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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.

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