Ruth Clark (Draper) Barlow (1845 - 1877)

Born 14 Jun 1845 in Vandalia, Jasper, Iowa, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Stephen Conley Barlow — married 11 Mar 1864 (to 28 Jun 1877) in Iowa, United States

Descendants

Died 28 Jun 1877 at age 32 in Ellis, Kansas, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Gordon Gray [send private message]

Biography

Ruth Clark Draper Barlow^[1][2]

BIRTH 1845 Indiana, USA

MARRIAGE to 1864 to Stephen Conley Barlow^[3] (1842–1921) in Iowa

CHILDREN

• Eugene William Barlow 1866–1884^[4]
• Lewis Henry Barlow 1868–1964^[5]
• Elvon Eldred Barlow 1869–1944^[6]
• Ada Celia Barlow Heim 1873–1941^[7]

DEATH Kansas, United States uncertain where

BURIAL Probably Kansas, Unknown. She died from tubeculosis on the return trip from Colorada back to Nebraska intended to improve her health. She is not buried Starr Cemetery, Find A Grave is incorrect and needs edited. Dave Draper, the profile manager of this profile, visited Starr Cemetery to document and photograph the cemetery. She is not interred there, and there is no cenotaph marker to remember her.

Ruth was born in 1845 in or around Vandalia, Iowa . This is part of Des Moines, Iowa today. She was the daughter of Ira Draper and Celia Means. Her family was getting settled into farm life in Iowa, where the Draper family had moved, from the Indianapolis, Indiana, area, and earlier from Burkesville, Kentucky, where her father, Ira, was born.

Ruth married Steven Conley Barlow on March 11, 1864. He was the son of Lewis and Ruth (Bishop) Barlow who founded the town of Rising Sun, Iowa, now part of Des Moines, Iowa.

While her husband was off fighting in the Civil War, one fall night in 1864, all hell broke loose. "Grab your essentials! Get the wagons hitched, we have to leave now!" was the probably cry to her large family, from her father, Ira Dillingham Draper

It seems the Draper family had broken the laws of the times. Their crime was hiding runaway slaves on their property, and helping them get to the North. A bounty and a warrant "Wanted DEAD or ALIVE" was targeted on her father by the pro-slavery activists, or slave owners in Missouri. Those violent mobs would have slaughtered the entire family, preferring the "DEAD" part of the warrant. Iowa was a "free state" however it was against the law to harbor runaway slaves. The penalty for breaking that law would have been a fine and maybe some jail time. The slavery owners and activists had other plans. namly to kill Ruth's father.

They were not the only family in trouble. Ira Draper was close friends with James Madison Deweese and his large family. They packed up and left with the Draper family. The rendezvous would be near where the Village of Dawson, Nebraska now sits. The biography of Ira A. Draper a brother of Ruth Draper, tells of the trouble his father was escaping from in Iowa. (see the newspaper clipping)

Ruth Draper Barlow may have left with them, or stayed behind, but she does move to the Dawson, Nebraska area at some point and his joined there by her "Civil War Hero husband", Steve, who was aid to General Sherman on his "march to the sea"!

Both Draper and Deweese families had to cross the Missouri River at Brownville, by a ferry, powered by 6 oarsmen. Only one wagon would fit at a time. Some would have to wait several days for their turn to cross. The Draper and Deweese families, and probably others, arrived at the agreed location with in 5 days of each other.

There were few settlers in the area to help them. The first priority was to hunt game to feed close to 30 people. Firewood had to be gathered and sleeping arrangements made in and under the wagons to stay warm and dry, under the unpredictable Nebraskan sky. They had to cut trees down and build a "cabin of logs" for each family. The size mentioned by members of the family was 16 by 14 feet. Please read the biography of Ruth Draper's brother, Robert Reece Draper, who wrote stories for the newspapers and describes these events.

Ruth Draper was one of the first school teachers. The school at the time was in a small log cabin with pupils of all ages attending. (see attached newspaper clipping)

Ruth and her husband, Stephen Conley Barlow had four children. She came down with "consumption" as they called it back then. Today it is called tuberculosis. Stephen packed up the family and went to Colorado to help her fight the disease, but it didn't help. She passed away in 1877, in Kansas, either on the trip to Colorado or back to Dawson, Nebraska. There are conflicting reports as where she is buried. The family history reports she is buried in Bird City, Kansas. Another article says she is buried in Hays, Kansas.

Her oldest son, Eugene, is only 11 when he loses his mother. Upset enough over this event, and also because his mother's body is not brought back to Dawson, his father marries a 16 year old girl less than a year after his mother's death.

This event causes Eugene to run away from home to Sundance, Wyoming where his uncle William Fountain Draper has moved. He dies, at age 16, in a horrible accident where he is crushed by the horse he is riding to round up stray mules. The horse, traveling at high speed crashes through a fence and topples over onto Eugene. The Barlow family history says he was in a coral when he was thrown from a horse and kicked in the head. Both stories are probably true from different perspectives. See Find_A_Grave Eugene Barlow memorial.

His younger brother Lewis H. Barlow runs away from home, also, and eventually ends up in Gillette, Wyoming as a successful cattle rancher, and the forth generation of the Barlow family still operate the ranch today. Ruth would have been proud!

Sources

1. ↑ Find A Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/183093582/ruth-clark-barlow
2. ↑ History of the Draper Family by Mabelle Estella (Draper) Hummel
3. ↑ Find A Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28589807/stephen-conley-barlow
4. ↑ Find A Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/53640947/eugene-william-barlow
5. ↑ Find A Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30842564/lewis-henry-barlow
6. ↑ Find A Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/183093822/elvon-eldred-barlow
7. ↑ Find A Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/69440652/ada-celia-heim

YouTube interviews with Gene Barlow, 4th generation Barlow cattle rancher.

Photo of Ruth Clark Draper Barlow is taken by a cell phone camera of a black and white copy of a newspaper article, most likely the Falls City Journal, Falls City, Nebraska. I hope the family has a better one to replace this photo.

Bicentennial News undated newspaper clipping