tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20950240848701358362024-03-12T20:43:51.370-07:00The Mordecai Female AcademyPenny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-11643647754958535092024-02-28T13:20:00.000-08:002024-02-28T13:20:37.505-08:00181-187. The Freemans<p>There were seven students named Freeman in the Mordecai school roster I assembled in the early 1990s:<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Eliza Freeman</b> (one session, 1812)</li><li style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>George Freeman</b> (four or five sessions, 1809-1811)</li><li style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>John Freeman</b> (1811, both sessions)</li><li style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Maria Freeman </b>1809-1810, three or four sessions) <br /></li><li style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Martha Freeman</b> (1812, then 1816-1817, four sessions total)</li><li style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Mary/Polly Freeman</b> (1810, both sessions)</li><li style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Sally Freeman</b> (1816, both sessions, and 1818, both sessions)<br /></li></ul><p>Okay, so: two boys, five girls, most attending early in the school's run, but a few (Martha and Sally) attending later in the school's existence. All one family? Two or more families? I'm going to assume the Freeman boys are from a family lives near Warrenton (boys would have been day students). I don't have much more about any of these children in my dissertation notes. So let's see what some googling and ancestry.com can tell me now.</p><p>Hm, not much. Common names and not a lot of context, but here are some leads for starters. <br /></p><p>A <b>George W. Freeman</b> was <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/article/weekly-raleigh-register-warrenton-academ/142312941/" target="_blank">principal of Warrenton Academy in the early 1820s</a>; I'd be surprised if none of these Freeman children had any connection to him, but... I'm not finding it right now.<br /><br />Maria could very well be <b>Maria L. A. Freeman</b>, born 1795, the daughter of Robert Freeman and Sarah Freeman. She married John Snow in 1812 in Warrenton, and had two children, Theophilus Hunter Snow (born 1813 or 1814) and Emma J. Snow (born 1815). Her husband died in 1819, in his thirties; there were four enslaved people mentioned in his will (Tom, Ephraim, Shadrack, and Pinny). As Maria A. Snow, she appears as head of her household in Warrenton in the 1820 census, with her young children and three slaves. In 1823, she remarried to Alexander J. Lawrence, in Franklin County, and had two more children, Alexander Lawrence and Anna Lawrence. In 1843, her elder son was vice-president of the <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-weekly-standard-raleigh-temperance/142313952/" target="_blank">Raleigh Temperance Society</a>. In the 1850 and 1860 censuses, the Lawrences are keeping a hotel in Raleigh with their daughter Anna. In the 1870 census, she is still alive, living with her second husband in Raleigh; both of their children and two Snow granddaughters also live with them. In the 1880 census, she is a widow again, and living with her son Alexander in Raleigh. <br /></p><p><br /></p>Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-78060146368235890772024-01-29T14:29:00.000-08:002024-01-29T14:47:21.263-08:00180. Nancy Franklin (1795-1874?)<p>There is a student named <b>Nancy Franklin</b> in the roster of Mordecai school students in my 1996 dissertation. It says she was at the school in 1814.</p><p>I suspect she might be this Nancy Franklin: <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=GIk6EFHjaJEC&lpg=PA2108&ots=0lYyDR7NoR&dq=%22Jesse%20Franklin%22%20Slade%20Rockingham&pg=PA2108#v=onepage&q=%22Jesse%20Franklin%22%20Slade%20Rockingham&f=false" target="_blank"><b>Ann P. Franklin</b></a> (1795-1874), daughter of Jesse Franklin and Maria Perkins Franklin. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Franklin" target="_blank">Jesse Franklin </a>was governor of North Carolina from 1820 to 1821. When Nancy was at school, Jesse Franklin had just finished a term in the United States Senate. She married William Slade in Surry County, NC, in 1821? That's a perfect year for an 1814 student to be marrying, in North Carolina. She was later known as Nancy P. Slade, lived in Rockingham till at least 1870, and had at least five children. Her husband William Slade died in 1865. (1850, 1860, 1870 censuses, via Ancestry) </p><p>Besides the good timing, there was also a student named <b>Helen B. Slade</b> at the Mordecai school, <i>also</i> in 1814, and <i>also </i>from Rockingham. So if Mrs. Slade is, indeed, the Mordecai student Nancy Franklin, she married into a classmate's family, which is pretty typical. </p><p>If we have the right Nancy Franklin, one of her sons, Jesse Franklin Slade, died at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Her two daughters died before that, both in their 20s. And two of her sons survived her, Thomas Howard Slade and William B. Slade.<br /></p><p>And if this is the right Nancy Franklin, <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54981826/ann-p.-slade" target="_blank">here's her grave</a> in Caswell County, North Carolina.<br /></p>Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-62642120569124876332022-07-14T13:17:00.002-07:002022-07-14T13:18:14.774-07:00179. Mary (Polly) Fowler (1799-1850)<p>There was one student named Fowler in the rolls of the Mordecai school. <b>Mary (Polly) Fowler</b> (1799-1850) was born in Virginia, and attended the school during its first three years, from 1809 to the end of 1811. She <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=PwqSbC1U6X4C&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=Polly+Fowler+Warren+County&source=bl&ots=Xt4FePVoR6&sig=ACfU3U3cEeeeQzICCexN4-HkRqq08Rtgvg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiy2tnQk_n4AhWpJ0QIHRt9DUcQ6AF6BAgfEAM#v=onepage&q=Polly%20Fowler%20Warren%20County&f=false" target="_blank">married Archibald Daniel Burrows</a> in 1820. They lived in Warren County, North Carolina, where the 1830 federal census found their household included 9 "free white persons" and two women who were enslaved. They had at least five children: William, Letitia (Bobbitt), Mary Rebecca, James, and Tom. Their youngest, Mary Rebecca, was born the same year Archibald died, in 1835. Polly Fowler died in 1850.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-66828443416782087442021-10-13T16:52:00.002-07:002021-10-13T16:52:37.017-07:00176, 177, 178. Charlotte Fort (Gorman), Mary Ann Fort (Mason), and Martha Fort (Andrews)<p> There are three girls named Fort in the rolls of the Mordecai school that I assembled in the early 1990s: <br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Charlotte Fort </b>attended the school in both sessions of 1811.<br /><b></b></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Mary Ann Fort </b>attended the school for three years, from early 1816 until the end of 1818. She was from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emporia,_Virginia">Hicksford (now Emporia), Virginia</a>, with Lewis Fort as the adult name on her account. She married in 1821.<br /><b></b></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Martha (or Patsy) Fort </b>attended the school for two years, from early 1810 to the end of 1811.</p><p><b>Mary Ann Fort</b> <b>Mason</b> (1803-1870) I was able to learn about in the early 1990s, because she married someone fairly prominent, and because she was at the school long enough to be mentioned in the Mordecai letters. Rachel Mordecai called her parents (Lewis Fort and Eliza Harris Coleman Fort) "quite diverting people" and noted that her mother wrote "droll letters". Her planter family held slaves. At age 18, in <a href="https://papersofabrahamlincoln.org/persons/MA44192" target="_blank">1821</a>, she married <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Y._Mason" target="_blank">John Young Mason</a>, whose sister was a Mordecai student. They had at least eight children together, and her husband became a congressman, and an ambassador, and Secretary of the Navy, and Attorney General of the United States--so she was a busy political wife, until he died in 1859, in Paris. At least one of her sons (<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=TAcpq2iXPT4C&lpg=PA132&ots=7DLzevAVqM&dq=Hicksford%20%22Lewis%20Fort%22&pg=PA132#v=onepage&q=Hicksford%20%22Lewis%20Fort%22&f=false">Simon Blount Mason</a>) served in the Confederate army during the Civil War. She died in 1870, in Virginia.<br /></p><p>Now what can some online searching reveal about the other two Fort girls? <b>Charlotte Ann Fort</b> married John S. Gorman in Wake County, North Carolina in 1818--the age/timing is exactly right for that to be the Mordecai student. AND she had a sister Martha Fort. Aha! So we have them. <br /><br /><b>Charlotte Ann Fort Gorman</b> (1802-1883), daughter of James Fort and Chloe Powell Fort, married John Spear Gorman in Wake County in 1818. They had at least one child, Annie, in 1832. Charlotte was widowed when J. S. Gorman died in 1836. She died in 1883, aged 81 years.</p><p><b>Martha W. Fort</b> <b>Andrews </b>(1797-1876) was Charlotte's older sister. She married Cullen Andrews Jr. in Wake County in 1816, and they had ten children born between 1817 and 1837. The Andrews family lived in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama. Her husband died in Texas in 1857. Martha Fort Andrews died in 1876, aged 79, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus,_Mississippi">Columbus, Mississippi</a>.<br /><br />All three Fort girls were Southern widows in their 60s when they lived through the American Civil War.<br /></p>Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-25290031749931770752021-08-08T15:35:00.006-07:002021-08-08T15:46:56.160-07:00174. and 175. Ann (Nancy) and Eliza Foote<p>Hello again! Okay, yes, it has been three years. I'm pretty active on Wikipedia, writing biographies of women, and most days that takes all my keyboard time, but I DO want to return to the blogs too. I no longer have a searchable version of my notes from the Mordecai papers (originally typed into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacWrite">MacWrite II</a> in the early 1990s, so... yeah). But maybe I can still do this. Let's see.</p><p>After the big clump of students named Fitts, there are two girls named Foote: Ann (or Nancy) and Eliza, both attached to the adult name "Adam Foote". Here's what I had about them in my dissertation appendix in 1996:<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span> </span>Ann (Nancy) Foote</b> of Warren County, NC attended the Mordecai School in 1815, 1817, and 1818, for<span> </span>a total of three non-consecutive sessions. She married in 1831, and died in 1892.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><span> </span><b>Eliza Foote</b> was at the Mordecai School from 1814 to mid-1815, for three consecutive sessions.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Not much. And their names aren't so distinctive, but let's give it a go. <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~sybleg/genealogy/perrymanwebpgs/2641.html">Looks like</a> <b>Nancy Foote Brame</b> (c1805 - February 1892), was the daughter of Henry Alexander Foote Jr. and Mary Moss Foote. She married Marcus G. Brame, and lived in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marengo_County,_Alabama">Marengo County, Alabama</a>. She was married in 1831, had six children, and was widowed by 1845. In the <a href="https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1576/images/31075_174424-00013?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=15802a4b08a7ca9b06fdc59c4f9a6bfc&usePUB=true&_phsrc=VkV2318&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.72169947.953947744.1628453507-543288172.1600741604&pId=563997" target="_blank">1850 United States Census</a>, she was listed head of her household, and owner of seven slaves, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_County,_Alabama" target="_blank">Perry County, Alabama</a>. Ten years later, in the <a href="https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7668/images/msm653_600-0152?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=15802a4b08a7ca9b06fdc59c4f9a6bfc&usePUB=true&_phsrc=VkV2319&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.61750500.953947744.1628453507-543288172.1600741604&pId=90406277" target="_blank">1860 census</a>, she appears as owner of twelve slaves, living in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowndes_County,_Mississippi" target="_blank">Lowndes County, Mississippi </a>(just over the border from Alabama). If that death date of 1892 is correct, she was probably one of the last living Mordecai students.<br /><br />She doesn't seem to have had a sister named Eliza, but there were a lot of Footes in Warren County, including historian <a href="https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/foote/foote.html" target="_blank">William Henry Foote</a>; there's even an abandoned <a href="https://cemeterycensus.com/nc/warr/cem292.htm">Foote Cemetery</a> in Warren County.<br /><br />Next up: the Forts. <br /> </p>Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-76567697938693286302018-05-08T21:20:00.002-07:002018-05-08T21:26:40.161-07:00166.-173. The Fitts Family (Caroline, Elizabeth, John, Mary, Susan, Susan, Tempe, Winnefred)Hello, it's been a while! Maybe I was intimidated to return, knowing the Fitts family was next alphabetically. Well I'm feeling ready to face them now. There are eight students named Fitts in the rolls of the Mordecai school that I compiled over twenty years ago. They were the children of Henry Fitts (1778-1847) and Oliver Fitts (1771-1816), Warrenton residents. Oliver Fitts, who served in the NC legislature, sold his house to Jacob Mordecai to use for the school in mid-1811, so several of these children attended school in a building that was once their father's property. Here they are, set in their sibling groups:<br />
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Henry and Sarah (Sallie) Duke Fitts' children:<br />
<b>Caroline Fitts (</b>1803-1846), attended the school in 1812<br />
<b>Elizabeth Fitts </b>(1805-1884), attended the school in 1812<br />
<b>Mary Parham Fitts </b>(1799-1856), attended the school 1809-1812<br />
<b>Susan Fitts </b>(1800-?), attended the school 1809-1811<br />
<b>Winnefred Fitts </b>(1802-1870), attended the school in 1812<br />
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Oliver and Sarah Harris Fitts' children:<br />
<b>Susan Brown Fitts </b>(1798-1887), attended the school 1809-1812<br />
<b>Temperance Winnefred Fitts </b>(1802-1870), attended the school 1809-1815<br />
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There's also a boy named <b>John Fitts </b>(1804-1882), attended the school 1809-1813; might be a cousin? <br />
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(Yes, two Susans and two Winnefreds. Temperance Winnefred went by the nickname "Tempe.")<br />
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Now, let's get to know more about these students using <a href="http://www.ncgenweb.us/ncwarren/fam-hist/fitts-fam1.htm" target="_blank">some</a> online resources:<br />
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<b>Caroline Fitts Palmer </b>(1803-1846) married Horace Palmer (1801-1882) in 1838, as his second wife; they had children Sarah (1840-1929) and William (1844-1909) together; Horace Palmer also had four sons from his first marriage. Caroline died in 1846, aged 42 years, in Warren County NC.<br />
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<b>Elizabeth Fitts Milam </b>(1805-1884) married Nathan Milam (1802-1870) in 1827. They had a son Henry Duke Milam (born 1831). They stayed in Warren County, where Elizabeth was widowed in 1870 and died in 1884.<br />
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<b>Mary Parham (Polly) Fitts Rogers </b>(1799-1856) married Zachariah Milam in 1819, and married Colonel George Rogers in 1823. With Rogers she had four children, Emily (1823), Thomas (1824), George (1826), and Adeline (1830). They lived in Mecklenburg County VA. She died in 1856, aged 57 years.<br />
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<b>Susan Fitts Twitty </b>(1800-after 1854) married John Eldredge Twitty. They had children together: Henry (1822), William (1825), Mary Ann (1827), Caroline (1829), Sallie (1831). Susan Fitts Twitty founded the Sunday School at <a href="http://www.hpo.ncdcr.gov/nr/WR0135.pdf" target="_blank">Hebron Methodist Church</a> in Oakville NC in 1854.<br />
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<b>Winnefred Fitts Drake </b>(1802-1870) married Matthew Mann Drake. They had children together: Henry (1828), Mary Ann (1830), William (1832), Sallie (1835), and John Oliver (1837). She died in 1870, aged 68 years, in Warren County. Her son <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34584270/william-caswell-drake" target="_blank">Maj. William Caswell Drake</a>, a Confederate Army veteran, became superintendent of schools in Warren County in 1885. Her daughter <a href="https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/twitty-sallie" target="_blank">Sallie Duke Drake Twitty</a> (1835-1923) was a Civil War widow and a longtime teacher and school principal.<br />
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<b>Susan Brown Fitts Ripley Comegys (</b>1798-1887) moved to Alabama in 1816; in 1818 she married Daniel B. Ripley. They had two children together, FitzHenry Ripley and Sarah Ripley. Sarah died and in 1823 Susan was widowed. She visited her former inlaws in Boston in 1826, with FitzHenry in tow. In 1834 she married again, to Edward Freeman Comegys (1797-1875), a bank officer. They had two sons together, William and Edward. Susan was widowed again in 1875. She died in 1887, aged 88 years, in the home of her only surviving son, Edward, in Denton TX.<br />
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<b>Temperance Winnefred Fitts Crawford </b>(1802-1870) was one of the Mordecai's first and longest-running students, attended their school from ages 7 to 13. In 1819 she married William Crawford (1784-1849), a bank president and judge 18 years her senior. They lived in Alabama and had two daughters together, Susan (1821-1863) and Caroline (1823-1841). When she visited Emma Mordecai Myers in 1850 she was a recent widow. She outlived both of her daughters, too, by the time she died in 1867, aged 65 years.<br />
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Nearly all of these sisters and cousins had children who married the children of others on this list. Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-11934607914436046022017-03-23T10:55:00.002-07:002017-03-23T10:55:30.165-07:00165. Ann E. FisherA student named Ann E. Fisher turns up in the rolls of the Mordecai school that I assembled in 1996. She was at the school in 1811. And it looks like she died that year, too.<br />
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"Pd. Thos Reynolds for a coffin. AE Fisher 20."<br />
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That's the line in the school's ledger for December 1811. (Because running a school in the 1810s sometimes meant buying a coffin.)<br />
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Really wish I knew anything else about her. But I don't, and her name is too common to find much online. Anyone? <br /><br />Next up alphabetically, the Fitts family. Buckle up.<br />
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<br />Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-15138469982839759852016-12-07T09:49:00.001-08:002016-12-07T09:49:52.326-08:00163, 164. Eliza and Harriet Field (and maybe 165. Another Eliza Field?)Two students named Field are in the rolls of the Mordecai school, both from Mecklenburg, Virginia, both among the first students when the school opened in 1809. Eliza Field and Harriet Field were both at the school for six sessions, on and off between 1809 and 1813 for Harriet, 1814 for Eliza.<br />
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These might be Harriet and Eliza Field, the daughters of judge<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=21374721" target="_blank"> Hume Riggs Field</a> (1772-1831) and his first wife <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=21374753" target="_blank">Millicine (or Mildred) Young Field</a> (1782-1827), of Mecklenburg Virginia. The dates might not work out, though: Harriet H. Field was born in 1800--so she was nine the year the school opened, that makes sense. Eliza, however, was younger--born in 1806--maybe too much younger to be a Mordecai student in 1809.<br />
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If Harriet's sister Eliza was the Eliza Field at the Mordecai school in 1809, she would have been three years old, and the youngest known student. So I suspect she was the Eliza who attended after 1812; but a different Eliza Field, maybe a cousin, might have been there in 1809 and early 1810. The name isn't so unusual, anyway. Assuming the daughters of Hume and Millicine Field attended the Mordecai school...<br />
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<b>Harriet H. Field (1800-1850)</b> married Charles Perkins in about 1821, and they had at least one child, Marietta. She was widowed around 1828, and died in Tennessee in 1850, aged 50 years.<br />
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<b>Eliza Mildred Field (1806-?) </b>married Charles Perkins' brother, <a href="http://www.archives.alabama.gov/conoff/perkins_c.html" target="_blank">Constantine Perkins</a> (1792-1836) in about 1824, and they had at least three children, Constantine, Ann Eliza, and Virginia in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Her husband served in the Alabama legislature, and as the state's attorney general.<br />
<br />Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-56721689293973335472016-11-18T07:48:00.000-08:002016-11-18T07:48:26.552-08:00162. Eliza Geddy Fenner Vaulx (1799-1845)There's a student in the rolls of the Mordecai school named Eliza Fenner. She was at the school for a year, two sessions, mid-1810 to mid-1811. That's all I've got. But it turns she's not hard to find with just that bare minimum of detail.<br />
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Eliza Geddy Fenner, the daughter of <a href="http://ncpedia.org/biography/fenner-richard-0" target="_blank">Dr. Richard Fenner (1758-1828)</a>, and his wife Ann McKinnie Geddy Fenner (1769-1852). Fenner was the first president of the North Carolina Medical Society. Eliza Geddy Fenner was born in Franklin County, North Carolina, in 1799, which would make her exactly the right age, class, and location for a child at the Mordecai school in 1810.<br />
<br />Eliza Geddy Fenner married James Vaulx (1783-1862). They had four daughters and a son; two of the daughters died in childhood. They moved to Tennessee, where Eliza is buried (<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=37640457" target="_blank">here's her Find a Grave site</a>). Her son <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=37641158" target="_blank">James Junius Vaulx </a>became an Episcopal clergyman in Arkansas and briefly in <a href="http://www.holytrinitywpb.org/history/farewell.htm" target="_blank">West Palm Beach, Florida. </a><br /><br />And Eliza Geddy Fenner Vaulx was apparently <a href="https://famouskin.com/family-group.php?name=55767+john+mccain&ahnum=21" target="_blank">the great-great-grandmother of Arizona senator John McCain</a>, through her granddaughter <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=15416707" target="_blank">Katherine Davey Vaulx McCain (1878-1959)</a>.Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-32190041373987924352016-05-16T22:24:00.000-07:002016-05-16T22:26:49.139-07:00161. Elizabeth Margaret Felder Pou (1806-1853)There was a student named <b>Eliza Margaret Felder</b> in the rolls of the Mordecai school. She attended from mid-1816 to mid-1817, and she was from South Carolina. The adult on her account was John Felder.<br />
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An Elizabeth Margaret Felder turns up pretty quickly in googling; she was born in 1806 in Orangeburg SC, which would make her age 10 and 11 while she was at the Mordecai school--seems like a perfect fit. Her parents were Samuel Felder and Ann Horger, first cousins, both of them born in South Carolina. Eliza's grandparents and great-grandparents were born in Switzerland and Germany. Samuel died in 1813, so the John Felder on her account was likely her older half-brother <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Myers_Felder" target="_blank"><b></b></a><b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" target="_blank">John Myers Felder</a></b> (1782-1851). While Eliza was in school, John Myers Felder was serving in the South Carolina Senate. <br />
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She married lawyer Joseph Pou (1805-1888; the name was pronounced like "Pew") in 1827, and they had about seven children, two daughters and five sons. She died in Talbotton GA, in 1853, age 47. <b><a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Pou&GSiman=1&GScnty=2350&GRid=71096862&" target="_blank">Here's her tombstone</a></b> in the Talbotton City Cemetery. Her husband remarried.<br />
<br />
Eliza's grandson, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_W._Pou" target="_blank">Edward William Pou</a></b> (1863-1934), was a longtime member of Congress, serving continuously from 1901 to 1934. Another grandson, <b><a href="http://docsouth.unc.edu/wwi/pouwar/bio.html" target="_blank">James Hinton Pou</a></b> (1861-1935) served in the North Carolina legislature.Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-91492399459070123812016-03-10T09:53:00.000-08:002016-03-10T09:53:27.582-08:00159 and 160. Susanna (Suky) and Wilmouth FawnThis month's entry brings us a hard truth about schools in the Early Republic. Even among the most privileged classes, child mortality was a fact of life, and running a school sometimes meant facing a student's death.<br />
<br />
There are two students with the surname Fawn in my rolls of the Mordecai school. <b>Suky Fawn</b> (or "Sucky", as I have it transcribed) and <b>Wilmot Fawn</b>. Both were enrolled for only one session (the second half of 1812), and both have a Captain Fawn as the adult name on the account. Suky Fawn died at the school in August 1812.<br />
<br />
We'll get to Suky in a minute, but .... Wilmot? I have that student marked as male in my dissertation, because, well, it <i>sounded </i>like a male name. I must not have found any other reason to think that, because (as it turns out) "Wilmot" was<b> <a href="http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/d/e/v/Bryan-Devaney/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0021.html" target="_blank">Wilmoth L. Fawn</a> </b>(b. 1795 in Franklin NC), daughter of Capt. William Fawn* (1768-1809) (a <a href="http://www.carolana.com/NC/Revolution/patriots_nc_capt_william_fawn.html" target="_blank">Revolutionary War veteran</a>) and his wife Elizabeth Harrison (1759-1847) of Franklin, NC. Wilmouth Fawn married Samuel Aaron Devaney (1779-1857) in 1818. Wilmoth Fawn Devaney had <a href="http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=deviney_kin&id=I401" target="_blank">at least ten children</a>, all born in North Carolina between 1819 and 1829, except one son, Ellis, who is shown as being born in 1843 (when Wilmoth was 47). Of her sons, <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=DeVaney&GSiman=1&GScnty=2226&GRid=26641213&" target="_blank">Frank Devaney</a> was a Civil War veteran (CSA), who lived till 1925 in Oregon. Wilmoth Fawn Devaney died in Roane County, Tennessee in 1854, age 58. (Her name is found, variously, as Wilmouth, Wilmuth, even Wilmarth.)<br />
<br />
And Wilmouth's younger sister <b>Susanna Fawn </b>(b. 1799) must have been our unfortunate "Suky". "The death of Miss Fawn must also have been a severe shock," wrote Samuel Mordecai to his sister Rachel in September 1812, "for I can well imagine how it affected you all." (Mordecai Family Papers at the Southern Historical Collection). <br />
<br />
*A different (but possibly related) "Capt. Fawn" of Norfolk VA seems to have been the uncle of student<a href="http://mordecaischool.blogspot.com/2010/03/20-and-21-eliza-and-martha-armistead.html" target="_blank"> Eliza Armistead</a>; but he died in 1818, according to a letter from Rachel Mordecai to her sister Ellen (8 February 1818, Southern Historical Collection.Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-2371615297335041542015-11-08T17:35:00.000-08:002015-11-08T17:35:03.136-08:00158. Sarah Fauquier (Emmerson? b. 1804?)There's a student on the roster of the Mordecai school that I compiled in the early 1990s named <b>Sarah Fauquier</b>. She's listed as being from Norfolk VA, attending for both 1818 sessions, and having William Fauquier as the adult on her account.<br />
<br />
There is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauquier_County,_Virginia" target="_blank">Fauquier County</a> in Virginia--but the name is probably still variously spelled in early 19c. sources, including <i>Farquhar, Forker, Falkier, </i>etc. And Sarah might also be Sara or Sally. But we have a parent(?) name and a city, which is a good start. And attending only in 1818 means she's likely born a few years after 1800--looking in the vicinity of 1805 would be best.<br />
<br />
A<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cDAacwmaVZIC&lpg=PA99&ots=em3F1Rb9Eq&dq=Fauquier%20Emmerson&pg=PA99#v=onepage&q=Fauquier%20Emmerson&f=false" target="_blank"> Sarah Fauquier</a>, daughter of William M. Fauquier, married at Benjamin Emmerson at Norfolk on November 10, 1824--that Sarah seems like a very good candidate, age is a good match, everything else lines up. <br />
<br />A William May Fauquier (1773-1827) was a chemist in Norfolk VA, and appears as "William M. Forguher" in <a href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vanorfol/benthall.htm" target="_blank">his wife's family bible</a>; he married Ann (Nancy) Benthall in 1801. They seem to be the parents of the same Sarah (Sally) Fauquier Emmerson above; that woman, born 1804, named one of her eight children Anna Benthall Emmerson. William May Fauquier was <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=O6acydIhxlEC&dq=%22William%20M.%20Fauquier%22%20Norfolk&pg=PA280#v=onepage&q=%22William%20M.%20Fauquier%22%20Norfolk&f=false" target="_blank">a deacon at the Baptist Church</a> in Norfolk.<br />
<br />
Is she the one? Anyone with further useful information, please share in comments.<br />
<br />Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-55174608041739349872015-10-28T10:33:00.000-07:002015-10-28T10:33:04.099-07:00157. Patsy FarrarThere's a student named <b>Patsy Farrar </b>on the rolls of the Mordecai school that I compiled in the early 1990s. She was only at the school for one session (the first half of 1810). I don't have a hometown, a parent name, or any other information.<br />
<br />
First things: Patsy was generally a nickname for Martha, not for Patricia, as it often is today. So we can probably assume she was named Martha Farrar. And 1810 was early enough in the school's run that she was probably from NC or VA--not farther afield. Maybe more likely Virginia, because Farrar's Island was an early settlement in the Richmond area (patriarch <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=28700353" target="_blank">William Farrar </a>was born in Yorkshire in 1583 and died in Virginia in 1637--that's pretty early for an Englishman in Virginia).<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/f/a/r/Randal-A-Farrar/GENE1-0014.html" target="_blank">This Martha Farrar</a> (b. 1794) was from Rockingham County, NC. She would have been 16 while she was at the Mordecai school--older than most, but not impossible. <br />
<br />
There may be better candidates; no reason to think the Rockingham Martha is definitely the Mordecai student. Anyone know more?<br />
<br />Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-44622147282636372542015-09-17T10:33:00.000-07:002015-09-17T10:33:11.700-07:00156. Martha Whitmel Falconer Faulcon (1799-?)There's a student in the Mordecai school rolls named <b>Martha W. Falconer</b>, who attended for both sessions in 1813. (That surname may also appear as Faulkner, Falkener, Falkner, and other variations.) "Alxr. Falconer" appears in the school ledger in July 1813.<br />
<br />
<b>Alexander Falconer Jr.</b> (c.1765-1818), <a href="http://genealogytrails.com/ncar/franklin/obits_f.html" target="_blank">born in St. Andrews, Scotland</a>, had about 1000 acres of land in Franklin County, North Carolina, but also had <a href="http://ncpedia.org/biography/dickinson-matthew" target="_blank">legal training</a>. He attended the Mordecai school's examinations in <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=BtKEAAAAIAAJ&dq=Martha%20Whitmel%20Falconer%20Faulcon&pg=PA600#v=onepage&q=Falconer&f=false" target="_blank">1811</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=BtKEAAAAIAAJ&dq=Martha%20Whitmel%20Falconer%20Faulcon&pg=PA601#v=onepage&q=Falconer&f=false" target="_blank">1812</a>, and was <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=BtKEAAAAIAAJ&dq=Martha%20Whitmel%20Falconer%20Faulcon&pg=PA95#v=onepage&q=Falconer&f=false" target="_blank">a trustee of the Franklin Academy</a> from at least 1805 to 1815; Moses Mordecai is listed as a witness on Mr. Falconer's will. In addition to daughter
Martha Whitmel Falconer (1799-), he had sons John, Robert, and
Alexander, and a daughter Mary Pugh Falconer (c1800-1836).Their mother seems to have been the former <a href="http://www.faulknerfamilies.com/p64.htm" target="_blank">Mary (Polly) Harriet Wynne</a>, who also died in the 1810s.<br />
<br />
Martha Whitmel Falconer would have turned 14 the year she attended the Mordecai school. Ten years later, on October 6, 1823, she <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=PwqSbC1U6X4C&lpg=PA59&ots=Xr3A8VTvR5&dq=Isaac%20N.%20Faulcon%20Martha&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q=Isaac%20N.%20Faulcon%20Martha&f=false" target="_blank">married <b>Isaac N. Faulcon</b></a> in Warren County. They had sons James (1825) Robert (1827), and Jesse (1829). She must have <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=CAZIAQAAMAAJ&dq=Isaac%20Faulcon%20North%20Carolina&pg=PA387#v=onepage&q=Isaac%20Faulcon%20North%20Carolina&f=false" target="_blank">died by 1841</a>, because Isaac married a second time, to a Mrs. Fannie Clanton, that year. The Faulcons were related by marriage to Alstons, Eatons, Fittses, and other Mordecai families.<br />
<br />
<br />A Lucy Faulcon was one of Caroline Mordecai Plunkett's five boarding students in Warrenton in 1828 (Caroline to Ellen, 20 January 1828, Mordecai Family Papers, Southern Historical Collection)--she was no doubt part of the same family as Martha's husband.<br />
<br />
Anyone have a deathdate or gravesite for our Martha Falconer Faulcon? Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-76373037239427259932015-09-02T21:33:00.000-07:002015-09-02T21:33:00.441-07:00155. Harriet ExumThere was a student at the Mordecai school named <b>Harriet Exum</b>, for five sessions, non-continuous--she was there in 1810, 1811, and 1813. A "Capt. Exum" is mentioned in 1811 and 1813 in the school ledger, and is presumably the adult on her account.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Exum is a fairly distinctive name, but it's found as a first and a last name in Southern history, and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=v0WAVoRaAaYC&lpg=PA455&dq=Benjamin%20Exum%20married&pg=PA452#v=onepage&q=Benjamin%20Exum%20married&f=false" target="_blank">goes back to the seventeenth century</a> in Virginia. A Col. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=8IQ0AQAAMAAJ&dq=Benjamin%20Exum&pg=PA54#v=onepage&q=Benjamin%20Exum&f=false" target="_blank">Benjamin Exum</a> was a Dobbs County delegate to the state convention of North Carolina in 1776; he died about 1788, so Harriet probably wasn't his daughter, but maybe a granddaughter or niece?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anyway, not having any luck finding a good Harriet candidate out there. She was probably from the Exum family based in Edgecombe County, probably kin to the Revolutionary colonel. Anyone have leads?<br />Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-78168258471216416222015-07-07T14:27:00.000-07:002015-07-07T14:27:38.434-07:00153, 154. Jane Evans and Lydia Anna Evans Two Evans girls were with the Mordecai school when it opened in 1809: <b>Jane Evans</b> was there from 1809 until mid-1811, and her sister <b>Lydia Anna Evans</b> (sometimes written as <i>Lydianna, </i>which might reflect how it was pronounced) was there until the end of 1810. They came from Oakland, an estate near Petersburg, Virginia, and had Dr. George Evans as the name attached to their accounts in the school ledger. The Mordecai family discussed the Evans girls in letters, beginning even before their arrival:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The house is full of girls and... in a few weeks Lidyanna & Jane Evans will come Mrs. Johnson is now at Oakland and they will return with her." (Ellen to Samuel, 16 April 1809, Jacob Mordecai Papers at Duke)</blockquote>
The family were, obviously from their name, Welsh in ancestry. The girls' father <a href="http://markhamchesterfield.com/sketches/SkchD219_DrEvans.pdf" target="_blank"><b>Dr. George Evans</b> </a>(c1755-1822). He moved South from Pennsylvania to Virginia after the Revolutionary War, in which he served as a surgeon. Their mother was the former Mary Peyton (d. 1818). The girls' much older sister Mary Evans married <b><a href="http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=uva-sc/viu00773.xml" target="_blank">William R. Johnson</a></b>, a notable Warrenton resident, in 1803. (That's the Mrs. Johnson mentioned above and below.)<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.newspapers.com/clip/2759843/marriage_announcement_governor_william/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Marriage announcement, Governor William Miller and Lydiana Evans (1816)." src="http://img1.newspapers.com/img/thumbnail/58185594/400/300/4637_2139_1101_355.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The marriage announcement of Governor William Miller and Lydiana Evans<br /><i>Weekly Raleigh Register</i> (June 7, 1816): 3.<br />From Newspapers.com</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i> </i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Lydia Anna Evans </b>(d. 1818) left the Mordecai school at the end of 1810; she married almost six years later, to <b><a href="http://ncpedia.org/biography/miller-william" target="_blank">William Miller</a></b>, at Chesterfield, Virginia, in May 1816 (see announcement above). William Miller was a Warrenton man, well known to the Mordecais, but at the time of the wedding he was well-known throughout the state--because he was the Governor of North Carolina from 1814 to 1817. (So a Mordecai girl became the first lady of North Carolina while the school was still running.) Sadly for Lydia Anna, the glamor was very short-lived: she was soon pregnant, had her son William Jr., and she died in March 1818. (William Jr. soon joined his mother; he only lived to be five years old.) Her widower Governor Miller died in 1825, traveling through Florida on a diplomatic mission to Guatemala.<br />
<br />
The Mordecais commented on Lydia Anna's death, of course: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"We have just received intelligence of the death of Mrs. Miller (Lydia Anna Evans)--So young, so sweet, & so lovely, who can think without pain of her being this early nipped in her bloom. The last letter from Mrs. Johnson mentioned her being much better, & her husband had come out to prepare for her removal to their intended place of residence. Her last illness must have been short for her had not received intelligence of it, & was still absent, when the final event took place." (Rachel to Samuel, 22 February 1818, Jacob Mordecai Papers at Duke)<br />
<br />
"The last visitation on the Evans family is a most melancholy one and you are so prone to feel another's woe, that exclusive of the attachment you had for Mrs. M., your sympathy for them must be strongly excited..." (Samuel to Rachel, 1 March 1818, same as above)<br /><br />"A letter from Mrs. Johnson to Mary mentions that the amiable deceased had left to her the care of her infant, from this I conclude that she was sensible of her approaching fate." (Rachel to Samuel, 1 March 1818, same as above)<br /> </blockquote>
<b>Jane Maria Evans: </b>No sooner had Lydia Anna died, than her sister Jane Evans, also a Mordecai alumna, followed; the Mordecais shared the news:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"You will unite with me in deep & sincere concern when I acquaint you with the new misfortune of the devoted family of poor Dr. Evans--Jane is no more, she expired on the 12th of this month, Lydia on the 13th of last. Her health had for some time been delicate, and the shock proved too severe for her to bear. Poor Mrs. Johnson appears, as she must be, overwhelmed with grief. Does it not seem indeed too much for human nature to support? I fear it will be impossible for her poor mother to strugle against such an accumulated load of sorrow. When I think of that family as we knew it a few years ago, so cheerful, so happy, so pleased with one another, the girls so gentle, so lovely, and blooming..." (Rachel to Samuel, 22 March 1818, same as above)<br /><br />"The succession of misfortune in the Evans' family is enough to excite commiseration even in those who feel less interest in their happiness than we do. I had not heard of Jane's death until you mentioned it." (Samuel to Rachel, 29 March 1818, same as above)</blockquote>
But there was still more tragedy for the Evans family in 1818. That summer, the mother of Lydia and Jane, Mary Peyton Evans, also died. "The unfortunate old lady had never left her chamber since the death of Jane, but has borne her own severe sufferings with entire patience & resignation. She may indeed be said to have fallen victim of a broken heart." (Rachel to Samuel, 26 July 1818, same as above) <br />
<br />
Death dates and circumstances are thus well-established; I still don't know when either student was born, or where they might have been buried (I assume a private family plot near the family home at Oakland?). Does anyone know?<br />
<br />Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-12820406794251756262015-05-02T10:35:00.000-07:002015-05-02T10:41:27.804-07:00151, 152. Catharine Williams Epes Green (1802-1887) and Elizabeth Campbell Epes Jones (1803-1880)There are two girls named "Epes" in the rolls of the Mordecai school. Catharine/Catherine Epes was at the school for two years, 1813 and 1814; Elizabeth was there for all of 1817. There's a Thomas Epes associated with Catharine's account, and a William B. Cowan might have been acting as guardian for Elizabeth. They're from Virginia, from my notes.<br />
<br />
Note that the common Virginia surname Epes can also appear as Epps or Eppes. We've already met one Mordecai girl with the name Eppes as her middle name, <a href="http://mordecaischool.blogspot.com/2014/05/134-sarah-eppes-doswell-cabell-1802-1874.html" target="_blank">Sarah Eppes Doswell Cabell</a> -- so she's a possible school connection to Catherine and Elizabeth Epes too.<br />
<br />
So this was maybe easier than I expected: <b>Catherine Williams Epes Green </b>(1802-1887), daughter of Thomas Epes and Catherine Williams, married William B. Green in 1827. Catherine's uncle John Epes had daughters Catherine Grace Epes Cowan (who married William Bowie Cowan) and <b>Elizabeth Campbell Epes Jones</b> (1803-1880), who married Richard Jones in 1818. So Mordecai students Catherine and Elizabeth were first cousins. Fellow student Sarah Eppes Doswell was another cousin; Sarah and Catherine had their Williams grandparents in common. Elizabeth's mother was John Epes' second wife, so she wasn't truly first cousins to Sarah Doswell, but these families were all very much entangled. Congressman <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Parham_Epes" target="_blank">Sydney Parham Epes</a> (1865-1900) was one of the Epes' girls' distant nephews, and Congressman <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_F._Epes" target="_blank">James F. Epes</a> (1842-1910) seems to be from the same extended family. <br />
<br />
How does William B. Cowan come into the story? Elizabeth Epes's father John died in 1816, so it makes sense that her older half-sister's husband, Cowan, paid Elizabeth's accounts at the Mordecai school the following year.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://latrobefamily.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I16771&tree=mytree#cite1" target="_blank">Catherine Epes Green</a> doesn't seem to have had any children in her long life; <a href="http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nottoway/bibles/j5200001.txt" target="_blank">Elizabeth Epes Jones </a>had about eight children, <a href="http://arlisherring.com/tng/getperson.php?personID=I141664&tree=Herring&PHPSESSID=b8777c509411d40ad4165aa7908e9e7b" target="_blank">maybe more.</a> Both women lived through the Civil War and into old age, and as far as I can tell neither ever lived away from Virginia--except for during their schooldays in North Carolina.<br />
<br />Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-77905134157583691042015-05-02T06:59:00.000-07:002015-05-02T06:59:35.516-07:00150. Catherine ElliottThere was a student at the Mordecai school named Catherine Elliott. She attended for two-and-a-half years, from mid-1813 to the end of 1815; I don't have an adult name attached to the account, or a hometown, or any much else to go on, so hmmmm. Probably not going to find this one out there. There was a Catherine Elliott born in Orange County NC in 1797, died 1860, so she'd be about the right age, but with no other identification I'm not thinking it's a strong enough match.Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-45780095748347850592015-03-04T14:23:00.000-08:002015-03-04T14:23:03.338-08:00149. Elizabeth Elcan (1805-1823)A student named <b>Elizabeth Elcan</b> is listed in the student rolls for the Mordecai school. She was there from mid-1815 to September 1818, when she left the school in ill-health. The adult names attached to her account are Lionel (or Lion) Elcan and Christopher Hunt. The Elcans and Mordecais were friends even before 10-year-old "Betsey" appeared in Warrenton. Elizabeth Elcan is also the first Mordecai student whose story reached her present-day kin through me. In the early 1990s when I was working on my dissertation, Carl Coleman Rosen got in touch by letter (remember, this was before most folks had email). He had heard of my interest in the school and wondered if I knew anything about Betsey. I did! He included a page about her in his family history, <i><a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/244_years_of_Elcan_family_history.html?id=pylKAAAAMAAJ" target="_blank">244 Years of Elcan Family History</a></i> (self-published, 1994).<br />
<br />
So here are some details about Betsey Elcan. She was born in 1805, the daughter of Lion Elcan (1750-1833) and Elizabeth Hooper Elcan. She was the second-youngest of their nine children, born between 1788 and 1811. Their father was born in Prussia, and the family lived in Buckingham County, Virginia. When she was ten, she was brought to the Mordecai school by her sister Sally (Ellen to Samuel, 25 June 1815, Mordecai Family Papers at the Southern Historical Collection), where she stayed until she was 13. <br />
<br />
In 1821, Betsey visited the Mordecais at Spring Farm with her sister Sally, Mrs. Christopher Hunt. The report of her health wasn't good: "Betsey has grown, and is very pretty. She is in <u>deep decline</u>, and looks almost as delicate as her amiable sister...I never felt anything so touching as her manner on Sunday night. She had a spasm, and lay perfectly insensible on the bed, and while her hands were forcibly contracted, with a countenance as mild as an angel, in the softest tone of voice, she repeated those lines from the Universal prayer beginning 'teach me to feel'...Betsey came out her and stayed several days, she does not like a city life much..." (Ellen to Caroline, 20 September 1821, Jacob Mordecai Papers at Duke)<br /><br />Two years later, she died, age 18, after a long illness; four of her
siblings also died before age 30, and none of the nine Elcans lived to
see age 55 (Their parents lived to be 88 and 68.) Presumably some of them occupy the unmarked graves at the <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&GSln=Elcan&GSiman=1&GScnty=2817&CRid=2268299&pt=Elcan%20Family%20at%20Elk%20Hall&" target="_blank">family's cemetery</a>, at their former estate, Elk Hall. Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-27550785410820695972015-02-15T20:47:00.000-08:002015-02-15T20:47:26.239-08:00148. Rebecca Edwards Banks (1797-1869)There's a student named Rebecca Edwards in the rolls of the Mordecai school that I compiled almost twenty years ago. She seems to have been at the school for three sessions (mid-1813 to the end of 1814), and the name Benjamin Williamson may be attached to her account. A W. N. Edwards is also mentioned with Rebecca Edwards in the ledgers--sometimes Williamson is paying the Mordecais on behalf of both Edwardses. <br />
<br />
W. N. Edwards looks like he must be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weldon_Nathaniel_Edwards" target="_blank"><b>Weldon Nathaniel Edwards</b></a> (1788-1873), a Congressman from Warren County whose <b><a href="http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/guidedisplay.pl?index=E000083" target="_blank">papers are in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill</a></b>. He married a Mordecai student, <b>Lucy Norfleet</b>; and from correspondence in his papers between Benjamin Williamson and Mr. Robert Park, we know that he was a student at the Warrenton Academy and so was his brother Isaac. So, local family. In 1814 W. N. was serving his first term in the North Carolina state legislature, having passed the state bar in 1810. <br />
<br />
Weldon N. Edwards had a younger sister <b>Rebecca Edwards</b> (1797-1869). As "Mrs. Rebecca E. Banks" she's buried in <a href="http://cemeterycensus.com/nc/warr/cem080.htm" target="_blank">the family cemetery at Poplar Moun</a><a href="http://cemeterycensus.com/nc/warr/cem080.htm" target="_blank">t</a>, about twelve miles from Warrenton. <a href="http://ncpedia.org/biography/edwards-weldon-nathaniel" target="_blank">Their parents were Priscilla Williamson and Benjamin Edwards.</a> She married Edmund Banks in July 1819. And fifty years later she died. But I don't have much luck finding anything about her life in between. If anyone knows her details, leave me a note in the comments.Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-89687814147262273002015-01-11T21:11:00.000-08:002015-01-11T21:11:09.887-08:00147. Lucy Edmonds/EdmundsThere's a student named <b>Lucy Edmonds</b> in the rolls of the Mordecai school, attending from mid-1814 to the end of 1816--five sessions, a relatively long stay. She seems to be from Northampton County, NC, and the adult attached to her tuition payments in the ledger (1814 was named Howel Edmonds. She must have been ill during her stay; a letter from Rachel to Samuel Mordecai dated 23 January 1816 notes "Miss Edmunds dangerously ill upstairs (she is now convalescing)" among the many "glooms" of the school that winter (letter in the Mordecai Family Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Chapel Hill).<br />
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In the later Mordecai correspondence, she turns up in a letter from Caroline to Ellen, April 1822, because some of her younger cousins (Mary and Lucy) are attending Caroline's school in Warrenton that season. (Caroline Plunkett to Ellen Mordecai, 22 April 1822, Jacob Mordecai Papers at Duke; "little Mary Edmonds" mentioned again in a letter dated 18 January 1823, still a student.) <br />
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One man named<b> <a href="http://www.carolana.com/NC/Revolution/patriot_leaders_nc_howell_edmunds.html" target="_blank">Howell Edmunds</a></b> (with this spelling) is relatively easy to identify: he was a colonel during the War for Independence, served in the Colonial Assembly, and in the Provincial Congress, and in the North Carolina House of Commons after statehood. He was also sheriff of Northampton County, North Carolina. He was born about 1730, married his cousin Lucy Nicholson (1737-1811) in 1757, and died.... in May 1814, just before the student Lucy appeared at the Mordecai school. (It seems Col. Edmunds had a sister, wife, daughter, a daughter-in-law, and at least one granddaughter all called "Lucy Edmunds," and probably some nieces too.)<br />
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<a href="http://archive.org/stream/southsidevirgini219834/southsidevirgini219834_djvu.txt" target="_blank">The Col. Howell Edmunds seems to be the student Lucy Edmunds' grandfather. </a> Her father was the Colonel's son, also named Howell Edmunds; her mother was Elizabeth. She was one of eight children. <br />
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And that's where the trail ends--I can't find a mention of this Lucy Edmunds (or Lucy Edmonds) beyond the 1810s, except the mention in Caroline's 1822 letter. Anyone know her fate?Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-51239998948836269122014-12-10T21:43:00.000-08:002014-12-10T21:43:47.628-08:00142, 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:<br />
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<b>Eliza Eaton</b> was at the school in 1813, both sessions.<br />
<b>Julia Eaton</b> was at the school from early 1814 to the end of 1815.<br />
<b>Rebecca Eaton</b> was at the school in 1815, both sessions.<br />
<b>Temperance B. (Tempy) Eaton</b> was at the school from early 1812 the end of 1813.<br />
And <b>Thomas Eaton</b> was there for one session, early 1813.<br />
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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!<br /><br />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:<br />
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<b><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=yruvKfanqvAC&lpg=PA179&ots=NVLHe5QYv6&dq=Temperance%20Eaton%20Alsobrook&pg=PA179#v=onepage&q=Temperance%20Eaton%20Alsobrook&f=false" target="_blank">Temperance B. Eaton</a></b> (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 <b>William Allen Eaton</b> (d. 1818) and Mary Williams, and turned 10 the year she was at Warrenton. Temperance B. Eaton married a lawyer named <b>Lunsford Long Alsobrook</b> in Alabama in 1826, and had one son, Jacob Eaton Alsobrook, born the following year. She probably died by 1834, when <a href="http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=laura47&id=I33087" target="_blank">her husband married his second wife</a>, 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.<br />
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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 (<b><a href="http://mordecaischool.blogspot.com/2014/03/133-betty-dortch.html" target="_blank">Betty Dortch</a></b>, we met her already).<i> </i>Temperance B. had an older sister <b>Rebecca C. Eaton </b>(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.)<br /><br />And <b>Tom Eaton</b> 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?<br /><br />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.<br /><i></i>Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-41902540144883173232014-10-08T11:12:00.003-07:002014-10-08T11:12:51.419-07:00139, 140, 141. The Easthams (Anne, Eliza, and Mildred)There are three girls named Eastham in my student rolls for the Mordecai school. <b>Anne, Eliza, and Mildred Eastham</b> 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.<br />
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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)<br />
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A <b><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=_WJNAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22James%20Eastham%22%20Halifax&pg=PA167#v=onepage&q=%22James%20Eastham%22%20Halifax&f=false" target="_blank">James Eastham was deputy sheriff of Halifax County in 1815</a></b>; 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.<br />
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I see a<a href="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Eseddon/wc01/wc01_231.htm" target="_blank"> <b>Mildred Hardeman Eastham (1805-1857)</b></a>, who was born in Virginia, married <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=ozvFZUdKHykC&lpg=PA200&ots=IKRmFguDD8&dq=Mildred%20Hardeman%20Rose&pg=PA200#v=onepage&q=Mildred%20Hardeman%20Rose&f=false" target="_blank">Alfred Hicks Rose</a> (a fellow Virginian) in 1828, had seven children, and died in 1857 in Tennessee (<a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=58434938" target="_blank">here's her grave</a>). Her dates are perfect, and we know that a lot of Mordecai-connected families moved west to Tennessee in the 1820s. <br />
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Now, here's a thought: <i><b> What if Ann and Eliza are the same person?</b></i> 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<b><a href="http://records.ancestry.ca/ann_eliza_eastham_records.ashx?pid=36339679" target="_blank"> Ann Eliza Eastham (1803-1881)</a></b> who was born in Halifax Co. Virginia, married Thomas J. Spencer in about 1819, had two children, <a href="http://www.juch.org/gedpages/fam/fam15958.asp" target="_blank">was widowed very young</a>, and died in 1881. Her dates are perfect for a Mordecai student.<br />
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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?Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-21931493819832688472014-10-07T09:11:00.003-07:002016-02-02T11:22:52.406-08:00138. John Dye (+ possible 138.5: Benjamin Dye?)Placeholder for this name on the roster. I'll come back to this one when I can.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">UPDATE February 2016:</span> I'm looking at an 1809 roll sheet from the Mordecai school, and there's a student named "<b>Benja. Dye</b>" listed. So there might be another male student named Dye? Online, it looks like there was a <a href="http://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/benjamin-blanton-dye_128528185" target="_blank">Benjamin Blanton Dye</a> (<a href="http://www.schwartznet.net/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I3546&tree=Tree1" target="_blank">1800-1851</a>) who would have been the right age, and in the right part of North Carolina. <a href="http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/dye/102/" target="_blank">Another family history</a> has BB Dye as the son of Martin Dye II and Catherine Mayfield. Hmmm...<br />
<br />Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095024084870135836.post-87635718787905247282014-08-16T11:07:00.001-07:002014-08-16T11:07:38.642-07:00137. 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.<br />
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And there is. <a href="http://www.mindspring.com/~eehiv/dupuy/d13681.htm#P13681" target="_blank"><b>Elvira Dupuy</b></a> was born in Nottoway County, Virginia, in October 1805, the youngest child born to <b>Captain James Dupuy</b> (1753-1828) and Mary Purnell Dupuy (1758-1828). Her <b><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Jv4QAQAAMAAJ&lpg=PA146&ots=AnTUezdiZI&dq=%22Richard%20Beverly%20Eggleston%22%20Elvira&pg=PA146#v=onepage&q=%22Richard%20Beverly%20Eggleston%22%20Elvira&f=false" target="_blank">father's military rank</a></b> 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 <b>Richard Beverly Eggleston</b> (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.<br />
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Her grandson <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Dupuy_Eggleston" target="_blank">Joseph Dupuy Eggleston</a> </b>(1867-1953) was <b><a href="http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Eggleston_Joseph_Dupuy_Jr_1867-1953" target="_blank">a noted educator</a></b>, president of <b><a href="http://www.president.vt.edu/presidents/Eggleston.html" target="_blank">Virginia Tech</a></b> and <b><a href="http://www.hsc.edu/About-H-SC/History-of-H-SC/Presidential-Gallery/PresGallery/Joseph-DuPuy-Eggleston.html" target="_blank">Hampden-Sydney College</a></b>, as well as Virginia's state superintendent of public schools (1906-1912).<br />
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The Eggleston papers at the Virginia Historical Society Library may have more about Elvira and her family.Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0