Catherine Stanford (1837 - 1940)

Born Nov 1837 in Arkansas, United States

Descendants

Died 10 Oct 1940 at age 102 in Arkansas, United States

Biography

Kittie Stanford is a part of US Black heritage.

Kittie Stanford was interviewed in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in about 1937 about her life and her time as an enslaved person. The typescript is stamp dated Oct 15, 1937.

"Yes'm, I used to be a slave. My mother belonged to Mrs Lindsey. One day when I was ten years old, my old mistress take me over to her daughter and say 'I brought you a little n----r gal to rock de cradle.' I'se one hundred and four years old now. Miss Etta done writ it down in the book for me."

"When the war come some of the slaves steal the Judge's hosses and run away to Pine Bluff and he didn't never find 'em. The Judge think the Yankees goin' get everything he got so we all left Arkansas and went to Texas. We in Texas when freedom come. We come back to Arkansas and I stay with my white folks awhile but I didn't get no pay so I got a job cookin' for a colored woman. I been married fo' times. I lef' my last husband. I didn't leave him cause he beat me. I lef' him cause he want too many."

[The interviewer notes that Kittie lives with her granddaughter Mary.]

Slave Owners

1. Mrs Lindsey

Interview: Kittie Stanford was interviewed in Pine Bluff, Arkansas by Mrs. Bernice Bowden as part of the Federal Writer's Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The results are made available by the Library of Congress. ^[1]

Her married surname is also seen as Sanford in some sources.

Sources

1. ↑ [1] Library of Congress - WPA - Slave Narrative - Kittie Stanford - Vol. 2, Arkansas, part 6; pages 214-215 images 219-220 of 376.

• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNWC-1J8 : 13 January 2022), Kitty Sandford in household of W. Sandford, Plum Bayou, Jefferson, Arkansas, United States; citing enumeration district , sheet , NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm .

• "United States Census, 1900", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3FC-WTN : 10 March 2022), Kitty Stanford in entry for Wesley Stanford, 1900.

• "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKVW-W3V : accessed 4 August 2022), Kitty Sandford in household of John F Warren, Victoria, Jefferson, Arkansas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 122, sheet 24A, family 521, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 54; FHL microfilm 1,374,067.

• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XMLD-R4Q : accessed 4 August 2022), Kittie Sanford, Victoria, Jefferson, Missouri, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 61, sheet , line , family , NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll ; FHL microfilm .

• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQKS-YYW : 8 January 2021), Leroy Clay in household of Marie Henderson, Pine Bluff, Jefferson, Arkansas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 35-40, sheet 3A, line 30, family 54, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 146.

• "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:Q29H-4VBQ : 16 December 2021), Entry for Kitty Sanford, ; Burial, Pine Bluff, Jefferson, Arkansas, United States of America, Bellwood Cemetery; citing record ID 34750825, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.

Research Notes

Find-a-Grave has on Kittie's page an article on her death from the Pine Bluff Graphic (newspaper, one assumes) dated October 13, 1940. This article gives the names of Kittie's enslavers as Judge J. W. Bocage and his wife. His wife was the daughter of Mrs. Catherine Lindsay Auburn. Other members of this family are also mentioned. Joseph William Bocage (1819-1898)