Monday, December 31, 2012

Watch Night
Mary Jane Byrd Markham

...shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free...
Emancipation Proclamation
January 1 1863
Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Mary Jane Byrd Markham
1855-1937
In 1863, she was a slave likely in Franklin County, MS

Mary Jane Byrd Markham was born about 1855. At the end of the Civil War, she was motherless, homeless and alone. My great grandfather Monroe Markham knowing Mary was alone made the decision that she would be his wife. Although Monroe's parents James and Marilda Markham separated during the War, his parents and siblings remained in the same general area.

The first of Monroe and Mary's 15 children was born in 1872 and the last one was born in 1903. They remained together until death.

Monroe and Mary were my mother's maternal grandparents.

3 comments:

Kristin said...

One of my great grandmother's, Celia Rice Cleage Sherman, was also born about 1855. I wonder how she and her first husband, Lewis Cleage, met.

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