Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2015 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= USGenNet Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Ludington (Michigan) Record Thursday, July 9, 1896 Volume XXIX NEGRO WOMAN 120 YEARS OLD. Brenham, Texas, boasts of a citizen who is perhaps the oldest person living in the United States if not in the world. She is MARY MARKS, a colored woman, and was born in the West Indies in 1776. A correspondent of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat recently called to see MRS. MARKS and had a pleasant chat with her. She is mentally as bright as she ever was, but is in feeble health and is kept alive only by drinking whisky, something she never did until she was forced to it by old age. When a child she was stolen by slavers and was sold in Baltimore in 1780. When a woman of 45 she was taken to Texas by her owner, JAMES WHITESIDES, who founded San Felipe, the first capital of Texas, and a hotel there, in which MARY was head waitress. At that hotel SAM HOUSTON, R. M. WILLIAMSON, BARON de BASTROP, HENRY SMITH and other men who became identified with the history of the future State, were boarders. MRS. MARKS tells many interesting stories of the days im- mediately preceding the war which secured freedom for Texas. All of these men have since been honored by having towns and counties named after them. When 60 years old MARY married JOHN MARKS, a noted colored preacher who afterwards raised money to purchase her freedom. Her husband has been dead for years and MRS. MARKS is supported by kindly disposed persons and by a small pension granted by the congregation of the church of which her husband was formerly the pastor. ===========================================================================