When I was
compiling a book on Crittenden County estate records [1] several
years ago, I came across an entry in Crittenden County Court Order Book[2] that
stated Mary Postlethwait was appointed guardian for the infant heirs of
Jonathan Postlethwait[3]. That was good information as Jonathan Postlethwait left no will and
there was no settlement of his estate. There was no death certificate for Jonathan in
1858 or any other year so this entry in the court order book gave us an
approximate death date.
Sometime
later another record was found that provided much more information and had me
doing a happy dance. Circuit Court case files are housed at the Kentucky Dept.
for Libraries and Archives in Frankfort. Included among the Crittenden Circuit
Court records was case file #151, Mary
Postlethwait: Petition for Sale of Land - also filed 26 October 1858. Coincidence? Not at all. She was first appointed guardian
to the children and then, as guardian, she filed the petition.
This case
file contained several items of interest:
1. It gave the death date of Jonathan
Postlethwait.
2. He said he died intestate (left no valid will).
3. It identified the petitioners as his widow
and his only children.
4. He said he owned land in Crittenden County.
5. It mentioned she planned to move from Kentucky
and where.
Any one of
those items would have been great to know, but knowing all of them was
wonderful!
Let me tell
you about Case File #151. Mary Postlethwait filed for herself and as guardian
and next friend of her infant children Sarah Postlethwait, Martha Ann
Postlethwait, Luvenia Postlethwait, Susan Postlethwait and John Thomas
Postlethwait and stated that Jonathan Postlethwait departed this life intestate
on the 11th day of June 1852, leaving the petitioners as his widow and children
and only heirs of the decedent. At the time
of his death, Jonathan owned two tracts of land on the waters of Crooked Creek
in Crittenden County, the first one containing about 140 acres and the other containing 80 acres.
According to
Mary, her late husband left very little personal property. The farms were in bad
condition and the rent from them was insufficient to support and educate the
petitioners. Mary Postlethwait stated her father and all her brothers had either already moved to Missouri or were planning to move there. She wanted to go
to Missouri also as her father and brothers could assist her in raising her
family and she could get more and better land there. She prayed for a decree to sell the above-mentioned land.
Samuel
Ashley, who was likely Mary Postlethwait's father, gave a deposition in which he stated he was
well acquainted with the parties to this suit and also with the land to be
sold. He verified that Mary Postlethwait was the widow of Jonathan and the
children named were the only children of the decedent.
Mary and her
children did leave Kentucky. It seems Mary, now known as Polly, had married Wm.
Canalton and was living with him and her two youngest children, Susan and John on the 1860 Ray County, Missouri census.
Living next door was the family of Samuel Ashley.
I haven't
followed Mary Postlethwait and all of her children, but do know that her daughter,
Sarah E., married John Monfort and died in 1931. She is buried in Pisgah
Cemetery in Ray County. Sarah E.
Monfort's brother, John Thomas Postlethwait, died in 1924 and is buried in St.
Clair County, Missouri.
Samuel
Ashley moved from Missouri to Colorado, where he died 7 October 1900 and is
buried in Saguache County. His obituary states he was born 18 December 1817
Coffee County, Tennessee and moved to Kentucky at the age of 12 years. In 1858,
he moved to Missouri and then to Colorado in 1865[4], when
this was still Colorado Territory.
By putting
all of the information together from the county court order book and the
petition filed in Circuit Court, I have a much better picture of the Jonathan
Postlethwait family. The information on Samuel Ashley was helpful, too.
[1]
Brenda Joyce Jerome. Crittenden County, Kentucky Estate Records
1842-1865, (Evansville, IN:Evansville Bindery), 2011.
[2]
Crittenden County Court Order Book 2, p. 318, filed at a called term of court
26 October 1858.
[3]
The 1850 Crittenden County census shows Jonathan Postleweight as age 32 born
Kentucky and Mary Postleweight as age 34 born Tennessee. Children listed are
Sarah E., Martha A., Nancy L., Rachel S. and John T. Postleweight. Apparently
some of the children went by their middle names.
[4]
Find A Grave, Samuel Ashley, memorial #27993521, http://www.findagrave.com,
accessed 22 May 2016.
Published 28 June 2016, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/
