Ruth Rosenberger

Ruth Rosenberger (October 10, 1855 - May 16, 1871)

"My mother, Rachel, said that when Aunt Debbie was ill Ruth was helping by building the fire in the wood stove. The fire wasn't starting very well and she thought she would use the kerosene in the gallon can nearby. Aunt Debbie said not to pour the oil on the fire, but Ruth continued, and died from the burns and inhaled fumes."

~ Alphonette Wainwright Luccock, Loma Linda, CA (1958)

When I started researching the various families included in this genealogy I tried to be extra careful in assessing dates for both the births and the deaths of those involved. These dates rarely impacted on me personally. After all, I never knew any of these people - they were just names on a marriage license or a line on a census report - but occasionally I would run across something which piqued my interest. Such was the case with Ruth Rosenberger of Thorntown, Indiana.

Ruth was (I learned) my Great-Grandaunt. I only had a funeral home record noting that her death was as a result of burns. I found this strangely compelling - what were the circumstances of her death? Was it a house fire? A school fire? I didn't know - and my interest was raised by her youth. Here was a girl (a child, really) who was killed in some type of horrible accident. I decided I had to find out. Eventually I found a small note tucked into an account of the life and times of her sister, Deborah Rosenberger, as related by Deborah's niece, Alphonette Luccock, of California.

Only fifteen at the time of her death, Ruth had her whole life ahead of her. The Rosenberger's were devout members of the Friends Church (Quakers) which played such a large part in the history of the Rosenberger's. By their own account they were, more often than not, barely subsisting on meager holdings and barren farms. They were a pioneering family when pioneering meant something. Indiana was still the "frontier" and very much a part of Indian Country. Ruth was born only 40 years after Lewis and Clark first surveyed the land west of the Missouri River.

Life was hard on the American prairies - and even harder for members of a minority religious sect. Ruth's father James Henry Rosenberger was assessed a special tax on his property and holdings because of his religion's pacifist teachings. The Quakers believed (and still believe) that peace is preferable to war. Because of James Henry's noninvolvement in the Civil War he was burdened by additional taxes, and, one can suppose, by the scorn and ridicule of his neighbors.

Into this hard-scrabble existence James and his wife Elizabeth brought up eight children - all sharing a one room log cabin (see notes on Absalom Rosenberger's early life.) Ruth was the seventh child, and the third daughter, of James and Elizabeth. On this particular day she was tending to her sick older sister Deborah (who was 27 at the time) with only her younger sister Rachel (12 years old) at home to help. Mistakes, which taken in the context of modern life, may seem minor in nature to us - but when help is perhaps miles away by horse or buggy - and you are a 15 year old girl (now, read woman, judged by the hardships of the time) charged with the care of a beloved sister, you do what you think right. Ruth was careless, certainly, by any standards. But her motives were pure - the care and nurturing of a family member far from the "technology" of the nearest town.

It is more than interesting to note the tragic circumstances of these children's lives. When James Henry Rosenberger died in 1867 his second wife, Almyrah Greist Hadley Rosenberger, could not afford to feed nine children; 3 of her own from a previous marriage, 5 (the youngest) from James' first marriage, and Eveline, their child together. She was forced by circumstances to adopt or "farm out" the youngest children to neighboring Quaker families so that they could be fed and clothed. Just prior to James' death he had purchased land in Iowa, and there Almyrah relocated with the older children, leaving Joseph, Ruth, Absalom, Nathan and Rachel behind. Deborah had been married but her first husband, Lindley Barker, had died in 1868, leaving her a widow with 4 children to raise. Rachel Rosenberger years later in Loma Linda, California, would write "I haven't tried to describe the ups and downs, disappointments, sorrows and joys that have been my lot as I look back over my checkered pathway; the sadness and sorrow and homesickness that was my lot during my lonely childhood, the longing for my very own flesh and blood. How my heart pities the orphan, but our God and Father of love has a special care for the orphans and in a special way he watches over them."

Ruth Rosenberger died a tragic and preventable death. Who knows, today her injuries may have been considered only moderately serious. But judged by the standards of any era she certainly had what might be termed "pluck", or "true grit", which was about the highest compliment anybody could aspire to on the Indiana prairies. I'm proud to call her my relative and often wish that I had one-half her resolve and courage. This book is dedicated to her.

After her husband's death Almyrah Greist Rosenberger placed the children as follows Absalom was with Mahlon Kendall, Nathan was with Enos Kendall, Ruth was with Moses Maxwell, and Rachel was placed with Buddell Sleeper and family.

Submitted by: Doug Russell
Source: Some excerpts from Absalom Rosenberger's recollections of his early life in Thorntown, Indiana, courtesy of Mrs. Homer G. Rosenberger, Jr. [Alice Evelyn Martin], 1958 and R. Douglas Russell, Tacoma, WA, 2003