Isaac Newton Depew was born in 1818 in Hawkins County, TN, according to records. He was apparently named after the English Physicist and Mathematician, Sir Isaac Newton who lived 1642-1727.  He also had one brother named George Washington Depew and another named John Wilson Depew. As you will see going forward, the Depew line of men were often named after famous people before them. At the age of 22, Isaac married Mariah Elizabeth Setzer, born 1822 in North Carolina. Over the next 30 years, they had a huge family of 16 children with about half of them being male and half female. They lived in Hancock and Hawkins counties in Northeast TN and Harlan and Clay counties Southeast KY.  Perhaps so much moving around was because in addition to being a farmer, Isaac was a Circuit Riding Preacher.

In the earlier frontier times, Circuit Riders were clergy in the Methodist Episcopal Church who were assigned to travel around specific territories to minister to settlers and to organize congregations. Because of the distance between churches, these preachers rode on horseback. Popularly called Circuit Riders or Saddlebag Preachers, they were officially called Traveling Clergy. Always on the move, they traveled with few possessions, carrying only what could fit in their saddlebags. They traveled through wilderness and villages, preaching every day at any place available. Typically they traveled the same circuit for a year before being reassigned to a different territory. There is some evidence also that Isaac served as a contract mail carrier for at least part of the time, perhaps along with his circuit riding.

There is an amusing story provided by Bruce Johnson which has passed down through the generations about when Isaac was a preacher. Once when he was away on one of his trips, a man came to his log cabin during the night. Mariah and the children heard the man walking outside and were afraid to go out. It was customary for visiting neighbors to call out their name when approaching someone’s house in the dark, but this person did not do that and they knew he was up to something. The man stuck his bare feet between the logs to climb the side of the house to get at their corn stored above the ceiling. The house had eves under the roof left open for ventilation and it was easy for the man to reach in and get the corn. Also, the mud chinking had been removed between some of the logs to allow the flow of air in to relieve them from the summer heat. They heard the man filling his sack with corn and he left when it was full.

Isaac came home after a few days and was told about the incident.  Apparently the man did not know that Isaac had come home and he returned the next night for more corn. As he stuck his toes between the logs to climb up the wall, Isaac gave both feet a good whack with a hammer. The family heard a scream followed by a thud as the man hit the ground. The thief left in a hurry. Isaac suspected the person who did it, and a few days later Isaac was at a local store when he saw this man hobbling around with both feet bandaged up. He asked him what happened to his feet and the man replied, “A cow stepped on them.” Isaac said, “Yes, and I know exactly which cow it was too.”

Isaac died in Clay County, KY in 1890 at the age of 72.  His wife, Mariah Elizabeth, called Betsy who had bore him sixteen children died the following year.