I've written before about Amanda (Green) and Alfred Wright, both born into slavery, who brought their family north to Lucas County from Ray County, Missouri, in 1876 and settled about 1880 on a small farm due north of Chariton where they lived for the remainder of their lives. They were, so far as I know, our only black farm family. You can read a related post, "Lucas County's black farmers and miners," here.
So I was pleased this week to find mention of Amanda Green's mother, Charity, in a story plucked from elsewhere and republished on Page 1 of The Chariton Herald of Feb. 19, 1903, under the headline, "Her Mother Was 103 Years Old." Herald Editor Sam Greene, heaven only knows why, failed to tell us who "her" referred too, but if you know the territory you'll know that he was writing about Amanda. Here's the text of that story:
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The other day a colored woman, Mrs. Charity Green, died at her home in Omaha, aged 103 years.
Mrs. Green was born in Madison county, Kentucky, in January, 1800. During the first sixty-five years of her life she was a slave in several prominent Kentucky families, having been sold several times.
She was 12 years old when the war of 1812 took place, with England, and she remembered very distinctly many of its incidents and narrated them frequently. Mrs. Green, after being freed from slavery, removed to St. Joseph (Missouri), where she lived a number of years. She went to Omaha from there and has lived there nineteen years.
During her life she gave birth to sixteen children, five of whom are still living. Her oldest daughter is living in Chariton, Iowa, and is over 60 years old. She has three sons living, Ed Green and Chase Green, of Chicago, and Howard Green, of Des Moines.
Her lineal descendants number over 100. She has about sixty grandchildren, over thirty great-grandchildren and seventeen great-great-grandchildren.
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I turned to the Omaha World-Herald of Feb. 5, 1903, for a little more of the story --- a death notice published under the headline, "Died at the Age of 103."
"Aunt Charity Green, colored, aged 103, who died Monday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Ormstead Salters, 2904 North Twenty-sixth street, was buried yesterday afternoon at Prospect Hill cemetery, the pastor of the Zion Baptist Church officiating.
"Aunty" Green had lived in Omaha for seventeen years, coming here from St. Joseph. Up until two years ago, when she suffered from a paralytic stroke, she had enjoyed good health. Two months ago, while lighting her pipe, she set her gown on fire and sustained severe burns about the body, which made her all but helpless.
She was born in slavery in Richmond, Ky. She had given birth to sixteen children, five of whom survive her. The exact date of her birth she did not know, except that it was in February, 1800, which made her 103 years old.
Throughout her life she was a firm believer in the hereafter, and she took a deep interest in the Baptist church, of which she was a member for over seventy-five years.
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Amanda (Green) Wright outlived her mother by about 15 years, passing on July 23, 1917. Her obituary was published in The Herald-Patriot of July 26.
Now Amanda was nowhere near 103 years old, as her obituary claims. The year of birth inscribed on her tombstone in the Chariton Cemetery is 1833. So it looks like someone blended this element of her story with that of her mother (the year of death inscribed on the tombstone is one year off). The year of her marriage is wildly inaccurate, too.
Why? I have no idea. But once you work your way through the inaccuracies, the rest of the story provides a lot of useful information about this family:
Mrs. Amanda Wright, (colored) who was probably the oldest woman in Lucas county, died at her home north of Chariton on Monday, July 23d, 1917, at the extreme old age of 103 years, 9 months and 9 days. She had been in ill health for some time and death was due to the infirmities of old age. Funeral services, conducted by Elders Jas. Robinson and Robert Zimmerman, were held at the family home, north of Chariton, on Tuesday afternoon at 2 o'clock, after which the remains were laid to rest in the Chariton cemetery.
Amanda Green was born in Crab Apple county, Kentucky, on October 14th, 1814. At the age of about nine years she went to LaFayette, Mo., as a slave and served in that capacity for forty years, seeing many hardships. On July 5, 1832, she was united in marriage to Alfred Daniel Wright, who survives her. To this union sixteen children were born, three dying in infancy and one daughter after gaining young womanhood. Twelve children are living to mourn the loss of a good mother and to comfort the aged husband and father who survives and is bereft of his companion of eighty-five years. They are Green, of Richmond, Mo.; Sam, Abe and Frank, of Lexington, Mo.; Daniel, of Kansas City, Mo.; Ben Wright and Mrs. Mary Brown of Peoria, Ill.; Belle Wright and Mrs. Jennie Coleman of Des Moines; Elijah, Bert and Garfield, of Chariton.
In 1876 the family came to Lucas County, Iowa, and six years later they moved to the place five miles north of Chariton, which has since been their home. All through life deceased lived in accordance with her christian profession and always lent a willing hand in sickness and need. Although her last weeks were weeks of pain and torture she bore her sufferings patiently and often expressed the idea that there was a place ready for her, all paved with gold, and that she was ready to go when it was the Lord's will to take her. She had won the esteem and regard of all who knew her, and her demise will be deplored by a host of friends, who will extend sincere sympathy to the sorrowing husband and children.
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A couple of other items of interest. When Charity Green's son, Edward, married in Omaha during 1905, he identified his father as Nathan Green, but did not have a maiden name for Charity.
In Lucas County, where most members of the black community were members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Wrights were members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) --- now Community of Christ.
And then there's the casual racism of many if not most white newspaper editors and/or reporters operating at the turn of the 20th century and well beyond who felt the need to identify the black subjects of their stories as "colored."
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