Ida May Balls was born to William Balls and Mary Ellen Metcalf on May 23, 1880 at Hyde Park, Utah. She was the 5th of 16 children born to this couple in Hyde Park, Utah. Her father, William Balls was a farmer and was the first to investigate irrigation possibilities of the Logan River and worked on the board of directors in the construction of three canals. He had many achievement in agriculture.


The Balls family lived in a two-room log cabin where 15 of their children were born. They then built a better home where they lived until the death of William. Ida's mother, Mary Ellen Metcalf Balls married William at age 16 and was a wonderful homemaker. Her children wrote of her:


"Our mother was a wonderful homemaker and she worked to a standard of efficiency, far beyond the average standards of her day. Our home was always kept neat and orderly. Mother's wash days were long and tiresome, being done by the washboard and tub. The day before they were soaked before washing. Later on we had a washing machine which was made by Bro James Hancey. The water had to be dipped up from the ditch, which ran from the canal our on the sidewalk. The water was put in a 40 gallon barrel and wood ashes from the stove were put in to clear and soften the water. It was carried from there and heated on the stove. The ironings were done with the old flat iron that had to be heated on the stove also. I don't think I shall ever forget the huge pan that Mother mixed her bread in, and the delicious big biscuits and the many loaves of bread that she pulled out of the oven almost every other day. She was an excellent cook, making such tempting tasty dishes that were always fir for a king."


Mary Ellen made all her own clothing as well as those of the large family. She made her own soap, knitted their stockings, made rag rugs, made and sold butter.


Mary Ellen was born in Brigham City, Utah and was the 2nd child of Anthony and Mary Reeder Metcalf who immigrated to this country from England in 1853. Her mother was the daughter of David and Lydia Balls Reeder. David Reeder was a member of the Willie Handcart Company and died in Wyoming in 1856.


Ida May Balls married William Theodore Hill on July 29, 1898. They lived in Hyde Park until 1907. Verna, Mazie, Dalice, Victor, LeRoy, Clarence and Mable were born there. Arnold was born in Coalville and Stella was born in Hyde Park the year they left for Metropolis, Nevada in 1911. In Hyde Park they lived near Grandma and Grandpa Balls and spent many happy days at their place. The boys fished in the small creek, filling their pockets with the small fish. They herded cattle for themselves and neighbors. The children used to stand under the pantry window at Grandma Balls and smell baking bread and cheese making.


In 1911 the Hill family decided to homestead in Metropolis Nevada. They took with them nine children, Verna, Mazie, Dalice, Victor, LeRoy, Clarence, Mabel, Arnold, and Stella. Ethel and Mary were born while they were living in Metropolis. The land was cleared and a small one-room house was built with a tent attached for sleeping.


Dalice wrote, "We pitched a tent in sagebrush ten feet tall and Dad built a one-room house on the homestead. We spent the winter there. The winters were very cold. Snow was deep and our chickens and pigs froze to death. We never had much to eat and were cold all the time, as it was hard to keep warm in a tent. We ran our horses in the mountains, trying to keep them from starving to death."


Dal recalled when Mary was born on the 2nd of March 1916. "Ma got me up and I started the fire, then I caught a horse and went up in the mountains to get my father where he was herding sheep. The horse fell down and I fell in three feet of snow. Another fellow went to get the doctor, but the baby was born hours before the Midwife got there. Vernie had cut the cord and had the baby all cleaned up. I had to stay in the mountains and take care of the horses and sheep and nearly froze. It was so cold in the house we had to cut down the bowry and the fence posts to make the fire."


They raised a big garden, big potatoes, rutabagas, carrots and some wheat. Ma (Ida May) Hill was a good cook. They learned to like vegetables because meat was scarce. Dad and Ma both had to work. Dad sheared sheep and Ma worked for the shearers cooking. She bought her a cook stove with the money she earned. Vernie and Mazie took turns taking care of the children.


They decided to leave Metropolis in September 1916 and went to Magic Valley, which looked like a paradise compared to Metropolis, which never had enough water to go around. William T. Hill had work at the sugar factory there. He said he was going back to Nevada the next year, but nobody would go with him. They had left Ida's stove there and Pa's violin hanging on the wall.


Dal wrote, "When we first moved to Twin Falls we lived on the old Dobby Place above the Sugar Factory. Then we moved to the Vosburg Place on Kimberly Road till Pa bought a shack and six acres by Rock Creek west of the Sugar Factory. (Here they had a well, a strawberry patch, a cellar and a two-room shack with a lean-to kitchen.) Pa intended to build a new house by the corner. We used to pasture the cows in Rock Creek and the kids herded them there all day."


The family lived in that shack for many years. Three more children, Leota, Viola and Lily were born in Twin Falls. Lily was born premature and the only child to be born in a hospital. She only lived a few hours and was brought home in a shoebox. Mazie helped prepare the tiny baby for burial. She dressed her in a little white dress she had made for Vernon. Dad Hill placed the small infant in a wooden box and dug the deep grave at the Hill home on Rock Creek. She was buried at the southwest corner of the raspberry patch. The children gathered around while Pa conducted a short service.


Ida May Hill never had time for hobbies. She arose at 5 a.m. and cooked, sewed, trained children, picked raspberries, canned fruit and vegetables, made sauerkraut, weeded the garden, did the wash on a wash board, carried water, ironed and cleaned. She was a good cook. She was kind, but not above giving a switching to the legs with a willow if needed to a disobedient child. She spent her life serving her family.


One warm day in June Ida May had been picking strawberries and went down the cellar to cool off and get a cool drink of water. Stella found her there lying on the ground. Kenneth Skeen went down to talk to her and said she was asleep and wouldn't talk to him, so Stella went down to see. Then she ran all the way to the Sugar Factory to tell Dad. She had had a heart attack and died before the new house was ever build on the corner. She died on June 25th, 1925 at the age of 45. Her youngest living child, Viola, was only 3 years old. She was buried in the old Twin Falls Cemetery, lot 148, block H. She did not have a headstone until the 1940's when her son, Dalice made one from concrete. It has served well and was a memorial placed there by a loving son, but over the years it started to chip and became hard to read the name and dates on it.


Thank you to the family of Ida May Balls Hill for the new headstone and to Roger and Ross Hill for removing the old one and cleaning up the grave site.



Ida May Hill's husband, William T. Hill is buried in the newer section of the Cemetery across the street, so they are not buried together. That was why we put his name on her stone. The older cemetery where Ida May is, is owned by Park's Mortuary. The newer one has a different owner, maybe the county.