One of the main tasks my assistants handle is routine requests for published obituaries from the local newspapers of the past. To give my new assistant, Lori, some experience with the quirks of searching the contents of the Online Obituary Index file (OOI) and since the Presidents Day holiday is coming up soon, I asked her to see how many people in our OOI happened to have the names of former Presidents of the United States (POTUSes). I figured that since the United States has had 46 Presidencies so far, and some had fairly common surnames, surely some "Presidents" would show up in OOI ... and they did!
Our obituary files happen to contain no less than 6 people with the first and middle names "George Washington" and 5 others with the first name George followed by the surname Washington. The OOI also has 2 men named "John Adams", a "Thomas Jefferson", a "William Henry Harrison", an "Andrew Jackson Johnson", a "Benjamin Harrison", a "William McKinley", 3 men named "George Bush" and one "Franklin D. Roosevelt."
George Washington POTUS #1 was such a popular figure that many male children have since been named in his honor. Three of the George Washingtons in the OOI met untimely deaths. One was murdered (Palmetto Post, November 16, 1882); one was smothered (Palmetto Post, January 17, 1895); and one died in a car crash.
A George Washington was murdered by Jordan Snelling in Early Branch in Hampton County in 1882. The George Washington who was smothered was an African American deacon of Pilgrim Baptist Church who died in a cave-in at Weir's Pond despite the efforts of Drs. Stuart and Ellis to save him on Saturday, January 12, 1895. George Washington, Jr. was killed in a two-car accident on Highway 21 in July 1967. The cause of death for George Norris Washington in 1963 is not given in his obituary. George Washington, Sr. [but not apparently the father of the George Washington, Jr. killed in the car crash just mentioned] died of natural causes. That George Washington, Sr. was a Navy veteran, was on the USS Enterprise when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, had served as chief steward to Admiral Bull Halsey during World War II, was a boxing Pacific Fleet All Navies champion and served during the Korean Conflict. When he returned home to Walterboro, he took up farming and was known to lay a brick or two when called upon to help his neighbors.
POTUS #2 was John Adams. Capt. John Adams formerly in charge of the tug Bristol was "a whole-souled man" who relocated from Brooklyn, NY to pursue successful business interests in the lowcountry. His son, Howard J. Adams was a "popular tobacco drummer, who is so well known here." (Palmetto Post, February 16, 1905).
John F. Adams, aged 61, became "Another Old Soldier Gone" in 1903. His Palmetto Post obituary waxes poetic and mythic about Confederate soldiers "whose life blood stained the soil of their beloved Southland, and yielded up their lives in the extremity of human agony, torn by grape and canister or slashed by the sabre of a powerful and relentless foe. How many such heroes found a nameless grave far from home and kindred?" so in one way Adams was lucky. His body was laid to rest in the consecrated grounds of the Parish Church of St. Helena.
POTUS #3 was Thomas Jefferson. The Thomas Jefferson in our obituary files seems to have been brought back home to be buried among his forebears. This Thomas Jefferson lived in East Jacksonville, Florida but his funeral services were held at Second Celestial Baptist Church in Dale and his remains were laid to rest in Mt. Carmel Cemetery.
One of the "presidents" mentioned in our obituary files actually does double duty: "Andrew Jackson Johnson" could be named after "Andrew Jackson" POTUS #7 and/or "Andrew Johnson" POTUS #17 or neither. It just might be that Andrew and Jackson were chosen by his parents at random or he could have been named after other relatives or neighbors. There is no way to tell based on the content of his obituary. At the time of his death in 1975, former Beaufort resident and salesman A.J. Johnson was living in Waycross, GA. His funeral and burial were also held in Waycross. None of his survivors were listed as residing in Beaufort.
POTUS #23 was Benjamin Harrison. He was a grandson of POTUS #9 and great-grandson of the Benjamin Harrison who signed the Declaration of Independence for the colony of Virginia. We have an obituary card for Benjamin Pinner Harrison, Bluffton Town Councilman and Bluffton Methodist Church steward, who died February 6, 1951. Whether or not he was named for the former President cannot be determined.
There is a rather curious obituary for "The body of a man variously identified as William McKinley [POTUS #25], William Taylor and McKinley Taylor." The corpse "was found yesterday (Thursday) morning in a ditch behind Bishop's Store near Frogmore. Coroner Roger Pinckney said that he investigated, upon learning of the incident, and found the body still warm but that his efforts at artificial respiration were in vain. The man was said to have been about 40 years of age and to have been suffering with several chronic physical ailments." His obituary was published in the Beaufort Gazette on December 28, 1951.
The only real POTUS represented in our Online Obituary Index files turned out to be Franklin Delano Roosevelt, POTUS #32.
The Beaufort Times described how "Beaufort Joins World in Mourning Roosevelt" on April 19, 1945 while the next day the Beaufort Gazette recounted how "Beaufort Mourns Roosevelt's Loss." The Gazette carried the text of Beaufort Mayor J.E. Gill's a proclamation: "As a mark of respect to the late President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, all stores, business places and establishments of every kind are requested to close at four o'clock p.m., on Saturday, April 14, 1945, and remain closed until five o'clock p.m., while funeral services [at Hyde Park, NY, at FDR's family estate] are being held." Both newspapers mentioned flags at half-mast, business closures and the church services though the Times coverage was less specific. The Gazette noted that special memorial services were held in the Beaufort city schools on Friday and the Episcopal, Methodist and Baptist Churches held brief memorial services on Saturday at which "Prayers were offered for the future security of the country."
POTUS #41 was George Herbert Walker Bush and his son, George W. Bush was POTUS #43. When Lori searched on "George Bush" she got 8 hits in the Online Obituary Index but some of the notices turned out to be for the same individual. The text of the obituaries showed me that the George Bush whose death notice was published in the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet issues of January 7, 2007 was the same man as the George Bush, IV known about Bluffton as "Georgie Boy". The Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet issues of January 9, 2007 gave more biographical information and funeral arrangements for GB IV who worked with Graves Construction Company for 40 years and "spent all of his life in Bluffton." It is not uncommon in the 1980 - 2010 period for there to be a death notice in the immediate days after the decedent's passing and a longer published obituary to appear in later issues of the newspaper within a week or two. This pattern is quite often observed, particularly in the Black community.
I wanted to write something about the various POTUSes and about the breath and scope of the BDC's obituaries files that would be fun for me to compose and entertaining but informative for you to read. Lori says that she got plenty of practice searching the OOI; I know that I had fun putting this post together. All that remains is some feedback from you, Dear Reader. Please let me know if you enjoyed reading this and in the process happened to learn something about the depth and scope of this unique resource created by the good services of the late Virginia Adams, Jan Johnson, Merle Hoagland, Laura Lewis, and Nelson Brown. A new volunteer, Kathy Mitchell, is in training to continue building on the work that these former BDC volunteers have done in compiling the 25,000+ names in this index.
Heads up: All units of the Beaufort County Library will be closed on Monday, February 15, 2021 for Presidents Day. Regular hours resume Tuesday, February 16.
To make sure that you can get a Research appointment the week of February 16 - February 19, please make those arrangements with me gracec@bcgov.net or 843-255-6446 no later than Noon on Friday, February 12, 2021.
Patriotic Top hat is courtesy of Pixy.org. The other images belong to the Beaufort County Library.
Related Posts: If you'd like to know more about the Presidents who have visited Beaufort District, Beaufort County, Hampton County or Jasper County since 1789, I wrote about several of them for a Presidents Day post in Connections last year. More recently, I went into detail about former President U.S. Grant's visit to Beaufort in 1880.
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