Person Page - 172

     He was born on 15 March 1833 at Frankfort, Herkimer Co., New York.² He was born on 15 March 1833; According to The Rathbun-Rathbone-Rathburn Family Historian, Spring 1995, p 12, he was probably born in Greene, Chenango County, NY.⁵ He was the son of Allen Rathbone and Ruth E. Gates.⁴ He married Elotia Julia Brooks, daughter of Samuel Brooks and Dorothy Stevens Leonard, on 1 October 1856 at Chenango County, New York.^5,2 He died on 9 June 1893 at Ottawa, Franklin Co., KS, at age 60.⁶ He died on 8 June 1893 at Ottawa, Franklin Co., KS, at age 60.⁵
     Maurice Rathbun was also known as Morris Rathbun.² [CR][CR]Around 1860, he moved his family to Venango Co., PA, where he had several farms during his stay there.⁷ He moved to at Quincy, IL, circa 1872.⁷ [CR][CR]The adventures of Maurice and his family are told in the story of "Paul and Sadie," by Adin Brooks:

Shortly after baby Mary [Maryette] had been born at Waterford in Erie County PA, Maurice heard about wonderful farm land available at very low cost on the banks of the Mississippi near Quincy, Illinois, so he decided to give up trying to cultivate rocky land in Pennsylvania and migrate West. He got a Conestoga covered farmwagon to carry the plows, some furniture and a couple of trunks of clothing and household articles. They carried little furniture as they had also to be able to sleep the children in the wagon. And so they set out on the 700 mile trip toward the West.

They took along some farm animals besides the horses (or oxen?) needed to pull the wagon. There were several cows, spare horses and some small stock, possibly sheep. Mother (Sadie), then 12 and her older brother Frank, 14, had the job of walking and driving, the livestock. Martha, then 9, helped with the stock some, but often got too tired and rode in the wagon to help care for the baby Mary. The younger boy, Carol, only 6, mostly rode in the wagon. Their mother, Elotia, drove the wagon while Maurice rode on ahead on horseback to scout out the road and route and locate places to camp for the night. There were many brooks or small streams to cross and few were bridged, so it was necessary to know where the best fords were and whether the crossings could be made by the regular team or if there, would be need for the spare team to be hitched up also. While there were roads, few of them were in any way improved and there were no guideposts or markers, so someone had to inquire at every village, or at scattered farm houses about road conditions ahead and which road to take. It was slow going, but that was a necessity as the stock had to graze along the roadside as they moved. Ten miles a day was considered good progress. They avoided all cities and large towns which would provide no roadside grazing for the livestock. Small villages were visited, as often all roads go from settlement to settlement.

Mother and also Grandmother Elotia told me, when I was a boy, about this great trek overland. Mother remarked once: "It was really quite a pleasant trip and fun at times. Our greatest problem was to see that the stock had adequate grazing while at the same time keeping them from invading, or damaging any farm crops planted along the roadside which was mostly unfenced. When some of our animals got over into someone's corn field, we might find ourselves confronted by an angry farmer, sometimes with a gun, who threatened to shoot the cows or horses if we didn't get them out in a hurry. And with so many animals and often only Frank and me to run after them, it would keep us busy when we were passing through farmed areas. We were, glad when we had open or wooded areas as the animals would pretty much stay along the grassy roadsides and not get into trouble going off into some corn patch. And also cultivated crops, especially growing corn, is bad for the stock as, if given a chance, they would eat too much and get sick."

The best time was around the campfire at night. There was the large iron kettle hung from an iron cross rod over the fire. Whatever they had for eating was put into the kettle and cooked as a stew. Purchases were made at small village stores or from farms they passed, with always some kept in reserve in the wagon in case no village or farms were available that day. I well remember that large iron kettle, as grandmother had kept it when they finally broke up housekeeping in Kansas, and she left it with us in our home in Colorado Springs. One other relic of that overhand trip was a hand-woven bedspread which grandmother had woven during the years in Penn. and had kept over many years. I recall it in use on her bed when she stayed with us in Colorado Springs and later when Hattie gave it to us after my mother died. We still have it here in Santa Fe and have used it as our bedspread for many years. At last it sort of wore out, the cotton threads rotting with the passage of time, well over 100 years. It is indigo blue and white, Pennsylvania folkcraft pattern, as done, in the mid 1800's. Now it is too fragile to keep longer and this year Eleanor replaced it with a knitted one largely of her own design, folkcraft 1977 model.

Mother told me it took them somewhat over 2 months to make the trip to the Mississippi River area near Quincy, IL and there Maurice quickly found a farm of some of the best and most fertile land in the United States. It was located a mile, or so back from the river, and included a good 1 1/2 story farmhouse and a barn, both adequate but in need of repairs. They settled in and made or improvised such additional furniture as needed for immediate use, The farm land was all that Maurice hoped for with no rocks to interfere with plowing and fertile, far beyond expectations. He got in a crop that first year and it was growing well and all looked favorable. Then the floods came. The river overflowed its banks and spread out far over adjacent land - several miles back from the river. They first had to drive the livestock to higher land further back. The fields were covered and the nicely growing crop lost. But still the water rose and flooded first the lower floor, so they had to move their furniture and supplies upstairs to the bedrooms. Then they had to put them up on the beds and the higher pieces of furniture, and finally they had to seek safety one night by climbing out the dormer window onto the sloping roof where they found a set of conveniently located cleats on the shingles and a rope conveniently tied around the chimney above and hanging down beside the window, left by some previous occupant of the house who seemed to also have had experience with a flood. It was night, and they had to climb up and spend the rest of the night sitting straddle of the ridge. Early next morning someone came with a rowboat and took them off to the safety of higher ground. The waters receded and things dried out so they could return to the house, but the crop was lost. The season was not too late. to allow a replanting and Maurice hoped to make up for the lost crop. But it had hardly got well sprouted before they were once more flooded out. This time it was not quite such high water and they were only driven up to the second floor bedrooms but not forced out onto the roof. And when the rescue boat came they embarked from the upstairs dormer window. But the second planting of crops had also been lost and Maurice gave up and looked elsewhere for a farm on high land. He couldn't afford to be too choosy as he had lost his investment in two plantings and had also suffered other losses. I should explain that the Illinois side of the river at that point is the low bank and in those days there were no levees along the river to keep the flood waters within bounds. The river did not experience really high floods every year so there was a chance for a good crop when the floods did not come. And in years of low water or only slight floods, the reward could be a very paying harvest, enough to cover losses of flood years provided one had financial reserves and the floods didn't come too close together. But the Rathbun family had no reserves and the second flood in one year meant heaver loss, so he decided to move once more, this time to the high side of the river across in Missouri.

Their next farm was on the edge of Hannibal, MO, located about 20 miles south (downstream) from Quincy but on the west bank - the high bank with no floods. This farm was just outside the village area and the next farm, nearer the village, was known as "the old Clements Place." This had been the home of the Samuel Clements family. Young Sam Clements had lived there and when he became a writer he related the story of his life there in his rather well-known books Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, writing under his pseudonym of "Mark Twain." But for Maurice, this farm. was like those of Pennsylvania, a hard caprock layer of limestone hardly 8 inches under the surface, which snagged the plow and made it difficult to cultivate. I do not know how long the Rathbuns lived here-- not over one season and probably less. I asked Mother about the Clements' place - where Tom Sawyer had lived. She told me that the house was there, facing on an outlaying village street, but that there was no white-washed fence around it as related by Mark Twain and she thought that the episode of painting the fence was just pure fiction on his part. But the cave in the limestone bluffs over looking the river was very real, and the story of how Tom and Becky got lost in it could have been taken from some real life adventure. In fact, her brothers Frank and Carol had explored the cave, with candle lights and long pieces of cord to guide them back to the entrance and then, later, they earned some of their pocket money by guiding parties of curious visitors through the cave. Mother herself had visited it but not made the entire trip through it as it involved crawling and wigging one's way through narrow passages and girls were not supposed in those days to engage in such human worm activities.

Maurice then heard of good land available for homesteading down in W'oodson County in Southeast Kansas near Yates Center. So soon the family were once more off on a 350 mile trek across the State of Missouri, across the Missouri River and part of Kansas to Yates Center located somewhat over 100 miles southwest of Kansas City. This was their last move. They took up Land at Owl Creek, a farming area a few miles out from the county seat at Yates Center. Apparently this farm suited their needs. At any rate, here they stayed until the family had grown and gone off on their own. They settled here about 1873 or 1874 and stayed for nearly 20 years. About 1892 Maurice, who was then nearly 60, felt he could no longer operate his farm after all the children had left home and married. He sold the farm and moved to Ottowa, Kansas where he and Elotia lived in a small house at 804 S. Locust Street. Maurice died here June 9, 1893.⁷ He moved to at Hannibal, MO, circa 1873.⁷ He moved to at Owl Creek, Yates Center, Woodson, KS, circa 1874.⁷ He appeared on the census of 5 June 1880 at ED 1, Liberty, Woodson, KS; Given name shown as Morice.³ He moved to at 804 S. Locust St., Ottawa, Franklin Co., KS, circa 1892.⁷

     She was born on 3 October 1688.³ She was the daughter of John Rathbun Jr. and Ann Dodge.² She married Jonathan Burch on 26 August 1706.³

     She is the daughter of Joseph Rathbun and Mary Mosher. She married Nathaniel Rathbun, son of John Rathbun Jr. and Ann Dodge.

     He was born on 6 February 1708 at New Shoreham, Rhode island.^3,4 He was the son of John Rathbun Jr. and Ann Dodge.² He married Mercy Rathbun, daughter of Joseph Rathbun and Mary Mosher. He married Ann Peck on 10 September 1741 at New Shoreham, Rhode island.⁴ He died circa June 1750 at Exeter, Rhode island.⁴

     He is the son of Gideon Rathbun and Ann Nichols.² He married Olive Rathbun, daughter of Simeon Rathbun.²

     She is the daughter of Simeon Rathbun.¹ She married Newman Rathbun, son of Gideon Rathbun and Ann Nichols.¹

     He was born circa 1760. He was the son of Gideon Rathbun and Dorcas Kenyon.¹ He married Elizabeth Rathbun, daughter of Thomas Rathbun.¹ He died at Oswego Co., New York.

     He was born on 28 January 1820 at Washington Co., New York.¹ He was the son of Charles Brown Rathbun and Sarah Dolly Carr.¹ He married Mary D. (?) before 1860.¹ He died on 16 November 1872 at Noble, Branch Co., Michigan, at age 52.¹

     He was born on 6 December 1911 at Fort Ann, Washington Co., New York.¹ He was the son of Charles C. Rathbun and Bessie Burton. He married Margaret Head Furman. He died on 18 December 1970 at Fort Ann, Washington Co., New York, at age 59.¹

     He is the son of Allen Rathbone and Ruth E. Gates.³ He married Mary Cross.

     She is the daughter of Carol Ashton Rathbun and Minnie Watts.

     She is the daughter of Thomas Rathbun.¹ She married (?) Gates.²

     She is the daughter of Allen Rathbone and Ruth E. Gates.³ She married Tyler Congdon.

     He was born on 3 August 1672 at Newport, Rhode Island; on the second day of the week.^4,5 He was the son of John Rathbone and Margaret Acres.³ He married Patience Coggeshall, daughter of John Coggeshall and Patience Throckmorton, on 3 November 1692 at Block Island, Rhode Island.^4,5 He died on 24 January 1757 at Block Island, Rhode Island, at age 84.⁴

     He was born in 1782 at N. Kingston, Washington Co., Rhode Island.¹ He was the son of Anthony Rathbun and Elizabeth Brown.² He married Mary Reynolds, daughter of Benjamin Reynolds and Mary (?). He married Margaret Gardner in 1824.² He died on 29 September 1866 at Stephentown, Renssalaer Co., New York.¹

     He was born on 1 July 1702 at New Shoreham, Newport Co., Rhode Island.^1,2 He was the son of Thomas Rathbun and Mary Dickens. He married Abigail Eldred, daughter of John Eldred and Margaret Holden, on 13 April 1725 at N. Kingston, Washington Co., Rhode Island.^1,2 He died in February 1786 at N. Kingston, Washington Co., Rhode Island, at age 83.^1,2

     He was born on 8 August 1804 at Granville, Washington Co., New York.¹ He was the son of Charles Brown Rathbun and Sarah Dolly Carr.¹ He married Hannah Young Grover on 14 February 1828 at Whitehall, New York.¹ He died on 16 April 1873 at Brutus, New York, at age 68.¹ He was buried at Weedsport Rural Cemetery, Weedsport, New York.¹

     He was born on 2 September 1847 at Whitehall, Washington Co., New York.¹ He was the son of Elijah Brown Rathbun and Abigail Maria Rathbun. He married Armenia Granger. He died on 25 August 1905 at Fort Ann, Washington Co., New York, at age 57.¹

     She was born in January 1920.⁴ She was the daughter of Charles C. Rathbun and Bessie Burton. She married Howard Darwin Graham Jr., son of Howard Allen Graham and Olive Marion Wood. She died in 1987 at Glens Falls, Warren, New York.⁵ She was buried in 1987 at Browns Cemetary, W. Fort Ann, New York.⁴
     Sara Rathbun was also known as (?) Sadie.

     She was born on 10 June 1659 at possibly Dorchester, MA.³ She was the daughter of John Rathbone and Margaret Acres. She married John Mitchell. She married Samuel George, son of Peter George and Mary (?), on 20 December 1678 at Block Island, Rhode Island.³ She died in 1718 at Newport, Rhode Island.³

     She is the daughter of Thomas Rathbun and Mary Dickens. She married Jonathan Rathbun, son of William Rathbun and Sarah (?).

     She is the daughter of Allen Rathbone and Ruth E. Gates.² She married (?) Smith.

     She was born in 1778 at North Kingston, Washington Co., Rhode Island.¹ She was the daughter of Anthony Rathbun and Elizabeth Brown.¹ She married Duter Reynolds.¹

     She was born on 21 April 1823 at Washington Co., New York.¹ She was the daughter of Charles Brown Rathbun and Sarah Dolly Carr.¹ She died on 6 September 1826 at Whitehall, Washington Co., New York, at age 3.¹

     She was born on 20 June 1859 at E. McDonough, Chenango Co., New York.^2,1,3,4 She was the daughter of Maurice Rathbun and Elotia Julia Brooks.² She married Paul Ellis Brooks, son of Orville L. Brooks and Mary A. Paul, on 9 October 1883.^1,4 She died on 30 September 1944 at Colorado Springs, El Paso Co., Colorado, at age 85.²

     He is the son of Thomas Rathbun and Charity Perkins.¹

     He is the son of Gideon Rathbun and Ann Nichols.² He married Lucy Lewis.²

     He was born on 24 November 1816 at Washington Co., New York.¹ He was the son of Charles Brown Rathbun and Sarah Dolly Carr.¹ He married Mary Jane Wray before 1844 at Detroit, Michigan.¹ He died on 1 April 1887 at Granville, Washington Co., New York, at age 70.¹ He was buried at North Granville Cemetery, North Granville, New York.¹
     

Was living in Mt. Vision, Otsego Co., NY, in 1872 as a dairy farmer.¹

     He was born in June 1844 at Detroit, Michigan.¹ He was the son of Stephen Clark Rathbun and Mary Jane Wray.¹ He married Marion Kingsley on 27 October 1867 at Whitehall, Washington Co., New York.¹ He died on 12 September 1913 at Ft. Edward, New York, at age 69.¹
     Stephen Van Renssalaer Rathbun left a will filed in Washington Co., NY, Surrogate Court Book 9A, p. 29.¹

     He was born in 1657 at Dorchester, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts.^3,5,6 He was the son of John Rathbone and Margaret Acres.⁴ He married Mary Dickens, daughter of Nathaniel Dickens and (?) Joan, on 21 August 1685 at New Shoreham, Newport Co., Rhode Island.^3,7,6 He died on 26 December 1733 at on Block Island, New Shoreham, Newport Co., Rhode Island.^3,7,6
     

His name is on a 1684 list of Freemen of New Shoreham as entered in the town records.⁴