142, 143, 144, 145, 146: The Eatons (Eliza, Julia, Rebecca, Temperance, and Thomas)

There are five students named Eaton in the Mordecai school rolls I compiled in the early 1990s:

Eliza Eaton was at the school in 1813, both sessions.
Julia Eaton was at the school from early 1814 to the end of 1815.
Rebecca Eaton was at the school in 1815, both sessions.
Temperance B. (Tempy) Eaton was at the school from early 1812 the end of 1813.
And Thomas Eaton was there for one session, early 1813.

The presence of a male student named Eaton is a clue that this is a local family.  Or families.... there were a lot of Eatons in Warren County!

William A. Eaton shows up in the ledger paying for Temperance Eaton in 1812 and 1813, so that's a good set of names to start with:
 
Temperance B. Eaton (b. 1803) has the most distinctive name of the bunch, and she turns out to be relatively easy to find online:  She was the daughter of William Allen Eaton (d. 1818) and Mary Williams, and turned 10 the year she was at Warrenton.  Temperance B. Eaton married a lawyer named Lunsford Long Alsobrook in Alabama in 1826, and had one son, Jacob Eaton Alsobrook, born the following year.   She probably died by 1834, when her husband married his second wife, Dorothea Stone.  The Mordecais mentioned her marriage to Alsobrook, in a letter from Caroline to Ellen (29 October 1826, in the Jacob Mordecai Papers at Duke): "Mr. Alsobrook came the father of the one that married Tempy Eaton, he came for Peggy & you never saw anyone more reluctant to go than she was"--so apparently a younger in-law of Tempy's was sent to Caroline's school, too.

The other Eatons are probably not all sisters to Temperance. Julia Eaton's bills were paid by a Thomas Jenkins at the end of her time there, in December 1815.  The next month, John Rust Eaton was paying the bill for Miss Dortch (Betty Dortch, we met her already).   Temperance B. had an older sister Rebecca C. Eaton (1797-1840)--but she would have been 18 during her year at the school, and would it make sense to send the older sister to school after the younger one, without any overlap?  So I don't think this is the right Rebecca Eaton.  But it's not impossible.  (But just in case she's our student, she married in 1820 to John Howson Fenner (1798-1871), and had two children, and died at forty-three, in Halifax NC.)

And Tom Eaton was nobody's sister, of course.  Definitely local, he turns up in Caroline Plunkett's reports from Warrenton after the rest of the family has moved away, in the last 1820s; "Did I tell you Tom Eaton has left his father's again he has been in town several weeks I heard he was exceedingly disrespectful to Mrs. Eaton," she tells Ellen in 1828.  In another 1828 letter (Ellen to Caroline), there's mention of Tom Eaton's poor health, but that might be another Thomas Eaton?

There were a lot of Eatons in Warren County.  But I'm really not having much luck finding the one specific ones who attended the Mordecai school, except Temperance.  Hmmmm.

139, 140, 141. The Easthams (Anne, Eliza, and Mildred)

There are three girls named Eastham in my student rolls for the Mordecai school.  Anne, Eliza, and Mildred Eastham are almost certainly sisters, all from Halifax County, Virginia, all with James Eastham as the adult on their account.  I have Anne and Mildred (Milly) arrived in mid-1814; Anne left after just one session; Mildred stayed for most of the next two years, with their sister Eliza joining her.  Mildred and Eliza both finished at the school at the end of 1816.  James appears in the school ledger through during sessions.

Either Milly or Eliza was ill during August 1816, requiring a visit from their talkative father:  "Miss Eastham I hope has recovered before her father's anecdotes are exhausted.  And I congratulate you on having a visitor that could talk." (Solomon to Ellen, 23 August 1816, Southern Historical Collection)  Julia wrote about the same visit to Samuel Mordecai:  "The best news I can give you is that Miss Eastham, her talkative & goodhumoured father & mother left us on Friday.  She was much better & will I hope soon recover.  Her father must I think be a good man, he has at any rate a very tender heart, he bid us farewell with tears in his eyes & was so much affected that he could hardly speak." (Julia to Samuel, August 1816 [und.], Southern Historical Collection)

A James Eastham was deputy sheriff of Halifax County in 1815; there are a lot of Easthams in Halifax County, but he seems like a good candidate for starters.  The same man was also the county surveyor in 1810.  But his name mostly turns up in legal documents, no family history I can see.

I see a Mildred Hardeman Eastham (1805-1857), who was born in Virginia, married Alfred Hicks Rose (a fellow Virginian) in 1828, had seven children, and died in 1857 in Tennessee (here's her grave).  Her dates are perfect, and we know that a lot of Mordecai-connected families moved west to Tennessee in the 1820s. 

Now, here's a thought:  What if Ann and Eliza are the same person? Their times at the school don't overlap, and if anything it makes more sense if she's one person--it means two sisters, Ann Eliza and Mildred, who were at the school simultaneously, arriving in mid-1814 and finishing in 1816.   I found an Ann Eliza Eastham (1803-1881) who was born in Halifax Co. Virginia, married Thomas J. Spencer in about 1819, had two children, was widowed very young, and died in 1881.  Her dates are perfect for a Mordecai student.

I have no evidence at hand that Mildred and Ann Eliza were sisters, or were Mordecai students--only their dates and place of birth, really.  But I'm intrigued at merging Ann and Eliza Eastham into one student.  Makes more and more sense as I think of it.... any clues from Virginia family historians out there?

138. John Dye (+ possible 138.5: Benjamin Dye?)

Placeholder for this name on the roster. I'll come back to this one when I can.

UPDATE February 2016: I'm looking at an 1809 roll sheet from the Mordecai school, and there's a student named "Benja. Dye" listed.  So there might be another male student named Dye? Online, it looks like there was a Benjamin Blanton Dye (1800-1851) who would have been the right age, and in the right part of North Carolina. Another family history has BB Dye as the son of Martin Dye II and Catherine Mayfield. Hmmm...

137. Elvira W. Dupuy Eggleston (1805-1878)

There's a student named Elvira W. Dupuy in the list of Mordecai school students, compiled by me in about twenty years ago.  I'm seeing her listed as a resident of Virginia, at the school for its last three sessions (mid-1817 to the end of 1818), and with Captain James Dupuy as the adult on the account, appearing in the school ledger in June 1817, November 1817, January 1818, and June 1818.  That seems like a lot to go on!  And Elvira is an unusual enough name, there should be more to find.

And there is.  Elvira Dupuy was born in Nottoway County, Virginia, in October 1805, the youngest child born to Captain James Dupuy (1753-1828) and Mary Purnell Dupuy (1758-1828).   Her father's military rank came from his service during the American Revolution. Her mother was 47 when Elvira was born, and Elvira's only sister Elizabeth (b. 1803) died young--so a girls' school might have seemed like a good idea for a lot of reasons when Elvira was twelve years old.  At age 22, Elvira married fellow Virginian Richard Beverly Eggleston (1797-1853) as his second wife, and the following year both her parents died.  The Egglestons had six children. Her last child was born in 1839, when Elvira was 34; and all of them were born in Virginia.  She was widowed in 1853, age 48; she lived through the Civil War and died in 1878, a few weeks before her 73rd birthday.

Her grandson Joseph Dupuy Eggleston (1867-1953) was a noted educator, president of Virginia Tech and Hampden-Sydney College, as well as Virginia's state superintendent of public schools (1906-1912).

The Eggleston papers at the Virginia Historical Society Library may have more about Elvira and her family.

135. and 136. Edwin and Joseph Drake

I've mentioned already that sometimes, especially early in the school's era, local boys were enrolled at the Mordecai school.  Two boys, Edwin and Joseph Drake, were there a little later:  Edwin was a student at the school from 1813 to mid-1815, five sessions; Joseph was there for all of 1815.  Caswell Drake might be an adult associated with their account in the school ledger.  Caroline Mordecai Plunkett mentions "Joe Drake" in a list of Warrenton friends in an 1829 letter (Caroline to Ellen, 5 April 1829, Jacob Mordecai Papers, Duke).

Drake's a common name, of course, but Caswell stands out as a first name, and we know the family will be Warren County residents (because boys didn't board at the school).  That makes it fairly easy to find this pair of students:  Edwin and Joseph Drake were two of the sons of Rev. Caswell Drake (1776-1860), a Methodist minister in town, who also served as Warren County Clerk of Court (1819-1833).  Their mother was Mourning Drake (1772-1841) (she was a Drake by birth and by marriage); their older brother Matthew Mann Drake married another Mordecai student, Winnifred Fitts (more on her when we get to the Fs).

Joseph J. Drake was born around 1805. Looks like he might have become a physician and married Harriott (Harriet) Eliza Sessums (born around 1815).  They don't seem to have had children together, but in middle age, the couple raised a niece, Lucy Sills Sessums (aka Lucy Drake), whose mother died soon after her birth in Mississippi.  They turn up in the 1850 census living with her father, Dr. Isaac Sessums, in Nash County--maybe Joseph and Isaac practiced medicine together?

Edwin D. Drake (not that Edwin Drake) was apparently also born around 1805, and married Rebecca Edwards (1797-1869), and stayed in Warren County, where he was also Clerk of Court, after his father. They had sons Joseph and Francis born in the 1830s.   He may have been a North Carolina state senator during the Civil War.

Both men kept their names, kept local, and were fairly prominent--but I can't find a death date or gravestone for either one.  They must be out there; if you know, leave a comment.

134. Sarah Eppes Doswell Cabell (1802-1874)

I have a student called Sarah Doswell in the appendix if my dissertation.  It says she was at the Mordecai school for four sessions, 1813 and 1814, and that a Mrs. Doswell was the adult on her account.  Indeed Mrs. Doswell appears in the August 1813 ledger page, paying board, tuition and "musick."  And again on January 1814, paying for "Sally" (aka Sarah).  She's mentioned as "S Doswell" once in a Mordecai letter, on 2 January 1814, Rachel mentions to Ellen that "I will go & see A Young & S Doswell, who have just arrived."  So our Sally Doswell may travel with an A. Young (Ann Young was a student at the school in the same sessions as Sally Doswell, precisely). 

Sarah Epes Doswell Cabell (1802-1874)
(portrait of white woman, dark hair curled over ears, white pleated collar)

Not a lot to go on, but Doswell isn't a super-common name (though there is a town named Doswell, Virginia).  And we know she'll be born around 1800.

Here's a very likely candidate:  Sarah Eppes Doswell (1802-1874) of Danville, Virginia, daughter of Major John Doswell (1744-1820) and Mary Poythress Eppes (1767-1823; the Eppes is also spelled Epps and Epes).  That puts her at the Mordecai school when she was ages 10-12.  She married Benjamin William Sheridan Cabell (1793-1862) in 1816, at age 14.  (Benjamin's sister, Mary Pocahontas Rebecca Cabell, married a lawyer named Peyton Doswell, presumably a relation of Sarah's).  They had eleven children together, and lived in Danville.  Benjamin was in the US Army, and served in the Virginia state assembly.  Six of their sons fought in the Civil War, on the Confederate side, and two died in the war.   She died in 1874, age 72.  Here's her gravesite.

The descendants of Sallie Doswell included some prominent folks.  Her son William Lewis Cabell (1827-1911) was a West Point graduate, a Confederate general, and after the war was mayor of Dallas, Texas, and a railroad executive.  His son was also mayor of Dallas.  His grandson was also mayor of Dallas.  Another of Sally's sons, George Craighead Cabell (1836-1906) was a six-term Congressman from Virginia. (She died at his house.)  Her great-grandson Charles Pearre Cabell (1903-1971) was Deputy Director of the CIA at the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

No solid mention of this woman attending the Mordecai school, but I haven't run across any other Sarah Doswells that would fit the profile for a Mordecai student, and this one does, perfectly.

133. Elizabeth Anne "Betty" Dortch Bullock (1803-1832)

I have a student named Betty Dortch in my list of Mordecai students.  She's only at the school one session (first half of 1816), and the adult attached to her account might be Major John R. Eaton.  It looks like a "Maj. J. R. Eaton" paid for "Miss Dortch" in the school ledger, January 1816; there's another mention of the two names together in the May 1817 ledger page, along with the name "R. Bullock."  Other than that and the school rosters, she doesn't seem to have been mentioned by the Mordecais.  Not much to go on, but it's an unusual enough name, let's have a look around.

It's definitely the name of a prominent North Carolina family in the nineteenth century.  William T. Dortch (1824-1889) was a North Carolina legislator, born in Nash County near Rocky Mount; he once owned the historic house named the "Dortch-Weil-Bizzell House" in Goldsboro (for sale, and it's accessible!).  Another North Carolina Dortch moved to Tennessee, and his son (another William Dortch) moved to Arkansas, where he owned Marlsgate Plantation.  Anyway, plenty of Dortches.

Let's try the Major Eaton angle.  John Rust Eaton (1772-1830) was a planter, horse breeder, and state legislator from Granville County, NC.   He mentioned a "Mr. Dortch" recovering from smallpox in a 1794 letter, but that's it for the name's appearance in his published correspondence.  In 1816 he would have been a father to some of his eleven kids (he married Susan Somerville in 1801).  And his sister Betty Eaton married.... Noah Dortch.  Bingo.  Another of Eaton's sisters, Mary, married William Baskerville--we've already run into him, because Eaton had Baskerville nieces at the Mordecai school as well.

So here's the story.  Elizabeth Anne "Betty" Dortch was born in January 1803, first child of Elizabeth "Betty" Eaton (1787-1810) and Noah Dortch (1781-1811).  As the dates show, Betty (and four younger siblings) lost both mother and father by 1811--which might explain why uncle John Rust Eaton was taking care of her school tuition five years later.  At 21, she married James Bullock Jr. (1798-1880), whose sister Catherine Bullock also attended the Mordecai School.  (His sister Fanny Bullock married Macon Green, who was one of the Mordecai's male students in their early years.)  Betty and James had five children together; two died in infancy. Betty Dortch was destined to follow her parents to an early grave--she died in 1832, age 29.

130., 131., 132. The Donaldsons (Eliza, Isabella, and Joanna)

Three Donaldson sisters attended the Mordecai school from Fayetteville, all three the daughters of Robert Donaldson, but John McMillan is listed as paying their tuition:

Eliza Donaldson (1803-1825) was at the school for seven sessions total--1812-1813, and again 1816-1817; the first time with her older sister Isabella, the second time with her sister Joanna.  She was ill with tuberculosis when she married Thomas Hooper in 1825, and died a few months later, age 22.  Eliza's sister-in-law, briefly, was another Mordecai alumna, Margaret Broadfoot Hooper.

Isabella Donaldson (1797-1887) was at the school for two sessions in 1812.

Joanna Donaldson (1806-1876) was at the school for three sessions, 1816-1817.

As the details already given suggest, even in 1996 I had found a lot of information about these girls.  Eliza Donaldson Hooper stayed with her former teacher Rachel Mordecai Lazarus in Wilmington during her final illness.  Isabella Donaldson (the eldest sister to attend the school) was a lifelong friend to the Mordecais, especially to Julia Judith Mordecai. Caroline mentions Isabella Donaldson in an 1842 letter to the writer Maria Edgeworth, and Isabella wrote to inquire if Ellen was interested in a governess job with a neighboring family that same year.  Joanna Donaldson enjoyed a visit from the Mordecai women in 1842, when her husband Oliver Bronson was unwell.  It's clear that the Mordecais considered the Donaldsons admirable, unlike a lot of their students' families:

[Julia] is happy to be with me, but she cannot find anything in the society of Wilmington to compensate for the delightfully rational hours spent with the Donaldson family.  I wish they resided here, such intercourse is enviable, & preferring it as we do, how seldom has it been our lot to taste the enjoyment. (Rachel to Ellen, 18 January 1824, in the Mordecai Family Papers, SHC)

I may say with truth whenever I have visited Mr. Donaldson's family I have left it with the most delightful sensation of calm tranquility I ever experienced in any society.  I believe you know Mr & Mrs. D were from home but Isabella & James were there... (Ellen to Caroline, 18 July 1832, Jacob Mordecai Papers, Duke)

So there were letters and visits, long after the school years.   Their brother Robert Jr. was a prominent banker and arts patron in New York, which offers another window into their later lives.

Isabella Donaldson's gravesite
in Duchess County, New York
via FindaGrave

Robert Donaldson Sr. was a wealthy Scottish merchant, part of a community of prosperous Scots in Fayetteville.  He died in July 1808, and his wife Sarah Henderson soon followed. 

Joanna Donaldson Bronson was only two when her father died; she was ten when she went to the Mordecai school with her older sister Eliza (who was thirteen at the time).  Joanna moved to New York with her brother Robert.  In 1833 she married Dr. Oliver Bronson, from a wealthy family in banking and insurance.  They had a sons Isaac (1835-1872) (who was with the Union Army during the Civil War), Oliver Jr. (1837-1918), Willett, and Robert.  A niece described Joanna as "a beauty in her youth---Black waving hair, beautiful grey eyes and much color of complexion --- very gay and very entertaining. She became very deaf (in her old age) but was so agreeable that everyone sought her society."  Dr. Bronson stopped practicing medicine and became superintendent of schools, eventually moving to Reconstruction-era St. Augustine, Florida as a school administrator.  The Bronsons were benefactors of a missionary society, a girls' school, the American Tract Society, and an "Asylum for Respectable Aged Indigent Females."  Their house in the Hudson Valley is now a national historic landmark.  Joanna was widowed in summer 1875 and died in early 1876, age 69.

129. M. Dickinson

Placeholder post--I'll come back to this.  This student is in the appendix of my diss as having been at the school for one term, the last term of the Mordecai school in 1818.  No other information. I want to look at the sources and see where this listing came from.