Letters written to family members by Martin Luther McIntire
First Letter to Jane McIntire Carpenter
Kind relative,
You may think your letter was not appreciated as I had not answered but not so. I fell the 5th of April and broke the bones in my right wrist which hindered me from writing and as I am a McIntire, wanted to do this writing myself. I am 77 years old and live alone. A grandaughter came from Kieffer, Okla. to help me for awhile.
I know it was a sad picture when I tried to read your letter. From a little child I have been wondering where my brothers and their families all were, as my mother could not write, so she could not keep up with them. Our father seldom answered a lter. There are three of us living of father’s second marriage. Brother George Parker, or GP McIntire is in N.Y. Coty with his daughter Vallie Faber, that is Alice Joyce’s mother. Alice was born in K.C. and left there when she was 13 years old, her and Frank, their mother took them to Washington D.C, and gave them up to Edward, their father. Frank is a foot racer, has won many prizes.
Our grandfather McIntire was born and raised in Scotland and his wife and cousin, Elizabeth McBride in Ireland, just over the line. They came to Penn. in the early days and stayed there until their four oldest children were born and came to Ohio leaving a large body of land homesteaded in Ohio. They kept a tavern and grandfather later came to Missouri to get more land, leaving his family behind who came later and when they came to his place he was dead. They went to his grave and camped until morning and turned back. Isaac McIntire was with Daniel Boone and was layed to rest in one of Daniel Boone’s coffins.
Your father’s mother was Sarah Munger, a Dutch girl. They came to Frankfort, Ind. with several small children among the Indians only 3 white families there. There was ten children when the mother died, little Rachel died shortly before her mother died. Brother Will was a little babe and father took him to his sister, aunt Abbie Lile at Columbus, Ohio and he came to see father when he was 19 years old. There are some of his children there, Clint McIntire, his only son. Will went to Colorado 39 years ago last fall and took the fever and died, we don’t know what part or he may have been in Washington, but his children know. His wife Dianna Moore was a Dutch girl and is buried at Jefferson, Ind.
Look on the map of Ind. Clinton Co. 6 miles east of Frankfort, there is a town Cyclone that is on our old clover field where my father’s home was when he died Sept 28, 1876. That was 121 acre home. The cyclone left it, path in June 1880. You may get tired of me but this gives me so much pleasure. Father had lots of valuable land. The old home 320 was at the south side of the 12 mile prairie which is 3 miles wide and east of Lafayette.
My hand is tired now I would have written with ink but for blotting the paper. There has never been many girls in the McIntire family.
I have one daughter, four sons, 2 of the Pollet boys and 2 of the Carpenter boys. Perry Carpenter has been dead 12 years. H.L. Carpenter of Wann, Okla. that isn’t far from Coffeyville. His farm is in Wisconsin. I will write all the births and deaths off soon of your father’s family for I happen to have the Bible. This is the 12th and brother Lewis’s birthday who was drowned fell overboard on his return from Calif. was within 200 miles of home, they never got the body. His home was at Craig, Holt Co., Mo.
Notes and Commentary on Jane's January 11, 1921 letter to Martin
After consulting with another of Jane’s ancestors it is agreed that the grand daughter that came to help Jane after she broke her wrist was Vivian Irene Pollet. Vivian was the daughter of Jane’s eldest son Charles “Charley” Loften Pollet. Charley’s father was Jane’s first husband Peter Pollet. Vivian would have been approximately 15 years of age.
The three children of Andrew (her father) that were still alive at the time of this letter was George Parker (G.P), Albert McIntyre (his spelling) and Jane. A letter between Albert and Martin will also be added soon. (Photo right) Vallie O McIntyre was married to John Edward Joyce. They had two children that Jane refers to, Alice and Frank. Alice became quite famous as a silent screen actress, and known as The Madonna of the Screen
Property of Andrew McIntire
This map excerpt of Clinton County, Indiana indicates where one of the many properties owned by Jane's father, Andrew McIntire was located. She referred to this as the "Old Home", on the south side of the Twelve Mile Prairie.
Alexander’s death still is a bit of a mystery. We only have what Jane has written in this letter. She describes how he went to Missouri to “get more land”. When he didn’t return the family came later and found that he had died. She says that “he was with Daniel Boone and was laid to rest in one of Daniels Boone’s coffins”. I have reached out to several Boone organizations for clarification but the only response I’ve received thus far was from the Boone Society, Inc in North Carolina. The Genealogist and Treasurer wrote:
“This is the first I have heard of your story. You mentioned he was buried in one of Boone’s coffins. It must have been another Boone. Daniel Boone did not make coffins that I am aware of”.
I will continue pursuing leads to this intriguing family lore in order to clarify Jane’s memory of Alexander’s death. Her father was Alexander’s son and may well have been one of the family members accompanying his mother Elizabeth from Ohio to Missouri. Andrew was the eldest son and already a capable adult.
Jane leaves me wondering a few things and if only I could sit down and chat over a cup of tea with her! How did Elizabeth, with children in tow take off for Missouri in search of her husband? It’s more than likely by a taking what was called the National Road, an over 800 mile “road” approved by Congress in 1806. The road started in Cumberland, Maryland and by the 1837 ended in Vandalia, Illinois when funding was no long available. In 1819, the section of road open would have given Elizabeth and her children a safe head start on their journey. Admittedly this is all speculative, but perhaps is how she managed to set out and find her dear husband. After all, they came all the way from Scotland, so what’s a few more hundred miles! The link below will take you to a site with more historical information as well as a map of the road.
Second letter to Jane McIntire Carpenter
Mrs. Jane Carpenter to M.L. McIntire
My dear brother’s son,
At last I will try to write you. Grandfather was married in Scotland and came to Penn. in early days and tommyhawked around a large body of land and stayed there until the three oldest children was born and then came to Ohio. That was Andrew, John and Abigal. There was Richard, Edith, Alex, Rebecca and Isaac. Rebecca died in her chair age 15. She screamed and said someone had hit her on the head with a hammer. Isaac had epileptic fits and fell in the fire and burned to death. Father and Richard com to Clinton, Co. Ind. lived in the vicinity of Kirkland and Frankfort. John’s widow and children went to Charleston, Ill. This Truman you spoke of is one of the sons. John, the younger, was poisoned in the Civil War, but died at home in Charleston. I have his picture will send it to you as there isn’t any one at my home but myself. Edith never married, was a cripple, died at her home at Thorntown, Ind. Alex at the old home in Ohio where him and Edith had always lived. Abigal and Robert Lile always lived near Columbus, Ohio. There was a large family of them. I saw some of them in 1863 when I was at brother Wills for aunt Abbie raised him from nine months old. Aunt Henrietta girls lived at Charleston. Jemima Whitesel and Rachel Linder. She married Jake at Charleston, he was well to do. Truman married there also. Whitesel married in Ohio.
Was your mother a quaker lady and her name Mariah Blair? Uncle Richard had three wives, first one died and left four little girls, next one cut her throat with uncle’s razor, left a baby boy, it died. Next wife had Truman and some girls. Amanda Bennett has always been at the home where uncle homesteaded 100 years ago 160 acres. They are all dead but 2 and not many children. My son Y.E Pollet always told to me don’t worry about writing, I have the address and will write for you, but never had time. I told him last week I was going at it myself now.
I have my father’s bible but it is so badly torn and the names faded it will be hard for me to get them together, but I know better than anyone else. This was not done in our home, my brothers children did tear the name to little scraps but there but 17 of us, 10 of the first children and 7 of us. I will hang on now until I get it all done, so many, oh so many things so long ago. I was so young and sit on the half bushel at the cabin door trying to read about Martin Luther and Harvey Durbyshire, is that right?
I live alone, 4 families in this house, some of us Uncle Sam’s girls or war widows, both my husbands were Ohio Volunteers. My next place is to the home for the widows, I can’t hardly take care of myself now. We have had seven weeks ice and snow, am shut in.
If you answer and I will write. My grandson comes to Colo. often is 17 now, spent the summer in harvest field, his home is in Parsons. He was a year old when his father died, that was Perry Carpenter. I am give out and write soon.
Mrs. Jane Carpenter
The town Cyclone was named after a destructive tornado that went through the area on June 14, 1880, after her father Andrew had passed away. Jane and her second husband, Thomas Carpenter were living in Jackson Township with her five children (two from her previous marriage to Peter Pollet). The 1880 census was recorded on June 11/12, 1880, just a few days before the horrific storm. Her youngest child, Herman Lewis was only 6 months old.
According to the following source, (the storm was) “the most destructive storm that ever visited the country, either since it’s settlement or in traditional history. It was a genuine cyclone with a “funnel shaped cloud” which swept over a curved path of over forty miles in this and adjoining counties, leaving desolation in its wake. It was estimated to have done $200,000 damage in this county. The present town, which was located about that time as a railroad station, was in the path of the storm and was named for it”.
(Claybaugh, Joseph 1913) History of Cinton County, Indiana. Indianapolis: AW. Bowen & Company, pp. 33.
I am give out
Notes and Commentary on Jane's January 22, 1925 letter to Martin
Jane says her grandfather (Alexander) “tommyhawked” around a large body of land. This term has left many who have read her letter with questions about what exactly “tommyhawked” meant. Edna discovered an article from the Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania which is subtitled “A copious Selection of the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, etc” and continuing, “Relating to it’s History and Antiquities, Both General and Local” with “Topographical Descriptions of Every County and All the Larger Towns in the State” by Sherman Day. Whew!! That has to be the longest book title in the history of ever! Oh, and it’s Illustrated by 165 Engravings.
On Page 337 of this epic book is a paragraph that reads:
“There was, at an early period of our settlements, an inferior kind of land title denominated a “tomahawk right: which was made by deadening a few trees near the head of a spring, and marking the bark of some one or more of them with the initials of the name of the person who made the improvement. I remember having seen a number of those “tomahawk rights” when a boy. For a long time many of them bore the names of those who made them. Other improvers of the land, with a view to actual settlement and who happened to be stout veteran fellows, took a very different course from that purchasing the tomahawk rights”. When annoyed by the claimant under those rights, they deliberately cut a few good hickories, and gave them what was called in those days a “laced jacket”, that is a sound whipping”.
Alexander and Elizabeth’s children were Jane’s aunt’s and uncles, as they were her father’s siblings. She mentions them in her letter to Martin, however they will each be remembered under the Family of Alexander and Elizabeth pages.
Martin’s mother (married to Jane’s 1/2 brother Alexander) was Lovina Mariah Hiatt, not Mariah Blair. And yes she came from a Quaker family. More of her and Alexander in an upcoming post.
Jane mentions reading about Martin and his brother, Harvey Derbyshire, who had passed away in a tragic train accident in 1910. More of Harvey in an upcoming post.
As of this date, there is no trace of Jane’s father’s Bible. Even with the pages ripped, it would be an amazing artifact to behold! Unfortunately it appears that Jane was never able to write down what she remembered from the family archives in the Bible, other than what we have in these two letters she wrote to Martin. And time has taken away any trace of Martin’s side of the correspondence too.
Jane was married twice, first to Peter Pollet, born in 1848 and died in 1871. He served for the state of Ohio, on the Union side in the Civil War, enlisting in June of 1861. She and Peter had two boys, Charlie Lofton Pollet born in 1868 and George Edward Pollet born in 1870, just eight months old when his father died. Peter was buried in McIntire Cemetery in Clinton County, Indiana. In 1874, Jane remarried to James Thomas Carpenter, also a Civil War soldier for the state of Ohio on the side of the Union. Jane and James had three children, Perry born in 1875, Olive in 1876 and Herman Lewis (H.L.) in 1879. She referred to her grandson living in Colorado, that would be Perry’s son named Carroll Clyde Carpenter. His mother was Effa or Effie Kamrar. Perry passed away in 1909.
Still to come, a letter from Jane’s brother Albert written to Martin!