The Just-Reid family is celebrating the Sesquicentennial Plus One of Nels and Emma Just settling in the Blackfoot River Valley near Blackfoot. We had planned to celebrate last year, but that got put on hold along with so much else when COVID hit.
On August 15, we’ll be hosting an open house at the home Nels and Emma built in 1887. It made the National Register of Historic Places last year. More details on that are available here.
In honor of Sesquicentennial Plus One, I’m devoting the Speaking of Idaho blog to my family’s history during August.
On August 15, we’ll be hosting an open house at the home Nels and Emma built in 1887. It made the National Register of Historic Places last year. More details on that are available here.
In honor of Sesquicentennial Plus One, I’m devoting the Speaking of Idaho blog to my family’s history during August.
Yesterday when we left Emma and George Bennett, she had learned that George had betrayed her, lying about not seeing her parents in town waiting for George and Emma to travel to England with them.
The Bennetts stayed in Helena until October of 1868. George found a good job working in a livery in Deer Lodge, Montana, so they moved there. He had a little money to spend, and he spent most of it on drink, often ignoring his now pregnant wife. One night he stole money and a horse from his employer and rode away. He was soon overtaken and brought back to jail.
Emma moved in with a Catholic family who, despite their religious beliefs, encouraged her to get a divorce. She agonized over the decision.
The last word we have from George Bennett is a letter he wrote to Emma in April, 1869. He had proven himself a scoundrel of the first order, but I can’t help feeling a little sorry for him when I see that beautiful, precise handwriting when he says, “Oh, Emma, Do not cast me from your heart forever. I know I have been wicked. Very wicked and abused you wrongfully, but I pray of you to forgive everything. Let the past be buried in oblivion and think only of the future.”
She did keep him in her heart. But she did not forgive him. They were divorced a month later.
In tomorrow’s post, Emma returns to Idaho for good.
The Bennetts stayed in Helena until October of 1868. George found a good job working in a livery in Deer Lodge, Montana, so they moved there. He had a little money to spend, and he spent most of it on drink, often ignoring his now pregnant wife. One night he stole money and a horse from his employer and rode away. He was soon overtaken and brought back to jail.
Emma moved in with a Catholic family who, despite their religious beliefs, encouraged her to get a divorce. She agonized over the decision.
The last word we have from George Bennett is a letter he wrote to Emma in April, 1869. He had proven himself a scoundrel of the first order, but I can’t help feeling a little sorry for him when I see that beautiful, precise handwriting when he says, “Oh, Emma, Do not cast me from your heart forever. I know I have been wicked. Very wicked and abused you wrongfully, but I pray of you to forgive everything. Let the past be buried in oblivion and think only of the future.”
She did keep him in her heart. But she did not forgive him. They were divorced a month later.
In tomorrow’s post, Emma returns to Idaho for good.
George Bennett, Emma's first husband, is an enduring family mystery. We don't know where he went after the divorce, and we're not sure we even have a picture of him. Above, on the left, is Fred Bennett the son of Emma and George. On the right is the unidentified man's tintype picture that we think MIGHT be George Bennett. Do you think they look like father and son or, as the photos are displayed, son and father?
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