Cathey Family in Union by 1840
THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Cathey family
in Union by 1840
By preliminary greeting, I hope
all you
readers had a good Christmas, 2008, and that the New Year, 2009,
despite its
challenges on the economic front, has dawned with hope and health for
you and
your family. In a New Year's greeting from dear friends, they wrote:
"Expect peace, love, joy, harmony, forgiveness, understanding and ask
the
Lord for wisdom." That is good advice for 2009 or any year.
Now to the family name we will
pursue for
awhile. Looking in the 1840 (second) census of Union County,
I found the first reference to a Cathey family living here. No family
by that
name was recorded in the first census of the county taken in 1834.
William Cathey's household in
1840
consisted of four males between the ages of 20 and 30, one male (the
head of
household, William) between the ages of 50 and 60. And females in the
house
included one female child (0 to 5—who may have been a grandchild), one
female
age 15 to 20, one female, age 20-30, and one female, age 50 to 60,
which was
William's wife, Elizabeth Bryson Cathey.
From other records of the Cathey
family, we
learn that William Cathey was born April 15, 1782 in Burke County, NC and
died in 1860 in Towns County,
Georgia.
His wife, Elizabeth Bryson
was born April 3,
1787
and died in 1872. She was a daughter of Andrew and Agnes Nail Bryson.
Her
grandparents were William and Isabella Holmes Bryson.
Next door neighbors to the
William Cathey
family in Union County in 1840 were the John Bryson family (he may have
been a
brother of Elizabeth Bryson Cathey) and David McClure.
Known children of William and
Elizabeth
Bryson Cathey, all born in North Carolina before they migrated to
Georgia, were
Andrew Dever Cathey (04-16-1809) who married Mary Jefferson Allison;
James
Cathey (03-11-1812) who married Emmeline (called Emily) Brown; William
H. Cathey
(08-22-1815) who married Nancy M. Carter; Samuel B. Cathey (09-13-1818)
who
married Mary Melissa "Polly" Parker; and Rebecca Cathey (11-17-1820)
who married John B. Parker.
In researching the Cathey
surname, we find
an interesting history. The first Cathey immigrants to America
in the
seventeenth century were four brothers (whose names seem to be James,
John,
David, and Alexander). They had lived in Monaghan County, Ireland.
Before that, the Cathey family had migrated from the Island of Colonsay,
Scotland.
About 1720 the Catheys who came to America were settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Gradually, some of them migrated to lands in Virginia and North Carolina.
The Catheys were of the McFie or
MacPhie
Clan in Scotland
(some spell it McAfie). The Gaelic spelling is far different from
either McFie
or Cathey and was Macdhubhshith, which meant "Son of the Dark Fairy or
Elf." Legend holds that the chief of the MacPhie Clan was killed in
1623,
and the clan had to gradually leave the wonderful island of Colonsay
in Scotland.
The clan had owned two islands off the coast of Scotland.
On one they buried their
dead and on the other they lived and farmed. For about 100 years, the
Catheys
survived in and around Ulster,
Ireland.
They held closely to their Presbyterian beliefs. They wanted a good
education
for their children, and had a strong work ethic. Religious persecution
in Ireland
caused
migration to America. The Cathey brothers were among those who came
to America
seeking freedom.
James Cathey, one of the four
brothers who
came to America,
was a millwright. He followed the occupation of milling wherever he
settled—first in Pennsylvania,
then in Maryland,
Virginia
and North Carolina.
In Virginia,
James was
deeded 1,350 acres of land by King George II for which Mr. Cathey paid
sixteen
pounds and fifteen shillings.
The next move was across the Yadkin River
where the "Cathey Settlement" was formed at Mills Bridge
in Salisbury, NC. It is said the Catheys were the
first
English-speaking settlement at this location in North Carolina. James owned 3,752
acres
there which he received in a grant. His wife was named Ann, but her
maiden name
is not found in any extant records. Upon James's death, he willed half
his
plantation to his wife Ann and one-half to a nephew John Branden.
Later, two of
James Cathey's nephews owned the land, were operating his mill, and
grinding
the grains produced around Salisbury.
The lineage of William Cathey
who settled
in Union County, Georgia before 1840 has not
been
traced by this writer back to the large land holder James Cathey, the
miller of
Salisbury, NC. However, we do know that William
came to
Union from Burke County, NC, and that
his
father was Andrew D. Cathey. So he definitely stems back to the "Cathey
Settlement" in the Yadkin
Valley. It is
interesting
to note that the names of the first Cathey brothers to settle in America
have
been passed on to descendants in almost every generation of Catheys—a
tradition
to those who hold to the importance of family ties.
Julius Young Cathey was a son of
James and
Emily Brown Cathy, a grandson of William and Elizabeth Bryson Cathy.
One of
Julius's sons was John Lucius Cathey (b. 01-15-1876) who married Hattie Ann
Dyer. And so
comes my kinship to the Clan McFie for John Cathey married my Aunt
Hattie,
sister of my father, Jewel Marion Dyer. Little did my Cathey cousins
and I know
when we were growing up that the Cathey name had such a long and
illustrious
history.
c2009 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published January 8, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail [email protected];
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
Updated
February 5, 2009
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