The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1890-11-10
A VERY ON WOMAN DIS.
Mrs. Mary Kout, born Slave 10 virginia
passes AWAY, aged 1 Is Years. 5

Mrs. Mary Kout, born Slave In virginia,
passes AWAY, ngtd fii Years. Ia
Mrs. Mary Kent died at her home in
Marshall county, abou. ten miles from
this city, on Saturday, Of a complication
OF disorders incident to old age. Mrs.
Kent was colored, and was born aslave.
At the time Of her death she was GER.
tainly the oldept person In West Viz.
ginia, and possibly the oldest In Amer.
len. She had In her possession papers
granting her her freedom, dated In
l70S, and recitlng TINT she was then
twenty-five years old. Twelve or four.
teen years ago an exhaustive account OF
her life was printed In the ISTELLIdEN.
GER. 1t was supposed then that her
race was about run, but she retained her
mental faculties until the last, and up
till this summer kept her physical
health. Rheumatic pains kept her In
the house much this summer, but this
was the only indication Of approaching
dissolution. 5s.. :
She was born in the same county In
Virginia In which George Washington
first saw the light When yet child
she was brought by her owner, Joseph
Shepherd, to a point about seven miles
from what was then Fort Henry, now
Wheeling. Born In the year Of the dc.
claEasioa OF American Independence,
she was.possibly an eye witness In her
Infancy TO the last battle Of the reyolu.
ton, the siege OF Fort Henry, when the
British, enforced by Hlargo Indian band,
attacked tho fort, ~ ,@;iit taG =. I
She grew to girlhood as the property
OF Joseph Shepherd, and when he died
she passed by inheritance 10 Moses shep-
herd, his son. She was strong, buxon
woman, and her master, after his msr.
riage, owned more slaves than he had
use for. Soft happened TINT her mistress
permitted her to work out' for the
neighbors. Many day, she said, she
walked from her home seven miles In
the country to tho village which ia nov
Wheeling, washed all day, and walked
back in the evening with n silver shill.
ing, given rather ns grantuity than Us
wages, clasped Ia her hand. In this way
she earned and saved most OF the money
with which 10 l79S, when she was twen.
ty'two years old, che bought her free.
doA. 10 make up the sum finally she
circulated paper prepared for her by o
white woman, and she still had that
faded aubscripeion sheet, bearing the
names OF the 2lnes aud Finks and other
early settlers, with others not now decI.
pherable, and tho amount each con.
tributed toward her 'ireedom money"
She married, End her children have
grown old and died. To-day her grand
children gre Of middle age, and live in
this city, but sho refused always to leave
the country, and with tho wife Of a
grandson, resided in Marshall county.
She had never been on o railroad train,
and always refused to so on one. She
vas fonl OF "Reminiscences, and told
many things OF thrilling interest about
the good old times.p
It is doubtful il any OF the very few
old pergons who have been reputei in
recent years to have attained as great an
age as Mrs. Kent could prove as salts.
factorily that they were as old.
Mrs. Kent always smoked pipe.
She was regular practitioner Of
the old rule, searly 10 bed and early TO
rise.H She never used sPectasles. Her
husband died fully half q century ago,
and but ono child, her youngest, Mrs.
5iaria Locke, now sixty years Of age,
survives her. she also lives near
Moundgvi!le.
The facts above given we're mainly
obtained from her grandson, H. B.
Clemens, the we'll known barber, whose
recollection, however, was not entirely
fresh as to the details when the reporter
talked to him come time ago, Judge
Cranmer once examined her papers, and
be remembers particularly the one with
the names OF subscribers to her fund to
buy her freeHdm. -. = ~