My 3rd great grandfather, Reuben Kimball Eastman, was the only son of Henry and Sally Kimball Eastman. He was born in 1807/1809 in Conway, NH. His father Henry was captured by the British on the schooner USS Somers during the Battle of Lake Erie (War of 1812). Henry later died from wounds received by a musket ball to the neck - a prisoner of the British - in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Young Reuben was then the only male in the family. He married Elizabeth McNeal in 1837, and soon moved to Chemung, NY. Reuben moved his young family to Clarion, IA, where he became the town's treasurer. I learned from a book that Reuben slept with the town monies in a chest near his bed and a gun at the ready when he learned that some unidentified men were coming to take the money. He told them he would shoot them if they tried. It later was proven that these men had the authority to transfer the money to another office, and Reuben had to give over the safe. But at least Ruben believed in doing his duty as treasurer!

Another Reuben K Eastman (may not be Reuben Kimball Eastman) is later found in the federal census taken near Sutter's Mill during the California Gold Rush. He was listed as a merchant, and was probably out there to make money off the '49ers. Family lore is that while on his way out to California, one of our ancestors had to leave behind a horse that became stuck in the Platt River. When this ancestor got to San Francisco, he swore he saw the same horse (that he owned for many years) pulling a wagon. So somebody who came after him got the horse out of the Platt! I think this ancestor was probably NOT Reuben Kimball Eastman - he was an Eastman that went to California and set up shop there as a merchant.

Reuben later went back to Iowa and became a successful "land agent". His wife Betsy died there, and he later married a widow, Sarah Eldridge Jameson. She was also from New Hampshire. Sarah had two daughters from her previous marriage. I believe that Reuben's children called her "Mrs. Jameson" because they didn't approve of their marriage. The marriage record indicates that Reuben Kimball Eastman was a 65 year old widower. Sarah Jameson was a widow of 44. Quite an age difference. Even my own mother, who was Reuben's 2nd great granddaughter, would talk about his second wife as "Mrs. Jameson" - showing the several generations of disapproval of their marriage.

Old Reuben seems to have been quite a character, and I'm still in the process of learning more about him.

R K Eastman

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