52 Ancestors: #1 Andrew M. CASEBOLT

Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued a challenge:  write one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor.  It can be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem – anything that focuses on one ancestor.

I’m a sucker for a theme.  So when Amy Johnson Crow offered a thematic alternative to the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge, I had to bite.  Week 1 is “Fresh Starts.”

While many of the folks in my family tree experienced a “fresh start” in any number of ways, Andrew M. CASEBOLT was the poster child of fresh starts.  He was born before 1810 in Bath County, Virginia, so it’s a real puzzle as to how he became such good pals with my 3X great granduncle James Jollett, Jr. who lived about 100 miles away in Orange County. 

Nevertheless, they must have been very good friends.  In 1832, Andrew and James went in together on the purchase of a quarter acre lot in the newly-developed village of Rifesville (now known as Dayton) in Rockingham County.  Perhaps they bought the property as an investment, believing that this new town would take off and land prices would escalate.  Apparently neither one chose to live there.  Instead they had their eyes on other land.

Two years later, Andrew married James’s niece Louisa Sampson, daughter of his sister Clarissa Jollett and John Sampson.  It was about the same time that the Sampsons, James Jollett, and the Casebolt newlyweds all made a fresh start as early pioneers seeking to settle the Northwest Territory.  Their first stop was Ohio but within a couple years they moved on to Indiana. 

Andrew and Louisa raised 6 children.  Louisa may have died from complications of childbirth as evidenced by her death in 1845, the same year child #6 was born. 

Marriage license of Casebolt and Ellis

Andrew wasted no time making another “fresh start.”  He left his in-laws and best friend behind in Clay County to find love in Henry County.  There he married Nancy Weines Ellis on 19 March 1846.  They added a daughter to the mix.  However, that marriage did not last long.  In 1850 Nancy was on her own living with children from her previous marriage and three-year old Elizabeth Casebolt.

Andrew made another “fresh start” in 1848 with Hester/Esther Doughty.  In 1850, they were in Harrison Township of Bartholomew County.  Andrew was working as a millwright and had amassed property valued at $3000.  Hester, 10 years younger than Andrew, was caring for his six children plus their two year old daughter Louisa Ann (or Laura Ann, depending on the census).

 

1850 Harrison, Bartholomew, Indiana census

This family totally disappeared from the census records of 1860, but in 1870 they reappeared.  They had found a “fresh start” in Cape Girardeau, Missouri where Andrew worked in a printing office.  Three more daughters had been added to the family. 

1870 Cape Girardeau, Cape Girardeau, Missouri Census

Even though Andrew was widowed in 1880, he was listed with a new wife Hattie Martha Montgomery in the 1880 census for Hubble, Girardeau County, Missouri.  However, that was his last “fresh start” in the marriage game as he died two years later. 

 

1880 Hubble, Giarardeau, Missouri Census

FAMILY

Andrew M. CASEBOLT (1810 Bath Co, VA – 1882 Cape Girardeau, MO) son of Asahel Casebolt and Susannah Seybert

M1) Louisa SAMPSON (1819 Virginia – 1845 Indiana)  25 Sep 1834 Orange Co,  VA

1. Mary Jane CASEBOLT (1836 Ohio – 1906 Indiana) & David WRIGHT (1829 Indiana – 1907 Indiana) 22 Oct 1855 Jackson Co, IN
2. Sanford CASEBOLT (1839 Indiana – 1874 Indiana) & Leora THOMPSON  18 Mar 1864 Jackson Co, IN
3. Wesley CASEBOLT (1841 Indiana – ) & Emma UNKNOWN
4. Jonathan Beard CASEBOLT (1844 Indiana – 1899 California) & Mahala SMITH (1846 Illinois – 1934 Salina, KS)
5. John Munroe CASEBOLT (1844 Indiana – 1911 Missouri ) & Eliza MOODY (1848 Alabama – 1918 Missouri) 1865 Missouri
6. Henry Clay CASEBOLT (1845 Indiana – 1916 Oklahoma)  & Sarah MOODY (1851 Illinois – 1928 Washington)

M2) Nancy WEINES ELLIS (Virginia – ) March 1846 Henry Co, IN

M3) Esther / Hester DOUGHTY (1816 Kansas – 2 Aug 1880 Cape Girardeau, MO)  29 Mar 1848 Marion Co, IN

M4) Hattie Martha MONTGOMERY (1818 –  ) 1880 Missouri

* I have listed only the children by Louisa Sampson because Andrew Casebolt is family only by marriage.

 © 2015, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.