This post is brought to you by Genealogy by Brecca. I started to look up information about Mary Folden when I came across her great write up on both Sam and Mary Folden.
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Mary Jane (Powell) Folden was said to be born around 1817, and died August 8th, 1933 – that would make her 116 years of age, as what appears on her death certificate.
Mary was an African-American woman, and unfortunately, that fact makes her a tough woman to trace in records. As most seasoned genealogists are aware – records are close to non-existent for people of color, especially back in the early 1900s and back into the 1800s. With the arrival of DNA testing – those with African Ancestry are making wonderful strides in tracing their family history, and for that I’m extremely grateful! From her death certificate, we gather that her husband’s name was Sam Folden. He had preceded her in death, as she’s listed as a widow.
I, of course, found evidence of Sam when I went looking – and he, too, was named an ‘oldest citizen of the county’ at the time of his death.
I found her maiden name, which seems to be Powell, from the death certificates of a few of her and Sam’s children – Sherman and Matilda (or perhaps, Malinda). I’ve found more death certificates for some of their kids – but it just lists a father as Sam Folden.
The only census l’ve managed to find the family in is the 1870, the first census that we would see African-American families in, without their being slaves – with actual, factual information given about these living, breathing, people — it gives Samuel as 50 (b. 1820) and Mary as 40 (b. 1830.) Their children: Barnet 17, Malinda 15, Ambrose 10, Betsy 7, James 5, George 2, Samuel 1.
Their son, James, died January 2nd, 1929, at 61 (according to D/C.)
Their son, Ambrose, died April 18th, 1931, at 73 (according to D/C.)
Their son, Sherman, died November 25th, 1918, at 47 (according to D/C.)
Their daughter, Matilda (or Malinda), died June 4th, 1915, “about 30 years of age” on her D/C.
Their son, Samuel “Sam” Jr, died July 25th, 1947, at 88 (according to D/C.)
Mr. Blue, who documented the Henderson County cemeteries long before my group (Henderson KY Cemetery Research Group) ever existed and must have found record (either the tombstone or the death certificate) for Mary Jane (Powell) Folden in Jordan Cemetery (which is located within the Country Club out towards Baskett) because she is listed in his Gone but not Forgotten book as being there.
I have no doubt that her husband, Sam, is likely with her in Jordan Cemetery albeit the write-up’s on him that l’ve found never specify a burial location. Their son Sherman and daughter Matilda/Malinda are in McClain Cemetery which is “located off of Highway 41 near Wathen Road,” according to Mr. Blue. Their son, Samuel Jr, is in Fernwood next door to me.
Researching this family – I found a clipping in the Hopkinsville Kentuckian newspaper on August 18th, 1910, citing the death of Samuel Folden, and giving him the age of 106 (making his birth year 1804) and crediting him as the oldest man in Henderson County. I found this by looking on Ancestry’s search feature. Someone had Sam in their tree and had linked that article. Upon finding that article, I decided to see if Newspapers had anything else on Samuel Folden and/or his wife, Mary. I struck gold with a little write-up from August 17th, 1910, in The Evansville Journal.
It tells us that Sam’s wife, Mary, had been a servant of the late Governor Lazarus Whitehead Powell. Wow! No wonder her maiden last name was Powell. She had previously been enslaved to the Powell family. (A lot of slaves, at the time of their freeing in 1865, opted to take their last masters’ surname, something l’ve seen time and time again in genealogical research.)
We see from this write-up that Sam Folden, too, took his last name from his last master — Colonel Jack Folden, and that he’d been purchased by Col. Folden in Lexington in 1825.
Now that l’ve found write up’s about Sam in newspapers… I went looking for Mary. I did find a brief summary in the August 11th, 1933 Evansville Press – it simply says, “Henderson, Ky — Mary Jane Folden, Negro, said to be 115 years old, dies” and a brilliant write up on Mary Jane (Powell) Folden in the Owensboro Messenger, March 9th, 1933.
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