Rutha or Ruthie
Roberts was Frank L. Rascoe's second or perhaps third wife. His first wife was Martha
Seamans who died about 1862. They had two children: Mary M. Rascoe and John
Seamans Rascoe. The 1870 census of
Van Buren County shows Frank's wife as B. E. Rascoe age 19. This could be the same person as
Rutha Roberts Rascoe. Frank L. Rascoe married
Rutha Roberts about 1870-71 and they had two daughters, Martha
Rascoe born about 1872 and Florence born about 1875.
Frank
Rascoe moved his second family to Warm
Springs,
Randolph County Arkansas sometimes before 1880. In the 1880 census of
Randolph County,
Ark F. L. Rascoe with his two daughters, Martha and Florence
Rascoe are enumerated. F.L. Rascoe list himself as a widower but his wife
Rutha is listed in the 1880 census of
White County Tennessee as a cook in the household of A. C. Parker family.
I am not sure if
Rutha when to
Arkansas and then returned to
Tennessee or just never went to
Arkansas. The book, "The Uneven
Yoke" implies that she went to
Arkansas.
Frank had turned his two eldest children, Mary and John over to the care of his mother and eldest sister
Mahala Rascoe when his first wife, Martha
Seaman died and
Mahala raised then untill they were grown.
Frank L. Rascoe is buried somewhere in
Randolph County but I do not know in which cemetery or if his grave has a headstone.He died in 1885. Rutha
Roberts Rascoe is buried in the old
Roberts cemetery four miles north of
Doyle,
White County Tennessee. Her headstone reads "
Rutha Rascoe,
wife of Frank
Rascoe, 1850 - 1889"
The book "The Uneven
Yoke" hints at some sort of scandal, sexual promiscuity or infidelity or family disapproval of the marriage surrounding the marriage of Frank and
Rutha.
May have been the primary reason for moving to
Arkansas and leaving the two elder children in
Tennessee