By Eilene Lyon
Dora Ada Smith Trout (1894–1978)
After the Smith family moved to Cunningham, Washington, in 1898, they struggled to survive.
“The years the family spent on the farm … left many emotional scars as far as Ada was concerned. She never tired of telling about how poor the family was on that farm.”
Ada married in Moscow, Idaho, in 1919 to Orville E. Trout (brother of Callie Trout, Harry Smith’s wife). The couple had just one child, Loyd Trout.
The Trouts lived in the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene area. Orville tended to be restless and so they changed houses and cars often. These moves did not appear to be steps up, in Grandpa’s view.
Ada was a good cook and had a habit of telling others (including her displeased daughter-in-law) how to do it properly. Grandpa taught her how to drive, which she continued to do almost up until her death in 1978.
Sources:
Smith, Laurence. “The Passing Parade.” February 15, 1990.
Ancestry.com
Myricopia 
I hope Loyd survived and has living descendants!
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Yes! But they aren’t Smiths. I’m not sure my Smith great-grandparents have passed on their family name. They had only one male Smith grandson and I don’t know offhand if he had children.
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Whatever their surname, they are nevertheless cousins!
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They are indeed cousins. It was just something my grandfather remarked on – how the Smith name did not get passed on beyond the grandkids.
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I meant besides Don and Wes, who I already covered.
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That quilt
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I love that. I had it in my bed sometimes when I was a kid. Enjoyed matching up the fabric bits.
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Eilene, I enjoy the way you share history in these little snippets and pictures. A few of my kids have dabbled into the history of our family and we do have some of the easily found information although no one has gone too far in depth. We’ve done a bit of the DNA searching as well. It’s all really fascinating, but very time consuming as well. Kudos to you!
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You’ve got that right about time consuming!! At least I put all that research to some use with the blog and books. DNA turned up some surprises for me. Since it involves living people, I don’t write about it. I’m glad to hear your kids have taken an interest. I wish I had gotten into it early enough to ask my grandparents a lot more questions.
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Exactly! There really is no one left from our past that can answer questions. We speculate a lot and have gotten pretty good about putting bits and pieces together but I would love to go farther back with better understanding.
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I’m fortunate in the amount of material they passed on, but so many unanswered questions…
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She seems to be a strong one. The quilt struck me – Cheers to your cherished possession.
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Ada was almost like a second mom to my grandfather after their mother died. I think she was a sensible, tough person.
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She sounds like a woman who gets it done. And how wonderful to have such a quilt! Beautiful.
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I wish I had met her. My cousin did know her. My military family was always where the Smiths weren’t.
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I bet. Not easy being a military brat!
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The quilt is beautiful. What an heirloom!
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I do love it!
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I love that quilt and I had two from my grandmother that were very similar. I lost them in one of my moves in my 20s. How I wish I still had them! As for DNA, my dad got a DNA test for Christmas present a few years ago. He discovered a surprise. He’s 98% Finn (he thought he was 100%) and 2% Neanderthal 😀
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Okay, that’s pretty funny about your dad! What a shame about the quilts.
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Yes it’s funny about dad. A friend joked that the numbers must be reversed. I’m sad about the quilts 😢
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That’s a beautiful quilt. It looks as though it was very well-constructed to withstand repeated washings.
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It’s in delicate shape, has plenty of holes. But generally holding up. I haven’t taken it out in quite some time. I should do that.
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I know in our lifetimes we have seen remarkable advancements, but when I think about how Ada was born before cars became a thing . . before the World Series started happening . . before so many things were even dreamt about.
Whoa.
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Once I started trying to come up with lists of changes various generations had seen in their lifetimes. I still think my grandparents’ generation saw the greatest changes.
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I agree.
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That quilt is a treasure!
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It is very special to me. Time to air it out – once the new dog is a bit more settled in.
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I’m glad you give it the care it needs and deserves.
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I love the quilt! I’m often surprised buy how many people only had one or two children back then…..or they went the opposite extreme and had ten!
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This family seemed to take childlessness to heart.
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I’m enjoying these Bio Bits Eilene. Look how much more modern the photo is in just six years’ time. The wedding photo looks so antiquated next to the photo with Ada, Orville and Lloyd. She went by both Dora and Ada? My great grandmother used to quilt and also made down comforters. When I got my first “real bed” my mom gave me their patchwork Summer quilt on my bed which was very similar to the one in your photo. In the Winter I got the down quilt.
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I don’t think she ever went by Dora, just Ada. I’m glad you like the short format. It was a challenge to keep each to 150 words or less (though I didn’t count photo captions, so that’s a little cheat, I guess). Isn’t it nice to get heirloom quilts? I used to be allergic to feathers, so a down quilt would not have worked for me at all!
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I do like the short format Eilene. I generally have a Word document open when I read anyone’s blog posts that are longer and I jot down names or items I want to comment on. These posts go by pretty quickly. I know my posts are very long but it is difficult to shorten them without leaving out portions of the walk. I often am mixed on my Wordless Wednesday posts which are an excellent way to highlight pics that I really like – so do I go creative in the headline or a short headline with a longer tag? I’m having fun with Wordless Wednesday. I started at the onset of the pandemic and have gone continuously for almost three years now, not missing a week.
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I do like the Wordless Wednesday posts from various blogs. It’s nice to know it won’t take a lot of time.
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I have several followers who only comment on my Wordless Wednesday posts as my walking posts are lengthy. I was a week behind in Reader and now because of this internet outage for three days, I’m now 10-11 days behind. I will catch up eventually.
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