My maternal grandmother, Virginia EUBANK_ROTH, was born on JAN_10_1851 in a mansion in Covington, KY. to James Taylor Moss EUBANK and his second wife, Mary Ann (or Mary E.) McCOY_EUBANK. She died of a stroke at her home in the small town of Comstock, Custer Co. NE. on NOV_09_1920.
Virginia had one older half-brother, James Taylor EUBANK. Before the Civil War, he helped care for the family thoroughbred horses. He rode the stallion, "Black Knight" to the Winner's Circle. After the war started, he hid Black Knight in a cave and the other horses in the woods to keep them safe from both armies.
When I visited Covington in July of 1981 with my daughter and granddaughter Linda and Heidi SPILLUM, my sisters, Ethel WALTON_STRAIGHT and Dorothy WALTON_DOWSE, we were disappointed that no-one knew of a cave anywhere in the vicinity. Perhaps bulldozers had long since crushed it to limestone rubble and buried it beneath a freeway...?
James fought on the side of the Confederacy. He was taken prisoner and confined in IL. where his health was impaired. He never married and died young. He was buried in the Edgar Cemetery, Paris, IL. beside his father. Later, his mother and youngest sister, Caroline EUBANK_CASSITY were buried in the same plot. His sister, Abigail EUBANK_DAVIS and her family are in an adjoining plot). Our party visited those graves on our way to Covington in 1981).
Grandma Virginia had two other older brothers. Edwin became a preacher and founded the Coburg Church near Comstock, NE. Later he became the first County Superintendent of Schools in Custer Co. NE. He lived most of his life in Broken Bow, NE.
The next brother, William Moss EUBANK was a teacher and spent his life in or near his birthplace (Covington).
Grandma's younger brother, Richard Edgar and his wife came to NE. at the same time as my grandparents. They lived in Broken Bow for a time. He soon went back home, a jockey and trainer of the horses he loved so much.
One of grandma's sisters, Louisa, who was married to Albert Maywood ROTH (brother of her future husband, Jonas Spatch ROTH) came in the same caravan, but returned to OH. after a few years.
Three of her sisters married lawyers. The others married farmers and businessmen and scattered through IL., NE. and OK.
This EUBANK family was descended from the "Vagabond Gentlemen" who settled VA. President MADISON, in one of his letters mentioned, "my nephew, James EUBANK". There were many high ranking army officers in their lineage, through the TAYLOR and MOSS lines. President TAYLOR and Lady Bird JOHNSON came from those same TAYLORs.
Virginia and her sisters must have had great times riding the horses and roaming the hills around their home. Grandma used to tell us about sliding down the banister. When they were older, they opened the wide hall doors and danced through the long rooms clear across the house.
After the war was over, the family home was sold. When Grandma was 16 years old, in 1862, the EUBANKS moved to a farm near Paris, IL. Her father died that same year. Here, on an adjoining farm, they met the Thomas ROTH family of eight boys and four girls. Eventually, three EUBANK girls married ROTHs.
They attended the Embarras (Embra) Country Church nearby. Here, Jonas ROTH, lounging on the lawn with other young men, saw Virginia go up the church steps and picked her out to marry, then and there, "because she had the prettiest legs in the country".
Virginia EUBANK and Jonas Spatch ROTH were married on DEC_01_1874 in Tuscola, IL.
Grandma was an outdoor girl. She loved to gather the fruit and tend her hens. She put the wild plums that she gathered, "down in brine". When winter came, she soaked the salt out of them and made pies.
Gran'dad loved pie, so Grandma made a lot of them. Mama (Dora Alice) laughed at the way I always asked for "a piece of Grandma's 'cussed' pie (meaning custard pie).
Grandma's skill as a pie baker has been passed on to some of her grandchildren also. Fortunately, most of her descendents have not had to bake five pies every day. One great-granddaughter, Marjorie BELL, baked 5 pies every a.m. to serve her customers at "The Spot" drive-in restaurant in Montrose, CO. They all sold rapidly, keeping up Grandma's tradition of excellence!
The ROTH boys, Clifford, Ed and Will wanted to go to Gilliam. MO. to pick corn. Grandma said, "If the boys went, the whole family was going", so, they all went. Dora Alice and Mary Esther went to high school in Gilliam ("Gillum").
Back in NE., my mother (Dora) always missed the dogwood and redbud (of MO.) in the spring. The five years Grandma spent in MO. were the easiest of her life. She didn't have to scour the canyons for wild fruit. Every year, orchards and gardens of MO. were bountiful and easy to harvest. She didn't have to can and prepare ahead, for the next year's crop was assured. She probably lived in a good frame house.
Jonas and Virginia built the frame house in 1903. Marcia said, "There was an organ and a red carpet in the parlor." They moved into the five-roomed house in Comstock in 1912.
My older sister, Marcia was Grandma's favorite grandchild. Marcia always felt very close to Grandma and Gran'dad ROTH because she stayed with them when she was small (while Mama taught school and we lived nearby). Some of Mama's sisters were jealous of this fact. By the time I came along, there was such a flock of grandchildren that she was probably hard put to sort us out. We always had such a good time playing together that we didn't give her much thought. I have never felt that I knew her very well.
I do remember how she always sat on the edge of her chair at the dinner table, ready to jump up and wait on someone. Also, at one of those dinners, a large bowl of fluffy, mashed potatoes was passed. I took a generous helping...UGH ! They were mashed turnips !
Mama and I spent the winter of 1916-17 in Grandma's home in Comstock because of my illness, but I remember very little about it. I am sure Grandma was there in the kitchen and at the washing machine working hard to keep the household running a smoothly as was humanly possible. Marcia was there also, going to the 7th grade in the Comstock school. She also stayed with them when she started high school. Grandma helped her with her Algebra and took her to see "The Perils Of Pauline" at the theatre.
When Gran'dad ROTH gave up his high-stepping horses for the new 1918 Liberty car, Grandma was terrified when she had to ride in it. She hung on for dear life, admonishing uselessly all the way, "Jona, don't go so fast!".
In the summer of 1920, they took Mama and we four girls in the car to Gering, NE. to visit Aunt Hal (Halycon) ROTH_BENNETT and her family. Marcia did a lot of the driving. After this trip, little sisters positioned the dining room chairs into their version of the car and played "Jona, don't go so fast !".
I can't remember Grandma before her hair was pure snowy white. She wore in pulled up into a knot on the tip of her head. The early white hair was a family trait inherited from her mother and handed down to most of her children and it still shows up in her grandchildren and some great-grandchildren. I remember how pretty I thought she was when she and Gran'dad came home visiting Aunt Hal in Arcadia. Her short stature still continues through her descendents.
Grandma was 5 feet tall and blue eyed with long dark curls and turned up nose. Gran'dad never had a chance ! But Grandma didn't get short-changed, Jonas was 6 feet tall, slender and blue-eyed with the ROTH blue-black curly hair and the wide ROTH forehead. He was an ambitious young farmer.
By the time they moved to Custer Co. NE. in 1879 by covered wagon, they had three boys: Clifford Ivan, Richard Edgar and William Bradley. Mama, Dora Alice was on her way.
For the next two years, they lived in an old log house on the west bank of the Middle Loup River, just across from where the town of Comstock now stands. Mama and Aunt Mary Esther ROTH_MATTOX were born there.
I try to imagine how Grandma coped with five small children in such a house. The roof leaked. Grandma put uncle Will and Mama in the rocking chair with an umbrella over them to keep them dry. Bedding had to be hung outside to dry when the sun came out.
Grandma related, that one day when she was hanging up clothes, she saw a large rattler lying in the window. She was afraid to strike at it from the outside, for the baby lay on the bed just inside. She ran in and the snake was gone! She snatched up the baby and tore the bedding from the bed and moved every article in the room, but never did discover the snake!
Jonas & Virginia homesteaded a farm on Wagner Creek, four or five miles west of Comstock. They built a sod house and added rooms as the family grew. Aunt Nell and Aunt Hal and Uncel Fred and his twin were born there. The twin died at birth. Uncle Fred was so tiny, they carried him on a pillow. He survived to raise a family of his own, but was always small and frail looking.