Mary (Allen) Johnson (abt. 1860 - 1946)

Born about 1860 in Mississippi, United States

Wife of Arras Shaw — married 1878 in Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States

Died 29 Mar 1946 at about age 86 in Beaumont, Jefferson, Texas, United States

Biography

Mary (Allen) Johnson is a part of US Black heritage.

Interview: "Mary Johnson does not know her age but is evidently very old. Paralytic strokes have affected mind and body. Her speech, though impaired, is a swift flow of words, often profane. A bitter attitude toward everything is apparent. Mary is homeless and owes the necessities of life to the kindness of a middle aged Negress who takes care of several old women in her home in Pear Orchard in Beaumont, Texas."^[1]

"I don't know how old I is. My daddy he have my age in the big Bible but he done move 'round so much it git lost long ago. He use to 'long to them Guinea men. They was real small men and they sho' walk fast. He wasn't so tall as my mommer and he name John Allen and he a pore man, all bone. He sold out from the old country, that Mississippi. My mama name Sarah and she come from Choctaw country, 'round in Georgia. I have grandma Rebecca, a reg'lar old Indian woman and she have two long black braid longer'n her waist and she allus wore a big bonnet with splits in it. You know de Indian people totes they chillens on they back and my mommer have me wrap up in a blanket and strop on her back. I's the first born chile and my mommer have two gal chillen, me and Hannah, and she have seven boy. Where I's born was old wild country and old Virginny run down thataway."

"I gits married in Baton Rouge when I sixteen and my husband he name Arras [Harris?] Shaw and he lots older'n me and I couldn't keep him. He in Port Arthur now."

Sources

1. ↑ "Federal Writers' Project: Slave Narrative Project" Volume 16: Texas, Part 2 (Easter-King) Library of Congress (Images 224-227 of 300)

• "Texas Deaths, 1890-1976," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K398-GSQ : 20 February 2021), Mary Johnson, 29 Mar 1946; citing certificate number 13774, State Registrar Office, Austin; FHL microfilm .