Philomina Thomas

On July 6 1914 Philomina Thomas, the 5th child of her parents Anna Immel and Joseph Thomas, was born in Fayette, North Dakota. Her parents already a had a daughter, as well as three living sons, and would go on to welcome two more daughters and two more sons over the next seven years. Anna and Joseph had immigrated to North Dakota with their two oldest children in 1910 and the family ranched on their farm in Fayetville until 1943.

In June of 1935, just before her 21st birthday Philomina married 23 year old Frank Fettig. The couple made their home on a fam just north of Killdeer, North Dakota and soon after began their family of 8 children, Arlene (1936), Angeline (1937), Gerald (1938), Evelyn (1939), Kathleen (1940), Janet (1942), Donald (1943) and Lenore (1945).
Tragedy struck the family just after the birth of their last child when at just the age of 33 Frank passed away. Left a widow with 8 young children she moved them to Killdeer and got a job working for a drug store. As if all that wasn't hard enough her daughter Kathleen became ill and in 1963 and passed away at 23.

Joseph & Ann Thomas family photo.Might be the occasion of their 50th anniversary. Front L to R: Frank,Anna, Eugenia (Jean), Joseph, John. Back Row L to R: Philomina, Ralph, Rose, Joe, Stella.

In 1964 Philomina remarried a cattle rancher named Elsworth Hovden. Hovden's brother Morris was married to Philomina's sister in law Monica Fettig. In the 80s he sold his cows off and leased most of his land before eventually leasing the whole ranch to his nephew. This left plenty of time for Phiomina and Elsworth to travel the country. They also enjoyed the rodeo and chuck wagon races together. In 1992 the couple left Elsworth's farm and bought a house in Killdeer, also spending many winters in Mesa, Arizona. In 2011, being in their 90s the couple both moved into a senior home. They never missed a game of bingo there. By now she had lost her son Donald, and daughters Arlene and Evenyln, as well as a grandson, and was the only surviving sibling of her parents.

On December 1, 2013 Philomina died at the age of 99. She was survived by a son and three daughters, 16 grandchildren, 21 great grandchildren, and 4 great great children, as well as her husband Elsworth who died in 2016 also at the age of 99.

Philomena is my 4th cousin 3x removed