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    This is the information I have on Jesse Harris Stanley b. 24 July 1830 in Hendricks Co. Ind. A fair share of it came from Marvin Lander.

from The History of Hendricks County on Rootsweb:
    "Hendricks County was officially formed by an act of the Indiana legislature in April, 1824. It was formed from the area of Putnam County and some unorganized territory, and named Hendricks in honor of Indiana's governor, William Hendricks. Guilford Township was one of the first places to be settled. Several families, many of them of Quaker faith, traveled from Guilford County, North Carolina and settled there, in the area around present-day Plainfield.

    The only information I have on his wife, Mahala Ann Smith, is:
from IGI    b. about 1830 in Hendricks Co. Mo.
from  http://www.rootsweb.com/~iadecatu/cemetery/LeonBCD.html
STANLEY, Mahala A. wife of Jesse "Mother" 1834-1902
from Lander:   Mahala was m. about1847.

    Jesse shows up in the 1840 DeKalb Co. Ala. census with the family (tho not by name).

    Their first child, William Clemens Stanley, was b.12 Oct. 1849 in St. Joseph, Mo.  Rufus Stanley has two more children, Paulina and Olivia Ellen Stanley b. about 1851 and 1853 somewhere,  probably Missouri.   Lander has a note from Terlina Stanley Walters to her cousin and it is often believed that this is Paulina.  She Wm. C. and Olivia Bowman are listed as survivors in Alfred Muir Stanley's will.

    Lander feels Jesse went to the goldfields in Yreka, Calif. about 1853  with his brothers Wm.&Oliver (or before them but that would not work well with Terlina's probable birth date of 1853) but left after altercation with Chinese and returned to Iowa..

My mother's story about him was:
"   My knowledge of the family goes back only as far as my grandfathr, William Clemens Stanley, & I know very little about him.  The story that I was told about his father, Jesse H. Stanley, I heard from both Aunt Lois & Uncle Owen.  That was that during the California gold rush he left his family & came out to the gold mines [his brothers were at the mines in the Yreka area].  He had set up a sluice box, but in which area no one could tell me.  He realized after a time that some one was robbing his sluice box in his absence. He stood watch one night & saw a Chinese apparently taking gold from his box.  He threw a rock at the Chinaman, hit him on the head & killed him. The Chinese in camp became infuriated & planned revenge.  When some of Jesse Stanley's friends heard of it, they persuaded him to leave camp at night dressed in woman's garmants.  And that was the last anyone saw or heard of him.  It makes a good story, with a sort of Bret Harte twinge to it."

    Jesse was in Iowa near his father in the Iowa 1851 census with a wife and 2 children near his father Alfred.  Mahala and some of the family were listed in the 1860 census Eden, Decatur Co.  Iowa but Jesse was not found there; could he have been the milatary??

    A story about his son's enlistment has him starting out in 1864 from Modena Mo. which is in Mercer Co. near Garden Grove.  It is clear that Mahala's family (the Gibson's at least) lived in the area so it is reasonable to assume that they lived near her family whether Jesse was there or not.

from Marvin Lander:
    "Feb. 17,1865 is given by Rufas as his date of death, but this might be questionable?  For Rufas has his uncle Lemuel as dying on that same day, when Lemuel really died Nov. 1920 in Calif."

    Lemuel was in Calif. so the 1865 date may well have been Jesse.  I also wonder if the reason we have so little on Jesse is that he ceased to live with Mahala in 1853 or so and was somewhat estranged.   Wm. C. Stanley lived for a while in Iowa as did Olivia; Terlina lived in Mercer Co. Mo.  Jesse may have lived for some time in Rolla, Mo.  This would be in Phelps Co. near the center of the state.
 

Go the Stanley Page.
Return to genealogy page.
 

07Dec'99