205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210. The Greens (Ann, Eliza, G. Macon, Harriet, Mary, and Nathaniel T.)

 There were six students at the Mordecai school named Green, according to the appendix of my 1996 dissertation: 

• Ann (Nancy) Green and 
• Mary Green were both at the school for the two 1814 sessions, were listed as being from Waynesboro, and having Robert Green as their guardian 
• Eliza Green was also at the school for the second 1814 session. 
• Harriet Green was also at the school for the second 1814 session; she was listed as being from Franklin County, and having William Harrison as the adult associated with her account 
   
• G. Macon Green, a local boy from Warren County, was at the school in 1809 and both 1810 sessions 
• Nathaniel T. Green was at the school in both 1815 sessions, and the name Solomon Green is associated with his account. 

Whew. Okay, looks like we might have several Green families here. And Green is such common name... so hmm. Let's dive in to the 2025 internet and see what it can tell us now.

 ***

Gideon Macon Green (1798-1838) was the son of Solomon Green and Frances Hawkins Green. He was born in Warrenton and died in Mississippi in 1838, at about age 40. His father was a planter and legislator in North Carolina, and so was his brother Thomas Jefferson Green (1802-1863).His grandfathers William Green and John Hawkins, and his great-grandfather Philemon Hawkins, were all officers in the American Revolution, and Senator Nathaniel Macon was his great-uncle. 

G. Macon Green was at the Mordecai school in its first two years, when enrollment was lowest and boys were more common among the students. He seems to have gone to Warrenton Academy next; a newspaper clipping from 1813 finds him in a class there with fellow Mordecai boy Arthur Gloster. 

Gideon Macon Green married Frances L. Bullock in 1818. In the 1820 census, the Warren County household of Gideon M. Green included 19 enslaved people, ten of whom were children under 14. His wife died in 1837, and he died in 1838, in Lafayette, Mississippi.

 ***

Nathaniel T. Green was apparently Gideon Macon Green's brother.  In 1826 he married Sarah Cornelia Coleman; but she died in 1827, before her 18th birthday. Many years later, in 1851, Nathaniel T. Green and George W. Mordecai were both elected to the board of directors of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad. He died in 1874, from injuries sustained when his buggy was overturned by a frightened horse.

***

I'll come back to work on the four girls named Green. Stay tuned. 

 

193. Virginia Gaulejean (?)

There is a Virginia Gaulejean in the list of Mordecai school students I made for my dissertation's appendix from 1996. She was at the school for both 1815 sessions, and the adult name attached to her account is Louis Gaulejean.

Not much to go on, but maybe a distinctive name will help. Let's see what online sources can tell me about her now.... hmmmm. Not much comes up for the name Gaulejean at all. Maybe misspelled? Gaullejean? Gallejean? Galejean? Not turning up much of a clue for those names either. 

Without the original documents or a hometown or something to go on, I don't think this one is going to be solved right now. There was a probably student named Virginia at the school in 1815. Her last name? Might have started with a G and might have been or sounded French. There might have been a father or brother named Louis. If any of this sounds familiar, leave me a comment!

174. and 175. Ann (Nancy) and Eliza Foote

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 MacWrite II in the early 1990s, so... yeah). But maybe I can still do this. Let's see.

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:

    Ann (Nancy) Foote of Warren County, NC attended the Mordecai School in 1815, 1817, and 1818, for  a total of three non-consecutive sessions. She married in 1831, and died in 1892.

    Eliza Foote was at the Mordecai School from 1814 to mid-1815, for three consecutive sessions.

Not much. And their names aren't so distinctive, but let's give it a go.

Looks like Nancy Foote Brame (c1805 - February 1892), was the daughter of Henry Alexander Foote Jr. and Mary Moss Foote. She married Marcus G. Brame, and lived in Marengo County, Alabama. She was married in 1831, had six children, and was widowed by 1845. In the 1850 United States Census, she was listed head of her household, and owner of seven slaves, in Perry County, Alabama. Ten years later, in the 1860 census, she appears as owner of twelve slaves, living in Lowndes County, Mississippi (just over the border from Alabama).  If that death date of 1892 is correct, she was probably one of the last living Mordecai students.

She doesn't seem to have had a sister named Eliza, but there were a lot of Footes in Warren County, including historian William Henry Foote; there's even an abandoned Foote Cemetery in Warren County.

Next up: the Forts.

151, 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.

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, Sarah Eppes Doswell Cabell -- so she's a possible school connection to Catherine and Elizabeth Epes too.

So this was maybe easier than I expected:  Catherine Williams Epes Green (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 Elizabeth Campbell Epes Jones (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 Sydney Parham Epes (1865-1900) was one of the Epes' girls' distant nephews, and Congressman James F. Epes (1842-1910) seems to be from the same extended family.

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.

Catherine Epes Green doesn't seem to have had any children in her long life; Elizabeth Epes Jones had about eight children, maybe more.  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.

150. Catherine Elliott

There 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.

149. Elizabeth Elcan (1805-1823)

A student named Elizabeth Elcan 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, 244 Years of Elcan Family History (self-published, 1994).

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. 

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 deep decline, 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)

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 family's cemetery, at their former estate, Elk Hall.

147. Lucy Edmonds/Edmunds

There's a student named Lucy Edmonds 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).

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.) 

One man named Howell Edmunds (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.)

The Col. Howell Edmunds seems to be the student Lucy Edmunds' grandfather.  Her father was the Colonel's son, also named Howell Edmunds; her mother was Elizabeth.  She was one of eight children. 

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?

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?

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.

106, 107, 108. The Colemans

I have four (well, three*) students in my dissertation appendix named "Coleman":

H. Coleman who was only at the school in late 1818, right before the school was sold.

Louisiana Coleman, of Richmond VA, who attended for both sessions of 1817 and may have had a "John W. Pleasants" attached to her account.

Margaret M. Coleman attended both sessions of 1813, and was connected to a Col. H. E. Coleman.

Maria Coleman attended for six sessions, mid-1815 through mid-1818, and was also connected to a Col. H. E. Coleman. 

 *(It turns out that H. Coleman is really Maria Coleman again--see below.)

The main mentions of these Colemans in the Mordecai papers seems to be in the ledger:  Col. Coleman paying for music and French in July 1813 (so that's for Margaret),  "John W. Pleasants for Miss Coleman" in January 1817 (so that's Louisiana), "Col H E Coleman, Miss Maria" in January 1818, etc.  There was a bill paid to a shoemaker, for boots for a group of girls including "M Coleman," in March 1818.   The family also knew a Dr. Coleman in Warrenton, who may have been kin to these girls, but there are no mentions of daughters or nieces of his at the school.

Louisiana Coleman's unusual first name makes her a good place to start.  Louisiana Coleman (1804-1883) was the youngest daughter of Maj. Samuel Coleman (1755-1811) and Susannah Pleasants Storrs, of Henrico County, Virginia.  Her unusual first name was part of her family's pattern--she had among her older sisters "Araminta" and "Emmeline."  Her father died in 1811, so the John W. Pleasants who covered her bills might have been a maternal relative.  She married John Newton Gordon (1793-1870) in 1823, and they had eight children who all lived to adulthood:  Susanna, James, Amelia, Mary, Maria, Ann, John, and Edward (guess she didn't inherit her parents' fancy for offbeat names.)

Col. Henry Embry Coleman (1768-1837) turns out to have been a prominent figure.  Among other roles, he was on the jury that tried Aaron Burr for treason in Richmond in 1807.  His house, Woodlawn, was in Halifax County on the Staunton River, near John Randolph's plantation.  He and Anne "Nancy" Gordon (d. 1824; not a sister to the John Newton Gordon above, but maybe not a distant relative either) married in 1795, had twelve children; their eldest daughter Elizabeth married Charles Baskerville, whose sisters Mary and Ann Baskerville attended the Mordecai school.

Second daughter Margaret Murray Coleman (1798-1869) was probably the Mordecai student Margaret M. Coleman.   She was fourteen when she arrived at the Mordecai school for a year of education.  She married in 1821 to Richard Logan (1792-1869) of Halifax County, a lawyer and member of the Virginia legislature.  They had seven children; Margaret's son Richard died at Gettysburg.  She died just six months after becoming a widow, and is buried in Halifax County. 

Henrietta Maria Coleman was the fifth child, third daughter in the family--so "H. Coleman" and "Maria Coleman" in the rolls were, indeed, very likely the same person.  She was born 1803, attended the school from 1815-1818 (ages 11-15), and married in 1834, to Rev. John Thomas Clark of Halifax County.  They lived at Chester VA (this house seems to have been Rev. John's), and had three children.  She died in 1844, age 40.

101, 102, 103, 104, 105. The Cohens

There were five students named Cohen in the Mordecai rolls:

Cornelia Cohen (1805-1886) was a student at the school for five years, from early 1814 to the end of 1818.  Her parent was Mordecai Cohen, in Charleston SC.

David Cohen (1802-1860) was a student at the school for three sessions, mid-1815 to the end of 1816.  He was also from Charleston, also one of Mordecai Cohen's children.

Eleanor Cohen (c1803-1871) was a student at the school for three years, early 1814 to the end of 1816.  She was from Georgetown SC, daughter of Solomon Cohen.

Lucretia Cohen (1807-1888) was a student at the school for two years, 1817-1818.  She was from Charleston SC, another child of Mordecai Cohen.

Henrietta Cohen (1799-1886) was a student at the school for on year, 1814 (both sessions).  She was from Georgetown SC, daughter of Solomon Cohen.

A few things jump out from that list.  First, I already have the birth and death dates for all these students--unlike most students covered so far here at the blog.  Southern Jewish family history is quite well documented, and the Mordecais would have known more about the lives of these students (through their mutual networks) than about most of their farflung alumnae.    Second, we have two families represented--the children of Mordecai Cohen of Charleston, and the children of Solomon Cohen of Georgetown.

The Cohens appear throughout the Mordecai's ledger from 1814 to 1818; there's a mention of a Mr. Gregg being paid for Henrietta's travel expenses in 1814; David Cohen apparently boarded with Dr. Gloster in town.  They're also featured in family correspondence:  Rachel reports to Samuel that "Today Mr. Myers leaves George Town with his daughter & two of Mr. Cohen's, who in a letter yesterday morning informed papa that the indisposition of one of the children had prevented their being with us earlier.  I hope your next will tell us that the other two have changed their mind." (15 May 1814, in the Mordecai Family Papers, Southern Historical Collection)  A somewhat longer report came the next week: 

 Last night Mr. Cohen, who left his little girl here, as he passed through to carry his son to Mr. Girardins paid us a late & unexpected visit.  Today he dined here, he is one of the witty Familikin sort.  The other two Miss C's are not his daughters, the eldest is as I told you before handsome enough and a very charming girl -- she is only to remain 6 months at school and then, take my advice, and turn thy face to the south, wifeless brother of Rachel, look on those eyes of blue, that smile of ingenuous sweetness, and resign thy heart a willing captive. (same correspondents, 29 May 1814, Mordecai Family Papers)

Note that in 1814, Henrietta Cohen turned 15 years old.  Further speculation on Henrietta's marriage plans followed a couple years later:  "I believe that Mr. Cohen is going on a fruitless expedition," confided Julia in a letter to Samuel, "for it is said that Henrietta is engaged to a cousin of hers, Mr. Mordecai Myers."  (30 October 1816, Mordecai Family Papers) 

The Mordecais certainly had ongoing connections with these students, past school days.  In 1825, Ellen mentions that "Cornelia Cohen ...is to spend the winter here," with here being Warrenton (Ellen Mordecai to Solomon Mordecai, 7 December 1825, Jacob Mordecai Papers, Duke).  Julia Mordecai had a "commonplace book" (now in the Virginia Historical Society) with various details of family history, including the tidbit that Lucretia Cohen had eighteen babies born, with nine of them dying in infancy (p. 27).  David Cohen's engagement to a Miss Hart, and his marriage in 1830, are also subjects of discussion among the Mordecai siblings.


Because of all this discussion, I have married names and spouse names for all five Cohens, which makes tracking them down in the online genealogical resources pretty easy.

1.  The children of Mordecai Cohen and Leah Lazarus of Charleston:

David Daniel Cohen (1802-1860) married Mary Hart in 1830.  They had six children together.

Cornelia Cohen Lazarus (1805-1886) married her uncle Benjamin Dores Lazarus (1800-1875), brother-in-law of Rachel Mordecai's, in 1840, and had six children (five sons and a daughter, who all lived into adulthood) all born after her 35th birthday.  She was widowed in 1875, lost her son Albert to suicide in 1879, and died in 1886. 

Lucretia Cohen Mordecai (1807-1888) married Thomas Whitlock Mordecai, a nephew of Jacob Mordecai's.  They had eighteen children born, and half died in infancy.  Her youngest child, Thomas Moultrie Mordecai, was born when Lucretia was 48 years old.  (Her oldest son, also named Thomas, died in 1861, age 22, at Sullivan Island, a member of the Confederate army.) When Lucretia was 58, she was widowed.  Her surviving son Thomas was a successful Charleston attorney who remained close to his mother until her death at 81.   Here's a photo of her daughter Lucretia (1837-1922).

Note:  Mordecai Cohen was born in Poland.

2.  The children of Solomon Cohen and Belle Moses of Georgetown:

(Sarah) Henrietta Cohen Myers (1799-1886) married Mordecai Myers (1794-1865) in 1820, though they were rumored to be engaged as early as 1816.  They had twelve children born, most of whom lived into adulthood.  Henrietta was widowed in 1865, and died in 1886, age 87.  She is buried with her husband in Savannah GA.

Eleanor Cohen Lopez (c1803-1871) married Dr. Aaron Lopez (1800-1873) in 1818, and they had eleven children born.  She died in 1871, in Memphis TN, survived by her husband and at least one daughter.  

 
 

93.-94. Jane and Sarah Christmas

Two girls named Christmas are on the rolls for the Mordecai school. Jane Yancy Christmas is listed attending for three sessions, I think (1813a, and both 1815 sessions); Sarah Christmas is there for three other sessions, one overlapping with Jane (1812a, 1813b, 1815a).  Both have Lewis Christmas as the adult name attached to the account.

The Christmas family were locals in Warrenton; there is still a Christmas family historical house standing (barely) in town.  The Mordecais who stayed in the area mention the family's doings in their letters.  One hair-raising report finds a drunken "T. Christmas" chasing his wife through the streets with a stick, breaking down doors and signs, even beating a man in his rage, because Betsy Christmas danced with another man at a party.  (Caroline Mordecai Plunkett to Ellen Mordecai, 12 May 1826, Mordecai Family Papers, Southern Historical Collection; stay tuned, because Betsy Davis Christmas was a Mordecai alumna too--more on here in a few entries.)  A later letter indicates that this man's problems continued:  "Tom Christmas is out of jail, his mother & brother stood his securities." (Caroline Mordecai Plunkett to Ellen, 12 May 1828?, Jacob Mordecai Papers, Duke University)


Well, I can't complain about it being a common surname this time, but it's also not an easy name to google.  Nonetheless, because they're local and Warrenton isn't a big town, they're pretty easy to track down.


Jane Yancy Christmas (c1798-1820) was the daughter of Jane Yancey(1774-1845) and William Christmas (1766-1804); her mother remarried, so Jane also had a stepfather, Captain John Green (to make this family a little more complicated, John's first wife was William Christmas's sister, Martha). Jane was born and died in Warren Co., NC.  Her brother was Lewis Yancey Christmas.*  As their father had died by the time Jane and Sarah attended school, it makes sense that Lewis was the tuition payer in the school ledger. 

Her sister Sarah Christmas married John H. Marshall in 1818.  Sarah sometimes appears as Lucy D. Christmas in family histories, but with the nickname "Sally."  The names Lucy and Lewis could be confusing on siblings, and maybe she preferred a more distinctive sound?  She's "Sally D. Marshall" in a bit of 1820 paperwork about land.  I can't find a record of children or a death date for either Sally or John Marshall; they may have left the area.



*Lewis Y. Christmas freed a group of his slaves, acknowledged to be his own children and grandchildren, in his 1859 will, and left funds for them to be transported safely to a non-slave-holding state (or Mexico).  The will was contested by Lewis's white kin, but it was upheld in court.  The Christmas family, black and white, still has reunions that they call "Christmas in July"--here's a report from a recent gathering. 

78. Eliza Callagham

I have a student named Eliza Callagham (or Callaham, or possibly Callaghan or Callahan) on my Mordecai school roster, listed as being from Halifax VA, kin to James Callagham, attending the school just one session (the second half of 1815). James is shown in the ledger paying for Eliza's tuition in July 1815; otherwise I don't think the Callaghams appear in the Mordecai materials.

Seems like the name might also be Calliham... this family tree finds several spellings used interchangeably by Southern Callahams/Callihams in the 1700s and 1800s. That tree includes a James Callaham (b. c. 1773) who married a Mary "Polly Smith" in 1797, in Halifax Co., VA. That puts them just exactly in the right place and time to be the parents or at least guardians of this Mordecai student. Beyond that listing, the trail seems to run out--I can't find Eliza herself. But maybe someone else is more creative in their spelling and searching?

63. Mary Ann Elizabeth B. Bryan Isler (c1805-1860)

There was a student named Mary Eliza Bryan at the Mordecai school for two-and-a-half years, mid-1815 to the end of 1817. She may have been from Franklin Co., NC, and the adult attached to her account is called "Genl. Bryan." A William Burlingham also left money for M. Bryan, according to the school's ledger for October 1815. "M. Bryan" was among the students who used the services of a dentist in January 1816.

Looking to the online family history sources: Mary Ann Eliza B. Bryan was the oldest child of Joseph Hunter Bryan Jr. (1782-1839) and Sarah Burlingham; William Burlingham seems to have been her grandfather. Mary Eliza's father was in the War of 1812, and served in the North Carolina legislature, as a trustee at UNC, and finally as a Congressman from North Carolina. (His brother Henry was a congressman from Tennessee.) Joseph died in Tennessee.

Mary Eliza was born before 1808 in North Carolina, and died 13 February 1860 in St. Louis, Missouri. She had two much younger brothers, Joseph (b. c1815) and Elisha (b. c1824). Was she sent to the Mordecai school because there was (or would soon be) a new baby in the house in 1815? Mary Eliza married Dr. Jesse Isler (c1796-1865) in 1821 (she would have been about sixteen years old), in Granville County, NC, and they had at least five children, the last born in Tennessee.