Mary Prianna Petty Hillman Homer
A few Years before our move to Clarkston Father married his fourth and last wife. She was the widow of an old friend whom he had known in Iowa (Ira Hillman). At the time of their marriage she had six children, Ira King, Marv, Robert, Russell, Mayhew and Margaret Hillman.
After her, marriage she had four more, Delight, Parley P., Louisa and George Homer. Delight and George died in infancy. Parley and Louisa (Lou) lived to be married and have families.
Marv Prianna Petty was the daughter of Robert C. and Margaret Wells Petty. She was born in Tennessee and her father who was a Doctor by profession and also the owner of a tobacco plantation and slaves who worked it. T hex joined the L. D. S. Church in Tennessee and sold out their holdings there and journeyed to Iowa where she met and married Ira Hillman, who joined up with the Petty family and they all came to Utah.
Ira Hillman with his family located at Fort Herriman in the vicinity of Salt Lake where he died when just a young man, leaving her with six small children.
After her marriage to father she made several moves, first to Richmond, thence to Gentile Valley, back to Oxford and finally to Clarkston. She and her family located In Clarkston in the autumn of 1874 where we found them when we arrived there April 10th, 1875.
Father had traded for two homes in Clarkston that were near together. Aunt Prian occupied one and Mother Homer the other. She was a very intelligent and capable woman. Her home was well kept. It was a comfortable home and was a good housekeeper and a famous cook. She loved to entertain and serve good meals according to the southern style. She took great pride in sewing and she had the first sewing machine in Clarkston. It was one of the first Singers put out and not very much like the ones we see nowadays. It took almost horse power to run it and there were no attachments and no way of throwing it out of gear.
From her father she had learned a lot about herbs and treating common ailments and was very much in demand to go out and care for the sick, which she did willingly and many people were so needy she had to take something from home to help out. Each year she gathered and dried herbs which she dispensed freely wherever they were needed.
She also acted in the capacity of maternity nurse for many families. Very little pay she ever received as people did not have anything to pay with but she did her best for everyone that she was called upon to help.
She was also active in the church and all the social affairs of the town.
When her daughter Lou and Eph Peterson went to Idaho she went with them and made her home in the Snake River valley for the rest of her life. For some years she was active and carried on in about the same way and was able to be of use and help out many of the poor homesteaders of that country, with her kindly, cheerful help in cases of sickness and trouble.
She was ill for some years before her death and not able to do much. However, she received every care and attention from the Peterson family and the family of Mayhew Hillman who lived near them.
She died in March, 1901 and was buried at Oxford, Idaho. Parley Pratt Homer
Front left to right: Jane Caroline and twin Kesiah (Keziah) Abline, Margaret Jefferson Wells, Mary Pryamiah Hillman, and Martha Lewis.
Back Row: Margaret P. Davenport, Lewis James Petty, Robert Thomas Petty and Lawisa P Egbert
Image Sources: https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/memories/KWJK-41G
Russell King Homer's History 