Julia Lavinia Edwards Tibbetts

William Arthur Tibbetts and Julia Lavinia Edwards
Wedding Photo and Honeymoon Photo

(Julia's story is put together in 4 posts. More photos may be added, corrections may be made and any other information offered by family will be added.)

As I sorted through all the photographs I’ve photocopied over the years from my grandparents home, I came across small pieces of scrap paper with handwritten notes about various photos. The one I like the best is a memory from Grandpa that his grandmother used to have picnics at Stonehenge before she moved to the wilderness of the prairie of Nebraska.

Julia Lavinia Edwards Tibbetts was the mother of my great-grandmother, Flossie Edwards Tibbetts Farner. Julia, the second daughter of Frederick and Charlotte Sadd Edwards, was born in Wilton, England on October 15, 1848. Wilton is a parish in the Salisbury district in the county of Wiltshire and is about 3 miles northwest of the city of Salisbury. Stonehenge is about 8 miles north of Salisbury. Wilton was internationally known for its carpets.

Julia was baptized in the Wesleyan Methodist Church as a child, and at age 19 on June 13, 1867 she married 28 year old William Arthur Tibbetts at Grafton Church in Wilts, England. William was born on December 7, 1839. Because he was belonged to the Episcopalian Church, Julia joined his church after their marriage. William and Julia honeymooned in Paris, France. Their oldest child, Frederick, was born a year after their marriage and eventually the family moved north of Wilton 30-40 miles to Swindon in Wiltshire County where William became a successful merchant of dry goods.

During the 1870’s, William’s cousin, Benjamin Kirby of Frontier County, Nebraska wrote letters to Swindon encouraging William and Julia to move to Nebraska. They began to believe in his glowing stories of educational advantages and fortunes available to everyone in Nebraska and finally in August of 1878 the Tibbetts sold their store and with four children, booked passage from Liverpool to New York. They actually booked passage directly to Plum Creek (now Lexington), Nebraska. They reached America in eight days across the Atlantic Ocean, spent two days in customs, and then boarded a train for a five day trip to Plum Creek. Cost for the voyage from Liverpool to Plum Creek was around 60 UK Pounds (today’s value would be over 4,000 UK Pounds) per adult.

Frontier County, Nebraska

Julia Tibbets with her youngest daughter, Flossie Edward Tibbetts Farner in 1925.

Part Two

When the Tibbetts family finally arrived in Plum Creek, the first person Julia met was a woman at the hotel who gave her the lurid details of a local murder and told her she came to a “horrible place.” Julia urged William to immediately buy tickets directly back to England while they had life and money, but William insisted on going on out to Frontier County. William’s cousin, Benjamin Kirby, rode into Plum Creek to pick them up and take them to his homestead. During the 25 mile trip southwest they passed only one other sod home with very little sod turned under for farming. They arrived at Kirby’s home to find a three room dug-out built back into a hill, with little one-foot windows letting light into the two back rooms.

For two weeks, Julia cried and never ceased to wish they had immediately returned to England and to civilization. But life went on and she had to care for her four children, so she did what she could to survive. She moved into their first sod and log home before the roof was completed. When it rained, they would sit pans around to catch the water that came through the roof, but often the rains made her home a mud hole in which children and furniture were mixed. In addition, Julia had to deal with poisonous centipedes on the sod walls that kept her always vigilant and worried. After the Battle of the Little Big Horn and Custer’s massacre, Sioux Indians marched through Frontier County and caused many people to fear trouble, but this was the one thing that didn’t distress Julia. She was never frightened of them and she always told those around her that they should have never taken the country away from them.

The nearest towns were Lexington and Kearney and William Tibbetts hauled cut wood there in exchange for necessities. Before selling wood, the children picked up buffalo bones and skulls that were sold by the ton. The supply was unlimited and eventually others began collecting the bones causing the demand to collapse. The only sugar available on the frontier was “brown” (unrefined) sugar. Julia had to make her own soap, vinegar and she roasted her own coffee. Sometimes coffee beans were not available and “coffee” was made with bran and molasses. In the midst of all this, Julia gave birth to more children, including quadruplets. In one memory from Carl Farner, he suggests that six of the sixteen children died in England before they came to Frontier County, Nebraska with four children. At the very least, Julia gave birth to six children in the wilderness of Nebraska, including my great-grandmother, Flossie Edwards. Julia was 40 years old when her last born child, Flossie, was born.

Life in Nebraska

Part Three

The hardships and struggles Julia endured were outstanding simply because of the world of opportunity and prosperity from which she left in England. She was an accomplished musician. When a cousin was about to sail for England she exchanged some of her expensive good dresses and wraps which she didn’t need in the wilderness of Nebraska for an organ. She then gave music lessons to her children and to other children in the area becoming the first music teacher in that part of the state.

William returned to England for a visit in 1890 to see his mother, but Julia never did return to England. William was glad to return Frontier County, the new country with which he was always perfectly satisfied to live. William was elected County Superintendent of Schools (the school “system” was a three month long school year located some distance from the Tibbetts household). William went back and forth from the farm to Stockville to serve this job. He was also elected as a justice of the peace for the Muddy Precinct. William homesteaded a small farm when they first arrived in Nebraska, and built a timber house after their first sod home. The farm eventually grew to almost a full section south of Eustis where they grew hogs. William was also the main one to get a phone line installed in Eustis.

For Julia, she always longed for her homeland. She actually did plan a trip back after the death of William. A cousin was making the trip in the spring of 1915, but before they left, she changed her mind. Her cousin and his wife sailed from New York on May 1, 1915 on the British luxury liner Lusitania. On May 7 the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine and the ship sank in 18 minutes off the coast of Ireland. Of the 1,959 passengers, 1,198 died. Julia’s cousin and his wife were two of those survivors.

Life in Nebraska for Julia was difficult. She endured the drought of 1894 where crops failed because a May 17 frost killed the corn was planted, then what survived the frost didn’t survive the lack of rain and the 105 -112 degree summer. In addition to creek floodings and prairie fires that always destroyed something, there was a banking panic in 1907 that caused great financial hardship, a flu pandemic in 1918, and the great depression of 1928. In 1935 when Julia was 87 years old, she was interviewed for the book Pioneers, Indians and Buffaloes by Baynard H. Paine. He found Julia living 12 miles south of Eustis in the Muddy precinct, still living on the land she and William homesteaded. William died at age 69 on November 1, 1908 just a few months after the marriage of his youngest daughter, Flossie to Carl Farner. Julia lived on the homestead with her oldest son, Fred, who was still a bachelor. Julia fixed a “fine meal” in short notice for Mr. Paine when he came to interview her. He wrote that Julia was a “good woman with a keen, vigorous mind and an astonishing memory….and she delighted to tell of the old times in Frontier County.”

1920-1941

Part Four

Julia managed to travel quite a bit in her later years. In 1920 she went with Flossie and Carl to Haxtun, Creede, and Denver, Colorado. Julia traveled on the train with Carl, Flossie and children when they moved to Melba, Idaho. There are photographs of her with the three boys and Flossie at Melba in 1925. In 1939 when she was 91 years old she traveled to Idaho and then Carl, Flossie and Julia all traveled to Portland and Newport, Oregon. In Carl’s words: “Grandma sure enjoyed the trip and stood it fine although she was past 91 years.”

On January 26, 1941 while living with her daughter, Mrs. Ernest (Faith) Colton, Julia died. Known to the entire community of Eustis and greatly revered as one of the very few remaining pioneers at that time, the local newspaper said that she would be remembered for many decades to come. Julia’s “vital personality, determination to overcome obstacles, refinement, intelligence and charm endeared her to all generations”.

I was born 13 years after my great-great grandmother died. And my great-grandmother, Flossie died when I was just 3 years old. Yet these two women have shaped my life in profound ways. Their lives and their love set a foundation for my grandfather, John. A man whose life, spirit, and testimony lives on in the lives of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and now great-great grandchildren.


And life goes on…….