Monday, February 20, 2017

Monday Is for Mothers: Mary Warren (About 1810 - 1885), Survivor & Matriarch - Part 1, Her Life in the Records

Mary (who adopted the surname Warren after Emancipation) was one of the seven enslaved people who I first learned about from my fifth great uncle Jeremiah Warren's probate records, first in the Item 10th of his will (unsuccessfully contested by his sister Susan and her husband Joseph Johnson) and then in the inventory of his estate which was done in September of 1832.

I've always wanted to know what happened to those people--were they ever free? Since I didn't find any other mention of them in later probate records available online, it seemed I would never know.

However, thanks to research shared by Marco, one of the descendants, we can trace Mary to Smith County, Texas.

[Family Search.com]

We know the names of her three children from the inventory: Sandal, Rhody and Francis.

[Family Search.com]

[Texas. Published by J.H. Colton & Co. No. 171 William St. New York. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1855, by J.H. Colton & Co. ... New York (insets) Plan of Galveston Bay -- Plan of Sabine Lake. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]


The first record naming Mary Warren was in Starrville Beat in Smith County, Texas, in the 1870 U.S. Census. Her age is given as 61 so she was born about 1810 in Virginia. She was definitely the matriarch of the rest of the Warrens whose names that follow hers down the page. Only one of the three children who were named in the inventory is listed here--#27, 48-year-old Rhody Warren.

 [Year: 1870; Census Place: Starrville Beat, Smith, Texas; Roll: M593_1605; Page: 342B; Image: 187862; Family History Library Film: 553104. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.Minnesota census schedules for 1870. NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. ]


Mary's name is at the top of the page and looking back at the previous one, you can see that she was "Keeping House" for her son 27-year old Daniel Warren, a farm laborer whose personal estate was valued at $220.

 [Year: 1870; Census Place: Starrville Beat, Smith, Texas; Roll: M593_1605; Page: 342B; Image: 187862]

And a significant clue to Mary's presence in Texas is the name of the head of the nearest household: John Graybill who along with Jesse G. Butts had been named executors of Jeremiah's will and put in charge of Mary and the other six people singled out in Item 10th. It's almost certain that Graybill brought Mary and her children to Texas when he left Hancock County, Georgia,

Ten years later Mary was living with her daughter Eliza* and other family members in Precinct 8 in Smith County.

[Year: 1880; Census Place: Smith, Texas; Roll: 1326; Family History Film: 1255326; Page: 304C; Enumeration District: 102. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]


According to findagrave, Mary Warren died in 1885 and is buried in the Warren Chapel Cemetery in Smith County, Texas.

[Find A Grave Memorial# 137497116. Photo: Heather (#46785492)]


Next time I'll use John Graybill's records to see what can be inferred about Mary's life between 1832 and 1870.



*Although Eliza's occupation is listed as "Farming" I didn't find her name in the 1880 Non-Population Schedule for Agriculture.



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