Last updated 07/14/2011 01:30 PM
From "John Cathcart Family Newsletter," by Carole Cathcart Chun
The following information on the Cathcart family was extracted from notes compiled by Margaret Spencer form the writings of Barnette Miller Spencer, from replies to letters she wrote to various members of the family, and from information write for her at her request by her father, W.J. Miller, great-grandson of Hugh Cathcart (brother to our immigrant grandfather).
Margaret states: " a thorough study of this material will reveal some
contradictions .I have not been able to eliminate all of these. Some
contradictions and omissions I have been able to correct or supply by reference
to tombstones in Ebenezer Cemetery .All of the Cathcart family and all of the
Miller family, with the exception of the first Joseph Miller and his wife,
Elizabeth Stuart Miller, are buried in Ebenezer Cemetery .It is my understanding
that all of the Roddeys, up to the time of "Squire" John Roddey, are
buried at Neely's Creek; the others are buried in Laurelwood Cemetery, Rock
Hill, S. C.
We have no written record of the following but I would like to mention it here. Barnette Miller Spencer said she recalled her father saying that the Millers could trace their ancestry back to Mary, Queen of Scots through Elizabeth Stuart Miller, wife of the first Joseph Miller. "
Selected comments from William J. Miller's notes:
"This is written at the request of my daughter, Barnette Miller. A sketch of our family and my recollections of things past and of my own life.
The Miller family came to America in 1783 from the north of Ireland, landed at Charleston, came to the up country and settled in York County, S.C., five miles east of Yorkville on land now owned by Cousin John Miller. Their names were Joseph Miller and Elizabeth (Stuart) Miller. They had two sons, John and Joseph, and one daughter, Elizabeth, who married Donald McLaren. They went to Mississippi. John married and settled on Fishing Creek. Had a mill on the creek at the ford where we cross going to Yorkville. Joseph, their second son, married Nancy Neely, who lived on Beaver Dam Creek, York County. Nancy's father first lived in Yorkville and kept a hotel, then called an Inn. Joseph and Nancy, his wife, settled near Joseph's father and they had eight children; Neely, Joseph, John, James, Robinson, Zillah, Rachel, and Elizabeth. Neely married Jane Berry; Joseph, Mary Cathcart; John, Jane Presley; James, Eugenia Walkup; Robinson, Jane Barnett; Zillah, (?) Carothers; Rachel, Wm. Boyce (?); Elizabeth, (?) Walkup.
Joseph Neely [should be Miller][1] and Mary Cathcart, my father and mother, after marrying in October of 1884, settled one mile south of our house. They were married by Rev. P. Bishop of the Presbyterian Church -- who was at that time pastor of Ebenezer, a great and good man. My father and mother had four children: W .J ., Mary Jane, Eugenia, and (?) who died at 16 years of age. I was born where we now live at Grandmother Cathcart's, but was raised at my father's old home until I was near 16 years old.
The Cathcart family came to this country in 1782; also landed at Charleston, S.C. There were three brothers that came with their families. John settled in Kershaw County; Joseph settled on (the) Catawba River in Lancaster County[2]; Hugh Cathcart (my great-grandfather) settled in York County about one mile south of our home on what was then part of the Catawba Indian Reservation. Parties of White settlers would rent from the Indians on long terms at very cheap rates. Some years after this the State Government, seeing that the Reservation's 40 miles square was being taken up by the White people, took the land back, all but a small area where the Indians now live on the Catawba River, and sold the land to the settlers and gave the Indian tribe $800 annually. Hugh Cathcart, bought the land he was living on from the State government and we still hold this same land and it was never owned by any other.
Hugh Cathcart and wife (whose name I have never been able to learn) had two sons and one daughter; William, Harvey, and Nancy. The Cathcarts came from Scotland, where they had lived in a small village near Glasgow. They were Covenanters in their church relations. (As should have been stated, the Miller family from Ireland were Associates, there being very little difference.)
Hugh Cathcart and son William were members of a Covenanter Church in Chester County on Rock Creek, there being no church of that faith nearer and attended very regularly for the distance. The Covenanter pastor of Rocky Creek Church would come up to the Cathcart home and preach and baptize the children. Only came in warm weather and then preached out in the grove in front of Hugh's or William's home.
William Cathcart, my grandfather, married Jane Black whose parents came from the State of Pennsylvania before the Revolutionary War and settled where the town of Rock Hill now stands.
William Cathcart and wife first settled where my father and mother lived, and lived there until 1837; then they moved up to where our house is. William inherited all of his (father's?) property, therefore came into possession of several Negroes. The whole Cathcart family, after owning Negroes, treated them more like children than slaves, and continued to do so as long as the Negro was in servitude to them, and taught them the Way of Salvation.
Harvey Cathcart, second son of Hugh Cathcart, studied medicine, graduated at Lexington, KY, in 1823, then settled where our home now is and had an extensive practice; never married, had an old aunt named Jane Williamson who lived with him. The doctor died in 1836.
Dr. Cathcart and brother William merchandised in a frame building that stood in the corner of our yard between the grindstone and the weeping willow tree. Doctor and brother made money, and the Doctor invested his in Negroes and William, his in land. The Covenanters were opposed to holding slaves. After Dr. Cathcart's death, his brother William inherited his property and moved up there in 1837 and died in 1844.
Hugh Cathcart's only daughter married a MI. Johnson and moved to or settled in New York City; I have never been able to learn any more of them.
William Cathcart's wife, Jane, had six children, three boys and three girls named: William, Harvey, James, Nancy, Mary, and Isabella. In 1863-4 [3] they had an epidemic of typhoid fever in the community and William Cathcart, the father, and his sons, William and Harvey, and daughter, Isabella, all four died, leaving Nancy the oldest daughter, who never married. I remember Aunt Nancy and Uncle James well. Both were good and kind. Nancy lived until 1902 during late war and died of typhoid fever .
Mary married Joseph Miller and was my mother. James, the youngest son, was never married. He was 25 years old when the Civil War came on, volunteered among the first and was in the 1st battle of Manassas, died the fall of 1861 in (the) hospital in Charlottesville, V A of typhoid fever .
All of the members of both families up to this date succeeded well in life, were good citizens, all members of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, which was formed by union of the Covenanter and Associate churches. There was one preacher, Rev. John Miller, and two doctors, James Miller, and Harvey Cathcart.
My uncle William Cathcart was prepared to enter college when he died and it was his aim to enter the ministry of the Covenanter Church.
My father and mother, as already stated, were married in the Fall of 1844. They settled one mile south of our home, the old or first home of my grandfather Cathcart. I was born August 12, 1845 at where we now live. My Grandmother Jane Cathcart was living there then. Grandmother Cathcart died in 1835; had long been an invalid. She was a good woman, kind and gentle. The fact of Grandmother being an invalid for years is why Nancy, Mother's eldest sister, never married; staid at home to be with her mother. "
William J. Miller goes on to describe his school days, how he left school to enlist for the Civil War at age fifteen, and some of his combat experiences during the War. (Robert: Wm was on Hilton Head Island, October 1861, when a Yankee fleet of gun boats with troops landed and captured the fort where he was in training.)
-----------------------------
1. I believe this should be Miller,
perhaps Neely was his middle name
2. In another source, William's daughter (Bernadette) has John settling in Lancaster. (See Simmons, p. 7: letter 6/24/1920, by Bernadette Miller Spencer: "Three brothers with their families came to this country in 1783 and landed in Charleston, SC. John settled on the Catawba River in Lancaster County.")
3. This should be 1834-1844. The 1863-4 dates contradict the death date in this same letter, and other sources which confirm William Sr.'s death date in 1844.
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Last updated 07/14/2011 01:30 PM