Father: Benjamin Singleton (~1780-1846)
Mother: Mary Elizabeth Shumate (1780-1863)

Spouse: Joseph Hartley
Birth: 28 Feb 1800             Nelson Co. KY
Death: 13 Aug 1867            Mcclay, Marion Co. OR
Marriage: 22 Jan 1821              Nelson Co. KY

Children:
1. Martha Ann (1821-1909)
2. Simeon Buchannan (1823-1845)
3. Edmund Waller (1825-1905)
4. Mary Lucinda (1827-1916)
5. Eliza Harriot (1830-1894)
6. Susan Ann (1832-1912)
7. Joseph Marion (1834-1917)
8. David Franklin (1837-1920)
9. James Clayton (1845-1933)
10. Henry Harrison (1841-1926)

From A Sketch of the Life of Elder Joseph Hartley by Joseph Hartley, Advocate Job Office, Salem, Illinois, 1841:

Thus I grew up to manhood; and, about one month before I was twenty one, I was married to a neighbor-girl, whose name was Polly Singleton. As there was something singular in our attraction and alliance, I will make a few remarks concerning the subject. My wife's father and mine had been neighbors from my infancy; consequently I knew Polly when a mere child-I being three years older. We went to the same school; and, when quite a boy, I found myself warmly attached to her. I would often think that, when I got to be a man, I would make her my wife. The same controlling principle never ceased, let me be where or with whom I may. And, amidst all the incidents attendant on a youthful life, when my mind reverted to her, I loved her. I well recollect, the day I was nineteen (it being Sunday), I paid her a visit--when my courtship commenced. I was then a poor boy, under the control of my father, and had no idea of marrying soon--not having any arrangements for housekeeping, and with no expectations of assistance, from any source. I thought it advisable to let her know my feelings toward her, and I was not long in finding out how she would reply, if I were so situated as to be able to support a wife. I also learned that she had had the same attachment for me, in her childhood, that I had for her. With this understanding, we pledged ourselves to each other as companions for life, and, when we thought our situation admitted of it, we got married. I visited her, but with as little show as I well could, nearly two years before we married. We lived together almost thirty-nine years, and raised ten children. In the early part of our wedded life we were poor, and hard run to make a living; yet I never saw the day, had there been such a thing as dissolving the bonds of matrimony, but what I would have married her again; and I have every reason to believe she would have done the same.

I will here remark that the reason why there are so many unhappy matches, and so much parting of man and wife, as there is in the world is, that they do not come together from a pure matured motive. My wife was what is called a resolute, high-strung woman, and I was always an ambitious man; yet we lived together all those years without ever quarreling--and I have often said to our children, by way of caution, whey they were about to marry, not to forget that they never heard their father and mother quarrel. What I most grieved for, during her life, and after her death, was, that I was not so circumstanced all the time that she might enjoy life; for I loved here, and wished her to be happy.

Later Joseph Hartley describes the death of his wife, Mary Polly Singleton.

The first sore affliction was the death of my wife. As I have not spoken of the circumstancees of her death, I will give an account of it in this place. She contracted and affection of the lungs some fifteen years before her death; and although she had a shortness of breath and more or less a cough, yet otherwise she enjoyed tolerable health until about the last two years of her life, when she became a subject to bad spells in the spring and fall. I tried hard to effect a cure, and spent a great deal, for several years to that end, until I became convinced it could not be done. We then kept such medicines as we found by experience to be the best relief for the lungs. In the summer of 1860 it became mainfest that her lungs were consuming , and she began to sink under the disease and, from the 1st of July to the 5th of October, at which time she died, I never left her bedside without some faithful person takng my place.I fully anticipated her death before hand, but having every confidence that when she was done suffering here she would be at rest forever, I became in a sense reconciled. Feeling sure, from the nature of the disease that she had to die, I felt it my duty to try to make her as comfortable, being in mind and body, as I could. I therefore gave her my constant attention and, when the spirit left her body, I felt so sure that she had gone to reside with Him who had died for her sins, and rose again for her justification that I consider her condition as being a thousand times better than my own.

See also notes on Joseph Hartley

This page was prepared by Charles Hartley.