Georg Wilhelm Jatho emigrated to New York on the ship Jason, arriving at Castle Garden (the precursor to Ellis Island) on October 17, 1848. By 1849 he had settled in Charleston, South Carolina and set up his business as watchmaker.

In the USA, as in Hanover, his family name was spelled Jatho but was occasionally transcribed as Yatho, due to its original Germany pronunciation. Charleston offered one of the biggest German imigrant communities on the eastern seaboard.

For some time a mystery surrounded G.W. Jatho's marriage to Elisabeth Margarethe Schuchmann (right), who had emigrated from Hesse-Darmstadt to Charleston in the late 1840s or early 1850s with her mother Marie Dressel Schuchmann and brother Philip. Her father, Johann Ludwig (Louis) Schuchmann, had emigrated around 1840 and his prosperous fancy-goods store was already firmly established on King Street. The surname was later spelled Schuckmann.

No marriage was recorded in Charleston in either of the two German Lutheran churches for G.W. and Elise. Yet the couple had seven children, all of whom appeared to have been born in Charleston. By casting our net a little further afield, we discover that G.W. and Elise were married at Saint Johns Evangelical Church in Louisville, Kentucky on July 19, 1853.

The reason for the selection of this church, so far from Charelston, is unclear, but their first child, Philip, had been born a few months prior to the marriage. We note that there were a number of Schuchmann immigrants in Louisville, including a tailor, Louis Schuchmann. Elise's father was also called Louis.

Was this other Louis Schuchmann a cousin, or an uncle, perhaps? More research is needed to determine their connection, if any. Perhaps Louisville provided a less judgmental environment to celebrate the nuptials of a couple whose first baby had already made his appearance.

G.W. and Elise were the parents of seven children: Philip, Pauline, George, William, Edmond, Elise, and Carl Julius. One of G.W.'s first business and residential addresses was 121 Meeting Street, across from the Mills House Hotel.

In addition to maintaining his own business on King Street, G.W. was also associated for a time with J.E. Spear & Co., a purveyor of jewelry, watches and silver. Spear's shop was known for quality products and today antique pieces from his shop retail for large sums at auctions around the world.

By 1860 G.W. had moved his business to a four-bedroom residence at 87 Cannon Street (at left, as it looks today where Beads On Cannon now resides). Reasons for the move to Cannon Street were probably twofold.

In 1858 G.W. lost a lawsuit and his belongings were sold to settle a debt with his landlord. It was also much easier to evade bombardment of lower Charleston by Union troops by living in a neighborhood that was then far away from the city center.

The bottom floor of the Cannon Street house was well-suited to a showroom and workroom, while the upstairs area provided a parlor and bedrooms for the Jathos' growing family. Although not officially a part of St. Matthew's German Lutheran Church at this time, the children appear to have been involved in Sunday School activities there and in 1867 the Charelston Daily News reported that "Master Philip Jatho," the oldest son, won a marksmanship award at a church picnic. G.W. and his family also had a residence in Greenwood at the western end of South Carolina, where Elise Jatho and her older daughter Pauline were involved in society and church work.

It was in Greenwood that G.W. died on September 23, 1870. A notice in the Abbeville Press & Banner from October 28, 1870 confirms it. In the column at right is a link to a handwritten funeral notice, with his son George Jr.'s black armband still attached. The popular cemetery database Find-A-Grave reports that G.W. was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in the town of Greenwood, which was at that time part of Abbeville County. We also know about G.W.'s burial city from his widow Elise's headstone in Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, where Elise was buried several decades later.

After G.W. death, the Jatho family relocated back to Charleston. Elise Jatho taught German in Charleston and later lived with her son George Jatho Jr. Daughter Eliza (pictured above) died of typhoid fever at age 18 in 1881. Eldest son Philip, a district court clerk in Charleston, died of pneumonia in 1885.

Elise's sons George W. Jatho, William G. Jatho, Carl Julius Jatho, and daughter Pauline Jatho Foster remained close at hand to support their mother, while son Edmund D. Jatho, based in New Orleans and Chicago, was a frequent visitor to Charleston.

Elise Schuckmann Jatho died in 1910 at her son George's home on Doughty Street. Elise and all her children (except William, who was buried at Bethany Cemetery in the Ludwig Müller plot) are buried at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston.