Emily Jane Homer Jardine
R. M. H. CROCKETT
Emily Jane Homer, (better known as Aunt Gin), was born in Salt
Lake City, September 16, 1861, the oldest child of Russel K. and Mary C. Anderson Homer. Her mother died when she was five years old, leaving Ginnie and her two younger sisters, Delania and Esther.
Father Homer took Ginnie and Delania to Three Mile Creek to make their home with Eliza Thornton Homer, and took the baby Esther to live with Eliza Williamson Homer. Delania adjusted herself quickly to her new home and was happy and contented; however, Ginnie being of a different disposition, found it hard to be content anywhere. She was quite emotional, being either all smiles
or all tears and she missed her mother very much. Father Homer spent a great deal of his time on the road travelling from one place or another and she was usually along with him. He had property and business interests all the way from Salt Lake to Southern Idaho so it kept him travelling to attend to them all. He also had to haul supplies from Salt Lake City to his homes in Northern Utah. There were long strips of road without water supply so they always carried their canteen of water. He had an old flask which originally had contained gin in which he carried milk for Ginnie. She called this her Ginnie bottle and her father nicknamed her his Ginnie girl, a name which stuck with her all her life.
She was a busy and nervous child. There was never any knowing just what she would do next; she was quite famous for doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, so there was seldom a dull moment when she was around. She liked nothing better than to get a bunch of kids around her and entertain them with stories of witches, goblins, ghosts and other weird and fantastic stories, mostly made up out of her own imagination.
On one occasion at the home in Three Mile Creek when Mother Homer had gone away for the afternoon leaving the whole gang of children at home a woman called and asked for a drink of water. We were all used to seeing strange and unusual sights, as the gold rush wag on and many people passed by our place. This woman was most extraordinary; she was dressed in a bright green formal ball dress, which dragged in the dust. Her arms and shoulders were bare and her shoes were worn off her feet. She said she was traveling alone to the gold fields of California. It so happened that there was at large a notorious woman criminal (Kate Bender) who was wanted for murder and was being hunted by officers all over the country. No sooner had this woman got out of sight than Ginnie told the rest of us that she was Kate Bender, the murderess, and did we dash under the beds while he pulled down all the blinds, locked all the doors and piled all the movable furniture against them. There we lay sweltering all through the hot afternoon hardly daring to breathe. Mother came home about sundown and was astonished to find the blinds down, the doors locked and not a kid in sight. A few minutes later we were all out playing hiding seek in the orchard and sugar cane, Ginnie running faster and yelling louder than anybody.
After the Homer family moved to Clarkston, father acquired a hired man named Lars Larsen, a fine and handsome stalwart lad who seemed to think Ginnie was about the ideal girl. Father liked him so well and bragged so much about what a fine, ambitious man Lars was and what a good husband he would make, Ginnie said she got tired hearing his very name. This didn’t sound so good so the young man left town. Soon thereafter she fell deeply in love with Richard Jardine and they were married September 4, 1879. Their marriage was a happy one but of short duration. He died September 5, 1886 leaving Ginnie with four small children, May, John, Agnes and Richard. she had a small home and some farm land in Clarkston, where she continued to live and care for her children.
It happened that her old sweetheart, Lars Larsen, had married and had a similar experience to her own. His wife had died and left him with a family. He brought his family back to Clarkston for a 24th of July celebration. They renewed their acquaintance and decided to be married forthwith. They were married August 4th of that year. She said that they had done their courting when he was father’s hired man years before.
With their two families combined into one, they remained at Clarkston for a time and then moved to Rock Creek, Idaho to pioneer in that locality. As both of them had previously experienced pioneering and had been brought up by pioneer parents who were sound, wise and industrious people, they did not find it hard. Two children were born to them, Emily Rose and Vaunda. In the year 1905 when her husband was 49 years of age, he was stricken with appendicitis. He was hurried to Salt Lake City to a hospital but died there just two weeks before Vaunda’s birth.
Once again she returned to Clarkston to take up the burdens of caring for her family alone. After her older children were married or working away from home, she and her two younger girls, Emily and Vaunda, moved to Logan where she spent the last ten years of her life, during which time she spent a great deal of time working in the Logan Temple and in other church work. This
was the work she loved. With she sang for many years in the church choir and was always diligent in attending to her church duties. She officiated for hundreds of dead in the Temple, both for her own kindred and for charity, and daily thanked the Lord for the privilege of being able to do so.
Of her it can truly be said that she was of such a pleasant and happy disposition that she scattered sunshine all along her way of life. Her lonesome and sad hours were spent alone; when in the company of others, she was Invariably the life of the party. She was by nature friendly and companionable, while her ready wit and repartee made her a welcome guest in any company. She died in Logan in 1930 at the age of 69 years and is buried in Clarkston.
Her children were as follows:
| Mary Jardine | William Jolly Fife |
| John Homer Jardine | Mary Rose Griffin |
| Agnes Jardine | James Joseph Buttars |
| Richard Hamilton Jardine, Jr. | Estella May Boise |
| Emily Rose Larsen | George William Larsen |
| Vaunda Larsen | Cecil Dwayne Rose |
Russell King Homer's History 