Jan. 25, 1887 Letter from Cousin Ellen Battle in Nichols, SC

February 20, 2018

Ellen Battle (1837-1922) and John F. Armstrong were first cousins. Ellen was the daughter of Michael Battle (c1811-1869) and Catherine “Kate” Armstrong Battle (1811-1881), who was the sister of JF’s father Francis.

In the 1870 US census, twenty-five year old Ellen, her seventeen-year-old brother, Richard, and their widowed mother Catherine, fifty-nine, were living in Augusta, Georgia. Also in the household were Catherine’s widowed sister, Ellen Armstrong Smith, forty, and her daughter, Mary E. Smith, seven. Ellen, her mother, and her Aunt Ellen had been born in Ireland. Richard Battle and Mary E. Smith had been born in Canada, which indicates that the two families immigrated to Canada prior to settling in the United States.

According to the burial registry at Magnolia Cemetery, Ellen’s father, Michael Battle, who died in 1869, had lived in Augusta for four years. Thomas Armstrong, the brother of Catherine Armstrong Battle and Ellen Armstrong Smith, had immigrated to Augusta from County Sligo, Ireland in 1847 during the Great Irish Famine. The Smith and Battle families may have arrived in Augusta in late 1865, around the same time as JF.

Some time after her mother’s death in 1881, Ellen went to live with her brother, James Battle (1831-1912), and his family in Nichols, South Carolina. On January 25, 1887, five days after Sarah McAndrew Armstrong’s death, she wrote to JF asking about “Cousin Sally’s ill health”. Two days later, she read about Sarah’s death in the newspaper and wrote JF a letter of condolence.

For more information on Ellen Battle, see the references with attached research notes below.

Please note that Marie Van Sant Hudson contributed substantial research for this post.

References

1870 US census, Richmond County, Georgia, mortality schedule, Augusta, p. 263a, entry no. 24, family 292, Michael Battle; consulted through “US Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1850-1880”, digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 February 2018); citing “Federal Mortality Census Schedules, 1850-1880, (formerly in the custody of the Daughters of the American Revolution), and Related Indexes, 1850-1880,” NARA microfilm publication T655.—-Notes: Michael Battle’s listed occupation was gardener. He was born in Ireland. Cause of death was diarrhea and his given age was 59.

1870 US census, Richmond County, Georgia, population schedule, Augusta, p. 33, dwelling 297, family 292, Ellen Battle, digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 February 2018); citing NARA microfilm publication T132.—-Notes: Irish-born Ellen Battle, 25 and without occupation, was living with her Irish-born mother, Catherine, 59, who kept house, and her brother Richard, 17. Richard, who worked as a cooper, had been born in Canada. Also recorded in the household were Ellen Smith, 40, a seamstress who had been born in Ireland, and Mary E. Smith, 7, who had been born in Canada. Ellen Smith and Catherine Battle were the daughters of James Armstrong and Nellie Johnston of County Sligo, Ireland. They were the sisters of Thomas Armstrong of Augusta, Georgia and John F. Armstrong’s father, Francis Armstrong, of County Sligo, Georgia. It is evident from the fact that both women had children born in Canada, that they immigrated to Canada first and then Augusta, Georgia in the US.

“City of Augusta, Georgia Graveside Project,” online database, City of Augusta, Georgia (https://www.augustaga.gov/350/Graveside-Project : accessed 1 March 2018), database entry for Catherine Battle (1811-1881) citing information extracted from burial registry at Magnolia Cemetery. Catherine “Kate” Battle, Ellen Battle’s mother, died from pneumonia on 7 December 1881.

“City of Augusta, Georgia Graveside Project,” online database, City of Augusta, Georgia (https://www.augustaga.gov/350/Graveside-Project : accessed 26 February 2018), database entry for Ellen T. Battle (1837-1922) citing information extracted from burial registry at Magnolia Cemetery.—-Notes: The entry for Ellen T. Battles states that she died at the age of 85 on 19 January 1922 of “acute pulmonary oedema” at 1259 Ellis St. She was buried on the Michael Battle plot at Magnolia Cemetery in Augusta, where JF and Sarah McAndrew were also buried. Michael Battle was Ellen T. Battle’s father. 1259 Ellis St. in Augusta was the home of JF and Sarah’s oldest child, Mary Ellen “May” Armstrong Casey Morrison. Ellen’s mother, Catherine “Kate” Armstrong Battle was JF’s paternal aunt, which made him first cousin to Ellen T. Battle.

“City of Augusta, Georgia Graveside Project,” online database, City of Augusta, Georgia (https://www.augustaga.gov/350/Graveside-Project : accessed 1 March 2018), database entry for Michael Battle (c1811-1869), citing information extracted from burial registry at Magnolia Cemetery.—-Notes: According to the notes extracted from the burial registry at Magnolia Cemetery, Michael Battle, a 58-year-old Irish-born laborer, had been living in Augusta for four years at the time of his death from diarrhea. He was the husband of Catherine “Kate” Battle and the father of Ellen Battle.

“Death of Mr. Thomas Armstrong – A Good and Old Citizen Passes Away Yesterday,” Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, GA), 23 March 1887, online archives, Genealogybank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 2 March 2018), citing original p. 8.—-Notes: Thomas Armstrong was the brother of John F. Armstrong’s father Francis. He was also the brother of Catherine Armstrong Battle and Ellen Armstrong Smith. Thomas and his family left County Sligo, Ireland in 1847, one of the worst years of the Great Irish Famine, and immigrated to Augusta, GA. His sisters, Catherine and Ellen, and his nephew, John F. Armstrong, all settled in Augusta in 1865, after the end of the American Civil War.

“Death Yesterday of Miss Ellen T. Battle.” Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, GA), 20 January 1922, online archives, Genealogybank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 22 February 2018), citing original p. 5.

“Deaths In South Carolina – James Battle,” The State (Charleston, SC), 20 October 1912, online archives, Genealogybank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 1 March 2018), citing original p. 3.