Ida Bertha Gerber

  Generelle notater:

Datter af Samuel Gerber og Marie Luthi.
Ida Bertha Gerber Thompson was born November 11, 1878, at Bern, Switzerland. She was the eighth child born to her parents, Samuel Gerber and Marie Luthi Gerber. She had two brothers and six sisters. As her parents were converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints they emigrated to Utah with four daughters and one son when Ida was eighteen months of age. Three of the children had passed away in Switzerland. Most of the family’s possessions were lost due to a mixup with custom officials in Switzerland, among them many family records that have never been restored.

The family made their home in Logan the first four years where they lived in a two-room cabin. The incident Grandmother remembers most in Logan was how frightened the children were when they first saw Indians. They ran into the house and hid under a quilt. The Indians came up and looked in the windows and then went away.

In the spring of 1884 the Gerber family moved to the Upper Snake River Valley, thus becoming pioneers in the settlement of Rexburg. The move from Utah into Idaho required eight days over the trails which then served as roads. Grandmother recalls that on the way to Rexburg their team of oxen got stuck in the mud and her
father who had never handled oxen before began unloading their possessions when a man came along on horseback. He hollered at them and told them to leave the wagon loaded. He rode up and grabbed the reins of the oxen asking their names. Then in a loud voice he hollered, Gee, Ha, Spot and Red and the oxen pulled them right out.


Just before the family left Logan, Ida Thompson relates that a voice told her mother to dry some potatoes. Such a thing was unknown to her but she heeded the warning and successfully dried potatoes by cooking them with the jackets on and then slicing them in thin slices and placing them on the table to dry. They were then packed in 50 lb. flour sacks. After their move to Rexburg, the children grew tired of dried potatoes but without them the family would have come close to starving.


In helping establish this community the family first lived in a dugout down by the river so they would be close to water. As soon as possible, however, her father whose trade was that of a carpenter, built a log house and later it was replaced with a frame dwelling. During this period it was the girls job to carry the water needed at home. They would place several buckets along a pole and with one on either side they carried the water to the house. In the winter time holes had to be chopped in the ice to get the needed water. The girls also spent a great deal of time picking berries grown by their mother. At that time they sold those berries 20 quarts for a dollar.

During the Gerber family’s stay in Logan a daughter, Rosina, was born. She and Ida were very close and enjoyed being together and doing things together. It was a very sad time for Ida when at the age of ten Rosina passed away from diptheria. She was a very lonely girl for a long time and never enjoyed playing with her dolls after that. The dolls were put on the shelf at Christmas and never touched again. Ida Thompson’s father, Samuel Gerber was a fine carpenter and did much of the finishing work on the Logan Temple.

The Life Summary of Ida Bertha
When Ida Bertha Gerber was born on 11 November 1878, in Bern, Bern, Switzerland, her father, Samuel Gerber, was 33 and her mother, Maria Luethi, was 38. She married Peder Orlando Thompson on 20 November 1900, in Fremont, Idaho, United States. They were the parents of at least 6 sons. She died on 9 April 1965, in Rexburg, Madison, Idaho, United States, at the age of 86, and was buried in Rexburg, Madison, Idaho, United States.

  Begivenheder i hendes liv:

• Bopæl, 1900, Rexburg, Lyman, Rudy, Independence Precincts Rexburg town, Fremont, Idaho, United States.

• Obituary, 1965, Idaho, United States.

Ida blev gift med Peder Thyboe Olesen, søn af Ole Thomasen Thyboe og Mette Katrine Bertelsdatter, den 20 Nov. 1900 i Rexburg, Madison, Idaho, USA. (Peder Thyboe Olesen blev født den 11 Apr. 1866 i Vesterby, Øland, Hjørring, Danmark, dåb den 2 Jun. 1866 i Øland, Hjørring, Danmark, døde den 5 Jan. 1928 i Rexburg, Madison, Idaho, USA og blev begravet den 9 Jan. 1928 i Rexburg, Madison, Idaho, USA.)