Meet the Large Families of Andrew McIntyre
and
His First Wife
Andrew was the third child born to Alexander and Elizabeth. Their firstborn child a son, also named Andrew, passed away in early childhood, presumably around 1792 when Abigail was barely three years old. Andrew, the second was born in 1798, placing him in the “eldest son” of the growing family. After his father, Alexander passed away in 1819, it was Andrew that took on the responsibility of looking after his mother and still much younger siblings. It is quite likely that Andrew accompanied his mother on the long journey from Ohio to Missouri to look for his father. His marriage to his first wife was yet a year away, so his obligation as eldest son was to care for his mother. The family farm was in default leaving Elizabeth and the remaining children in jeopardy of loosing their security of both home and income. As discussed in the previous Abigail and Robert Lisle post, Robert was in a financial position to take on covering the immediate debt keeping the family from foreclosure. And it was Andrew that kept his family legends and lores alive, passing the stories down to his many children, including Jane McIntire, who in my opinion, is the most important of all our family researchers!
Andrew's First Wife
About one year after his father passed away, Andrew married in Ohio, on December 9, 1820. Most family trees identify his first wife as Sarah Lee Munger, as did Jane, adding that she was a “Dutch girl. For many years, I too accepted Sarah Munger as who he had married. However in the interest of accuracy, I began to look further into who she was. At this point in the research, I was only curious as to how they met, and to know more of her family and to keep with the goal of telling her story, not wishing to reduce Andrew’s wife to a birth and death date and the mother of a lot of kids!! That eye-opening discussion follows in the section below titled Looking for the Real Sarah Munger.
Andrew and his new bride were quick to start their family which numbered seven. Eli, Simpson, Leroy, Alexander, Mahlon, Caroline and Lewis were all born in Ohio. Andrew later purchased property in Clinton County, Indiana and resettled his young family there. Two more children were born into the home, Rachel and William. Sadly, Rachel passed away as an infant and tragically, Andrew’s wife passed away shortly after giving birth to their last child, William Henry, who was then sent to be raised by Andrew’s sister and her husband, Abigail and Robert Lisle, who were still living in Franklin County, Ohio.
Looking for the Real Sarah Munger
Introduction
As previously mentioned, most McIntire family trees show Sarah Lee Munger, the daughter of Edmund Munger and Eunice Judd Kellogg Munger to be the woman Andrew married. It has been widely accepted, including by myself, that it was she who married our Andrew McIntyre. Reviewing the information I had on Sarah Lee Munger, including a 1985 Centerville Historical Society publication, purchased a number of years ago, and written by Howard R. Houser titled “From Blacksmith to General, General Edmund Munger and the War of 1812 in Ohio”. This small paperback booklet is an interesting read on life in the early history of the Mungers in America and the family’s migration westward. On page 17 of the book, Sarah’s name is listed as one of the children born in their new home in Ohio. But further research about Sarah began to send up questions as to the validity of her identity, primarily her marriage to Elam Irvin and subsequent birth of their children and her death in 1883. At this point I reached out to the wonderful resource the Ohio Genealogical Society. They sent along the December 1820 marriage record of Andrew and a “Soirole Moninger” in Fairfield County, Ohio. Edna Miller had this information and questioned it then, but dismissed it as being a transcription error and all of us continued to name Sarah Lee Munger as Andrew’s first wife. The Moninger name on their marriage record was key in looking further into this issue. After looking at Fairfield County Census records, it was discovered that there was indeed a family of Moninger’s in the same town as the McIntyre’s, answering one question of how Andrew met his wife. The Edmund Munger Family did not live in Fairfield, nor could I find any connection between the two families. Seriously doubting that Sarah Lee Munger was “our girl”, but not wanting to dispute many years of family trees and hoping there was a logical explanation, and perhaps it was just a spelling variation of her last name, I looked at the expansive two volume book titled
“The Munger Book, Something about the Munger’s”
and subtitled
“Including Some Who Mistakenly Write the Name Monger and Mungor”
The title of this book leaves no question as to how the famly wished their name to be spelled! This book lists all of the Munger family since their 1600’s immigration from England to Connecticut and includes the amazing family tree below!
Discussion and Evidence
On page 60 of “The Munger Book”, Sarah Lee Munger is mentioned as having a birthdate of March 15, 1803, same as what our family trees cite. But as mentioned above, this particular Sarah Lee married Elam Irvin, had a large family and passed away in 1884. Andrew’s wife passed away in 1840 shortly after the birth of a son, William Henry.
A few other substantiating records on Ancestry and Family Search support the notion that the Sarah Munger, daughter of Edmund Munger and Eunice Judd Kellogg might not be “our” Sarah, putting all of our notations such as birthdate, birthplace and parentage in question. Still wishing to believe that Sarah Lee Munger was our ancestor, I began to doubt the accuracy of her records. Not being able to build a case to dispute her birthplace, marriage, children and death records, the long discovery journey of who exactly was Alexander’s wife, commenced!!
All those misspelled last names that the Munger family insisted didn’t belong to them helped to sort out who she might be. As it turned out, Andrew and his bride’s marriage record held the key and Moninger was where I started since that name was easiest to decipher. Although the 1820 marriage record is rife with misspellings, as shown below, I wasn’t convinced that the error was with her last name. In her notes, Edna Hall Miller wrote the “spellings should not be interpreted as correct, as they (meaning the record taker) spelled the name as they heard it”. This remark was also initialed by her son John. Persistence seemed to be suggesting that Andrew’s wife may have indeed been from the Moninger, not Munger family. “Soirile” could be interpred as “Sarah” so I began searching for a Sarah Moninger.
What we do know about Andrew’s wife was her death in 1840. Although there are neither death or burial records to be found, the baby boy that was born shortly before her death was later sent to live with his Aunt Abigail and Uncle Robert Lisle. We don’t know exactly how old the baby was at the time of her death, and it is speculative that she died from likely complications of childbirth. Andrew remarried in 1841, nearly a year after her death. Sarah Lee Munger Irvin passed away in 1884 at the age of 81 and her gravestone below clearly shows her birth and death dates. Furthermore, the 1880 Indiana Census record of Leroy McIntyre, the son of Andrew and his first wife indicates his mother was. born in Pennsylvania. Sarah Lee Munger Irvin was born in Montgomery County, Ohio.
The next step was to search census records for the Moninger surname in Fairfield County, Ohio during the 1820 through 1850 time period. Thinking if Andrew were to meet “Miss Moninger” it would make sense her family would be living in the vicinity. This was the first big breakthrough, as indeed there was a Henry Moninger family living in Fairfield County, Ohio. However, up until recently (like today!!) there wasn’t a solid link tying Henry Moninger to Andrew’s wife. No children’s birth records, no tombstones, all the evidence we researches look at to establish a familial link.
Thanks to the amazing help received from the Ohio Genealogical Society, the newest and greatest finding was found imbedded on page 2 of Henry Moninger’s hand written Last Will and Testament, (1853). It was there that Henry Moninger states in “Item #8” that he wishes that a portion of his estate be left to the children of his two “deceased daughters”, SALLY McIntire and her sister Nancy!! He specifically intended that their children, his grandchildren be given what was left to be divided after his wife Martha passed away.
So with that evidence I am confident that Andrew McIntyre was married on December 9, 1820 to Sally Moninger, daughter of Henry and Martha Moninger. Sally was the mother of their children and it was her who passed away shortly after giving birth to their final child, William HENRY in 1840. One has to believe their newborn was named in honor of his beloved Grandfather Henry Moninger.
Conclusion
Finally, you have no doubt experienced in your own research similar quirky glitches. Finding an error or recording into your tree the wrong family and having to delete all that previous work! (Guilty and many times over!) But it is imperative to always question the information that just doesn’t look right and be open to dig a little deeper and accept the facts where ever they might lead. I’ve been uneasy about “Sarah Lee Munger IRVIN” for quite some time but in order to truthfully face if she was or was not Andrew’s wife, for the sake of this blog, I needed to find out. It isn’t about what “I” think, but what do the records, resources and references direct “US” to conclude and what is the most likely rendition of what really happened. I’m certain enough that Sarah Lee Munger, daughter of Edmund Munger and Eunice Kellogg, and the wife of Elam Irvin was absolutely NOT Andrew McIntyre’s first wife or the mother of his first nine children. Certain enough that I have deleted all those references to the Munger family in my Ancestry.com family tree. With documentation confirming her identity, Sally Moninger is now proudly shown as Andrew’s rightful wife. Although I briefly “mourned” the loss of the Munger and Kellogg families, who for many years I believed to be beloved Great Grandparents, I whole heartedly welcome Sally Moninger McIntire (as her father spelled her married name) into our family and as my dear third great grandmother.
Sally, you are now known, heard and loved. Welcome to the family.
I do hope this helps you in making your own decision as to who Andrew McIntyre was first married to. Because the records (on Ancestry and Family Search etc) continue to promote Sarah Lee Munger as being Andrew’s wife, it will take perseverence to make changes. We have all at times taken other people’s trees as unfounded truth, add the misinformation to our own records and on it goes. If you are convinced what has been presented in this discussion merits consideration, I only ask that you dig into your own research and make the changes necessary.
Sally McIntire deserves that recognition and honor.
