{"id":90217,"date":"2023-03-24T09:46:33","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T13:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=90217"},"modified":"2023-03-24T09:47:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T13:47:15","slug":"jamestown-descendants-whos-who-part-19-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/jamestown-descendants-whos-who-part-19-part-4.html","title":{"rendered":"Jamestown Descendants: Who\u2019s Who, Part 19 (part 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on descendants of the Jamestown settlers, writing about the yellow fever epidemic of 1855. Melissa is a genealogist who has a blog, AnceStory Archives<\/a>, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today I continue with my \u201cJamestown Descendants: Who\u2019s Who\u201d series, with more focus on Lindsay-Lomax and allied family lines of Old Virginia who descend from Jamestown settlers.<\/p>\n

To recap: My last three stories covered some of the narrative from the personal diary of Elizabeth Lindsay Lomax (1796-1875), entitled Leaves from an Old Washington Diary 1854-1863<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today I focus on the yellow fever epidemic<\/a> of 1855, one of the worst outbreaks in history, killing an estimated 3,000 people in Norfolk (approximately one-third of the city\u2019s entire population), while upward of 1,000 died in Portsmouth.<\/p>\n

In 1855 the Alexandria Gazette<\/em> newspaper reported the disease was brought in by the steamer Benjamin Franklin<\/em>, which docked in Hampton Roads for repairs after arriving from the West Indies. Some of the crew had died on board, while others who contracted the fever never returned before the ship was quarantined. As the newspaper noted, there were already fifteen cases reported in the area \u2013 and eight had perished.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria, Virginia), 26 July 1855, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In her diary, Mrs. Lomax wrote about friends and family members who either expired from the fever or were evacuating the area to survive.<\/p>\n

Here is an entry mentioning her sister\u2019s daughter Mattie and her offspring, who appear several times in later diary entries.<\/p>\n

Tuesday, August 7, 1855.<\/p>\n

It makes one\u2019s heart ache to read of the ravages of the fever \u2013 We have lost so many dear friends.<\/p>\n

Mattie Poor and her children arrived this morning from Norfolk on the steamer Water Witch. They are fleeing from the fever epidemic and will go to the Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs<\/a> [West Virginia].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Illustration:<\/a>
Illustration: portrait of Mrs. Charles Henry Poor, born Mattie Lindsay Stark (1818-1870). Artist: Charles Bird King. Part of the Charles Carroll Glover Collection, grandson of Mrs. Poor. Courtesy of Frick Digital Collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mattie Lindsay Stark, daughter of Mattie Taliaferro Lindsay and Robert Bolling Stark (also spelled Starke), was a direct descendant of Jamestown\u2019s William Tayloe, Henry Corbin, Hugh Gwyn, Ralph Wormeley, Thomas Lunsford, Richard Bolling, Thomas Cocke, Francis Mason, and John Stith.<\/p>\n

She married Rear Admiral Charles Henry Poor<\/a> (1808-1882), a true Yankee born to Moses Poor and Charlotte White. His family line can be traced back to the early Newbury, Massachusetts, settler families of Hale, Poor, West, Little, Hutchinson, Follansbee, Knight, Moody, and March.<\/p>\n

Children born to Mattie and Charles:<\/p>\n