Mystery Monday: What Ever Happened to Great-Grandma Cherry?

I don’t know what happened to my 3x great-grandmother. In 1870, I know where she is and I know who she’s with, but by 1880 - *poof* - she disappears.

Let’s drill down a bit. First off, who am I talking about? Cherry Scott, maiden name unknown, if she even had one. She was the mother of my 2x great-grandmother, Scoatney Scott Cooper, and since I’ve decided to spend this year focusing on Scoatney and her siblings, it seems only right that I begin by posting about her mother. If only there was more to post.

What do I know? Cherry appears on the 1870 Federal Census living near Sparta, Georgia, one county east of Putnam County, where a daughter’s death certificate suggests she was born. Sparta was (and is) the seat of Hancock County, southeast of Atlanta and equidistant between Macon and Augusta, about an hour’s drive from the South Carolina border. According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, Hancock County had been a “leading cotton producer” prior to the Civil War, which had ended just 5 years before. A historical marker for Sparta itself notes that that the town narrowly missed being destroyed during General Sherman’s crushing March to the Sea in 1864.

1870 U.S. Federal Census, Militia District 114, Hancock County, Georgia.

In 1870, Cherry is 45 years old, putting her year of birth at about 1825.  She is living with 50-year-old Solomon Scott, and three children: Scoatney (aged 10), Masonia (aged 7), Daniel (aged 4), and a baby (male, aged 1). There is also a young man in the home, Fed Scott, aged 18. While this census does not specify relationships among members of the household, other records – several of which you'll see in this post – show that this household was a family, with Solomon and Cherry as the parents. Given the large age gap – 8 years – between Fed and the next oldest child, Scoatney, it’s possible that Cherry is not Fed’s biological mother. The other children are each about 3 years apart.

Cherry clearly had her hands full, with four children aged 10 and below, and two men in the household as well. But she also worked outside the home, as a house servant. House labor was incredibly difficult work, and was fraught with various dangers for black women working in white homes, which Cherry likely was. I wonder how it compared to the work of the other black women in her community, most of whom were actually working as field hands, according to the census.

In her home, however, it was 18-year-old Fed who worked as a field hand, but even this is interesting. In most of the black households I looked at, going several pages before and after the Scott’s listing on the census, everyone who was old enough to work was a field hand. But not in theirs. Solomon Scott, Cherry’s partner and the father in this household, was a farmer. This title was almost exclusively reserved for white men in the community; “field hand” and “farmer” do not appear to be interchangeable terms. In fact, the instructions for census takers in this year state “Be very particular to distinguish between farmers and farm laborers” (p. 14). I may want to explore this further in another post.

1870 U.S. Federal Census, Militia District 114, Hancock County, Georgia.

The 1870 census is the only record I’ve found where Cherry appears as a primary figure. Otherwise, she's almost a ghost, or maybe an echo, seen and heard in other people's records. She is listed as the decedent’s mother on the death certificates of her children Masonia, Scoatney and James Solomon. And her name is carried on through several descendants: Masonia names her first daughter Cherrye, James Solomon names his daughter Masonia Cherry.

Death Certificate for James Solomon Scott, 11 May 1927. Multnomah County, Oregon.

Death Certificate for Scoatney Scott Cooper, 26 January 1932. Burke County, GA.

Death Certificate for Masonia Scott Worthen, 25 June 1951. Multnomah County, OR.

Cherry doesn’t appear in the 1880 census. In fact, in November of 1872, Solomon marries another woman. Nor can I find her in 1900, 1910 or 1920 (when, admittedly, she’d be approaching 100). So what happened to Cherry? I don’t know! I can make a few reasonable guesses:

• Perhaps she died. I haven’t found a death record yet, but that doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist. One very specific guess I have is that perhaps she died in childbirth. James Solomon Scott (who often goes by Solomon throughout his life) does not appear in the 1870. The few documents I have for him before he dies in 1927 suggest he was born in 1875 or 1877, though his mother's name is listed as Cherry. However, the 1880 Federal Census lists a Solomon Scott, 8 years old, in the older Solomon’s household. This would make his birth year 1872. If this is our James Solomon Scott, it’s possible that his mother passed away in childbirth or shortly after, and his father Solomon remarried later that year. In this scenario, James Solomon giving his daughter the middle name Cherry makes much more sense than if he was born to a different woman.

•  Perhaps they separated, divorced, or otherwise went their separate ways. If she remarried and changed locations, that would explain my trouble in finding her.

•  Perhaps she’s living with an adult child. She’s not with Scoatney, Masonia or James Solomon, but there’s Daniel, who I haven’t tracked down yet as an adult, a Mary Scott who appears to have been born in 1870 (per the 1880 census) and the mysterious “Baby” Scott, born in 1869. Maybe she’s with one of them?

•  Perhaps she moved away. I’ve focused my search on Georgia and adjacent states, but I’ll be the first to say that I haven’t made this a “Project with a capital P,” so maybe if I deepen and broaden my search, I’ll find her elsewhere.

Clearly I’ve got some more research to do. But in the meantime, Cherry remains a mystery to me.

Do you know something about Cherry, or about the Scott family? Do you have a suggestion for resources or people to connect with? Leave a note in the comments and I’ll be excited to follow up!