History of Robert McIntire and Catherine Rose McIntire

Robert McIntire was born in Hammond, St. Lawrence, New York on October 22, 1835, the sixth child in a family of eight. Robert's father, Simeon McIntire, was of Scottish descent. Isabel Nicol was his mother.

Robert grew to be a slender man, about 6'3" tall, and weighed 185 pounds. He had dark brown hair, sharp blue eyes and red whiskers that he wore in a thick long beard. He carried himself very straight and with shoulders well back, he seemed to be taller than he was. Even when he was old and ill, he walked very erect. Robert moved with his family to Illinois when he was about five years old. Later, the family moved to Utah.

Robert was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was nine years old, on June 15, 1844. On February 12, 1858, he went through the temple for his endowments in preparation for a mission, but he was unable to fulfill a mission.

Catherine Rose was born March 16, 1850, at Council Bluffs, Iowa. She was the seventh child of John Rose and Aurelia Minerva Peet. She was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1858. Her family moved to Utah when she was two weeks old.

In 1865 Catherine married Robert McIntire. She was fifteen years old and Robert was twenty-nine.

Robert took his young bride to North Ogden, Weber, Utah to live, and four children were born to them in North Ogden. Robert was a laborer and he took his family with him wherever he could find work. In 1870 they moved to Cedar Fort, Utah, where their fifth child, Ambrose, was born in 1872. For the next nine years they moved to four different towns (Fairfield, Utah; North Ogden, Utah; Weston, Idaho; and Park Valley, Utah). It was in 1880 that they moved to Park Valley, Utah. Finally, they settled in Lyman, Idaho.

Catherine didn't like their nomad life, but she packed her household goods and children into the wagon and, laughing, would say: "Another home, another baby. When I get up in one house I will probably go to bed in another one, in another part of the country." They were poor, but they had a good life, being blessed with many happy children. Sorrow came when Julietta (Gelletta?), one of their twins, died when she was seven years old.

Robert was very good at cradling grain. This was the way grain was cut at that time. The scythe was a curved knife at the end of a long handle. It was held in both hands and a two- or three-foot swath of grain was cut and felled.

After cutting a strip through the field, the grain was gathered and tied in bundles with straws that had been soaked in water to make them soft, so they could be tied around the grain.

When the family moved to Lyman, Idaho in 1889 with a wagonload of household goods and a herd of cattle, they had eight children, three of the older girls having married by this time. In Lyman, Robert bought the relinquishment on the homestead of Jim Murphy for some of the cattle. The homestead was later occupied by Roy (Ray?) Gardner.

Three more girls were born to them, so a larger house was needed. The new home was built of squared logs in an "L" shape, three large rooms and a porch. The old house was left as a shop and storeroom. Smoked hams and bacon, sacks of dried apples and corn hung from the rafters.

Inside the new home, the rafters were raised many times by the family's music. Freeman (Andrew Freeman, born 1879 in Weston, Idaho) played the fiddle, one of the girls would play the organ, one the harp, and the rest would sing and dance. They were all quite good singers and able to accompany themselves on any musical instrument that Robert had received in trade for work.

Robert did a lot of horseshoeing and was a coffin maker. He was kept very busy at this latter trade. He used rough pine boards which he soaked in hot water. Then he shaped and nailed them together, covering them with black cloth. Catherine and the girls would line the inside of the coffins with a satin-type material.

Robert could do carpentry work and cabinet-making quite well, and taught this trade to his sons. Catherine told how he would make a nice piece of furniture for their home, and then some visiting neighbor or relative would admire it, and Robert would say, "If you like it, take it home with you. I can make Kate another one." Which, of course, he never got around to doing.

They had a hard life in Lyman, as Robert's health was not too good. Their home was well built but poorly furnished, and when some of the older girls would come home to visit, many beds had to be made on the floor. The three younger girls spent many nights on such beds.

Many mornings, a piece of bread dough cooked on top of the stove was all they had for breakfast.

Although they were poor their life was never dull. Robert was so mild and free-hearted, and Catherine was well-known for her sharp tongue and spicy temper. Robert was a kind man, very even-tempered, and hated the least fuss. He was always ready to help anyone in need, working for anything his customers might give him, or for nothing if he felt they couldn't pay him. He often let his own work go, to help his neighbors.

Robert had stomach trouble for a long time and at the last he suffered several months of severe pain and dropsy. He died at home on April 23, 1899, at the age of sixty-three.

Catherine had several small children when she re-married Nels Nelson in 1900. Nels had small children of his own, so the family was quite large again. After Nelson died, Catherine lived with her daughter Reigh (pronounced Rae) until she died on December 12, 1931, at the age of eighty years.

The McIntire girls all had beautiful auburn hair. The story was told of an Indian who wanted to cut the hair of Lucinda, the couple's oldest daughter, and first child. Catherine talked him out of it, giving him a loaf of fresh bread in place of lock of hair.

A final word about the harp mentioned in this history, which was given to Robert in payment for work he had done - it was so large that there wasn't room to keep it in the house, so Lorene (Lorena) (one of the younger daughters, born in 1890) stored it in an old building at the back of the house, covering it up with quilts to keep the rain from it. Lorene taught herself to play it and became quite good at it. She could also play the piano and had never taken lessons.

Here follows a listing of all the children born to this couple, in order of their birth, with year of birth:

Lucinda 1866;
Loretta and Gelletta (Julietta) (twins) 1867;
Nancy Maria 1870;
Ambrose 1872;
John Arnold 1874;
Robert 1876;
Andrew Freeman 1879;
Becky Rose 1881;
Lydia 1883;
Almon 1885;
Amos Nathaniel 1887;
Lorena (Lorene) 1890;
Sybil Mae 1892;
Reigh (Rae) 1899.

Fifteen in all, six boys and 9 girls.

[Edited February 14, 1988, by Lynn Ransom Burton. I do not know the author of this history, but it is clear that the information is from family members including the records of Harold S. Butler of Thornton, Idaho, as well as from church records.]