Annie Amelia Pike was born on November 16, 1879, at the
Utah Territorial Insane Asylum in
Provo, Utah, where her father was the superintendent. Her parents were Hattie (née Drice) and Walter R. Pike. The couple moved often, living in
California,
Colorado, and
Kansas before ultimately settling in Idaho in 1913. At the time, irrigation projects in the Magic Valley region were drawing many new residents to farm the area. The couple settled in
Jerome County in one of the small communities that sprung up in the early twentieth century. The community would later be named
Greenwood in honor of the couple. The Greenwoods often struggled financially during their time in Idaho, and Annie taught at
the local school on multiple occasions in order to earn more money. She began writing about her life in Idaho for magazines during this period; her first published piece appeared in
The Atlantic Monthly in 1919, and she wrote for
The Nation in 1923. She also chaired the English literature department at the Idaho Technical Institute, now known as
Idaho State University. During this time, Charles was active in local politics and served one term each in the
Idaho House of Representatives and
Idaho Senate in 1919-20 and 1927-28 respectively. The Greenwoods' farm was
foreclosed upon in 1928, forcing them to abandon their farming lifestyle and relocate to
Twin Falls. The couple separated and ultimately divorced in the 1930s, and Annie moved to
Salt Lake City. In 1934, she published her first and ultimately only book, the memoir
We Sagebrush Folks. The book described her life and struggles as the wife of a farmer. While she praised Idaho and its scenery in the book, she depicted farm life and her community much more harshly, even exclaiming "we lost the farm, thank God" after the foreclosure. It also depicted sex-related stories and tragedies, including that of a woman who died after attempting to induce an
abortion with
carbolic acid. Her former neighbors responded angrily to the memoir, describing it as "fiction" and suggesting that she would have been forced from town had she not already left. However, the book is now regarded as a significant and accurate depiction of early Idaho settlement. ==
We Sagebrush Folks==