Ida Mae (called the full "Ida Mae") was born 7 November 1869 to John Kirkland Bradford and Mary Ann/Anna Tomlinson.

Ida Mae's mother died at age 49, the 23 April 1875 at Fowler, Adams, Illinois, United States. Ida Mae was 5 years old, second to youngest. Addison, the youngest, was only about 2 years old.
Ida's father moved the family to a beautiful farmhouse and land near or within the town boundaries of Republic, Kansas, Republic county.
John Kirkland Bradford, Ida Mae's father, died only 4 years later on 12 May 1879 at Republic, Republic, Kansas, United States. He left his family of 7 or 6 children as orphans.
A record regarding his death states that he left 6 surviving children. This was either a mistake in writing, or it is possible that one of Ida's 7 siblings had passed on previous to his death. Ida Mae for sure had 7 siblings, birth and name to date listed as:
1859 - Sarah Jane Bradford
1862 - Ellen Hyland Bradford
1864 - John W Bradford
1865 - Charles Wesley Bradford
1867 - Anna Belle Bradford
1869 - Ida Mae Bradford
1871 - Addison Edward Bradford

Ida Mae and Wells had two living children
1888 - Nathan Edgar Loveland
1890 - John Wesley Loveland

Ida Mae's son, John Wesley, said that when Ida's parents both died, the children were treated as servants or farmed out to whomever would take them, and none of them went to the same family. According to family history from Ida's sister Annie, many of the children suffered extreme abuse and/or were sold as or viewed as slave labor. Ida's little brother Addison, carried scars on his back and body from his many beatings, all of his life.
Ida Mae was adopted by a lady who had lost her daughter, about the same age as Ida, near the time Ida lost her father. This lady was a neighbor to John Payne and Maria/h Ingram Loveland's family. The lady who adopted Ida Mae had two sons. One of her sons married John and Maria Loveland's daughter. They also had a son named Wells. Ida Mae and Wells soon married too.

Ida Mae had at least 5 children, specific records indicating she may have had a total of 7, with two boys surviving.

Ida Mae and Wells had twin babies born to them after they moved to Shell Creek, Wyoming. They died either at or shortly after birth and were buried in an unknown grave near their home on Shell Creek.
In the 1980's this writer made several efforts to drive the area of Shell Creek and search for these twin graves. I asked the community of Shell, Wyoming on multiple occasions to identify if they knew of any twin graves on that road.
Many old timers said they remembered the graves, but none could still remember where they were. All said they were sure the graves were not marked.

Ida Mae and Wells moved many times. Both were reported to be very hard working.
Some reported that Ida Mae had a powerful moral strength through great trials that was inspiring beyond description.

Wells and Ida Mae had a child within the first year of their marriage who died in infancy as handed down through family legend. There is no record of the name or location of this child's death and burial. Lore is that they lost both a son and a daughter in infancy while living in the Kansas/Nebraska region, after their marriage and prior to the birth of their oldest living son, Nathan.
Ida Mae and Wells had grown up in Kansas, where they were familiar with the common practice of early settlers to make and live in a dug out while taming a homestead or farm.
In the area near where Ida Mae lived, a tornado had taken the rich people's homes, and left the poor dugout homes relatively unscathed. She knew how to make do with a dug out.
When she and Wells first came to the Big Horn Basin, they lived in a dugout.
Family history says that when it would rain, they had to get under the table to avoid the mud drops that fell from the roof of their home.
One sad day while they were away in town, a canal located above the dugout broke out. They had lobbied the town to fix this threat to their home and been promised by the town that this danger would be rectified long before, but no action had ever been taken.
Their dugout home was flooded and they lost everything.

Wells and Ida Mae moved to Arkansas when their boys were in their early twenties. Ida Mae was very close to her oldest son Nathan who had gone away to school, and she missed him dearly. Family lore is that they moved away from Wyoming to be closer to him.
Ida Mae was as creative as she was hard working. One of their moves after this, took them to Osage, Kansas where there was a flower making school. She went too this school and learned to make and sell paper flowers. She provided paper flowers for graves, weddings, church celebrations, parties and all occasions. There is a photo of her with her flowers at an unrelated grave site which she probably used to market her services.
After returning to the Big Horn Basin, Ida Mae died at the relatively young age of 48, of heart trouble.
Ida Mae was known to have a genetic form of heart disease that continues in her line to current day, but her death was sudden and unexpected.
Wells eventually remarried Maud Tillard, an older single lady who had been taking care of her father and siblings, and who lived in Basin Gardens, near Basin, WY.
It was well known that Wells had quite a temper. In more than one community writing it was joked that one could hear Wells yelling from miles away when his temper flared.
Ida Mae was a very small woman, yet she was full of courage and an inner sense of strength. She handled anything that came her way with confidence and tenacity. No matter what happened, she knew right from wrong and wasn't deterred from it.
It was commented by the old timers that Maud and Ida Mae were close friends, and that Maud was the opposite of Ida Mae's calm, peaceful personality. Maud was reported to be an extrovert with a voice loud enough to command all on it's own, and a personality who would not put up with the temper shenanigans of Wells. Some of the old timers noted that both women handled it, but in different ways, and that both women were strong.

Ida Mae was very much beloved by Maud, who often spoke kind things of her after her death, to her step children, Nathan and John. Maud was a fun step-grandmother to Nathan and John's children as they got older and had families of their own. She tried to do what Ida Mae would have wanted, and conveyed the love of Ida Mae to her grandchildren.
John Wesley was also very close to his mother and loved her very much. He never got over her death which happened only 4 days before Christmas.
Every Christmas, John would grieve for her and through tears tell this writer how much he missed and loved Ida Mae, and what her love and example had meant to him.
He talked of her strength and loving nature, her courage and strong moral courage. He said she was the rock for him. When she died, it seemed to him as if the world came crashing down on him.
As reported by her son John, Ida Mae was a pioneer women in more aspects than the term could ever fully describe.