Son of Thomas Dillard Isbell and Ann Poindexter Kerr. Grandson of William Isbell and Ann Dillard.
Jesse M. Isbell married Catherine Cummings in Limestone Co. AL. Jesse was in the 1830 census of Limestone Co. AL.

TIMELINE
1800: Warren Co., KY (Jesse M Isbell born)
1810: Casey Co., KY (parents' household)
1820: Limestone Co., AL (father, brothers)
28 July 28 1821 Athens, Limestone CO, AL: Married Catherine Cummings, sister of Isaac Keyes Cummings who married Jesse Miller Isbell's sister Catherine Isbell Lovell
27 June 1826 Limestone Co, AL: Jesse M Isbell, Justice of the Peace commission
10 Mar 1829 Limestone Co, AL: Justice of Peace commission
1830: Limestone Co., AL: household 4, no slaves
14 Feb 1831 Limestone Co., AL: Resigned Justice of Peace commission
7 DEC 1831 Limestone Co., AL.: Son Malachi C Isbell born
3 Nov 1833 Shelby Co., TN: Daughter Nancy Ann Poindexter Isbell born
1840 Shelby Co., TN: Jesse M. Isbell and family (8 whites, 1 slave)
22 Sep 1843 Shelby Co., TN.: Jesse M. Isbell died
1850 Marshall Co., MS: (at Holly Springs) widow Catherine Cummings Isbell, 2 sons 4 daughters; family trees show another son Jesse (must have died young, if correct)
1850 Federal Slave Schedules: Catherine Isabel, Marshall Co., MS., 3 slaves: 1 bf 22, 1 bm 13, 1 male mulatto 3 (c1846)
1851 Marshall Co., MS: Daughter Nancy Ann Poindexter Isbell Gaylor married
1860 Holly Springs, Marshall Co., MS: Son George Isbell, 28 unmarried, conductor for Mississippi Central Railroad (1850 census shows him born 1829). Apparently not the same George W. Isbell who married 1869 Kate Gilliland and died in Memphis (Findagrave 11876577), who was his second cousin.

Jesse Miller Isbell died at Whitehaven, Shelby County, Tennessee, on 22 Sep 1843. His widow, Catherine Cummings Isbell, moved to Marshall County, Mississippi, along with some of their children. Whether they acquired the farm there prior to his death is undetermined. A neighbor in 1850 was Edverwitt (Everett?) Slayden and near neighbor: William W Dowdy. There's a little community a few miles north of Holly Springs called Slayden. Jesse Miller Isbell and Lewis Dillard Isbell had an aunt Sarah/Sally Isbell who married Daniel Slayden in Virginia.

Most of the black Isbells in Marshall County after 1860 appear to have been those in Chickasaw County, just south of Marshall, in 1860, 33 slaves of Jesse Miller Isbell's 1st cousin Lewis Dillard Isbell and 11 slaves of Lewis' son George Isbell.

William Winston Dowdy of Holly Springs, the neighbor of Jesse Miller Isbell's widow Catherine Cummings Isbell and family was a first cousin of the father of Jane Dowdy who married Elijah Miller Isbell (2nd cousin of Jesse Miller Isbell), according to some family trees. Other family trees say Robert was the eldest son of Jane Dowdy Isbell's grandfather Amos Dowdy, not his brother.
Wm Winston Dowdy was a second cousin of James Burr Dowdy whose grandson Rufus Brown Dowdy owned the famous "Forks of Cypress" Plantation at Florence, Alabama, where Alex Haley's ancestor Queen was a slave and part of the book was set there, near the Mississippi state line. The Jacksons who owned the Forks during slavery times and raised the best thoroughbred race horses in the country, including the famous Glencoe that they brought from England and was the 15th-great-gandfather of Justify, the Triple Crown winner of the Kentucky Derby in June 2018.

Jesse Miller Isbell is buried in the New Nonconnah Church cemetery in Whitehaven, Shelby Co., Tennessee, a suburb of Memphis. The address is:
4713 Tulane Road
Memphis, TN 38109
or the southwest corner of Shelby Dr and Tulane Rd.

Grave marker reading:
"J.M. Isbell
Born May 14, 1800
Died Sep. 22, 1843
(Slab stone)"

The marker was clearly readable many years ago when transcriptions were made but has deteriorated substantially today, although it has been recovered where it had sunken. Other Isbell graves in this cemetery were not readable at the time the transcriptions were taken.
Most of the cemetery has been destroyed by the church which built a parking lot and a new wing over it.

At least one of Catherine Cummings Isbell's brothers died in Shelby Co., but he was buried at Elmwood Cemetery: Dr. Jordan Y. Cummings.

"This old cemetery is located on the southwest corner of the old Whitehaven-Caplevile Road (Shelby Drive) and Tulane Road, in Whitehaven, and, at one time, belonged to the Lemuel Farrow family. The first church on this location was the Nonconnah Baptist Church, known now as the Whitehaven Baptist Church, which relocated on Highway 51 South in 1885."

"Tales Of Old Whitehaven" (1968 by Anna Leigh McCorkle, page 37, "At the same time, 1848, Geraldius Buntyn, who lived in Memphis but had large holdings of land here, gave two acres for a Baptist Church. This was built on the corner to Tulane and Shelby Drive. All deeds to the property from then on exempt the two acres, but no church deed was ever given. The Farrows, Hudgens, and the Garys were members of this church. Mr. Farrow, Mr. William Hudgens and Mr. Gary were deacons for years. The story is told that one paid, one prayed, and one raised the tune. This church was known as the Nonconnah Baptist. This church was in Coldwater Association since the property at that time was in Mississippi. When the Baptist Association met at New Nonconnah Church, the Farrows would entertain visiting ministers. They would be put to sleep on a Baptist pallet. This was made by removing all the furniture from a room, spreading cotton on the floor, covering this with quilts, and bedding brethren down." On page 38, "When the new church was built on Highway 51, South, the land was given to the negroes by a word-of-mouth deed saying that the property was theirs for as long as they cared for the grounds once a year."