52 Ancestors - Week 10 - Elizabeth Fox Squibb

In my last post I wrote a bit about my great grandfather, Elmer Ellsworth Squibb. For the next few weeks, or possibly months, I want to share his mother's story. It's quite fascinating, and I wonder how much of it Great Grandpa Squibb knew about. Researching our maternal ancestors can be challenging, and the stories of their early lives are often lost forever. In Elizabeth's case, she left clues behind, and her granddaughters saved them.

Elizabeth Fox Squibb Obituary
Marsland Tribune
16 Feb 1912

This marriage record shows Adam and Elizabeth were married in December of 1857, not 1855 as reported in Elizabeth's obituary. Adam, single, is found in his parents' household in Center Township, Clinton County, Iowa, in the 1856 Iowa census indicating 1857 is the correct marriage year.

Elizabeth's obituary states six children predeceased her. Information passed down from her surviving children, tells of two, Emma and Willie, who died from diptheria when they were young. Another, Ella (born 27 June 1869), also died as a small child. (An Ellen appears on the 1870 census at one year old, but disappears after that.) It was thought the other two unnamed children were twins who died in infancy. Emma is likely the "Emily" listed on the 1860 census. Emily does not appear with the family on any future census. An adult son, George, died a few years before Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Fox Squibb
Elmer Ellsworth Squibb's Mother

The births of Elizabeth's twelve children spanned almost twenty years. The youngest, Armeda, born in 1878, was about eight years old when the family left Iowa to join the pioneers of western Nebraska. It must have been difficult for Elizabeth to leave the state where she married and spent almost thirty years raising her family...and buried five of her small children. But, how did she come to be in Iowa in the first place?



If you are researching any of the individuals featured in my blog posts, please leave a comment. I am happy to exchange information, sources, etc.

52 Ancestors - Week 9 - Elmer Ellsworth Squibb (1865-1932) - His Early Life

My great grandfather, Elmer Ellsworth Squibb was born 31 July 1865, to Adam Edward and Elizabeth (Fox) Squibb. The 1870 Census shows the family living in Center township (Comanche post office) in Clinton County, Iowa. By 1880 they had moved across Iowa to Charter Oak, Crawford County, Iowa. Ellsworth, as he was called most of his life, came to western Nebraska with his parents, brothers Tom, George and John and sisters Armeda, Laura and Julie, from Charter Oak by train about 1886. The railroad had made it to this part of Nebraska and settlers followed, taking advantage of the Homestead Act and the offer of free land. According to stories passed down through the generations, the family took a homestead on Willow Creek which emptied into the Running Water (the Niobrara River) east of Marsland, Nebraska. Adam Squibb had the first blacksmith shop in Marsland.

Elmer Ellsworth Squibb