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Mary Ellen Clark Rorabaugh
1846-1916

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How does one tell the story of a person one never met, a person born over 160 years ago? This great-grandson of Mary Ellen Clark Rorabaugh can only piece together bits of information and honor a woman who after bearing 13 children, and nearing fifty years of age, left southern Iowa with three of the children to seek a homestead and a new life in Noble County Oklahoma before the turn of the century.

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Born 25 Aug 1846 in Wisconsin, Mary Ellen Clark married John Mitchell Rorabaugh at the tender age of thirteen years. Not much is known of Mary Ellen's own ancestry; her father was Samuel Clark of New Jersey, and her mother was Elizabeth Jane Scank of Wisconsin; more is known of her husband's ancestry, traced back to one Claus Rohrbach of Bergen, Germany, though his family had been in America for over 100 years when he married Mary Ellen on the first day of December, 1859. John was twenty-two years old at the time.

Mary Ellen was a dutiful wife and bore 13 children to John during the years from 1860 to 1886, when my grandmother, the youngest, was born. The thirteen children were comprised of nine boys and four girls. The family was reared mostly in Appanoose County, Iowa, bordering northern Missouri. John was a peddler. His famous "Rorabaw Salve" was said to be good for a number of ailments including cuts, bruises, boils, aches, galls, felons, backache, frostbite, rheumatism, piles, neuralgia, etc. Evidently the family was in tow often as John peddled his salve. Actually Mary Ellen is said to have divorced John because of an incident when the family’s raft tipped in the midst of a river and one of the children almost drowned. She determined that a peddler's life was no way to raise children.

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A homestead affidavit which Mary Ellen signed at the land office in Perry, Oklahoma on 21 Dec 1893 stated that she was a "native born citizen of the United States, above the age of 21 years, and a widow." Now she wasn't a widow, however, as her great-grandson, I don’t judge her. She was ambitious and hard working.

According to a Homestead Proof, she with three children lived continuously on the land near Black Bear Township beginning the 15th of March, 1894. In December 1894, she married John Hubbartt or Hubbard. (not sure of the spelling). On a later affidavit she testified: "Established actual residence, March 15, 1894. First house was a shack, 1 room; now have a frame house, 2 rooms; built in 1894. Well, another well, stable, granary, corn crib, orchard, about 80 acres fenced, with one wire around the rest of the place; 90 or 100 acres in cultivation."

Mr. Hubbartt had at least two children when he married Mary Ellen. The family was found in the 1900 Federal Census at the same location. Among those listed on the census were Mr. Hubbartt, Mary E., his wife, Solomon and Myrtle Hubbartt, son and daughter, Eliza Jane, step-daughter (my grandmother), the Lovejoy family (son-in-law, Horatio Lovejoy, daughter, Martha, and three children listed as nieces and nephews, but actually they were Mary Ellen's grandchildren by her oldest daughter, Martha). Also listed are a couple of other grandchildren, but it is not clear if they were Mr. Hubbartt's or Mary Ellen's.

Some time after 1900, Mary Ellen was divorced from John Hubbartt. And some time later, after 1907, she married Aaron Bennett Rorabaugh, a younger brother of her first husband. She died on 23 Oct 1916 and was buried in Fairview Cemetery as Mary E. Rorabaugh, wife of A.B. Rorabaugh.

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From Noble County, Oklahoma, Newton Funeral Home Records, 1898 - 1918, Noble County Genealogy Society, p. 100: "Mrs. Mary E. Rorabough ordered by A.B. Rorabough place of death 8.5 miles south, funeral service, Oct 24, 1916 at residence with Rev. Geo. Dennis. Date of Death Oct 23, 1916 of cancer of the womb, Physician Dr. Owen, Age 71 years, born in Wis, interment local."

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My grandmother, Eliza Jane Rorabaugh Carroll, never spoke without great love and respect for her mother. Two of Eliza’s own children were born in Perry indicating that she had sought her mother’s comfort during at least two of her pregnancies. Old postal cards circa 1910, saved from my grandmother’s belongings when she died in 1966, indicate that there was also loving relationships between Mary Ellen and some of her grandsons.

Few living in today’s culture can ever appreciate the struggles and hardships faced by pioneers like Mary Ellen Clark. Her descendants have scattered far and wide in this wonderful country, but few stop to consider, much less applaud the efforts of their benefactors. Mary Ellen, I salute your courage and your service to your family.

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James Hamilton Carroll
 

(This article was submitted and published in the Noble County Oklahoma History, Volume II, published 2009.)