She was said to have been born on a Georgia plantation on 19 March 1848, 12-13 years prior to the Civil War of 1861-5. 1848 agrees with the census data from 1870, 1880, 1910, and 1920, but the exact date and place in Georgia are unknown. Her father and mother were married on 26 Jan 1843 in Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia, where her widowed grandmother, Jane Ringland Eve lived in the 1840 census. Her older sister Harriet Emma was born 4 March 1846 in Alabama. 260 However, Harriet Emma, Sarah Laura and William Perry were baptized together on 25 June 1854 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Augusta, Georgia. In the 1860 census she lived in Marietta, Georgia with her father, John S. Wright, her mother Mary Isabelle Wright, her widowed grandmother Jane Martin Eve, and her spinster aunt, Emma Henrietta Eve. During the Civil War of 1861-5 they all lived in Marietta, "a pleasant and growing village containing about 1500 inhabitants in 1853” probably on a plantation at the foot of Little Kennesaw Mountain . In a 21 Mar 1863 letter to his daughter Sally in Marietta, her father indicates that she is the third youngest child, that he had been in Havana, Cuba for 2 months , has had a bout of fever, and plans to return to the family in May, 1864. In his 4 May 1864 letter to his daughter Sally in Marietta he indicates he is in the Confederate service and boarding on a plantation in Quincy, Florida . He is establishing a fishing business to supply food for the Confederacy. She had a cart pulled by a goat. She was taught by tutors and on 21 Mar 1863 was studying Latin and French in Marietta. She was a favorite of Mrs. Varina Howell Davis, a family friend. The family plantation in Marietta was one of the first bonfires made by General Sherman on his march to the sea of 1864. Sherman destroyed Atlanta, but spared Savannah, where they are thought to have gone to live with "Uncle John". Though the plantation home in Marietta was gone they still cultivated part of the land, and kept enough people to work it. . Her whereabouts are unknown from 1864 in Marietta until she appears with her family in Augusta, Georgia in 1867, when they are confirmed members of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. 347She may have been with her family with John? in Savannah. On 5 April 1868 her brother, William Derry Wright, was confirmed a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Augusta, Georgia . 266 At age 24 she married her father’s friend, Dr. T. Stanly Beckwith who was almost 60. The marriage was performed on 27 June 1872 before friends and family of the bride at her father's home at 89 Reynolds Street by W. H. Clarke of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Augusta, Georgia.347 . The 23 June 1874 edition of the Macon, Georgia newspaper mentions that “Mrs. T. S. Beckwith won the prize for the best dozen hot rolls at the Bibb County Agricultural Fair.” 326In 1872 her father is a bookkeeper with Claghorn, Herring & Co. and from 1872-1879 they live at 89 Reynolds, Augusta, Georgia. From 1880-2 he resides at 1024 Reynolds Street, Augusta, Georgia. From 1879-82 her father is a member of the firm Wright & Crane , cotton factors, with offices at 7 Warren Block, 192 Eighth, Augusta. During the 1 June 1880 census Sarah Laura Beckwith lived with her father John Wright her mother Mary Isabelle , her aunt Emma Henrietta Eve , her single sister Louisa , and her daughter May , , at 1024 Reynolds Street, Augusta, GA There were two black female servants. Mahala Bettes was 30, widowed or divorced, cannot read or write and was born in South Carolina. Laura Bennister was 23, single, can read and write and was born in Georgia. Her father died in Augusta on 19 October 1882. A 16 Jan 1887 letter from Mrs. Jefferson Davis notes that Sarah Laura had a pleasant visit to Cincinnati. A 7 Jan 1890 letter from Mrs. Jefferson Davis is sent to Sallie at Marietta, Georgia. As a widow Sarah Laura learned shorthand, typing and Spanish. In 1892 at age 44, Mrs. S. L. Beckwith, . arrives alone in Savannah, and resides with J. H. Redding at 161 Liberty . She hires a teacher to learn Spanish. In 1893 Miss Mary I. Beckwith, , and Mrs. Mary J. Wright, widow of J. S., arrive and board with Mrs. Sarah L. Beckwith with E. B. Whitehurst, 94 York . In 1894 all 3 live at the residence of Mrs. S. L. Beckwith, 84 East State Miss Mary I. is now a steno for Bradstreet Co. In 1895 Miss Mary I. Beckwith and Mrs. Sarah Beckwith still reside 84 East State . Mrs. Mary J. Wright is not listed in the 1895, 1896, 1897 City Directories. In 1896 Mary I. Beckwith and Mrs. Sarah L. Beckwith board with Mrs. C. W. Curtis, 57 Whitaker. In 1897 they both board with W. B. Harley, 213 Liberty West. In 1898 Mary I. Beckwith and Mrs. Sarah L. Beckwith board with Mrs. M. R. Wright, widow of J. S. Wright, at 703 Barnard. In 1899 Mary I. Beckwith, and M. R. Wright board with Mrs. Sarah Beckwith , at 703 Barnard. In 1899 Sarah Laura Beckwith and her daughter Mary Isabel Beckwith moved to Santiago, Cuba, leaving M. R. Wright to reside with her sister, Mrs. Harriet E. Root at 198 West Hall. General Leonard Wood had advertised for a secretary with foreign language skills when he was in charge of the City of and Governor of the Province of Santiago, Cuba . Sarah Laura applied as S. L. Beckwith. When she interviewed General Wood was surprised that she was a woman, but hired her. She moved to Santiago, then Havana, Cuba in 1899 during the administration of General Leonard Wood, M.D. as Military Governor of Cuba, and had her office in the oldest building in Havana, the old fortress of La Fuerza, erected in 1538. She lived in Havana, except on Sundays and holidays when she went to her quarters at the Army barracks nine miles from Havana, to be with her daughter, Mary Isabel and son in law, Arnold Edwin Moody. She was a "stenographer”..."a working women...and offer no apology for using the typewriter, as the machine is second nature to me now” Her letter is typed, articulate, and with a large vocabulary. She started studying Spanish in 1892 in Savannah, used it in her work and had many Cuban friends. She would not go with General Wood from Cuba to the Philippines when the troops were withdrawn in May, 1901, and instead she moved to Washington, D.C. She lived in Washington, D.C. while visiting Rev. A. E. and Mrs. Moody at Aledo, Illinois in 1909. On the 1920 census of the District of Columbia, she is a roomer with the Mr. Johnson Elliot Moran and his mother at 164x Newton Street. She is a 71 year old clerk in the War Department, widowed, with both of her parents born in Georgia. 196This is the only District of Columbus census in which she appears. S. L. Beckwith worked for the War Department, Bureau of Insular Affairs in Washington in November 1921. She lived and worked in Washington, D.C. until in her 80th year. She never remarried, and lived by herself in a room, spending her last 20 years in a wheelchair. She spoke five languages and read Braille. She holds the highest decoration that the Red Cross gives for service during the war. She was the compiler of the first French-English Braille dictionary so that a former serviceman blinded by gas could study a foreign language. She translated Zane Grey books into Braille. She translated "Partners” 2 volumes by Margaret Deland into revised Braille for the Library of Congress in 1922.210 She held an international certificate for instruction of the blind. She was a translator for the War Department for 20 years and when eligible for retirement she was held over for service on the special application of the Secretary of War, the first woman held over after retirement.47 She was a Perpetual Member of Methodist Home Board, Washington, D. C.. She visited her daughter’s family at the parsonages once a year for several weeks. She moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma to live with Mary Isabel and Arnold Moody about 1926 and died in the music room of the parsonage in Muskogee, Oklahoma on 5 August 1927. Her funeral was held on Friday, 8 August, at their home, 515 North Thirteenth Street in Muskogee with the Rev. A. N. Hall? of the First Baptist Church, officiating. Street-Eicholtz were the funeral directors. 257 She is buried under the name Sarah L. Beckwith in Green Hill Cemetery, 1500 North York, Muskogee 74403.761

Death certificate

“Thomas Beckwith was my grandfather”, in memoirs written by Mary Izabel Beckwith Moody.

The tragic and acrimonious Ruffin-Beckwith feud: The object of Edmund Ruffin's particular disapproval was T. Stanly Beckwith, a Petersburg physician who had married Ruffin's daughter Agnes in 1838. Ruffin always had at least one unkind word for his son-in-law.."spendthrift" and worthless", "wasteful and spendthrift", "lazy and heedless of the future", Ruffin grumbled. It was true that Beckwith was forever in debt and that he had a talent for antagonizing those he depended on. In 1846, Beckwith and his father engaged in a suicidal dispute with the Petersburg Medical Faculty, a group of regular physicians who, like physicians elsewhere had recently organized to define and combat quackery. High on the Medical Faculty's new list of unethical practices was the promotion of "secret Nostrums". The Beckwiths meantime had made a considerable investment in the production and sale of Beckwith's Anti-dyspeptic Pills, and they saw the Medical Faculty's code of ethics as a mere pretext for driving out competitors. The Beckwiths stood their ground and took the dreary consequences. Consultations were refused, and patients grew fainthearted. Creditors closed in, and the Beckwith's furniture, evidently a gift from Edmund Ruffin, was sacrificed to pay them. On the 31 July 1850 United States census of rural Prince George County, Virginia he is 37 with real estate valued at $1950 and lived with Agnes, 33, and their oldest six children who were all born in Virginia. Very close to them lived the Edmond Ruffin family. 413 In the 4 Aug 1860 census of Petersburg, Virginia, T. Stanly Beckwith was a physician, 47, living with Agnes, age 42, Julian, age 21 and a clerk, Margaret, age 17, Thomas, age 16, Susan, age 13, twins Edmund and John age 15, Agnes, age 12, Charles, age 10, Mildred, age 5 and Catharine, age 3. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Petersburg Evangelical Tract Society organized on 18 Jul 1861 to supply religious reading material to the forces of the Confederacy. The siege of Petersburg began on 15 June 1864 and lasted 292 days, until on the night of 2 April 1865 Lee evacuated Petersburg. Petersburg suffered extensive damage from shelling.

Over the next four years, Petersburg's citizens watched their once-beautiful city become first a conduit for transient soldiers from the Deep South, then an armed camp, and finally the focus of one of the Civil War's most protracted and damaging campaigns. At war's end, Petersburg's antebellum prosperity evaporated under pressures from inflation, chronic shortages, and the extensive damage done by Union artillery shells. Agnes Ruffin died on 18 November 1865.

Between 1860 and 1870 he moved with his son John to Georgia. On the 1870 census of Petersburg, Virginia, Thomas, 27, his wife Emma, 26, Edmund, 26, Margaret, 28, Susan, 24, Agnes, 22, Charles, 19, Mildred, 17 and Kate 13, live together with John Carey, 24, and domestic servants in Ward 3, Petersburg. Their mother is deceased and their father and brother John are not living with them.490 No Thomas Stanly Beckwith or son John can be found in any state on the 1870 US Census, but in 1870 Dr. T. Stanly Beckwith's brother, Rev. John Watrous Beckwith lived with his family in Macon, Georgia and was the Episcopal Bishop of Georgia.491 On 5 April 1868 Bishop Beckwith confirmed members of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Augusta, including William Derry Wright, son of John Stephen Wright. The John Stephen Wright family were members of St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Augusta, and probably met Dr. T. Stanly Beckwith through Bishop Beckwith. The 14 March 1871 edition of the Daily Columbus Enquirer contains an advertisement for T. Stanly Beckwith and Son, General Agents for the Piedmont and Arlington Life Insurance Company of Virginia. Dr. John Beckwith and Mrs. John S. Beckwith are registered as communicants at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Macon on 7 May 1871. In October 1871 his son John married C. E. Edwards in Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia. The 1872 Haddock’s Macon, Georgia directory lists the address for T. Stanly Beckwith and Son as 92 Mulberry. T. Stanly Beckwith lives on High between Spring and Orange and his son John Beckwith lives on Mulberry between Spring and New. 497 The 23 June 1874 edition of the Macon, Georgia newspaper mentions that “Mrs. T. S. Beckwith won the prize for the best dozen hot rolls at the Bibb County Agricultural Fair.” The 17 August 1875 Macon, Georgia Weekly Telegraph refers to “Dr. Thomas Beckwith, the best optician of his day, and the father of T. Stanly Beckwith, of this city, and of Bishop J. W. Beckwith, of Savannah”. In the 28 December 1875 issue of the Georgia Weekly Telegraph “Dr. T. Stanly Beckwith offers his professional services to the citizens of Macon. With the experience of more than thirty years in city practice, he feels confident he can do justice to those placed under his charge. Slate at Hunt, Rankin & Lamar’s retail drug store, corner 73 Cherry Street, or may be found at his residence, corner of Bond and College Streets.”

Between 1875 and 1880 T. Stanly Beckwith left Macon, Georgia as in the 1880 U. S. Census for Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, T. Stanly Beckwith lives at 14 Long Market Street, is a widower and a physician, age 67, who was born in Virginia and whose parents were both born in Virginia. Living with him are M. S. Beckwith, a single daughter age 37 who keeps house, Mildred Beckwith, a single daughter age 26 who is at home, Kate R. Beckwith, a single 21 year old daughter who is at home, and two black servants, Ann Fields, age 24, and Henry Worsham, age 21. Next door at 12 North Market Street live the T. S. Beckwith, Jr., family.326 Mr. and Mrs. John S. Beckwith had left Macon, Georgia by 1873 as their first child died in Augusta, Georgia in 1873. By 1875 they had returned to Petersburg as their son was born there that year. In 1880 John S. Beckwith is 34, a bank clerk and lives at 150 Jefferson Street, West Side, Petersburg, Virginia with his wife C. E. who is age 27 and born in South Carolina, John Q., age five and born in Virginia and Catherine W., age one and born in Virginia. 122 The 24 August 1884 edition of the Macon, Georgia, Telegraph and Messenger quotes Petersburg, Virginia, August 23 that “ Dr. Stanly Beckwith, one of the oldest physicians in this state, died at his residence in this city last night, from protracted illness. He was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, May 16, 1813, where he was engaged in the drug business for several years. He graduated in medicine at Philadelphia and came to Petersburg in 1837 and commenced to practice his profession, where he has resided ever since, with the exception of a few years residence in Georgia. The deceased was the elder brother of the Rt. Rev. John Beckwith, Episcopal Bishop of Georgia”
Dr. T. Stanly Beckwith's wife Agnes had died in 1865, 19 years before T. Stanly Beckwith’s death. At the time of his death on 22 August 1884 he was 72 years, 3 months and 6 days of age, married , and he lived at 14 North Market Street. He died of asthma.518

“Looking for the Resurrection” 520

Did he return to Petersburg at the end of Reconstruction in 1877?

Was he born in Raleigh, or in Halifax as stated in the Death Register? The informant for the Death Register was not of his family, so is suspect. 518
I need his will and land records, etc.

No Thomas Stanly Beckwith or variant can be found on the 1870 US Census on Heritage Quest or Ancestry, Military Records.
Check Film #M230 roll 3 , M376 roll 2 , M376 roll 2 , M380 roll 1 ....from www.civilwar.nps.gov

There are four Beckwith families in Dinwiddie County in 1880:
John Beckwith C. E. Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1846 Virginia Self
is a bank clerk and lives at 150 Jefferson Street?
C. E. Beckwith John Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1853 South Carolina Wife
John Q. Beckwith John C. E. Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1875 Virginia Son
Catherine L. Beckwith John, C. E. Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1879 Virginia Daughter

T. S. Beckwith Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1813 Virginia Self
is a widowed physician and lives at 14 Long Market Street? He had two black servants.
M. S. Beckwith T. S. Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1843 Virginia Daughter
Meldred R. Beckwith T. S. Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1854 Virginia Daughter
Kate R. Beckwith T. S. Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1859 Virginia Daughter

T. S. Beckwith C. Emma Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1843 Virginia Self
works in a books store and lives at 12 Long Market Street?
C. Emma Beckwith T. S. Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1843 Virginia Wife
S. Cary Beckwith T. S. C. Emma Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1871 Virginia Son
J. Ruffin Beckwith T. S. C. Emma Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1873 Virginia Son
T. Stanley Beckwith T. S. C. Emma Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1876 Virginia Son
Emma Beckwith T. S. C. Emma Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1876 Virginia Daughter
E. R. Beckwith Mary J. Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1845 Virginia Self
is an apothecary and lives at 127 Halifax Street, at the intersection with Long Market Street.
Mary J. Beckwith E. R. Petersburg, Dinwiddie, VA abt 1850 North Carolina Wife

18 September 2008

David,

Thank you for the patience you have shown regarding the further research on Thomas Beckwith.

I have finally made the trip to Petersburg. I reexamined the index to probates and intestate settlements in the courthouse and confirmed there was no listing for either a will or intestate settlement for Thomas. While that would be quite definitive for a probate, it would not necessarily be so for an intestate settlement. I have seen instances where there was no mention of an intestate settlement in the will books simply because the estate was too small for the administrator to be required either to post a bond or file a report with the court, but that mention of the estate was nonetheless made in the court order/minute book. These books are actually what the title suggests, a diary of sort of what occurs in the Court. Generally speaking a minute book will be created at the time of the event and sometimes even written in a type of shorthand, while order books are created afterward and contain more detail, though rarely the kind of detail that the records to which mention is made. Though the books I examined were more in the "style" of an order book, they were labeled "minute book".

I was perhaps fortunate that when the clerk assisting me was unable to find one of the books I needed, she invited me into the record room to help in the search, the fact there was a sign on the door "Authorized Personnel ONLY", but then I have often been able, even without asking, to get access to records I need because I try to treat the clerks with whom I deal in the same manner I would want to be treated.

These minute books did have indexes, but my experience in working with such books is that the indexes are rarely as detailed as I would like so I decided to read through them. I am familiar enough with such records that going through nearly 200 pages of records took me less than 90 minutes because the clerk's writing was quite legible, he had left a space between each entry, and with about 90% of the entries, it was possible to determine both what was the nature of the entry and who the parties involved were within the first two to three lines of the same. I started with August, 1884, the month that Thomas died, and read through June, 1885, as state law required an estate begin administration within 9 months of the death and it was not uncommon for the Sheriff or some other officer of the Court to be ordered to undertake an administration when no one came forward to do so voluntarily. A surviving widow has the first right to administer her husband's estate, but given that she was living in Georgia, it would not have been practical for her to do so. I had hoped to find an order noting that she had waived that right in favor of one of her step-sons, but I found nothing at all, suggesting that the estate was too small to pop up "on the radar".

What I did find was a criminal indictment of one of Thomas' sons for embezzlement at a bank at which he worked which was subsequently dropped for what I suspect was lack of evidence sufficient for the same to go to trial--the specific language used was "false bill". I inquired about getting a copy of the same in the event you might be interested and was told that due to the condition of the record, the Court no longer made copies but that I could photograph the same with a digital camera if I wished. I had not brought the same into the Courthouse with me because I had not expected to have that volunteered to me as an option, so I went out to my car to get the camera and my tripod. I took photos of both the full pages and close ups of portions of each page as I am not as adept using the camera as I would like and thus figured that if the full pages were to indistinct to read when enlarged, there would always be the portions that were photographed at a higher resolution/size, which I could even piece together with one of my graphics editing programs. I've not yet done so as I wanted to make certain you would actually want the images.

There is nothing further due unless you would wish me either to continue with this research or have other work you would want done, and even then, I would not require a deposit toward the same from you, merely an indication of how much time you would want me to put in on the same and how long I would have to report the results to you.

Michael E. Pollock
Anquestory Genealogical Research Services
Mechanicsville, VA

Rev. W. H. Clarke was Assistant Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church from at least 1862 until his death in 1877. So it was a religious, not a civil marriage, but not at the church. Unfortunately the Augusta Chronicle's web site functions very poorly, and I will not try it again.