Mary Ann Caughlan

Photograph courtesy of Roger Louis

 

Chronology For Mary Ann Caughlan

 

 

Mary Ann Caughlan was born in 1821 in Buckingham County Virginia to John O. Caughlan and Sarah Murray Byrd (Childers) Caughlan.

 

In the 1830 Federal Census there is a John Caughlin in Scioto County Ohio that lists a family with on male 40 and under 50, one female 40 and under 50, one child 5 to 10, and one child under 5. This could be our John Caughlan family

 

According to several Caughlan letter, Mary Ann moved to St. Louis in 1835 with her family. She would have been 14 at the time.

 

On September 14, 1837, at the age of 16, Mary Ann married Samuel B Miller in St. Louis Missouri.

 

In 1838, Mary Ann’s son, John Miller, was born in St. Louis Missouri.

 

On 15, April 1844 their daughter, Sarah Ellen Miller (Sallie) is born in St. Louis Missouri.

 

In 1849 tragedy occurs in her life in when her husband Samuel died on the Ohio River while traveling on a river boat of cholera on this return trip his mother in Gettysburg Pennsylvania. Because cholera was thought to be so contagious it was often the custom of the time to bury people at once in the river who had contagious diseases.

We have conflicting information as to the exact date of his death. One source, Mary Rickards letter, puts his death in 1849. Others put his death before 1846 because there is no mention of Samuel in the August 1946 newspaper article concerning their son’s  John Miller drowning.

 

Mary Ann’s son, John Miller, drowned in the Mississippi River at St. Louis in 1846 at the age of 8. According to Elizabeth Betz Rickards, he wandered down to the river with a group of children and was drowned. An article in the St Louis Missouri Republican, August 29, 1846 reads:” A boy, about ten years of age, named John Miller was drowned yesterday, from one of the flat boats at the wharf. His body was not recovered. He was the son of Mrs. Samuel Miller of Olive Street.”

 

After the death of her husband Mary Ann and Sallie move in with Sarah at the Sarah’s boarding house in St. Louis.

 

When Mary Ann was 26 years old her father, John O. Caughlan died on 14 December 1847.

 

In the 1850 Federal Census we find Mary Ann, Sallie, Adam, and Daniel living with there mother, Sarah, at the boarding house, Also living at the boarding house is Jacob Thomas Kendall.

 

In 1851 Mary Ann married Jacob Thomas Kendall in St. Louis Missouri.

 

“In 1853, Jacob Kendall, and his partner Mr. Raymond attempted to cross the plains to California, but gave it up after seeing many abandoned wagons and bleaching bones and lack of water for man and beast caused them to return to St. Louis. The following year, in 1854, they went to San Francisco to go into the general contracting building, via New York.”

 “Mrs. Kendall and daughter Sallie followed sometime later.”

“They went to Baltimore to visit the Caughlan sisters Mrs. Lanahan and Picketts. They then went to New York and visited the Crystal Palace where the foreign countries exhibited products for the first time in this country. They sailed from New York in the fall and were out of sight of land for 2 days. They navigated the Chagris in boats propelled by natives who poled the boats by pushing from side to side. A old lady Grandmother Taylor wanted to see the natives and upon being to come out and see them exclaimed “Why where are their tails” Captain John Sherman (brother of William Techumsa Sherman) and his wife were passengers also. They crossed the Isthmus of Panama on burros then took about on the Pacific to San Francisco.”

According to an August 5, 1857 letter written by Sarah Caughlan to John Wesley, her brother, Mary Ann was still in San Francisco at the time of the letter and doesn’t like it there. Also in this letter, Sarah tells John that Mary Ann’s mother-in-law has recently passed away.

The Kendall’s returned to St. Louis 1859 via the Isthmus of Panama and embarked on Star of the West for New York. It was the ill-fated steamer that was fired upon at Ft. Sumter in 1861.

J. T. Kendall was a stair builder by trade and made inside furnishing a specialty. He started up a business in St. Louis.

From letters we know they lived in the St. Louis area during the Civil War.

The 1860 Missouri Census finds the Kendall’s living in St. Louis. Living with them is her mother Sarah, and her brother Adam and his wife, Mary and their son John.

On December 15, 1869 we find Sarah Miller (Sallie) in Kansas City, Jackson County Missouri when she marries Captain Joseph H. Rickards. Joseph Rickards was interested in many projects. He, farmed, bought and sold Texas cattle, owned a lumberyard, became sheriff of Clay County, Missouri, and studied law. Together they have three children, Paul, Mary, and Frances.

The 1870 Census finds Sallie and Captain Richards farming and living in Liberty, Clay County, Missouri.

In 1874 or 75 he sold his holdings in Clay County Missouri and moved to Centralia, Marion County, Illinois. He bought a lovely farm of 260 acres planted in most part to meadow tho a young peach orchard ready for harvest captivated him and he purchased the farm. The peach crop that year had bear heavy and the market fine so that the new owner was happy in the prospect but alas the cold winter froze the young tender trees and the crop the following summer was a failure which was a disaster. J. T.

On 12 May 1875 Joseph Rickards died in Anna Illinois.

The above series of events are important to Mary Ann’s life because these events cause her and her husband Jacob to move to the farm to help Sallie and her three children work the farm. From Mary Rickards letter, we know they struggled to learn how to farm – where to plow and where to plant what sort of seed to buy and how much to plant to the acre. They eventually lose the farm. Mary Ann and Jacob must have had strong family values to help Sallie and her children so selflessly.

The 1880 Census we find Mary Ann and her husband, Jacob, living in Irvington, Washington County, Illinois with Sallie and their three grandchildren.

On March 7, 1898 Mary Ann’s husband Jacob dies in Centralia, Marion County, Illinois.

The 1900 Census finds Mary Ann still living in Centralia living with Sallie, and her grandchildren.

On November 27, 1906 Mary Ann died in Centralia, Illinois. She is buried at the Elmwood Cemetery in Centralia

 

 

 

 

Last Modified in April 12, 2005