| Notes |
- On the FAG site, a reference is made to Jim Wall having found Isom's will and probate records for DOD of December, 1830.
One researcher shows parents as Unknown Gwin and Elizabeth Mordeca and another as John or William Gwin based on Washington County, VA 1782 Taxpayers List-1, p. 53. However, many researchers use the data I have used.
Several sources testify that he spoke often and adamantly from his pulpit of the evils of slavery, and while most of his family and friends evidently agreed with him, at least his two oldest sons, William and John, did not. Finally surrendering to the gentle urgings of the Holy Spirit, Isom himself freed his own slaves sometime between 1810 and 1815, sold the farm in Crowson's Cove, and moved with most of his family and friends to the new free state of Indiana, while those two sons moved to Dallas County in what would soon become the new slave state of Alabama. And now we've learned that he and Mary kept and raised at least three (one source says seven) of his freed slaves, all orphans, as foster children until they reached adulthood as free people in Indiana.
Early on in Indiana, Isom, Mary, and their family lived in both Harrison and Crawford counties before settling down for good in Orange County. In 1817 he is listed as a founding member of the El Bethel Baptist Church, Crawford Co., IN. Then on 4 Sep 1819 he was called to be the first pastor of the just-founded (7 Aug 1819) Providence Primitive Baptist Church in Orange County, which call he accepted.
Written by John Gwin FAG #425831995
Josh Gwin's notes on the spelling of Isham's names 6/1/18: Spelling: When I first start researching this dear old guy, my uncle, James B. Gwin II, from whom I first heard of him, had his name spelled ISHAM. It was also spelled Isham on the deed to his 249-acre farm in Wear's Cove (see a photocopy of the original at http://www.gwingenealogy.net/GENEALOGY/TOOLS/howtomakeamap.htm). But it was spelled ISOM on his will, one of the the executor's to which was his son-in-law, Elijah Wright. On the gravestones of his namesakes, of whom there were/are dozens and dozens--grandsons, mostly--it's spelled both ways; some used ISOM, some used ISHAM. Generally, the rule for genealogists is that those documents written long ago by hand are not to be trusted necessarily for correct spelling, while professionally-carved gravestones are. On various documents, we've seen his name spelled (and misspelled) ISHAM, ISOM, ISAM, ISUM, IJAM, ISHUM, and ISEM, to "name" a few. But we've never seen Rev. Isham's gravestone (though we're getting closer and closer to discovering that!), so it's anybody's guess. I decided long ago that I'd keep Isham for two reasons: (1) to honor the tradition started by Uncle James and (2) to distinguish it from the name of his namesake grandson whose gravestone I discovered, who spelled his own name ISOM. My fifth cousin Jim Wall, on the other had, uses ISOM, as do several others.
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Ray & Welch Family Trees
1764 - 1830 (66 years)
[2] 