Three Determined and Persistent Ladies of St. John’s

“When I [Bishop Meade] first visited Kanawha County there were only two communicates in our church in Charleston, Mrs. Colonel Lovell and Mrs. (Sally Burns) Quarrier.  There were some other ladies, who by birth or education were attached to the Episcopal Church, and some few gentlemen who laughingly advocated it in preference to others. There was no Episcopal Church, and the idea of building one seemed preposterous. Some two or three ladies, however, determined upon a trial, their husbands, fathers and brothers making sport of it. They used their tongues, their hands, their pens, and raised in one year about one hundred dollars, which afforded amusement to the gentlemen. The ladies, with characteristic good humor, patience and perseverance, endured it all, putting their earnings in the bank, and proceeded in their work…After many years of patient perseverance, and the accumulation of a very considerable sum, the gentlemen found that the ladies could not be laughed out of their determination, and, some of them having also come to better thoughts on the subject of religion, it was resolved to accept the large amount now in hand, and add to it as much as was necessary to build a church costing four of five thousand dollars.”

~ Joseph Crosby Jeffords, A History Of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Charleston, West Virginia (pg. 3-4)

Mrs. Sarah Burns Quarrier

Sarah Burns Quarrier was born on 24 Mar 1771 in Virginia, the daughter of Richard Burns from Scotland.  She married Alexander Quarrier on 30 May 1798 in King William County Virginia.  Alexander was born on 11 Mar 1746 in Fifeshire, Scotland, the son of William Quarrier (b. 1711) and Margaret Alexander.  Alexander arrived in the American Colonies in 1774 and served in the Revolutionary War.  By 1786 he had moved to Richmond, Virginia. Alexander and Sarah moved to Kanawha County, VA in 1811.  Sarah is listed in the 1840 and 1850 census for Kanawha Co., VA.  Alexander and Sarah were the parents of William Burns Quarrier (1799-1862), Frances Quarrier (1800-1801), Monroe Quarrier (1802-1856), James Young Quarrier (1803-1865), Gustavus Buchanan Quarrier (1804-1852), Archibald Alexander Mcrae Quarrier (1808-1883), Fannie Burns Quarrier (b. 1810), and Virginia Southgate Quarrier (b. 1813).    Alexander died in Kanawha County on 24 Mar 1827 in Kanawha County, while Sarah died in 1879.  

Mrs. Betty Washington Lewis Lovell

Betty Washington Lewis was born on 14 Oct 1796 in Richmond, Virginia, the daughter of William Howell Lewis, Sr. and Ellen Hackley Lewis.  She married Col. Joseph Carmichael Lovell (b. 10 Jan 1793 in the City of London, England) on 19 Feb 1818 in Kanawha County, Virginia.  Betty and Joseph were the parents of Alfred L. Lovell, Richard Channing Moore Lovell, Howell Lewis Lovell, Joseph   Lovell, and Fayette Augustine Lovell.  A lawyer, Joseph died on 25 Nov 1835.  Betty died on 03 July 1866, at the age of 69 in Marietta, Washington County, Ohio.

Mrs. Henrietta S. Fitzhugh

Henrietta S. Fitzhugh was the wife of Henry Fitzhugh (d. 1855).  The Fitzhugh’s arrived in Charleston, Kanawha County, Virginia after 1834 from Warrington, VA.  Their children were Henry Fitzhugh (1830-1890) and Nicholas Fitzhugh (b. 1823).  Joseph Crosby Jefferds Jr. writes in his book, A History of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Charleston, West Virginia, “In a tribute to Mrs. Henrietta Fitzgerald written at the time of her death, at age 91 in 1879 … met with other Episcopalians and ‘friends of the Church’ until the church was built and consecrated.” (pg. 4)