Unless otherwise noted, all of this information comes from notes made by Sarah Ola Crimminger Nettles and Buena Crimminger Feeney based on information related to them by their father Willie Crimminger, son of Mary Jane Catoe Crimminger.¹,²

Mr. Catoe

Catoe (or Cato) is the surname chosen by (or for) an orphan boy who would later be the father of Mary Jane Catoe Crimminger. Given that he was the father of Mary Jane Cato(e) who was born in 1824, it’s likely that Mr. Cato was born around the 1790s. According to both tradition and the place of birth for her father given in the 1880 census entry for Mary Jane,³ Mr. Cato was from England.

The story, as related to Grandpa (Willie) Crimminger by his mother Mary Jane Cato(e) Crimminger, goes as follows: “As a very small boy, her father was lured aboard a boat coming to the United States from England and was brought eventually to the Camden District area. When asked his name, each time he replied only with ‘Cat,’ thus this was given him as a surname. He made his home with a family by the name of Thompson, and at a suitable age became an apprentice to Mr. Thompson as a saddlemaker. In later years he was married and his wife expected their first child, at which time his friends teased him severely, asking ‘when is your wife going to have her kitten?’ Being a sensitive person he became so incensed that he applied to the Legislature to have his named changed to ‘Cato.'”

Further notes from an interview of Grandpa Crimminger state that “He was abducted as a very small child by sailors from a wharf in England. They took him away from his nurse, put him on the ship and brought him to America. All he could say was “Cat”, so that is what he was called.” More sensational versions passed down the family claim he was abducted by pirates and brought to Charleston.

Grandpa Crimminger stated that his parents, Robert and Mary Jane, were first cousins. Their mothers were both daughters of Samuel Love.

Mr. Catoe’s wife was always in poor health. The family traveled for her health. Grandpa Crimminger related his mother’s memories of traveling as a child in a covered wagon through North Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, and of seeing the Mississippi river. Mr. Cato would skin the bark off a pole and use it to catch prairie chickens. He would disturb the roost and they would fly or settle along the pole and slide into a sack on the other end. They eventually returned to the Camden area. Following Mrs. Catoe’s death, Mr. Cato returned to Tennessee, leaving Mary Jane with a family named Carpenter who were shroud makers. Mr. Cato remarried in Tennessee and Mary Jane eventually lost contact with him.

Mary Jane Catoe

Mary Jane Catoe was born 14 Feb 1824.⁴ When her father left for Tennessee after her mother’s death, Mary Jane stayed with a family named Carpenter who were shroud makers. Grandpa Crimminger related the story that one Saturday they had a shroud to finish by the next day. Midnight came and they had not finished. So they shut the windows and closed the shutters to keep out the light of Sunday and worked on until they finished. Mary Jane was a member at Salem Methodist Church, as were the Thompsons, the family her father had grown up with.

Mary Jane’s name appears in a list of letters left at the Camden post office in 1840.

Grandpa Crimminger’s claim that Mary Jane and Robert were first cousins appears to be substantiated by an 1845 deed in which the children of Samuel Love and Mary Jane Cato sold some land together.⁵ This would imply that she was an heir of the Love family as well.

According to the Family Bible, she married Robert Crimminger on 3 Feb 1846.⁶ She had her fortune told before her marriage. The fortune teller told her she would marry a man who would always have plenty. She and Robert had ten children.

Mary Jane was sick for about the last ten or fifteen years of her life. Her doctor was Dr. Columbus Cauthen, whom she trusted greatly. He told her one day she would die the next day at twelve o-clock. But the next day, she took a turn for the better at precisely that time.

In contrast to her husband, Mary Jane was a very religious person who read and studied the Bible and taught it to her children.

Oscar and Mary Reeves stayed with Mary Jane for a brief period, apparently after Robert had passed. Later, she moved in with Grandpa (Willie) Crimminger. However, Grandpa Crimminger also reported that she died sitting in a chair in the south door of the second Love house, which was where Robert and Mary Jane had lived. The obituary reported she died at Grandpa Crimminger’s home. There seems to be some confusion on this point. After her death, Robert and Mary Jane’s home was burned down by some children who were playing in the fire and accidentally set the mantle cloth on fire.

1. Crimminger Family Tree written by Sarah Ola Crimminger Nettles with help from Earle Reeves ↩︎
2. Interview of Willie Crimminger by daughter Buena Crimminger Feeney with additional notes ↩︎
3. “United States, Census, 1880”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6SJ-XXD : Sun Jan 19 02:55:14 UTC 2025), Entry for Robert A. Criminger and Mary J. Criminger, 1880. ↩︎
4. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/75142100/mary_jane-crimminger: accessed June 30, 2025), memorial page for Mary Jane Catoe Crimminger (14 Feb 1824–18 Jan 1904), Find a Grave Memorial ID 75142100, citing Salem Cemetery, Heath Springs, Lancaster County, South Carolina, USA; Maintained by Boyce M. Lawton, III (contributor 47916517). ↩︎
5. Lancaster County, SC Deed Book P, p94, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSR8-NS6L-9?cat=472451&i=566) ↩︎
6. DAR Supporting Documentation for Application of Ola Crimminger Nettles #659002, Patriot Frederick Grimminger #A048570 ↩︎