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.