Mary Catherine "Clarissa" Fast ^{1 2 3 4}

   Other names for Mary were "Clarissa" Fast and Catherine Fast.

  General Notes:

All of Clarissa's apparent illegitimate children originally appeared in the census with a surname of Fast which suggest that Clarissa was never married. She was living with Rezin Malott who was first married to her older sister, Marjorie Fast, and then later to her younger sister, Mary Ellen Fast. Later in life, her three children fathered by Rezin Malott used the surname of Malott and on at least one of their death records, it states that their father was Rezin Malott.

The fact that the will of Clarissa's father, John Adam Fast, specifically gave Rezin only 50 cents and further excluded his control over the land given to Rezin's 2nd wife, Mary Ellen Fast, a sister of Clarissa, suggests that there was some animosity between the father and Rezin Malott most likely due to his relationships with three sisters all at the same time.
------------------------------------------

There is at least one researcher who shows that at the same time Clarissa was living with and bearing children with Rezin Malott, she was actually married to John L. Swisher.

I have looked through all of the source citations and have yet to find one that says anything about the Catherine that was married to John L. Swisher was the same Mary Catherine "Clarissa" Fast. Apparently the only thing they had in common was the birth location of Monongalia County, Virginia and a similar birth year.

There are some obvious conflicts with at least one of the source citations given to show that it was Mary Catherine "Clarissa" Fast who was married to John L. Swisher. For example, the 1850 US Census record for the Swisher family shows a wife named Catherine but there is also a 1850 US Census record which shows Mary Catherine "Clarissa" living with Rezin Malott in East Bethlehem, Washington, Pennsylvania, 3 of her alleged children by Rezin, and 8 other children from Rezin's first wife, Marjorie Fast who was a sister to Clarissa Fast. Also living with them at the time was Clarissa younger sister, Mary Ellen Fast, who would marry Rezin Malott by 1853. After that marriage to her younger sister, Clarissa left the household and returned to Virginia with two of her daughters where they appear together in the 1860 US Census in the Third Magisterial District of Marion County, Virginia on 6 July 1860.

The 1860 US Census from the Third Magisterial District is coincidental between the two possibly different Catherines because John L. Swisher moved his family including his wife of Catherine to the Third Magisterial District where they all appeared together in the 1860 US Census on 3 July 1860. Unless there is some reason why Catherine Fast was supposedly married to John L. Swisher and would alternate households to live with Rezin Malott every few days and bear his children yet return back to the Swisher household, then one can only assume that they must have been two different Catherines.

That particular census record of the Swisher family from 1860 is important because it shows them living next door to Mary W. Fast and her son, Jacob E. Fast. That Mary was Maria W. Knight who married John Jacob Fast who was a son of John Adam Fast and a brother to Marjorie, Mary Ellen, and Clarissa Fast all of whom had a relationship with Rezin Malott and each fathered children by him even with overlapping years.

Of more importance is a notation given on the memorial Find-A-Grave page for "Catherine "Mary" Fast Swisher (memorial ID 58433595) which says that Catherine was "W/O John L. Swisher, D/O Johann Jacob Fast and Maria Knight". If this is true, then it means that Catherine Swisher was a daughter of John Jacob Fast and was not the same person as Mary Catherine "Clarissa" Fast, daughter of John Adam Fast.

One addition fact about the deaths of the two possible Catherines is that both apparently died in the same year of 1867. However, the Find-A-Grave memorial for Catherine Swisher notes that she died on 6 Sep 1867 while the Mary Catherine "Clarissa" Fast actually died on 14 Dec 1867. The death register specifically notes that her father was "Adam Fast" (John Adam Fast) and that her mother was "Eliza Fast" (Elizabeth Rex).

If they died on two different dates, then they cannot be the same person.
--------------------------------------

  Noted events in her life were:

• She appeared on the 1850 US Census in East Bethlehem, PA on 1 August 1850. ⁵

1850 US Census
Page 129A, Family 291
East Bethlehem, Washington County, Pennsylvania
Clarissa Fast..32..Virginia

(Living with partner (Rezin Malott, who she never married), 3 of her children by Rezin Malott, 8 other children of Rezin Malott from his 1st wife, and her younger sister, Mary Ellen Fast, who would soon become the 2nd wife of Rezin Malott.)
.

• She appeared on the 1860 US Census in Third District, Marion County, VA on 6 July 1860. ⁴

1860 US Census
Page 99, Family 698
Third Magisterial District, Marion County, Virginia
Clarrisa Fast..41..Virginia
Mary E. Fast..17..Pennsylvania
Harriet Fast..13..Pennsylvania

NOTE - Living next door to Rezin Malott and his 2nd wife, Mary Ellen Fast.

Mary had a relationship with Rezin Malott, son of Rezin Malott and Ruth Manspeaker, about 1838. (Rezin Malott was born in 1810 in Pennsylvania ^{3 6 7 8} and died on 28 November 1862 in , Marion County, VA ⁸.)