The Final Resting Place Of Isaac Jones???

When it comes to Isaac Jones it appears that mystery would serve as bookends for Isaac's life. As is somewhat the case with Isaac's early life and place of origin, his final resting place also remains a relative mystery to this day. Having spent time in Calloway County and having actually located his homestead, I would definitely narrow it down to one of three locations: Palestine Church Cemetery, the Morris Cemetery, or the Jeffrey Cemetery.

Palestine Church Cemetery, Calloway County, KY

(more unmarked graves than you could shake a stick at)

I'll start with the one that I personally think is the least likely, yet funny enough would seem the most logical location, Palestine Church Cemetery. Despite the earliest grave marker with an inscription only dating back to 1850, the cemetery had been in use since 1825. Many of the other markers dating back to the 1850's are either toppled or broken, so it's entirely possible that Isaac's grave could have fallen victim to the same. Having personally located and photographed upwards of 500 graves through the Find A Grave website, I know all too well how quick and thorough the grass can be when reclaiming a toppled headstone. Evidence in this cemetery, as well as other cemeteries in the surrounding area, suggests that professional headstones were obtainable and in common use many years prior to Isaac's death. Taking this into account along with Isaac's substantial personal wealth at his time of death, the notion that his grave is marked with a common field stone seems unlikely. Despite Isaac most likely being involved with Palestine Church at some level and him living a little ways to the south of the church, I don't know why he would opt to be buried at Palestine when evidence suggests people were being buried on his own property possibly even prior to his own death. This cemetery has come to be known as the Morris Cemetery.

Morris Cemetery, Calloway County, KY

The Morris Cemetery is located on privately owned land under a small grove of trees at the edge of a cow pasture on the land that Isaac left to Kesiah, which she in turn sold to William Hardy in early 1851. Although there is evidence of several unmarked graves, there are only two with actual headstones. Neither of the stones continues to mark their respective graves, and the owner of the land had told me that they had only discovered them upon hitting them with a tractor while cutting the grass not long after buying the property. The stones had long been toppled by the cows as they used the area for shade. The first of the markers belongs to Isaac's stepdaughter Lucinda Morris who had died on November 3, 1850. If Isaac did in fact die in early 1851, why wouldn't he be buried on his own land as was his stepdaughter? The other marker belongs to Thomy Hardy who had died on April 13, 1854 and was the 5 month old son of William and Sarah Hardy. Really the only thing that makes me believe that Isaac wouldn't be buried in this location is the existence of the Jeffrey Cemetery.  

Jeffrey Cemetery, Calloway County, KY

(grave of Joshua Douglas Jones in the foreground.)

Located off of Roosevelt Road, the Jeffrey Cemetery seems to be the most likely location for the final resting place of Isaac Jones. The cemetery is located on the piece of land purchased from the state of Kentucky in 1835 by John Jeffrey which he later signed over to Isaac Jones in 1836. Of the 179 graves with existing headstones in the cemetery, there are five with inscriptions that predate Isaac's death in 1851. The oldest marker with an inscription belongs to a child named Lewis J. Peter who was a great grandson of Isaac through his son Burrel's daughter, Jeannette. The other four graves mentioned are also for children, all being great grandchildren of Isaac either through his son Burrel or his son Joshua Douglas. A detailed examination of the cemetery actually shows that as far as markers with inscriptions go, they all belong to children, with the first adult marker with an inscription not showing up until 1873. With this being said, one gets the impression that the family as a whole may have seen a "proper" headstone as an unnecessary expense when you take into account that Isaac, his daughters Alvina, Lydia, and Jane, and his son-in-laws Bowen Whitlock and William Jeffrey all died prior to 1873, lived in the immediate area, and have yet to have their graves located. These individuals may account for the numerous unmarked graves in the cemetery or the graves marked solely with plain field stones. Although Isaac's son Joshua and his son-in-law John Jeffrey are also buried in this cemetery and have nice markers with inscriptions, it may be that these headstones were purchased and placed after the fact by their descendants. This scenario becomes even more likely when you consider that John Jeffrey and his second wife Tennessee both have nice inscribed markers, yet his first wife Jane does not. With it's close proximity to Isaac's home and the sheer number of his descendants that are buried there, it would seem to me that the Jeffrey Cemetery would be Isaac Jones' most likely burial location.

The Death & Estate Of Isaac Jones (1851)

Unfortunately, the exact date that Isaac Jones passed from this life still remains unknown. What is known is that his death did occur sometime between his information being taken for the 1850 Census on August 5, 1850 and a "quit claim deed" involving his wife Kesiah dated March 22, 1851. A quitclaim deed is used in the situation where an individual is passing their interest in a piece of property on to another person, and in this instance, involved Kesiah selling her lifetime interest in the property that Isaac had left to her through the earlier deed involving Joshua Douglas Jones and John Jeffrey dated July 3,1849. The information contained in this document is of such great importance that it merits quotation in full:

"Know all men by these presents that I Kiziah Jones in consideration of four hundred dollars to me in hand paid by John Jeffrey & Wm. Hardy has bargained & sold a quit claim deed by these presents to John Jeffrey & Wm. Hardy their heirs and assigns for the life time estate in and to the land I am now living on which was left me by my husband agreeable to an agreement made between me and the heirs or claimants of Isaac Jones Decd. now recorded in Murray and him the said Isaac Jones Decd. & give them Wm. Hardy & John Jeffrey my claim in & to the land left to me during my life it being the land where said Isaac Jones lived and died on in Calloway County on the waters of Johnathan(sic) or near said waters being 160 acres with all and singular the appurtinances to Jeffrey & Hardy their heirs & assigns I give to them my lifetime estate to the said land to witt the North West quarter of Section 16 Township 3 Range 5 East containing 160 acres more or less. Given under my hand and seal this 22d March 1851."

The first thing that should stand out upon reading this document is that the township and range coordinates do not match up with the coordinates given in the earlier deed that originally set the land aside for Kesiah. In that deed they are recorded as "the North West quarter of Section 13 Township 3 Range 5 East" which corresponds with an actual known land purchase made by Isaac. The problem with the coordinates given in the quitclaim deed is that no record exists of Isaac ever having owned this particular piece of land, leaving me to believe that the information is most likely incorrect. These same incorrect land coordinates are repeated in a deed dated November 7, 1851 between John Jeffrey, William Hardy, and James D. Culver who was a commissioner appointed by the circuit court to represent the heirs of Isaac Jones. In the past, researchers have mistakenly referred to this document as "Isaac's will" when it is actually only part of his estate being handled in probate through the circuit court. This is evident in the opening line of the document which states:

"Pursuant to a decree rendered at the May term 1851 of the Calloway circuit court and in accordance with said decree I the commissioner appointed to advertise and sell the land and negro named in said decree, and, to convey the legal title to the purchasers now belonging to the heirs of Isaac Jones decd. namely John Jeffrey & wife Jane Jeffrey, William Hardy & wife Sarah Hardy, J. D. Jones, Burrel Jones, Thomas Jones and Wiley Jones, Mary Whitlock, John Whitlock, William Jeffrey, Marthey A. Jeffrey, John D. Jeffrey, Malvina Jeffrey all of which are heirs at law of Isaac Jones Decd."

The specific usage in the document of the term "heirs at law" would imply that Isaac had died intestate and not having left a will, although this document is certainly a worthy substitute in regards to the information it contains. The deed involves John Jeffrey and William Hardy buying out the collective interest held by Isaac's other legal heirs in two pieces of  land and Isaac's old female slave Delph for the sum of $320. The first section of land mentioned was half of the original 160 acre purchase that Isaac had made from Radford C. Duvall and Adaline Duvall, Nathaniel P. Jones, and John Jones in 1842, while the second section was the land mentioned earlier with the incorrect coordinates in the quitclaim deed. The whole purpose and intention behind the earlier quitclaim deed becomes even more mysterious, when in describing the second section of land, the deed states that "it is further understood that the widow of Isaac Jones has the last quarter section during her natural life." It could very well be that the sole purpose of the quitclaim deed was merely to provide Kesiah with a sizeable amount of money to survive on while being allowed to continue living on her and Isaac's farm. Unfortunately, after being mentioned in this last 1851 deed, Kesiah disappears into history taking the details of her later life with her.

The second important point at issue that finds it's origin in these two documents involves the identity of William Hardy and his connection to Isaac Jones. Past researchers have speculated that the inclusion of William and Sarah Hardy in the list of heirs on the 1851 deed was an apparent indicator of familial relationship. While it may appear this way on the surface, when this document is examined together with the 1851 quitclaim deed involving Kesiah, the term "heirs at law" and it's usage once again comes into play. By legal definition, an heir at law is any individual who has a legal claim of inheritance to property left by a person who died intestate. Having purchased the quitclaim deed from Kesiah in partnership with John Jeffrey, this would qualify William Hardy as an heir at law to Isaac in regards to that piece of land specifically, regardless of whether he was related to Isaac or not. If the November 7, 1851 deed had not involved that particular piece of land, William and Sarah Hardy would not even have been mentioned in the list of heirs. Any sort of familial connection between William and Sarah Hardy and Isaac Jones becomes even less likely when taking into account later documents listing Isaac's heirs that fail to make any mention of either of them.

Of the other twelve individuals who are listed on the deed as heirs to Isaac Jones, only five of them are actual children of Isaac, these being Jane Jeffrey, J. D. Jones, Burrel Jones, Thomas Jones, and Wiley Jones. The remainder are children of Isaac's daughters Alvina and Lydia who had both died prior to 1850. Alvina had passed away sometime around September of 1848 and John Jeffrey had become the guardian of her youngest children Mary and John Whitlock, as well as, taking on the task of becoming administrator to her estate. It's unclear exactly when Isaac's daughter Lydia died, although her death most likely occurred prior to her husband William Jeffrey getting remarried in McCracken County, Kentucky on May 28, 1850 to a woman named Elizabeth M. King. Lydia's share of Isaac's estate went to her four children who are named in the 1851 deed: William Jeffrey, Marthey A. Jeffrey, John P.Jeffrey, and Malvina Jeffrey.

Apart from this 1851 deed, it remains unknown how the rest of Isaac's estate was divided amongst his heirs. The Calloway County circuit court was still trying to resolve various issues and lawsuits involving Isaac's estate as late as 1858. The first of these lawsuits involved the heirs of Isaac Jones being sued by an individual named William S. Hatcher in 1857. This lawsuit is of particular interest because it reveals yet another land transaction that Isaac had been involved with that surprisingly fails to have a corresponding deed. Hatcher was the assign to one of Isaac's former neighbors named Thomas Holt who had at some point purchased 80 acres from Isaac consisting of the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 14, Township 3, Range 5 east. This was the piece of land that Isaac had purchased from Chapman Miller back on September 14, 1837 and the basis for the lawsuit was simply that William Hatcher was requesting acknowledgement from the heirs of Isaac Jones that Thomas Holt had paid for the land in full which was duly granted.

The second lawsuit also arose from a previous land purchase that Isaac had made which appears to also be undocumented and lacking an existing deed. A deed most certainly existed at some point in time because it is recorded that the "said deed was acknowledged in court on the 25th day of March 1839." This purchase involved Isaac buying 160 acres of land that lay in the northwest quarter of Section 13, Township 1, Range 5 east from an individual named William Vance. The basis of the ensuing lawsuit in 1858 was that the land had been incorrectly recorded on the original deed as being in the northwest quarter when it was actually in the northeast quarter. The heirs of Isaac Jones were suing the descendants of William Vance simply to get them to acknowledge this error and have it corrected, which they successfully accomplished. What is most interesting about this particular piece of land is that it was located in the far southern section of the county just to the northeast of the present day community of New Providence. It seems strange that Isaac would purchase this single piece of land that was located so far from where he had made the bulk of his other land purchases in the county. While most likely being just an investment, it would seem that this purchase and the undocumented sale of the other discussed before it, would certainly leave the window of  possibility open for other unknown land transactions to exist.

1851 Calloway County, KY Deed~Kiziah Jones to John Jeffrey & William Hardy (quitclaim deed)

1851 Calloway County, KY Deed~James D. Culver to John Jeffrey & William Hardy

1851 Calloway County, KY Tax List

1852 Calloway County, KY Tax List

1857 Calloway County, KY Court Document~William S. Hatcher Vs. The Heirs of Isaac Jones

1858 Calloway County, KY Court Document~The Heirs of Isaac Jones Vs. The Heirs of William T. Vance

Hico & Little Jonathan Creek, Calloway County, KY (1838-1851)

1885 Loughridge Map Of Calloway County, KY

1838 marks the first year that Isaac Jones makes an appearance in the Calloway County, KY tax records. Now almost in his 70th year of life, Isaac was doing extremely well for himself as he settled into his recently acquired 400 acre farm with his new bride Kesiah and the couple's six slaves. Of these slaves, very little information has surfaced yet about them as individuals or how Isaac came by them. Apart from the woman named Delph who Isaac purchased back in 1819, the only other mention by name of any of these  individuals is a young man named Edmund. From the 1838 tax list it can be determined that of Isaac's six slaves, only three were over the age of 16 at that time. Based on a deed dated September 1, 1846 between Isaac and his son Joshua Douglas, Edmund was one of these three, having been mentioned as being "about twenty-six years of age." This deed is actually important on a couple of different levels because it also exposes a critical piece of evidence located in the deed's terms of conveyance. The deed states that "for and in consideration of the natural love and affection existing between the said Isaac Jones and his son the said Joshua D. Jones and the further consideration that the said Joshua at the death of the said Isaac is to pay to the heirs at law of the said Isaac six sevenths of six hundred dollars for a certain negro man named Edmund a slave for live(sic) now about twenty six years of age if said slave be worth that much if not in proportion to what he may be worth." With the payments being broken down into sevenths, this supports the fact that Isaac only had seven children who survived childhood and is extremely useful knowledge when attempting to sort out the many heirs named in the later administration of his estate.

While many people have attributed the founding of the Palestine Church to Isaac, records indicate that it was his son Joshua who was actually thought to be one of the charter members. Despite the fact that the early church records have been destroyed, the historian committee for the Palestine Church has been able to determine that the land where the church sits was originally deeded to the church in 1847 by Lucy Lee Ross, M. P. Parrish, and P. J. Parrish. The charter members of the church were G. W. Lee, Lucy Lee, Mae Lee, Jonathan Lee, and Sarah McDaniel. Other supposed charter members were John Allen Ross, Sarah Ross, Douglas Jones, Mrs. Douglas Jones, Billy Ross, Jim Ellis, Byrd Parrish, Mrs. Byrd Parrish, Charity Parrish, Job Johnson, and Mrs. Job Johnson. Several years prior to the land being made over to the church, they had built a small home on the southeast corner of the property that served as both a school and a church.  Isaac was still alive at this point and living right next door, so it is strange that there is no mention of him in their history, especially considering if he was a supposed founder of the church. As with the rest of his time since leaving Surry County, the only evidence of Isaac acting in the capacity of a minister while in Calloway County finds itself in the numerous marriages he performed between 1839 and 1845. The first of these weddings took place on November 2, 1839 when Isaac performed the marriage of his stepdaughter Rebecca Morris to his grandson Burrell Sparks, which was followed a couple of months later with the marriage of his stepson Henry G. Morris to Elizabeth Adaline Jones on January 30, 1840.

Less than two weeks after Henry Morris' wedding, Isaac's services are rendered once again on February 12, 1840 for the marriage of Radford C. Duvall to Adaline Jones. Adaline was the younger sister of Nathaniel P. Jones who had married Isaac's son Burrel's daughter Polly. Adaline's other older brother John had also married a granddaughter of Isaac named Fanny who was a daughter of Isaac's son Wiley. Two years later on February 14, 1842, Isaac would purchase 160 acres of land that lay adjacent to his existing residence from Adaline, Nathaniel, and John. This was land that had been left to them through the estate of their father John Jones who was a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia and had settled in the area in the late 1820's. A year prior to this, Isaac had also purchased another 100 acres from Chapman Miller on February 3, 1841, enlarging his personal farm to 660 acres. Having sold another 154 acres of his Tinsley Survey to his son Joshua on July 24, 1839, Isaac's total land holdings now numbered over 2,200 acres.

To gain some insight into how this total acreage translates into personal wealth, one needs only to examine a deed of mortgage dated July 10, 1841 between Isaac's son-in-law Bowen Whitlock who was borrowing the amount of $133.17 from Isaac and Thomas Jones. In the event that if Bowen failed to repay the loan, he had put up as collateral the following items: 17 acres of corn, one bay horse, 10 head of sheep, an eight day clock, 15 head of geese, one table, one looking glass, one grindstone, one cupboard and ware, one bed and furniture, 2 bee stands, and an undisclosed amount of farming tools. Earlier that same year, Isaac had paid nearly twice the amount of this loan to Chapman Miller in exchange for the 100 acres of land he purchased, which in turn was a mere fraction of the 2,200 acres Isaac owned in total. Based on later documents involving the estate of his daughter Alvina Whitlock, it would appear that this loan was eventually repaid before the death of her husband Bowen prior to 1845. After her husband's death, Alvina would purchase 153 acres on the south bank of Jonathan Creek from her father Isaac on November 5, 1844. The land was part of Isaac's original Tinsley Survey, costing Alvina the amount of $100 which was most likely a small fraction of what the land was actually worth. I say this because just a year and a half later Isaac parts with another 107 acres of his Tinsley Survey on April 6, 1846, selling it for $400 to a local doctor also originally from Surry County, North Carolina named John K. Wells.

It's quite possible that Isaac sold this land to John Wells in order to help fund his next and most interesting purchase to date which occurred only eight days later on April 14, 1846. It involved three tracts of land that lay to the east of Isaac along the shore of the Tennessee River in the vicinity of the now extinct town of Callaway (sic). Although the exact date of origin is unknown, the town finds it's earliest mention in an act approved by the Kentucky General Assembly on January 20, 1838 establishing an election precinct in the town at the home of Isaac Wills(sic). This Isaac Wills is in fact Isaac Wells, who at one time was the guardian of Adaline Jones and had given his consent to her marriage to Radford C. Duvall which Isaac Jones had presided over in 1840. Much of the land that Isaac Jones was now purchasing had at one time belonged to Isaac Wells prior to his death in 1841. Wells' stature in the town of Callaway is evident in the description of the second tract of land consisting of 40 acres that Isaac Jones had just purchased, describing it as "all that part which lize(sic) north of Wells Street in the plat of the town of Callaway." The other two tracts of land involved in this transaction lay to the north and northwest of the previously described piece of land, numbering 30 acres and 154 acres respectively. All of this had been purchased from an individual named Rufus H. King and his wife Elizabeth Ann for the princely sum of $1,750. Also included in the deal was the couples' interest in the local ferry that serviced the town "with the privilege of landing at any place on the East bank of said Tennessee River on the land of said Cook and wife." Ann N. Cook had at one point been the owner of the 154 acre tract that Isaac had just purchased. This 154 acre tract also gave to Isaac Rufus King and his wife's "interest in the said Town of Callaway" which did include a number of town lots. Unfortunately the town of Callaway no longer exists, having fallen victim to the Tennessee Valley Authority when they flooded the area in 1944 creating Kentucky Lake and the nearby Kentucky Dam.

1885 Loughridge Map Showing The Town Of Calloway

What is most intriguing about this purchase is that Isaac would end up selling it all at a substantial loss three years later on February 13, 1849 to Edmund H. Curd who had been the clerk of the county court up until 1848. The terms of sale required Edmund Curd to put $100 down and then another $150 was to be paid before December 25, 1849. This was then to be followed by payments of $175 on December 25, 1850 and December 25, 1851 bringing the total sale amount to $600, a sum well below Isaac's original purchase price of $1,750. Unfortunately there aren't many details concerning the circumstances behind this transaction, and unlike at the time of Isaac's purchase, the actual acreage amounts are not listed in the deed yet the land descriptions are the same leaving one to assume that it was the entire original package. One other interesting fact concerning this document is his wife Kesiah's involvement. Although she is not mentioned in the actual body of the deed, Kesiah does sign the deed using "her mark" and is later examined by the court to ensure that she had "voluntarily with her own free will and consent relinquished her right of dower to the premises conveyed." This would indicate to me that Kesiah had put up some of the money to make the original purchase.

Just five months later on July 3, 1849 Kesiah would enter into an agreement by deed with Isaac's son Joshua Douglas and son-in-law John Jeffrey concerning her future claims to Isaac's estate. The two men were acting as Isaac's appointed "lawful attorneys" and the deed reads as such:

"The condition of this agreement is such that the above bounded Keziah Jones relinquishes to the above named Attorneys all her claims or claims to all the lands and perishable property of all kinds belonging to the above named Isaac Jones her husband and designed by him for his children excepting the quarter on which they now live it being the North West quarter of Section 13 Township 3 Range 5 East for and in consideration of the relinquishment of her claims to the above said Lands and property and we the above named Attorneys do agree that if the said Keziah Jones be living at the death of Isaac Jones her husband She is to have peacable possession of said quarter with all the appurtenances thereunto belonging during her life and we appoint George W. Lee to have the management of said quarter and rent and take care of said farm on that quarter and the proceeds of said farm to be appropriated to the said Keziah Jones use and benefit during her life and at the end of her natural life the said quarter to go to the heirs of the above named Isaac Jones."

A little over a month later, Isaac and Kesiah sell the 160 acres that Isaac had purchased from Timothy Miller back in 1837. The land was conveyed to Augustine W. Johnston by deed on August 14, 1849 for the amount of $500 and was witnessed by G. W. Lee and J. M. Ellis. Based on my research, this document would mark the final appearance of Isaac Jones as a direct participant in any further land deals in the county.  When you factor in three earlier Tinsley Survey land sales made by Isaac in 1847 and 1848, 40 acres to his stepson Henry G. Morris, 175 acres to E. A. Morris the husband of his stepdaughter Lucinda, and 11 acres to his grandson John U. Jones, Isaac still owned nearly 1600 acres at the time of his death.

1838 Calloway County, KY Tax List

1839 Calloway County, KY Tax List

1839 Calloway County, KY Deed~Isaac Jones to Joshua Douglas Jones

1841 Calloway County, KY Deed~Chapman Miller to Isaac Jones

1841 Calloway County, KY Deed~Bowen Whitlock to Isaac Jones and Thomas Jones

1842 Calloway County, KY Tax List

1842 Calloway County, KY Deed~Radford C. Duvall & wife Adeline, John Jones, and Nathaniel P. Jones to Isaac Jones

1843 Calloway County, KY Tax List

1844 Calloway County, KY Deed~Isaac Jones to Alavina Whitlock

1846 Calloway County, KY Deed~Isaac Jones to John K. Wells

1846 Calloway County, KY Deed~Rufus H. King & Wife to Isaac Jones (page 1)

1846 Calloway County, KY Deed~Rufus H. King & Wife to Isaac Jones (page 2)

1846 Calloway County, KY Deed~Isaac Jones to Joshua Douglas Jones

1847 Calloway County, KY Deed~Isaac Jones to Henry G. Morris

1847 Calloway County, KY Deed~Isaac Jones to E. A. Morris

1848 Calloway County, KY Deed~Isaac Jones to John U. Jones

1849 Calloway County, KY Deed~Isaac Jones & Wife to Edmund H. Curd (page 1)

1849 Calloway County, KY Deed~Isaac Jones & Wife to Edmund H. Curd (page 2)

1849 Calloway County Deed~Keziah Jones to Joshua Douglas Jones & John Jeffrey

1849 Calloway County, KY Deed~Isaac & Kiziah Jones to Augustine W. Johnston

1850 Calloway County, KY Tax List

The 4th Wife.....Kesiah McCormack Morris (1796-????)

1837 Maury County, TN Marriage License

Most of what we know about Isaac Jones' fourth wife Kesiah Morris is culled from the 1850 Federal Census for Calloway County, Kentucky. Based on this census entry it has been generally believed that Kesiah was born in Tennessee around the year 1772. Anyone who has read my earlier posts can probably guess what's coming next. Yep.....once again I believe that the evidence suggests otherwise. For starters let's examine her stated birth year.

As I mentioned before in an earlier post, Kesiah's oldest child Jane was born circa 1817. If we are to accept the fact that Kesiah was born in 1772, this would have her giving birth to her first child at age 45 and then following that up with having three more children. While not biologically impossible, it's highly, highly unlikely and should be the first red flag thrown up. Furthermore, on earlier census entries where Kesiah can be located, her listed age is consistently stated as being much less than her presumed age of 78 in 1850. On the 1840 Census instead of falling into the "female 60 and under 70" column as the 1850 Census would have it, she is listed as being "40 and under 50". The information on the 1840 Census is much more consistent with the information given on her earliest known census appearance in 1820, where she can be found in Maury County, TN listed as being age "16 and under 26". By 1820 she had married James Morris and had two daughters "under the age of 10" which would be consistent with her daughters Jane and Lucinda. Based on this, I think it's much more likely that Kesiah was actually born no earlier than 1794 and most likely closer to 1800.

Through the existence of his Maury County, TN will recorded on May 15, 1827, we know that Kesiah was one of eight children born to John and Elizabeth McCormack. The McCormack family had come to Tennessee from Virginia sometime prior to Kesiah's marriage to James Morris around 1816. With Kesiah's older sisters Sarah and Mary having been born in Virginia in 1793 and 1795 and the existence of numerous John McCormacks in the state in 1800, I think it's just as likely that Kesiah was also born in Virginia and not Tennessee as previously thought. Unfortunately the 1800 Census for Tennessee has been completely lost and county tax records for the time have yet to produce a likely John McCormack to confirm or disprove this.

As stated above, Kesiah married James Morris in Maury County, TN around 1816. Together the couple would have four children: Jane A. (1817), Lucinda (1819), Henry G. (1823), and Rebecca C. (1824). Not long after the birth of their daughter Rebecca, James Morris would pass away in late 1825 or early 1826 based on his Maury County will recorded in February 1826. Kesiah would remain a widow for the next eleven years until her marriage to Isaac Jones either on or shortly after September 25, 1837.

1837 Maury County, TN Marriage License~Isaac Jones to Kesiah Morris

Flat Creek, Williamson County, TN (1827-1837).....Part 2

While his children were actively buying up a sizeable portion of northeast Calloway County, Isaac had returned to Williamson County where he continued purchasing land showing no signs of any intention of an immediate departure from Tennessee. On September 20, 1834, Isaac would purchase at auction 121 acres of land along Flat Creek in Maury County from Stephen M. Handcock for the sum of $49.50. Oddly enough, two days later Isaac would turn around and sell this same piece of land to William S. Moore for the exact same price in addition to an interest rate of "ten percent per annum." It is unclear whether this was a money-making attempt by Isaac or simply him helping William S. Moore out because the deed for this transaction also indicates that on September 27th, Isaac had been paid in full, not really leaving any opportunity for interest to accrue. The following year in 1835, Isaac would purchase another 115 acres along Flat Creek in Williamson County from David Green for $800. The land lay adjacent to the north of his original 1828 purchase and was once again bordered by David Gillespie to the east.

Although the exact date and circumstance is a mystery, later events would indicate that Isaac's third wife Nancy Dunlap passed away sometime around 1836. The following year Isaac would make several trips up to Calloway County to visit his family and make a few land deals that would hint to his imminent relocation to Kentucky. The first of these trips places Isaac in Calloway County on April 20, 1837 for the signing of a deed selling 150 acres of his Tinsley Survey to his son-in-law John Jeffrey for $100. By June 5th Isaac is back in Williamson County, TN writing out a deed to Elias Powell Sr., Elias Powell Jr., and Iquine Powell, transferring title of his 265 acre farm on Flat Creek over to them for the impressive sum of $2500. This amount was nearly twice what Isaac had originally paid for the land, netting him a nice profit of $1000. The following month on July 1, Isaac is back in Kentucky purchasing 160 acres of land which would be the beginning of his next homestead and actual place of residence in Calloway County. The land was purchased from Chapman Miller for the amount of $400 and was located near the present day community of Hico, lying just to the south of Palestine Methodist Church. Having been originally sold by the state as a non-military tract, the land is recorded in the deed as being the northwest quarter of Section 13, Township 3, Range 5 east, making it extremely easy to locate today.

Roughly two and a half months later on September 14, 1837, Isaac would purchase two more 160 acre tracts adjoining his initial land purchase. The first of the two land purchases bordered his land to the northwest and is recorded as being the southeast quarter of Section 11, Township 3, Range 5 east. This was purchased from Timothy Miller for the amount of $320. The second tract purchased that day was another from Chapman Miller, with the deed stating it consisted of 160 acres and being the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 14, Township 3, Range 5 east. There would seem to be a discrepancy in the writing of this second deed because if the land consisted of the east half of the northwest quarter, that would make it only 80 acres and not 160 as stated. When one factors in that Isaac only paid $80 for this particular piece of land, it would seem that the original acreage amount listed in the deed has in fact been misstated.

Less than two weeks after these land purchases, Isaac is back in Tennessee where he applies for a marriage license in Maury County on September 25, 1837. For wife number four Isaac selects his former neighbor to the south........the widow Kesiah Morris.

1834 Maury County, TN Deed~Stephen Handcock to Isaac Jones

1834 Maury County, TN Deed~Issac Jones to William S. Moore (page 1)

1834 Maury County, TN Deed~Isaac Jones to William S. Moore (page 2)

1835 Williamson County, TN Deed~David Green to Isaac Jones

1837 Calloway County, KY Deed~Isaac Jones to John Jeffrey

1837 Williamson County, TN Deed~Isaac Jones to Elias Powell, etc.

1837 Calloway County, KY Deed~Chapman Miller to Isaac Jones

1837 Calloway County, KY Deed~Timothy Miller to Isaac Jones

1837 Calloway County, KY Deed~Chapman Miller to Isaac Jones

1835 Williamson County, TN Tax List

1836 Williamson County, TN Tax List

1837 Williamson County, TN Tax List

The Tinsley Survey (1833)

Original 1783 Military Land Grant to Samuel Tinsley

Not long after his marriage to Nancy Dunlap, Isaac Jones makes his largest land purchase to date, purchasing 1000 acres in Calloway County, Kentucky on December 2, 1833. The land was part of a larger military grant originally awarded to Samuel Tinsley on December 5, 1783 for his service in the American Revolution and hence was referred to and became known as the Tinsley Survey. Over the years the land had come into the possession of a family by the name of Semple, although earlier records list the name as Temple. At the time of Isaac's purchase, he is buying the land from John M. Semple, Charles D. Semple, Isaac R. Semple and his wife Eliza, and Eliza B. Cheatham, none of whom actually reside in the county opting instead to be represented by their attorney Charles D. Semple. This would tend to indicate that the land had been left to them through an estate and was most likely never developed or improved upon, allowing Isaac to take possession of it for only $700. The land lay in the northeastern part of the county along the waters of Jonathan Creek just to the east of the town of Wadesboro, which at the time was the county seat of Calloway County and also the location for the region's land office. Many have speculated in the past that the Tinsley Survey's exact location was along Little Jonathan Creek south of Hico, but I believe that evidence suggests that it was much further north. Far enough north for parts of it to have been incorporated into Marshall County with it's formation from Calloway in 1842. On the 1852 tax list for McCracken County, KY, Isaac's son Burrel is shown as being taxed for 100 acres along Clarks River in Marshall County. I believe this to be land recently acquired through his father's estate and the same land he is shown being taxed on prior to 1842 in the Calloway County tax records. Later deeds even indicate that Issac himself never lived on any of the Tinsley Survey land which is a subject I'll address later.

It's difficult to say for certain how Isaac would have come by knowledge of this particular land being available for sale while he still living in Tennessee, although there are numerous solid possibilities. Calloway County and all the other counties in Kentucky lying west of the Tennessee River had been part of the Jackson Purchase of 1818 with the Chickasaw Nation. The purchase also included all of Tennessee west of the Tennessee River, which included Henry County where Isaac's son Burrel had left Williamson County for around 1830. With land speculation being a national obsession at the time anyone with land they were looking to unload could either advertise in regional newspapers as far away as Nashville, or simply down at either of the two land offices that serviced the area, one being in Princeton and the other in Wadesboro. With Wadesboro being pretty much just across the state line from Henry County where Burrel was, it's quite likely Burrel may have been in the area with his ear already to the ground for just such a deal.

Another possibility once again goes back to the Methodist Church. By 1833, Calloway County already boasted the largest number of Methodist inhabitants in this region of Kentucky, a distinction it would hold throughout the 19th Century even surpassing the nearby population center of Paducah. Later evidence would show that Isaac made the trip several times from Williamson County, Tennessee to Calloway County, Kentucky in the years prior to his own eventual relocation, indicating a certain level of ease in travel between the two locations. With names like Bizzell, Morefield, Wells, and Jones already existing in the county as early as 1830, it's entirely possible that word had trickled back to Williamson County from earlier emigrants.

Isaac wouldn't relocate to Calloway County for another four years, but many of his children did shortly after he purchased the Tinsley Survey. A deed of mortgage between John Jeffrey and Isaac's son Joshua Douglas involving a $50 loan indicates they had arrived in Calloway County as early as February 18, 1834. Isaac would make a return trip to the area later that month to perform the wedding between John Jeffrey and Isaac's now-widowed daughter Jane Jones Sparks on February 25,1834. Tax records for 1834 indicate that Wiley had also arrived in the county that year and that Burrel had begun dividing his time between there and Henry County, TN. By 1835, Isaac's son Thomas had arrived on the scene from Lincoln County, TN accompanied by his sister Alvina and her husband Bowen Whitlock. The theory has been proposed in the past that it was necessary for Isaac to rush his children up to Calloway County to take possession of and quickly occupy his recent Tinsley Survey purchase "to prevent the state of Kentucky from declaring the claim invalid and selling the land to any interested party." While it was possible for this sort of situation to occur, it wouldn't have been the case with Isaac's land purchase.

Despite being part of the Jackson Purchase and owned by the Chickasaw prior to 1818, the area of Calloway County had originally been the location of many military grants issued to Virginians who fought in the American Revolution. Many of these veterans or their descendants had settled in the area without a clear title of ownership to their land. After the land was purchased from the Chickasaws, the Kentucky General Assembly passed legislation on February 14, 1820 developing the public land system.This called for the land to be mapped and laid out using the township and range method and then sold off to the public in 160 acre quarter sections. This legislation also provided for military veterans or their assigns who did not possess clear title to their land to continue with the original patent process. This scenario would not have applied to or even affected Samuel Tinsley's land because he had already entered the 1000 acres that Isaac purchased back on August 11, 1784. This same land was subsequently surveyed for him on March 11, 1825 and recorded on March 16, 1826 with the state, meeting all requirements for rightful and legal ownership prior to it even ending up in the hands of the people Isaac bought it from. The actual deed for Isaac's purchase in 1833 states that the land was "patented to Samuel Tinsley on the first day of September 1826" further proving that Tinsley had met the requirements of the state and held clear title to the land. This voids any possibility that the state could have declared the claim invalid at the time of Isaac's purchase.

Despite having been opened up to settlement back in 1820, plenty of cheap land was still available to be had in Calloway County. Kentucky Land Office records show that in 1835 during the months of July, August, and November, Isaac's sons Burrel, Thomas, and Wiley purchased a total of four quarter sections of land along Little Jonathan Creek. Each quarter section consisted of 160 acres and cost a mere $20. Isaac's son-in-law John Jeffrey would also purchase a single quarter section in July bringing the total to five, which were all eventually sold to Isaac in 1836 and 1837. The records involving these land purchases hold a particular significance in that they take the form of receipts from the receiver's office in Wadesboro. Upon receiving payment for the land, the land office receiver would issue a receipt as proof of ownership that also listed the specific township and range location. Anytime an individual wanted to transfer ownership of their land, they would simply sign it over to the other person on the back of the receipt. This could continue on through several owners, and often did, until the last individual sent the receipt off to the governor's office in Frankfort to have it finalized and an official certificate of ownership was then issued. With the original receipt having been handed over, there was no need for a court copy to be produced as was usually the case with the typical land deed, thus providing the viewer with a rare glimpse at actual authentic signatures for each of these individuals.

The land purchases mentioned above are where many of these individuals or their children ended up actually living, all located along Little Jonathan Creek on both sides of modern day Roosevelt Road (Hwy 1346) and including the land occupied by the Jeffrey Cemetery.

1784 Military Land Grant Entry~Samuel Tinsley

1825 Land Survey~Samuel Tinsley

1833 Calloway County, KY Deed~John M. Semple & Others to Isaac Jones (Tinsley Survey)

1835 Calloway County, KY Land Office Receipt~Adams Sutherland to Burrel Jones

1835 Calloway County, KY Land Office Receipt~Burrel Jones

1835 Calloway County, KY Land Office Receipt~Adams Sutherland to Thomas Jones

1835 Calloway County, KY Land Office Receipt~John Jeffrey

1835 Calloway County, KY Land Office Receipt~Wiley Jones

The 3rd Wife.....Nancy Flemming Riggs Dunlap (????-1837).

Nashville Republican & State Gazette~May 17, 1833 edition

(a BIG thanks to my sister Stacie for this image!)

After the death of his second wife Bethania, it becomes pretty evident that at sixty-three Isaac had very little interest in becoming a bachelor again when he marries a local widow named Nancy Dunlap. Nancy must have been quite the catch because someone went to the effort of having the marriage announced in the Friday May 17, 1833 edition of the Nashville Republican & State Gazette newspaper. The announcement reads, "MARRIED--On Wednesday, 8th inst. Rev Isaac Jones, of Williamson cty, to Mrs. Nancy Dunlap, of Maury county, T." This date is confirmed by the couple's marriage license issued in Maury County and further supported by the $1250 marriage bond Isaac submitted on April 25, 1833.

Nancy Dunlap had originally been born Nancy Fleming in North Carolina sometime in the 1770's. It's extremely possibly that she and Isaac were already acquainted because her first husband was a man named Zadock Riggs who had been the sheriff of Surry County, NC in the early 1800's while Isaac and his family were living there. Zadock and Nancy Riggs had left Surry County sometime after 1810, resettling the family in Williamson County, TN where Zadock would eventually die on May 19, 1816. Two years later Nancy would eventually remarry on December 23, 1818 to a man named Samuel Dunlap. Prior to her marriage to Samuel Dunlap, Nancy and her children by Zadock Riggs were the wards of a man named Aaron Boyd. Through her marriage to Samuel Dunlap, it is believed that Nancy had six children: Samuel, Eliza Jane, Lydia Anderson, Nancy Fleming, Thomas, and Emily. Interestingly enough, history would repeat itself when some of these children became wards of Aaron Boyd upon the death of Samuel Dunlap in 1829. I think this is an important clue to the fact that Samuel Dunlap had been married once before to a woman named Jane Crawford Foster. In his will, which I've unfortunately only seen an abstract of, Samuel requests that "settlement be made with Col. Aaron Boyd as guardian of the children of Nancy Dunlap, formerly Nancy Riggs." He then separates out his two youngest children Lydia Anderson Dunlap and Nancy Flemming Dunlap from his four "oldest children" Samuel, Eliza Jane, Emily, and Thomas.

Despite having left a will in Maury County dated October 1, 1828 and recorded in court on August 25, 1829, the family still ended up hashing things out in the Maury County Chancery Court. It would appear that Samuel Dunlap had come from a wealthy background and was fairly wealthy himself based on a file found in the county containing 143 pages titled, "Samuel Dunlap Jr., Et al (plaintiffs) vs. Bird S. Hurt, Et al (defendants)." The file is part of Maury County's Loose Records Project and the 143 pages it holds span from April 30, 1831 to March 20, 1836. The bulk of it deals with the four older children of Samuel suing their father's estate executor Bird S. Hurt, the two younger children Lydia and Nancy, and their mother Nancy for the sum of $1000. This amount had been left to them through their grandfather John Crawford's estate in Screven County, Georgia. Once again, this separation of the two groups would imply a prior marriage for Samuel Dunlap. Especially considering that at the time of the lawsuit his daughter Eliza Jane is listed as Eliza Jane Dunlap Padgett and obviously married. Even if she was the oldest daughter of Samuel Dunlap and Nancy Riggs, she would only be 12 at the time the suit commenced and hardly old enough to be married. My theory is backed up even further by her descendants who state her year of birth as 1815 (3 years before Samuel Dunlap married Nancy Riggs) and her parents to be Samuel Dunlap and Jane Crawford, which coincides with the chancery court suit. Having married Nancy Riggs Dunlap in 1833, Issac Jones is also eventually listed as a defendant in the suit. Due to the volume and mostly illegible nature of the documents I have yet to determine the final outcome of the lawsuit, although I can say that Isaac's only other mention was providing a receipt of some sort dated May 2, 1836.

1833 Maury County, TN Marriage Bond~Isaac Jones to Nancy Dunlap

1833 Maury County, TN Marriage License~Isaac Jones to Nancy Dunlap (page 1)

1833 Maury County, TN Marriage License~Isaac Jones to Nancy Dunlap (page 2)