October Birthdays

Powhatan Beaty, 
born October 8, 1837
Powhatan Beaty was born into slavery in Richmond, Virginia.  It is unknown when and how he escaped slavery.  He moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1849.  While in school, he developed an interest in theater and made his public acting debut at a school concert. After leaving school, he was apprenticed to Henry Boyd, a black furniture maker, and became an experienced wood lathe operator.  Powhatan Beaty was 23 years old when the Civil War began.







John Woolman, born October 19, 1720

John Woolman was the fourth child and eldest son in a family of thirteen children belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).  His father Samuel Woolman was a farmer. The family farm was in Burlington County of the New Jersey colony.  John was named after his father's father, one of the early Quaker settlers of New Jersey.  John Woolman died 87 years before the Civil War began.

Cassius Marcellus Clay, 
born October 19, 1810
Cassius Clay, nicknamed "Cash", was the youngest son of the nine children of General Green Clay and his wife, Sally Lewis Clay. He was born at Clermont, their home in the Richmond area of Madison County, Kentucky. He was 50 years old when the Civil War began.











John Laurens, born October 28, 1754

John Laurens was born on October 28, 1754 to Henry Laurens and and Eleanor Ball  Laurens in Charleston, South Carolina. The Laurens family were Huguenots who fled France for religious liberty. John Laurens died on August 27, 1782 at the age of 27, just weeks before the end of the Revolutionary War and 79 years before the start of the Civil War.







Levi Coffin, born October 28, 1798

Levi Coffin was born on a farm near New Garden in Guilford County, North Carolina, the son of Levi Coffin Sr. and Prudence Williams Coffin.  He was a descendant of Tristam Coffin, who came to America in 1642 and was one of nine purchasers of Nantucket from the Indians.  Levi's father had been born in in 1763.  In 1773, before the American Revolution, a large group of Quakers emigrated from Nantucket to North Carolina; Levi's grandfather, William Coffin, established a family farm in the New Garden community. William and Priscilla Coffin had ten children--eight sons and two daughters--all of whom lived to have families of their own. All were members of the Religious Society of Friends. Levi Coffin was 62 years old when the Civil War began.