Charles McCarty: A Remarkable Accomplishment?

Charles McCarty's Gravestone, Drumbo
Cemetery, Blenheim, Oxford, Ontario

Living to 103 years of age is a remarkable accomplishment. Living to 103 years of age in the 19th century is even more so.

In Drumbo Cemetery near Woodstock, Ontario, there is a small gravestone which reads:

Charles McCarty

born at Canadagua NY

Feb 14 1780

died Dec 4 1883

aged

103 yrs 9 mos & 20 d's

The exact same information is contained in Charles's Ontario Death Registration. And the 1881 Census, taken two years previously, shows Charles McCarty, aged 101, living with his daughter Margaret and son-in-law Henry Muma in Blenheim, Oxford, Ontario.

On the face of it, Charles McCarty really did live to be 103. But who was he?

Online genealogies that include Charles provide little additional details. Most ignore the information on his gravestone and death registration. Instead of a birth date of 14 Feb 1780, most go with a 8 Jan 1784 baptism record for Charles Justinius son of Charles McCarty and Catherine Lent of Stillwater.

This baptism record is found in Records of marriages and baptisms of the Rev. James Dempster. Stillwater is located on the Hudson River north of Albany. James Dempster (1740-1804) was a Methodist clergymen who was active in this area before and during the Revolutionary War and also ministered to settlers in the Mohawk Valley and Schoharie Valley.

Both McCarty's gravestone and death registration, however, record that he was born at Canadagua. This is likely a misspelling of Canandaigua which sits at the north end of Canandaigua Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York.

But Canandaigua was a Seneca village destroyed during the Revolutionary War by the Sullivan Expedition in 1779. European settlement didn't begin in the area until the Phelps and Gorham Purchase of 1788.

Phelps and Gorham Purchase

If we accept that Charles McCarty was born in Canandaigua, then we cannot accept that he was born in 1780.

Census data, other than the 1881 Census, support a younger Charles McCarty. The 1871 Census shows him to be 77 years of age, while the 1852 Census shows him as 61.

Charles McCarty was likely born in Canadaigua, New York about 1791. He emigrated to Upper Canada after the Revolutionary War, served with the 3rd Regiment of Lincoln Militia during the War of 1812, and married someone named Agnes about 1817.

McCarty's oldest child was his daughter Margaret who was born in Bertie, Welland, Upper Canada in 1819. Seven children in addition to Margaret have been identified: Samuel (1824-1902), James (1826-1879), Jane (1826-1917), Jacob (b abt 1828), Agnes (b abt 1830), William (b abt 1831), and Hannah.

McCarty is thought to have moved to Blenheim township in the early 1840s. His daughter Margaret married Henry Muma (1822-1902) in 1845. Margaret's siblings Hannah and Jacob were witnesses. His daughter Jane married George Berry in 1848, while his daughter Agnes married Henry Berry later the same year. 

Agnes McCarty's Gravestone
Drumbo Cemetery, Blenheim
Oxford, Ontario

According to her gravestone, Agnes, the wife of Charles McCarty, died in 1873 at the age of 96. Once again, her age is support by her death registration, but inconsistent census data shows her to be much younger. Her death registration also records that she was born in Fort Erie on the Niagara River. Like Canandaigua, settlement in the Fort Erie area did not substantially begin until after the Revolutionary War, although a British fort had been built there in 1764.

Agnes was likely born in Bertie Township between 1786 and 1796. Her parents are unknown but were either Loyalist refugees, or American immigrants that began arriving in the 1790s.

There is evidence of an Albert McCarty (1804-1852) living in Bertie Township. There is also a burial record dated 4 Oct 1841 for a John McCarty aged 11. This John McCarty does not appear to have been a son of Albert McCarty. The possibility exists that Albert was a brother of Charles McCarty and that the John buried there was the son of Charles. There is also an Upper Canada Land Petition dated 1807 for Margaret McCarty wife of John McCarty and daughter of Jacob Sipes (1760-1823) who served in Butler's Rangers. Finally, a James McCarty also served in the 3rd Regiment of Lincoln Militia during the War of 1812.

Nice try, Charles, but the preponderance of evidence is that you were not 103 when you died.