What happened? And where did all the properties go?
The circumstances aren't completely clear: all we have documentation for is the death of John Thorne in 1904, and for his death, we don't even have a regular death certificate; rather, what we have is the certificate for the transport of his remains from Edisto Island to Charleston for burial at the Friendly Union burial ground, presumably in the Thorne plot where his parents were buried. The arrangements were indicated as being handled by J.A. Robinson & Sons of Charleston.
John's wife, Sarah Ann, remains very much a mysterious figure: I have found no further family information about her. I don't know where she came from or who her family was. Given the patterns of marriage among Charleston's antebellum Free Persons of Color, it seems likely that she will have been from one of those elite families, but that is sheer conjecture on my part.
Even the date of Sarah Ann's death eluded me until just last week during our most recent trip to Charleston, when the reference librarian in the South Carolina Room in the Charleston County Public Library was able to retrieve probate records indicating that she had died in September, 1905, approximately a year after her husband. According to Sam Gadsden, they both died in the house behind Grant's Store/Main's Market.
Apparently aware that the end was at hand, John Thorne had sold a few properties before his death. The remainder were left to his wife. When she died just over a year later, the properties passed to their daughters.
And what of their daughters, Rhea Adger and Sara ("Sadie") Ann? The 1910 federal census finds them living in Charleston with their Uncle Philip and Aunt Susan Thorne at 56 Coming Street. As John and Sarah Ann's children, they were of course their proper heirs; as minors, however, they could not take title to their inherited properties. So their uncle and aunt acted as legal guardians for them, including selling one of the properties to retire some outstanding debts left by their mother.
Rhea has no occupation listed in 1910; later, she will be identified as a nurse. Did she train at Charleston's first African-American nursing school, the Cannon Street Hospital? We don't know yet.
Sadie, however, appears to have found her calling: at age 17, she's already identified as a school teacher in a public school. Whether she has yet graduated from Avery Normal Institute isn't clear.
Rhea has no occupation listed in 1910; later, she will be identified as a nurse. Did she train at Charleston's first African-American nursing school, the Cannon Street Hospital? We don't know yet.
Sadie, however, appears to have found her calling: at age 17, she's already identified as a school teacher in a public school. Whether she has yet graduated from Avery Normal Institute isn't clear.
Despite being the elder of the children, Rhea did not take title to any of remaining properties that I have found. Once Sadie reached the age of majority, the properties came to her.
Neither Rhea nor Sadie, however, appeared to see much future for themselves on Edisto Island or in South Carolina, for that matter: the 1920 federal census finds them living together near Tallahassee, Florida, where Rhea is a nurse and Sadie is an assistant professor of math and English at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College, which would later become FAMU.
The stars, however, did not align in Sadie's favor: at some point, she contracted tuberculosis and in 1923 was hospitalized in a sanitarium in Quewhiffle Township, Hoke County, North Carolina. She must have realized that the proverbial jig was up, because the transaction documents authorizing the sale of the last of the Thorne properties on Edisto were notarized in Quewhiffle Township, NC, in 1926. Sadie died of tuberculosis in the sanitarium in 1927 and according to her death certificate was buried in a cemetery identified as "V.P. Cemetery", which may well have been the Violet Park Cemetery in Durham. This cemetery has been paved over and is now a parking lot. Whether her remains were moved before the paving was done is unknown.
And Rhea? Somehow, Rhea ended up just a few miles from where I am sitting to write this: she lived for a goodly number of years on E. Capitol Street in Washington, DC, very near the Prince George's County line. She passed away in 1989. So close and yet so far away.
It took me a while to track down Rhea's death notice, but here it is:
Of course, I had to go out to the Lincoln Memorial Cemetery to try to find her headstone. When I arrived and asked for help in finding a relative's gravesite, the young African-American office assistant regarded me with quizzical good humor: "Do you, ah, know where you are?" she asked. Considering that I'm still a white Amish-Mennonite and that Lincoln Memorial is by tradition an African-American cemetery, her question wasn't out of place. I smiled right back: "Yes, indeed, I know exactly where I am. I'm doing family history, and when you do family history, you have to be prepared for whatever you might find." She laughed outright and I began to worry that we were having more fun than was appropriate for our surroundings.
In any event, we set off from the small office building that serves as a headquarters, looking for Rhea Thorne's final resting place. The assistant was very good: she took me right to it, and here it is:
Whoever would have guessed that the final stanza of the saga of John Thorne of Edisto would have been sung less than 10 miles (as the crow flies) from our Maryland front door?
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| Sara A. "Sadie" Thorne of Edisto Island in the FAMC annual for 1919. Courtesy of the FAMU Archives. |
The stars, however, did not align in Sadie's favor: at some point, she contracted tuberculosis and in 1923 was hospitalized in a sanitarium in Quewhiffle Township, Hoke County, North Carolina. She must have realized that the proverbial jig was up, because the transaction documents authorizing the sale of the last of the Thorne properties on Edisto were notarized in Quewhiffle Township, NC, in 1926. Sadie died of tuberculosis in the sanitarium in 1927 and according to her death certificate was buried in a cemetery identified as "V.P. Cemetery", which may well have been the Violet Park Cemetery in Durham. This cemetery has been paved over and is now a parking lot. Whether her remains were moved before the paving was done is unknown.
And Rhea? Somehow, Rhea ended up just a few miles from where I am sitting to write this: she lived for a goodly number of years on E. Capitol Street in Washington, DC, very near the Prince George's County line. She passed away in 1989. So close and yet so far away.
It took me a while to track down Rhea's death notice, but here it is:
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| 28 May 1989 Washington Post. According to other family papers, Rhea's middle initial should be >"A." (for "Adger") rather than "H." |
In any event, we set off from the small office building that serves as a headquarters, looking for Rhea Thorne's final resting place. The assistant was very good: she took me right to it, and here it is:
Whoever would have guessed that the final stanza of the saga of John Thorne of Edisto would have been sung less than 10 miles (as the crow flies) from our Maryland front door?
That is amazing. And to think, she could have come over for some cheesy grits and shoofly pie.
ReplyDeleteWe knew how James Hutchingson's life ended so tradgically, thanks to Lindsay's book. And, now we know what became of John Thorne's family and business. Thank you for wrapping up that era of "The Two Black Kings" of Edisto. I can't help but imagine how things might have turned out for the Thorne line on Edisto if he had sons instead of, or in addition to, daughters. . .
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