Elizabeth Exima Sams (1831 – 1906), Saint Helena Churchyard, Beaufort, SC
The theme this week is MY FATHER’S LIFE. Elizabeth Exima Sams (1831 – 1906) passed along an oral history of her father by telling others of her fond memories of him. She was born March 16th, 1831, to Elizabeth Fripp and Dr. Berners Barnwell Sams. Her mother was only 17 when she married Dr. Sams. Together they had eleven children. Elizabeth F. Sams died at age 35 while giving birth to her daughter Elizabeth. This is the only incident I’ve found in our Sams family tree of a “Mrs. Sams” dying during childbirth.
Fortunately, the daughter lived a long life in South Carolina. Elizabeth E. Sams evacuated to Barnwell Court House, as many Sams did during the war. Elizabeth appears there in the 1870 Federal Census, but I could not find her in subsequent census records. Her obituary says she is from Beaufort, and I know she is one of many Sams buried in Saint Helena’s Episcopal Churchyard, Beaufort (photo above).
She probably enjoyed good health because, late in life, she traveled from Beaufort, South Carolina, to Norfolk, Virginia, to visit her nephew, Conway Whittle Sams (1864 – 1935).
By the late 1890s, Conway had experienced some life events that inspired him to write a family history. His mother and wife both died in 1897. He never knew his father, Major Horace Hann Sams, who died from a disease at the end of the Civil War. [Week 11, Week 18] He grew up hearing that his father was closest to his brother James Julius and sister Elizabeth, both still alive in 1905. I believe he contacted them for help.
If you’ve been to any of our DHF lectures or visited the History & Learning Center, you know that Rev. J Julius Sams wrote a lengthy memoir about growing up in Beaufort and his adventures with brother Horace on Datha. It appears he wrote this at his nephew’s request. Conway Whittle Sams’s History of the Sams and Whittle Families contains two first-person memoirs [Sams]. One is the James Julius memoir.
The other is an oral history passed along by Aunt Elizabeth Exima Sams to nephew Conway during a visit in 1905. Elizabeth told him about his grandfather, Dr. BB Sams, her father. The last sentence of her memoir reads,
I have heard the above sketch of my father’s life read, and believe it to be substantially correct.
Elizabeth E. Sams signed it on February 21, 1905. We have no similar first-person accounts of any of the other six brothers (i.e., sons of William and Elizabeth Sams).
Elizabeth passed away at age 75 in 1906, unmarried.
In Week 3, I included a few quotes from this oral history of Elizabeth’s. Below is the entire section about her father. A few of the unique items which caught my eye are:
1. Dr. BB Sams kept mostly to himself, at least as far as his daughter Elizabeth knew. He had three good friends.
2. Dr. BB Sams had two sailboats, named “Lizzard” and “Sheer Water.”
3. I wonder if we still have “bull-bats” around here?
4. Elizabeth, and one of her sisters, were sent away to boarding school in Georgia.
5. Elizabeth was 24 years old when her father passed away. Dr. BB Sams was in her Beaufort home when he died.
Transcript of Elizabeth’s obituary from 1906:
“DEATH OF MISS ELIZABETH SAMS.
Passed Away Suddenly of Heart Failure at Rockville, S.C.
Special to The State.
Beaufort, Dec. 3.- Miss Elizabeth Sams, daughter of the late Berners Barnwell Sams, a resident of Beaufort, died today of heart failure at Rockville, where she was visiting relatives. Miss Sams was in her 76th year.
She is survived by a sister, Mrs. Adeladia [sic] Halongquist [sic] of Courtney, Fla., and two brothers, Dr. J. Julius Sams of Baltimore and Dr. R. Sams of Beaufort. Mr. B. S. Sams of Beaufort is a nephew, and Mrs. Wm. Elliott, Jr., of Columbia, a grand niece.
The funeral will be held here Wednesday.
Miss Sams was much beloved for her unusual sweetness and fortitude, and her unexpected death comes as a shock to her many friends.”
Sources
Holden, Joel and Riski, Bill – The Sams Family Tree, Ancestry.com, accessed July 3, 2020.
Sams, Conway Whittle – History of the Sams and Whittle Families, circa 1925, unpublished. Includes the remembrances of Elizabeth E. Sams and Rev James Julius Sams.
Wikipedia – Subjects: “bull-bat”, “The Montpelier Institute”, accessed 3 Jul 2020.
#52Sams Week 27 – My Father’s Life