H-1926WK-JBOB.DOC

Julia Lucy (Comstock) Bobbitt (1865-1936) by Dr Warren Kump

Family Lineage

Comstock	Baker	Griffin	_____	Morgan	Preston	Trescott	Adams
Comstock		Griffin		Morgan		Trescott
Comstock				Morgan
Julia Lucy (Comstock) Bobbitt

Julia Comstock was born on the family farm in Floyd County, Iowa, on June 16, 1865. Her father, David Comstock, was a thirty-three year old farmer, her mother, Mary Amarilla Morgan Comstock, a farm wife, age thirty-two. Julia joined three older siblings, Arthur, Ella and Zera, ages six, four and two. Also nearby were her paternal grandparents, Rufus and Esther Griffin Comstock, and her father's siblings, Uncle Will Comstock, Uncle Cornelius Comstock and Aunts Emeline, Lucy and Annette. 1

The farm was located on the Shell Rock River a few miles south of the village of Marble Rock. It was a promising homestead situated on eighty acres of black Iowa soil, the richest in the world. The neighborhood was barely ten years old, Marble Rock having been platted in 1856 and the surrounding farm land settled soon thereafter. Life on the farm was simple, even primitive, and in this case isolated from the nearest village by the river which was not yet bridged. There was no railroad and therefore no practical means to market agricultural products. In the absence of a market and without access to cash, farming was a basic subsistence activity, and living conditions were crude, even stark. Family members were forced to produce by methods unchanged in centuries nearly all that they consumed. The few available comfort items were those they made themselves or had brought from the former home in Wisconsin. 2

Childhood diseases were a scourge everywhere in those days before immunization, but nowhere more deadly than among the raw circumstances of remote backwoods America. Julia's sister Zera, not yet three years old, died on February 25, 1866. Julia was only eight months old and too young to understand.

She was barely two years old when she sustained the cruelest blow of all. Shortly after the birth and death of a newborn brother they had named Leonard her mother died of complications of childbirth on July 8, 1867. As often happened at that time of high maternal mortality the two year old toddler was left to the care of her grandparents. A year and a half later her father married Augusta Crowell, a girl much younger than himself and believed too inexperienced to assume the care of his small children. On November 17, 1869, Augusta gave birth to a boy they named John William. Julia never developed a sister-brother relationship with John William, because her early years were spent in the home of her grandparents.

Julia Lucy Comstock

At first the grandparents' household was crowded with her father's young adult brothers and sisters, but from 1867 to 1871 there occurred a series of marriages which nearly emptied the homestead. Julia's Uncle Will married a neighbor girl, Mary Yerrick, on May 30, 1867. Aunt Lucy married John Gurnmere on July 20 of the same year. Aunt Emeline married Nicholas Rosencrans on December 30, 1868, and Aunt Annette married William Crabtree April 5, 1871. The flurry of happy occasions was sadly interrupted by one death, that of Uncle Cornelius, the Civil War veteran now returned home from his Civil War service with the 32nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. He died November 9, 1867, at age thirty-four and was buried near Julia's mother in the West Side Cemetery. 1

Until 1869 the family occasionally bartered farm produce for a few supplies at the tiny settlement of Aureola on the west bank of the Shell Rock, but that year a bridge was built across the river, opening a passable way to Marble Rock. Two years later the railroad reached the village, bringing contact with the outside world and access to markets and manufactured goods. Marble Rock became a proper Nineteenth Century market town where the family could sell the products of their labor, receive mail and shop at a few wooden storefronts. During that decade the population grew to 400. 2

Julia began her education at a one room country school, subdistrict six, just across the road to the south of her grandparents' farm. Her father had been president of the school board, and had been able to select the location which was so convenient to the Comstock farm and to arrange the $500 appropriation to finance construction. The school house was a new building when Julia enrolled there in the autumn of 1872. 3

Tragedy continued to haunt her young life. On Saturday, June 20, 1874, her brother Arthur drowned, while swimming in the river. 4 He was fifteen years old. The next year on September 14, 1875, her father died from inhaling poisonous gas while cleaning a well on the John Mills farm west of Marble Rock. Julia at age ten and her older sister Ella were left the lone survivors of the young nuclear family of David and Mary Comstock.

Figure 234: Julia Lucy Comstock as an early adolescent

The estate was shared with Augusta, their father's second wife and her young son John William. It amounted to $315, the value of his personal property, plus two lots valued at $50 in the village of Aureola across the river from Marble Rock. The amount was paid to Augusta, and it is questionable whether the girls ever received their share. 5 In 1879 Augusta moved with her son to Nora Springs, a village about twenty miles north of Marble Rock, and out of Julia's life. 6

When Julia was about twelve years old her grandmother's health began to fail. She lost weight and became easily fatigued. At last she was no longer able to perform the heavy duties of a farm wife, and the couple was forced to move to town where Julia's grandfather found work at one of the stores along Marble Rock's Main Street. 7 He bought a house where they lived two blocks east of Main Street and near the school. 8

Figure 235: Main Street, Marble Rock, Iowa. Julia lived here froin age 12 to age 23

Julia finished her education at that school which was the pride of the town. It had been erected in 1873 and was described as an "elegant school near the southeast corner of the village plat." Its dimensions were 26' x 46' with a wing at each end measuring 22' x 26, all three segments two stories high. A contemporary publication boasted, "It has a cupola, bell, spacious apartments and all modern equipments of a well-furnished educational institution, where all branches, from rudiments to high school are successfully taught. The building cost $4000 and will accommodate 200 students." 3

The school was of wood frame construction, and therefore its size and design would have constituted a modem fire marshal's nightmare. Also the claim of a functioning high school was a bit overblown, as the first high school graduation was not celebrated until 1887. 2

Figure 236: Julia's Marble Rock School, a large wooden structure built in 1873

Grandmother Comstock's health continued to deteriorate, and on January 21, 1881, she died. Her physician, Dr. E.B. Haynes declared the cause of death to be consumption (pulmonary tuberculosis), and he estimated its duration at three years. Julia was fortunate not to have contracted the disease after living in the same household with her sick grandmother for so long a time.9

After her grandmother's death Julia moved to the home of her Aunt Emeline and Uncle Nicholas Rosencrans. Aunt Em and Uncle Nick soon afterward rented out their farm and moved into Marble Rock in 1881 where he formed a partnership with Samuel Rex in the butcher and meat market business. 3 Aunt Em operated a millinery shop. 2 The couple had been childless until they adopted a young girl, Hattie, who had now reached adulthood. They were a loving couple with a special fondness for children, and they soon formed a bond with Julia which was mutual and lasted a lifetime. 10

She grew to adulthood in Aunt Em's and Uncle Nick's home. By 1884 she had completed enough education to allow her to apply for a teacher's certificate. She failed the examination on the first attempt, but doggedly returned two weeks later for another attempt on April 17, 1884, and passed with a general average of 80%. She began a career of teaching at the small one room country schools in the Marble Rock vicinity just as her sister Ella had begun earlier. 11

Fig 237: Julia (right) andAunt Emeline Comstock Rosencrans, her mother figure

As a professional woman with an independent income she was able to open a charge account at Haynes Brothers' Store. A ledger preserved at the Floyd County Historical Society reveals a first entry on October 25, 1884, when she purchased underwear, hose, collars, etc. to a total of $8.20. The commerce continued for four years, a corset for $1.25, gingham at 10c per yard, etc. in 1888. At the end of 1888 purchases ceased, and on March 2, 1889, she closed out her account with a payment of $10.59. She had decided to forsake Marble Rock to seek broader horizons in the West.

Proper young ladies did not live apart from family in the Nineteenth Century, so Julia's western destination was the farm of her Aunt Lucy and Uncle John Gurnmere in western Nebraska. The Gurnmeres were homesteading 160 acres near the town of Sutherland in Lincoln County. 12 They met her at the Union Pacific depot after the long trip west from Omaha. The rails had followed the valley of the Platte River through terrain not greatly different from her native Iowa, but the last leg of the journey by horse and buggy climbed out of the valley and across the treeless high plains, introducing Julia to a new world.

Figure 238: Julia as a teen ager (left) and as a young adult (right)

She lived with her aunt and uncle while she taught at a nearby one room country School. She had intended to stay in the west only one term and then to return to Marble Rock, but her plan changed when she met young Francis Marion Bobbitt, a farmer who lived with his family a few miles east of the Gummere place. He was handsome, earnest and fond of music. They were married at North Platte, Nebraska, on March 23, 1890.

Julia adjusted readily to farm life, for she had lived most of her childhood on her grandparents' farm. She looked forward with anticipation to the birth of her first-born which turned out to be a little girl born in May, 1891. They named her Marvel. The scourge of infant mortality revisited when the baby died at little more than three months of age. In September, 1892, Julia bore a little boy, John William, or "Willie", but at age twenty-four days he too died. The two infants were buried side by side in a tiny country cemetery eight miles southeast of Paxton, Nebraska, with a small stone bearing the tender epitaph, "Darlings we miss you, gone too soon."

Figure 239: This modern map shows the location of the Gummere and Bobbitt farms relative to Sutherland, Nebraska. The reservoir, of course, was not present in the Nineteenth Century.

Fig 240: Baby Ila and her brother Ray (in skirt) at Tulsa

At last on August 27, 1893, a healthy little boy was born. They named him Ray Ivor Bobbitt. The young parents were delighted at this beginning of their own nuclear family, but the obligation of fatherhood forced Francis to reassess the future prospects on this dry windswept part of the high plains. His father had already given up and moved away after repeated crop failures. The neighborhood was rife with tales of cheap, even free, land in the recently opened Oklahoma Indian Territory to the south. Francis set out by horseback in the spring of 1894 to find a place for his family in this new land of opportunity.

Julia was left behind with the baby, although she was not entirely alone. Francis' brother Willis remained on the farm which he had recently purchased from his father, the farm where Francis had been living when Julia first met him. Also Aunt Lucy and Uncle John Gurnmere were still there on the Nebraska high plain. Both Willis and the Gurnmeres were becoming discouraged by the repeated crop failures, however, and were anticipating moves to more congenial locations.

At last Francis wrote that he had a place near Tulsa where Julia and the baby could find shelter, if not comfort. Willis helped her load the belongings, clothes, bedding, dishes and harness into a covered wagon, and Julia set out with baby Ray and Rover, the three- legged family dog, for far-off Indian Territory. She brought along a small amount of food plus their meager savings to pay for pasturage for the horses. 13 She nursed the baby along the way.

Figure 241: At Ringwood, Oklahoma, Indian Territory. L to R: Ray, Ila (with doll), Earl and Julia holding Baby Hazel

The terrain south of Sutherland was rough and the country sparsely settled. When she entered Kansas she found settlement more advanced, all the farm land under cultivation and the farmsteads closer together. But the old Kansas wagon trails were no longer usable. "Herd laws" had decreed an end to the open range and had mandated fencing. There was now a grid of unimproved "roads" bounded by strands of wire which followed section lines and restricted travel to east-west and north-south directions only. 14 Closure of the old diagonal trails meant an increase in distance traveled, but she continued doggedly until she reached at last the Territory of Oklahoma where barbed wire was not yet an encumbrance. After hundreds of miles of a bone-jarring trek she finally reached Francis at their new home near Sand Springs and Tulsa.

They lived there for less than four years. The highlight of the stay in eastern Oklahoma was the birth of a little girl on February 24, 1896, Ila Alverda Bobbitt. Except for Ila's birth the sojourn near Sand Springs was a disappointment. Farming was less rewarding than anticipated, and water from the well which Francis had dug with great effort was so contaminated by "rock oil" (petroleum) as to be nearly unfit to drink. He decided they should move west where opportunity was greater and the water better.

The move was to another farm, this time near the villages of Walthall and Ringwood, Oklahoma. The water was better, but the real attraction at this locale was that Francis' father and three of his brothers, Jim, Willis 22 and Gene, lived nearby with their families. Proximity to relatives seems to have been a powerful force in those days before the telephone and when activities such as haying and grain harvest required groups of farmers working in teams.

Julia was far from her relatives in Iowa, however, and the latest move offered little improvement in living conditions. Like her pioneer neighbors she lacked indoor plumbing and electricity and even adequate shelter from rain and cold. They were hardly optimal circumstances for another pregnancy, but on February 12, 1898, she gave birth to a healthy boy, Francis Earl Bobbitt.

In addition to his farm work her husband was building a house for the family. It was not quite completed, although the family had already moved in, when Julia experienced her sixth childbirth. During a heavy summer rain with water pouring through the not yet completed roof and onto her bed she brought forth another female infant. The date was June 29, 1900. They named her Hazel Jessie Bobbitt.

Figure 242: Francis, Julia (holding Baby Hazel) and old Rover at Ringwood, Oklahoma. 1901

Shortly after Hazel's birth Francis was injured in a farm accident, suffering a severe hernia and internal injuries. No longer able to continue the heavy physical labor on the farm, he managed to purchase a general store in Ringwood. The family moved to rooms above the store, sharing the second floor with the "Palace Hotel". The hotel, typical of its time and place, was simply a short term rooming house catering to arriving farmers and their families seeking land for settlement.

The store dealt in a wide range of merchandise, ladies' and men's clothing, textiles, housewares, farm supplies, etc. Food items other than flour, sugar and coffee were not numerous, since most of the customers were farmers who produced their own food. Julia was kept busy with care of the four children, including baby Hazel, but she did find time to help downstairs at the store. She was proud to see her name as co-proprietor on the letterhead of the business stationery which her husband had ordered.

Town life, the first since she had left Iowa, was to Julia's liking. She enjoyed the proximity of neighbors and the company of patrons at the store. The children also enjoyed the companionship of other children in the town. Interestingly, some of their playmates were Indian children, since Oklahoma was still Indian Territory. The area was also barely civilized: Ringwood's mayor was shot and killed by a local rowdy during the Bobbitts' stay there, and he was then hunted down and killed by a posse. (see Mrs. Boaz' description)

The store in Ringwood soon lost its attraction for Francis, for he had been a farmer all his life. His physical condition had apparently improved to the extent that he felt capable of farming once again. His brother Willis had married Ella Feaster seven or eight years before, and in 1900 the couple had moved from Oklahoma to Decatur County, Kansas, where Ella had relatives. 22 A half section of land in that county became available, and Francis bought it in September, 1903. 19 Willis and Ella moved onto that property and lived there for the remainder of their lives.

Francis attempted without success to trade the Ringwood store for a farm, but at last decided to sell out and move to Kansas. Julia was faced with another move, the fourth since her marriage, each move more complex and with more children uprooted. She would later reflect, "We could become nicely settled in one place, when it was up and move again." 15 She had taken satisfaction in the accomplishment of that brave move from Nebraska by covered wagon, but each subsequent move became less adventuresome and more arduous.

In a letter to Julia dated May 1, 1932, Mary Boaz, an old friend from the days in Oklahoma, reminisced about an incident which occurred during the Bobbitts' stay there. She wrote that she remembered "the killing we had in Ringwood when you folks lived here, Clint Fox killing Ferguson, then the people killing Fox. I remember how scared your big woolly dog was. He crowded in the hotel and went up the landing in the stairway and staged there for a long time. He wasn't scared any more than we people were."

A more complete account of the event * describes “The killing of Elmer Ferguson, who was mayor of the town, by Clint Fox who was drunk. Clint was in the saloon and had too much whiskey. He was raising a disturbance and Elmer Ferguson tried to calm him down, but was unsuccessful. Then Clint pulled a gun and shot Elmer Ferguson, killing him. Mrs Ferguson ran out of the near by drug store shouting hysterically. Clint motioned her back in the store, saying he would kill her also if she didn’t get back in the store. A crowd gathered quickly with guns. Clint Fox grabbed Bud Greenland and his brother as hostages, and ran north out of town. The crowd, which had formed a posse followed and hunted Clint down in the breaks of Indian Creek. By that time the Greenland boys had broken away from him. The posse shot Clint down. There was nobody who would sit up with the body of Clint Fox that night awaiting burial.”

* From Gloss Mountain Country, A Histoty of Major County, produced by Major County Historical Society, Fairview, Oklahoma, 1977.

The move this time was by railroad, for the Rock Island now passed through Ringwood. They packed their personal belongings and the remaining unsold merchandise from the store and set out for Kansas in relative comfort, Francis, Julia, the four children and even Rover the faithful black and white three legged family dog. They traveled far to the east before connecting with the west-bound Rock Island line serving northwest Kansas. The station nearest the farm where Willis and Ella were living was at the village of Dresden in Decatur County. It was the month of April in 1904 when they alighted there.

They lived in Dresden for two months while they inventoried and sold the remaining merchandise from the store. The buyer was Mr. Lance Alexander of Dresden. 16 Rover made a bad impression on Mr. Alexander by biting Belle Alexander on the face. (She had invited the confrontation by blowing on his face.) 17 Luckily the incident did not lead to litigation, since the personal injury industry had not yet made its appearance.

Figure 243: The little square house by the Chautauqua Park. The porch was enclosed and the television tower erected many years after the F. Bobbitts lived there.

In June, 1904, they moved to the county seat at Oberlin, renting a house on Griffith Avenue near the north edge of town. Some months later they moved to another rented house at 309 W, Commercial Street. There Julia's last child was born on June 15, 1905. They named her Margaret Ellen Bobbitt. Four months later Francis sold half of the farm to his brother Willis and with the proceeds and a $600 mortgage bought eight lots on West Hall Street. The lots were vacant except for the most westerly one where stood a small square house next to Chautauqua Park. Julia moved the family into that house with pleasure, for it was owned, not rented, and therefore offered the prospect of some permanence. 16

The family's first caller after the move to Oberlin was Mrs. Jenny Dean, widowed mother of one of Oberlin's successful business men. Mrs. Dean invited the family to join the congregation of the newly-organized Christian Church. They accepted her invitation, although both Julia and Francis had been raised Baptists. 18 As they continued to put down roots at Oberlin Francis joined a fraternal organization called Modern Woodmen of America. Julia joined Royal Neighbors, a sister organization of the Modern Woodmen.

Francis engaged in various enterprises which resulted in a modest income. He raised livestock in partnership with his brother Willis and also with Chris Mines, a farmer who lived northwest of town. He was a partner in a creamery and butter plant in Oberlin. His principal occupation, however, was carpentry, including building houses as he had done in Oklahoma. The housing project which most interested Julia was a house at 705 West Hall Street, only fifty yards or so from the little house by the park where the family was then living. This new house was to be the family's definitive home.

Just as the new house was nearly completed Francis began to feel feverish and to develop a stiff neck and severe headaches. His condition worsened and did not respond to the ministrations of local doctors. At last about the first of May, 1906, he traveled in desperation to Topeka to consult with physicians there. He was admitted to a Topeka hospital where he continued to fail, and on June 3, 1906, he died.

Figure 244: Resolution of Condolence by the Modern Woodmen. They could offer little more.

Julia was forty-one years old at the time of her husband's death, and her five children ranged in age from thirteen to one year. Francis had been able to provide the family with a fair livelihood but could never put much aside. Standing beside his coffin in the little house by the park, Julia must have been numb at the loss of companionship for herself and of support for her fatherless children. The community offered sympathy and condolences, and the Modern Woodmen attended the funeral in a body, but when she returned from the cemetery on June 5 the reality was still the same: she faced a future of long lonely widowhood and of privation for herself and the children.

An insurance policy with the Modern Woodmen yielded $1000, an amount worth considerably more in those days than now. There was the remaining quarter section of farm land in Center Township, the interest in the creamery, some livestock and the new house which Francis was just completing at the time of his death. On the debit side were the mortgage on the lots on West Hall Street and whatever debt remained from the purchase of the farm. It was not a very large estate.

Miserly welfare payments were available from the county, but reception of such charity was then regarded as a disgrace and a permanent blot on the recipient's soul. Uncle Nick and Aunt Em wanted her to move back to Marble Rock, Iowa, where she had been raised, but she was too proud to accept help.17 She was determined to persevere in the community where she and Francis had decided to make their permanent home.

The most negotiable parts of the estate were the partnership interest in the creamery and the livestock. Julia soon sold them, reserving for the family three cows to be kept with the chickens in pens behind the little house by the park. Thus milk, cream, butter and eggs were assured, although she had to find the means to provide hay and grain for the animals. 15 Francis' brother Willis, down on the farm in Center Township, could help with hay and grain, but he had a family of his own and was able to provide little else in the way of material aid. A large vegetable garden tended by the children in the vacant lots on Hall Street provided food for the table.

The family did not move into the new house at 705 West Hall Street as Francis had planned. Instead Julia rented out the house as a source of income, usually to groups of young farm boys staying in town to attend the county high school. She hired George McMullen, a local builder, to add a bedroom and thereby increase the house's income potential.16

Figure 245 Left: Uncle Nick and Aunt Em. They wanted Julia to move back to Marble Rock with her family.

Figure 246 Right: counter clock- wise: Willis Bobbitt, Ella feaster Bobbit4 Ovanda and Opal Bobbitt. He could give a little aid to his dead brother's family.

The years 1907, 1908 and 1909 were times of severe drought in Western Kansas and a period of great stress for Julia and her young family. By day she did laundry and ironing for others and sewing by night. 17 The little ones seldom went hungry as they gathered about the table, heads bowed while their mother asked the blessing, 15 but on June 7, 1907, one year after her husband's death, Julia was forced to mortgage the farm land in Center Township. 19

The children made important contributions during those difficult early years, especially the two oldest, Ray and Ila. Ray was two months short of his thirteenth birthday when his father died, and he conscientiously assumed his role as head of the family. 20 He quit school and joined the labor force, working at various jobs, including type setting at a

Fig 247: A sad, anxious and lonely time

local newspaper. When she was in the eighth grade Ila took a part time job setting type after school and on Saturdays at the Oberlin Herald. Two years later, as a high school sophomore, she quit school to accept a full time job at the Oberlin Eye, a rival newspaper. She later worked in the dry goods department at Campbell, Dean and Wilbur, but regretfully was never able to return to earn her high school diploma.18 The younger children tended the cows and chickens and worked in the large vegetable garden during the summers.

In 1910 the drought ended and economic conditions in the community improved. There was even a torrential rain and flood in August. The children were growing older and more capable of caring for themselves as anxiety and uncertainty eased a bit. There was some satisfaction at having weathered a severe storm, and even a little time for relaxation and enjoyment.

The most exciting event of Oberlin's summers in those days was Chautauqua, the people's college, offering education, recreation and amusement at Chautauqua Park next to the Bobbitt house. Families from far and near camped in tents on the park grounds for the ten days of the affair which began each year with a parade to the park led by the Oberlin Concert Band. The action continued with concerts followed by plays or lectures by famous politicians or experts from such exotic far off places as Mexico and Hawaii, all conducted under the big top of a huge centrally located canvas tent. 21 The horde of vacationing tent dwellers next door proved a bonanza for Julia, as she could sell fresh bread and baked goods as fast as she could draw them from the oven. The children helped with production and sales, thrilled to be part of such a heady enterprise.

Figure 248: Under the Chautauqua tent. A captive clientele for Julia's baked goods

By the spring of 1914 Julia and the children were able to earn enough to get by without the rent money generated by the new house which Francis had built just before his death. 17 They moved in at last as he had intended. There were three bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and dining room. The added space was sorely needed, as Ray and Ila had reached young adulthood, and even Margaret, the baby, was now nine years old. As with most other houses in Oberlin there was no electricity nor any plumbing. A privy out back served its purpose except in the frosty days of winter when an enamel pail provided a welcome substitute. Kerosene (they called it "coal oil' in those days) fueled the glass lamps which dimly lit the house at night and also fired the kitchen stove for cooking. The technology was crude, but state of the art at the time.

The next year, on December 18, 1915, Julia sold the remaining farm land in Center Township for $480.19 Satisfaction of the mortgage and interest reduced the proceeds considerably, leaving little residual. The land had never provided much benefit, even in years of good crop conditions, and its loss was not greatly missed at the time. The sale may have been premature, however, because land and commodity prices were soon rising sharply because of the war in Europe.

In 1917 America entered the war amid hysterical appeals to patriotism and sacrifice. The lure of adventure and a chance to experience the outside world were more than small town boys and young men could resist. Ray joined the navy.

That same year Earl graduated from high school, the first in the family to receive a diploma. He taught one semester of school at the nearby village of Traer, then returned to Oberlin early in 1918 to replace the bookkeeper at Campbell, Dean and Wilbur who had left to join the navy.

Figure 249: Earl and Ray in their World War I uniforms

Eager to get into service himself, Earl soon left for Topeka where he enlisted in the Students' Army Training Corps at Washburn College. After the armistice which ended World War I he took a job with Southwestern Bell Telephone Company as an accountant. 23 He never again returned to reside in Oberlin, although he kept in touch with his mother and other members of the family by letters and occasional visits.

In the years that followed the war the rest of the children reached adulthood. Hazel graduated from high school in 1919 and went to work at the Oberlin National Bank. She continued to live at home with the family. Ray, now returned from his military service, married Miss Edith Danielson the same year. He built a house on property his father had purchased many years before. It was located between the little house by the park and the "new" house his father had built. He therefore lived next door to his mother. Ila married Rell Landau, recently demobilized from the army, on February 15, 1920. He was a new employee of the Reserve Building and Loan Association. Rell and Ila made their first home at a little house on South Buffalo Avenue only a few blocks from Julia. On April 12, 1920, Ray and Edith presented Julia with her first grandchild. They named him Max.

Figure 250: Julia lived in this houseftom 1914 until her death in 1936 On the left is the house Ray built next door

Julia had been an active member of the Christian Church ever since the family had moved to Oberlin. All the children had been baptized there, even Ray and Ila,18 since the congregation did not practice infant baptism. The church building was a wood frame structure located on the southwest corner of Penn Avenue and Oak Street.

In the autumn of 1920 a local high school teacher who was also superintendent of the Baptist Sunday School, proposed a federation of all the Protestant churches in town. The proposal appealed to some members of all the congregations, but the Christians and the Baptists were the only ones to follow through. Each of the two congregations appointed three members to serve on a working committee charged with compiling the terms of federation. Of the six-member committee Julia was the only woman.

The committee presented a proposed federation agreement to the two congregations in early April, 1921, a majority of each being required for its adoption. The Baptists voted by secret ballot 16 yes and 10 no. The Christians voted 34 yes, 10 no.

The approved terms were expressed in six articles, most of which were concerned with organization, business procedure and property. Article H stood out as a stern exception: "The Christian group and the Baptist group shall each retain its own organization so far as is necessary for the reception, discipline and dismission of its own members." 25 The nature of the discipline and the grounds for "dismission" were not stated.

Fig 251: Christian Church, corner of Penn and Oak in Oberlin Julia was an active member. Her children were baptized here.

Figure 252: Julia about 1920.

For more than a decade the combined congregations used both the Christian Church and the Baptist Church buildings, the latter located on the northeast corner of Cass and Maple. Children's Sunday School was conducted at the Baptist building, while adults met at the Christian building. Preaching services were held in the Christian Church and baptismal services at the Baptist building. The physical separation of church functions was far from ideal, especially during stormy weather, so in 1935 when the former Episcopal Church, a larger and more substantial brick building, became available the Federated Church purchased it. 24 The Christian and Baptist buildings were sold and eventually demolished.

The 1920's brought the joy and the tragedy inevitable in a large extended family. Ila's and Rell's firstborn, a boy they named Rell Francis, but forever called "Buster", was born October 12, 1920, and died of intussusception March 22, 1922. The condition had led to bowel obstruction, easily corrected at present, but not amenable at that time and place. From Marble Rock came word of the death on August 27, 1921, of Julia's kindly Uncle Nick Rosencrans10 in whose home she had lived her adolescence. Margaret graduated from high school in 1923, attended summer school at Fort Hays Teachers College, then taught for three years at Swede Home and Jolly Hill Rural Schools. 21 Earl married Ruth Poole, a co-worker at the telephone company at Wichita, on March 22, 1924. They moved to St. Louis, Missouri.26 Hazel married Lee Kump, a co-worker at the Oberlin National Bank, on February 21, 1925. They lived a short time on the Kump family farm, then moved to Jennings, Kansas, then finally back to Oberlin in May, 1927, where Lee began work at the local Ford agency. He eventually owned the business and operated it for the rest of his life. Back in Marble Rock Aunt Em Rosencrans, died March 14, 1926. Margaret married J. Francis Barclay, a civil engineer with the Kansas State Highway Department, on August 6, 1927. Julia's family expanded rapidly and grew to include twelve grandchildren before her death, and four more subsequently.

Ray operated a men's clothing store in Oberlin through much of the 1920's. In the summer of 1927 Earl and Ruth moved from St. Louis to Atwood, thirty miles to the west of Oberlin, where they also operated a clothing store for men. They had lived there only three years when in July, 1930, Ruth died suddenly of a massive pulmonary embolism. In the meantime Ray sold his Oberlin store to Ralph and Ward Claar in the spring of 1930 and moved with his family to Atwood where he bought an interest in Earl's store. After Ruth's death Earl sold the remainder of his interest in the Atwood store to Ray and returned to the telephone company in St. Louis. 20, 23, 26 Julia thus lost the nearness of both her sons, missing especially the presence next door of Ray, Edith and the three small grandchildren.

In August, 1928, Julia received visits from two dear relatives from Marble Rock, Iowa, her childhood home. They were her sister Ella who had married Ellis Blake of Marble Rock in 1884 and her Uncle Will Comstock, now 86 years old. Uncle Will's wife Mary had died the year before 27, leaving him lonely, but still able to make the long trip to Kansas. Ella and Uncle Will got to know Julia's Oberlin family and whiled away the days reminiscing and catching up on the happenings of the nearly forty years since Julia had left Iowa.

Fig 253: Visitors from Marble Rock, August, 1928 L to R: Julia, Uncle Will Comstock and Ella.

Two years later in 1930 Julia made her one and only visit to Marble Rock since she had left there in 1889. Although its population had not changed greatly there were many other changes in the town. City water was now available, a hydroelectric power plant had been established on the Shell Rock River and there was even an electrified interurban railway service connecting Marble Rock with Charles City. 2 Best of all there were cousins to visit as well as Uncle Will and her sister Ella.

Besides the sentimental ties there was probably a more worldly reason for Julia's visit to Uncle Will. He had amassed a considerable estate in his lifetime, and he and Aunt Mary had been childless'. At age 88 his health was failing along with that of the national economy as the Great Depression deepened. His heirs, the many nieces and nephews on both the Comstock and Yerrick sides, were being stressed by various financial hardships and were hoping for some relief by way of inheritance. As shown by letters still in existence, Julia did have an opportunity to inspect the records of some of Uncle Will's holdings during her visit to Marble Rock.

Uncle Will died on November 24, 1930, only a few months after Julia's visit, and immediately an unexpected claimant for his property appeared. Since early 1928 a woman had lived in his house to care for him and insure his comfort. In the many letters which later circulated among the nieces and nephews she is referred to simply as "Gertie", her surname now lost. Gertie apparently did a good job of caring for Uncle Will and incidentally for herself as well. Letters preserved by Julia reveal that two years before Uncle Will's death Gertie had appeared at his bank and requested his will. The banker refused her request unless authorized by Will himself. After his death the will was found to be missing at the bank and an authorization with Will's signature in its stead. Also some negotiable certificates which Julia had examined and reckoned worth about twenty thousand dollars had dwindled appreciably and unaccountably.

Fig 254: Ella and a rare smiling picture of Julia

Julia's cousin Roy Crabtree was appointed administrator of the estate, and Julia, Ella and sixteen of their cousins named heirs. Gertie's name was conspicuous by its absence. Roy's later letters to Julia reveal his frustration at unsuccessful attempts to evict Gertie from Uncle Will's house or to collect rent. She claimed harassment and illness, delaying settlement for months and years. The ultimate distribution was less than any of the heirs had anticipated, and finally in 1935 the last of Uncle Will's land was sold for taxes, and some of the remaining funds were lost when a local bank failed.28

With the prospect of a sizable inheritance ended, Julia resigned herself to a continued frugal life style. Except for kerosene and coal her purchases were limited to simple provisions from Hanson Brothers' Grocery Store on West Hall Street. After her sons-in-law installed electricity in her house, bare bulbs hanging by cords from the ceiling, there were minimal utility bills as well as small property tax payments. She still kept chickens in a back yard pen, but there was no longer need for a cow. Except for family her social life was limited to occasional meetings of the Royal Neighbors and to quiet games of Rook, a card game popular at the time, with friends or neighbors.

Fig 255: Julia (indicated by arrow head) poses with the Royal Neighbors, her principal social group outside the family.

On September 12, 1931, Earl married Miss Otella Miller of Kansas City, an employee of the auditing department at the telephone company. They made their home at St. Louis where Earl rose in the company to be supervisor of the accounting department and eventually division auditor. 23 He wrote to his mother frequently, but was seldom able to come around in person.

Figure 256: The grandchildren. L to R, front row: Charles Barclay, Don Kump- Middle Row: Phyllis Landau, Marjorie Landau, Warren Kump, Marba Jean Bobbitt, Geraldine Bobbitt. Back Row: Darrell Landau, Julia, Max Bobbitt. Born after Julia's death, in chronologic order; were Jack Kump, Bruce Bobbitt, Barton Bobbitt, Dick Barclay and Judy Bobbitt.

Ila and Hazel dropped in often for brief afternoon visits, and Margaret and Francis even lived with Julia for a short time when Francis' job with the highway department allowed him to be stationed at Oberlin. Grandchildren visited too, especially when the circus came to town and set up on the vacant block across the street from her house. As the number of grandchildren increased gradually, Julia came to enjoy them at Sunday afternoon family gatherings at Ila's or Hazel's house. A few times she stayed for a week or two with Ray and his family at Atwood.

But it was not a happy time. The Great Depression continued unabated, and individuals, young and old, struggled to survive. Severe drought ushered in the Dust Bowl phenomenon, bankrupting farmers and townsmen alike. Dismayed by clouds of dust and endless crop failures, many gave up and abandoned the community in search of better times elsewhere.

Often Julia sat alone at home in her rocking chair, glum and depressed. "Mama is feeling blue today," one daughter would confide to another. It may have been clinical depression or simply a normal reaction to a lifetime of endless misfortune. Certainly as Julia approached the end of her life there was little joy to contemplate: premature deaths of parents, siblings, babies and husband, a struggle to rear a family alone, and finally a desolate old age. Years later one of her grandsons mused that he did not recall ever seeing his grandmother smile. 30

Figure 257: Julia near the end of her life.

No wonder her blood pressure was cause for alarm. On Sunday afternoon, September 6, 1936, she attended a family dinner at Ila's house. The men folk were playing cards and the daughters visiting when she quietly expressed a desire to go home. She refused offers of a ride and insisted on walking all the way as was her custom. She suffered a heart attack that evening, but lingered until Earl and Otella arrived from St. Louis on Wednesday, September 9. Then, still in the home her husband had built years before and with all her children at her bedside, she peacefully passed away, ending a life of remarkable tragedy and fortitude. 15

Figure 258: August 27,1933. L to R: Ray, Ila, Julia, Earl, Hazel and Margaret. Raising a family alone was Julia's life's work.

Francis and Margaret Barclay, Rell and Ila Landau, Hazel and Lee Kump, Edith and Ray Bobbitt

Hazel Kump, Otella Bobbitt, Julia Bobbitt, Margaret Barclay, Edith Bobbitt Ila Landau

Julia’s Family except for Jack, Dick, Barton, Bruce and Judy

References

1. Comstock, John Adams, A History and Genealogy of the Comstock Family in America. Commonwealth Press, Los Angeles, CA. 1949. The United States Census of 1870 and also that of 1880 agree with Comstock's book and place the year of Julia's birth at 1865. Other sources suggest 1867, but are in error on the basis of other evidence. Her obituary evades the issue by failing to mention her birth date.

2. Carney, Arlene, and Ream, Nancy, Out- Heritage, A Collection ofRemembrances, Marble Rock, Iowa. Graphic Publishing Company, Lake Mills, Iowa. 1976.

3. 77ze Story of Floyd County, Iowa, 1882, a book in the collection of the Floyd County Historical Society, Charles City, Iowa.

4. Charles City Intelligencer, June 25, 1874.

5. Proceedings of the Circuit Court of Floyd County, Iowa, dated October 4, 1875.

6. She purchased the property at Nora Springs on June 30, 1879, according to records on file at the Floyd County Court House at Charles City, Iowa.

7. The 1880 U. S. Census showed Rufus Comstock's occupation as "store keeper".

8. Office of the Register of Deeds, Floyd County Court House, Charles City, Iowa.

9. Mortality Records at the Floyd County Court House, Charles City, Iowa

10. Obituary of Nicholas Rosencrans who died August 27, 1921.

11. School records at the Floyd County Historical Society, Charles City, Iowa.

12. A patent record on file at the Court House at North Platte, Nebraska, reveals that they "proved up" (gained title) on May 9, 1890.

13. In his letter of August 5, 1894, Francis refers to anticipated moves by Will and Aunt Lucy and offers traveling advice to Julia.

14. Barrett, Hazel, and Diehl, Ruby, Decatur County Then and Now, Jubilee Edition, Privately printed. Oberlin, Kansas. 1960.

15. "Proud of My Mama," by Ila Bobbitt Landau, unpublished manuscript, 1982. 16. "Proud of My Papa," by Ila Bobbitt Landau, unpublished manuscript, 1980. 17. "Life of Francis Marion Bobbitt," by Hazel Bobbitt Kump, unpublished manuscript, undated

18. Oberlin HeraI4 February 21, 1985.

19. Numerical Index of Section Nineteen, Township Three, Decatur County, Kansas. Register of Deeds, Decatur County Court House, Oberlin, Kansas.

20. Obituary of Ray I. Bobbitt. Women were not considered family heads at the time. 21. Decatur County, Kansas. published by Specialty Publishing Company. Lubbock,

Texas. 1983.

22. Obituary of Ovanda Bobbitt Koehler. 23. Obituary of Francis Earl Bobbitt.

24. Program of the Fiftieth Anniversary Observance of the Federation. March 28, 1971.

25. Working Agreement of the Oberlin Federated Church.

26. Obituary of Ruth Poole Bobbitt, published in The Citizen-Patriot, Atwood, Kansas, July 10, 1930.

27. Obituary of William Comstock

28. The details of the inheritance from Uncle Will are included in eight letters to Julia from Ella Blake and Roy Crabtree, dated 1928 through 1935.

29. "Proud of Our Mama", Tribute to Ila Bobbitt Landau by her children. Unpublished. 1988

30. Max L. Bobbitt at a reunion of the Bobbitt cousins near Loveland, Colorado in 1993.