Stubbs Story Chapter V

 

Henry Stubbs’ Children

 

Henry’s oldest son, William Pray Stubbs, studied medicine for 2 years at Earlham  College in Richmond, IN. William became a medical doctor. He married Sarah Shroyer in 1849 and moved to Cadiz, Indiana after their first child Milo Alvadore was born. Their second child, Mary Alice Stubbs was born in Cadiz in 1853. Sarah died there in 1855. William eventually moved to DeSoto, Kansas. He left Milo and Mary in the care of Rufus and Margaret Stubbs Test in Richmond, IN. Margaret was the daughter of Henry’s brother Joseph Stubbs. He married Letitia Jane Johnson in Kansas before 1860. They had 3 children, Leona, Ulysses Grant and Harry Stubbs. William was a physician in Kansas. William served in the Civil War in the 15^th Kansas Cavalry.

By 1880 William, Letitia and family had moved to MN. Milo had apparently joined his father in KS for a time where he married Sarah Louisa Cook. Milo and Sarah moved to the Stubbs enclave in MN. Mary Alice Stubbs married Harry Mather and they eventually moved to the Stubbs enclave after living in Michigan for a while. Leona married Frederick White, Ulysses married Minnie Budd, and Harry died at 18.

Joel Henry Stubbs, Henry’s second child, was born in 1830. Joel worked in the Underground Railroad helping escaped slaves to get to free states or Canada where they would not be bothered by slave hunters who followed them north. These slave hunters often encountered hostility from the free state residents when they came hunting escapees. In 1853 Joel married Margaret Alma Robbins. They had James and Charles Warsaw in Indiana before moving to MN where Rachel, Mary, William Enos and Alma were born. Joel settled between Stubbs and Maxwell Bays on land that had been homesteaded earlier by one of the Maxwells who then left. It was Joel’s proximity to the bay that was to give Stubbs Bay its name.

Joel was an inventor. He patented a sorghum pan, a sewing machine, a liquid mixing machine and other items. He wrote to the Wright brothers with suggestions for a jet engine to power their flying machines. Descendants have their letter replying to his suggestions. Joel designed the ventilation system for the Stubbs Bay School which was built by his grandson, Cecil Gideon.

Elizabeth Mendenhall Stubbs married Charles Williams Gordon in 1852 in Indiana. Their first two children were born in Indiana, Alma in 1853 and Eva in 1855. Mary, Diadema, Sybil and Esther were born in MN. The Gordons had a farm just to the north of Henry’s homestead. This farm was later owned by the Butterfield family. Charles volunteered for the army in the Civil War and the family has saved some of his letters and Elizabeth’s replies. The war years were very difficult for the family with four children from 1 to 9 years old and only Elizabeth to work the farm. Charles was a cabinet maker before he became a farmer.

Enos Pray Stubbs was the youngest of Henry Stubbs and Rachel Pray Stubbs’ children. He was born in October of 1835 and Rachel died in March of 1836. Enos was not married at the time that Henry and family moved to MN. Enos traveled to MN to scout out the situation in the spring of 1856 and Henry and family moved to MN in October of 1856. In August of 1857, Enos married Lydia Howell Grave, daughter of Allen Grave, another local homesteader. Allen was also the cousin of Jacob Grave of Richmond, IN, Mary Stroud Grave Stubbs’ father. Enos and Lydia had two daughters, Emma was born in 1858 and Alveretta was born in 1861.

Enos volunteered for the army in August of 1862 and joined Company B of the Sixth Minnesota. After being stationed in MN to protect against the Dakota Indian uprising, the Company was sent to Philips County, Arkansas to guard key railroad shipping lines.

From a Wikipedia article on the Minnesota 6^th Regiment:

The 950 men of the 6th regiment arrived in Helena, Arkansas, on June 23, 1864, spending the next four months in what Private Charles W. Johnson of Company D described as "a series of swamps, bayous and flat lands, overflowed from the Mississippi in high water, reeking with miasma and covered with green scum in dry weather." On September 30, 1864, 654 members of the 6th regiment were reported as sick; by then, 461 men had been sent to hospitals in the North. By the end of October 1864, two officers and fifty-eight enlisted men had died from disease; the primary cause was malaria. The regiment lost more men to disease than it did in battle.

On September 19^th, 1864 Enos wrote back home:

                                                                                             Camp Bufort, Helena, Ark.

                                                                                             Sept. 19, 1864

 

Father, Mother, Brothers and Sisters:

 

I will now endeavor to write you a few lines to let you know how I am prospering.  I am happy to inform you that I am well and have been since I came here, the only one in the Company that has not been sick.

         William Fleming is quite weak.  I don’t know what is the matter with him.  I think that it was overheat in the first place.  Jonathan Grave has been sick a long time.  He cannot walk and cannot talk above a whisper.  His lungs hurt him some.  He is on the gain.  Charles Grave is almost well but does not do any duty yet.  John Stafford about the same as he has been for a month or two – looks rather thin. … Enos P. Stubbs, (write soon and often)

161 of the Regiment’s men died of disease during the war and 12 were killed in action or died later from their wounds. Enos most likely contracted malaria and, becoming thirsty and perhaps delirious, he ate some unripe persimmons (as the family story goes). The combination of malaria and persimmons caused Enos’ death in October of 1864 just 5 days shy of his 29^th birthday. Life for Lydia must have been very difficult with two young daughters. Lydia received a widow’s pension after Enos’ death and she had to row to Excelsior to collect the pension. In May of 1867 she drowned in Crystal Bay while going to collect her pension. She was 4 months shy of her 29^th birthday.

Nathan John Stubbs was born in 1837 to Henry and Mary Louisa Eccles Stubbs. Near the beginning of the Civil War, Nathan traveled from MN to Indiana to help his grandmother, Rachel Huddleston who lived near the Sugar Creek Quaker meeting in Boone County, IN. When Nathan got to Rachel’s house and stayed a while, he was prevented from leaving Indiana by a law that prevented men of draft age from leaving the state. Nathan returned to MN and purchased land in Crystal Bay on Lake Minnetonka. He established a farm there and was a prominent nurseryman who frequently published in the Minnesota Horticulturist where early pioneers exchanged information on which cultivars of grapes, apples and other fruits that could be successfully grown in Minnesota’s harsher climate. Nathan married at nearly 40 years old to Josephine McArty in 1877. Nathan and Josephine had 5 children: Mark Levi, Perry, Henry, Belva Agnes, and Helen Mary. None of the boys were married. Belva married Hans Jorgen Olson and Helen married Warren Allen. There were no grandchildren and Nathan died in 1893.

Anna Jane Stubbs born to Henry and Mary Louisa in 1839 in Butler County, OH. Anna Jane was ‘slow’ and lived with her parents and later with other family until she passed away in 1921. In the 1910 census she was living with her brother Charles Rolla Stubbs on the original Henry Stubbs homestead north of Stubbs Bay. The family has saved a wooden bowl and a metal cream skimmer that belonged to her.

Rachel Melinda Stubbs was born in 1841 in Butler County, OH. She was named to honor her grandmother, Rachel Huddleston Eccles. Rachel helped put the original Henry Stubbs 1929 ‘Blue Book’ together. In 1862 Rachel married Thomas Talbert. Thomas was also born in West Elkton, OH and his family owned a large buggy factory there. The buggy factory was furnished with a double floor to allow the Talberts to hide runaway slaves and served as a station on the Underground Railroad. Thomas had a blacksmith shop in Minnesota and was very involved in the Minnetonka Fruit Growers’ Association. Thomas Talbert and Harry Mather framed the Bederwood Spiritualist Temple building in 1904.

Rachel and Thomas had 5 children: Milton Isaiah, Mary Viola, Elmer, Dora Henrietta, Richard Granville, and Alva Lurverne.

Milton Aurelius Stubbs was born in 1843 in Butler County, OH. Milton accompanied his father and mother and younger brother Charles Rolla on their trip back to North Carolina and Georgia in 1846-8. Folks in Wrightsborough, GA were astonished when young Milton could tell them that he was from Ohio in Butler County. Milton moved with the family to MN and in August of 1862 he enlisted in the army at Fort Snelling. He was 19 years old. Rather than being sent south to fight in the Civil War, Milton’s company was sent west to protect settlers in the Dakota Uprising. Milton fought in the Battle of Acton and told of throwing food out of the army food wagon to slow the pursuing Dakota down.

Milton married Elizabeth Eleanor Turnham in 1865. The couple had 9 children: Myron, Harry, Myrtle Ann, Mabel George, Elma Mary, Valentine Elvin, Roger Milton, Bessie Ethel, and Jeremy. Myron, Harry, and Jeremy died young. Milton farmed for a time near Chaska before returning to farm in Orono. Milton died in 1922.

Charles Rolla Stubbs was born in Butler County, in 1845. As a young boy moving to Minnesota, he recalled playing with Dakota children who were camped near his home. He went by the name “Rolla”. Rolla took over the Henry Stubbs farm when Henry passed away. Mary Grave Stubbs and his sister Anna Jane also lived there. Rolla married Esther Ann White in 1868 in Nathan White’s log cabin. Rolla was a farmer and nurseryman and wrote articles for the local newspapers. He was a acquaintance of Peter Gideon and purchased nursery stock from him. He was also active in the Minnetonka Fruitgrowers’ Association. Rolla and Milton were also founders of the Western Hennepin Pioneers Association.

Rolla and Esther had 6 children: Ida May, Mary Etta, Margaret Stella, Prudence Amy, Nathan Henry, and Alice Lavina. Rolla died in 1923.

Levi Mark Stubbs was born in 1848 in Butler County, OH. Levi died at 4 ½ years old in 1852. He was sick and was suffering from some kind of seizures. A doctor was called and gave him a small amount of turpentine as was done in those days. Henry was grief stricken and wrote to his older children who were no longer living at home: “That precious boon of heaven bestowed to my care, Levi, is no more in this Earthly tabernacle but I hope he is where saints and angels dwell.”

Henry Stubbs and Mary Grave Stubbs

 

The Stubbs Story Chapter IV

 

Chapter IV

 

Henry Stubbs was born in 1806 soon after Nathan and Elizabeth Jones Stubbs moved from Georgia to Ohio. Henry worked in Nathan’s mills while growing up and when Nathan died in 1835, Henry and his younger brother Elijah were each bequeathed a mill.

Henry married Rachel Pray in 1828 and the couple had 5 children: William Pray Stubbs, Joel Henry Stubbs, Mary Ann Stubbs (died in infancy), Elizabeth Mendenhall Stubbs and Enos Pray Stubbs. All were born near West Elkton where Henry’s father Nathan had settled in 1805. Rachel died in 1836 and in 1837 Henry married Mary Louisa Eccles. This couple had Nathan John Stubbs, Anna Jane Stubbs, Rachel Melinda Stubbs, Milton Aurelius Stubbs, Charles Rolla Stubbs and Levi Mark Stubbs (died in infancy).

When Henry inherited Nathan’s mill and associated land, he built a new saw mill, “After I came into possession of mine I built a saw mill on the opposite side of the stream and dug a new race and built a large stone mill-dam. In building my saw mill I had to borrow money to carry on the work and paid a high rate of interest.  That was a great draw-back, for the interest ran away with the profits, even at ten per cent.  I had to carry on my farming for my family was small in size and number, say three or four children. … It cost about one thousand dollars and paid for itself, had not the interest eaten it up so fast that it became necessary to sell, which I did a few years after I built.  I sold it and the grist mill to Henry A. Bennet, with 17 acres of land.  Then I took some few trips out to Indiana to a place on the Salimany [River], six miles from Lagro, on the Wabash.  There I bought 90 acres of land with the intention of starting a mill, but finally the next year after I bought, there was a mill built opposite of where I  had  proposed to build, so it all fell through, on my part.” In addition to sawing lumber and grinding flour, Henry butchered beef and sold lime and stone for building. The land that Henry inherited from Nathan had the best lime stone quarry within 10 miles, thus making the stone quite valuable. Mary Louisa Eccles died in 1851and in 1852 Henry married Mary Stroud Grave.

Mary Stroud Grave’s father, Jacob Grave was a prominent leader in the Quaker anti-slavery movement. He owned land near Richmond, IN.

Henry sold his Indiana land and in 1856 moved to Minnesota with Mary and his younger children where he homesteaded land north of Lake Minnetonka. Henry was 50 years old. The older children eventually moved to Minnesota also.

In 1862, Jacob Grave died and Mary Stroud Grave Stubbs inherited the farm near Richmond, IN. Henry and Mary moved back to Indiana for a year to farm and then sell the land before moving back to their land in Minnesota.

Henry served as postmaster for several years and cleared and farmed his homestead north of Lake Minnetonka. He also got involved with growing apples and had trees shipped from Indiana in 1857. In 1865 he bought 100 apple trees from Peter M. Gideon, the developer of the Wealthy apple and a famous early Minnesota fruit grower. Henry died in 1881 just 4 days short of his 75^th birthday.

Nathan Stubbs mill on Elk Creek

Top: Nathan Stubbs Mill on Elk Creek near West Elkton, Ohio

Bottom: Elk Creek near Nathan Stubbs mill site

The Stubbs Story Chapter III

Nathan Stubbs was born to John and Esther Maddock Stubbs on October 3, 1759 in Chatham County, NC. He was the oldest of 14 children. Nathan married first Eleanor Jones in 1785. Eleanor died shortly thereafter and Nathan married her cousin, Elizabeth Jones in 1788. This couple had 10 children, of which, Henry Stubbs was the 9th child. Nathan and Elizabeth moved between NC and GA in the early years of the Wrightsborough colony. He most likely worked with his father, John at his grandfather’s mill in Wrightsborough. Elizabeth’s father, Henry Jones, was a saddler, making leather saddles. Shortly after his father John Stubbs died in 1803, Nathan and 12 of his siblings moved away from Wrightsborough to Ohio and Indiana. True to his milling profession, Nathan settled on Elk Creek south of West Elkton, OH and built a flour mill and a saw mill. In the 1820 census for Ohio, Nathan reported, “I ground about 4000 bushels of wheat each year. Costs are about $150 to $200 each year. I have one man full time and one boy helping.” West Elkton Quaker minutes noted that on June 11, 1823, Pliny Crume took three barrels of flour from Nathan Stubbs mill valued at $6 on demand of $19 for non-performance of military requisition by his young son Nathan, Jr. (They were still pacifists at that time but by the time of the Civil War many of the family’s young men enlisted and fought, including Henry’s sons William, Enos and Milton Stubbs.) A cousin, Alpheus Maddock, who lived his whole life at West Elkton remembered about the underground railroad that the Stubbses participated in and said that his father told him that Nathan’s mill furnished barrels of flour for Andrew Jackson’s army in the War of 1812. It was hauled by team to Cincinnatti and then by flatboat to New Orleans. A schism developed in the Quaker community in the 1830’s when the followers of Elias Hicks had a philosophical disagreement with a more evangelical movement within the community who called themselves Orthodox. Nathan joined the Hicksite group and his sons Henry and William followed him. The two groups bickered for several years and finally reconciled in 1855. The Hicksites were involved in anti-slavery activities and gradually this view was incorporated into the Orthodox as well. Nathan died in 1835.