Patrick, Here's the text from the BOLIN article. Have fun - Pat SHUBEL C. BOLIN From Owen County to Minnesota Territory (reprinted from "Owen County Ancestry" by Vivian Zollinger, "Spencer Evening World", Thursday, August 12, 1999) Shubel C. Bolin may not be on your list of Owen County's famous ancestors, but that's because he had to leave here in a hurry while he was still a young man. He was handsome, full of himself, and not afraid to take risks. He lived fas and died in the prime of life in a terrible accident. But not until he had a stormy marriage or two, at least one damning divorce, and a messy bastardy suit to deal with - all in Owen County before he was twenty-seven. Shubel C. Bolin (there were other Shubel Bolins around here so we have to try to keep them straight - not an easy task) was a son of Harbard Bolin (or in many records spelled Boling, or even Bowling). Harbard's 1859 estate papers name a wife, Shubel C. who was probably the oldest son, Rachel, Margaret, Noah, Pleasant, Olive, and Terra or Terry. Home at the time was on the Clay County side of the Owen-Clay County line. Guardianship documents in 1846 list all children as under the age of 21 and in Owen County, probably Morgan Township. By the next year Shubel may have married Elizabeth Nichols. We can't be sure this is the same Shubel. If it is, we don't know how that marriage ended. There is a Civil Court case in March 1850 where a Shubel Bolin sues Elizabeth Bolin for divorce and the case was dismissed. We do know that he married Elizabeth Virginia Smiley, December 5, 1850. It was not a happy marriage. Elizabeth had plenty to complain about and she did it in court. She charged him with adultery from the first of the following September "and on divers other days and nights for the space of three months" with one Eliza Smiley. I know. You aren't the only one confused by the similarity of names. Elizabeth charged Shubel with coming at her with a loaded pistol and with being a habitual drunkard and gambler, and with failing to provide for her. As if that weren't enough trouble Eliza turned on him. She filed a bastardy shit. She bore his son September 12, 1852 and wanted him to admit his paternity and pay up. It took a year to find him, but find him they did, and he owned up and paid up. Fifty-five dollars. Eliza said that was support and maintenance in full for her child and let him off the hook. About the same time Elizabeth, the wife, got her divorce and Shubel went up the river - or down the river, them up. He hopped a bout and made his way to Minnesota Territory. If anybody needed a fresh start he did. Congress opened up Minnesota Territory after treaties wit the Indians and settlers began to come. It was a land of rich soil, valuable timber, and plenty of water. A man could make it big there. A descendant, Frances Carlson, has scores of deeds Shubel collected up there on both sides of the Mississippi River. His scheme - and it was a lucrative one - was to remove the timber and sell the cleared land and the lumber to farmers flocking to the new land. But he needed a wife. So in 1857 he married thirteen-year-old Julia Hill, a neighbor. They settled on a beautiful spot and he dealt big time in lumber and land. The couple had three handsome sons and two beautiful daughters. They were Jasper "Jap" (1860), Clara Amy (1863), Cassius M. "Cash (1865), Everett Valentine "Doc" (1868), and Jessie Olive (1875). It is said that none of the children knew anything about their father's early life. It's as if his life began right there near Lake Pepin. Somewhere in his stormy youth, he was shot in his own house during a card game. Maybe that was here in Owen County. He was know to despise the English. We don't know why. Frances said Shubel bought a big Bible one time and gave it to his youngest son so he could see what a devil his father was. Was that a reference to his Owen County troubles? About 1870 the Bolins settled at Warrentown where Shubel built an impressively large house overlooking the lake. But the house was never completed. May 27, 1877, Shubel was hauling lumber and stacked shingles on top of the load. The mule team started up a hill and the load shifted. Shubel was thrown to the ground, shingles on top of him, and a wagon wheel ran over his chest. He lived less than three hours. His youngest child was only two. Julia would have to go on somehow. She opened the house to boarder and years later married one of them, Jackson Baker. And she became known in her neighborhood as a skilled midwife. She lived to be ninety. With all Shubel had been through and dying in such a violent accident, he deserved to rest in peace. But he didn't. Somebody dug him up. And rumors circulated that a skeleton hung in a barn about a mile away from the empty grave. One of Shubel's granddaughters is still living and her stories through Frances Carlson are making their way back here to the ancestral home of one very notable Owen County man who is known here on through court records. He's still a mysterious figure, but now we know him a little better. (We thank Frances Carlson, 16800 175th Street E., Hastings, MN 55033, for sharing information about her great-grandfather. She descends from Shubel's son Cassias. The two daughters grace our cover.)