Saturday, March 1, 2008

Will Glass / E J Rubottom Photo

This is E J Rubottom and Will Glass - they traveled to the Yukon together and were related. E J was married to Nellie Hickey, Will's Cousin (they had the same grandparents, Patrick and Bridget Hickey).

E J Rubottom was an interesting guy. I found four patent applications issued to him (you can see one here), two of which were beer-related. Another invention was mentioned in a local paper, but I haven't found the patent application, yet.

Jim Shaw (who is descended from the Hickeys) gave me this photo. He is extremely knowledgeable about Felton history and these families. Here's what he said:
"BTW, Mary Shaw's father, Michael Hickey, was foreman of the Lime Kilns for Henry Cowell. We have a very pretty bowl, made in Prussia, that was a gift to Michael from Henry Cowell. Also at the ranch are large portraits of Michael Hickey and his wife Catherine Quinn Hickey. They are buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Santa Cruz.

"In addition to Mary and Nellie, there were two boys, John, who died in a train wreck two years to the day before Frank Shaw was killed in 1900, and Dan Hickey, who was wharfinger on the Santa Cruz wharf. He was found drowned off the wharf in 1923 and the family always suspected bootleggers.

"Dan's daughter Kate married and had a son, Harold Soper. After she was widowed she married a cousin, Charlie Glass, also an engineer on the South Pacific Coast. I interviewed Harold Soper about 1992, but my tape is packed away. I'll find it one of these days and transcribe it. I also interviewed Red Sinnott, another cousin from that side.

"Ok, I found the photo I was hoping to find. It's from a tintype I scanned. This is E. J. Rubottom, husband of Nellie Hickey, and Will Glass, when they went on the Alaskan Gold Rush."

I found this second photo in the book "Santa Cruz"--- a history of the Santa Cruz area:


Mary Hickey Shaw and Nellie Hickey Rubottom were sisters. They are your great-great aunts (granddaughters of your great-great-great-grandparents).

The date on this photo is incorrect. It was probably taken in 1913 at the time that Nellie was widowed (at which point she moved in with Mary, also a widow). Roy Shaw (the boy in the photo) was born in 1899.

2 comments:

Brayer said...

I believe that Mary Ellen and Nellie are two different women. Mary Ellen married E.J. Rubottom before 1885 when William W was born. Two more boys were born. In 1902, she divorced him. California Evening News, San Jose CA) P 4: "The action for divorce brought by Mary E. Rubottom against her husband, E.J. Rubottom, was referred to a commission today by Judge Hyland.
In Dec of 1903, she married Kimbrue Butler. She died in 1911 and is buried in Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, Santa Clara County California.

Derek Whaley said...

I am writing a book that includes two pages on the Rubottom Spur along the Southern Pacific Railroad trackage in the San Lorenzo Valley. I am interested in using the tintype photo on this page in the book and also wondering if you know anything else about Emphrey Jones Rubottom and his interests in the San Lorenzo Valley. I have found one document that said he harvested lumber and tan oak bark on his and his step-brother's lands (his step-brother being John Almus Rountree) around 1890. This is probably what the spur was installed for.

Let me know if you know anything more and if I can use that photograph. I can cite it to whomever you designate. Thank you for your assistance in getting this information into the public!