Michael Kightlinger and Isabella Wilkins
Husband Michael Kightlinger 1
Born: Abt 1775 Christened: Died: 25 Mar 1857 - Plum Twp, Venango Co, PA Buried: - Diamond Cemetery, Diamond, Plum Twp, Venango Co, PA 2
Father: [Father] Kightlinger ( - ) Mother:
Marriage: 10 Nov 1807 - Crawford Co, PA
Other Spouse: Susanna Steinbrook ( -1806)
Wife Isabella Wilkins
Born: Abt 1791 Christened: Died: 2 May 1871 Buried: - Kightlinger Cemetery, Troy Twp, Crawford Co, PA
Father: Thomas Wilkins ( - ) Mother:
Children
1 M James Kightlinger
Born: 3 Sep 1808 Christened: Died: 8 Nov 1893 Buried:Spouse: Sue Ellen Luce ( - )
2 M Thomas Kightlinger
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Mahala [Unk] ( - )
3 F Adeline Kightlinger 1
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
4 F Sarah Kightlinger 1
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Levi Ware ( - ) Marr: 8 Jan 1846 - Plum Twp, Venango Co, PA
5 M Samuel Kightlinger
Born: 14 Mar 1815 Christened: Died: 6 Sep 1877 - Cherrytree Twp, Venango Co, PA Buried:Spouse: Nancy Benn Proper (1820-1907) Marr: 13 May 1841
6 M Abraham Kightlinger
Born: 20 Feb 1817 - Troy Twp, Crawford Co, PA Christened: Died: 8 Oct 1897 - Richmond Twp, Crawford Co, PA Buried:Spouse: Margaret [Unk] ( - )Spouse: Elmina York ( - ) Marr: 29 Apr 1896
7 F Ruth Kightlinger
Born: Abt 1817 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: John Riley Davidson (1815- ) Marr: 22 Dec 1836
8 M Andrew Kightlinger
Born: 2 Mar 1819 - Sugar Lake, Wayne Twp, Crawford Co, PA Christened: Died: 9 May 1907 - Troy Twp, Crawford Co, PA Buried:Spouse: Elizabeth Dougherty ( -1847)Spouse: Mary Jane Dougherty (1829-1919)
9 F Elizabeth Kightlinger
Born: Abt 1820 Christened: Died: 24 Nov 1847 - Cherrytree Twp, Venango Co, PA Buried:
10 M David Michael Kightlinger
Born: 16 Jul 1823 Christened: Died: 14 Feb 1906 Buried: - Diamond Cemetery, Diamond, Plum Twp, Venango Co, PA 3Spouse: Hannah Ware (1825-1904) Marr: 28 Feb 1847
11 M George Kightlinger
Born: 28 Jul 1824 - Sugar Lake, Crawford Co, PA Christened: Died: 23 Aug 1899 - Diamond, Plum Twp, Venango Co, PA Buried: - Diamond Cemetery, Diamond, Plum Twp, Venango Co, PA 2Spouse: Rebecca Jane Reynolds (1825-1893) Marr: 17 Mar 1850
12 F Mary E. Kightlinger
AKA: Mary E. Kiteling 4 Born: 1827 Christened: Died: 1892 Buried: - Cherrytree Twp, Venango Co, PASpouse: Marshall Kerr (1826-1898) 5 6 7 Marr: 18 Mar 1847 4
13 M John McDill Kightlinger
Born: 1829 - Troy Twp, Crawford Co, PA Christened: Died: 20 Oct 1896 - Hydetown, Crawford Co, PA Buried: - Greenwood Cemetery, Titusville, Crawford Co, PASpouse: Phebe Green (1836-1912)
14 M William C. Kightlinger
Born: 1831 Christened: Died: 5 Oct 1895 Buried: - East Troy Cemetery, Troy Twp, Crawford Co, PASpouse: Sarah Ann Grove (1823-1909) Marr: 2 Feb 1860 - Chapmanville, Plum Twp, Venango Co, PA. (Divorced)
15 F Isabella Kightlinger
Born: 1833 - Troy Twp, Crawford Co, PA Christened: Died: 1892 Buried: - Sunville Cemetery, Sunville, Plum Twp, Venango Co, PASpouse: George Ware ( - )
General Notes: Husband - Michael Kightlinger
He, along with his brothers Abraham and George, were residents of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, beginning in the late 1790s. He settled in Wayne township.
General Notes: Wife - Isabella Wilkins
For most of their married life, they farmed in Wayne township, and in a span of twenty-five years, Isabella bore Michael fifteen children. Their union, however, was marked by discord and unhappiness. Michael abandoned his family in 1844, and Isabella filed for divorce, a shocking (and courageous) action for a woman at the time. Testimony given in conjunction with the divorce proceedings illuminates Isabella's unhappy circumstances. Isabella was repeatedly characterized as a good, industrious woman who treated her stepdaughter as her own, a peaceable and religious woman who belonged to the M. E. Church. Her husband Michael was known to be a lazy, quick-tempered man, a poor provider who physically and verbally abused his wife from very early on in the marriage. Judging from testimony of many of their neighbors, their marital difficulties were well-known. According to Christiana (Thurston) Daniels, wife of the Rev. Abraham Daniels, Michael provided Isabella with cloth so poor "you could count the trees across the lake through it." Their son Samuel reported that "Mother wore a pair of cloth shoes which [a neighbor] gave her." Michael's brother Abraham was so incensed at the physical abuse Isabella suffered that he threatened to have Michael jailed. Michael repeatedly accused Isabella of infidelity, even suspecting his brother-in-law Jonathan Benn, of misconduct with Isabella. Rev. Benn stated that "Michael Kightlinger said I was the cause of parting them, and there was loud brawling talk - because I walked with his wife from the funeral, when my wife (her sister) was buried, he accused me of parting them."
Michael treated his children harshly, literally chasing the older ones from home at an early age, and threatening to "bind out" the younger ones over his wife's objections. Their son George reported that "there is only one of the family that can read and write, the rest of them can neither read nor write. Sometimes he would send some of us to school, two or three months and then after a couple or three years, he would send us a little spell again." Their son Samuel put it very succinctly when, speaking of his father, he said, "His disposition was quarrelsome and his habit was, to get up & quarrel & go to bed."
Michael apparently had little compunction about making "sharp" deals and taking advantage even of his own family. He agreed to a separation from his wife, only if she would pay off all his debts, buy him broadcloth coat, and "support him, whereever [sic] he went." However, the action that gained him neighborhood notoriety and opprobium was the selling of the land in Indiana County that Isabella had inherited from her father, Thomas Wilkins. Again, most of the neighbors seemed to be aware of Isabella's inheritance and the fact that Michael had sold it and withheld the proceeds from her. Michael may have considered it his right to do so, as Isabella's husband, but it must have set hard that of an alleged profit of $750, she received no more than $1.50. Some of the money went toward one-quarter side of beef purchased from Rev. Abraham Daniels, some toward dresses for his daughter, Katy, Isabella, and Christiana Daniels, and some to pay off a piece of property Michael was in the process of purchasing. It was reported that Michael held a "commissioner's deed," and thought he might need the money to defend his title. The bulk of the money may have gone into the purchase of their land at Sugar Lake. In spite of all these things, documented in twenty-five pages of sworn testimony, the divorce was not granted. A permanent separation seems to have been the next best solution to the disintegrating marriage.
1 —, The History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warner Beers & Co., 1885), Pg 573.
2 Venango County Historical Society, Venango County Pennsylvania Cemetery Records and Early Church Histories, Vol. 8, Plum Township (Franklin, PA: Venango County Historical Society, 2000), Pg 41.
3 Venango County Historical Society, Venango County Pennsylvania Cemetery Records and Early Church Histories, Vol. 8, Plum Township (Franklin, PA: Venango County Historical Society, 2000), Pg 40.
4 J. H. Newton, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Columbus, OH: J. A. Caldwell Publishers, 1879), Pg 566.
5 J. H. Newton, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Columbus, OH: J. A. Caldwell Publishers, 1879), Pg 565, 566.
6 —, The History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warner Beers & Co., 1885), Pg 463.
7
Samuel P. Bates, LL.D., Our County and Its People, A Historical and Memorial Record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania (W. A. Fergusson & Co., 1899), Pg 297.
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