James Petigrew Chartters

Marriage of William Chartters and Elizabeth Rogers (Wade Haney)

     Reverend Jeremiah Chandler (1749-1834) was ordained as a Baptist minister at North Pamunkey Baptist Church in Orange County in 1792.  During the course of his long ministry, Reverend Chandler presided at over 250 marriages at that church and at Piney Branch Baptist Church in Spotsylvania. Many of the those original marriage licenses, which were once kept in a saddle bag,  passed down through generations of the Haney family, his descendants. Shown above is one of those licenses, dated December 22, 1813. The following day Reverend Chandler officiated at the wedding of William Chartters and Elizabeth Rogers.
     Who exactly William Chartters and Elizabeth Rogers were and where did they come from remains a mystery to me. One researcher suggested that William's parents were from Scotland and that he was born at sea during their voyage to America. But I have not been able to verify that. For now at least, we will be content to know that they were married in Spotsylvania in 1813 and bought a great deal of land on the south side of the Ni River at Catharpin Road.

Map detail of Spotsylvania County, 1863 (Fold3.com)

     The map detail above shows the location of the Chartters property in 1863. On the north side of the Ni River was the farm of Nancy Young, shown above as "Young F.N" (Free Negro"). Nancy, her husband and their nine children were among Spotsylvania's community of free persons of color prior to the Civil War. Shown just to the east of the Chartters property is Laurel Hill, the home of the Couse family.
     William and Elizabeth Chartters had four sons, only two of whom survived to adulthood: James Petigrew, born January 27, 1816 and Thomas Rogers, born March 27, 1821. There is no known photograph of James. There is one of his brother.

Thomas Rogers Chartters (Ancestry.com)

     Each of the Chartters brothers married a member of the Chancellor family. James Petigrew Chartters married Susan Philips Chancellor on his birthday in 1836. Susan was a daughter of George Edward and Ann Lyon Chancellor of Chancellorsville. James and Susan had three children: Ann Elizabeth (1838-1916), Lucy Park (1841-1928) and Xanthus Xuthus (1844-1893). Xanthus was always referred to as 'X.X.' and that is what we will call him here.
     Thomas Rogers Chartters married Julia Decastro Chancellor,  the daughter of Sanford and Frances "Fannie" Pound Chancellor and also a cousin of Susan Philips Chancellor. Thomas and Julia were married at Forest Hall, the home of Julia's parents near Chancellorsville, on January 29, 1846. Thomas and Julia had five children; William Sanford (1847-1928), Thomas Elmore (1849-1884), Estelle May (1851-1896), Charles James (1853-1931) and John Rogers (1857-1924).

Julia Decastro Chancellor Chartters (Ancestry.com)

     William Chartters died about 1836. His property was passed on to his widow and two sons. After the death of Elizabeth Chartters (date unknown) James and Thomas became the owners of the land along the Ni River.
     By the early 1840's James and Susan and their children were living at Chancellorsville. James was appointed postmaster at that location in June 1845 and held that position until June 1851. The 1850 census shows James to be head of the household at Chancellorsville, where he worked as a farmer and tavern keeper. In addition to the Chartters family there was also living at Chancellorsville in 1850 Susan's mother Ann, her sister Ann Monroe Chancellor and her uncle James Lyon. Also living at Chancellorsville on September 14, 1850 were five guests, the "manager" (which probably meant the overseer of the 17 slaves who lived and worked there) and Vivian Quisenberry [1], the tavern clerk and deputy postmaster. James P. Chartters became the postmaster at nearby Dowdall's Tavern in 1857 and served in that post until that post office was closed in 1859 and its functions moved to Chancellorsville.

Chancellorsville (Robert Knox Sneden)

     Capitalizing on his experience managing the tavern at Chancellorsville, James tried his hand at running the U.S. Hotel in Fredericksburg in the early 1850's. While he was proprietor there it was called the Chartters Hotel.
     During the 1850's James was also a justice of the peace. He and Thomas were active in Democratic Party politics, and were selected to be among the delegates to attend the Democratic State Convention in Richmond in March 1852.

Richmond Enquirer 19 March 1852

      In 1844, Pennsylvania native Samuel King bought a 377-acre tract of land adjacent to the farm of William Couse near the old Piney Branch Baptist Church. This would be Samuel's home for the next 19 years. During that time he became well acquainted with the Couse, Chartters and Young families.
     Ann, the older daughter of James and Susan Chartters, married Samuel King on May 19, 1859. His farm became their new home. This happy state of affairs would not last long, however, as events conspired to turn their lives upside down.
     Ann's sister, Lucy, married New York native Charles B. Guy in a ceremony held in Orange County on February 18, 1860.  Like Samuel King, Charles was also not enthusiastic about the prospect of secession and the Guys would soon have their own problems as well.
     X.X. Chartters was making plans to attend the University of Virginia when Virginia seceded from the Union. Instead of completing his education, X.X. enlisted in Company C of the 30th Virginia Infantry on July 3, 1861. In December 1861, he was ordered to report to Captain John B. Burton, quartermaster officer at Brooke's Station in Stafford County. He later returned to his regiment and served ably for the duration of the war. Except for a three month stay at the General Hospital in Charlottesville due to chronic bronchitis, he seems to have avoided any real difficulty during the war. He was among those surrendered by General Lee at Appomattox on April 9, 1865
     Although they must have been in or near Spotsylvania on the eve of the Civil War, I have not been able to find James and Susan Chartters on the 1860 census. During the war, James worked in a civilian capacity for the Confederate quartermaster department. His work required extensive traveling in Virginia and in North and South Carolina. His earliest assignment that we know of was in Stafford where he was "superintending the repair of the military and public road from Brook Station to Evans Port." This work on the railroad near Aquia Landing was done under the supervision of Captain John B. Burton. It seems likely that James pulled some strings to have his son transferred to the safer realm of the quartermaster department. Shown below is James's receipt from Captain Burton for his work on the railroad, and a sketch of Evansport drawn by Private Samuel Sydney Gause, Jr., of the 1st Arkansas Infantry, Engineer Corps:

Payment for work done at Brooke's Station, December 1861

Railroad at Evansport (Tennessee Virtual Archive)

     James also found work at Brooke's Station for his friend and neighbor, Atwell Young:

Payment to Atwell Young from Captain Burton (Fold3.com)

     In May 1863, James was in charge of the Confederate army supplies at Hanover Court House. Five months later, he wrote a report from Abbeville, South Carolina, in which stated that the enemy "made a raid on Hanover C H Virginia and finding all the stores and property unprotected by any military force, succeeded in burning and destroying everything at the port that they could not carry off." James suffered the additional indignity of having "a bundle of papers consisting of a payroll and letters snatched from me by one of the raiders and consigned to the flames."

J.P. Chartters letter from Abbeville, October 1863 (Fold3.com)

     James was in South Carolina again during the summer of 1864 to oversee the shipment by rail of grain sacks and wagons to Abbeville. Enroute to their destination, the grain sacks were "damaged by fire from engine on road," which I assume means that sparks from the engine landed on the exposed sacks. Susan Chartters was paid $10 to repair the sacks.

Shipment of grain sacks and wagons to Abbeville, August 1864 (Fold3.com)

Susan Chartters repair of grain sacks, September 1864 (Fold3.com)

     Although I can find no record of Thomas Chartters's service in the Confederate army, he apparently served in Comapany E of the 7th Virginia Cavalry and died August 16, 1862. In 1939, Chancellor family member and historian George Harrison Sanford King ordered a headstone for Thomas and had it placed in the Chancellor family cemetery at Fairview.

Thomas Chartters (Dan Janzegers)

George H.S. King application for Thomas Chartters's headstone (Ancestry.com)

     But the Civil War was not done with the Chartters quite yet.
     Samuel and Ann Chartters King, their infant daughter, and the four daughters from Samuel's first marriage were living in Spotsylvania when Virginia seceded from the Union. Prior to the war, Samuel had been coerced into joining the Mercer Cavalry, the militia unit from whose membership Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry was formed. During the first year of the war, Samuel maintained his status in the militia. In the spring of 1862, Samuel and his fellow militia members were mustered into an enclosed space at the Fredericksburg fairgrounds. They were kept there for ten days in order to pressure them to enlist. James Harrow, who served with the artillery before transferring the the 9th Virginia Cavalry, told these men if they were conscripted instead of enlisting voluntarily, things would go hard for them.
     Samuel requested to see Colonel Brockenbrough to find out if he could be detailed to some other duty rather than active military service. He was assigned to gather tanbark for John Hurkamp's tannery in Fredericksburg, and then Samuel was dismissed and sent home.
     Samuel went home, but he did nothing in the way of providing tanbark for Mr. Hurkamp. John Harrow came to see Samuel and ordered him to report to Colonel Brockenbrough "immediately." Samuel disregarded this order, too. On the same day that Peter Couse and other Unionists were arrested by troopers of the 9th Cavalry--March 9, 1862--Samuel was seized and taken to Libby Prison in Richmond, where he stayed for three months. Through the intercession of his father-in-law, James Petigrew Chartters, he was finally released from prison after signing "some sort of oath." As his wife later testified, "When Mr. King came home he was very much emaciated and it was thought he could not live long our Physician said so. And it was three months more before he recovered sufficiently to be able to do anything."
     After the passage of the Conscription Act by the Confederate government in April 1862, Samuel and every other able-bodied man under the age of 45 was subject to being conscripted into the army. For much of 1862, Samuel was not able-bodied, but once he regained his strength, he was kept under surveillance by conscription officers, and he began to hide in the woods to avoid capture.
     One night during the summer of 1863, Samuel saddled his best horse and struck out for the Rappahannock River. He swam his horse across the river and then headed north to federally occupied Alexandria. Confederate cavalry picketing the river spotted him and gave chase, following him until they came dangerously close to Union lines. Samuel made it to Alexandria, but it would be a year before he saw Ann and his children again.
     Samuel spent the next three months at Fortress Monroe in Old Point Comfort, Virginia. He assisted the Union military by making a map of the country from Culpeper Court House to Richmond. After rendering this service to his country, Samuel moved to Baltimore.
     Ann Chartters King and the children carried on at their farm in Spotsylvania. They had the help of their friend and neighbor, Atwell Young. In May 1864, the King farm was very near the epic battles that were occurring at Spotsylvania Court House. Their farm was used by the Union army as a park for its supply wagons and the cavalry which protected them. The fact that the Kings were loyal Americans made no difference to their occupiers, who cited military necessity as justification for seizing their horses, slaughtering their livestock, burning all the fencing for firewood and consuming or carrying away all their food supply.
     After the battles near Spotsylvania Court House were over and the armies had moved on, there was little reason to remain at the King farm. Ann said she "ran the blockade" and joined her husband in Baltimore. Later that year, Atwell Young was conscripted into the Confederate army. His story is well worth reading and can be found at Atwell Young, The Black Confederate.
     In May 1865, Samuel King, along with his neighbor and fellow Unionist Peter Couse and 90 other passengers, boarded the paddle steamer Wenonah in Baltimore and came back to Virginia for the first time in two years. It is not known how long he stayed in the area, but since he had business to attend to in Baltimore, it probably was not for long.

Matthew Brady photograph of Wenonah, 1860's (Fold3.com)

Fredericksburg Ledger 30 May 1865

     The situation regarding Charles and Lucy Guy was a little more ambiguous. Mr. Guy appears to have sold supplies to Confederate quartermasters on several occasions, but by 1864 he was trying to get within the Union lines. He had evidently sought a pass to accomplish this end, and Union General Marsena Patrick gave permission for him to do so, provided he took the oath of allegiance.

Letter of General Patrick, January 1864 (Fold3.com)

Charles B. Guy oath of allegiance (Fold 3.com)

     The Guy family eventually moved to Charles's hometown of Kingsbury, New York, and there they remained.
     The Kings stayed in Baltimore for a few years. Samuel made a go of the insurance business, but did not succeed. The King family then moved to Tennessee and later Illinois and did not fare well at farming at either place. They then moved to the Dakota Territory, where Samuel owned a prosperous wheat farm. Ultimately the Kings settled in Gage County, Nebraska and at last found the success and status they had been looking for. Samuel died in 1892, and Ann passed away in 1916

Nebraska farm of Ann Chartters King (USGennet.org)

     On January 1, 1866 James and Susan Chartters moved to the unsold Spotsylvania farm of Samuel and Ann King. They were joined there by Susan's widowed aunt, Fannie Chancellor, and cousins Mary and Sue [2]. The Chartters and Chancellors lived together for about nine years or so. At some time during the mid-1870's, Samuel King traded his Spotsylvania farm for one of his properties out west. Fannie Chancellor bought "Oak Grove" near Fredericksburg and lived there for the rest of her life. James and Susan Chartters bought "Clifton," a 185-acre farm at the intersection of Old Plank and Catharpin roads. In 1867 James was obliged to declare bankruptcy, but he was able to resolve his financial affairs the following year.

Richmond Daily Dispatch 19 September 1867

     X.X. Chartters returned to Spotsylvania at the end of the Civil War. Shortly thereafter, on December 14, 1865, he married Evelyn Wortley Montague of Essex County. Evelyn was the daughter of Reverend Howard W. and Mildred Montague. Her brother, Andrew Philip Montague, later became a well-known professor and university president.
     For the first ten years or so of their marriage, X.X. and Evelyn made their home with her parents, where X.X. worked as a farm laborer. Their only child, Florence Howard Chartters, was born there in 1868. When X.X.'s parents moved to Clifton in the mid 1870's, X.X. and his family came there and lived with them. It was while living at Clifton that X.X. Chartters came into his own and made a name for himself.
     X.X. joined several fraternal organizations, such as the Good Templars and the International Order of Odd Fellows, and he became active in local politics. For a time he served as deputy treasurer for Spotsylvania, and his signature appears on a number of tax receipts of that era, as well as checks made out to him by my family:

Row family taxes, 1892

Lizzie Row check for taxes, 1890

     But it was in the Grange movement that X.X. found his true calling. The Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, better known as the Grange, was organized in Washington, D.C. in 1867. Its stated purpose was to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and agriculture. Today it is the oldest agricultural advocacy organization in the country. X.X. began his career in the Grange by joining the the the Spotswood and and Wilderness Granges in Spotsylvania during the 1870's.

The Virginia Star 26 April 1875

The Virginia Herald 31 January 1876

     In 1884, X.X. established another chapter of the local Grange on his family's farm. He built a meeting hall for the Clifton Grange at the corner of Old Plank and Catharpin roads. By this time, X.X. was moving up the ranks of the Virginia Grange and became its head. Evelyn and Florence were also members of the Grange. X.X. served on the executive board of the National Grange. He and Evelyn traveled around the United States to attend meetings and to promote the affairs of the Grange.
     X.X.'s parents lived long enough to witness much of their son's success. Susan Philips Chancellor Chartters died at Clifton on August 25, 1885. She was buried in the Chancellor cemetery at Fairview. Her obituary shown below is among the papers of George Harrison Sanford King at the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center.

Headstone of Susan P. Chartters (Beth Valentine)

     James Petigrew Chartters died suddenly and swiftly at Clifton suddenly just six months later. His obituary, also from the archives of the CRHC, was written by Reverend Walker John Decker. A veteran of the Civil War, Reverend Decker served at North Pamunkey Baptist Church in Orange County and at Salem Baptist Church in Spotsylvania. James is buried near Susan in the Chancellor family cemetery at Fairview.

Headstone of James P. Chartters (Beth Valentine)

     Florence Chartters married neighbor John Addison Alsop on May 5, 1889. Regrettably, their time together would be short.
     The health of X.X. and Evelyn began to fail before they were 50 years old. X.X. died of tuberculosis at Clifton on February 15, 1893.

(Central Rappahannock Heritage Center)

(Central Rappahannock Heritage Center)

Headstone of X.X. Chartters (Beth Valentine)

     The passing of X.X. hastened the death of his widow. Evelyn Wortley Montague Chartters died on July 22, 1893. She buried near her husband at Fairview. Her obituary was written by her brother, Professor Andrew Philip Montague.

(Central Rappahannock Heritage Center)

Headstone of Evelyn Wortley Chartters (Beth Valentine)

     Florence Chartters Alsop sold Clifton to Mungo William Thorburn (1857-1940) on April 6, 1896. A Scottish immigrant with brains and ambition, William Thorburn quickly set about improving conditions at Clifton and becoming active in the civic life of Spotsylvania. He was also instrumental in establishing the first telephone service in this section of Spotsylvania. This fascinating part of his family's story can be read at The Fredericksburg & Wilderness Telephone Company. William turned the former Grange Hall built by X.X. Chartters into a school house for both his own children and other youngsters in the neighborhood.

William Thorburn (Ancestry)

Students at Grange Hall School, 1908

     Florence Chartter Alsop's husband, who had been in poor health during most of their marriage, passed away on February 13, 1899. The caption of his obituary incorrectly reads "Mrs."

The Free Lance 15 April 1899

     Florence's uncle became president of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina in 1897. While he was there, Florence's mother, Mildred Columbia Montague, would visit him each winter. While at Andrew's house in Greenville in January 1900, Mildred was warming herself at the fireplace when her clothing caught fire. Her cries for help quickly brought the Montague family to her aid and they managed to extinguish the fire, but not before she was badly burned. She died that night and was buried in Springwood Cemetery in Greenville.

Andrew Philip Montague (Ancestry.com)

     Two years later, Florence moved to Greenville to live with her uncle Andrew, who had just retired from the presidency of Furman University. While there, Florence met Greenville business man George Buchanan. They were married on August 4, 1902 and lived in Greenville for the rest of their lives.

Florence and George Buchanan (Findagrave)

    

Greenville News 6 August 1902

     Florence Chartters Alsop Buchanan died in Greenville on May 19, 1942. She is buried in Springwood Cemetery, just 10 miles from my home.


     The Young family owned their farm on the north side of the Ni River at Catharpin Road for over 100 years. At some time after the death of Sam Ford, the grandson of Atwell Young's brother Humphrey, Tom Thorburn bought the Young place and subdivided it for sale as building lots. In 1985, my father bought the first of those lots, which happened to be where the Young house once stood. He built his house there, and he and my mother lived there for the rest of their lives. Today it is the home of my sister.

Footnotes:

[1] Orange County resident Vivian Quisenberry (1832-1888) graduated from the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1856. The following year, he married Anne Elizabeth Robinson, whose family owned Robinson's Tavern on what is now Route 20. Her sister Sarah became the mother-in-law of George Washington Estes Row, my great-grandfather, in 1867. During the Civil War, Dr. Quisenberry served as assistant surgeon of the 59th Virginia Infantry. After the war, he and Anne moved to the little town of Butler in Freestone County Texas, where he started a medical practice and ran a drug store. In 1871, George W.E. Row lived for several months with the Quisenberrys while investigating the possibility of buying land in Texas. He worked at his uncle's drug store while he was there.

[2] Many years later, Sue Chancellor wrote a memoir of her experiences during the Battle of Chancellorsville. Her story can be read at "O The Horror of That Day!".


Sources:

Samuel King, Southern Claims Commission case file

Biography of Samuel King

Sketch of Evansport, Virginia