Information
Sheet
R Rubey, Charles W., 1836-1914.
200 Papers, 1857-1914.
Fourteen
folders.
MICROFILM
These are papers of a businessman and
militia officer of Lebanon, Laclede County, Missouri. Included are personal, family, and business
papers, and a large group of records from militia organizations raised in Laclede County during the Civil War. The military records include correspondence,
orders, equipment and ordnance returns, certificates of enrollment and exemption,
and muster rolls.
Charles W. Rubey was born in Cooper
County, Missouri, in 1836. He was reared
and educated in St. Louis,
where he married Mary J. Nesbitt in 1858.
He was engaged in the grocery and general merchandise trade there
until 1860, when he moved to Lebanon. Mary Nesbitt Rubey died at Lebanon in
1863.
Charles Rubey had an active career during
the Civil War. He served, first, as a
courier for the U.S. Army, and, then, entered the 73rd Regiment,
Enrolled Missouri Militia [EMM], as a captain in 1862. He was, respectively, captain of Company B of
the 73rd Regiment, EMM, captain of Company L of the 6th
Provisional Regiment, EMM, and captain of Company L of the 16th Missouri
Volunteer Cavalry. Special assignments
included appointments as Commissary of Exemptions for Laclede
County, 1863-1864, and as an aide to
Gen. John B. Sanborn at his headquarters in Springfield. Rubey was injured when his horse fell on him
during the pursuit of Sterling Price’s Confederate forces in 1864, and he
was wounded at Newtonia, Missouri.
Rubey married Elizabeth L. Duval of Macon City, Missouri,
in 1865. After mustering out of service
in July 1865, he continued his mercantile business at Lebanon, which
he had operated with former fellow officer Josiah Ivey during the last year
and a half of the war. Rubey later engaged
in livestock and real estate trading. He
was clerk of the circuit court and recorder of Laclede County in the 1870s
and 1880s. He was a member of the
Masonic Lodge, the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Military Order of the
Loyal Legion of the United
States.
He died in Lebanon
in 1914.
About a third of the Rubey papers consist
of family correspondence, business records, and personal papers. Most of the early correspondence is connected
with the Duval family through his second wife, Lizzie Duval. Rubey’s own papers are generally from the
post-war period and concern his business ventures with Josiah Ivey. There is also a small group of items from the
Lebanon
post of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Connected with his membership in the Loyal Legion are letters to Rubey
from John B. Sanborn regarding a paper on Price’s expedition into Missouri in 1864. The paper, unfortunately, is not included in
the collection.
The largest part of the collection
concerns Rubey’s Civil War service in several different Missouri units. There are two folders of letters and orders
from district headquarters in Springfield and
from the Adjutant General of Missouri at St.
Louis. They
concern enrollment of militiamen in Laclede County, dates of active service
and furloughs, and creation of the Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia from
the standing Enrolled Missouri Militia.
As Commissary of Exemptions, Rubey oversaw compliance of Laclede County
with Missouri
ordinances requiring military service.
His papers contain three folders of certificates of enrollment,
exemption, and commutation issued by Rubey at Lebanon.
Twenty-one muster rolls complete the
collection. They include those of an
unofficial company of Laclede County citizens who volunteered for U.S. service in
June 1861; Companies A and B, 73rd EMM, 1862-1864; and several
companies and platoons of Missouri Militia organized by state ordinance of
April 1865. Companies of the latter force,
although never called into active service, were enrolled as late as January
1867.
There are also 35mm color slides of
selected items from the Rubey papers in the Western Historical Manuscript
Collection-Rolla's office slide collection.
Shelf List for this collection
Index cards for this collection
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