Isaac Whaley Tinsley​​

(Printed in THE MILLER COUNTY AUTOGRAM-SENTINEL in the column, 'WINDOW TO THE PAST', June 10, 2010)
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ISAAC WHALEY TINSLEY was born near Brumley on 27 Jan 1861, a son of Isaac Smith Tinsley (1832-1909 born in Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., Virginia) and Harriett Jane Davis (1834-1920 born in Lauderdale Co., Alabama). Isaac and Harriett had several children including:

1. Hiram Hedley Tinsley 1852-1924 m. no record
2. Lucy Jane Tinsley 1855-1907 m. James Palmer
3. William Cumpton Tinsley 1857-1926 m. 1) Emma Hart 2) Elta Spearman
4. Preston Augustus Tinsley b. c/1860 m. Martha E. Woolsey
5. Isaac Whaley Tinsley 1861-1954 m. Mrs. Martha Jane White
NOTE: Some records show his name as Isaac Walton
6. John Leroy Tinsley 1867-1950 m. no record
7. Gilderoy Marshall Tinsley 1869-1909 m. no record (He was a doctor)
8. Jacob Frank Tinsley 1871-1961 m. Ida Jane Maher
9. Joseph Burtley Tinsley 1872-1943 m. no record
10. Estella Mae Tinsley b. 1875 m. Daniel Robinett (she may have had 2nd husband with the surname Freelix)

Sometime before June 1884, Isaac Smith Tinsley divorced Harriett Jane and married a woman named Louisa C. Holeyfield 12 June 1884 in Glaize Township. They had a least one child, Junvetta Tinsley, who was born and died in 1886……Harriett Jane died in 1920 in Otttawa County, Kansas where she was living with her son, Wm. Cumpton/Cump Tinsley. She was returned to Miller County and buried at Gott Cemetery near Brumley.

Isaac Whaley (perhaps Walton) Tinsley was descended from the Tinsley family whose heritage has been traced back to the early 17th century in Yorkshire , England . His ancestors came to America in the early 1700s and settled in Colonial Virginia where several generations were born. His father, Isaac Smith Tinsley, came to Missouri and first settled in Camden County circa 1850 and married his first wife, Harriett Jane Davis of Alabama , in Camden County in 1851. Their first 5 children were born in Camden County (Hiram, Lucy, Cumpton, Preston, & Isaac) and the others were born near Brumley in Miller County .

Isaac W. Tinsley did not marry until he was quite old (approximately 78 years old). On Jan. 27, 1939, he married a widow, Mrs. Martha Jane White. Earlier in his life, about 1900, he went to Salt Lake City, Utah and lived there many years. He returned to Miller County in 1936 and bought his farm which was located west of Brumley. In July 1954, he entered Humphreys Hospital in Tuscumbia and when he was released he and Martha Jane went to Eldon to live in the home of her son-in-law, Earnest Dean. Evidently her daughter was deceased and the son-in-law took them into his home where Isaac died about 2 months later. He had attended the Brumley Baptist Church for quite sometime and when he died, in September 1954, his services were held at the church and conducted by Rev. Virgil Smith. He was buried at Gott Cemetery . He was survived by his wife, Martha, a brother, Jacob Frank Tinsley of Eldon and a sister, Stella Freelix, of the state of California, some step grandchildren, nieces, nephews and friends.

NOTE: At Gott Cemetery is a unique grave with a stone vault built above ground that belongs to the Tinsley family. Some said that the father, Isaac Smith Tinsley, is the person buried in the vault but a Tinsley researcher said it was actually the son, Isaac W. Tinsley. Isaac W. (called ‘Little Ike’) had the vault built before his death and hired Virgil Smith to construct it….Virgil was also the minister who conducted his funeral. Several folks remembered that ‘Little Ike’ would take visitors to view his burial vault during some Memorial Days before he died and later was laid to rest in it!..........I do not know where his wife (Mrs. Martha Jane White-Tinsley) is buried because her gravesite is not recorded in Gott Cemetery with other Tinsley family members.