A Biographical Sketch of Arvil Pickett

Arvil Pickett was born the 18th of November 1870, the third son of John FF. Pickett and Mariah Jane Lindley, in Paoli, Orange County, Indiana.  His older brothers were Ernest, Bobia Lindley and his younger sister was Lillie Ann.  Arvil had slightly wavy sandy-auburn hair, a slender build and a fairly serious disposition.  He was about 5' 8" tall weighed around 140 pounds and had blue eyes.      

One incident occurred before he was married in that a man ran over and said a neighbor was beating his wife.  They pulled the man away and the wife let Arvil have it.  So the next time the same thing happened when the fellow said they had better go over and separate them Arvil said, "She deserves it."      

He married Grace Angeline Whetstone in July of 1895 in Butler, Missouri.  Here their first two children were born.  Howard LeRoy on the 28th of April 1896 and Ernest David the 19th of February 1899.  They moved to Colorado in 1901 but only stayed a short time, moving back to Missouri for a year and then back to Greeley, Colorado until February of 1909.  In February 1909 they moved to Idaho.  They bought 80 acres near Licon, Idaho, which were unimproved.  They lived in a tent until early spring and then a small shed was built.  Then a small house with four rooms, two up and two down, was built.  Glenn, their third son was born here.  All the machinery was horse drawn.      

The next move was by Tautphaus Park in Idaho Falls, Idaho.  While living here a little incident occurred.  Work was beginning on the park to build bleachers and a bandstand.  One day a man came over to Arvil's barn unhitched his horse, fed it some hay out of his barn.  Arvil came out and said it was his hay; the man said it wasn’t cause all that was property of the park (which it wasn’t).  Arvil hit him and the man had him arrested.  It cost Arvil $25.00 but he said it was worth it just to get to hit him.      

He was a lover of horses, especially draft horses.  He was a good farmer and a good organizer, always getting up at 4 A.M. and the latest 8 A. M.      

Next they moved to the Reed’s place in New Sweden, about five miles out of Idaho Falls, it was here that Violet was born.  They moved to Gutches house, here they had to live in a newly built chicken coop during the winter while their house was being built.  This was situated near the railroad.  One night the coop caught fire and Glenn had to climb up on the roof and they handed him buckets of water to douse the fire.  This was when Glenn went to the 5th grade in school at Riverdale.      

Arvil had sugar diabetes for some time and as a result of this more and more of the farming rested on the shoulders of the boys.  Violet being the only daughter and youngest felt she was the apple of her Dad's eye and she delighted in pleasing him.  He died on her 12th birthday of sugar diabetes.  April 26th 1924.