework while mother sewed or quilted and pieced quilts.
The fall of 1912 she unpacked, washed and pressed and made an overcoat for my little brother Alfred Allen. Many ladies examined it an could not believe it was handmade. I went to Grandma's often with Mother and it seems to me she always had a quilt on frames, if not sitting up to be quilted it was leaning against the wall.
Currant bread, a very tidy house, lots of laughter and jokes, for she was a happy soul with lots of wit, this is how I remember her. My Mother Livina and her sisters would often meet at Grandma's to give her a hand with the quilting. Aunt Lovina Monson would bring her daughter Hazel and about noon they would send us to the market to get something for dinner. The clerk was so cross-eyed, he would look at us and smile and we would end up in giggles and forget what we went for.
Grandma had many keepsakes as she called them, the blue willow dinner set used for company, a marble top dresser with two small drawers on top at each side, the "tidy's of red roses in a field of green crochet, from some friend. Many pictures and photos on the walls, Uncle Harry Hosea had several hand painted pictures which he brought from England, painted by a dear friend. When friends joined the church and came to Zion her home became their home until they became settled in their own home. She loved them so much and as she talked about them this friendship seemed closer than relative.
Grandma gave many readings at entertainments, only then they called them "recitations". She would have them memorized and with her English accent they became snappy and amusing and lifted one up and were just great entertainment. Mary Ann could read and write and one card we remember with amusement came to Livinia Allen at Cove. She had written it in excitement, with no commas or periods.
"Dear Vinnie come quick had a fire burnt insides out forty men and women came to help do come quick Vinnie."
Mary Ann was a teacher in the Sunday School among the other activities in the ward. After the death ofAlfred Henson she continued to live in the little home. In 19 10 she remarried to William Marley (he died about 1920). Mary Ann then visited around with her children more and was at the home of her son Albert Sewell Henson, Topaz Ranch, Lava Hot Springs, Bannock, Idaho, staying for awhile.
Just after Christmas, one night she went to bed feeling fine and next morning when they looked into her room, she had fallen into a long peaceful sleep the 3 1 ' of December 192 1, leaving many friends and relatives to miss her cheerfulness. She died of a heart ailment. She was laid to rest by the side of her faithful husband in the Franklin Cemetery.
By her granddaughter Lydia Allen Bair.
Return to Five-Generation Chart of LaVaun Swainston Monson
