Person:Isaac Routh (3)

Isaac Routh

• GenForum genealogy.com

Posted by: Sam Redding

Date: 10 Aug 2005

Subject: Isaac C. and Mary (Blakely) Routh

"Isaac C. Routh, son of Jacob, was born in 1772 in Randolph County, North Carolina, married Mary Blakely in1794. Isaac died in Grainger County, Tennessee in 1840. Mary Blakely was the daughter of Charles and Margaret [Davis] Blakely.

"Charles Blakely was born about 1736 in Ireland and died after Oct. 17, 1816 in Knox County, Tennessee. He married Margaret Davis, and they had eleven children, all born in Montgomery or Smyth County, Virginia, very near Frederick County, Virginia. Jesse Blakely, a son of Charles and Margaret [Davis] Blakely, born Dec. 25, 1777, married Polly Kerns, was received into the Paw Paw Hollow Baptist Church by experience in February 1803. Paw Paw is where Jacob and Martha Redfern Routh were members.

"It seems likely that Isaac C. and Mary Blakely Routh had nine sons, and that the eldest, Jacob, born about 1795, died in the 1830s, leaving children who were then raised by his brothers. This would be consistent with a story passed down by Edward, son of Jacob (born 1825, son of Jacob described here). The story says that Jacob died in 1835. Upon his death, his children were distributed among his brothers, some of whom were bound for Missouri. Sons Jacob and John, in 1837 when Jacob was 12 and John 10, were living with Uncle Stephen and Aunt Sarah. The two boys did not like their stern Uncle Stephen, and ran away to live with their Uncle Isaac Routh, a Methodist minister in Polk County, Missouri. They walked the 600 miles to Missouri, and found that another brother was living with Uncle Isaac. In 1846, red-headed Jacob (Jake) and 100 other men from the Humansville area of Polk County rode south to Mexico to fight in the Mexican War. Jake returned to Polk County, married Caroline Smith, who gave birth to William on December 27, 1849; Caroline died shortly thereafter. He married Eleanor Robinson a few months later, they had 6 children, and she died in 1862. He then married Ellen Owens in 1864 and they had 4 children. Jake and Ellen’s children were: Grace, Sarah Amanda, Arthur Edward, and Samuel. In the 1900 census in Cedar County, Missouri, Jake was 75 years old, and was in the home of his son, Samuel, and his wife, Hannah, and their children.

"This story also comports with the fact that a Jacob Routh signed an affidavit supporting the pension claim of Thomas J. Gillihan, and stating that he was the brother of Thomas’s wife Susan. In 1850, Susan was with her brother Jacob in the Polk County, Missouri census. He was 21 and she was 16. Thomas J. Gillihan was in the home of his mother, Elizabeth Webb, in the 1850 census, and was 17 years old. The census was taken on September 25. Thomas and Susan were married five days earlier, according to court records. Also in the 1850 census, near the Webbs, is John Ruth, 23, born in Tennessee, his wife Mary, 20, born in Illinois, and their children Martha, 2, and Francis M., 9 months. Close also is Francis Ruth, 25, born in Tennessee, his wife Elizabeth, 20, born in Iowa ?, son Owen, 3, born in Arkansas, and son Ambrose, 6 months, born in Missouri.

"In 1860, Thomas Gillihan (Gilam) was in the census in Richland Township, Washington County, Arkansas. He was 28, as was his wife, Susan. He was born in Missouri and she in Tennessee. Their son James was 9, born in Missouri. Daughter [Rebecca] Jane was 8, born in Missouri. Son Thomas was 3, born in Missouri. Daughter Malinda was 1, born in Arkansas. Next to the Gillihans in the census is Jacob Ruth, 30, born in Tennessee, and his wife Elinder, 30, born in Tennessee. Their children were William, 10; Mary, 9; James, 7; John, 4 all born in Missouri. Also, Missouri (female), 3; and Nancy, 3 months, both born in Arkansas. So the Gillihans and Rouths moved to Arkansas about 1857, and they settled next to each other, where they farmed. This Jacob is probably the brother of Susan, and the two were living together in 1850 in Polk County, MO.

"Isaac C. Routh died in December of 1840 in Puncheon Camp, Grainger County, Tennessee. An inventory of his estate was recorded on January 6, 1841 in Grainger County. The sale was administered by Stephen Routh, and notes were recorded against John Routh, Stephen Routh, Hezekiah Routh and Hugh Routh. Also recorded in Grainger County Deed Book D, page 76 is: “From Aaron Rook to Isaac Routh, September 23, 1813. Isaac Routh of County of Sevier sum of $200.00 for 40 acres north side of Clinch Mountain on the forks of Puncheon Camp Creek joining the land of Richard Shockley.” Asa Routh, grandson of Isaac and son of Stephen, is included in the book, Tennessee Pioneer Baptist Preachers. He is described as “a great warrior for the Lord,” and the book details his many forays into small towns in rural Appalachia where he burned cards, smashed liquor bottles and baptized scores of new converts in the nearest river. Asa was married three times and had 29 children.

• "Children of Isaac C. and Mary Blakely Routh were:

"1. Jacob (born 1795) (probably the father of Jacob, John, Stephen, Susan, two other boys, maybe Benjamin and Francis who were raised by Jacob’s brothers after his death in 1835)

"2. Stephen (born 1797 in Sevier County, Tennessee, married Sarah McCluskey)

"3. Hezekiah Routh (born July 2, 1798, probably in Sevier or Blount County). See below.

"4. Jonathan (born July 4, 1800, Sevier County, married Catherine Barringer; Jonathan and Catherine Routh had two children before moving to Greene County, Illinois in the spring of 1830 and two more children in Greene County before Catherine’s death on October 16, 1835, shortly after the birth of her fourth child. Jonathan then married Elizabeth Brown, on January 6, 1839 in Greene County, which became Jersey County the following year. Elizabeth was the widow of Vincent Brown. Jonathan moved to Fannin County, Texas in 1845, where he became the county sheriff, married a third time without divorcing Elizabeth who remained in Missouri, and died in 1864.)

"5. John (born 1805 in Tennessee, married Sarah Benton)

"6. Isaac (born June 5, 1809 in Grainger County, Tennessee, married Frances Gillihan (daughter of Thomas and Lucy) in Greene County, Illinois, on October 23, 1831; this Isaac was a Methodist minister in Missouri; he performed the first marriage in Polk County, Missouri—“Jeremiah Yancey and Mary Thompson, August 11, 1830, Squire Isaac Ruth officiating.” Isaac is listed as an early settler in Jackson Township, Polk County, Missouri. Taken from Goodspeed's History of Polk County.)

"7. Hugh C. (born 1813 in Tennessee in Tennessee, married Mary Elizabeth Brown)

"8. Levin (born 1817 in Tennessee, married Violetta Brown, daughter of Alexander (Sawney) Brown, Jr.)

"9. William Jeremiah (born 1824 in Tennessee, married Hannah Elizabeth Mills)