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 15th 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 6th 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 19th, 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 29th 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 29th 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.”
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