David I and Catharine had celebrated 50 years of marriage the year prior to their deaths.

Catharine Rittenhouse was a relative ‏(possibly a niece)‏ of the famous David Rittenhouse, our first director of the Mint, appointed by George Washington. David was friends with George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson and was America's most notable scientist. David Rittenhouse was an instrument maker and self-taught astronomer, with a reflecting telescope that he may have inherited from Franklin. Some of his instruments he made are in the Smithsonian and other instruments were used by George Washington in his younger days.