Thomas Benton Stubblefield

1874 - 1941  (67 years)

• Name	Thomas Benton Stubblefield
  Born	28 Jun 1874	Elk Flat-Elgin, Union, Oregon
  Gender	Male
  Initiatory (LDS)	COMPLETED
  _UID	5D20C089C70EB3418CCE6B56803F45610F34
  Died	20 Dec 1941
  Person ID	I8136	Linder-Hood
  Last Modified	20 May 2018

  
  

  Family	Grace Lucille Linder,   b. 27 Apr 1885, Goldendale, Wash. Terr. ,   d. 29 Sep 1959, Vancouver, Clark Co., Wash.  (Age 74 years)
  Married	Apr 1906	Walla Walla, Walla Walla Co., Wash.   [1]
  _UID	53AB3C839F77D04CA50E8A4799D85045797B
  Last Modified	21 May 2018 03:52:48
  Family ID	F2974	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  The Linder Quarterly Autumn 1985 The story of John Ferguson Linder's life touches on two exciting portions of American history ••• the wagon trains west and the early settlement of the Oregon territory. Three of his descendants are active LFA members. Each one has contributed a family story about their grandfather ••• this is a compilation. The facts have been taken from primary sources such as tombstones and marriage records, etc. Some of the stories have simply been handed down. By putting facts and stories together we have a vivid picture of the man. John Ferguson Linder was born in Coles County, Illinois in 18}4 ••• the oldest child of Andrew Hines Linder and his first wife, Sarah Morris. John was the grandson of Jacob Linder and Jane Ferguson Linder. In 1840 Andrew Hines Linder and his young family moved to Missouri. There, John's mother, Sarah, died on 3 Nov 1846. Family stories indicate that John's father went into town one day and a neighbor stopped by to talk to John. He asked him if he knew WHY his father had gone into town. John didn't know ••• then the neighbor told him that his father had gone to get married. Marriage records show that Andrew Hines Linder married his second wife, Nancy Jane Samuels, on 9 Nov 1847 in Adair County Missouri. The news of the marriage obviously upset John •• who certainly missed his mother, and was at that very impressionable age of 13-14. John didn't wait to meet his new step-mother ••• instead he packed a few things and ran off to join up with a wagon train heading for the Oregon Territory. One of the families had a handicapped girl who had to be fed by hand, and they promised John "a biscuit" if he would feed her. That is how he earned his food an the long journey. The wagon trip was a success and John stayed in the West for several years. During that time he was a Private in Co. A, 9th Regiment, Oregon State Militia Mounted Vol­unteers for several months in 1854 in the Indian Wars in southern Oregon. Later, he moved to the Portland area. He did manage a trip back to l1issouri to visit his fam­ily. One of his little half-sisters recognized him (either from pictures he had sent home or maybe beca.use of a strong family resemblance) and the little girl kept hang­ing onto her mother saying, "Ma, I know it's John." John left Missouri to return to Oregon and there he met Martha Jane McQuinn (one of 13 children of Alexander Hamilton McQuinn and Rebecca Enyart). They were married at her father's home on Sauvies Island. Portland. Oregon Territory. The wedding is re­corded in the Multnomah County Marriage Book I •• the date was 2 June 1864. John and Martha Jane had five children born on Sauvies Island ••• Lillie (b. 1865), William B. (b. 1866), Clarence (b.1868), John (b. 1869). and George (b. 1873). In 1874 they bought a ranch in Goldendale, Klickitat County, Washington raising sheep and cattle. One of John's descendants wonders if a sale of possibly bounty land The Linder Quarterly Autumn 1985 Page 5 JOHN FERGUSON LINDER (for military service) produced the $650 in gold with which he purchased the Goldendale property. In Washington. three more children were born ••• Robert Imler (b. 1875). Frank F. (b 1878). and Sarah M. (b. 1879). Tragedy struck the family in 1880 ••• four of the children died of diptheria on 12 October (William B. aged 14. Clarence aged 12. George aged 7. and Sarah aged 1). Two more died later in the month ••• John aged 11. on 22 October and Frank aged 2, on 29 October. Ten months later a baby girl, Jane, died on the same day she was born, 12 October 1881. The seven children were buried on the ranch and John had a marble stone erected with all their names and ages. The stone is still standing • now away out in the middle of a grain field. In 1984. three of John's descendants visited the graves and showed the present owners pictures of all the children ••• and the ranchers were as happy to meet the Linders as if they had been a part of their own family. John and Martha Jane remained on the Goldendale ranch with their two surviving child­ren. Lillie and Robert. On 12 September 1882 a son. James Jacob, was born and three years later, on 27 April 1885, Grace Lucille was born. The LFA members who are granchildren of John and Martha Jane are JOHN "Jack" WRIGHT of Largo, Florida, the son of Lillie; JOHN LINDER of Portland, Oregon, the son of James Jacob; and MARIE STUBBLEFIEID of Washougal, Washington, the daughter of Grace Lucille. The Linder family moved to Yakima, Washington, sometime after Grace Lucille was born. There. John's wife Martha Jane, died ca. 1889. After his wife's death, John raised his children "with many housekeepers and taking care of them himself". While living in Yakima John bought a race horse. The horse was later kept at the home of Robert Imbler Linder in Spokane where John lived his final years. Every year the family would take the horse to the Yakima County Fair, camping out in a tent during the week. Marie Stubblefield's mother told her that once John's half-brother, Byrd Monroe Linder, came from Missouri to visit him and was "afraid of the Indians at the fair, so rather than staying in the tent with the rest of the family, he walked back to the family's home every night •• a long walk. Another brother who came west twice to visit John in, his later years William Parcels Linder (LFA member DEAN LINDER is a descendant of William Parcels Linder). John Ferguson Linder died on 3 September 1912 at the age of 78, in Spokane Washington, where he is buried. LFA members and first cousins, John Linder and Marie Stubblefield, have remained in close contact through the years. John's father. James Jacob (known as "Jim”), was blind and lived his last years in Washougal, Washington, with Marie and her mother, Grace Lucille Linder Stubblefield. Another first cousin, John "Jack" Wright, a son of John F. Linder's daughter, Lillie, learned only recently that he was a LINDER! He had heard the name "Linder" but thought it was a stage name that his mother had used ••• she was a Chautauqua singer. She died when Jack was quite young •• her death certificate and marriage certificate (to Jack's father) both indicated (for some reason) that her maiden name was "Miller". Jack is now working on this mystery. Another LFA member, MERLE J. ROCKETT, of Houston, Texas, ties in with Jack Wright, John Linder and Marie Stubblefield. She is not in the John Ferguson Linder line, but is a third cousin once removed to Jack. John and Marie. Their mutual ancestors are Jacob Linder, Jr. and his wife, Jane Ferguson Linder. Jack, John and Marie de­scend through Jacob and Jane Ferguson Linder's son Andrew Hines Linder. Merle's lineage is through Jacob and Jane's daughter Sarah Campbell Linder. Merle calls herself a "displaced Oregonian" as she married a Texan and has lived there for 35 years. Nonetheless, her heritage ••• and she is proud of it ••• is from the Oregon Pioneers, just as is the heritage of John Ferguson Linder's descendants. Annie Linder

  
  

• Sources

  [S2508] .