The Hildreth In-Laws: The Belzers

 

The Hildreth In-laws: The Belzers

In our last post, we left off with the May 7, 1974 death of Martha Faurot Chapman Hildreth in Sullivan County, Missouri. Her son, Rees Hildreth, moved with her from Lee County, Iowa, to Missouri after she buried his father in 1849 and his grandfather in 1853. Rees Hildreth enlisted in 1862 at age 18 in the 27th Missouri Infantry Regiment with his older brother Henry, and returned to Missouri after the Civil War. He married Rachel Ann Belzer (my generation’s second great-grandmother) on July 20, 1874 in Sullivan County, Missouri, just a few months after his mother's death .

Rachel Belzer’s grandfather, John Belzer (1769-1830) (my generation’s fourth great-grandfather), immigrated from Germany and settled in Jessamine County, Kentucky sometime around 1790. He was a blacksmith. He married Mary McCollister (possibly spelled McAlester or McAlister) in 1796. According to A History of Early Settlement of Highland County, Ohio by Daniel Scott (link), John was recruited by Allen Trimble, an early settler of the Clear Creek settlement of Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio, to operate a blacksmith shop there. John had been recently widowed and moved there with his sons Micajah, Jesse, Frederick Felix and John in 1806.

In 1821, Frederick Felix Belzer moved to Guilford Township in Hendricks County, Indiana. He was locally known as a very successful hunter and in John Hadley’s History of Hendricks County Indiana (link) was reputed to have killed 125 deer the first year he was there.

According to B. R. Sulgrove, in History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, (link), John and his sons joined Frederick Felix in Indiana, and moved to Perry Township in Marion County, Indiana. In 1824, John Belzer purchased what was locally known as the Stallcups Lease on the school section of Perry Township to operate a blacksmith shop there. His son John achieved local notoriety as a “New Light” preacher in the Methodist faith before the family moved to Morgan County, Indiana in 1828. The elder John Belzer died there in 1830 or so.

My generation’s third great-grandparents, Jesse Belzer and Angeline Mack, married in Vermillion County, Indiana (near Terre Haute) in 1833 and started their family there. The Macks were Scots, first arriving in North America about 1669 in Massachusetts in the person of John Mack (1653-1721), my generation's 8th great-grandfather. He settled in Lyme, Connecticut by 1697 and the next two generations, Josiah Mack (1693-1769) and Elisha Mack (1727-1783) remained in New England. The next generation, Richard Mack (1765-1845) was a soldier in the Revolution, He was a fifer as a 16 year-old in the Connecticut militia, and according to family lore, was wounded  by musket fire and carried the ball in his leg until he died. His descendants qualify for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution (Patriot Number P-240438) and the Daughters of the American Revolution (Ancestor Number A072891). He migrated to Butler County, Ohio in 1800 and finally to Vermillion County, Indiana in 1816. His son, Erastus Mack (1788-1846) joined him in Indiana, and it is there where his daughter, Angeline, met and married Jesse Belzer.

Jesse and Angeline Mack Belzer remained in Indiana until 1852 or 1853, when Frederick Felix and Jesse Belzer moved their families to Missouri, probably Sullivan County. For the remainder of their lives, Jess and Frederick Felix would move back and forth between northern Missouri and southern Iowa at least twice.

Rachel Ann Belzer was the last of Jesse and Angeline Mack Belzer’s children to be born in Indiana in 1850. Their two youngest children, Felix Harvey and George E. Belzer, were born in 1853 and 1858 after their move to Missouri. Before 1860, Jesse and and Angeline moved to the village of Sandyville, in Warren County, Iowa, where Jesse, following in his father’s profession, operated a blacksmith shop. By 1870, they returned to Sullivan County, Missouri. By the same time, Fredrick Felix Belzer moved his family to Mahaska County, Iowa (not far from where Jesse Belzer had lived in Warren County). Fredrick Felix Belzer died there in 1880. There are descendants of his branch of the Belzer family that remain in that area of Iowa today.

Jesse and Angeline Mack Belzer had eleven children:

John M. Belzer (1834-1875) married Mary Elizabeth Haynes and died in Sullivan County, Missouri.

Irena Belzer (1835-1875) married Bolin Baker and died in Sullivan County, Missouri.

Elizabeth Belzer (1836-1928) married Thomas Couch and (second) James Mills and died in Severy, Kansas. 

Francis Marion Baker (1838-1863) never married. He died of disease while in Civil War service. 

Mary Belzer (1840-1924) married Henderson McCollum and died in Linn County, Missouri.

Hannah Belzer (1843-1929) married (first cousin) Milton Belzer, and died in Mahaska County, Iowa.

Richard Belzer (1844-1862) never married. He died of disease while in Civil War service.

Rebecca Jane Belzer (1846-1928) married B.F. Abercrombie and (second) James A. Baker. She died in Canadian County, Oklahoma. I'll have more to say about them in a following blog post. 

Rachel Ann Belzer (1850-1945) married Rees Hildreth and died in Grady County, Oklahoma. We will have more details on their lives in the following blog post. 

Felix Harvey Belzer (1853-1945) married Charlotte Peavler and died in Sullivan County, Missouri.

George E. Belzer (1858-1945) never married and died in Sullivan County, Missouri. 

Jesse Belzer died in 1868. His burial place is unknown. Angeline Mack Belzer remained in Sullivan County, Missouri until her death in 1876. She is buried in the McCollum Cemetery, in North Salem, Sullivan County, Missouri.

In the next post, the Hildreths settle in Oklahoma.