Reverend J. Julius Sams, D.D. (1826 – 1918),
son of Dr. Berners Barnwell Sams and Elizabeth Hann Fripp.
The original image belongs to Ting Sams Colquhoun; used by permission.
Dataw Historic Foundation members and visitors to our History and Learning Center know of the Reverend James Julius Sams. His memoir, written I believe at the request of nephew Conway W. Sams in about 1905, is unique. No one else has written such an intimate first-person account of growing up on Dataw Island, SC. And his recollection of details about the family and his father’s (Berners Barnwell Sams) house on Dataw has been quoted by acknowledged experts in their fields such as Lawrence Rowland and Colin Brooker. This week I have included J. Julius Sams’ memoir in its entirety in the Sources section below. Enjoy reading about Dataw & Oak Islands circa 1840 thru the adventures of two boys, Julius and Horace Sams. In the meantime, let me tell you a bit more about Reverend J. Julius Sams, the man.
James Julius Sams (1826 – 1918)
James Julius was the eighth child of Dr. Berners Barnwell Sams and his first wife, Elizabeth Hann Fripp. Julius Sams went by his middle name amongst family and friends, as evidence by his sister-in-law’s Chloe’s extensive diary [Davies]. More about the journal in a moment. Julius inherited part of Dataw Island when his father died, but it appears he had no interest in being a plantation farmer. In about 1852, he left home to attend the Protestant Episcopal Seminary, Alexandria, VA (now the Virginia Theological Seminary.) At the time of his father’s death in 1855, Julius was already a practicing Episcopal minister elsewhere. After being ordained, he had begun his pastoral work in 1854 in Charleston District at the parishes of St. Thomas & St. Denis and of St. John.
In a previous article, I mentioned that Julius met his wife in Salt Sulphur Springs, VA (now West Virginia), where the Sams families would get away from S.C’s summer heat. Mary ‘May’ Eliza Whittle (1830 – 1902), daughter of Conway Whittle, was from Norfolk, VA. They were married in 1858 and had four children. We can follow the family’s travels in South Carolina via their children’s births.
(1) Conway Whittle Sams (1862 – 1909) was born at Middleburg Plantation, Huger, St. Thomas & St. Denis Parish, Berkeley County, SC. I assume since he was a minister in this parish, the community arranged for Reverend Sams and his wife to live there. (The original plantation house was built in 1697 and has recently been restored!) Son Conway never married. At the time of his death, Conway was an Associate Judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, MD.
(2) Julius Stanyarne Sams (1864 – 1867) was born in Chester, SC, about 170 miles north-northwest of Huger, SC.
(3) Mary Lewis Sams (1866 – 1945) was born in York, SC, about 30 miles north of Chester. She married James Addison Cooke in 1890. By the time of her wedding, the Sams family had lived in Baltimore for 12 years. Mary and James had three children.
(4) Chloe Tyler Sams (1870 – 1955) was born in Summerville, SC, about 150 miles south of Chester, SC. She married Edward Duffy in 1898. Chloe and Edward had three children. Chloe is named after her maternal Aunt Chloe Tyler Whittle.
Chloe’s Diary
“Aunt Chloe,” i.e., Chloe Tyler Whittle (Greene) (1843-1925), began keeping a diary during the Civil War at age 17 and continued it for over sixty years. As the younger sister of May (Mrs. James Julius Sams) and Gay (Mrs. Horace Hann Sams), her diary is full of insights into these Sams men. It describes happiness, gossip, and sadness during the war. The travels of Reverend Julius Sams between SC and VA are mentioned frequently, as are the trips of Major Horace Hann Sams of the CSA. I find her diary very poignant, given her first-person account of these men. After learning so much about them and their interactions within the Sams and Whittle families, the devastating news of the deaths of Major Horace Hann Sams and half-brother Charles Clement Sams near the end of the war is heartbreaking. The illness of her sisters tempers the excitement of births of her nieces and nephews. When I read of the birth of Julius Stanyarne Sams and the joy it brought, I can’t help but reflect on what they did not know at the time. He died at age 3 [Davies.]
I’ve linked to Davies’s thesis about Chloe’s diary in the Sources below. This excerpt only covers 1861 through the late summer of 1866. The entire multi-volume journal was passed down to Reverend Sams’ daughter and namesake, Chloe Tyler Sams (Duffy). She eventually donated it to the College of William and Mary in 1950. The other volumes of the diary undoubtedly include much more material on Reverend Julius Sams & wife May Whittle Sams, since it covers the period of their entire lives; May died in 1902, Julius in 1918 (in the flu pandemic.)
Reverend Sams’ thoughts on the Civil War
Julius appears to have served the Charleston District communities up to, through the Civil War, and beyond. He spent 24 years as an Episcopal minister in S.C. There is no evidence that he took up arms in the CSA during the war, though he felt significant hostilities towards the north when he penned his memoir.
We know from his memoir and Chloe’s diary that Julius was incredibly close to his younger brother, Horace Hann Sams. They married Whittle sisters. When Horace died near the end of the war, it was Julius who told Horace’s wife of his passing, brought her and the children back to his home in Chester, SC, and then escorted them up to her father’s house in Norfolk, VA. Major Horace Hann Sams’ widow Grace ‘Gay’ Latimer Whittle (Sams) lived the rest of her 32 years in Norfolk.
Julius writes of forgiveness in his Datha memoir but is angry. “Still, you must forgive them.” he writes to his nephew CW Sams (the only son of his dear brother Horace) about the Yankees. But he goes on to say, “I believe the war waged by the North against the South to have been the most unjust, fraudulent and ungrateful ever waged by one people upon another.”
After the war, Julius received his Doctor of Divinity degree in 1878 from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA, the second oldest institute of higher education in the U.S. (only Harvard is older). After getting his doctorate, Julius and his family moved to Baltimore, where he served as the rector of Holy Trinity Church until his retirement in 1903. He became Rector Emeritus of the church; the family never left Baltimore.
Obituary
Reverend Julius Sams lived a long life, dying in Baltimore at the age of 92. He outlived his son, the judge, and lived long enough to see his two daughters marry and to meet all six of his grandchildren. Julius died in 1918 and is buried near his wife in the traditional Whittle resting place, Elmwood Cemetery, Norfolk, VA.
His obituary in The Baltimore Sun, 16 October 1918, contains this poignant statement,
“Because of the prevailing epidemic the funeral services of Dr. Sams were private. The body was taken to Norfolk this week for interment. But for the epidemic, there would have been a public funeral in the church in which Dr. Sams was rector for a quarter of a century. He was amiable and lovable, and many of his admirers will regret they were unable to pay their last.”
Sources
Brooker, Colin – The Shell Builders, Tabby Architecture of Beaufort, South Carolina and the Sea Islands, 2020.
Davies, Emily R. – ‘What Sorrows and What Joys: The Civil War Diaries of Cloe Tyler Whittle, 1861-1866’, College of William & Mary – Arts & Sciences Thesis, 1993
Holden, Joel and Riski, Bill – The Sams Family Tree, Ancestry.com, accessed August 31, 2020.
Middleburg Plantation, Huger, South Carolina
Rowland, Lawrence S. et al. – The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Volumes 1- 3.
Sams, Conway Whittle – History of the Sams and Whittle Families, circa 1925, unpublished. Includes the remembrances of Elizabeth E. Sams (1905) and Rev James Julius Sams (undated).
Sams, Reverend James Julius – Datha, undated, but believed to be circa 1905.
Virginia Theological Seminary
Whittle-Greene Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.
#52Sams Week 35 – Reverend J. Julius Sams
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