The Book of Isaiah -
Part Five
Returning to Isaiah
Molesdale, after his 1863 marriage record, the next
mention of him that I have is on Elizabeth’s
marriage license to William Self in 1866, recorded
in the Crawford County Courthouse, which states that
they were married at her father’s home on Dry
Creek, MO. In the 1870 Missouri census, I.W. Molesdale
is living in Dent County, Spring Creek Township. However,
the entry is very, very faint on the microfilm and
impossible to read.
The frustrating aspect
of this is that there are four entries listed after
I.W. Molesdale’s name which would indicate that
there were 4 other people living in the household.
Since Isaiah didn’t remarry until 1872 (see following
paragraph), perhaps Fred and Louisa didn’t run
off together until later than originally thought,
and perhaps Lucy and Bell were Isaiah’s children
(along with Mary E.) with Louisa rather than Louisa
and Fred’s children.
Then in Marriage
Book 3, p. 30, in the Crawford County Courthouse in
Steelville is the following:
This is to certify
that I did Solemnize the rights of Matrimony between
Isiah Mosedale and Miss Polly Stayner on the 1st day
of Feb 1872 both of the County and state aforesaid
Given under my hand this 8th day of February 1872
Jas I Walbest, Justice of the Peace
In the 1880 census,
Isaiah is again recorded in Dent County. He was listed
as 62, a farmer and born in England, as were his parents.
Living with him was his wife Mary W. (age 51, and
born in Kentucky, as were her parents) and a daughter,
Mary E., age 15 (father born in England, mother born
in Missouri – this would have been Louisa Jane
Wood). Unless Polly was a nickname for Mary (although
usually the nickname was Molly), sometime between
1872 and 1880, Isaiah either divorced Polly Stayner
or she died, and he married Mary W. There are several
references to I.W. and Mary W. Molesdale in land deed
transactions in the 1880’s at the Dent County
Courthouse in Salem, Missouri. Mary W. Molesdale died
July 29, 1889, age 58 years, and is buried in Stagner
Cemetery outside of Salem, MO.
According to some
Stagner Cemetery records sent to me by Mr. Ken Fiebelman
in Salem, Missouri, Isaiah married one final time.
His sixth wife (or fifth if Polly and Mary W. were
the same) was Mary A. Leavitt whom he married Dec.
25, 1889. Her name is on some land deeds in 1890,
but by 1892, the ones I saw only had Isaiah’s
name on them. The cemetery records also state that
Mary E. Molesdal married John G. Malcolm on October
19, 1882. At this time I have no evidence of any children
by Isaiah’s other wives than the three by his
two wives in England, and one (or three) by Louisa
Wood.
Isaiah Molesdale
was pretty well known in Salem. Walt Self has a piece
of paper on which is copied
A Bible presented
to I.W. Molesdale, Salem, Dent Co., MO by members
of the M.E. Church for his honest labors in the church
and their appreciation of the same. Dec. 25th, 1882.
According to the
book History of Dent County, I.W. Molesdale was the
Salem city commissioner in 1884-85, and the city council
named the street on which he lived "Mosedale Avenue".
It was later changed to E. 4th Street.
That same article, written by William P. Elmer, states
that Isaiah Mosedale
was an Englishman
and lived in a small house in East Salem, generally
known now (1950) as the Judge Milsap house. It was
a neat place then. Mrs. Mosedale was stung in the
eye by a hornet and put it out – only accident
of the kind I ever heard of.
The Mrs. Mosedale
referred to above would be Mary W. Mosedale.
Isaiah Molesdale
died August 8, 1893, at the home of his daughter Elizabeth
Self, in Cherryville, MO. Among the letters Ruth Barton
had was one written by Elizabeth Self to a Mr. Hibler,
probably her son-in-law, Charles Henry Hibler, married
to her daughter Ida Self.
The letter reads
as follows:
August 8, 1893
Mr. Hibler:
Father is dead, he died at twelve
o’clock today and I want you to get an outfit
to bury him in. Get a suitable coffin and be sure
and get some ice. The measure is 6 feet 4 inches.
Get a suit of nice black clothes and be sure and
get them large enough – shoes, gloves, socks,
and if you think of anything else get them. And
we will bring him to Steelville as soon as possible
tomorrow to take him to Salem on the train tomorrow.
And I would like for you to send a telegram to Salem
and have his grave dug at the Stagner Graveyard.
Please attend to this and I will make it all right
with you.
From your Mother E. Self
Send ice with the Coffin
In August of 1992,
I drove to Crawford County, Missouri, from my home
in Huntsville, AL, and met Walt Self who drove down
from his home near Keokuk, Iowa. Together we did some
research in the Crawford County Courthouse and library
in Steelville, and drove to Cherryville and saw where
the home of Elizabeth and William Self had stood.
We also drove to Salem, MO, in Dent County, and after
asking several people with no success, were finally
able to get directions to the Stagner Cemetery from
a local funeral home.
It is a small cemetery
on a dirt road east of town. We were able to find
the tombstone of Mary W., wife of I.W. Molesdale,
but there was no tombstone for Isaiah. However, close
to Mary’s grave and in line with the other tombstones
was a rather large rock which had obviously been placed
there. Walt and I both felt that it probably marked
Isaiah’s grave, but we have no way to prove that
other than the evidence of Elizabeth’s letter
on the day her father died and a notation in her family
Bible that Isaiah Molesdale is buried in Stagner Cemetery.
Compiled by:
Babs Christy
12117 Greenleaf Drive
Huntsville, AL 35803
January 2000
The above information was
based on personal conversations with Florence Barlow
and Walter Self; personal email communication with
Susan Brown and Ian Rhodes; census records; birth,
death, and marriage certificates; personal letters
of Ruth Barton; Elizabeth Self’s family Bible;
the book Self Connections by Ken and Maurine Self;
and personal correspondence with Ken Fiebelman.
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