Mary Pauline (Starnes) Helton (1795 - 1888)

Born 3 Jan 1795 in Mecklenburg, North Carolina, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 11 Aug 1888 at age 93 in Lawrence, Indiana, United States

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Biography

Polly was born in 1795 and passed away in 1888 at the age of 94. She is the daughter of John Ernest Starnes and Sarah Jane Adams.

According to the county history when she was 89 years old she had 128 grandchildren.

Polly was know throughout Lawrence and the adjoining counties as a physician and midwife. According to her granddaughter, Winnie Jane Martin Henderson, she was also a faith healer and was known to have healed people by placing her hands on them and praying. Whether you believe this or not; in her time and community, faith healing was believed in just as surely as the Bible was.

When Adam died, Polly's style of life can be estimated by the personal property she had, which included: 8 beds and bedding, 3 chests, 2 bureaus, 1 clock, 19 chairs, 1 cupboard and ware, 5 flax wheels, 2 big wheels, and 1 loom and apparatus. From the number of spinning wheels she had, she must have kept her daughters busy spinning, weaving, and making clothes for the family. A typical pioneer family.

1850 census, Pleasant Run, Lawrence, Indiana, United States

Polly Helton F 52 Tennessee

Adam A Helton M 25 Indiana

Semantha J Helton F 24 Indiana

Amanda A Helton F 19 Indiana

George Helton M 17 Indiana

Louisa L Helton F 15 Indiana

Elitha A Helton F 9 Indiana

Elisha Newton M 19 Indiana

Elijah Newton M 19 Indiana

Andrew Woods M 13 Indiana

Mary Woods F 15 Indiana

1860 census, Pleasant Run Township, Lawrence, Indiana, United States

Polly Helton F 65 N C

James Henderson M 19 Ind

Delitha A Henderson F 18 Ind

Parabee Henderson F Ind

1880 census, Pleasant Run, Lawrence, Indiana, United States

Polly Helton Self F 85 North Carolina, United States, widowed

Margaret Gilstrap Daughter F 62 Tennessee, United States

Geo W Hamilton Other M 16 Indiana, United States

Sources

• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHJP-PNH : 12 April 2016), Polly Helton, Pleasant Run, Lawrence, Indiana, United States; citing family 1584, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

• "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4FG-YHJ : 13 December 2017), Polly Helton, 1860.

• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH9V-JNR : 7 September 2017), Polly Helton, Pleasant Run, Lawrence, Indiana, United States; citing enumeration district ED 1, sheet 369C, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0292; FHL microfilm 1,254,292.

• Find A Grave: Memorial #17898229