THE SALEM DEMOCRAT 3-31-1954

Washington County's Pioneer Women by Elizabeth Hayward

Bearing many children, loving them all and losing some of them was the life's pattern of more then one pioneer women. It was followed by Malinda who, during the 22 years of her marriage to Rice McCoy, was seldom without one "porch child",one cradle child and one a-comin'. It would be futile to write about her without showing her in relation to her family, for she was woven closely into it's fabric. How much her descendants valued her memory is suggested by the number of girls who were given her melodious name; a daughter, 3 granddaughters, a gg granddaughter, 2 gg granddaughters and even an adopted gg granddaughter.

Malinda Pound, the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Stark Pound was born in Kentucky, 4-11-1796. By 1812 the family had become pioneer settlers in Clark's Grant, Indiana Territory, for it was there, on January 2 of that year that Malinda married Rice G. McCoy( the middle initial, which he later dropped, probably stood for Gaddis, a family name). the ceremony was performed by the 22 year old husbands father, William McCoy of Indiana's first Protestant church, Silver Creek Baptist.
At first the young couple lived near Charlestown where Rice McCoy was clerk of the Silver Creek Baptist Church in 1816 and 1817.Their first 4 children were born there: Eusebius, the first born arrived before his mother's 16th birthday. His death in infancy was his parents' first experience with grief. It may well have been at this time that Malinda first properly valued her gentle husbands' nature.....his dominant traits, according to his brother John, were meekness, humility and tenderness. After Eusebius came Christiana, named for the wife of the Baptist missionary to the Indians, Isaac McCoy, who was Rice's brother; Elizabeth named for both her grandmother's ( she grew up to marry Abner Martin) and Priscilla, who later become the wife of Lewis Van Cleave.
In 1817, with their 3 girls, Rice and Malinda established what was to be their permanent home in Washington County, near Livonia. Probably their removal was influenced by that of Rice's brother James, who moved to Washington County a year or two earlier.
Rice McCoy's move to a new section of the frontier coincided with another step that meant much to all his family. By trade he was a wheelwright, making a good living constructing spinning wheels and almost certainly he cleared and cultivated the land whereon he lived. More important, it was in 1817, that he became a preacher, ministering to 4 small Baptist Churches. Two of them, Union and Elim, were in Washington County, the other 2 were in Orange County. In the latter county there are records of the many marriages he performed as an ordained Minister of the Gospel.
His life as a traveling preacher is suggested in a letter Rice McCoy wrote for his children about 1833. In this letter he gave them much good advice, as sound today as it was more then a century ago, including an admonishment to treat preachers with respect and kindness. He said, explicitly, " you know a little of their difficulties by what you have seen of your father, he having often to labor hard through the week, leave home under great inconvenience, with perhaps little or no rest on Sunday". Thus it was that Malinda, in addition to her increasing cares as the mother of young children, found herself the helpmate of a minister.
It was not long after their new home was established that a second son, Isaac Newton, was born. Next, in order of birth, came Sarah, the namesake of her aunt, Sarah McCoy Payne ( when she grew up she married Lemuel Dunn; another baby who died the day it was born; Adoniram Judson, named in honor of the Baptist missionary to Burma; William Carey, who bore the name of an early English foreign missionary; still another baby who lived less then 24 hours; Rice, whose given name was not only that of his father but also the name of his grandmother McCoy( it appears, even in this generation, also as Royse or Royce); John Bunyan, named for another religious leader ( this son died unmarried at the age of twenty); Josephus, his grandfather Pound's namesakes, whose life was measured in months, Ann Hazeltine, named for Adoniram Judson's wife ( when she grew up she married Cornelius Gardner) and then last of all little Malinda, who later married Castillian Trabue.
Malinda McCoy's first child was born January 14,1813: her last, January 14,1834. Fifteen children in 21 years! If Malinda was not hardworking by nature she must have become so by necessity for to maintain a family like hers, to feed and clothe them, was a major task. She who had been a mother by the time she was 16 was a grandmother at 34; in fact two of her own children were younger then her oldest grandchildren. The roster of her grandchildren, incidentally, eventually reached nearly one hundred.
There is little tangible evidence, other then that afforded by vital dates, of Malinda life. Quite possible she had her picture painted by an itinerant artist-------one is led to suppose so because 2 of Rice's brothers John and Isaac, commissioned such painters to paint likeness of them and their families but if so, it is not known to the writer. No letters of hers have been found, so we do not know whether she belonged to the majority of pioneer women, who were illiterate, or where she was one of the fortunate few who had a few years of schooling. We do know that she was not without feminine vanity, for when the census called in 1850 she shaded her age by 3 years, making it appear that she was born in 1799 instead of 1796.
One thing we can be sure, Rice McCoy had complete confidence in her, for he made her, with Squire Asa Wright, joint executor of his will. He also admonished his children to remember their duty to her and to be " kind, obedient and affectionate to her in every circumstance that she may be in." In his will , written only a few days
before his death on 9-3-1834, he stated that his children were to have as good an education " as the situation of my family and the amount of my property will justify, of which my wife must be the judge." Rice McCoy left his wife his farm and so much of the other property as she may deem necessary for her own comfort and for the support and raising of our children." Unlike many a man, who cuts off his widow from financial benefits if she remarries, Rice provided liberally for Malinda should she do so.
Rice McCoy's death at the age of 45 came after an illness of two weeks, marked by a high fever. What it was we can scarcely guess. During his illness he was visited by his brother John, from Charlestown, who later wrote pityingly of Malinda, left " a widow with a large number of children---how will she sustain them?" Malinda had lost her husband: on her shoulders fell burdens almost too heavy for a woman to carry, but carry them she did. No doubt her neighbors helped, as neighbors will, and the older children must have aided accordingly to their ability. There could have been little leisure for looking backwards , or for unduly lamenting the loss of a companion whose body now lay in the Livonia Cemetery under a stone commemorating him as a "kind husband, an affectionate parent and a consistent Christian".
The busy burdened years went by, the children became self- sufficient , and then Malinda married again, her second marriage to John Martin, took place in the fall of 1844. They were already related through 2 sets of grandchildren in common, for in 1834, only a few months before Rice McCoy's death, Elizabeth McCoy had married Abner Martin, John's son by his first wife Mary. And then in 1840 Isaac Newton McCoy married Eliza Jane Martin, John's daughter by his second wife, Patsy, who herself was a niece of his first wife. The inter- relationships between the Martins and the McCoys would seem to be complicated enough at this point but with the third marriage of John Martin to Malinda they became still more entangled,. For instance, Malinda now became step- mother- in- law to 2 of her own children! Her second husband was about 8 years her senior. They lived in Vernon Township until his death in 1854 at the age of 67. What comings and goings there must have been between the 2 large and inter- related families. with new members constantly being added.
The came the twilight years of Malinda's life, 5 years again in which she was a widow. This time, however, she no longer needed to strive desperately to make both ends meet, as she had in the 10 years after Rice McCoy's death. One thinks of her as still a busy woman--------all those grandchildren living nearby must have claimed hours and days of her time-----but one hopes that the afterglow of a well-spent life shone upon her. She died 12-29-1859 and is buried at Livonia.
Women descended from Rice and Malinda McCoy are eligible for D.A.R. membership on a double service line, both William McCoy and his father ( Rice's father and grandfather) having given service to the colonies during the Revolution.
While the descendants of this pioneer couple are so numerous and so scattered that it may truthfully be said that their line is gone though all the earth". A goodly number still live in Washington County.