Meet the Large Families of Andrew McIntyre
Andrew was the third child born to Alexander and Elizabeth. Their firstborn child 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, and as myself, accepted this as who he had married. However in the interest of accuracy, I began to look further into who she was. 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 Sarah Lee Munger is listed with 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 1883. Andrew’s wife passed away in 1840 shortly after the birth of a son, William Henry. There are a number of other substantiating records on Ancestry and Family Search to 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, the misspelled marriage record held the key and Moninger was where I started. Persistence seemed to be pointing in the direction that Andrew’s wife may have been from the “Moninger” family. That 1820 marriage record for Andrew is rife with misspellings, but as you can see below, his new bride’s name is transcribed as “Soirole Moninger” and Andrew’s last name spelled “McEntir”?? Edna Hall Miller also made note of this entry but dismissed it as a transcription error or that the record taker wrote what was heard phonetically. If not for the fact that Andrew’s wife passed away in 1840 and Andrew remarried in 1841, perhaps we could disregard the spelling errors and accept the real Sarah Lee Munger as being our 3rd Great Grandmother. Other discrepancies between the two women is that Sarah Lee Munger Irvin passed away in 1884 at the age of 8l. Her Gravestone is below clearly showing her married name, birth and death dates. Furthermore, according the 1880 Indiana Census record, the son of Andrew and his wife, Leroy McIntyre, indicated that his mother was born in Pennsylvania. Sarah Lee Munger Irvin was born in in Montgomery County, Ohio.
I began searching census records for the Moninger surname in Fairfield County, Ohio and came across a “Henry Moninger” living there during the time of the 1820 through 1850 Census records. This was the first big breakthrough, as it shows the Moninger family living in close proximity to the McIntyre family lending the opportunity in this small community, for Andrew and his first wife to meet and marry. 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 tombstone, all the evidence we researches look for to establish a family link. Thanks to the wonderful help of the to Ohio Genealogical Society the newest and greatest finding was found imbedded on page 2 of Henry Moninger’s Last Will and Testament. This amazing document is not only rich with family information but in his “Item #8” explicitly mentions leaving a portion of his estate to the children of his two “deceased daughters” and names “Sally McIntire” and her sister Nancy. He intended to leave their children, his grandchildren what was left to be divided after his wife Martha passed away. So with that 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!
And finally, you have no doubt experienced in your own research, similar quirky glitches. But it is imperative to 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. 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 NOT Andrew McIntyre’ first wife or the mother of his first nine children. Certain enough that I have deleted all those references to the family from my Ancestry.com family tree and with documentation confirming her identity, adding Sally Moninger as his rightful wife. Although I briefly “mourned” the loss of the Munger and Kellogg families who for many years thought they were beloved Great Grandparents, I welcome Sally Moninger McIntire (as her father spelled her married name) into our family as my dear third great grandmother! Sally, you are now known and loved!!
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.
Andrew and Rebecca Bogan, his second wife
Rebecca Bogan was the fifth daughter of William Bogan, Sr. and Elizabeth Pullen. William was of Irish decent, his father was Andrew Bogan, from County Cork, Ireland. The name Bogan is derived from the Irish Gaelic language for the word bog, the soft ground of a marsh or swamp, and similar to the marshes and peat bogs of Scotland. According to an article written by Dallas R Bogan in 2004, the people that lived in these conditions were called “bog-ans”. In Ireland the surname is spelled “O’Bogain”. The Scots Gaelic word for bog is similarly spelled as “boglach”. Although initially here was little distinction between the Scots and Irish in Virginia and North Carolina where the immigrants settled, that began to change as families moved north and west and established their own identities as Americans. Most of the Northern Irish immigrants were Protestant as were the Scottish, leaving their country of birth to find religious freedom as well as opportunities to farm without the heavy taxations of their respective land owners. My father would refer to our family as being “Scot’s-Irish because in his mind, they were all the same to him. Looking back, our family didn’t have a strong Scottish identity nor did we adhere to Scottish or Irish customs and celebrations. They were content to be in this country, being mostly farmers and getting on with their lives without the need to hold onto a past they knew nothing of.
This important excerpt is from Dallas R. Bogan’s article and will be listed in the Bibliography and Resources. Mr. Bogan explains how the Bogans came from Boutetourt, Virginia to Clinton County, Indiana.
“William (Senior, Rebecca’s father) and Benjamin (his brother) came to the Clinton and Warren County area in the fall of 1833. It is not known the route they took from Virginia, perhaps over the mountains and possibly they came by flat boat from Pittsburgh to the Cincinnati area and then by road to Clarksville, Ohio, which is located in Vernon Township (Clinton County). They also settled in Washington Township, which is located in the eastern part of Warren County”. He continues, saying that “many of the children of John, William and Benjamin married in Warren and Clinton counties. John and William’s families moved from this immediate area to the area of Kirklin Township, Clinton County, Indiana. This migration started about 1836. The bought land in that territory paying $1.25 per acre. A church was started in the Kirklin area in the year 1843. Among its original charter members were David Bogan, Elizabeth Bogan, William E. Bogan, Jane Bogan, Margaret Bogan, Rebecca Bogan, Andrew Bogan, Jane Wallace and Nancy Wallace; the two last ladies were formerly Bogans. The original church was a log structure but has since been built as a frame structure. It is still standing” (he wrote this in 2004).
Rebecca’s mother Elizabeth had passed away when Rebecca was about ten years of age, leaving her to help look after her siblings. Besides her four older sisters, there were several brothers and another sister younger than herself, one being about a year old when her mother passed away. She was in her early thirty’s when she met and married Andrew McIntire. It is not hard to understand how as Jane described, she was unable to read or write given all the responsibilities she must have had. Andrew’s first wife Sarah had only been gone about a year when Rebecca and Andrew married, and she quickly assumed the role of step-mom to his younger children still at home. Not long after their marriage she gave birth to the first of their five children. In her letter Jane recounted being 17 children from both families, 10 from her father’s first marriage and “seven of us”, however the records only show there were five in her family, with herself being number two. Either way, it was a large blended family!
We are fortunate to have images of some of Andrew and Rebecca’s adult children. The quality is not what our current digital standards are, but rather a glimpse of their likeness. Andrew on the far left and his son George Parker have strikingly similar long facial features, and high cheekbones. This is a much younger photo of Jane than previously posted and she certainly resembles her younger brother Andrew Washington. Missing from this family is their eldest son Joseph and youngest son Albert. And of course, Rebecca! Anyone?