Ida Mae (Jesmer) Morton- my great aunt
Ida Mae (Jesmer) Morton- my great aunt. Ida was the sister of my grandfather, Harvey. She was the only living sister. (One other sister died in infancy.) She was born in 3/7/1892. It is interesting to note that her own aunt, Ida Jesmer, Nelson’s younger sister, died 3/13/1889 at the age of 13. Maybe he named his daughter in honor of his own sister. Ida did not spend much time in Quill City with her parents. Arriving in Canada in 1904, at 12 years old, she attended a private Catholic school in southern Manitoba in 1908 at 16 years old. Later she attended the normal school in Saskatoon at 17 or 18. She became a school teacher and she married a railway man, Will Morton. She was unique in that she wasted no time in getting married. She was married at 20 years old to William Morton. He was known as Uncle Will. She immediately left home and moved away. Her brothers, Carl and Harvey married later in life, in their 40’s. And so my dad had cousins that were 20 years older than him. They may have been “the cousins we didn’t know.” The pictures open with Ida’s childhood house and the house she married in, the house of her father Nelson. There is a picture of the school building she may have attended. There is a two page letter from a nun. After reading about her life I can see that she loved to curl and was a skip on a team. She constantly traveled, visiting people all over Canada and in the northern States. I hope that this page brings honor to Ida’s family and all the cousins and their descendants may know each other.
The following is a description of Ida written by her niece…
“How well I remember my Aunt Ida. She’s my Aunt or my father ‘s sister. She was an amazing loving woman. She was so loving towards all of us. Us – equal the 9 siblings of Ida ‘s brother Carl Jesmer and his wife Jessie ( my parents) . Every year at Christmas time Ida would send a puzzle to us along with her Christmas gifts to the younger children in our family. This started a tradition that endured long after Ida was gone. In our family home or in whatever home we might have gathered to celebrate Christmas there would be a puzzle tucked away in some quiet place on a table which various people would work on during the day. I have never liked doing puzzles but I loved the idea of people quietly working away on putting it together. In fact whenever I see people working on a puzzle together I think of Aunt Ida and thank God for her and her kindness. Seems that this RC sister was genuinely practicing the love of God and encouraging a young girl to stay connected to God. I like this idea very much as it speaks of love offered to a young girl by a person of God.”
Click here to return to family history home page.
Click here to return to Nelson A Jesmer’s page
Link to the siblings of Ida: Harvey and Carl , Lillie, Half brother Herbert
Children of Ida (Jesmer) Morton: William (Willie) Morton, Hazel (Morton) Wilson, , Bruce Morton, Edwin (Ted) Morton
The old school house Letter to Uncle Hubert 1960 Genealogy info page
Link to Quill Lake pics Letter from a nun to Ida Some newspaper articles about Ida
Link to Notre Dame de Lourdes boarding school Link to Uncle John Statland’s family Gilbert Plains 20’s-50’s
More articles about Ida page 2 More articles about Ida page 3 List of Ida’s first cousins
What do the descendants of Nelson A. Jesmer and Genevieve look like?
Old Pictures of the town of Quill Lake Old Pictures of Wadena Sask. Some old pics of Clair Sask.
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