Eleanor Cobe

~ ValarieC

Eleanor Cobe was my Great-grandmother.  She wrote an autobiography in her youth that provided us with an excellent starting point.

Eleanor Margarette Cobe was born on 10 September 1895 in Ohio.  In her autobiography she identified Napoleon, Henry County, Ohio as her birth place.  Her birth records, however, were found in Paulding County, Ohio – not far from Napoleon.  Since her birth was recorded as a “delayed record of birth” and her parents were married in Napoleon, it is possible that she was born there.  Poor Eleanor wrote to Henry County for her birth certificate later in life, in order to obtain a social security card, but Henry County reported no record of her birth.  It was only by accident that I stumbled on the ledger in Paulding County.

Eleanor was the daughter of Emmett R. Cobe and Mary Stockford.  She had two brothers and three half-siblings.

Her mother, Mary, died on September 15, 1902 in Paulding County, Ohio where the family ran a butcher business.  Eleanor was five years old.  In the 1900 census Emmett, Mary, Eleanor, and Richard are found in the village of Payne, Paulding County, Ohio.  Living with them is Mary’s son by her previous marriage (Charlie Pohlman) her sister (Hattie), and a young child named Joseph Cobe.  Joseph was the final child of Emmett and Mary.  No records since 1900 have been found and it is presumed he died near the time of his mother.

After the death of Mary, Emmett moved the family (to include Aunt Hattie Stockford) to Harbor Springs, Emmet County, Michigan where his sister and brother were already living.  There he took up the lumberman’s trade.  His brother Joseph and his sister Hortense were farmers in the outskirts of the county.

Note written by Eleanor in one of her Gleason cousin’s autograph book in 1907, just one week after her father’s death.
Note written by Richard in the same autograph book.  Both images held in the possession of a Gleason descendent.

She and her brother, Richard, were orphaned by 1907, when their father, Emmett, died of pneumonia in Harbor Springs, Michigan.  She was taken in by her father’s sister, Hortense (Hortie or Hattie) Cobe Gleason and Richard was sent to live with neighbors.  She attended school in Harbor Springs before moving to Ypsilanti to get her teaching certificate some time in 1917 or 1918.

She married Kenneth Rhoades (son of Daniel Rhoads) on 7 August 1920 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

She and Kenneth moved to Omaha, Nebraska where they raised a family of three and had a Real Estate and Brokerage business.

Eleanor died in June 1987 in Lake Andes, South Dakota.

Published by ValarieC