Susan Adelia Etherington McFarland was born April 2, 1864, in Slaterville, Weber County, Utah, to Thomas Etherington and Sarah Wheeler, both natives of England. Her parents moved to West Weber when she was about five years of age because the seasonal high water of the Weber River often flooded their farm in Slaterville.

Because the first six children of Thomas Etherington were girls, they were obliged to help their father with the farm and dairy work. They learned early to work hard and to take responsibility. While the girls were still quite young they stayed alone with the cows in the mountains during the summer months, herding milking, and making butter. They were often frightened with storms or bears but never once thought of leaving their work. Their father came up at regular intervals to take the butter to market and the jam which they made from wild berries. The girls all be- came excellent cooks and housekeepers.

When Adelia was eighteen she married Charles Blair McFarland, also of West Weber, and there they made their home and raised a fine family. She said, "We lived happily together, each striving for the welfare of each other and our family, and at peace with our neighbors until October 16, 1909 when he suddenly passed away, leaving me with the cares of the family Or nine children."

After her husband's untimely death, Delia carried on alone to operate the farm and raise the children still at home (the two oldest were married and lived nearby, but the youngest was only six). She was thrifty and industrious and did well. She raised chickens and dairy cows and every Saturday took the eggs and butter to Ogden to trade for pro- visions, traveling the ten miles to and from in a horse and buggy.

Delia was clean and neat. She liked flowers and arose at 6 o'clock each morning to care for her lovely flower garden before she began the other daily tasks. She hauled water for many years with her horse and buggy to the dry little West Weber cemetery to keep her husband's burial plot there beautiful with blooms. She was adept at all kinds Or sewing, knitting, and crocheting and made beautiful quilts.

Delia also loved music. Earlier in her life she had frequently been a soloist at ward entertainment's, and in later years when she could afford a piano she insisted on the younger children taking music lessons. She drove them into Ogden to study with the Ogden Tabernacle Choir organist, Samuel Whitaker. She was also able to send one of the younger girls on a mission (her namesake, Susan Adelia). The first son, Charles Henry also served a mission to Australia, leaving behind a wife and four small children when he went.

Delia was a member of the first Mutual Improvement Association in the West Weber Ward. She was a teacher in the Sunday School and an officer and visiting teacher in the Relief Society. & e was a charter member of the West Weber Camp of Daughters of Utah Pioneers.

Delia remained a widow for more than twenty-seven years. One son, Mitchell, did not marry and remained with her. She passed away at her West Weber home on January 22, 1937, and was buried in the West Weber Cemetery.

(Submitted by Ruth M. White, a granddaughter)

Source:

In The Bend Of The River

History Of West Weber 1859-1976