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 Isaac Martin was born 14 June 1809 in Alexander Township, Athens County, Ohio and died 3 Apr 1881 in Falls City, Richardson County, Nebraska. He was the eldest child of John and Sarah (Stanley) Martin. |
Isaac
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 Mary Irwin Martin was born 3 September 1811 at Derry Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and died 4 Mar 1894 in Falls City, Nebraska. Her parents were Hugh M. Irwin and Jane Harding (or perhaps Jane Simons?). |
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Isaac made his living through farming but also served, for many years, as a “local preacher” in the Methodist Church. He and Mary may have been Baptists in their youth, as the Meigs County marriage records show they were united by James Hovey, a “Minister of the Gospel of the Baptist Church.” Both of their obituaries mention their subsequent conversion to Methodism, and even give the dates of these events. (Mary, it seems, hesitated more than a year longer than Isaac.) About 1836-37, Isaac and Mary relocated to the area of Camargo, Illinois (which was then in Coles County but later became part of Douglas County), along with Isaac's parents and some of his siblings. As early as 1842, though, they were on the move again, moving on to Holt County, in northwestern Missouri. There they remained for about 10 years, during which time, among his other responsibilities, Isaac served as a Justice of the Peace and performed several marriages. By 1855, when their youngest child was born, they had moved up to Fremont County, Iowa, near Sidney. Although the distance from Holt County to Fremont County is no more than 60 miles, there was a vast difference socially and politically. Amid the national controversy over slavery and talk of secession, Isaac and Mary chose not to remain in a state where slavery was legal. In Iowa, they once again lived near many of the same relatives who had been their neighbors in Illinois, but who had not made the move to Missouri. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Isaac was too old to serve, but his son John served two years in the Union Army, and his son Joseph served briefly in a local militia known as the Southern Border Brigade (along with Isaac's younger brother Archelaus, his brother-in-law Moses Vanness, two sons-in-law, and five of Mary's Irwin relatives).
In 1868, Isaac, Mary, and most of their children moved across the Missouri River to Falls City, in the southeastern corner of Nebraska (Richardson County). There they remained for the rest of their days. Eight children were born to Isaac and Mary Martin:
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