Martha Jane Stoddard (Janie) was born April 29, 1852 in Provo Utah. She was the first child born to Arvin Mitchell and Caroline Sargent Stoddard. Her early years were spent in California where her father, a surveyor, helped lay out an LDS community in San Bernardino. The Stoddard family, along with other saints, was called back to Utah during the Utah War. They settled in Farmington.
Janie was ten years old when the new all-rock chapel (still in use today) was finished in Farmington. This building could seat 400 people comfortably. Janie was with the children who welcomed President Brigham Young and six apostles to Farmington for the dedication.
On the 4th of July in 1868 a wonderful celebration was held in Farmington and at Miller’s Grove (now the site of Lagoon). A dance was held that night at the church. Sixteen-year-old Janie Stoddard met her future husband, Leonard Babbitt Rice. They became sweethearts, and on December 22, 1871, they were married. Len was 21 years old and Janie was 19.
Their first child, Elizabeth Maud, was born in Farmington on September 22, 1872, but died the same day. They moved to Minersville, Utah where their second daughter, Jane, was born May 17, 1873. She died the day after her birth. The couple moved to Milford, Utah where Janie’s parents were living at the time and their third child, a son, Arvin Riley was born.
Len and Janie moved back to Farmington where their fourth child was born, Otis Scott. The Rice’s along with a brother and sister-in-law moved to Georgetown, Idaho in 1879 where their son, David Augustus, and daughter, Caroline were born. The Rice families then moved to the Rexburg area and settled on the Egin Bench which became Parker, Idaho. There four more children were born to the couple: Harriet, Sargent, Hazel, and Leonard Babbitt Jr. They had ten children in all.
The family prospered in Parker. Len and Janie had a beautiful home and a good business. But the wanderlust returned and the whole family decided to move to southern Alberta, Canada where wide-open fields awaited and the possibility of prosperous returns. They packed everything, including thrashing machines and wagons, in boxcars and moved by railroad. In Canada farming was successful some years and not others, depending on the whims of the weather. They built a nice home in Claresholm, but by 1915 all the children were married, and most had moved back to the United States. So Len and Janie sold out and moved back to Idaho.
Great Sadness came to the family when three of their adult children passed away. Scott, a young father of six children was hit and killed by a train while on horseback in Canada. Their youngest son, Leonard Jr. died during the influenza epidemic in 1920, and their daughter Hazel died leaving a husband and three small children in Canada.
Janie and Len had been married 49 years when he passed away just five days after Leonard Jr. After Len’s death Janie spent some time in Canada helping after Hazel’s death, and then moved back to Idaho. She lived another ten years until she passed away on the 29th of August, 1930. They are buried in the Parker, Idaho Cemetery.
I am very grateful for the great heritage Martha Jane Stoddard left to me as her great-granddaughter. She raised a good family of stalwart citizens who are true to the gospel and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.