In April 1890, her youngest sibling and only brother was born in Oxford, after which the family began a series of moves:  to Conway Springs, Kansas, in September 1890; to Winfield, Kansas, in September 1893; to Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, in the spring of 1894; and finally to Wellston, Lincoln County, Oklahoma Territory, in February 1896.  There, Alice met and married Charles Lamerton Rosecrans on 27 January 1897.

Charles had been born 11 July 1871 in Ladora, Iowa County, Iowa, the son of Peter J. and Martha (Landon) Rosecrans.  As he was growing up, his family moved several times:  to Dixon County, Nebraska; then to Red Willow County, Nebraska; to Yuma County, Colorado; to Carson County, Texas; and finally to Wellston in the Land Run of 1891.

Alice and Charles set up housekeeping in Wellston, where Charles began to establish himself as a carpenter.  Their first child, Opal, was born there in November 1897.  Soon thereafter, two tragedies struck in rapid succession:  Their house burned to the ground in mid-January 1898, and then Alice’s father was murdered in Wellston two weeks later.  See the Mary Martin bio page for a description of Isaac Rhine’s murder.

About a year later, early 1899, Alice’s mother, Mary Rhine, moved to Paonia, Delta County, Colorado, and Alice and Charles decided to go with her.  The 1900 census shows them there with Alice’s mother, Alice’s brother Isaac, and their daughter Opal.  This and all subsequent censuses show Charles making his living as a carpenter or a contractor.  After moving to Paonia, Charles and Alice had two more children, bringing the total to three:

• Opal Rosecrans, 1897–1988 (married (1) Emory Elmer Mayn and (2) Erwin E. Richtzenhain).
• Verna R. Rosecrans, 1900–1973 (married (1) Thomas Theodore Turnstall and (2) Harold Don Carlos Horn).
• Lloyd Landon Rosecrans, 1902–1905.

On 23 November 1904, Alice suffered a “stroke of paralysis” (what we now call, simply, a stroke) and died suddenly, at the age of 26.  At least two local papers carried reports of her death.  Neither of these said where she was buried, and no grave site has been identified for her on line.

Soon after Alice’s death, Charles took the three children and moved back to Wellston, where his parents still lived, and there, the following May, his son Lloyd died and was buried in the Wellston Cemetery.

In February 1906, Charles married Ida May Butler at Chandler, Oklahoma, and soon returned to Paonia with his new wife and his two surviving daughters.  There Ida bore two sons, although the first one, Theron, only lived seven months.  The 1910 census shows Charles and Ida in Paonia along with Opal (age 12), Verna (age 10), and their second son, Carl (age 1).  By December 1910, though, Charles and the family had relocated to Cortez, Montezuma County, Colorado.  Over the next 10 years, both girls married and moved out (Verna in 1917 and Opal in 1919), so the 1920 census shows only Charles, Ida, and their son Carl living in Cortez.

According to Charles’s obituaries, he owned and ran the Parker Hotel in Cortez for five years in the early 1920s, then sold it and bought an apartment house in Rialto, California, which he managed for less than two years before selling it off and returning to Cortez.  Once back, he developed a housing area known as the Rosecrans Addition.  The 1930 census, once again, shows Charles, Ida, and son Carl living in Cortez.

In February 1931, Ida died suddenly in a traffic accident in Cortez, and was buried in the Cortez Cemetery.  Charles continued working on construction projects around Cortez and, increasingly, around the nearby city of Durango, Colorado.  In 1936, he took a job with a lumber company in Durango and settled into a home there along the bank of the Animas River.

On 24 May 1938, Charles went missing.  The local sheriff, along with Charles’s family and friends, began a desperate search for him.  His daughter Opal then lived in Durango, his son Carl came over from Cortez, and his daughter Verna came all the way from Kansas to help in the search.  A full month passed before his body was found, lodged on a fallen cottonwood tree in the San Juan River, several miles west of Farmington, New Mexico.  It was presumed that he had fallen into the Animas River near his residence, drowned, and his body had been carried at least 80 miles downstream — all the way down the Animas, into the San Juan, and several miles farther.  Newspapers in Durango and Cortez carried reports on the discovery of his body and included obituaries for him. He was buried at Cortez next to Ida.

If you can suggest any corrections to the information above or provide any further details about the lives of Alice, Charles, and their descendants, please contact me at the address shown in the image below:

Thanks,      
     —Pete Martin

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