52 Ancestors: #8 What Was She Thinking? Isabella Sarah McCabe Anderson

Isabella Sarah McCabe Anderson (1818-1912)

Caroline Anderson Bird

Family portrait. Isabella McCabe Anderson, in black, seated in wicker chair in center of front row.

What was she thinking? Marrying a man so much older when she was still a teen…taking on the care of his small children…having so many children of her own….moving away from her family to a new state? I think, as I look at the picture of this woman sitting tall and proud in her 90s, she was thinking, “This is what I want to do, and so I’m going to do it.”

Isabella, my great-great grandmother is the sturdy woman who sits front and center in the family portrait taken in 1909.  Her astounding life took her from child bride defying her family’s wishes by marrying and moving from Pennsylvania to Ohio, to become one of the longest-surviving members of the family. She is ninety-one years old in this picture, surrounded by four of her seven children, assorted grandchildren (including my grandfather) and great-grandchildren (including my mother) and in-laws. And she was to live three more years after this picture.

Herbert Andrson in rare four- generation family picture. Front Grandma Isabella McCabe Anderson, left her son Frank Anderson, Back her grandson Guy Anderson and his wife, Vera holding great-grandson Herbert, far right, dtr-in-law Mary Brink Anderson, Guy's mother. 1909

Detail from picture above. 91-year-old Isabella Anderson in rare four- generation family picture. She sits in the wicker chair and to her left her son Frank Anderson. In the back, her grandson Guy Anderson and his wife, Vera holding great-grandson Herbert, far right, daughter-in-law Mary Brink Anderson, widow of  Isabella’s son Joe and mother of Guy.

I mentioned in my sketch of Mary Brink Anderson, that my mother and grandmother’s stories about family seemed to ignore my grandfather’s maternal line. Not only did they neglect to follow the story of the Brink-Middaugh Dutch connection, they also did not relate the rich family history of Isabella McCabe Anderson.

Isabella’s parents and siblings

Although my mother’s version of her story was that Isabella came from Scotland with her parents, she was really born in Pennsylvania. The records, including the Ohio Biographies Project entry on John Anderson tell the true story. Isabella’s grandfather, William McCabe, came to America in 1775 as the pioneer of the family.  He settled in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. And his father is identified as Scots-Irish. While the McCabes originated in Scotland, they had been in Ireland for generations, first moving there to serve as militia for Irish lords.

Isabella’s mother comes from a very distinguished early American family–also from Scotland– the Fifes.  I do not want to get distracted  here with the rich history of the Fifes , but they came to the United states in the early 1700s and three members of the first and 2nd generation served in the Revolutionary War.

After having two children who died in infancy and a son, John Fife McCabe,  Joseph and Margaret Fife McCabe had a baby girl in September, 1818.  They named her for her maternal grandmother, Isabella Thompson Fife.  There may be something to the name, as that elder Isabella lived to 91, which in the mid 19th century was a very long time.

Isabella had three younger siblings, but her mother, Margaret, died when she was only forty years old, leaving her husband and

  • 18-year-old John,
  • 14-year-old Isabella,
  • nine-year-old Thompson,
  • seven-year-old Mary
  • and five-year-old Lavinia.

We can assume that Isabella was important to her widowed father. As the oldest girl, she would have responsibilities for younger children. But she wanted more than that.

Isabella Marries John Anderson

So it is not surprising that three years later, when recently widowed John Anderson wanted to marry Isabella, her father (and probably other relatives) objected.  It is quite easy to see the objections.  John Anderson was twenty years older than the then-


20-year-old Isabella. And he had three four children. I have not located information on Abigail, but Erasmus (yes, THAT Erasmus) was just five years old and his little sister Sarah Jane Anderson (McDowell) was three.

It may be superficial but is easy to attribute Isabella’s strong personality to her warrior ancestors, but she clearly knew what she wanted and did not fear consequences.

Defying her family, Isabella married John Anderson in 1838. 1835, and promptly got pregnant with the first of her seven children, John O. Anderson born in 1836. (The Biographical Record of Holmes County assigns son John to John Anderson’s first wife, however, if the date of his birth is correct, that is not possible.) [CORRECTION 3/2016. For some reason when I first wrote this post, I did not consider that the marriage date could have been wrong.  According to her obituary (not always a totally reliable source on ages and dates) she was 20 when she was married, which would have  been 1838. That is plausible, since Margaret Anderson was born the following year. ALSO, in the 1900 census, which lists number of children born and living, she reports SIX children, FIVE living. I now believe John O. Anderson was indeed the child of John Anderson’s first wife.]

I suppose it is possible that the friction caused by the McCabe family’s disapproval of her marriage led to, or at least speeded up John and Isabella Anderson’s decision to move from Pennsylvania.  At any rate, at about twenty-two, Isabella, responsible for the care of five (or six) children, left her Pennsylvania  family behind to help her husband on a new farm in Holmes County, Ohio. I picture Isabella as a young woman not intimidated by the aspect of moving to the unknown territory of Ohio.

According to the Ohio Biographies Project, Biographical Record of Holmes County (written in 1889), John and Isabella and their children moved from Allegheny County in Pennsylvania to Monroe Township in Holmes County, Ohio in 1840, although it was probably a little later. Census records are contradictory about when the rest of the children were born,  so I am not positive about John O., but the last four were surely born in Ohio. (And thank goodness she had all those children, because the next to last was my great-grandfather.)

Anderson-Lisle-Butler 4 generation.

Isabella Anderson, Margaret Anderson Lisle, Carrie Lisle Butler, Daughter. A 4-generation picture.

Isabella McCabe Anderson

Isabella McCabe Anderson at center of another family picture: Lisles and Andersons

Family stories say Isabella was an enthusiastic traveler, going as far as California in a day when not many women made such trips so maybe she saw the move to Ohio as a great adventure.[ A cousin told me that she homesteaded in Colorado after the Civil War. Supposedly her son William, the veteran, spent some time with her, but mostly she was alone. Although I could find no record of that homestead in Colorado, there is an Isabelle Anderson who homesteaded in Nebraska.] I have no idea whether she did this before or after her husband died. Perhaps she followed her daughter Amy (Roof) and her husband as they traveled around the country. At any rate, she outlived five of her children/step children, and her husband. And as hard as she might have had to work, I don’t believe she regretted following her heart and marrying that older man.

I know that the family remained close, devoted to each other and to their church, and all of them at least modestly successful financially.

In 1861, when her youngest child was nine, Isabella and John’s son William joined the Union Army and the following year her step-son Erasmus joined up.  As far as I know, Isabella lost no children in infancy or childhood, so when Erasmus died in 1863, he was her first great loss.  Ten years later her step-son John O. died as the result of a fall from a tree on his farm. In 1879 her husband, John, died at the age of 83, leaving her a widow who spent the rest of her days moving from the home of one child to another.

Isabella McCabe Anderson Circa 1895

Isabella McCabe Anderson Circa 1895

At first she lived with William McCabe Anderson and his first wife, but then he was widowed, and remarried.  Two more children died–Joseph Anderson (my grandfather who died in his 30s) and Sarah Jane Anderson Brink. Isabella moved in with Caroline Anderson Bird and her husband. Soon after that, William McCabe also died. By 1909, when the big family portrait was taken, Isabella was living with the recently widowed Amy Anderson Roof.

In April of 1912, Isabella, not quite 94, died in Holmes County, Ohio, but I have not determined where she was buried. Great-grandma, I think I know what you were thinking.

Notes:

Information about Isabella Sarah McCabe Anderson and her family comes from death records,obituaries, census records and marriage records obtained from Ancestry.com; the recorded recollections of my mother, Harriette V. Anderson Kaser (1906-2003); and the Biographical Record of Holmes County, 1889 from the Ohio Biographies Project. Information about the Fife family can be found on the website Fife Genealogy. There are several Fife family websites, as well as McCabe sites.

This has been a weekly post in the 52 Ancestors/52 Weeks Project started by Amy Johnson Crow at “No Story too Small.” Check out her weekly recap showing the list of participants for some ripping good stories.

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9 thoughts on “52 Ancestors: #8 What Was She Thinking? Isabella Sarah McCabe Anderson

  1. Avatar photoVera Marie Badertscher Post author

    Since I wrote this bit on Isabella McCabe Anderson, I have been contacted with a cousin who added some more VERY interesting information. She will leave a comment expanding on my fascinating great-great-grandmother, but in the meantime, I asked her if I could share what she had to say to me via Facebook message about Isabella’s attitude. This comment is from Bonnie Smail who is the great-great-great grandchild of Isabella.

    “You wondered about what the women thought about marrying older men with children…I believe they looked at it much different than we do today…an older widowed man had an established house, when she married him she gained furniture,dishes, linen, children to help with the work and all children worked, gathering eggs, tending animals, washing, carrying water, carrying slop jars, sweeping, etc. And above all their family was their society, no tv, internet, phones and very limited travel and the cost of mail made the people you had near you very dear, in so many condolence letters I read from the 1800’s they say ‘at least you still have name(s).’ “

    Reply
  2. Avatar photoVera Marie Badertscher Post author

    Bonnie’s comment is terrific, because it reminds me that we need to look at our ancestors’ lives through THEIR lens, rather than our modern view.

    However, I would argue that it is still a bit of a mystery why Isabella would take a chance on this man who was almost guaranteed to leave her a widow at some point. And I have to assume he was pretty easy going–or lenient– in terms of expectations of wives, since it is pretty obvious that Isabella had a mind of her own and did not want to be restricted from doing what SHE wanted to do.

    Regardless of the expectations of life in her day, some girls would still have romantic ideas (take for example Amy Anderson Roof who dumped the man she was expected to marry for the exciting stranger who showed up in her life.

    On the other hand, Isabella already would have had the responsibility of taking care of younger children, so it would not be a great leap for her to take care of someone else’s–probably a well-known neighbor, at that. And there is no question that John Anderson was seen as a good provider.

    Reply
    1. Kessa

      My great-grandmother was born in 1900 and died in 1990. Once I told her that I was sorry that her husband had died and left her alone and she said “Don’t be sorry. Women are meant to outlive their husbands. That way, we have one less child to take care of and the freedom to enjoy what they built for us without having to share.” She was being jokingly smart-mouthed but there is a lot of truth there too.

      Reply
      1. Avatar photoVera Marie Badertscher Post author

        Thanks for dropping by Kessa. Some years after my grandfather died, someone asked my grandmother if she was going to remarry. “Why should I do that? I just got the cigar smoke out of the house,” she replied.

        Reply
  3. Melanie

    Marriages with those sorts of age differences were incredibly common. I find it odd that people get in such a fuss about it. If a couple wishes to have children, it makes perfect sense for the husband to have financial security and the wife to have years left of fertility. Evolutionarily sound.

    Reply
    1. Avatar photoVera Marie Badertscher Post author

      What you say makes sense, but on the other hand, with life expectancies what they were, women were left with long-g-g-g widowhoods after marrying those old guys. And how many 17 year olds are thinking of evolution?? “-)

      Reply
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