Joshua Wyant

Joshua was the father of Isaac S. Wyant, the paternal grandfather of Charles B. Wyant and the great grandfather of Bessie Ethel Wyant, my grandmother.

He was born in 1804 in Kentucky. He married Julia Lowe on December 23, 1826 in Owen County, Kentucky.

In the 1830 census, they live in Gallatin, Kentucky and there are 2 adults, 2 children and one senior adult aged 60-69. All are classified as “free-white”.

Isaac S. Wyant, at least their 5th child, is born in March of 1839.

Julia Lowe Wyant appears to die shortly thereafter, but no records exist to confirm this.

In the 1840 census of Boone County, Indiana, there are 4 boys (under 15 years old), 2 girls (under 10 years old) and only one adult. This fits a scenario wherein Julia has died.

Joshua Wyant marries Telitha James in Boone County, Indiana on February 28, 1841. She is sometimes referred to as “Tabitha”. She is also known as the former “Taletha Coletha James”.

In the 1850 census in My Division, Marshall County, Indiana we have:

Joshua 46, a farmer
Tabitha 41
Ben F 21, also a farmer like his dad
William H, 17
Mary A. 15
Martha E. 14
Isaac S. 12
Joshua 6
Milford C. Dixon 16
James M. Dixon 14

Telitha James may have been married previously to someone named Dixon. Joshua is her child with Joshua.

Everyone above is born in Indiana, except for Joshua the father.

There is no record of Joshua Wyant (father)’s death, although there is a legal document called a Petition for Partition filed in October of 1858 by Telitha James Dixon? Wyant Fletcher and William Fletcher seeking to split up a piece of property. The surviving Wyant children (including Isaac) are named and several of them live out of state. This method is used when someone dies without a will and the property is inherited by a group of children, or in this case, a second wife and a group of children. Splitting a piece of farm land is not normally a practical thing to do and usually one person buys out the others so they can keep farming the land. Especially if the land is not unusually large and can be split into smaller, productive farms. A Petition for Partition is used to split the land or to force a sale of the land, with the proceeds to then be split among the heirs.