Bateson, Mann, & Scheper: Or, On to Beaufort!

(This is the seventh part of a series.  If you would like to start at the first part, click here.)

I found a death certificate for Martha Mann Bateson’s sister.  She died in Hendersonville, North Carolina, a small town where my mother’s 1st cousin’s husband was once mayor.

Another surname popped up that we hadn’t seen before in relation to this family. Scheper, for another of Martha Mann Bateson’s sisters. Which doesn’t explain why they were in Hendersonville, North Carolina.

When I told Sugar, he said, “That’s a Beaufort name.”  And he would know this stuff.  Although I’d never heard of it, I’m not from around here.  So this means a trip to Beaufort.  Squeee!  It’s an easy day trip.

He has a book (of course) about historic Beaufort, and there is mention of the E. A. Scheper house and the address.  It was so easy to find.  Why can’t everything be so easy.

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A little back story before we go into Beaufort:  Sugar’s grandfather and his 2nd wife built a house on the banks of Battery Creek.  He died before Sugar was born, but his 2nd wife continued to live there, and Sugar knew her.

He was ready to take a trip down memory lane, and to see the house again. That’s how it is sometimes.  We’re not sure if we’re ready to relive old memories, so we just don’t.  Sometimes it’s time to do it.

Here’s the house where Sugar, his brother, and his parents would visit his step-grandmother…

This is the street-side, which is actually the back of the house.  The front opens up to Battery Creek, which is a deep water channel, and you can put in a boat there.  Some additions and improvements were made over the years, but basically the house still appears the same in his memory.

He wanted to walk right on to the creek, right through the yard, which I thought was a bad idea, what with trespassing and all.  Sometimes he’s bold, to be so shy.

Instead, we drove further around the lane that ran parallel to the creek.  We saw a lot for sale, so we stopped there and walked through the lot to the cove.

There’s a large live oak near the center of this photo. Do you see Sugar to the left of it? Now you get a better idea of exactly how large this tree is.

A few branches, strategically removed, would expose a wonderful view.  I’m guessing, since I can’t actually see the view.

Look through the tree branches, and you’ll see someone’s dock in the distance.

Same big tree in the first photo of this lot.  Sugar has just walked by, and he’s behind the tree, just wandering about.

Onward to downtown Beaufort.  We’re looking for the E. A. Scheper house, which is clearly identified in Sugar’s book, and then we hope to find where Agnes Mann lived.  Agnes was the mother of Thomas Bateson’s wife Martha. Agnes had another daughter, Louisa, who married E. A. Scheper.

We pulled off on the side of the road.  The bay is to our right, so, yes, we’re on Bay Street.  There was another car pulled over, and a man with a very tall stepladder was standing on the ladder taking photos of the homes on Bay.  I’ve never considered the considerable advantage that height would add to the improvement of my photos, except those times when I stood on the car.

Proof that the Scheper house is on the corner.

We know on one census that Agnes Mann lived at 117 Craven Street. We head over to Craven, bold with the thought that we will find the house.

Did you know that Beaufort was built on a point of land?  We ran out of street.  Craven is a shortish street, and we started from the most inland end, about an 800 block, and it ended at the river at about a 400 block.  So let’s guess that the street numbers have changed.  So that must mean that the house that the Manns lived in was still standing, for that side of the street, that odd-numbered side, had many houses on it.

Out of frustration, I took a photo out the van driver’s side window of a random house, as if to prove that we were there.  We’re looking for you, Agnes!  Where the heck are you?

Drat. It’s time to head on over to the St. Helena Episcopal Church and Cemetery.

Agne’s husband Daniel is buried there, according to findagrave.com, so surely she is, too.  Although I suspect that she has no headstone, or I would have found a memorial on findagrave.  Surely that. We park in a lot across from the church.

He went right, I went left, and dadburnit.  Here’s a bunch of Lawtons, gumming up the works.  What are these Lawtons doing here?  Who are they? (Sugar found out later that this Lawton line descends from William Lawton’s 2nd wife.  All the Lawtons that we know descend from William Lawton’s 3rd wife.  Bonus line!)

 

Here’s Louisa’s husband, E. A. Scheper.

  Squeee!  Here’s Louisa.

Did we find Agnes Mann? Nope.  But she’s probably here.  We’ll have to find someone that knows something.  Historical society, perhaps?

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Tags: Bateson, Beaufort, Family History, History, Mann, SC, Scheper