Batesons United by Death: William Ebbes a/k/a Another Mystery

Because we’re in Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia, with Sugar’s Bateson cousins from Canada, we’re visiting the Bateson plot #322.

And because we know that there is some sort of connection with the Bateson family and William Ebbes and William Spears, we scout around to find the location of lot #1494, which is where William Ebbes should be buried. (We don’t know where William Spears is buried. At least, not yet.)

We find the plot…

No markers of any kind. Nothing.

You can see that the plot is surrounded by other marked plots. There’s the bushes on the left, the fencing along the back, and the curbing on the right.

From the back looking forward…, then from the front again.

And we are yet again confounded by another plot with no marker of any kind. Someone had enough money to purchase the plot, but let’s guess that by the time the plot was used, there was not money enough for a headstone.

What happened to these people?

Batesons United By Death, Part 2: The Preparation

So Walter is coming to town.

We start corresponding by email, but Sugar and I have no idea what he looks like. We learn that he and his wife will be in town for a few days, and I get some time off from work. Because Batesons.

They’re coming in 3 weeks. *Gulp*

*****

We worry and fret for three weeks until the day comes when we meet.

It was perfectly fine. Blog friends, it was fabulous.

We decided to all go for lunch, and Sugar suggested we go to a cafe which is on Congress, across from where the Christopher Remington Bateson family had their toy shop and residence.

And because we are so close to Christ Church, we circled the square and took a photo of the church where the Bateson family went to church. Thomas Bateson most probably met his future wife Martha Mann there.

Then it was time to travel to meet the Batesons at Laurel Grove Cemetery.

Can you tell that these fellows are related? They are almost exactly the same age, and look like they planned their wardrobe based on what the other was wearing.

Batesons United by Death

I’m not sure how to write this post.

There are many twists and turns. Everything is important. This post could go on for days.

I think I’ll just start throwing words out into the internet, and perhaps the story will evolve.

*****

A woman in Brussels sent a message to me last year that she was interested in Charles Edward Wagstaff Bateson, a relative of hers who just happens to be Sugar’s great-grandfather. She further said that there are Batesons buried in Savannah.

We found the cemetery plot where the family of Christopher Remington Bateson was buried, and Sugar ordered a marker for the plot.

We found more references to the Bateson family.

And then, one random Sunday after Christmas, Sugar and I were on our way to lunch. Since PetSmart and Michael’s Craft Store (yarn on sale perhaps!) was on the way, we stopped first at PetSmart, then Michael’s, where I DIDN’T buy yarn.

When we left the craft store, my smartphone jingled in my pocket.

Sugar has a love/hate relationship with my phone. He loves how we can look something up SO easily. He hates dislikes strongly how it jingles to let me know there’s a new email or a blog comment or whatever it jingles for. I learned how to suppress the email jingles, and I learned how to tell the phone to not ring. Sometimes I forget to suppress the not-ringy part.

I pulled it out of my back pocket to give it a look anyway, even though Sugar was exhaling with exasperation. He’s needy like that.

Oooh, it was a comment on the blog! I love those.

But this one was confusing. It was from someone named Walter Bateson.

Sugar has a cousin named Walter, who has also commented on the blog, but he’s not Walter Bateson. In my confusion, I wondered if SugarCousinWalter had changed his last name.

That’s how things work with me. My brain compartmentalizes things, and it something doesn’t fit neatly into a compartment, I automatically look for a reason why it’s not neat. It can’t be helped.

So I stopped on the sidewalk, and said, “Sugar, it’s a comment from Walter Bateson.”

Sugar:  Who’s Walter Bateson?

YoursTruly: I don’t know. Is that your Cousin Walter changing his last name?

Sugar: Why would he do that?

I read the comment to him.

The Rev. Christopher Bateson is my great, great, great, Grandfather. I have been working on the family history for a number of years. Have a letter from Thomas Bateson, of Savannah,Ga. written to his uncle Henry in England on April 23,1873 on the business stationary
In this letter he says he has taken over the business from his father, and that he has three children,Alice, Georgia Agnes,and Thomas Remington.
I am trying to find out more about this branch of the family.I  am visiting in Florida his winter and am planning a trip to Savannah.
Any help you can give me would be appreciated
Walter Bateson

So now we’re standing on the sidewalk outside Michael’s Craft store and PetSmart, staring at the iPhone, then to each other, then to the iPhone.

A letter? A LETTER?! From 1873 on business stationary? We can’t wait to meet Walter Bateson!

Because Thomas Bateson is buried in the Christopher R. Bateson plot in Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. Remember? Ah, yes, the plot that was unmarked until Sugar came along.

 

What Was Tangled Becomes Less Tangled: A Letter From Thomas Bateson, 1873

I’ve talked about the Bateson family a lot here on the blog. It started when Sugar and I learned that there was a Bateson family in Savannah, Georgia, that died out 135 years ago.

We’re so close to Savannah that we can be there in under an hour.

But what about people that live far away, like Julie in Belgium? She can’t just hop a freighter and pop in to say hello. However, we do have our friend the internet, and we can chat in fragmented pieces, allowing a bit of downtime for sleep and the time difference. It takes a while to discuss things.

Like Batesons. We want to talk about the Batesons. It appears that the earliest Batesons in America were not Sugar’s ancestors. Julie in Belgium figured out last year that it was one generation before, that being the Christopher Remington Bateson family. He was married to Mary, and they came to New York City, and then later moved to Savannah. They had four children, Alice, Christopher H., Mary Jane, and Thomas.

Through the magic of the internet, a Bateson cousin from Canada found the blog, and commented that he had a copy of a letter written by Thomas Bateson to his uncle Henry back home in England. And Henry? Just happened to be Julie’s ancestor. And just to make this all a bit more remarkable, none of these descendants knew of each other before the blog.

And when the Canada Batesons come to town to meet us, do they bring a copy of the letter?

Ohyestheydo.

 

T. BATESON,

DEALER IN GERMAN, FRENCH, ENGLISH & AMERICAN

TOYS & FANCY GOODS,

Musical Instruments, fire-works, Confectionery, fruits, Nuts, etc.,

CORNER CONGRESS & DRAYTON STREETS,

Savannah, Ga.     April 23, 1873

Dear Uncle Henry,

Some years have elapsed since

my last writing to you, and no doubt you may won-

der what it is that now prompts me after such

long silence. At my last writing which I think

was shortly after the close of our late civil

war, my Mother and Brother Christopher was

alive and well. Since which time death has

claimed them. Mother after an illness of

six days died April 10^th, 1869 of Typhoid

Pneumonia and Brother Christopher Henry died

Oct. 12^th, 1870 of Pulmonary disease.

I am now the only one that is living of your

brother Christopher’s family. I hope that on

your side of the Atlantic that death has

not been so sure a reaper and that your

own family as well as my other Uncles

and Aunts are in the enjoyment of good health.

Respecting myself I will state that I am

now 31 years of age, married, and have three

children named, respectively, Alice, Georgia Agnes,

and Thomas Remington, and am continuing the

business established by Father in 1852 at

the same stand.

Shall be pleased to hear from you; also

from my Aunts.

Your affectionate Nephew,

Thos. Bateson

Original Letter held by Mrs. Bess Blagden (Col William Blagden).

Granddaughter of Henry Bateson, Overdene, Brighton.

Copy given to Walter J. Bateson 15 April 1973.

*****

Goodnight, Bateson people. We’re thinking of you.

In Which We Find Thomas Remington Bateson, 1872-1879

 

SMT September 28, 1879: 2/7 – The friends of Wm. Spears and Wm.

Ebbes and family, are respectfully invited to attend the funeral

of Thomas Remington Bateson, youngest child of Thos. Bateson,

deceased, from the residence of the former on Thunderbolt road,

this morning at 9:30 o’clock.

Oh, he was just a baby. He rests with his parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles.

 

(Incidentally, this is my 900th post. Who knew I’d write this many? I certainly didn’t.)

The Gold Mine in the Closet: The Family of Charles Edward Wagstaff Bateson

 

Over the past few days, I’ve seen photos of families posted online. Families I know, families I don’t know.  They are clustered in groups for the Thanksgiving holiday, and many of them are taken outside a house.

We like our houses.  We identify with our houses.

Here’s the Charles Edward Wagstaff Bateson family in New York City June 3, 1898 outside their house on West 88th Street. Charles is seated at the top of the steps.

Starting at the upper left, we are focusing on the four people along the back.

Charles Edward Wagstaff Bateson, Jr.

Charles Edward Wagstaff Bateson, Sr.

Mary S. Bateson

Richard Humphreys Bateson

Then the three seated on the steps, from left to right:

Edgar Farrar Bateson

Lucinda D. Bateson

And lastly, Charles’s wife, Mary McLochlan Stamps Bateson.

*****

Plus we have some Diamonds from the Mailbox…

 

Do you remember the Christopher Remington Bateson family plot in Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia?  The one that was unmarked for 135 years until Sugar had a marker made this year?

Charles Edward Wagstaff Bateson is his nephew.

And the world just got a little smaller.

In Which We Find Two More

(This is the third part of a series.  If you would like to read the first part, click here.)

It was a sad little trip to the Laurel Grove Cemetery.

We found Lot 322.

We found there were no markers on the lot.  Nothing.  Not of any kind.

So Sugar thinks that he wants to have a marker made for these Batesons that originated in Lancashire, England.

But what to say on the marker?

*****

I decide to make a timeline on an excel spreadsheet with the names and life spans of the Christopher R. Bateson family that I found on the database for the city of Savannah.  Perhaps then we can guess who belongs to whom.

I take their dates of death and their approximate age at death, and count backwards to get their approximate date of birth.  Subtraction comes in handy here.

Christopher R. Bateson and his wife Mary were both born approximately in 1818.

Christopher R. Bateson died in 1855.

Mary Bateson died in 1869.

Christopher H. Bateson is born in 1840 and died in 1870.

Thomas Bateson is born in 1841 and died in 1877.

Alice Bateson is born in 1845 and died in 1853.

Mary Jane Bateson is born and died in 12 hours in 1853.

Martha Bateson is born in 1848 and died in 1874.

Thomas H. Bateson is born in 1872 and died in 1879.

Thomas H. Bateson is the key.  He’s born in 1872 after Christopher R. and Mary are deceased, so they are not his parents.  There’s only one probable mother, and that is Martha Bateson.  There’s only one probable father, and that is Thomas Bateson, because Christopher H. is deceased and there are no other males.  Most probably Thomas H. is named for his father Thomas, and the middle initial “H.” is for his uncle Christopher H., although we don’t know what the H. stands for.

It looks like the whole family was wiped out.

*****

What if they weren’t?

Julie in Brussels, who started this whole conundrum, weighs in.

These Batesons are certainly a bit of a mystery! I hope you eventually sort
it all out. It makes you wonder whether the whole family died out in
Savannah, or whether anyone survived and moved away from the area.

I assume you have already looked, but are any of these Batesons on the 1870
US census? Some of them were still alive in 1870 so should show up
somewhere. I have found that Bateson can be very easily misspelled and so I
have got good results by searching on Bat*son as the * can be e or i or
sometimes double t.

No, I’ve never used * as a wild card.  I can’t find them using the spelling “Bateson”, so how is it possible that I can find them by using an incomplete spelling?

I am a slow learner.

*****

I type in “Bat*son”, and *Squeeee*, I find in the 1880 census for the City of Savannah, County of Chatham, State of Georgia, Alice Bateson and then Georgia Bateson, born about 1870 and 1871.

Living in the Episcopal Orphan Home.