The Life of Annie E. Parker
(Holt-Worthington-Roberts)

Written and submitted by Janet Durst
 

Annie in her early years

     For a very long time, I felt that a good deal of my genealogical research was unpuposeful for anyone else except me. I really wanted my family members to be interested and to learn something about their ancestors because I felt that knowing something about one's own predecessors would bolster us and give more power to our own life's journey. But, just filling in family group sheets and making lists of names with birthdates did not bring the early people alive enough for the younger members of my family to read it. So, what I really wanted my younger family members to learn from my research was not coming to fruition. There were stories behind those census and city directory entries. I wanted a way to reconstruct some parts of those stories to "liven" up those ancestors. By chance, I attended a short class in family history story writing which encouraged us to focus on one family member at a time and write a story about him/her and to not be concerned about whether absolutely everything we wrote about that person was pure fact. I began to gather all of the various documents that I had about one ancestor, Annie Parker, and I discovered that I had a good deal of information and I also discovered that there were some gaps in information that I could fill in with some little effort. Finally, I made the leap. I decided to write the story of Annie Parker and by doing so, I learned that I should study the history of the times and the places where Annie lived. The more I have learned and written about Annie, the more I need to do. So, although I have written the story of Annie E. Parker, I have left it open to add to, change, delete and/or rewrite parts of her story as I learn more. I found that writing the story of an ancestor is a delightful and rewarding way of doing family genealogy research and I am very proud of the family document that I submitted to my family members.
     Annie E. Parker seemed to be a fascinating person and the more I found out about her in my research, the more I perceived her to be a strong, intelligent and proud woman. Although, it is often difficult to track women in doing genealogical research, I did not have trouble tracking Annie partly because I had a person available to give me some oral history (my living aunt). My aunt thought Annie was a very special woman. Also, the records in the State of Illinois are often so available for most of the early periods.

What is submitted here is a shortened version of ANNIE E. PARKER;
The Story of Her Life From 1860 to 1930

     Annie E. Parker was my maternal great grandmother. She was born during the period of enslavement in Missouri, the daughter of a fifteen year old enslaved girl and her slave holder who lived in Marion County, Missouri. Therefore, Annie was very likely a slave, herself. The parentage of an enslaved person is very difficult to prove. And although I have no birth certificate or other "legal" document to prove that the slave holder, Ellis Parker, was her father, Annie Parker always named Ellis Parker as her father on two of her marriage license returns. Further, Ellis Parker and his fifteen year old enslaved girl named Mildred were both born in Kentucky according to other documents including Missouri slave schedules and free white census records. This would mean that Ellis Parker probably brought Mildred to Missouri when he migrated to Missouri from Kentucky. Mildred (Maude, Mary) was not named in the slave schedules but her age and place of birth on the slave schedule computes to be in agreement with the her age and place of birth given in the 1870 Missouri census with Leander Shaw, the man she later married. Further, family oral history cannot be discounted as Annie's own daughter was always uncomfortable with the notion that her mother was fathered by a white slave holder. It was general family information that Annie's father was a white man. But some of the family information! confusion says that Annie's father was a "Dutchman", whatever that means. Annie had told her daughter some of her personal history relating to her circumstances of birth as it had been told to her by her own mother, Mildred. Following emancipation, Annie's mother, Mildred, married Leander Shaw, a Black man who was a Civil War veteran. Leander Shaw later received a Civil War pension and those documents are full of information about Annie's mother and step­father and Annie's siblings and their life in Pike County, Missouri. Leander and Mildred Shaw had a marriage performed by clergy according to Leander's pension papers but there is no documentation of this available. The couple had two children together who lived to be adults. Mildred died in about 1878 in Missouri.
     Missouri was a slave state. When Annie was born, there were about 115,000 slaves in Missouri, fewer than 1,000 "free Negroes" in the entire state and over 3,000 slaves in the county where she was born. (There is a U.S. Census Data website that can give this kind of information) All those slaves represented a good many millions of dollars and when emancipation came and the slaves were freed, many rich men became poor. Many slave holders did not abide by the emancipation proclamation and in some instances it was a long time before blacks had their actual freedom. Missouri state histories and county histories tell some about the circumstances of Missouri slaves. Missouri had an entire series of laws known as slave laws which were drawn up to keep the blacks "in their place" according to the histories that I read. Slaves were personal property and one could not do business with a slave without the owner's consent. A slave was declared incompetent as a witness in legal cases involving whites and blacks or mulattos who committed or attempted to commit assault upon white women could be mutilated. Further a slave woman as a chattel could be raped by a white man and the man could only be found guilty of trespassing on another white man's property. These were some of the conditions during the time that Annie was born. Further, documents listed Annie as octoroon and her mother as mulatto, however, I have never read or studied a definitive explanation about the terms of octoroon and mulatto. At different historical times, there was no uniformity of the definitions. Census enumerators, county clerk officials and others who made a decision about the racial mix of an individual based on different variables and what they thought constituted the amount of "black blood" that an individual had. If the popular explanation of octoroon and mulatto is accepted, of a certain larger portion of "white blood" and a certain portion of "black blood" this would mean that one of Annie's parents was white and the other was part black. Therefore, this would be more reason to believe that Annie's father was Ellis Parker. At this point, that information is of no value because it really doesn't make any difference.
     At age nineteen, Annie married John W. Holt, age 34, in Illinois. An Illinois marriage license of 1879 was obtained. Illinois marriage licenses are often accompanied by a marriage return which contains considerable family information of the marriage partners and is signed by the marriage partners. The signing of the document by the marriage partners can be a clue about whether they can read and write. The return shows whether the partners admit to being married previously and lists witnesses and that can give clues to other possible family members. It tells what the parent's names were and where they were born. John Holt's parents were listed as well as Annie's parents. John W. Holt's late age of marriage suggests that he could have had a previous marriage, but there is no proof of that. However, by far, the Civil War pension papers of Annie's step father gave most of the clues about Annie's mother who had died just before the time that Annie got married. Those papers gave a death date and a death place although there are no available records
     Annie and John W. Holt, married in Jacksonville, Illinois in 1879 but they moved to Brown County, Illinois where two children were born, verified by Illinois birth certificates. John worked as a farmer and as a "barber". One of their children died and they returned to Jacksonville, Illinois and three other children were born. There he worked a tailor. John B. Holt died at age forty-eight in 1893 and Annie married Richard Worthington from Knox County, Illinois in 1897. The use of Jacksonville, Illinois city directories helped me to track Annie and to determine what her profession was (dressmaker). So, I knew where she lived and what she did for a living following her husband's death. A Jacksonville newspaper obituary for John W. Holt told me something about him as an "industrious and active citizen, a man of good habits and active in the Baptist church. The Jacksonville Public Library provided that information to me. So, at age 37 as a widow, Annie married Richard Worthington and moved to Knox County, Illinois, with her children (one of whom was my grandmother). Richard Worthington had been a Sergeant in the Union Army's Colored Troops, was a recent widower and he had considerable wealth. After fourteen years of marriage, Richard Worthington left Annie a widow again when he died in 1910 in Galesburg, Illinois. Annie inherited most of his wealth except that portion left to Richard Worthington's older son by a previous marriage. All of this is documented in Richard Worthington's will. Part of her inheritance was a surrey with a fringe on top and a mare named Birdie. Annie and Richard Worthington Sr. had no living children, but the 1900 Knox County census report indicated that Annie had given birth to seven children in her lifetime and four of them were living at that time. It is already known that one child died in 1880 and it is known that a male Worthington infant died in 1900, however there was another daughter born in 1881 named Mayme who reportedly died during childbirth but this has never been verified. By 1914, Annie had married Joseph E. Roberts in Minneapolis, MN. There is one living member in my family who spent much time with Annie in Minneapolis on a regular basis and remembers Annie's surroundings and comforts. She loved Annie very much and thought highly of "Grandpa Roberts" who was Annie's third husband. Annie died in 1930 in Minneapolis leaving all of her wealth to Joseph E. Roberts who reportedly married soon after. Annie did not leave a will, I am told. Annie's Minneapolis newspaper obituary was scantily detailed and left no clues for follow up although the mortuary records and the church records from which she was buried are possibly available. Her death certificate tells me who the mortician was and the cemetery she was buried in; the same cemetery where one of her sons is buried who died on her birthday in 1924 in her house when he was only thirty-two years old.
     Annie had seven children, but only one of those children (Effie - my grandmother) ever had children of their own. Also, Annie's other children who lived in Canada died early in life although my grandmother, Effie, lived for over 90 years.
     I have many documents regarding Annie E. Parker including marriage licenses, city directory listings, census reports, wills, civil war pension applications, death certificates, wills, etc. All of these documents were useful in putting together the story of the life of Annie. The city directories told me the addresses were Annie lived and that Annie had been a dressmaker. The obituary of John W Holt told me that Annie and her family were Baptist and regular church attendees at a church which still exists in Jacksonville, Illinois, although their records are unavailable. The census reports for Annie told me how many children she had given birth to and who lived in her household. Census reports for each census year were viewed and studied. The will of Annie's second husband told me what he left to her upon his death. The grantee-grantor records of the property that Annie lived in told me the size of the land parcel and who handled her property affairs. I used the resources of genealogical/historical societies in various counties where Annie had lived and of libraries in the towns were Annie had lived. People in those resources always seemed to be very responsive and helpful. There are still some hopeful inquiries out there from which I am waiting for a response. I still feel free to add to the story of Annie E. Parker as I learn more information.
     I perceive Annie to be a delightful person. She was a true survivor. Pictures of her show an uplifted strong personality as a child and a sweet disposition as an adult. I am grateful for her existence and she deserves a tribute.

Annie in her later years