Ringgold Record
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa

Mrs. Elizabeth BLAKESLEY was born in Breckenridge County, Kentucky [January 3] 1829. In 1833 her people the RUBY's move to Edgar County, Illinois and thence to Ringgold County, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. BLAKESLEY started to Iowa with an ox team, but when only a days trip out half of the team gave out and Mr. BLAKESLEY was fain to trade the oxen for a team of mares, borrowing the $190.00 which he paid as boot from a man who owed Mr. V.G. RUGY [her brother] and when Mr. V.G RUBY wanted his money Mr. BLAKESLEY sold the mares for $190.00 and was left with out a team. He walked seven miles and worked by the day for 75 cents a day.

Mrs. BLAKESLEY has for weeks at a time ground buckwheat on a coffee mill before breakfast for the morning meal. Roasted buckwheat was the only coffee in use in the family for a long time.

Four weeks after they arrived Mr. BLAKESLEY borrowed a yoke of oxen and started in search of eatables. He was gone three weeks and had to go 150 miles into Missouri. The BLAKESLEY house was quite a primitive structure. The bedstead was extensive one. It extended clear across the house and had two logs for rails. One was part of the house and the other was part of the bed. A large piece of bark served for a dinner table.

NOTE: Above biography from a series of biographical sketches the Ringgold Recorder published of their subscribers in 1880 and 1881. Barbara Ann "Elizabeth" (RUBY) BLAKESLEY was the daughter of James Rogers RUBY (1791-1845) and Susannah Jane (BAYSINGER) RUBY (1799-1864). Elizabeth died in Knowlton, Ringgold County, Iowa, at the age of 71 years on May 4, 1900. She was interred at Centenary Cemetery, Knowlton, Ringgold County, Iowa. Mr. BLAKESLEY, Chauncey B., was born in Vermillion County, Indiana, on November 27, November, 1847, the son of Obediah and Ada (HART) BLAKESELY. He died on December 31, 1876 at the age of 59 years in Ringgold County, Iowa, with interment at Centenary Cemetery.