A SEA OF SAGE
A Biography of Harriet Annah Kidd Banner
By Melvin B. Banner
1-888106-80-8 Library of Congress 96-095235
Hard Cover 6 x 9 360 pages
Click Photo for Full Image
We express special appreciation to The South Idaho Press for their generosity in
permitting our family access to their archives– specifically information
extracted from the former Burley Bulletin and Burley Herald.
Introduction Chapter
One See Page 2
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INTRODUCTION
"Life is short, but one lives in one’s children.
To this extent our Creator has granted us
immortality upon Earth." (Unknown)
The purpose of this biography is to prevent the paling of a
precious life and example. Harriet Annah Kidd Banner was born April 30, 1882 to
Annah Staley and John Bickmore Kidd in Herriman, Utah. Born of pioneer stock,
she became a pioneer in her own right. The year she was born, the map of the
United States labeled Utah as only a territory. Also still in territorial status
were Idaho, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. The
expanse now occupied by Oklahoma and the Dakotas was still described as Indian
Territory and would be for seven more years. In that same year, the well known
Apache leader Geronimo took his warriors on a marauding rampage of death and
destruction into the southwestern United States and into Mexico. It was in 1882
that electricity was first introduced for commercial use.
Her story demonstrates grit in the face of adversity–adversity
that flowed to her like water downhill. Harriet grew up on the frontier of the
West. She married Samuel Banner, Jr., an English immigrant whose parents were
converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Together, Samuel
and Harriet dreamed a dream. They migrated to Idaho and there confronted by a
virgin sea of sage, converted the sea, by beast and brawn, into irrigatable
fields. While occupying that frontier homestead they improved it day by day,
week after week, and year upon year. Their dream became reality. Their hopes and
visions matured into a well managed family farming enterprise. Ultimately their
best crop was their children. The Banner family farm environment raised children
endowed and imbued with responsibility, integrity, service, and deep feelings of
self worth. On this beautified spot they both laid down their tools, utensils,
patterns, and recipes; banked the coal stove for another morning in another life
and went to sleep.
Harriet Annah’s life spanned only 59 years, but what Memories expressed by her children of her nature tell us much and yet not
enough; treating us to glimpses of acts of total dedication but puzzling us with
her curious reluctance to express affection. Andre’ Malraux said, "Man is
not what we think he is, man is what he hides." So it was with Harriet.
Her story is of a woman whose daily acts expressed
unbelievable commitment to family and neighbors but whose reticent nature seemed
to not allow her to say to them, "I love you." Her life was an example
of softness of soul and length of love. Yet her mind was steeled so strongly
against sorrow and adversity that few people ever witnessed tears welling or
wetting her cheeks. Patience was one of her fortes. Equally important, she never
lacked the courage to speak up, when silence, though easier, would condone
wrongdoing.
New home built by John Kidd.
Click photo for full image.
Harriet and Sam’s posterity are now entering the fifth
generation at this writing and fast approaching the 600 threshold. There is a
soft, frail web that connects the generations. It is made up of genes of
strengths or weaknesses. It may be composed of values, traditions, a religion, a
saying or as tangible as a piece of china or a recipe handed down. It is hoped
that this biography will help preserve for family history a life lived that
would otherwise soon be as silent as yesterday’s thunder. It is hoped that the
years of research will cast sunlight on the web, illuminating better the pattern
connecting us so we can see a part of ourselves as a part of the web – as part
of her. Thus we will feel a binding and brightened bond to our Mother, Harriet
Annah Kidd Banner.
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CHAPTER ONE
Each of Harriet Annah Kidd Banner’s descendants possesses a
heritage that is of great value to ponder. Those who preceded her left an
influence that loomed large in her life. She came from strong Christian
parentage. She absorbed the strengths that helped her survive and succeed in a
rugged pioneer setting. She bore a sweet, nurturing fruit from the seeds of her
yesterdays.
The seeds of yesterday yield the fruits of today. A great
deal of what we are, comes from both the biological and moral influences of our
ancestors. They pass on to us a significant portion of our values, ways of
thinking, character traits, sayings, religious beliefs, physical
characteristics, and traditions. Though generations multiply, the seeds of
yesterday produce a hybrid individual that retains much of the original strain.
Thus, growing in the soil of our soul are fine, frail roots that connect the
generations, ever nourishing us as we go through life. With very little
stretching of the horizons of one’s mind, the roots of our predecessors can be
felt. It is, "an affair of the heart." It is for the most part, a
legacy of love.
Harriet and Samuel Banner’s posterity are the English and
Scotch-Irish stock. Sam was English. Harriet was Scotch-Irish.
"The Kidd line is of Scottish blood but the majority of them in the United
States are known as Scotch-Irish. Many Scotch-Irish came in the great exodus
from Ireland between 1718 and 1774 and fought in the America’s War of
Independence. The story of how
these Scottish people became Scotch-Irish is part of history. King James IV of
Scotland succeeded to the throne of England upon the death of queen Elizabeth.
He became James I, King of England. In that transfer of power he brought
Scotland, Ireland, and England under his rule. During his reign he encouraged
the immigration of many Scots into Ireland, declaring that Scotland was
overpopulated.
The Scots, however, found that they were second class
citizens of Ireland. They endured centuries of oppression as the lower class.
Years of disappointment and dissatisfaction in Ireland led to a general exodus
of thousands of these displaced Scottish people to America, many settling in
Pennsylvania and that general area where they were known as Scotch-Irish.
John Kidd.
Pennsylvania became the home of the Kidd
family’s first American in Harriet’s line, Thomas Kidd. He was born 17 July
1790 in Londonderry, Ireland, as was his father, William Kidd, who was born in
1768. Thomas immigrated about 1810 and settled in Hopewell, TWP, York County,
Pennsylvania. Also in that town lived the Alexander McKittrick family. Alexander
McKittrick, born in 1742 and died in 1822, married Catherine Baker who was born
in 1758 and died the same year as her husband. Alexander had immigrated from
Scotland. Their daughter, Susannah, captured the heart of Thomas. They were
married in 1812 in Hopewell, Pennsylvania.
They settled in Washington County, Pennsylvania, where they
lived for about three years, during which time two sons, William and Alexander,
were born. Alexander, born December 2, 1814, was Harriet’s grandfather. He was
given the name of Susannah’s father. The little family then moved to West
Virginia. About that same time Susannah’s mother and father, Alexander and
Catherina McKittrick, moved to Belmont, Ohio, just a few miles across the Ohio
river from Thomas and Susannah. The two families visited often and stayed close
over the next eight years. Here three more boys and two daughters were added to
the family of Thomas and Susannah.
In 1824 the two families became interested in acquiring land
in the western wilderness and secured land in southwestern Indiana, a new and
sparsely settled area. They built a raft or barge, powered by a steam engine,
and loaded their provisions onto it and traveled down the Ohio River for a few
hundred miles. When they came to the western edge of Indiana, they turned north,
up the Wabash River, which formed the border between Indiana and Illinois. After
a few miles they stopped to secure wood to fuel their engine. The children
played in the forest or along the river while wood was gathered and loaded, but
when all was ready to move on one little girl was nowhere to be found. The
forest was searched in all directions with no success. The river was dragged–perhaps
the child had played too close and had fallen in. For three days they
frantically searched, with no clues. Perhaps Indians had snatched her from the
forest. Finally, but reluctantly, they had to abandon their search and go on.
One can only imagine the pain of that tragedy as the craft
pulled out into the current. This was not the only tragedy they were to
experience. They went further up the Wabash River to where the White River
flowed from the east and followed it to their destination–a settlement near
Petersburg in Clay County. Evidently land had been previously secured and their
right had been established. They had been settled only about two months when
both of Susannah’s parents met their deaths. The details have been lost to us.
With this tragedy, their plans and hopes were suddenly dashed. Susannah and
Thomas sold by auction almost all their possessions and left the whole sorrowful
affair behind them.
Their move took them across two states. They
located in the northern part of Ohio near Lake Erie at LaPorte, Lorain County,
where two more of their children were born. The family record shows that they
moved again after a few years and settled in Warren County, the southwestern
corner of Ohio. In Warren County, Ohio their tenth and final child, Eliza, was
born on 12 November, 1832.
Thomas and Susannah joined the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) while living in Ohio. It is traditionally believed
that the Kidds then gathered with many of the Mormons in Missouri. The L.D.S.
Church records show Thomas and Susannah and their family in Nauvoo, Illinois in
1845-1846. The history of Harriet’s grandparents and their family is not left
to us in detail but parallels the history of the Mormon Saints during this
fascinating but distressing era of wandering and persecutions. The Nauvoo temple
records show that Thomas and Susannah were endowed in that temple on 21 January
1846.
Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, and his brother, Hyrum,
were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois jail on June 27, 1844. Thomas and
Susannah knew and loved the prophet. They had watched him and his family in
their great tribulations. They revered him as a Prophet of God. The Kidd family
had also suffered with the Prophet and the rest of the Saints. After the Prophet’s
death, several men were professing to be the authorized successors to the
Prophet Joseph. Brigham Young was the President to the Quorum of Twelve
Apostles. The majority of the Saints looked to him and sustained him as the Lord’s
authorized leader. Small groups broke away from the main body of the Church
under other leaders. When the main body of Mormons migrated west in 1847-1848,
the other groups migrated to other parts of the United States.
The Kidd family was torn apart by this process. Susannah had
strong convictions that a man by the name of James J. Strange was the true
leader. Thomas was a follower of Brigham Young. They never could reconcile their
beliefs. So it was from 1844 until 1852. They struggled to resolve their
differences while living in or around Nauvoo. Unable to agree after eight years,
they each followed their chosen leader. With the Strangites, Susannah moved to
Voree, Walworth County, Wisconsin. Before she and Thomas parted in 1852, a
family legend has been handed down that "Susannah sewed his money and her
heart under the lining of his greatcoat where its imprint showed for many
years. Susannah later married
a man named Shafer. Her death is recorded at Decauter, Green County, Wisconsin,
21 March 1865.
Thomas and one son, Alexander, 37 years of age
at that time, went West with a company of Mormons following Brigham Young. While
they were camping at Council Bluffs, the staging location for the westward
journey, Alexander met his future wife, Fidelia Bickmore (born 3 February 1835
in Madison County, Illinois). Fidelia was traveling with her father, William M.
and mother, Christine Bagley Bickmore. Alexander and Fidelia were married in
Mills County, Iowa on 3 May 1852. They must have eloped. William was accused of
having stolen her from her log cabin. The Bickmore family history also parallels the history of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints for most of Fidelia’s early life.
Thus, Harriet's ancestors were, along with many other
Americans, involved in a consistent westward movement. Since the pilgrims
settled at Plymouth, brave hearty Americans kept pushing the edge of the
frontier westward. The mainstream frontiersmen were drawn by new free or cheap
land. Also inspiring many to go West was the mid-nineteenth century discovery of
gold and silver in California then Colorado and on into Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming,
Montana and the Black Hills of the Dakotas. These were open territories with
sparse white settlements. Many gold seekers put down the gold pan as easy
pickings played out. They also homesteaded, developing farms and sheep and
cattle ranches in those territories.
Read
rest of chapter one.
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