Eliza Ann (Blue) Carter

BLUE, CARTER

Posted By: Debi Jenson (email)
Date: 3/13/2007 at 14:31:20

ELIZA ANN (BLUE) CARTER
Had Passed Century Mark – Chariton Herald-Patriot April 12, 1923
Mrs. Eliza Ann Carter Dies at Age of 112 Years

Eliza Ann Blue was born May 17, 1811 in Almira County, VA, being born into slavery. At the age of 12 years, she was placed on the slave block and sold to the highest bidder. Mr. Geo. Carr became her new master and he presented her as a lifetime gift to his sister. At the death of his sister, she took up her home with Mr. Carr until the Emancipation.

Friday evening, April 6, 1923 at 8:30 she peacefully fell asleep at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Harriett Martin, after an extended illness of several weeks of dropsy.

Thus a life of almost 112 years has ended, and to say it has been a life of varied experiences, in toil, in slavery, and in freedom is putting it mildly, she having passed through that period of history when human beings were bartered and sold, much like beasts of burden.

In the years of slavery she was married to Mr. Carter, and to this union 12 children were born. Those who survive her are Oscar Carter of Chicago, Charles Carter of Kansas City, and Mrs. Harriett Carter of this city. She has been a pioneer resident of Chariton, having lived here nearly half a century. Many have come to know Aunty Carter as our oldest and spryest citizen for her years, and along with this she has had kindly words of greeting for all. In her declining years she has always sought to please “Her good Master” and oft times expressed His goodness to her and died with that hope of a Lord and Savior. Her husband preceded her in death many years ago. The sympathy of the community is extended to the family in their hour of sorrow.

Funeral services were conducted at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Harriett Martin, on Sunday afternoon, April 8, at 2 o’clock, by J. L. Shelton of the I.B.S.A. Interment in the Chariton Cemetery.

From an issue of the Chariton Leader, published in 1919, we take the following regarding Mrs. Carter:

“Lucas County holds the banner over Marion County for longevity and a glory clusters all about as brilliant as the pyrotechnic emanating from an X-ray charged with greased lightning. The oldest inhabitant of that county who resides at Knoxville, is but a little the rise of 100 years, while Aunty Carter of this city has attained the ripe old age of 108 years (in 1919) and is the mother of several generations. She was born in Virginia in 1811. Therefore half of her life has been spent in bondage and the other half in individual poverty. When Captain G.W. Alexander, a native of Tennessee, who was a veteran of the Confederate Army, as well as a former mayor of Chariton, died, he left a letter in his effects from her former master stating that she had been born on his plantation in Virginia in 1811. It has been a long journey from the cradle of slavery to the voting booth of the free, but soon Auntie Carter will be privileged to cast her ballot and inform the judge that her sovereign name is Eliza.