Historic St. Peter’s Churchyard, Beaufort, SC

Two Wives and a Broken Gravestone

Antebellum South Carolina might almost be described as an Anglican preserve, socially and economically, if not always politically.

Chalmers Gaston Davidson, The Last Foray ¹

Catholic Beaufort

Located midway between the more cosmopolitan cities of Charleston and Savannah, Beaufort, South Carolina, today retains much of the small-town character that defined it before the Civil War. Most residents, slave and free, were professed Christians, primarily Episcopalian, though Baptists and Presbyterians were also well-represented.

When Catholic immigrant Michael O’ Connor (1798-1850) arrived in Beaufort from Cork, Ireland, in 1822, the just-established Catholic Diocese of Charleston (1820) spread out over 142,000 square miles and three states (SC,NC, and GA). “There were two churches, one in Charleston and one in Augusta, GA.; only six priests were available to serve the handful of scattered Catholics.” ² Despite living a significant distance from these parish churches, O’ Connor, a successful businessman and owner of the Bay Street Hotel, “made arrangements to have [M]ass said in his residence by diocesan priests who made regular visits to Beaufort, often arriving by steamer and stopping at O’ Connor’s wharf.” ³ Our 3rd great-grandfather Samuel C. Catherwood (ca. 1822-1873), also an Irish-Catholic immigrant, arrived in the United States as a teenager sometime before 1841 and settled in Beaufort then or shortly afterward. We know nothing about his parents or siblings (if any) but can picture Mr. O’ Connor and his family inviting young Samuel and the few other Catholics in town to their home chapel for feast days, sacraments, and Mass whenever a priest was available.

St. Peter’s Catholic Church and Graveyard

At his own expense, Michael O’ Connor built a simple church in early classical revival style where he and his fellow Catholics could gather. Upon completion, he deeded the church to the diocese, and it was dedicated by the bishop to the patronage of St. Peter in November 1846. It stands today beautifully restored to look much as it did at its dedication. It is the oldest Catholic church in Beaufort County and the 9th oldest in South Carolina.⁴ Adjoining the church is a small graveyard.

Ancestral Connections

In the November 1850 census, our Irish-Catholic ancestor Samuel is listed as a 25 year-old Beaufort druggist living with his 27 year-old wife Rosa Ann, 22 year-old Lydia Ann Mickler, 11 year-old Rosanna Clark, and 12 year-old J. Walker Jones, all but Samuel listed as South Carolina-born. At this point we know next to nothing of the two children then living in the household (“Free Inhabitants,” and thus not household slaves), and very little about Rosa Ann. We believe Lydia Ann Mickler is actually Lydia Ann Arden (1828-1882), Samuel’s second wife and our 3rd great-grandmother. Lydia is the oldest of four Arden girls whose mother Eve Mickler Arden (1803-1836) died when Lydia was eight. Did Lydia take her mother’s maiden name in a falling out with her widowed father, or is there another explanation? In any event, less than three months after the census was taken, a newspaper notice announced:

“OBITUARY: Departed this life on Friday, the 14th Inst., at Beaufort, S.C., Mrs. ROSA ANN, wife of Mr. SAMUEL C. CATHERWOOD, aged 31 years.” ⁵

Conflicting Family Facts and a Conspiracy Theory

Family histories state Samuel and Lydia subsequently married in April 1853, and their oldest child, our 2nd great-grandmother Elizabeth Jane Catherwood was possibly born later that same year or early in 1854, but we have no other supporting documentation. In fact, the August 1870 census lists Elizabeth Jane as 20 years old, not age 16 as the family histories would suggest. Facts in these censuses are self-reported, and thus rather unreliable (note also the discrepancy of Rosa Ann’s age in the census and obituary above). Another document lists Elizabeth Jane (Bell) as 49 years old when she passed away at home in October 1899, also supporting the earlier 1850 birth. This draws us back to the suspicious possibility that while druggist Samuel was living with the two women, Lydia’s oldest child was born shortly before his wife Rosa Ann died. Or perhaps the possibility that I watch too many TV detective shows.

A Gentler and More Probable Explanation

A less conspiratorial possibility is that Lydia was a young friend of Rosa Ann who found herself in trouble, as the saying goes, and was using her mother’s maiden name to minimize the shame to her family. The kindly couple may have taken her in only to have Rosa Ann die unexpectedly, leaving her widowed husband with the unwed mother whom he would eventually come to love and marry, raising her child Elizabeth as his own. This is more in keeping with the fact that Samuel and Lydia named their second girl (of six children) Rosa, likely in honor of his first wife. Additionally, in the 1860 census a 21 year-old Joseph W. Jones, perhaps the very same then-12 year-old J. Walker Jones that lived with the family in 1850, lives with a 60 year-old woman of a different last name in nearby Grahamville, SC with the notation “pauper and idiotic.” This would be additional proof that Samuel and Rosa were indeed a kindly couple who welcomed and nurtured needy people in the community.

A Lovely Churchyard, A Broken Gravestone

Samuel and Rosa Ann must have worshiped at St. Peter’s from 1846 through Rosa Ann’s death in 1851. The Ardens may have been Catholic as well, as Lydia’s father hailed from French-Catholic Louisiana, but in either case they raised their children Catholic, and despite numerous inter-faith marriages down through the years, at least this particular branch of their descendants remain so. Michael O’ Connor died in 1850. He, his wife Mary, and two of their children who died in infancy lie beneath a beautiful marble obelisk in St. Peter’s churchyard. Samuel purchased a large gravestone for Rosa Ann which, if upright at its placement, is now broken and lies atop her plot directly behind the church. It is a lovely site, behind a lovely church, in a lovely town.

Savannah, Georgia – A Lack of Memorials

Samuel, Lydia, and their children likely also worshiped at St. Peter’s until they moved to Savannah, Georgia, sometime between 1857 and 1860. When Samuel died in 1873, he was buried in Savannah’s Laurel Grove city cemetery. If a memorial stone was installed then it is gone today. We have been unable to find any burial records for his wife Lydia, who died in 1882. Interestingly, there is no burial record for their eldest child Elizabeth, but a newspaper funeral notice⁶ states she was buried at Savannah’s Bonaventure Cemetery, almost certainly in her husband’s Bell family plot in which there are once again no memorial stones. Is there some irony that Rosa Ann’ s gravesite is clearly marked, while the circumstances of her life and death remain vague? Or that the lives of Samuel, Lydia, and Elizabeth Jane are fairly well-documented while their memorials are lacking? For what it’s worth, the burial sites and stones for Samuel and Lydia’s other five children are well-marked and documented.

Getting There

Historic St. Peter’s Church is located at 710 Carteret Street, about four blocks south of Boundary Street, four blocks north of the Beaufort Arsenal and Visitor Center, and eight blocks north of the Woods Memorial Bridge to Lady’s Island.

¹ Davidson, Chalmers Gaston, The Last Foray: The South Carolina Planters of 1860: A Sociological Study © 1971 University of South Carolina Press, page 85

² “Our History, Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston,” https://charlestondiocese.org/about/our-history/

³ The Historic Beaufort Foundation Guide to Historic Homes and Places (Revised 10th Edition) © 2014 Historic Beaufort Foundation, page 86

⁴ St. Peter’s Parish History, https://www.stpetersbeaufort.org/parish-history

⁵ Savannah (GA) Morning News February 18, 1851

⁶ The (Savannah) Morning News October 9, 1899 pg. 2