Rubens, once a flourishing town, now lies under lake

During the late1800s, near where Jewell County's Limestone and John's Creeks come together, the town of Rubens flourished. Today that area lies under Lovewell Lake.

Rubens began on Jan. 31,1871, when the Rubens Post Office was established. It was named for the first Rubens postmaster, William Rubens Scott. The Rubens Post Office served patrons, with one very short interruption, until Oct. 5, 1900, when the post office was discontinued. At that time, the Mankato Post Office began serving the area.

The first home in Rubens was a cabin built by William Scott, Samuel Sweet and Wilson McBride. The three built a cabin on the exact intersection of their homesteads. This would have been the location of the first Rubens Post Office.

Scott, Sweet and McBride lived together for their mutual protection. Being built on all three homesteads, cabin met the requirement for a home that all homesteaders had to meet.

According to a March 2, 1887, Jewell Monitor article, the homesteads, and eventually the town, were located at the intersection of sections three, four, nine and ten in Richland Township. This is now under the southwest area of Lovewell Lake. It would be the intersection of X Road and 220 Road, if those roads existed today.

William Rubens Scott, the first Rubens postmaster, was one of the many Civil War veterans who came west after the war. Though he was born in Pennsylvania, he served in Company I of the 37th Iowa Infantry. Little else is known about his history.

He and his wife, Julana White Scott, eventually moved from Rubens to the White Rock area of Republic County. William Scott died in 1896, Julana in 1898 and both are buried in the White Rock Cemetery in Republic County.

Samuel Sweet was another of the men to build the cabin on the site of what was to be Rubens. From Ohio, he was 22 years old when he came to Kansas. Sweet's name is one of the 207 enumerated in the 1870 U. S. Census of Jewell County.

Sweet became the second Rubens postmaster on Sept. 26, 1871. Sweet served until February of 1872 when the Rubens Post Office was discontinued. Samuel and his wife, Enola Ross Sweet, had been married in Brown County, Kan., on May 16, 1878. They lived in the Rubens area until 1891 when they moved to Republic County. Their great-grandson, Harold Sweet, currently lives in Superior, Neb., just a few miles from the Sweet Family homestead.

The Rubens Post Office was re-established on March 7, 1872, with William M. Hepler as the third of what would eventually be 14 different postmasters. His term as postmaster lasted 18 months, until Sept. 11, 1873. After his stint as postmaster, he didn't remain long in Jewell County. It is thought he was in Norton County by 1875 before eventually moving to California.

Hepler was followed by Thomas E. West, Robert T. Kinkade, Isaac Trisler, Oliver S. Rice, Aurin Hunt, Kate O'Rorke, Alexander S. Bailey, Oliver S. Rice, Benjamin McBride, William A. Bales, Oliver L. Rice and Olive Wyatt.

Iowan, Thomas Elmer West was the fourth postmaster and like Hepler, he was not in Jewell County very long. His first two children were born in Mahaska County, Iowa in 1871 and 1872. But the family was in Kansas by Sept. 11, 1873, when he was appointed Rubens postmaster. West served until Aug. 14, 1877. His third child was born Jewell County in 1878 but by 1880 he was back in Mahaska County, Iowa.

The fifth Rubens postmaster was Robert T. Kinkade who served from Aug. 14, 1873 to Oct. 12, 1882. A convoluted story in the Sept. 16, 1880, Jewell County Review has this item "C. J. Kinkade and wife attended the fair this week. Mr. K is Post Master and proprietor of the leading mercantile establishment in the flourishing village of Rubens, and has built up a prosperous trade."

From research, it seems on postal, census, marriage and divorce records, the name used was Robert T. Kinkade. In newspaper ads, reports, items and articles, he was C. J. Kinkade and his wife was Mrs. C. J. Kinkade. However, as Catherine Jane was her name, that was, in fact, true.

Why the different names? Speculations can abound but it is not known. What is known is the couple did not remain in Jewell County very long after his stint as postmaster. According to various newspaper clippings, they were in Concordia or Burlington in 1883 and 1884. In Burlington, as C. J. Kinkade, he ran a restaurant.

The Kinkades divorced in Humboldt, Kan., in 1888. After which, in 1889, Mrs. C. J. Kinkade was running a dress shop in Iola. An 1890 Howard, Kan., item shows Robert T. Kinkade of Fort Scott, marrying Lenora McManamy of Longton. Then nothing else about him, but Catherine married Oliver Creswell, moved to California and lived there until her death in 1947.

Isaac Trisler (Walter Isaac) took over as postmaster at Rubens on Oct. 12, 1882, and served until May 1, 1884. Trisler was born in Iowa in August of 1851, the same month both his parents died. He is found in the 1860 U. S. Census with the Stark family of Davis County, Iowa. He married Martha Irene Sandlain on Aug. 15, 1871, in Washington County, Neb.

The couple and their son came to Richland Township in 1875 and were counted there in the 1875 Kansas State Census. A few years after his stint as Rubens postmaster, he was appointed to the postmaster position at Montrose. He served there until Jan. 26, 1894. He and his wife moved west to Logan in Phillips County by 1910 and lived there until their deaths. Isaac died in 1923 and Martha in 1935.

The seventh postmaster was Oliver Shurtleff. Rice. In fact, Rice was the seventh (May 1, 1884 – Sept. 25, 1885) and the 11th (May 21, 1891 – Sept. 25, 1894) postmaster. He also owned the biggest store in Rubens, the most "stylish" one and with the one with the "largest stock" of goods.

Rice was born in 1817 in Charlemont, Mass., and married Juliet Lough in Illinois in 1840. They came to Jewell County with their five children before 1875. Two of those children. Oliver L. and Olive, would also serve as postmasters at the Rubens Post Office.

He first settled his family in Montana Township, the township immediately north of Richland. Richland being where Rubens would come to be located. He was granted his homestead patent on April 30, 1880, for the SE 1⁄4 of Section 28 – now the northwest corner of the intersection of 220 Road and Z Road.

There he ran his first business, the "Montana Store." He ran it out of his dugout. When Rubens began to spring up, he built a building there and moved his business to the fledgling town. In the June 5, 1889, issue of the Monitor, he is referred to as the "Pioneer Merchant." Both Oliver and Juliet are buried in the Webber Cemetery.

Aurin Hunt, the eighth Rubens postmaster, was a proprietor of the Rubens House, the community's hotel. Hunt's wife Julia Meeker Hunt helped him run the establishment. Mr. Hunt was described as "attentive" but the "charm of the house" was due to Mrs. Hunt. They had a "good stable" beside the hotel for the horses of their customers.

The Hunts came from Pennsylvania. Aurin Hunt began his stint as postmaster on Sept. 25, 1885, and was serving as postmaster when he died on May 18, 1888. Julia Hunt died in 1891. It is not known where they were buried.

The ninth postmaster was postmistress Katie O'Rorke. Her father came to Jewell County, according to an April 20, 1887, Jewell County Monitor newspaper article, in February of 1870. John and Mary O'Rorke came from Illinois with four of their eventual nine children.

Katie became the postmistress at Rubens on June 8, 1888. The postal records are very blurred but it is believed she served until May 25, 1889.

After her service at postmistress, O'Rorke left Jewell County for Nebraska. She married Patrick Hogan in Cortland, Neb., on Nov. 18, 1890. She was only 33 years old when she died in November of 1896 in Lancaster County, Nebraska.

An item in the June 5, 1889, Jewell County Monitor, states "A. S. Bailey has been appointed postmaster at Rubens." Bailey was born in Pennsylvania around 1850 and made his way to Kansas to be appointed the Rubens postmaster on May 25, 1891. Between those dates, little is known.

He seems to be one of 11 children of John and Margaret Bailey. After serving as postmaster, he moved to Superior and lived there until his death in 1936. He and his wife are buried in Superior's Evergreen Cemetery.

After Bailey, Oliver S. Rice served his second stint (May 21,1891 – Sept. 25, 1894) as Rubens postmaster. Benjamin McBride was the 12th postmaster, serving from Sept.25, 1894 to April 17, 1897. No evidence has been found to link Benjamin McBride to the early Rubens settler, Wilson P. McBride.

B. F. McBride was born in Iowa in June of 1857 but was in Kansas in the early 1870s. He was active in politics – running on the Labor Union Ticket in the 1880s. He was also active in an organization to kill grasshoppers in 1877 and in forming the Agricultural and Industrial Society in Jewell County in 1874.

McBride, like Aurin Hunt, ran the Rubens House. Under his proprietorship the hotel was described as "flourishing." This according to an item in the Nov. 26, 1888, Jewell County Review. He also homesteaded on the NW 1⁄4 of Section 28 of Richland Township. His homestead was three miles south and one west of Rubens.

It was after his appointment as postmaster that McBride married Dollie Gandon in Jefferson County, Kan., on Nov. 11, 1894. The couple eventually had three children, all born in Kansas.

The McBrides continued to live in Rubens after his stint as postmaster was over. There is an article in the April 18, 1900, Jewell County Monitor, that described an altercation with a neighbor. The Charles Stevens family and the McBrides lived on adjoining lots in Rubens.

Because of the Stevens' chickens and children "trespassing" on the McBride property, "considerable ill feeling" had developed. Mr. McBride went to complain to Mrs. Stevens and she "pulled a revolver and shot him" in the face. It was thought his plate of false teeth saved his life. Nothing else has been learned about this incident.

Shortly afterwards, the 1900 U. S. Census finds the McBrides living in Jefferson County, Kan. However, they weren't to stay in Jefferson County. Before 1910 entire family moved to Klickitat County, Washington. B. F. McBride died there in 1939 and Dollie in 1959.

William A. Bales was the 13th postmaster of Rubens. (Those with triskaidekaphobia - fear of the number 13 - be on alert.) One of the many Civil War veterans in the county, he and his wife, Mary Massie Bales, came to Jewell County in 1874. They had been married in Iowa in 1867 and eventually had seven children. He was the Rubens postmaster from April 17, 1897 to Aug. 22, 1898.

Goldie Jacobs Roberts, originally from Montrose but now living in Shankio, Ore., remembers stories about her great-grandparents, William and Mary Massie Bales. At one time, they ran Rubens House. Also, William was a respected and well-known area blacksmith. He had a blacksmith shop in Rubens but at other times had shops in Gregory, Burr Oak and Holmwood, all Jewell County communities.

The sad story Roberts remembers is that her great-grandparents, William and Mary Bales, were murdered. It was in 1911 and the couple, both in their late 60s, lived a mile west of Rubens on a rented farm. Harve Wadleigh, a nearby neighbor, was known by them and considered a friend. On the morning of Jan. 26, 1911, he came to their home, shot and killed both of them.

Wadleigh simply went back home and waited for the sheriff to arrive. He was arrested without issue, brought to trial and found innocent by reason of insanity. He was then committed to an insane asylum. William and Mary Bales are buried in the Burr Oak Cemetery.

The 14th postmaster was, not Oliver S. Rice, but his son, Oliver L. Rice. Oliver L. served from Aug. 22, 1898 until he resigned on Aug. 25, 1899. Born in Illinois, he had come to Jewell County with his parents. Like his father, he homesteaded. He was granted the patent to the NE 1⁄4 of Section 22 of Montana Township on March 20, 1886.

Oliver L. was married Alma Green in Jewell County in 1895. They remained for some years in Jewell County but by 1920, he and his wife and seven children had moved to Colorado.

When Oliver L. resigned, his sister, Olive Rice Wyatt was appointed postmistress. She served from Aug. 25, 1899, until the Rubens Post Office was discontinued on Oct. 5, 1900.

Olive, like her siblings, had been born in Illinois and that is where she married Joseph Wyatt. They came to Jewell County in 1877. She and Joseph had seven children, six of whom lived to adulthood. Joseph died in 1901. Olive survived him by 37 years. Both are buried in the Webber Cemetery.

Only ever fainter memories remain of the once "flourishing" town whose remains now lie under the waters of Lovewell Lake.