Alexander | WTTP

Note from Peggy:

I have 4 granddaughters and 5 great-granddaughters who are grandchildren of Ransom and Sylvia (Whittle) Alexander, who are the 6th and 7th generation descendants of Martha Moss and her first husband, J. E. Alexander.

I have another connection to this family through the marriage of Martha's daughter, Hester Smith, to John Smith, who was my great uncle. There was no kinship between John and Hester as far as I can determine. She was descended from a Smith family of Indiana and John was descended from a Smith family of Pulaski Co., MO...

John Smith was an older brother to my grandfather, Henry Franklin Smith, and they were sons of William Harrison Smith and Lucy Ann Gardner.

Note from Kelly:

Martha (Moss) Alexander Smith was buried at Billingsley Cemetery, south of Iberia. According to her tombstone, she was born 17 Jan. 1843 and died 24 Oct. 1912.

UPDATE (March 2022): A large majority of tombstones have been removed and stacked on the south end of the cemetery. It is likely that Martha (Moss) Alexander Smith's gravestone is among the heap of tombstones as her stone was no longer in the place of burial. :(

Martha (Moss) Alexander-Smith

(printed in THE MILLER COUNTY AUTOGRAM-SENTINEL in the column, 'WINDOW TO THE PAST', March 25, 2013)

Martha Moss was born near Greencastle, Putnam Co., Indiana in January 1841 (per the Miller Co. census of 1900). She was a daughter of Ransom Moss and Delilah Love. Ransom (b.c/1812) and Delilah (b. c/1814) were parents of several children which included:

David Moss b.1833 d.1872
Malinda Moss b. c/1836 m. W. Cunningham
William Moss b. c/1839 m. Catherine Boswell
Martha Moss b. 1841 m. (1) J. E. Alexander (2) James Smith
Elizabeth Moss b. c/1846 m. John Russell

Martha Moss married J. E. Alexander in Indiana, probably in the late 1850s. According to the 1900 census of Miller Co., she was the mother of 12 children, but only 4 were living in 1900. After the death of Alexander, she married James Smith on 22 Apr 1876 in Putnam Co., Indiana. I was only able to find the names of four children of Martha Moss Alexander-Smith who were:

Frederick/Fred Alexander b. c/1865--never married
Harrison/Harry Alexander b. c/1867--never married
Warren Alexander 1870-1953 m. Louisa Jane Johnson
Hester Smith b. 1881 m. John Smith

The identity of the other children is unknown at this time. It is likely some died in infancy or childhood. I did find some additonal names in a 1880 Indiana Census which included Rachel b. c1873; Delilah A. b. c/1877; and Lucy M. b. c/1879.............

Martha and her family do not appear in the 1880 census of Miller County, so I am assuming they made the move from Indiana to Miller County between 1880-1890. In 1900, they were living in Richwood township, east of Iberia, near the families of Russell, Groves, Thompson, Hopkins, Thomas, Willis, and Atwell. In that census, Martha is listed as a widow, so I do not know if she came to Missouri after the death of her second husband, James Smith. Her sister and brother-in-law, Elizabeth and John Russell, were living in the same general area of Richwoods township, so it's likely Martha came to Miller County to be near them.

Warren Alexander, son of Martha and her first husband, J. E. Alexander, was born in Indiana on 15 Nov 1870. He married Louisa Jane Johnson (1870-1953), a daughter of Samuel and Lucinda Johnson, of Linn Creek, Camden Co., MO. No record of their marriage is found in Miller County records, so they probably married in Camden County. Their children included:

Arthur Alexander b. 1891---never married
Bertha Alexander b. 1893 m. Leslie Long
Stella Alexander b. 1896 ---no marriage record found
Ransom Alexander b. 1898 m. Sylvia Alice Whittle
Dewey E. Alexander b. 1900---no record of a marriage
Dema Alexander b. ____ m. (1)_____Cochran (2) Rufus McCoy
Lela Alexander b._____m. Ernie Edwards
Eather Alexander b._____m. Virginia _____
an infant died in the 1890s