Louisa Boatwright

A short history…

Louisa (30 May 1870 - 9 October 1942) was one of the children born in the house of Peter (1835 - 1916) and Roseanna Moye (1833- ??) Boatwright.

Peter built a house on the clay from a well dug near a tributary of the Little Salkehatchie River; his family was one of several instrumental in the organization of the church now known as Deep Creek Baptist Church. Her sisters and brothers were named William (b. 1863), H. Lawton (b. 1865), Julia (b. 1867), Elisabeth (b. 1871), Sallie (b. 1872), CS (b. 1875), Lilla (b. 1877), Tida (b. 1878), Martha (b. 1880), Hannah, Miley, Moses, and George. Louisa and her siblings are the roots that connect us to the larger Boatwright family. Four sisters—Sallie, Lilla, Martha, and Hannah-married four Jamison brothers; one sister-Julia married into the Mears family.

Data from the 1880 US Census shows “B-0-a-t-r-i-g-h-t” as the spelling of the family name. Later census data shows the name with a "w.” Peter's name is spelled “B-o-a-t-w-r-i-g-h-t" in 1900. The change in spelling from one census to the next may only be the result of limitations of the census takers at different times.

The 1870 US Census lists the population of Colleton County as 25,810; of those, 16,492 were colored. Eight hundred four people in Colleton County were attending school—167were colored. Data from 1890 Census indicates a huge increase in colored children in school.(2,917) Detail from the 1900 Census shows that the children in Peter Boatwright's house could read and write; Peter was not described as literate. Louisa and her siblings learned to read and write, and they taught their children to read and write too.

In the late Nineteenth century, Louisa first married Louis Sharpe of Hendersonville, South Carolina. In her first marriage, she bore children were Elizabeth, Peter, Lucinda, Hattie, and Malachi. They gave her twenty-seven grandchildren.

Later in life, Louisa married Isaac Boatwright (d. 1 Oct 1948) of Bamberg, South Carolina. (Her second son, Malachi, took the name Boatwright.) This marriage, produced seven children—Maggie, Lillie, Arthur, Evella, William, Russeline, and Precious. This second group of children gave her an additional twenty grandchildren bringing the total number of grandchildren to forty-seven.

Louisa passed away 9 October 1942.