Serilda Warn in center in black dress with family. Her daughter Nettie Grace Warn Williams is to her right, and her son-in-law Hiram Watt Williams is to her left.
I’m taking a break from blogging about my own family and the history of Haywood County to share a rare find my wife received from her aunt.
The newspaper article tells the story of Michelle’s second great-grandmother, Serilda Martina Eaton Warn (1846-1942), and provides something family researchers do not often find: Serilda’s own words.
My wife’s great-grandmother, Nettie Grace Warn Williams
Serilda was the mother of Nettie Grace Warn Williams (1884-1943), who was the mother of Gladys Serilda Williams Trefren (1917-2002). Gladys was the mother of Barbara June Trefren Mayer, who is Michelle’s mother.
My wife’s maternal grandmother, Gladys Williams Trefren, with my daughter Alex. Gladys was the daughter of Nettie Grace who was the daughter of Serilda.
This article reveals that Warn enjoyed singing and spelling bees, took pride in her sewing and housekeeping and followed the news and her favorite programs on the radio. She remembered the past with remarkable precision and credited her long life to remaining cheerful, avoiding bad habits and making the best of difficult situations. Some of her stories included a bit of exaggeration — her grandfather did not live to be 113, and the connection to Lincoln is unproven — but when you make it to 94, you can tell stories however you want.
From left: John Franklyn Warn, Serilda Eaton Warn and Nettie Grace Warn Williams holding an unidentified child.
The article appeared on Page 6 of the Idaho Daily Statesman in Boise on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 1940, the day after Serilda celebrated her 94th birthday.
The young reporter who captured Warn’s story
The reporter, Ada Marcia Hoebel, was at the beginning of her journalism career when she interviewed Warn. A native of Arco, Idaho, Hoebel served as a feature editor of the University of Idaho’s student newspaper, The Argonaut. She graduated from the university with a bachelor’s degree and high honors in 1939. University archives also preserve a history of the Arco Advertiser that she wrote in 1937.
After writing the 1940 profile of Serilda Warn, Ada Marcia Hoebel continued working for the Idaho Daily Statesman, first in the women’s department and later on the city desk. A serious traffic accident interrupted her journalism career, and after a long recovery she began a new career serving as secretary to Idaho Lt. Gov. C.A. Bottolfsen during his second term.
She became active in Republican politics, chaired the Ada County Young Republicans during World War II and later served for more than 15 years as Butte County Republican chair and as a state central committeewoman. She married H. Michael Porter on Dec. 9, 1944, and the couple moved to Arco in 1946, where she worked at the Butte County Bank. Known thereafter as Ada Marcia Porter, she became a prominent civic leader, holding leadership positions in the American Legion and VFW auxiliaries, the Order of the Eastern Star and the Parent Teacher Organization. She also devoted decades to the American Cancer Society, serving as a local president, a member of the state board for 25 years and a statewide fundraising director. Porter died Nov. 19, 1996, in Arco, Idaho at age 78.
Serilda Warn had lived through a period of extraordinary change and remained interested in the world around her, so it must have been a fascinating opportunity for Hoebel to get to interview her.
Born before the Mexican-American War, Warn had crossed the plains in a covered wagon and spent a winter in a log cabin in Oregon. By 1940, she was listening to serialized dramas, cowboy programs and the evening news on the radio. Hoebel also included the small details that make the profile memorable: Serilda’s talent for remembering birthdays, her pride in winning a costume contest and the moment when she unexpectedly offered to sing for the reporter.
The article is transcribed below in its entirety. I have corrected only obvious punctuation and transcription errors while preserving the original wording and style.
Mrs. Serilda Warn Tells of 94 Years of Exciting and Colorful Experiences1
By Ada Marcia Hoebel
More cheerful and chipper than most 80-year-olds is Mrs. Serilda Eaton Warn of 1911 North Fourteenth Street, who Monday observed her 94th birthday anniversary. She’s a happy, intelligent old lady who still enjoys life because her keen memory affords her the pleasure of reminiscing about interesting experiences and because an eager interest in radio programs keeps her aware of current events.
It’s amazing — her faculty for remembering dates. Without hesitation, she can rattle off the day, month and year of each of her eight children’s births and of every other significant incident in her life. It may be an inherent family trait — living to such a ripe old age, for her grandfather lived to be 113 years old — but Mrs. Warn explains it this way:
“I just took things easy, made the best of every bad situation, enjoyed life and didn’t have any bad habits.” She chuckled and continued, “And that’s more than some of ’em can say today!”
Born in Illinois
Mrs. Warn was born in Coles County, Ill., on Jan. 15, 1846. “Father always told us there was Lincoln blood in our veins, and I’m mighty proud of that,” she said. Abraham Lincoln and her grandfather, Benjamin Eaton, went to the same school when they were boys “and studied together — using soapstone to write on the back of a shovel,” she averred.
“I’ll bet I’ve traveled more miles in a covered wagon than any woman in the United States today,” said Mrs. Warn. In 1871, she moved with her father’s family to Kansas. There she met and married John Franklin Warn, and on May 7, 1880, with her sister, now Mrs. Olin McCabe of Boise, 75, and in company with several other covered-wagon parties, they set out to cross the plains to the West.
It took them three months to get to Wallowa Valley, Ore., where they spent the winter in a log cabin. Then, on April 12, 1881, they landed in Boise, “right on what is now Thirteenth Street.” They camped there until they bought two acres of land where White City Park now stands and built a house. Mr. Warn was a butcher and grocer for many years. He died in 1923.
All but one of their eight children are still living. Four were born before the wagon-train trip and four were born in Boise. Chester Warn, 53; Mrs. Hyrum Williams, 55; Mrs. H.L. Dibble, 61; and Mrs. Owen L. Smith, 50, four of her children, are still living in Boise. Incidentally, Mrs. Smith’s birthday anniversary was Monday, too — she was born on her mother’s 44th.
Shows She Can Sing
Mrs. Warn’s eyes sparkled as she told about the time she won first prize for the best old-fashioned costume worn at the “Boise Basin celebration” here 10 years ago. “And I got quite a lot of applause, too,” she said. “I even sang part of a song on the stage.” To demonstrate her lyric ability, she said, “Do you want me to sing it for you now?” — and promptly did. She carried the tune well, too.
“I was always a happy girl and a busy woman,” said Mrs. Warn. “I was considered an excellent seamstress and housekeeper — in fact, I was also one of the best spellers in the state of Illinois.”
Mrs. Warn’s day begins at about 8 o’clock in the morning. Its highlights are “Ma Perkins,” “Affairs of Anthony,” the 7 o’clock news and “King Cowboy,” right after which she retires every night at 9 o’clock. “I was always a happy girl and a busy woman,” said Mrs. Warn. “I was considered an excellent seamstress and housekeeper — in fact, I was also one of the best spellers in the state of Illinois.” Spelling bees and singing were two of her favorite hobbies, she said.
Mrs. Warn was one of 12 children, four of whom are still living, but she’s the oldest of them all. “I was a puny thing when I was little,” she said. “As a matter of fact, I remember hearing father say once that they’d never be able to raise me. Well, I’ve never been very strong, but I’ve certainly outlived his prediction.”
The rest of the story
The family tree fills in several important chapters that were not included in the birthday profile by Hoebel.
Serilda Martina Eaton was born Jan. 15, 1846, in Coles County, Illinois, to Thomas E. Eaton (1818-1906) and Martina Cheshire Eaton (1824-1900). Although the article focused on her Illinois childhood, the 1860 census placed the Eaton family in Sullivan County, Missouri.
Serilda had an earlier marriage and child that the 1940 newspaper profile did not mention, although the surviving records disagree on several important dates. An Illinois marriage record states that she married Mordica M. Coen on May 31, 1866, in Livingston County. Born in Pennsylvania about 1843, Mordica moved with his family to western Virginia and later to Illinois. He died June 13, 1872, at about age 28 and was buried in Fairview Cemetery near Fairbury, Illinois. A 1956 Illinois veterans’ honor roll identified him as a Civil War private, although his unit and dates of service have not been confirmed.
It appears Serilda and Mordica also had a daughter, Jennie Marcina, whose birth year varies in available records. Jennie’s death certificate gives her birth as Dec. 6, 1864, while the date she gave the 1900 census takers suggests 1870 and church records place it about 1865. Serilda reportedly remarried in 1869, which conflicts with Mordica’s 1872 death unless Serilda and Mordica had divorced. Whatever the exact sequence, Jennie appears to have been raised in the Warn household, later used the Warn surname and identified John Warn as her father in records created near the end of her life.
Serilda and John had eight children together: Eugene Warn, born in 1870; John Warn, born in 1873; Alice Serilda Jesse Warn, born in 1876; Rosalie Warn, born in 1878; Louis Dell Warn, born in 1880; Nettie Grace Warn, (my wife’s great-grandmother) born in 1884; Chester Arthur Warn, born in 1886; and Violet E. Warn, born in 1890.
In May 1880, Serilda, John, their children, Serilda’s sister and several other families began the journey west together. They traveled for about three months before reaching Oregon’s Wallowa Valley, where they spent the winter in a log cabin. They resumed their journey the following spring and arrived in Boise on April 12, 1881.
The Warns camped near what became 13th Street before buying two acres and building a home. John operated a butcher shop and grocery store. The family’s arrival came before Idaho became a state in 1890 and when Boise was still a young frontier community.
The records show Serilda living in Boise in 1900 and again in 1930. She remained there after John died on Nov. 3, 1923. By the time Hoebel interviewed her in 1940, Serilda had lived in Boise for nearly 59 years.
Serilda died in Boise on Nov. 13, 1942, at age 96. She was buried near John and other members of the Warn family in Section 4 of Morris Hill Cemetery.
While most of my ancestors migrated to Haywood County, Tennessee, and stayed put, this branch of Michelle’s family continued moving west. They passed through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oregon and other states before establishing themselves in communities across the West. Their frequent moves make the family more difficult to trace through conventional records, which is why an article like this is so valuable.
The article allowed Serilda to share a bit of advice for her descendants: “I just took things easy, made the best of every bad situation, enjoyed life and didn’t have any bad habits.”
That is a philosophy all of us would do well to follow.
- Ada Marcia Hoebel, “Mrs. Serilda Warn Tells of 94 Years of Exciting and Colorful Experiences,” Idaho Daily Statesman (Boise, Idaho), Jan. 16, 1940, 6.. ↩︎
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