Ida DETROW

As Remembered by Joseph N Fisher

Enos Benjamin Feicht was a farmer who lived in Mahoning County, Ohio. He and Ida Detrow Feicht had been married for nine years at the time of his death in 1899 at age 36. Ida later married Charley Bowerize but the exact date of that marriage is not known.

Ida was always Grandma Bowerize to me although I never met her second husband, Charley Bowerize because he died in 1924 the year I was born.

I remember Grandma Bowerize very well because she lived with our family for many years. She was a small woman, never weighing more than 80 or 90 pounds. She was an avid reader and when she lived with us in Oak Park, she walked to the library every Saturday, then had a hot dog lunch at Kresges five and ten cent store. The walk was several miles round trip and her pace was one I found hard to keep up with.

Grandma only had an eighth grade education but she was proud of her excellent spelling and she wrote fascinating letters to us when she went back to Ohio for the summer. Her epistles were newsy and perfectly spelled but she never used punctuation; no periods, commas or semi colons.

She had other talents. She could cure many ailments and she kept a supply of herbs and other mysterious medicinal pills stashed in her secret hiding places. One of her greatest joys was ministering a mustard plaster to a member of the family who had "chest congestion".

Grandma "Bow" was always busy cooking or gardening, reading, knitting or baby-sitting for neighbors. She collected old stockings and made hooked rugs out of them, some of which are probably still in existence.