Belsha Siblings

Although Jeremiah's parentage remains a mystery, we are fortunate to learn the names of several of his siblings by examining the ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Last Will and Testament left by his brother, Elisha, written in 1829. 

It is possible that some of Jeremiah's siblings may have been deceased by the time that Elisha composed his will, and therefore would not have been mentioned in it. Years of birth for each sibling is unknown, as are specific dates and/or years of death.

Several of these siblings left Jefferson County, Kentucky, to farm the bottomlands of southeast Missouri. Brothers Elisha and James, as well as sister Hester are all represented in documents found in Perry and Sainte Genevieve Counties in Missouri.

Sister Delilah Belsha married and remained in Kentucky. No information has yet been found to indicate who - or even if - Jane Belsha married and if she remained in Kentucky or also relocated to Missouri as some of her siblings chose to do.

This can easily be determined by the date on the Letter of Administration granted to George Belsha in 1805, which is normally granted to the administrator of an estate after the owner of the estate has died. Therefore, we can place the older Elisha Belsha's (possibly Jeremiah's father) death before 1805.

Jeremiah's brother, Elisha, is not listed in the early Kentucky tax records, as is his brother James (​​​​​​​​1800 Kentucky Tax list for Jefferson County). However, we do know that, on May 17, 1809, he registered to marry Mary McClayn Applegate, daughter of Joseph William McClayn, in Jefferson County, Kentucky.

Mary was the widow of Stacey Applegate, whom she married on July 30, 1787. ​​​Stacey Applegate was still alive in 1800, as his name appeared on early Kentucky tax records from that year. According to the Daughters of the American Revolution ancestor files, Stacey, born around 1764 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, served in the American Revolution with Captain Chinoweth, Colonels Cox and Floyd, and was a Indian Scout for General George Robert Clark. He died in 1800 at Pond Settlement, Jefferson County, Kentucky. The DAR records also state that Stacey and Mary had a son, Joseph Applegate. Public ancestry trees list possible other children for Stacey and Mary McClayn Applegate that remain to be verified.

In 1829, Elisha Belsha wrote his ​​​​Last Will and Testament. This is a very significant document for Belsha history in that it tells us a great deal about Elisha's siblings, their children and his marriage to his beloved wife. Elisha referred to his wife, Mary McClayn Applegate, by the nickname "Polly," which was a common nickname for Mary at the time.

In his will, Elisha spells his surname "Belchy," which may offer us some insight into the pronunciation that the family members may have used at the time (BEL-shee). In addition, Elisha leaves no personal or real estate to any children, implying that he and Polly did not have any children together. Any children that she would have had prior to her marriage to Elisha would have conceivably been heirs to the estate of their father, Stacey Applegate, and not Elisha Belsha's estate.

The Will also specifically named his nephew, Elisha, as the son of his brother, James, deceased. Many public ancestry trees mistakenly place this younger Elisha Belsha as the son of Elisha. It also specifically mentions "Jerry" Belchy, the son of his brother, Jeremiah. This nephew would be Jeremiah Belcha, Jr., first child of Jeremiah and Hester Belsha, presumed, by census records, to be born in 1810. This has been the only documentation yet found to verify any information about Jerry Belsha.

Through the will, we also learn the identity of Elisha's sisters, a valuable discovery considering the difficulty of tracing women in a family due to the change of surname with marriage. 

Finally, it is in Elisha's Will that we are given information on the death years for Elisha's two brothers, James and Jeremiah. James is deceased by the writing of this will, which occurred in 1829. Jeremiah, it is assumed, was still living at the time of the drafting of the will or he would have also been referred to as "deceased," which places his death after 1829. His appearance in the 1830 census for Perry County further confirms that Jeremiah was still alive in 1830.

Mary Belsha is found in the 1830 census of Perry County, Missouri, listed as "Mary Belsha, widow." At the time of the census, she was approximately 63 years of age. There was no one else listed in the household.

On May 2nd, 1831, only one year after the death of her husband, Mary "Polly" Belsha relinquished all rights and title to the estate left her by her late husband, Elisha, while still claiming other portions of the estate that she was entitled to as widow. This was sometimes done when the person inheriting could not afford the taxes or upkeep of a property. At 64 years old, it would have been understandable that Polly no longer wanted or needed the estate willed to her by her husband. It would, at that time, have been divided and passed on to their two nephews, Elisha and Jerry Belsha, as per the instructions of the will. ​

We do not currently know when Mary "Polly" Belsha died. She does not appear in the 1840 census records for Perry County, Missouri, so it is assumed that she died sometime between May 2, 1831 and 1840.

On July 30, 1803, James Belsha and Catherine McCasland registered in Jefferson County, Kentucky, for a license to be married. Their marriage occurred on Monday, August 8, 1803.

Catherine McCasland was the daughter of James McCasland and the sister of Hester McCasland, who married Jeremiah Belsha, James' brother. The two names on the marriage bond were James Belsha and William Basye. William was the husband of Catherine's sister, Phebe McCasland Basye. 

James and Catherine Belsha left Kentucky for Missouri much earlier than did Jeremiah and Hester. Census records indicate that their eldest son, William P., was born in Missouri in 1811. We know, by James' brother, Elisha's, ​​​​​​​​Last Will and Testament, that James was deceased by 1829. The 1830 Perry County census listed Catherine Belsha as the head of the household.

Catherine and James had five children for which we have documentation. William P., Phoebe, Bethena, Elisha, and Katherine. With the birth of their last child, Katherine, in 1826, we can narrow down the year of James' death to between 1825 and 1829. Several of James' and Catherine's children were still quite young when their father died. Their oldest child, William P., had married by 1831 and had started his own household.

In the 1840 census, Catherine, who was listed as Widow Catherine Belcher [sic], was one of seven individuals in the home. She was between 50 and 59 years old at the time. There were also two very young male children living in the home.

It is possible that these young males were her nephew, John McCasland, and her grandson, George Davis, both of whom were specifically mentioned in her Last Will and Testament. In her will, Catherine expressed her wishes that her nephew, John McCasland, go to live with his uncle Elisha (her son) after her death and that he be given a good education, a horse and a saddle. This implies that Catherine had some authority over the future of her nephew. Her grandson, George Davis, was also mentioned specifically and given a full (1/5) share in her estate, equal to that of her sons. Although she had other grandchildren by her son William P. by 1840, she did not specifically mention them by name as she did George.​

The question remains as to the identity of George Davis. His existence would imply that Catherine had another daughter who had married a man with the surname of Davis and that his parents were probably deceased by the time of the writing of her will. There were several individuals by the name of George Davis living in Perry County in 1850, three years after Catherine's death. One, a 26 year old farmer from Kentucky, lived in Brazeau Township, the same township as Catherine's son, William P. Belsha, but it is unknown whether this man was the grandson of Catherina Belsha.

A search of the 1850 census for Elisha Belsha found him, along with his wife, Jane Caldwell Walker, and three daughters, Amanda, Catherine, and Christina, farming in wBrazeau Township. There was no listing for his cousin, John McCasland, in the same household. Catherine's will implied that her nephew was young enough at the time of her death to still need a good education. Perhaps Elisha sent John to live with others for his education or, possibly, sent him to live with Catherine's McCasland relatives in Kentucky.

Land office records show that Elisha purchased land 80 acres of land near Farrar, Missouri in 1853. ​​(Note that land records from 1856 showing land belonging to the Heirs of Elisha Belsha are copies of early land maps showing land granted to the earlier Elisha Belsha from 1803).

Elisha died on March 27, 1856, at the age of 33 - 34 years old. He is buried in Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Crosstown, Perry County, Missouri.​

Catherine and James' eldest son, William P. Belsha, born in 1811, is often confused on public family trees with Jeremiah and Hester's son, William, who was born in 1820 or 1821. William P. Belsha married three times, first to Catherine Fare in 1831. Together they had a daughter, Margaret E., born in 1833.​​​​​​ He next married America Hoskins in 1839. They also had a daughter, Sarah J., born in 1840, and a son, James F., born in 1842. In 1850 he married Lucy Ann Tessel, originally from Indiana. On the 1850 census, the family was found farming in Brazeau Township, Perry County, Missouri.

Berthena Belsha was born in 1816 in Perry County, Missouri, and married Micajah (Cage) Shoults in 1840. Berthena was Cage's second wife, having first married Nancy Susanna Martin in 1835. Cage and Berthena were farmers and together raised nine children: Catherine, William Henderson, Alexander, James, Eliza, Mark, Christina, Sarah, and Mary. Berthena (also called Bertha) died in 1875 at the age of 59. After her death, Cage lived with his son, James, in Salem Township, Perry County, Missouri.

Katherine Belsha was born in 1826 in Perry County, Missouri, and married James O'Neal from Kentucky in 1842. In 1850, the O'Neal family were living in Brazeau township where James' was making a living as a shoemaker. Together Katherine and John had three children, John P., William I. and Catherine. Katherine Belsha O'Neal died sometime between 1853, the birth of her last child, and 1854, when her husband remarried to Mary Ann Cashion. The short time between the birth of her last child and death, and the naming of the last child after her mother, suggests that Katherine may have died as a result of childbirth. James and Mary Ann had three more children: James, Alfred and Jerome.​​​

Very little is known about Catherine and James' daughter, Phoebe. She was possibly born approximately 1813 and was married prior 1847, the date of Catherine's will, to a man with the surname of Balys. In her will, Catherine specified that $5.00 be given to Phoebe Balys heirs, implying that there was more than one and that Phoebe, herself, was deceased prior to the drafting of the will. This is also supported by Catherine's probate documents.

On Wednesday, March 15, 1797, Hester Belsha married James Berry in Jefferson County, Kentucky. By 1805, the couple had relocated to the Louisiana and Missouri Territory, specifically Ste. Genevieve county. The U.S. Census Reconstructed Records from 1660 - 1820 lists James Berry's name on a memorial dated December 29th, 1805, ​​​"to the President by citizens of the district of St. Genevieve expressing their support and confidence in Governor Wilkenson." ​

James Berry is also listed as owner of a parcel of land, outlined below, from an early survey completed in 1819. The parcel is located in the Bois Brule Township of what later became Perry County, Missouri at T.36N, N11E. It is nearly adjacent to the parcel granted to the Heirs of Elisha Belsha that was claimed by Elisha prior to the Louisiana Purchase.​

From ​​"​​​​​The History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements until the Admission of the State into the Union" (pg. 383) by Louis Houck (1908) we have the following:

"Still farther up the creek and where the forks of St. Cosme (Cinque Hommes) creek and the north fork of the Saline interlock, Isadore Moore in 1801 opened a farm near the present Perryville...On this stream we also find...James Berry (1801)."​

These records indicate that James Berry was also one of the original claimants to 400 arpents (approximately 340 acres) of land in the Ste. Genevieve area of what, in 1803, became the Louisiana Purchase. It also confirms that James and Hester (Belsha) Berry arrived in southeast Missouri earlier than her siblings, Jeremiah, Elisha and James.

1830 census documents show James Berry living in Perry County. The household consisted of one free white person - male - 60 to 69, one free white person - female - 60 to 69, and one male slave under 10 years old. Hester was mentioned by name in the Last Will and Testament of her brother, Elisha Belsha, drafted in 1829. However, Neither Hester nor James is represented on the 1840 Perry County census, suggesting death dates between 1830 and 1840. We have no documentation as yet of any offspring of Hester and James Berry.

An 1856 copy of the original land survey from 1819 continued to list James Berry's name on the parcel of land upon which he was the original claimant. However, this should not be seen as evidence that James Berry was still alive at that time. 

What little information we do have comes to us from the will of Elisha Belsha, in which both women were specifically named as his sisters. The will was drafted in 1829, so we know both women were living at that time. Unfortunately, the will does not mention the names of spouses or the location of either of the sisters. We can merely estimate that they were both born sometime in the late 1700s, probably in or near Jefferson County, Kentucky, and that they both died after 1829.​​​​​​