Voyage: 1827
Ship: Brig Draco
Catherine Wadsworth was the daughter of Capt. Ahira Wadsworth and his first wife, Deborah Sprague. She was raised in her family’s substantial home at 338 Washington Street, Duxbury. In 1824, she married Capt. Clark Drew (1797-1827) and the newlyweds shortly set sail on a “honeymoon” voyage aboard the ship Draco on a voyage to the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, Capt. Drew succumbed to consumption near Gibraltar while on the passage home from Malaga, Spain. He was buried at sea. Catherine continued the voyage for another 90 days before returning to Duxbury. In 1838, Catherine married a second time to the widower, Francis Gray Ford. Most of his children by his first wife were grown, but she became stepmother to his youngest, 12-year-old Erasmus. Catherine and Francis had one son together, Sidney Ford, in 1839, but he died at age three. After Francis died in 1842, Catherine lived with her widowed brother and helped raise her nephew, Seaborn Wadsworth (see Beulah Holmes Wadsworth). She died at age 96 and is buried in Mayflower Cemetery, Duxbury, MA. Her sister, Marinda Wadsworth Drew, and sister-in-law, Beulah Wadsworth, also appear on this list.
Sources:
Bradford, Gershom. In with the Sea Wind: the Trials and Triumphs of Some Yankee Sailors, Barre, MA: Barre Gazette, 1962
