Exactly who is buried in the Orline St. John mass grave in Camden?

I always enjoy hearing from readers, and this week I received an unexpected e-mail from Dale Strom, who lives all the way out in Beaverton, Oregon – nearly 2,600 road miles from Camden.

Strom reached out to me regarding a column I wrote in March 2017 about the tragic sinking of the Orline St. John, which resulted in the deaths of at least 40 people. Strom said he has been researching his family history for about four years and recently discovered that his third-great-grandmother, Sarah Champion Vaughan, was one of the Orline St. John passengers that died when the steamboat caught fire and burned on the Alabama River, about three miles north of Bridgeport Landing, not far from Camden.

According to Strom’s research, Sarah Champion was born in Bristol, England on May 25, 1774. Strom’s not sure when she immigrated to the United States, but she eventually ended up in the Camden, S.C. area. In 1793, Sarah married Wilie Vaughan, who for a time was the proprietor of The Camden Gazette & Mercantile Advertiser.

As chance would have it, tomorrow – March 5 – will mark the 170^th anniversary of the sinking of the Orline St. John, which is arguably the worst disaster in Wilcox County history. It was on the evening of March 5, 1850 that the Orline St. John, a 349-ton side-wheel steamboat, overloaded with over 120 passengers and crew and tons of valuable cargo, caught fire and burned on the Alabama River. This ill-fated steamboat was on its way from Mobile to Montgomery when it burst into flames after sparks, most likely from the ship’s boilers, ignited its cargo of highly flammable, resin-soaked pine logs.

The ship’s crew, led by Capt. Timothy Meaher, ran the ship aground, but not before many aboard burned alive or drowned after jumping into the cold waters of the Alabama River. In all, at least 40 people lost their lives on the final voyage of the Orline St. John, including every woman and child aboard. In the aftermath, some bodies were found weeks later as far as 75 miles downriver.

Today, the most visible remnant of the Orline St. John disaster can be found in the historic Camden Cemetery. Just a short walk from the Fall Street entrance to the graveyard, you’ll find a pile of old bricks over what is said to be a mass grave where the victims of the Orline St. John riverboat tragedy were laid to rest. In recent years, a new marker has been erected over this gravesite, providing visitors with information about the worst disaster in Wilcox County history.

Taking into account Strom’s recent e-mail about his third-great-grandmother, one is left to wonder if she is among those buried in the mass grave at the Camden Cemetery. Does a complete list of the people buried in this mass grave even exist? Exactly who is buried there may be one of the biggest mysteries related to the Orline St. John disaster.

In the end, please let me hear from you if you have any more information about those who died in the Orline St. John disaster or if you know any specifics about the people buried in the mass grave at the Camden Cemetery. This type of information would be extremely valuable to family history researchers and historians. Who knows, this type of information may even be of interest to people from as far away as Beaverton, Oregon.