Family documents from Cawthra cousins in Connecticut and Toronto.
Sarah Elizabeth Cawthra Schoeffel's biography tells of her father Isaiah's arrival in Rochester, NY and his founding of the first woolen mill there. It also tells of her marriage to Francis Schoeffel, who went off to the Civil War very shortly after their marriage. "As a bride at 25, she fought her way across the Potomac to her wounded husband" Other family documents say that when she heard her husband had been wounded, she couldn't get permission to go to him, but she went anyway. When she found her husband, he was unhurt.
The obituary goes on to say that she devoted herself to nursing the wounded, raised $17,000. to help the founding of St. Mary's hospital for wounded Civil War soldiers. She was a friend of President Lincoln and once rode in a ballon with him to oversee the troops.
I have not been able to substantiate this balloon trip claim. But I had heard that story about our relative Sarah Cawthra from the time I was a child, so I was pleasantly surprised to finally see the obituary as an adult. However, I received an email from a historical association that says the balloon ride never happened.
The obituary goes on to say that she had, through her nursing of the wounded, become so much in the confidence of govt officials that they entrusted her with $30,000. to carry home and distribute to the disbanded soldiers.
According to the obituary, She was one of the first business women in Rochester and the U.S. Her wholesale millinery business, located in State Street, was destroyed by flood in 1865.
She was close to 102 when she died.
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C > Cawthra | S > Schoeffel > Sarah Elizabeth (Cawthra) Schoeffel
Categories: Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, New York | Nurses, United States Civil War