Isenhower (Eisenhower) family
Moses William Isenhower was born in 1823 in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri to John D. and Sarah Bailey Isenhower who had traveled to Missouri from Lincoln County, North Carolina about 1821. John and Sarah had married in Lincoln County on 3 Feb 1811. Many German families from North Carolina settled in Cape Girardeau because land was free. Moses’ father John died in 1844 in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri leaving a will naming his family members. In the will Moses received hogs, a saddle, a rifle, cow, gray mare, sheep and after the death of his mother he was to receive one half of the balance of the plantation. This family can be traced to Hans Nicholas Isenhower, immigrant to Pennsylvania from Germany in 1741. It is of this same Hans Nicholas family that President Dwight D. Eisenhower (Isenhower) descends. The name Isenhower translated in English as “Iron-cutter” and is shown on early deeds as such.
Most of the children of John and Sarah Bailey Isenhower moved to Montgomery County, Arkansas about 1845 or early 1846. These children were Moses W.; Sarah Emeline; Mahala who was married to Enos Johnston 27 Feb 1831 Cape Girardeau ; Barnett; and Valentine Isenhower who had also married in Cape Girardeau about 1842. One son Josiah E. Isenhower remained in Missouri. Daughter Martha “Patty” Isenhower who married William Blalock 18 Aug 1843 Perry County, Missouri may have remained as well. Moses sold his inherited half interest in his father’s land to his brother Josiah on 11 Oct 1845 Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.
While living in Montgomery County, Arkansas, Moses Isenhower married Amanda M. McKinney 1 Oct 1846. He was 23 and she was 16. Amanda, daughter of William C. and Mahally “Alia” Wilkerson McKinney, was born in Arkansas in 1830. The William McKinney family had traveled to Arkansas about 1825 from Limestone County, Alabama. On 25 Dec 1847 at Mt. Ida, Arkansas, Moses recorded his branding mark as a swallow fork in each ear and an under bit in the left ear.
Moses and Amanda Isenhower had three children born in Montgomery County, Arkansas. They were Martha Elizabeth, born 20 May 1848; William Martin, born 4 Jan 1850; and George Washington, born 1852. Moses is shown on the 1850 census of Montgomery County. Arkansas as a farmer in the Sulphur Springs township. Nearby are his siblings’ families and the families of his in-laws. Two brothers and a sister also married in Montgomery County, Arkansas.
By late 1852 or early 1853, Moses and Amanda Isenhower had moved to Cass County, Texas. He is shown on tax records beginning in 1853 with 2 horses and 4 head of cattle Another child James M. Isenhower was born in 1854. In the summer of 1855, Moses W. Isenhower is shown on the estray records of Cass County. He begins paying taxes in 1857 on land located in the John Blanton survey on the waters of Black Cypress Creek. Their last child, John Marshall, was born 13 Feb 1857. While in Cass County, Moses worked as an overseer on the large plantations of Reece Hughes, Mark Summer, Wilber Peacock and for a Widow Driver. On 21 July 1857, Moses and his wife Amanda leased mineral rights to their land on Black Cypress Creek to E.E. Jeffries of Ohio . In 1859, only Mrs. Amanda Isenhower is shown as the tax payer for their property. She continues to buy and sell land in her name until 1865. In 1860 Amanda Isenhower and her five children are shown in the household of J. T. Summerlin in the Hickory Hill precinct of Cass County.
In 1860 Moses Isenhower is back in Montgomery County, Arkansas and is elected to serve as coroner from 1860 -1862. His brother Valentine Isenhower had served in this position from 1852 until 1858. We are not sure why he left his family in Cass County or even if he planned to return there in 1862 when his term as coroner expired. With the coming of the Civil War, plans were forever changed. Traveling 50 miles to Little Rock, Arkansas, Moses William Isenhower joined Co. I of the11th Arkansas Infantry of the Confederate Army on 29 Oct 1861 for a one-year term. His age was shown as 35 but he was actually 38. His regiment was sent to Island Number 10 on the Mississippi River in January of 1862. It was a strong position of defense for the Mississippi Valley and home to Fort Thompson just off the New Madrid, Missouri coast line. On 16 Feb 1862, Moses Isenhower died of a severe head wound at Fort Thompson. Many soldiers were buried in unmarked graves. Later these burials were removed to government cemeteries elsewhere perhaps in Tennessee.
Meanwhile back in Cass County, Texas, Mrs. Amanda M. Isenhower continued to care for her children. The family next door was named Echols. Her daughter Martha Elizabeth married Elijah Pennington Echols on 12 Oct. 1866 in Cass County, Texas after his return from the Civil War. Elijah’s wife had died in 1865 and three small children were left without a mother.
The next record of Mrs. Amanda Isenhower is in Hopkins County, Texas where she purchased land in the Collins Survey near the town of Saltillo in 1870. She and her four sons appear on the 1870 census. She is shown as a tax payer in 1871 as Mrs. Amanda Isenhower.
She married J. D. Clifton on 16 Oct 1872 in Hopkins County, Texas. In 1873, she appears on tax rolls as Mrs. Amanda M. Clifton. Apparently her second husband died before 1880 or they parted because she is shown as Amanda Isenhower, age 48 widow. She is last shown on tax rolls in 1886 as a non-resident of Hopkins County. Deed records continued to show her, however, as Mrs. Amanda Clifton up until 1888 when she sells her land in Hopkins County and moves (?) to live with her children in Fort Worth, Texas (?). Record of her burial is not found in Tarrant County cemetery books.
Son George W. Isenhower owned a Mercantile and Jewelry Store in Fort Worth, Texas in the 1880’s until 1920. He is shown on the 1880 Tarrant County, Texas census as a merchant boarding at Houston Street George never married and died in Callahan County, Texas in 1922 at the home of his niece, Fannie Echols Paulette who was one of the twin daughters of Martha Elizabeth Isenhower Echols.
James Isenhower married Fannie Ramond in Tarrant County, Texas and died about 1892 (?). He worked with his brother George in the mercantile business. Fannie Isenhower is shown on the 1910 census of Tarrant County in the home of William A. Skinner. William Martin Isenhower married first to Amanda Adelia Jobe 25 Aug 1870 in Johnson County, Texas. He bought land in Eastland County and Callahan County in 1879. He brought several head of horses with him. His horse ranch gradually gave way to cattle. After Amanda Adelia died in 1911, Martin married Ruth Ann Jones in February of 1912 in Callahan County, Texas. Wm. Martin died in 7 Sept 1927 in Putnam, Texas. He was a prosperous rancher. He kept in touch with his Cass County nieces and nephews.
John Marshall Isenhower moved to Tarrant County, Texas about 1886 and also worked in the business with his brother George Isenhower. In 1891, John while in Callahan County, Texas sells the remaining Isenhower land in Hopkins County. He bought acreage in Callahan County, Texas near the community of Putnam in 1893 and began farming. He married Isabelle Robbins in August of 1894. In 1910, Jerome Echols, grandson of Martha Elizabeth Isenhower Echols is working and living with John’s family in Callahan County, Texas. He died in Putnam on 23 Sept 1930.
Submitted by Mary Echols