Birthdate: in 1877
Birthplace: South Carolina
Spouse(s): George LAWRENCE (In 1897; Unknown)
Deathdate: in 1923 (in Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina, United States of America)
Ida’s parents were Andy (1847-?) and Caroline Lovinggood Rogers (1843-?). According to the enumerator of the 1880 Census, Andy was “Black” and Caroline was “Mulatto.” Andy made his living by working on a farm in Keowee, Oconee County, South Carolina and seemed to have enlisted the help of his eldest child, Susan. Caroline kept house and took care of the children. Neither Andy nor Caroline could not read or write in 1880.
Like her parents, Ida A. Rogers Lawrence was born and raised in Oconee County, South Carolina. She had two brothers, Robert and Warren, and a sister named Susan, who also attended school. Ida may also have attended school– by 1900, she was noted in the census as being able to read and write.
Ida married George Lawrence in March 1897, probably in Oconee County, South Carolina. And then came the children! Walter Sylvester Lawrence was the first, born on March 8, 1898. Soon after came the others (from oldest to youngest): Lidie V., Birdie, Clifford, Bessie, James, Albert, Edna Josephine, Josie, Margie A., Wilbur Rogers, Silas Milton, Georgia, and Carrie.
By 1910, Ida had had 8 children and lost one. She and all children over the age of 9 worked on the home farm that they rented on High Falls Road in Wagener Township, South Carolina. During this time, George was employed on a general farm.
In 1915, Ida and George lost a daughter, Edna Josephine, to Lobular pneumonia. Two years later, Silas Milton, Wilbur Rogers’ twin, passed away from Diphtheria.
When Ida was 43, she was no longer working as a farm laborer. Between 1910 and 1920, she had had 5 more children. By April 1923, she had fallen ill. Five months later, she was taken to the South Carolina State Hospital in Columbia, South Carolina for treatment. It was there that she was diagnosed with Pellagra, a disease that is caused by a diet that is low in niacin. She was malnourished and likely afflicted by three symptoms associated with the disease: dementia, diarrhea, and dermatitis. She passed away a month later and was buried in the Flat Rock Baptist Church cemetery in Walhalla, South Carolina.