Laura Jane Skaggs

The headstone shown above was hand-made by Laura Jane Eubank's husband, Andrew Skaggs. It is located in the Providence Cemetery in Montgomery County, Illinois. It is not known if the headstone is hers because there are four other headstones in the area of this grave that also say simply "Eubank". What makes no sense to me is that if her husband made it, one would think he would have put her married name, Skaggs, ron the headstone, ather than her maiden name, Eubank.

Laura Eubank was born on Christmas Day in 1852, to parents Stephen Green Eubank and his third wife, Sarah Armstrong Waggoner Eubank, who had married on August 7, 1845, in Petersburg, Menard County, Illinois. Stephen's first two wives died young, the first, Susannah Quarles Branch Eubank in 1833 at the age of 26 during a cholera epidemic in Palmyra, Missouri, where she and her husband, Stephen, were living at the time with their first two children, James Joseph, born in December of 1826 in Tennessee, and daughter, Martha Ann, born two years later in 1828, also in Tenessee.

After the death of his wife, for some reason, Stephen sent his son, James Joseph, back to Tennessee to live with her Branch family relatives, and took James Joseph's sister, Martha Ann, with him to Illinois, where they lived for a number of years. In 1834, Stephen married Mary Ann Phillips, in Schuyler County, Illinois, and they had two daughters, Mary Susanna in 1836 while living in Peoria, Illinois, and Margaret Green Eubank in 1838 or 1839 after they moved to Springfield, Illinois. Sadly, just three years later, Mary Ann Phillips Eubank died from consumption in 1841. Her two young daughters were sent to live with their uncle, Moreau J. Phillips who also lived in Springfield.

The 1860 U.S. Federal census finds S.G. Eubank in Raysville, Bourbon County, Kansas, and lists the family as: Stephen G. Eubank, 56, occupation, cabinetmaker, born in Tennessee, and his wife, Sarah, 33, born in Illinois, and their children Helen, 14, (Stephen) Thomas, 11, (Laura) Jane, 7, Alice, 4 and Annie, 1. Their daughter Ida was born in Kansas about 1861, so she is not listed in the 1860 census. Alice and Annie were both born in Kansas, so this helps determine the year that the family moved from Illinois to Kansas, probably sometime between 1855 and 1859.

Why the Eubank family moved to Kansas is unknown, however there had been a large land grant made available in 1854 when Kansas became a state, so perhaps that was why they moved in order to take advantage of the grant. In the 1860 census, there was a family named Osborn living near the Eubank family. S.G. Eubank's partner in his cabinet making business in Springfield was named Osborn, and his daughter, Martha Ann, married a man named George Osborn, so maybe there was a connection between these two families and that may be another reason why they moved to Kansas. By the end of the 1860's the family had left Kansas and moved to Missouri, probably about 1868 or 1869.

In the 1870 U.S. Federal Census for Lafayette, Clay County, Missouri, Laura Jane Eubank was listed in the record as simply Jane, 18, and was living with her parents, Stephen, 66, her mother, Sarah, 45, and siblings, Helen (listed as Ellen), 24, (Stephen) Thomas, 19, Alice, 15, Ann, 11, Ida, 9, Adella, (or Ordella) 6, and Mary, age 1. Her father Stephen was working as a carpenter, and was born in Tennessee, and her mother was "keeping house" and was born in Illinois. All the children were born in Illinois except for Ida and Adella who were born in Kansas, and Mary who was born in Missouri, which suggests the family may have moved from Kansas to Missouri sometime between 1867 and 1868. Two patent applications made by Stephen Green Eubank for an improvement to a clothes washing machine in 1869 and 1870 were written and dated in Wellington, Missouri.

Laura Jane's half-brother, James Joseph Eubank, 40, a carpenter born in Tennessee and his wife, Elsie, 28, at home "keeping house", born in Ohio, were also living next door to Laura's family in Missouri along with their two year old son, Uselle (also known as Stephen James Eubank or Euzell Eubank). James Joseph and Elise were married in Wathena, Kansas in 1866, so we know the Eubank family was still living in Kansas in 1866. Uselle was born in Missouri in 1868, so this pinpoints the approximate time the family moved from Kansas to Missouri, although James Joseph may have moved to Missouri before his father's family moved there.

Stephen Green Eubank died in 1872 and was supposedly living in Zanesville, Illinois, at the time of his death. His daughter, Mary Susanna Eubank Rogers lived in Zanesville from about 1870 to 1880, so perhaps he had gone there to visit her or live with her at the time of his death in March of 1872.

By the 1880 U.S. Federal Census, Laura J. Skaggs, 28, was living in Pitman, Montgomery County, Illinois, with her husband, Andrew Skaggs, 33, and their children, Clara M. Skaggs, 7, Marshal Skaggs, 5, Daisy A. Skaggs, 4, and Author E. Skaggs, 2. Andrew was listed as a farmer and Laura was keeping house. Clara had been born in Missouri in 1873, the year after Laura's father, Stephen Green Eubank, died in 1872 at the age of 68. All the other children were born in Illinois, as the family returned to Illinois either before or shortly after the death of Stephen, probably because Illinois had been the home of Laura's mother, Sarah Waggoner Eubank.

An 1880 U.S. Federal Census record for Laura's mother, Sarah Eubank, showed she was living in Nilwood, Macoupin County, Illinois, which is about 10-15 miles from Pitman, Montgomery County, Illinois, where Laura and her family were living at the time. In that census record, Sarah was living with two of her younger daughters, Ida, 18, and her sister listed as Leolia, 14 (but Leolia was also shown as either Adella or Orella in other census records), and her son (Stephen) Thomas, 29, and his wife, Luella, 24, along with their son, William Eubank,11 months, as well as Oscar Thiel, 1 and Franklin Theil, 6 months, who were Sarah's grandchildren. Oscar and Franklin Thiel were the children of Stephen and Sarah's daughter, Anna J., and her husband Edward Thiel. Why Anna and Edward were not living with their children is unknown. Sarah was listed as "keeping house" and Stephen Thomas was shown to be a farm laborer.

In the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Laura, 47, was still living in Pitman, Montgomery County, Illinois, with her husband. Andrew, 53, and children, Orrin A.,18, Daisy A., 23, Laura, 16, and Sarah E., 8. The other children, Clara, Marshal and Author had left the family home or may have passed away by that time.

By the 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Laura and her husband were still living in Pittman, Illinois, and their only child living at home is Sarah E.,18, who is listed as a teacher. Andrew was still working as a farmer.

According to the "Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index for 1916-1947", Laura Jane Eubank Skaggs died on May 29, 1918, in Waggoner, Montgomery County, Illinois, and was buried June 1, 1918, in the Providence Cemetery with many of her family members. She was 65 years old at the time of her death, and was listed as a married housewife, so it appears her husband, Andrew, survived her death. Her parents names were listed as Stephan Eubank(s), born in Tennessee, and Sarah Wagner, born in Illinois. Both names were mis-spelled, with Stephen Green Eubank and Sarah Armstrong Waggoner being the correct spelling of their names.

I wish I knew more about my second great aunt, Laura Jane Eubank, but that's all there is, although on her sister Helen's Geni profile page, there is a copy of a letter that Helen wrote to their half-sister, Margaret Green Eubank, who was living in Illinois at the time when the Eubank family was living in Kansas during the Civil War. It talks a little bit about what their family had to endure in those difficult times. The date of the letter was July of 1864. An electronic copy of that letter was sent to me by Phil Ellsworth, who was a descendant of Margaret Green Eubank Wickersham and her husband William Hawk Wickersham.

Both William Hawk Wickersham and James Joseph Eubank served in the Civil War under the 124th Illinois Infantry. They enlisted the same day in August in 1861, and both fought at the Battle of Vicksburg. James Joseph was wounded in that battle, and when Margaret was on her way back home to Illinois from visiting her husband in Vicksburgh in 1862 or 1863, their first born son, Franklin, passed away on the trip home at the very young age of two years old. He was buried somewhere along the Mississippi River.

By Della Dale Smith, June 16, 2014.