52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 41: Travel

"Rev. Emanuel Dubbs, minister of the Christian Church, rancher, ex-judge, old Indian fighter, has known and been closely identified with the Panhandle country for perhaps as long a period as any other living man and it has been his lot to witness the widely different phases of life which have successively passed over this country during the past quarter of a century..." GenealogyMagazine.com

Emanuel Dubbs, my 2x great-granduncle, must have been a restless man. Unlike most of his relatives, he wasn't content to settle down to be a farmer. Instead, he moved from Ohio to Indiana to Kansas to Texas and back to Indiana, and engaged in an interesting variety of careers before answering his last call in 1932.

Emanuel was the youngest of six children born to Daniel and Elizabeth (Meckley) Dubbs near New Franklin, Stark County, Ohio, on 21 Mar 1843. After receiving a common school education, he attended Mount Union College until the start of the Civil War. In 1861, 18-year old Emanuel enlisted in Company I of the First Ohio volunteer infantry. In the winter of 1863 he was wounded in the battle of Stone River when a bullet went through his right leg. Later at the battle of Resaca in May of 1864 he had four toes shot off when Union troops under the command of William Tecumseh Sherman fought the Confederate Army of Tennessee. In 1864 Corporal Emanuel Dubbs mustered out of the Union Army and headed to Elkhart County, Indiana where he and his brother John (my 2x great-grandfather) started a lumber and sawmill business. A few years later in 1868 when he was 25 Emanuel married Evangeline Freed of Ohio. The brothers' partnership came to an abrupt end in 1871 when a fire destroyed the sawmill. Instead of staying to rebuild, Emanuel and Evangeline decided to head to Kansas. That move was the start of their experiences in western "roughing it" life.

For a short time Emanuel worked in the construction department of the Santa Fe Railroad which was building through southwestern Kansas. Several sources I've seen say that Emanuel built the first house in Dodge City, Kansas. In 1873 he opened a dairy farm and beer garden on Duck Creek, about five miles from Dodge City. He named his place "Buttermilk Ranch" and served beer and "milk punch" to travelers. At the time, vast herds of bison roamed over the prairies there. Emanuel made a business of killing the bison for their meat and hides. He and other associates established bison camps to sugar-cure the meat and ship it to market.

In 1874 Emanuel worked as a scout assisting federal troop under General Nelson Miles to put down an uprising of the Cheyenne people. After this he moved south from Kansas to establish buffalo camps in what is now Beaver County, Oklahoma on the banks of the Cimarron River during the winter of 1874-1875. In the latter part of 1875 Emanuel came further south into the Texas Panhandle where he continued bison hunting in what is now Donley County, near present day Clarendon and built a headquarters camp for his family. After his dairy cows all died of milk fever, Emanuel began to breed longhorn cattle and by 1877 he had a herd of 400 longhorns.

Never one to stay in place for long, in 1878 he sold his ranch and moved Evangeline and their three small sons--Clarence, Charles, and Fredrick--to Sweetwater Creek in what is now Wheeler County, TX. Near Mobeetie Emanuel built a rock house with a dirt floor and roof and made money by selling meat and vegetables to the troops at nearby Fort Elliot. Later he built a home from cottonwood logs. Two more sons--William and Sylvester-- joined the family by 1883.

In 1879 when Wheeler County was organized, Emanuel was elected as its first judge, despite having had no legal training or practical experience in law. In the words of J. Evetts Haley in his 1947 book "Charles Goodnight, Cowman, and Plainsman":

"...this motley citizenry chose an honest, if long-winded man, Emanuel Dubbs, as judge, and an educated, respectable gambler, Henry Fleming, as sheriff."

Because of his lack of legal training, I've read that Emanuel sometimes made decisions with little consideration for legal technicalities. His first court sessions were held in a former saloon when he came to town to sell milk, butter, and vegetables to Fort Elliott and the town people of Mobeetie. At one point he was compelled to resign and sent to Dallas to stand trial after he ruled that a series of arrests made by a deputy U.S. Marshall were illegal and released the prisoners. Emanuel was acquitted and in January of 1880 he was unanimously elected to served again as Wheeler County judge. He was reelected to the office in 1884, 1886, and 1888.

In 1890 the Dubbs family moved to a ranch northwest of Clarendon in Donley County near the former bison camp. Emanuel had always been active in church work and in 1896 he took another career path to became a Disciples of Christ minister and was placed in charge of the denomination's work in the Panhandle. In 1898 he became the pastor of Clarendon's Christian Church. I like this quote from Emanuel, telling about his first sermon:

"Poorly as I was prepared for the great work, in the way of scripural (sic) and litterary (sic) training, God blessed me in my chosen Work. My first sermon (if you can call it a sermon) resulted to my own surprise with 8 confessions. And in our following morning praise service, 3 more and the following night, when I told them all that I had ever learned from this grand old book, and possibly, a little more, the number had run up to 17 and I baptized them the next day."

In 1911 Evangeline Dubbs passed away, leaving Emanuel widowed. Six years earlier Emanuel's brother John died, leaving his wife Matilda widowed. In 1916 Emanuel and Matilda decided to marry each other. I think I remember hearing from my dad that Matilda, who lived in Milford, Indiana, came to live in Clarendon for awhile but in both the 1920 and the 1930 Census the couple lived in Milford, Indiana. Emanuel may have agreed to move to Milford because his brother George lived there. During the Milford years Emanuel was active as a speaker and church member. The colorful life he had led must have been fascinating to the citizens of Milford.

When Emanuel died on 23 Apr 1932 he was 89 years, 1 month, and 2 days old. His remains were taken by train to Clarendon, Texas for funeral services and burial. This quote comes from the lengthy obituary in the Milford News:

"Emanuel Dubbs, his namesake grandson, also a minister in the Christian Church, will officiate at his funeral in Clarendon.

Reverend Dubbs wrote some very interesting books on his frontier adventures in the southwest, which are prized very highly by the Milford Public Library, and in which he relates his actual experiences that took place during his western conquests. In many instances he and his family had very close calls from the Indians who roamed the wild plains, and they also witnessed many killings by the Indians.

To Milford it has been an honor to have a renowned personage such as Rev. Dubbs and his presence will be greatly missed."

This man who started out as my 2x great-granduncle and ended as my step 2x great-grandfather was a colorful and interesting man. More than once I've heard him referred to as "long-winded" but I'd still love to have been able to sit next to him and hear the stories he could tell.