STUBBART, James Michell and May Arminda (BROWN)

BROWN, STUBBARD, MITCHELL, WOOD, STACKHOUSE, STAFFORD, KINSEY, MORFORD, DANIELS, BLYTHE

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 2/7/2016 at 19:07:50

Biography ~ James Mitchell & May Arminda (Brown) Stubbart

James Mitchell Stubbart, the son of Matthew and Margaret (Mitchell) Stubbart, was born in Alton, Illinois, on March 17, 1854. He became ill with typhoid fever at about 15. After graduating high school, James taught school for a year in Tabor, Iowa before attending from 1874 to 1875 Shurtleff College in Upper Alton, Illinois. Following his time at Shurtleff, James attended Tabor College or Christian Church College Tabor College [or Christian Church College] at Tabor, located approximately five miles from his parental home. After attending classes at Tabor, James began teaching again, and helping his with carpenter and farm work when not teaching in the winter. He apparently also worked on riverboats and/or as a surveyor/geologist for a time during 1876.

James was baptized in Elm Creek , Iowa by R. J. Anthony on May 5, 1878.

James and May Arminda Brown were married on November 9, 1879, at Glenwood, Iowa.

May Arminda Brown, the daughter of Freeman R. and Louisa A. (Wood) Brown, was born on August 30, 1862, in Duran, Wisconsin. They family moved, or possibly just her mother and the children, to Butler County, Nebraska, in 1875. Nothing is known about the father's fate although the mother had become widowed. Louisa married Matthew Stubbart, a widower with eleven children, on September 29, 1875. James Mitchell was one of Matthew's children with his first wife Margaret.

On May 22, 1880, James Mitchell Stubbart was ordained an Elder by E. C. Brand. He preached his first sermon the following Sunday, and thereafter usually preached from one to three sermons every Sunday. In 1885, James and May moved to what would eventually become Octavia in Butler County, Nebraska. James applied for the Post Office and got the job as the first post master of Octavia which he had helped to name. He built the building combining the post office with a notion store, and a residence. He served as post master for 10 years from 1889 to 1899. He also taught school during the winter months. James was later commissioned as a notary public.

James and May's six children were:

Effie Louisa (Stubbart) Stackhouse, b. 29 Mar 1881, Glenwood IA; married _____ Stackhouse; d. 23 Aug 1950, Hood River OR.

Pearl May (Stubbart) Stafford, 00 May 1884, Glenwood IA; married 22 Jun 1913, Lamoni IA Caleb N. Stafford; d. after 1965 CA.

Ira D. M. Stubbart, b. 10 Feb 1888, Octavia NE; married 08 SZep 1913 Tyris MO Annabelle Kinsey; d. 29 Nov 1952, Cleveland OH.

John Perry DeForest Stubbart, 08 Sep 1890, Octavia NE; married 01 Feb 1911 Tyris MO Audrey Fay Morford; d. 17 Dec 1965, Independence MO.

Dolly Ann Stubbart, b. ca. 27 Jul 1897, Octavia NE; d. 17 Aug 1897, Octavia NE.

James Frederick Stubbart, b. 17 Aug 1897, Octavia NE; married ca. 1919 Maudlett Daniels; d. 15 Dec 1960, Columbia SC.

In 1899, the Stubbart family moved to Lamoni, Iowa, where James was a grocer for the next decade. James began missionary work which kept him away from the family home quite a bit. He was ordained on April 18, 1901 to the Second (RLDS) Quorum of Seventies. About this time, James was posted to the church's Colorado mission. His mother Margaret (now Blythe) had requested his help with some real estate matters, so the church council gave James permission to visit her in Utah when she needed him.

James and May were residing in Malvern, Iowa, by 1910.

After several years of illness, May died on April 30, 1912, in Lamoni, Iowa, from a stomach tumor.

In 1915, James moved to Crook County, Wyoming, where he took out a homestead claim adjoining his son John's land. Adding to land, James owned a 615 acre spread by 1922. James remained with his daughter's household for most of his remaining years, where he continued to teach and minister for the church as well as caring for "hot-beds and early plants" and raising "a good-sized garden" in the summers. Sometime after 1938, James moved to the Saint's Home in Independence, Missouri, where he continued holding meetings and teaching religious classes until his health began to fail.

James Mitchel died at the age of 87 years on July 5, 1941, in the Independence Sanitarium. James was interred beside his wife in Rose Hill Cemetery, Lamoni, Iowa, with Elder F. M. McDowell presiding.

SOURCES:
Wilcox, Pearl. Roots of the RLDS in Southern Iowa.

Elliott, May. "Biography of James M. Stubbart." The Saints Herald. p. 492, 524, 559. April 16, 1938, p. 492.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, February of 2016