Sunday, July 16, 2006

Mary Ann Littleton Hughes

Profile: Mary Ann Littleton Hughes
In the previous post I mentioned that a resident of Greenbrier County (GC) had been a domestic servant for the Lieutenant Governor of Confederate Virginia.
Mary Ann Littleton Hughes was the daughter of Cook & Maria Littleton. She appears to have been the sister of James H. Littleton & John Littleton. She was the aunt of Eliza Ann Littleton (Ellis) Davis & she was the mother of Maria Hughes Pryor (who was the wife of Haskins Pryor). She was the mother or grandmother of Elvira Hughes.
Mary Ann Hughes can be found in the 1870 GC census where she is listed as a domestic servant for Samuel Price.
Samuel Price had been the Lieutenant Governor of Confederate Virginia. He was a lawyer and an elected official in WV serving on a number of Constitutional Conventions including the secession convention. He was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill a vacancy which occurred when Sen. Allen Caperton died (& he served in this capacity from 8/1876 - 1/1877)
In 1880, Mary Ann is working for Samuel Price's sisters, Priscilla & Mary A. Price. (She is enumerated twice in 1880, once at her workplace & once with her brother, John Littleton) At least two other relatives of Mary Ann Hughes worked for the Price Family (John Littleton & Mary Lucinda Page Kelly - MLPK worked for Margaret & Jane Price).
Mary Ann Hughes can be found in the 1900 & 1910 GC Census records. She died on 5/19/1911 and is buried at the Old Colored Cemetery at Lewisburg. She shares a marker with her brother, James H. Littleton (although the marker says "Litton"). The marker indicates that Mary Ann was 112 years old at the time of her death. I think she was, more likely, 83 -91 years old when she died. In the 1900 & 1910 census information she is shown as widowed but I have not been able to find a husband either through my own research or through the research of a paid genealogist. A photo of the grave marker for Mary Ann Littleton Hughes can be found in BLACK RESIDENTS OF GREENBRIER, MONROE, POCAHONTAS & SUMMERS COUNTIES, WEST VIRGINIA by C. Haynes (copies of which are housed at the Greenbrier Historical Society in Lewisburg, the WV Division of Culture and History at Charleston, the WV State University Library at Institute & the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans - with the GHS having the most recent edition).
Mary Ann Littleton Hughes appears to have been the aunt of my great grandmother, Mary Alice Spriggs Kelly Knight McVey & she raised this ggrandmother.
I have been unable to locate or speak with a Price descendant. It would be interesting to know if Samuel Price kept a diary and, perhaps, made reference to his domestic servants. Comments made by him are included in the proceedings of the various constitutional conventions and these comments & his positions on various issues give some idea of what he may have been like as a man.
Though Samuel Price had a house in town (in Lewisburg) he also had a farm about 5 miles outside of town.
I often wonder about the conversations that Mary Ann would have overheard in the Price household. It is a shame that there are no written recollections/diaries by people like Mary Ann Littleton Hughes.

1 comment:

caprice said...

Hello, just came across this doing my family tree...I am a direct decsendent of Samuel Price, please email me at nosweatt1966@hotmail.com...I do have some info you may be interested in :)

Caprice Price Sweatt