Rhebb Family

RHEBB REBB COX

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/14/2010 at 00:11:42

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Rhebb Family
By Rick D Rhebb

Charles Ashton Rhebb came to Sioux City and Woodbury County in 1887 to work at Perkins Brothers in the bookbinding department; having learned his trade as an apprentice in Marshalltown, Iowa. His father, Charles, 1829-1903, and mother, Caroline, 1839-1919, together with their one year old son, Charles, had settled in Marshalltown when they arrived from Sweden in the year 1869. The elder Charles’ surname was Johnson when he settled in Marshalltown. He worked as a teamster, and in 1870 he had changed his last name to Rebb. Charles and Caroline Rebb had two children in addition to Charles, George, 1881-1974, and Mamie, 1872-1928, both born in Marshalltown. Although 1870 census records show Charles having been born March 28, 1868, one year before coming to the United States, in later census records he stated he was born at sea and later claimed to have been born in New York City. It appears his reputation as a tall story teller was well deserved!

In 1890 he met Eliza Catherine Cox, who had moved to Sioux City to live with her sister, Frances Grey (Cox) Wiley, and her sister’s husband, William Wiley, who was a railroad engineer on a run between Monroe, Wisconsin, the Cox family home, and Sioux City.

Eliza Catherine Cox was the fourth daughter, on e of ten children born to Edward Cox, 1827-1903, and Frances (Cozens) Cox, 1838-1886. She was born September 25, 1867, at Sommerset, England. Thomas Hardy, the famous English novelist, was a close friend of Edward Cox and acted as Eliza Catherine’s Godfather. In 1868, Edward, Frances and their four daughters crossed the Atlantic and came to Rockford, Illinois, where Edward’s older brother, Joseph, had already arrived. A Miller by trade, Edward soon found work in Wisconsin and his family relocated in the Monroe, Wisconsin, area where five more daughters and a son were born.

Charles Ashton and Eliza Catherine were married September 25, 1895. At this point the name Rebb began to be spelled Rhebb, perhaps due the Eliza Catherine’s influence, as the RH linguistic construction is common in English, and seldom if ever found in the Swedish language. Regardless of the reason why, by the 1900 census the family in Marshalltown had also adopted the spelling Rhebb. Three children were born to Charles and Eliza Catherine: Ralph Edward, 1897-1971, Chester Hardy, 1898-1957, and Wayne Charles, born 1905. Eliza Catherine Cox passed away, December 1914, of tuberculosis. Charles Ashton Rhebb survived his wife by forty-one years, living to the age of eighty-seven.

Ralph Edward Rhebb was a life long resident of Sioux City, except for short periods of time, such as when he served in World War I as a member of the Army, and a one year stay in Colorado Springs, Colorado. On January 19, 1918, he married Ethel Mae Gleason, 1895, another life long Sioux Citian. Ralph was a hardware salesman, and worked at Blackstone Hardware at the Sunset Plaza upon his retirement.

Ethel Mae Gleason was the daughter of Mary (Lowe), 1873-1960, and Leonard Guy Gleason, 1870-1939. Like Charles Rhebb and Eliza Catherine Cox, Mary Lowe came to the United States with her family in the years just following the end of the Civil War. She was the daughter of Andrew, 1845-1890, and Anna (Peterson) Lowe, 1847-1910, who made their home in Trondheim, Norway. Andrew and his oldest son, Frank came to the United States first, earning their living as shoemakers. They saved enough money to bring the rest of the family to the United States in 1882, and eventually settled in Sioux City. Mary Lowe met Leonard Guy Gleason from Ida Grove, Iowa, and married him on July 3, 1894, after which they resided in Sioux City. Besides Ethel Mae, they had two other daughters, Blanche, 1895-1963, and Myrtle (Gleason) Forbes, born 1903.

Leonard Gleason was the son of John Gleason, 1845-1911, and Frances Helen Myrick, 1845-1931. John Gleason fought in the Civil War with the Illinois 17th Cavalry, before moving to Iowa. His parents, Hiram, 1802-1878, and Caroline, 1897-?, Gleason had moved from New York to Illinois.

Frances Helen Myrick came from a long time American family. Her great grandfather, Isaac Mirick, 1738-1810, fought in the American Revolution. His family first arrived in the United States in 1636, and the interested reader may find a complete listing of the Mirick family in Genealogy of the Merrich-Mirick-Myrick Family of Massachusetts, 1672-1902. Isaac Mirick’s wife was Joanna Libby, and her family can be traced in the Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire. Four of her ancestors had arrived in the United States by 1836. Frances Helen (Myrick) Gleason’s maternal grandfather, Joshua Adams, 1791-1867, was a distant cousin of President John Quincy Adams.

Ralph Edward Rhebb and Ethel Mae Gleason Rhebb had one son, Donald Charles Rhebb, 1926. Donald is a representative in Sioux City for Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Ind. He married Lillian Dolezal, 1925, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on September 4, 1948, and they had two children, Rick Donald, 1951, and Scott Charles, 1953.

Wayne Charles married Mary Elizabeth Patterson, 1908, and they had five children: Keith Wayne, Lowell Mason, Janice Elaine, Mary Joan and Carol Anne.

Chester Hardy Rhebb married Gladys Dunning, 1900-1920, and had a son, Robert Chester (Rhebb) Thompson, 1919.