His eyes saw a whole lot of hurt and his face recorded countless grueling experiences in every painful line as the cruelties of life changed him into more of an injured beast than a man.
My Great-great-great Grandpa Jehu Moses Woolsey.
Having already lost his first wife Jane Davis, he abandoned his beautiful homestead on the banks of the Big Muddy in Blair Township, Williamson County, Illinois, in 1858... undoubtedly to avoid the Civil War. Probably following his father's route, Old Jehu and his second wife Elizabeth Burklow ventured across southern Iowa on the Mormon Trail where Cynthia - his oldest daughter was wed to Ike Harris in Appanoose County and his new baby daughter Mary Melvina Woolsey was born.
Before reaching Utah, Old Jehu abandoned Iowa and journeyed south where he relocated his family in Delaware Township, Shannon County, Missouri, in 1860... but the War he tried hard to escape finally found him. He was probably at the Battle of Wilson Creek with his son Charles and oldest boy Solomon who was very critically injured when soft-lead, slow-velocity Minie' balls ripped into both his shoulder and groin.
Later, the Woolsey homestead was burned to the ground during Lieutenant John Boyd's Raid along Leatherwood Creek. Old Jehu was most likely killed (according to a family historical record in the 1880's Goodspeed book - A Reminiscent History of the Ozark Region).
Partly recovered from his earlier wounds, Solomon later died in Arkansas after the Siege of Fort Smith and was buried in a mass grave for Confederate soldiers at Little Rock. Old Jehu's son Charles eventually returned to Jack's Fork River after the War to marry Nancy Elizabeth Thorpe, receive a homestead land patent in 1876, and sire my great grandpa - Little Moses Jehu Woolsey.
