The Book of Isaiah - Part Three

Elizabeth eventually married William Jasper Self on May 1, 1866, and had seven children. According to her granddaughter Florence, she made one trip back to England, bringing back a small locket shaped like a book which is now in my possession. She died March 27, 1928, at age 82 in Cherryville (Crawford County), Missouri. For more information on this line, see the Self Family Summary.

To add another piece to the puzzle though, in the 1860 Illinois census for Jo Daviess County taken in June of that year, there is a listing for an Isah Molesdale, age 41, a gas maker, born in England. Living with him is a Jane Molesdale, age 15, born in England. Here the names and ages are correct, but now there is no Frederick. Perhaps after arriving in America, Fred left to go live with Josiah in Missouri while Isaiah and Elizabeth went to Galena (perhaps where the woman of the story was living).

Further research needs to be done to find out who Josiah is if not our Isaiah. I have often wondered why Isaiah moved to Missouri. With his background in the cotton mills of Ashton, it would have been logical to move to one of the cotton-producing states in the South. But this was also at the beginning of the Civil War, and while Frederick did serve in the 32^nd Missouri infantry during that conflict, Missouri was a border state and not as involved in the war as the northern and deep south states. Perhaps he felt that as an Englishman, it wasn’t his fight, and he settled away from the heart of the battle. Or the answer may be as simple as he moved there because a relative named Josiah lived there.

The first concrete information I have about Isaiah Molesdale after his arrival in America in 1857 was found at the Crawford County Courthouse in Steelville, MO, on page 152 of Marriage Book 2, where the following is recorded:

Divorce papers from Sarah Chatterton have not been found, so there is some question of the complete legality of this marriage. In 1865, Louisa Jane and Isaiah apparently had a daughter, Mary E. Molesdale.

Several years ago, Florence Barlow gave me some boxes of correspondence, pictures, and records that had been collected by her sister, Ruth Barton, when she was working on the Barton family tree. In a letter about family history from Ruth to her cousin Edna Grayson dated Nov. 15, 1964, she writes about her great grandfather Molesdale:

In our Huntsville library, I found a book called Jasper County Cemeteries, Vol. 10. On page 4, it lists the Carterville Cemetery, and there in Lot #104 is buried Fredrick Molesdale (29 June 1842 – 10 June 1916) and Louise Jane Molesdale (3 June 1842 – 8 Nov. 1912). Buried with them is Ezra G. Molesdale (son of F. and L.J.) 21 Dec. 1868 – 3 May 1900 and Lucy Jane Molesdale Johnson (1867 – 1956), as well as Wesley H. Johnson (15 Sept. 1859 – 10 April 1923), Lucy Jane’s husband, and Ollie J. Johnson (10 Oct. 1891 – 12 Jan. 1898) and Ottis E. Johnson (19 Nov. 1885 – 10 Apr. 1886), children of Lucy and Wesley H. Johnson.

So if the story Ruth Barton wrote about was true, and Louisa Jane Molesdale, the wife of Fredrick is the same Louisa Jane who married Isaiah, then sometime between Mary E. Molesdale’s birth in 1865, and Lucy Jane’s birth in 1867, Louisa Jane Wood Molesdale left Isaiah and married his son Frederick and moved to the Joplin area.

In Louisa’s obituary in the November 10, 1912 issue of the Joplin Daily Globe it states that she was born June 2, 1842 (which would have made her over 30 years younger than Isaiah at the time of their marriage, but only 3 weeks older than her stepson Fredrick) in Washington County, MO (which is near Dent and Crawford counties) and had two brothers who resided in Texas. Since Frederick and Louisa Jane died in the 1910’s and are buried next to each other, one can assume they had a long marriage. It would be interesting to know, however, if the above is true, how the family reacted to this and if Frederick and his father ever got along afterwards.