An American Family History

Mary Earnest Cady

Childbirth was was perilous. Around 1.5 percent of births ended in the mother's death. Since women gave birth to many children, chances of dying in childbirth were quite high.

Dr. Stephen Columbus Cady was born September. 30, 1804 in Washington County, Vermont. He was the oldest son of Jonathan Cady and Jerusha Brown. He was the great, great grandson of Captain Joseph Cady and Sarah Davis.

He studied English and Latin and became a dentist. He was a handsome man with a mustache and goatee. Oral family history says that he was not very religious, was alcoholic, and was generous with his wealth. The story goes that once he gave away 100 acres of his land to a widow for a sow and its baby pigs. Sometimes, when drunk, he was known to ride naked through Dalton on his black horse (or was it white?).

As a young man, Stephen left Vermont and moved to Tipton County, Tennessee. At the time of the 1830 census he was 26 years old and living by himself in Tipton County, Tennessee. He enslaved a young woman.

From 1830 to about 1839, Stephen was a traveling dentist setting up shop wherever he went.

His first wife was Harriet Wainwright. The Vermont Chronicle of June 29, 1832 announced that Dr. Stephen Cady of Hamilton, Georgia and Miss Harriet M. Wainwright of Burlington, Vermont, were married in Burlington on June of 1832.

Before their marriage, Harriet wrote a romantic letter to Stephen that still exists. She addressed him as "Corydon." Corydon (from the Greek κόρυδος korudos "lark") is a stock name for a shepherd in ancient Greek pastoral poems. In the second of Virgil's Eclogues Corydon was a shepherd whose love for the boy Alexis was described in the work.

She refered to herself as "Julia" taken from Robert Herrick's The Night Piece to Julia.

Postmarked Burlington, Vermont, May 25, 1831
Arrived Louisville, Kentucky, June 20, 1831
Forwarded to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Burlington May 26, 1831

Your lovely letter, dear Corydon, has at last arrived after waiting and waiting in almost despair. I at last have received it. It is almost five months since I heard from you. I had giving up inquiring for one, nor did I ever expect to hear from you again. For fear there had been a fictitious letter wrote to you in my name, I wrote to you again and directed my letter to Missouri. I presume that you have not received it.

How different are my feelings now from what they were when I first wrote. I am writing you now to express my joy in hearing you say you still love me, although you do not know that you err in loving me so recklessly as you do. Ah, Corydon, if I return my sincere love to you with as much regard, will that not recompense you? Yes, I do love, and will love so true the sigh that rends my constant heart shall break my Corydon's too.

I admire the manner in which you have anticipated the happiness of our future state. Indeed you have made another very interesting picture. Lovely Corydon, may our days be spent in happiness as what we call happiness, not as the worldly objects would express themselves. Oh! Glorious day. Oh! Happy hour when we shall meet to part no more! And shall we never realize that hour? Yes, Corydon, we live for each other and that day will arrive, I trust, when we shall meet to be united in the tenderest of ties, when we shall not only anticipate happiness, but realize it.

I am pleased to hear you are so well situated in life and that nothing is wanting, but your Julia, to restore you to happiness, then indeed would Julia be happy. Yes, Corydon, she loves with all that love which adorns her size. It was love alone that prompted her to leave parents and relatives for your sake and her own love. Then if naught else could render us happy, then why should we spend our days in sorrow when happiness is so near at hand? Oh, return then to your Julia and she will be yours forever.

But a few weeks ago, how dull, how cheerless was my soul! How gay, how animated now. Tell me, if you are all my fond heart believes you to be, in mercy, in pity, delay not to inform me? What delight and pleasure there is in knowing an object we cannot help loving. We may still esteem! I will endeavor to learn musicle (sic) as it is the wish of my love, I cannot refuse him.

My health has been very poor this summer, the rest of my family is well and they send their respects to you. Mr. Bolie.... Dunham was married last week. Mr. Humphrey, I have heard, expects to be married this next fall to a Miss McLaughlin. Do not you delight to hear of people being married.

I fear I shall tantalize with a long letter, if I do not finish it soon. But Corydon, will you return this summer to your Harriet? This may be the last letter I shall write to an absent lover. I shall wait in anxious expectation for answer. Do not disappoint me, oh, may my request meet with a favorable answer.
Adieu, dear Corydon, yours forever,
Harriet

Stephen wrote the following on the same page as Harriet's letter:

January 10th, 1831
I, S. C. Cady, will henceforth by all I hold most dear in this world and in an utter abstinence from playing cards for any stake whatsoever,

I will also in no wise indulge in any games of hazard where money or any other stake is ventured.

To these conditions I bind myself from a firm conviction of the injurious tendency of all games on the mind as well as the awful effect it has in the ruin of families in depriving them of support. SC May God therefore give me firmness to resist every temptation that I may have to violate these good resolutions.

July 4th, 1831
Additional resolutions: From this day I will not play at cards. I will not smoke cigars after the 10th.

They were in Columbus, Georgia, by March 3,1832 when this advertisement appeared in the Columbus Enquirer:

S. C. Cady will remain a few days in Columbus during which time he will be happy to attend to any calls for dental surgery at his room in the Columbus Hotel.

Harriet and Stephen's children were Alonzo A. Cady ( 1833) and Cornelius C. (G.) Cady (August 13, 1835).

In March 3, 1833, S. C. Cady was listed as one of three dentists in Columbus.

In July, 1835, Dr. S. C. Cady offered toasts at a Muscogee County July 4th dinner and celebration.

Harriet died in 1835 due to complications of childbirth.

Stephen bought six 160 acre lots in 1837 and 1838 in Hancock, Oglethorpe, and Coweta Counties. He was buying up land from winners in the 1832 Georgia lottery which was held to distribute Cherokee lands to white settlers.

In 1844 he bought 160 acres from John Dickson of Hancock County. All these purchases added up to 1,120 acres. He continued buying land in the area.

Stephens second wife was Mary Payne Earnest (Ernest). They married on April 16, 1840 in Dalton, Georgia. Mary was born on April 19, 1821 in Greene County, Tennessee and was the daughter of Wesley Earnest and Mary Payne. Mary's mother died in child birth, so she was given her mother's full name. She was sent to live with her uncle in Dalton, Georgia He had a general store there where she worked as a young woman. Oral family history states that

around 1839-40 a man in his mid-thirties entered the store to purchase supplies for his new home North of Dalton. He was a very handsome man with a little mustache and goatee. He did not talk like most of the men of this area, and he seemed to be very intelligent. He had two small boys with him that were giving him a tough time. She thought he must be a good father to take these tow boys with him to shop. The children were very handsome like their father, but seemed to lack discipline.

A few days later Mary learned that the gentleman's wife had died, and he was living alone. He came into the store often, and soon he and Mary were talking about life in this little community. She was very excited when he asked her uncle if he could call on Mary. It was not long until they were seen together almost every week. No one was surprised when he asked for her hand in marriage. On 16 April 1840, Mary Payne Earnest, the nineteen year old great grand-daughter of Heinrich Ernsts, married the gentleman from Vermont; Stephen C. Cady.

Stephen and Mary lived on a farm four miles north of Dalton, Georgia across the road from the Pleasant Grove Methodist Church. They gave the land for the church and a school in 1852.

Stephen and Mary's children were Edward Corydon Cady (April 25, 1841), Columbus (Bud) Cady (April 25, 1841), William Juan Valancourt Cady (December 11, 1842), Joan V. (Swan) Cady (1843), Edwin Eugene Ernest Cady (January, 1846), Emily Lavinia Cady (March 18, 1847), Loretta Florance Cady LaBell (March 26, 1850), Mary Chester Cady Groves (March 26, 1850),George Wesley Cady (September 5, 1853), Harriet Maria Cady Farrar (April 21, 1855), Janie Sylvia Cady Palmer (November 15, 1858), and Edna Adelade Cady Harvey (March 5, 1863).

At the time of the 1850 census, the family was living in Murray Georgia. The household consisted of Stephen C. age 46, Mary age 30, Alonzo age 17, Cornelius age 15, Columbus age 9, Susan age 7, Eugene age 5 Emma age 3, and the twins Louretta and Mary were infants.

In 1860 they were in Dalton, Whitfield County, Georgia.

Stephens sons Alonzo and Cornelius joined the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Cornelius died June 13, 1861 of a fever. Stephen went and brought the body home and so he could be buried in the family cemetery behind their house. Alonzo died on September 21, 1861 and again Stephen went and brought the body home.

Soon after his two half brothers were buried Edward (Bud) went west of the Mississippi into Indian territory and never returned.

After the war, Stephen and Mary lost considerable property. The 1860 census valued their property at 3,000 dollars, by the 1870 census it was valued at 1,000 dollars.

Stephen died on April 9, 1876 in Dalton, Georgia. He was buried next to his sons at their family cemetery. Mary died on died May 4, 1895 and was buried next to Stephen.

Stephen Cady's Photo in a Locket

In the Civil War (1861 to 1865) eleven Southern states seceded from the U.S. and formed the Confederate States of America.