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.