THE FAMILY - Thomas Malody

I decided that I should be telling the family about “The Family”.  Every few weeks I would like to share what I am learning about the Malody’s, Stahlman’s, Hatfield’s etc.  Some have big stories to relate and some do not – yet!

Thought I would begin on the paternal side of the beginning – Thomas Malody.  Thomas Malody is thought to be the first Malody in America from Ireland that we know of so far. I am going on the premise that the name is indeed spelled M-A-L-O-D-Y until finding out different.  There have been rumors to the contrary but no evidence thus far.

Great Aunt Dorothy and her daughter Dorothy Marie were told the story that Thomas came here with his older sister Maria/Mariah.  They were sent here to live with family or friends, because of the great potato famine in Ireland and people were starving.  Dorothy remembers the name LaKyle.  She thinks they may have come to live with them.  In the immigration records I have found four Thomas Malody/Melody.  The time lines that could be him vary up to 5 years but there is no Maria/Mariah with him and he is with no families.  So, further research is necessary here.

The first positive link to Thomas comes with his marriage to Louisa.  Thomas Malody and Louisa Otto were married in Leavenworth, Kansas on 8 April 1875.   The marriage certificate has his name as M-a-l-o-d-y. 

I did find a Thomas Melody, age 20 from Ireland, on an 1860 Leavenworth, Kansas census, who was a teamster on a list of names on a train to Fort Union.  Fort Union was a frontier fort near Santa Fe, New Mexico.  So he could have been going there to drive wagons with building materials etc.  It is rumored that the family name was Melody and later changed to Malody because Louisa didn’t like Melody.  (But Malody is on the marriage certificate)  If this is him, he was really 16 but probably had to lie about his age to get a job.  That’s not unusual, people lie on censuses all the time.

Thomas was born about 1844 somewhere in Ireland and Louisa was born about 1859 in Kansas (her family was from Germany).  They had six children; John, Thomas, James, Albert, Mary Mae/Maria and Louis between 1875 and 1888.  Thomas and his family lived in Leavenworth, Kansas all their lives.  Thomas profession was that of a teamster or ‘Hackman’.  Nothing indicates a formal education of any kind but driving teams of horses does take a talent and experience I am sure. (Example below)

I have just found his name in some newly released military documents.  There was a civil war going on in 1860’s so I am not surprised to find mention of him.  It will take a few weeks to wade through the material but now I have pieces of a trail that I will pick up and follow as far as I can.

Sons Thomas and John both died young, they drowned in the Missouri River thought to be foul play.  James married and had one child, a girl.  Albert married and had two boys and a girl – the girl was Dorothy and one of the boys was Charles William Malody (granddad).   Louis married and had one girl.

To my knowledge the only living Malodys from Thomas that are still alive is our family; Chuck, Mike, Jim, Aiden, Michael and Brannon.

Thomas’s sister Maria/Mariah was said to have married a man named Stanton who was in construction.   The only one I can find so far that seems to fit the bill was a Michael Stanton in construction who married a Maria Melody from Ireland.  They were married in 1859 in Wisconsin and moved to Leavenworth Kansas.  So this seems to fit together yet I am still seeking proof.   Michael was the first Kansan to make vitrified brick.  They were Roman Catholic by religion and Republican by politics.  So there are a number of factors that ring true but yet to be proven.

I have no obit or photo from which to glean more information but I am not done.  I am still scouring newspapers, city and state histories, obituaries, city directories, land and wills and many more places that may hold the facts I need to bring this family to life a little more.  I have decided to concentrate on Thomas for the moment before moving on to the ‘new’ George Stahlman.

Ta-ta for now - have a good week end!