Southwest Sierra #100 – Mary E. “Her Story” Part 4

The following is the remainder of the letter that Mary E. wrote to her granddaughter Clara on March 21,1914. The original spelling and punctuation are left mostly intact.

Dear Clara

I will try to give you the information you asked for part is my own observation and knowledge and the remaining from what my Great Aunts has told me and my grandmother that raised me. There was one incident that maid me feel like I was truly Related to President Lincoln as my old aunts would say to me you are just like Lincoln a negro lover and a Republican. why they would call me that, when I was in the south my Grandma willed me a little slave girl and as my Grandfather lived in Indiana that was caring for me we only visit[ed] the Sothern relatives.

We could not take the little slave over in Indiana and so she was to be sold. And I saw her old black mama Crying all day long I asked her what was the trouble She told me that her little girl was going to be sold the next day so as to pay me my part of the estate and my uncle owned her and they was going to sell the child to the highest bidder She had bin advertised far a round and about 50 people Came to bid on her So the old mama cried so hard and said her baby girl would go from her so far away to have a new master, and that touched me and I got very sorry for that mother and little girl and began to beg for grandfather not to take her away from her Mother.

Uncle owned her father and mother I went to him and begged for him to buy her and he said I have not got the money to spare just as she will bring a high price as she is a fine looking Negro child somewhere near $400 or $500 dollars. Then I said to my grandfather Just think how would you feel if I was going to be sold to some of those rich men and carried away from you and Grandma and that touched his heart. I get to set her free and take her home with us so I Changed the program for that day no auction no high bidding that day old Planters went home very angry to think they came so far to bid for to buy a lovely Negro girl and I was the first to break the news to that old mama crying in the kitchen going to live with her and to see and hear that thankful prayer given to God and to me Can never be forgotten. God sent Abraham Lincoln to free them both a few years later.

It pleases me to give you all the information I can so to Claim Relation to him. We call it an honor but if he was in the fifth generation, if he had been a dishonorable man we would not say a word or Claim Relation, but on this occasion, to give honor to the Memory of the Illustrious Dead. Whose name I can give Praise to, I will give you the Information that my uncles and aunts gave me. Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County Kentucky, where my grandparents, Uncles and Aunts lived Together. Myself and my Brother went to the old place where he was born. His mother, Nancy Hanks was a Daughter of my Great Great Aunt. When she married Thomas Lincoln, her parents disowned her as he was so poor and they were well-to-do and had slaves to wait on her.

He was a good Fidler and played for Select Balls and it was love-at-first-sight. She had to live in a Small log cabin and when little Abe came, he was rocked in a Sugar trough for a cradle. It was hewed out of a Short log: so a lesson we can all learn, that the Divine Spirit was born in him, God giding [guiding] him for the blessed works He was for him to do it was truly a miracle his speeches begging to save the Union and the Flag forever. I was coming from the South on the Same Train as he was on it was [to] stop to Townes [towns] for him to speak once at Pawnee and the other at Charleston, Ill. The Great Debate between him and Stephen Douglas the most exciting and (illegible) debate, which attracted National attention.

I heard him again in 1860 again in 1864 it seemed as if his heart [was] broken at the terrible War. He showed a spirit of kindness and love of his Country. War Clouds was hovering over our Beautiful land and our Flag was being torn down our Government was Divided as their Political views those days was sad and it made sorrow in every home. My brother and I was the only ones in all of our Relations that was Union or Republican or Lincoln lovers as our friends in the South call us. Now dear girl this is quite a Book on past History for myself and the Noble man you wished to learn about.

Resp. M.E. Godfrey, your grandmother

End of Mary E’s letter.

Was Mary E . simply flamboyant like her brother “Colonel” Straughn? Did she (or her grandmother and great-aunts) invent the relation to Abraham Lincoln? As previously mentioned, my branch of the family came across these writings only recently. In the meantime, the legend regarding a relation to President Lincoln had grown and morphed on our side of the family as stories tend to do.

My paternal grandmother: Blanche “Babe” (Engel) Bell did not know that her great-grandmother Mary E. (aka “Grandma Godfrey”) had been raised by her own grandmother “Grandma King”. The name “Straughn” was absent from our family lore. The assumption was that Mary E. ‘s maiden name was King when in fact, that was her mother’s maiden name. The story that I was told as a kid was that Grandma King was Abe Lincoln’s cousin on his mother’s side. Next week, I will share what I’ve learned about the ongoing search for Abe Lincoln’s DNA profile.