May's Story - Her Parents - Silas Kidwell and Bertie Horsman

I wanted to take a break from May's story and share a bit about her parents tonight. Silas and Bertie were married on May 21st 1902 in Fairfax County at Falls Church. Here is a wedding photo of the couple. I posted one photo of her Bertie on the farm with two of her sons here. The letter her sister wrote described a hard farm life and a mother who was "nearly work to death and run to death". In doing some research at the Virginia Room at the Fairfax County Library near their home, I found many news clippings about fair ribbons awarded to her father Silas Kidwell for his peaches, rye, corn and cabbage. A few years ago I met some of his nieces and nephews at a Kidwell funeral I attended and they remembered Silas well, referring to him as "Uncle Bun" and said he had the best peaches around, having about 2200 peach trees on his farm. I also found advertisements for public auctions of dairy cows on the family farm - as many as 30 at at time. Obviously they were serious farmers. The couple had 12-13 children during their marriage and Silas died in a Washington D.C. hospital in 1935 after having an appendicitis operation. Bertie died in 1950.

When I met May's brother Marshall he shared this photo of his father, with his truck loaded up with peaches in bushel baskets, headed to the farmer's market in Washington DC. Also in the photo are two of May's brothers, one of them is Marshall and the other is possibly Leon.
Come back by later this week and read the final installment of May's Story!