He Shall Feed [and Follow] His Flock

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 8 – A Big Decision

Prompt: The theme for Week 8 is “A Big Decision.” Life is filled with choices – some easy, some life-changing. Think about a big decision an ancestor had to make. Maybe it was choosing between staying in their home or moving across the ocean. Maybe they had to decide between two people to marry. Maybe they had to decide whether or not to fight in a war – and which side to fight on.

Imagine this scenario: You were born in the 1780s in Ireland, and it was there that you married and had children. You were part of a close-knit religious community of Scottish Covenanters, many of whom decided to leave Ireland for America. You joined them, immigrating with your spouse and two children—to a Covenanter community in South Carolina. After living and farming there for about 30 years, and having seven more children, it became necessary for you to relocate again.

You uprooted your family, loaded up all your earthly possessions, and trekked—with livestock—some 600+ miles north to an as-yet-undetermined new home.

After many long days of travel, you have now reached a fork in the road. A decision must be made. A northwesterly route leads to one Covenanter community in Illinois. A northerly route leads to another Covenanter community in Indiana.

A critical decision faces you. Possible considerations in choosing your destination are your preferences with regard to

• distance to each town
• congregation
• pastor
• availability of farmland
• availability of agricultural resources
• local climate and average rainfall
• state
• family or friends already living there

Faced with this conundrum, my 3rd great-grandparents, ultimately let their farm animals make the final decision. Or so one family historian’s account says.

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In 1816, John Cathcart (1789-1874), his wife Mary Harper Cathcart (1789-1873), and their two young children emigrated to Winnsboro, South Carolina, from County Antrim, Ireland. They raised their family in the South and were farmers. Despite the fact that slavery was quite common there at the time, the Cathcarts did not own slaves. They were, in fact, vehemently opposed to the practice.

The Cathcarts had hoped to coexist with local slaveholders, but because of their firm beliefs, it became increasingly difficult to do so. When some of their older children married and were given slaves as wedding presents, John and Mary knew that it was time to leave.

In 1846, John and his son Robert Beaty Cathcart—my 2nd great grandfather—left South Carolina for points north.

On foot.

Their objective was to locate a Covenanter community as a prospective new home. They visited a Covenanter community in Bloomington, Indiana, and another one near Sparta, Illinois, scoping out a potential new home. Father and son returned on foot to report their findings.

I was curious how long a journey like that might have taken. I calculated the total distance to be 1,425 miles! The walk from Winnsboro to Bloomington to Sparta and back to Winnsboro, as calculated by Google Maps, would have taken roughly 22 hours, not counting stops to eat and rest!

The following spring, the Cathcarts loaded up their possessions in wagons and, joined by other families, embarked on the long journey north. According to family lore, they had not yet decided which community they wanted to move to at the time of their departure.

Robert again made the trip on foot, herding the farm animals that were in the caravan.

Family historianLois Getty Eastwood writes in The Kansas Cathcarts:

…the final decision as to where they would locate was not made before they left South Carolina. At a fork in the trail, the wagons held back until the farm animals made a choice of the route. They took the road to Illinois, and the caravan followed.”

And, so it came to pass that the Cathcarts’ big decision was made by their livestock.