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Born: About 1802 in Kentucky, probably in Pulaski County
Died: Between 1 Dec 1893 and 24 Jan 1894 in Rockcastle County
Of all the individuals who I have researched in the Skeggs Creek/Line Creek
area, Isaac Mize is one of the most intriguing. Since his life spanned almost
the entire 19th century, he lived through a range of the pivotal events we've
only read about in history books—the War of 1812 and the Civil War, the
presidencies of Jackson and Lincoln, the end of slavery, the beginning of the
transformation of the United States from a backwater agrarian confederation to
a powerful industrial nation.
His personal life was equally tumultuous. He was married four times and
fathered at least 22 children, but attended the funerals of three wives and
nine children. He lost his mother as a child and his father as a young man. He
was a successful businessman and landowner who lost everything as an old man,
then regained a portion of it as an older man.
All we can say for certain about Isaac's parentage is that he was the son of
Jeremiah Mize. We don't know his mother's name. His father remarried to a
widow, Elizabeth Brown, whose daughter Mary married Aaron Price. Two of the
Price children from this union later married into
John Renner's
family. Isaac's sister, Margaret, married Moses Pitman.
There is, I believe, strong circumstantial evidence which points to William
Riley Mize as being Isaac's brother. However, placing William Riley in this
fashion creates several problems with earlier Mize genealogies and raises the
possibility of the existence of two Jeremiah Mizes, a discussion I'll not
rehash here.
Isaac grew up along Buck Creek in Pulaski County, probably east of the creek in
the Sinking Valley area. As a young adult, the family evidently lived near the
Aaron Price family. Isaac, William Riley, and Jeremiah appear as chainmen on
two of Aaron's land grant surveys.
The first time Isaac appears on the Pulaski County tax list is in 1823, the
same year Jeremiah died. Isaac bought his first piece of land in 1828; it was
on Pitman Creek. In 1831 Isaac bought two tracts of Buck Creek land from
Shadrack and Nancy Stogsdill which he sold to William Riley in 1836. That same
year, Isaac moved to Line Creek, purchasing 110 acres of land from Walker
Langford. He added an adjoining 50-acre grant the following year. This land
included what is today the intersection of the Line Creek Road and
Buffalo Branch
Road.
On 14 Dec 1822 in Pulaski County, Isaac married Polly Lester, whose ancestry
has proved very difficult to trace. Their marriage record lists her mother as
Nancy Lester, but I've been unable to find a Nancy with daughter Polly (or
Mary). The first child of record for Isaac and Polly was Maranda, born about
1825 according to later census records. She married Westerfield Renner in 1839
with Isaac's signed consent, as she was "not of age."
Evidently the next four Mize children, two girls and two boys, died between
1840 and 1850. Polly bore Isaac three more children—John,
James, and another
daughter who also died—before she herself passed away about 1841.
For some reason, Isaac and Polly sold their Line Creek land in October of 1840
to Tilman Duncan and moved to the Eagle Creek/Buffalo area of Rockcastle
County. I don't believe the Renner family connection had a great effect on
Isaac's decision to move, as Westerfield and the other Renners, with the
exception of
Elisha, were living
well north of Buffalo by then.
After Polly's death, Isaac remarried to Malvina Purvis, who was twenty years
his junior and with whom he had seven more children before she also died, in
late 1860.
His next wife was Louan McCarty. She and Isaac were married 14 Mar 1861 in
Laurel County. There are no children recorded for this marriage, which lasted
only a couple of years until Louan passed away. Isaac then married Marinda
Tyree between 1862 and 1864. Assuming they married in 1863, Isaac was 59 years
old, Marinda was 19.
Isaac and Marinda had at least seven more children, the last being born in 1878
when Isaac was 76 years old. (His eldest grandchild, Martha Renner Brinkley,
was 38 years old by that time.)
In the 1860 Rockcastle census Isaac was listed as a miller. In an 1896 deed
between Ingram and Elizabeth Nichols Renner and their daughter-in-law Rachel
Doan Renner, there is a mention of the "Mize Mill Road." The land
being sold was a 50-acre tract and included the property where the Buffalo
Baptist Church is today. From the deed's description, I believe the Mize Mill
Road is what is listed on some current maps as the Mize Road, which turns off
toward Eagle Creek to the left, south of the church. It is probable then, that
Isaac's mill was near the middle section of Eagle Creek.
There is also a family story which indicates Isaac operated a mill on Hawk
Creek in Laurel County. He had purchased land on both sides on the Rockcastle
River near Hawk Creek sometime prior to 1859. That year Isaac, John Linville,
Thornburg Bullock, and J.C. Evans mortgaged their property to Carleton B.
Bachellor and Ephraim L. VanWinkle, both Somerset attorneys. Isaac's portion
reads: "…and Isaac Mize two hundred and seventy five acres lying in
Rockcastle and Laurel County it being the same where he now lives." Then
in 1870 Isaac bought the
bond Worley
Linville had made to William Brown for 50 acres of similarly-situated property.
But between those purchases, Isaac got himself into some financial trouble
which resulted in him declaring bankruptcy in Pulaski County in 1868. According
to the documents, he lost everything. However, I'm not so sure that he was
forced to surrender all of his land (maybe he hid records of some it somehow),
since in later years it appears he still owned some of the land he had
mortgaged in 1853.
One indication we have of the family's financial problems may be evident the
1860 and 1880 Rockcastle censuses. In those years several of his children were
living in other households, including 16-year-old Mary Catherine Mize who was
listed as an orphan in the 1860 Holbert McClure household.
Whatever troubles they had, by 1881 things seem to have been getting a little
better. Isaac and Miranda bought about 150 acres of Sinking Valley land from
brothers William and Shelton Pointer that year. While some of the acreage was
rugged, a portion of it consisted of fertile bottom land. In 1883 he sold his
Hawk Creek/Rockcastle River land (four tracts) to James Cooper.
Ironically, Isaac's land served as bookends to James Cooper's tenure as a
landowner. Cooper, the step-son of Tilman Duncan who had bought Isaac's Line
Creek property 43 years earlier, had been virtually landless until Duncan had
given him both his and Isaac's former property. Those tracts formed the core of
Cooper's almost baron-like accumulation of land which eventually grew to
several thousands of acres. His purchase of Isaac's Hawk Creek property was one
of the last large purchases he made before his death five years later.
The Sinking Valley property, which lay in Rockcastle County very near the
Rockcastle-Pulaski line just east of Plato, would be Isaac's last home. He made
out his
will 31 Mar 1892,
"feeling feeble in body but in perfect mind and memory." He left
everything to Miranda.
The last mention of Isaac is in a deed dated 1 Dec 1893 when he and Marinda
sold son Samuel 12 2/3 acres of land. His will was presented to the court 24
Jan 1894. Marinda continued to live on their farm after Isaac's death, but
financial troubles forced the sheriff to sell the land for unpaid taxes ($4.45
for the year 1898) in 1901. Fortunately, the purchaser was son Tilford Mize, so
the land stayed in the family for a while longer. Tilford ultimately sold the
farm, including two mules, to Everett Wiser in 1925.
Marinda never remarried. She died of bronchitis 20 Aug 1917 and was buried at
the Raspberry Church Cemetery in Rockcastle County.
We are unsure of Isaac's final resting place. Many of his children,
grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren are buried in various cemeteries near
Buffalo, on both sides of the river. Some have suggested he was buried on Hawk
Creek, others in the Mize cemetery near the old rock quarry in Laurel County. I
believe it's most likely he's buried with Marinda at Raspberry or perhaps in a
family plot on the Sinking Valley farm. Wherever he is, his grave remains
unmarked.
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