Francis P. Jarvis and Sarah Anne Borum Jarvis

Francis P. Jarvis and Sarah Ann Borum Jarvis

Francis Jarvis in the Civil War

Lena's father, Frank Jarvis, fought in the Civil War first as a soldier and then as a sailor in the CS Navy. Mathews County overwhelmingly sided with the South and provided over 500 men. Click here to see names and histories of some of the Mathews men who served in the War.

Frank Jarvis's Civil War service record is recorded here. I've attempted to follow him through his enlistments and the action he may have seen in these units.

Link to the CSS Virginia Page...great info!

Battle between the C.S.S. Virginia and the U.S.S. Monitor, Hampton Roads, Va., March 9, 1862. Engraved in 1863 by J. Davies from a drawing by C. Parsons.
(Source: NARA [NWDNS-64-CC-63])

The Virginia of the famous Ironclad battle of March 8, 1862 against the USS Monitor was burned 5/11/1862 at Craney Island (during the evacuation of Norfolk May 10).

After the war Frank Jarvis married Sarah Borum (May 20, 1867 in Mathews). She was 22 and he was 37. Their first child, Richard, was born in May 1868. At the time they were married Frank's occupation was a merchant. At some point, he was a teacher at Cattail Academy in Mathews. There were no public schools in those days, and therefore no set salary, but the neighbors would pool their resources and pay the teacher.Many private schools existed in Mathews, with sometimes only a dozen or so students. The 1870 census lists his occupation as a mariner. The 1880 shows him as a farmer. I've included the 1880-1920 census records of the Jarvis family, and also one showing the Hundley family in Hampton here.

Frank Jarvis was a widower when he married Sarah. He had a daughter, whom my grandmother remembers as named Mollie Sue Foster. Her mother had died in childbirth, and she lived with relatives in Baltimore. Later in life she lived with some Wainwright relatives near Yorktown.

Lena's father died November 23, 1897, of tuberculosis, when Lena was 17. He would have been 68 years old (born apprx. 1829). He may have been buried at the Benton Burying Ground in Cricket Hill, an area that supposedly contains several graves (but no markers are visible now). This is further north toward the bridge to Gwynn's Island. The book Tombstones of Mathew's County, VA (1988) states that a Francis Jarvis is buried there, along with several other people.

Sarah Anne Borum

Sarah Ann Borum Jarvis was born in Gloucestor County (1846?). She was called "Miss Sarah" or "Sally Ann". Her father, Robert Jarvis, was killed in a card game (gambling) and her mother (Maria Adams Borum?) didn't live long after this. After her mother died, Sarah moved in with her older brother John (who was married to Selena and also had a daughter Selena) and lived in Norfolk. Sarah's brother Josiah (b. 1848?) moved in with some Adams relatives according to the 1860 census.

Sarah attended a Young Ladies Academy in Norfolk and witnessed the battle of the Merrimack and Monitor from the roof of the school. She lived in the time where the girls wore hoop skirts. She would tell a story about going to a theater in Norfolk and a rat ran up a girl's dress!

She lived there until her husband died (11/23/1897) and her children were grown. Her son Emmett had a store at Cricket Hill and supported his mother and other siblings until they married and moved away. (Her husband's Civil War pension was $13 a month and even then you would have to go to Hampton to collect it.)

After all her children had married, Sarah "broke up housekeeping" and stayed periods of time with her children. My grandmother remembers that she would come and stay for two weeks. Marjorie would hear the train whistle and ask "Is Grandma coming on the train?" She actually came by car when someone could bring her. Marjorie would look forward to her visit, as she would read to her and make doll clothes. She had a few funny expressions: she called ladies wearing big hats "a mouse under a sifter." If a woman wore a lowneck dress, Sarah would say the woman was "wearing her navel for a breast pin."

My grandmother remembers that she wore black and white. In the morning she wore print dresses and a plain apron. She napped after lunch. In the evening she dressed in all black with a white lace collar and fancy apron, with black shoes. She was short in stature. She wore a corset cover. When doing handsewing she would scoot her small scissors under her breast until she needed them. She had good eyesight and never wore glasses.

Sarah died suddenly of a stroke shortly after her daughter Virgie died. She was preceded in death by her son Richard and Lena.

Sarah's Will simply states: " I want my daughter Josie Jarvis to have all of my money when I leave. Sarah A. Jarvis"

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