Re: Minerva Bible (1831-1924) AR>TX>AZ
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In reply to:
Re: Minerva Bible (1831-1924) AR>TX>AZ
10/04/00
Hi Mike -
I fit in to the Stiles family picture very obliquely. Martin Luther Stiles was Minerva's second husband. Her first was a man know to me only by his last name, "Bible". He was rumored to be a Protestant minister. That's
all I know. His is the information I am searching most arduously for.
Minerva is said to have been born in 1831 or 1832 somewhere in Arkansas. My family legend agrees with yours in that she was half Cherokee indian. No info on which parent was Cherokee. In fact, we know nothing of Minerva's past at all before her first child was born, that being Mattie Bible in 1866.
Mattie was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, or somewhere in Texas, we're not sure which. Her death certificate specifies only "Texas" as a birth place, but that information came from her second husband, Jim Megson, and is questionable. In 1882 Mattie married a German emigrant named Gus Schampe. Mattie was my father's maternal grandmother. Sometime after Gus died in 1912 Mattie married Jim Megson.
Minerva had a second child while married to Mr. Bible. My family knew him as Ben Bible, yet people I have met through this list tell me he was Robert Bible. (Those people, Pat Napier and June Howard, have posted to the Stiles list more than once. I will give you their e-mail addresses in a minute.) My information for Ben / Robert is very fragmented and probably mostly incorrect. My notes from my father tell me he was born sometime in the 1880s. Legend has it he murdered his step father Martin Luther Stiles, and this has corroborated by Pat Napier, but the dates confuse me.Pat tells me that Martin Luther Stiles died 6 June 1881, my family's notes tell me it was sometime in 1867 - 1869. Whichever, it is highly unlikely that Ben / Robert did the deed unless he was born 'way before 1880. My family notes tell me that Ben / Robert died either in Casa Grande, AZ, or maybe in Minas Prietas in Sonora, Mexico. I have no information on date of death. So I seem not to know much about Ben / Robert Bible.
I guess, long story short, I am related by marriage to the Stiles clan through my paternal grandmother's maternal grandmother.
Pat Napier's e-mail address is [email protected]
Jean Howard's e-mail address is [email protected]
That's about all I have to offer except a couple of photographs of William Larkin "Billy" Stiles, the infamous outlaw of southern Arizona fame. Give me an e-mail address and I'll send them to you.
My e-mail is [email protected]
Later,
Paul