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1874 - 1949
Illinois - Nebraska - California
Great-grandmother Estella Roberts - usually called Stella - was born on April 10, 1874 in La Rose, Marshall County, Illinois. Her father was James M Roberts, the grandson (or grand-nephew) of one of the first settlers to the county (Grandfather Jesse had a township named after him); her mother was Harriet Helm or Helms, whose family were later arrivals from Virginia. Stella's father had trouble with dates, and said in one place she was born in 1873 and in another in 1874; Stella always said 1874.
I don’t know what her life was like. On the 1870 census, her father said he was a farmer; in 1880, he called himself a laborer - I would assume that meant a step down socially, but I don’t know. In her photos, Stella always looks like a child of privilege, and the general impression I have, from family stories and from Aunt Dorothy’s carriage, is that the Robertses were at least slightly snobbish.
Marshall County is pretty much central Illinois, and it’s pretty much flat and boring, although Grandfather Jesse did make sure to get a claim with plenty of trees - but Uncle Livingston inherited Jesse’s farm. James and Harriet had different addresses at different times - I haven’t yet pinned down exactly where they were.
Born in La Rose 1874:
The village of LaRose was laid out September 1870 by Moses A. Gulick and wife. The town was first christened Montrose, then changed to Romance, and subsequently to LaRose. During Its early history, it was the principal shipping point in the township for the Chicago and Alton railroad, and usually sent to market large quantities of grain, stock and produce. By 1907, it contained quite a number of residences and several stores, shops, etc., as well as a bank, mill, elevator, a school, a post office and churches. By 1941, LaRose no longer had a bank but a station house had been added. It also had a grade school and high school. The schools were eventually closed and the children divided between Washburn and Toluca school district.
---Past and Present of Marshall and Putnam Counties by John Spencer Burt and W.E. Hawthorne,
Chicago, The Pioneer Publishing Company 1907
http://www.piperspages.com/Marshall/
1880 census - living in Belle Plain
While it might not be just right to pronounce Belle Plain township the best in the county, one thing is certain, no other township surpasses it in the fertility of its soil or in the quality and quantity of its production. It is probably, taken as a whole, the most beautiful and pleasing to the eye, having neither the flat, plane-like surface of the pure prairie nor the bold hills of the river bluffs, but a surface composed of gentle undulations, full of small brooks and groves, though the latter are fast being eradicated to improve the pasturage.
---Past and Present of Marshall and Putnam Counties by John Spencer Burt and W.E. Hawthorne,
Chicago, The Pioneer Publishing Company 1907
http://www.piperspages.com/Marshall/BellePlain.html
Stella’s brother Bernard was born in 1876 (10 February); her sister Edna in 1879 (April); her sister Ruby in 1882 (16 September). Baby Edna died in 1881.
At some point in the 1880s, the family moved to Nebraska. James and Harriet got divorced there in September of 1887 (Ord, Valley, Nebraska). James may or may not have gone back to Illinois to live - he was there in December,1891 (filling out an affidavit for his pension, in which he said his P.O. was La Rose), but Stella had married James A Bothwell by then (actually just a month earlier, in Novermber 1891)
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Stella, in Tobias, Nebraska
the first one is labeled "age 18"
but all three must be from before her marriage.
James A Bothwell was also born in Illinois, but further north (Whiteside County), and it is unlikely that the families had any connection before moving to Nebraska. James’s father was a farmer who was also a land-speculator - and I suspect he made most of his money by his land deals. James worked on the farm when he was young, but apparently did NOT like it - he was a white-collar worker for most of the rest of his life. He did take up a claim in Nebraska in 1872, and proved it in 1881. However, in 1880, there was a family of Bohemians (real Bohemians, not ancient hippies) living with him and his widowed mother, and I suspect they did the actual work. James may have worked as a coffin-maker for a time, but, like his father, he also did land deals (and some of them, from what I can make out of the legal descriptions, seem to have been slightly on the shady side); he worked in a bank (1891) - and eventually became a partner (1892) - and the high point of his career may have been when he became County Treasurer (sometime before 1900).
James had been married before - his wife died in about 1889, probably of complications of childbirth, and he had a small daughter, Edith Nell, born 1887. When he married Stella, he was 36 (his daughter 4) and Stella was only 18:
15 Nov 1891 - Fairmont NE - Book 2, p. 366, #1683
James A Bothwell 36 Stella M Roberts 18
b. Il b. Il res. Tobias
F. Jeremiah M Sarah Bates F James Roberts M Harriet Helm
by TW Cole, minister
witnesses: TJ Clark
Mrs TJ Clark
One can’t help wondering about the marriage - was it a love-match? It was pretty convenient for both parties - James with a small child, Stella with divorced parents and a father apparently unable to work. Whatever it was, it lasted. ALTHOUGH, it is not clear that young Edith lived with them. In 1895, James wrote to his sister Jennie and told her to “Write soon & tell Edith to write me. I enclose draft for $8.00.” She may have been on a visit to her aunt - but then in the 1900 census, she was living as a boarder in the same town as her father, while Stella’s father was living with James. So the convenience (of the marriage) might not have been James’s.
After their marriage, they lived in Bruning, Nebraska, where James was involved with a bank. He first was a cashier, but I think he became a partner:
1892 - the German Bank in that town was reorganized on Dec. 31, 1892 at an annual meeting and control passed into the hands of eight persons, including J.A. Bothwell, who was the Cashier, and Frank Bruning who was elected president.)
This is their house in Bruning.
Stella and James had 3 children:
Earl Verne (our grandfather) born May 14, 1893 in Hastings (Adams Co), Nebraska
Floyd born September 14, 1895 in Nebraska (don’t know what county)
Dorothy June born June 10, 1905 in Nebraska (probably Thayer County)
I don’t know why Earl was born in Hastings, but James’s sister Jennie was living there at the time. It is curious (or not) - sister-in-law Jennie had a son Earlem James and Stella called her first Earl Verne; Jennie's second son was Elgin Floyd and Stella named her second son Floyd. Dorothy, however, had a name all to herself.
Later on they moved to a much grander house in Hebron, Nebraska:
Here are pictures of Stella as a young married woman. No dates were ascribed, but they did say they were taken in Hebron.
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Sometime shortly after Dorothy’s birth, the family moved to Medford, Oregon; James worked as a real estate broker. In 1909, Edith, Stella’s step-daughter, got married in Medford. By that time, James’s sister Jennie had also moved there.
Stella with baby Dorothy
In 1910, Stella made a land claim in Jackson County:
1910 May 17 - Land Claim (BLM homestead) in Oregon by Estella for three parcels totaling 160 acres in section 30, township 34 south range 2 west of the Willamette meridian in Jackson County, OR which is where Medford is located.
Cousin Elaine’s notes from the tax rolls show E.M. Bothwell continued to be shown as a taxpayer in Jackson County (and on several of the entries she noted "E.M.Bothwell in L.A.") through 1923 when she disappears from the notes.
But the family had moved to Los Angeles by the time of the 1910 census:
1910 census- ED 79 Sh 4A line 10 - Los Angeles (Twp) 34th Pct. - 429 Manhattan Place
Bothwell, James A head mw 52 m2 19 years married b Illinois, f b Ireland, m b England, speaks English, own income, reads, writes, owns house, free?
Estella M wife fw 36 m1 19ys 3 children, 3 living, Ill, Ill, WV . . .
Verne E son mw 16 s Nebraska, Ill, Ill, no occ, reads, writes, attended school
Floyd M son mw 14 s Nebraska Ill Ill no occ attended school
Dorothy daughter fw 4 s Nebraska Ill ...
The photo on the right has no information on date or place;
the one on the left says "Los Angeles."
Both sons served in World War I. Earl got married shortly after the war was over, and on May 20, 1918 his son (Dad) was born. Dad was the only grandchild Stella would have.
Floyd was still at home for the 1920 census, as was Dorothy.
1920 census - roll 41 ED 181 sheet 14 line 89 Los Angeles, S. Howard - taken 12 Jan
Bothwell James A w 65 Ill La La South Howard 901 “real estate broker” - he also claims both his parents were English
Estella 45 Ill
Floyd M 25 shipping clerk, milling company
Dorothy 14
1920 California Los Angeles Inglewood Hyde Park Precinct - SD8, ED61, Sheet 4a - taken 12 Jan. On Belmont (I think) Street
85-93 Bothwell, Earl V head om mw26m Neb Iowa Iowa electrician
Ethel wife 22 Cal Pa Neb cashier grocery
Kearney son 1 1/2 Cal Neb Cal.
Both Dorothy and Floyd got married in about 1923. Dorothy and her husband were living with Stella and James for the 1930 census:
1930 California - Los Angeles - Glendale Twp (Ed19-967, SD15, Sheet 13b) - Apr 12
1249 Cordova Ave - l.17 - 333-326 Bothwell, James A head owns house worth $8500 yes radio no farm mw75 m 30 no yes Ill N Ireland England - yes owner real estate not a vet
Estella M wife fw56 married 1st age 27 Il Ky Wva no occ
Masterton, Joseph R son-in-law mw29 married age 22 Il Il Il mechanic auto vet?
Dorothy daughter fw24 m at 17 Neb Il Il teacher piano
1930 California - Los Angeles - Beverly Hills Twp precinct 10 (dist 642) West Hollywood ED19-842, SD16, Sheet 6b - 16 May
8743 - 168-186 Bothwell, Floyd M head owns house worth $5500, yes radio, no farm, mw35 married age 28 Mass Kan Kan attorney at law, municipal yes vet of WW
Irene L wife fw34 m 24 Mass Mass
I have no idea why Floyd gave the answers he did about birth places.
I haven’t found Earl in the 1930 census, but according to Dad, they lived in La Canada at the time.
Times were tough in the 30s, and James lost a lot of money. He almost lost the house in Glendale, but Floyd and Joe loaned him enough to pay his back taxes and interest, and he traded it for a smaller house plus enough money to repay the loan. But it was a close thing, and James was in greatly reduced circumstances. He did what he could to make money - he was a watchman for a bankrupt chicken farm at one point - but he always managed to keep a roof over their heads. (In fact, Dad remembers that when times were tough for them, James would always slip them some money.)
James died in 1940, Stella in 1949. They were both buried in Valhalla Cemetery in Los Angeles.
I’m sorry this is not a more personal account, but the only thing I remember Dad telling me about Stella was that she made yummy butterscotch pies. He also said “Whenever they visited us, it was always tense and uncomfortable because Grandma Estella M. Bothwell and Mom did not get along.” (Sounds like a family trait.) (This might be why I think of her as snobbish.) The reason for this uncomfortableness, we think, is that Earl had been engaged to a lovely woman, of whom Stella was quite fond - and who just happened to be the Borden heiress - when Ethel ensnared him.
So that’s it.
To: father, James M Roberts | mother, Harriet Helms | husband, James A Bothwell
siblings | children
Back to: Roberts Home Page | Lee's Genes Home Page
Questions, Comments, Additions, Corrections?
contact me at: lee@leesgenes.com
The personal photographs are from an album owned by Aunt Dorothy (Stella's daughter).
The pictures of the houses are from "Album of Thayer County, Nebraska" published by E.S. Mickey, Hebron, Nebraska (no other bib info) also owned by Aunt Dorothy.
page last updated 2 Mar 2007