1911 – 2004

Ida Elwell was born at the Harmony Home Farm, daughter of Mabel Gray Wordell Bixby and Walter Everett Bixby, in 1911. Ida was the only girl with 2 older brothers. She learned at an early age to like farm life and the animals. Ida attended the local school #9, then to the Commons for high school which is now the Little Compton Town Tax Collector’s office. In 1929, Ida was in the first class that graduated from the new J.F. Wilbur School.

In 1931, Ida’s uncle Walter C. Wordell came home from World War I with a medical condition and came to live at Harmony Home. Ida became a real busy girl going to school and was Walter’s nurse and special person for his 10 remaining years.

In 1931 Ida married her special man William L. Elwell who lived up Long Highway in “Little Wonder” with his mother. Bill and Ida built their home on land of Harmony Home. They had one son, Walter C. Elwell, who she taught how to live on Harmony Home Farm. Ida was active in the Methodist Church until it closed. She then became very active in the Acoaxet Chapel where her husband had gone to Sunday School. She worked with the Acoaxet Chapel “Ladies’ Aid” and on all church suppers. She was very active in the Little Compton Grange #32 and other activities in Little Compton. She helped her mother at Harmony Home many years when having boarders. Ida took her mother in her home during Mabel’s final years.

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Walter and Norma Elwell

March 2020

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