• Individual Record
  
• Photo: Azariah J. Boatwright and Mary Emily Clark
  
• Tombstone: Azariah J. Boatwright-Mary Emily Clark
  

DEATH OF MRS. EMILY CLARK BOATWRIGHT

Batesburg-Leesville, SC, Twin City News, July 10, 1934
Prominent Woman of Near Batesburg Buried Monday in Family Cemetery.

Mrs. Emily Clarke Boatwright, one of the oldest and most highly respected women of this section, died Sunday at her home near Batesburg in her 88th year; and the funeral, which was largely attended by a host of friends and relatives, was held from the home Monday afternoon, with the Rev. W. F. Hiers, of the Wittenbuerg Lutheran church, Leesville, officiating, the interment being in the family cemetery near the home.

Mrs. Boatwright's long and useful life was spent in Lexington county and her passing was a great sorrow not only to her family and relatives, but to hundreds of friends in this section.

The deceased was born near Lexington on Jan. 30, 1846, the daughter of Andrew J. and Mary Lybrand Clarke and the great grand-daughter of Gregory Clarke, who served with General Greene in his South Carolina campaign during the Revolution. Her girlhood days including the Confederate war period, were spent near the place of her birth. Shortly after the war she married Asariah J. Boatwright, a member of Co., K, 13th regiment, South Carolina Volunteers. Of this union were born four sons and four daughters.

From Mr. Boatwright's death about thirty years ago until recent years, Mrs. Boatwright took an active part in the management of the farm, bringing to this task, added to that of rearing her family and later the family of a deceased son, unusual fortitude and cheerfulness. She took a great deal of interest in the Leesville chapter, U.D.C.*, of which she was an honorary member.

Surviving Mrs. Boatwright are two sons, R. J. and O. C. Boatwright, of Batesburg; four daughters, Mrs. William Cato, Monetta; Mrs. Mary B. Jumper, Springfield; Mrs. B. I. Able, Pensacola, Fla., and Mrs. Julian C. Quattlebaum, of Batesburg; nine grand-children and three great grandchildren. Surviving also are the following brothers and sisters: Mrs. Nancy C. Clarke, Mrs. Julia Clarke Shealy, Preston Clarke, all of Lexington; Mrs. Jane C. Hutto, Leesville, and A. S. Clarke, Batesburg.

(Transcriber's note: many of the children spelled the name "Clark"; Mrs. Boatwright wrote it as "Clarke"; the name appears as "Clark" on her tombstone)

Second Obituary: Emily Clark Boatwright
[ Newspaper (name unknown) ] July 9, 1934.
MRS. BOATWRIGHT DIED BATESBURG
Widow of Confederate Veteran Was Long Active in U. D. C.* Work.
-- Special to the State.
[ text follows as in previous obituary, with the following change]

Funeral services for Mrs. Emily Clarke Boatwright, 88, who died at her home near Batesburg early yesterday, were conducted this morning from the residence by the Rev. W. F. Hiers of Leesville Lutheran church. Interment followed at the family cemetery nearby.

[remainder of obituary follows as text of first ]
*UDC = United Daughters of the Confederacy

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Extract from Contributed Article about Mrs. Emily Clark Boatwright, Batesburg-Leesville, SC, Twin City News (approx. 1934)

...Even now she takes a lively interest in the management of her household and of the various farming activities which have survived from the cotton, corn and the indigo of her earlier years to peaches, asparagus and poultry production under the supervision of her son, Oscar C. Boatwright. She also takes a pleasurable interest in the work of the Leesville Chapter U.D.C., of which she is an honorary member.

A visit to the home of Mrs. Boatwright is a truly memorable occasion. Here the caller may see furnishings of a by-gone day, including a spinning wheel, an unique corner cupboard and a home-blown camphor bottle brought by immigrqant foretathers from the banks of the River Rhine. A home-made walnut chest bulges with tight bodiced full skirted dresses and other garments, spun and woven by their owner, knitted flounces, long mittens, children's small bonnets and aprons of more than three score years ago, and various articles of confederate uniform. Another chest is filled with books and letters whose pages are crumbly and yellowed with age. The especially favored guest may be shown numerous miniatures with delicate gold tracery against the backrounds of flaming scarlet velvet and other intimate souvenirs of the past.

Mrs. Boatwright fascinates her callers with modest but vivid accounts of life in the 60's [1860's]. Baking in genuine old Dutch ovens, annual trips to Columbia for supplies when Columbia was a "town", visits to the flour mill operated by relatives at Dreher Shoals, the present site of Saluda Dam, war time romances, and reconstruction days are topics of which her listeners never tire. Among her most treasured memories are the visits to the home of her maternal grandparents, Joseph and Molly Lybrand, north of Lexington. The Joseph Lybrand house, erected about 1800, was the first frame house in the Boiling Springs section. It still stands in a good state of preservation. From the grandparents who lived there in her childhood days, and whose lives extended back into the revolutionary era, little Emily Clarke heard exciting accounts of the Indicans of the section and of the famous ride of Emily Geiger. It is for this Lexington county heroine that she was named -- a fact of which she is very proud.

Mrs. Boatwright intersperses her recitals of long remembvered things with comments upon the modern day. She welcomes the innovations in home and farm devices, transportation, manufacturing, etc. She smiles tolerantly, and accepts with chuckles of amusement the dress and manners of the modern youth.

Always companionable, her optimism, sparkling humor, and rare ability to move along with the times have drawn about this venerable woman a host of friends. Even the saucy redbird who for several seasons has tapped daily at her window pane for crumbs from her hand seems to feel the compelling magnetisn of this true daughter of the Carolina pioneers.