From the east coast, to the midwest, and finally to California...this describes the life of Isaac Myers. He began life in his beloved Rockingham Co., VA, about 2-miles north of Edom, born in a house that had been home to five generations of his family. His father moved the family to a farm near Staunton, Augusta Co., VA, when Isaac was 12-years of age. In Staunton, Isaac was apprenticed as a carpenter and was a part of constructing many of the buildings at the University of Virginia. In Sept., 1852, Isaac married Miss Margaret Ann Whitmore, of Parnassus, VA. Seven children were born to the couple in Augusta Co., VA: Selina, Newton, Lyttleton, Robert S., Adelaide, Emmett, and Lemuel. The Civil War disrupted Isaac's purchase of a home in Augusta Co. The mortgage holder of the home would not sign the oath of allegiance so the property was confiscated. Not willing to stay and fight a court battle, Isaac, in about 1868, decided to move his family to the little river town of Miami, Saline, MO, where one of his wife's sisters had settled. The family arrived with scarcly a penny to their names. Isaac made ends meet as a carpenter, but all the children had to go to work at an early age to help with expenses. Two more children were born in Miami, MO: Henrietta Virginia, and Wilbert. In 1885, Isaac's wife died of consumption and he was left to raise the younger children. Life flourished in Miami, due in large part to the river commerce. But when that mode of transportation gave way to the railroads, Miami was bypassed. Business suffered and the town slowly diminished in population.
One of Isaac's older sons, Lyt, had moved to California and was successful in business there. In 1905, Lem and Wilbert followed and settled in the little town of Whittier, 16 mi. east of Los Angeles. Isaac moved west as well and lived out his years with his son Lemuel. When Isaac died in 1909, he was buried in Mt. Olive Cemetery, located on Broadway, adjacent to another Cemetery (appropriately named Broadway Cemetery). Today, both cemeteries are defunct and serve as a city park. Only a memorial board marks the graves.