Meeting Mary Jones
By Kenneth Collier

I was about five years old and my family was living in Wilmington, DE. There had been a death in the family back in Richmond, VA and we went south for the funeral.

Mrs. Mary Jones was very old and living in the home of my grandmother's sister, Alice Hardwicke Frischkorn. She had been the cook in my father's home when he was a child. When she heard that he and his sons were in Richmond, she asked to meet us. What I remember of the meeting is being ushered into a back room. I was taken to a very old, small African American woman wearing a bright white cap or bonnet. I do not remember her voice or anything that was said, but that cap made a big impression on me. That's all I remember.

The memory of that meeting has stuck with me these 59 years and at one level or another it has haunted me. From time to time people in the family used to talk about "Mary," never using her last name. It was not until a few years ago that I learned it. "Jones" is her married name. I have no idea what her Freedom Name was.

The power of denial is enormous. It was not until 40 years later that it dawned on me that my family must have been slaveholders and that Mrs. Jones was probably born into slavery in our family. My father had died by then, so I asked my mother about this. She told me that it was her understanding that Mrs. Jones was given into my grandmother's family as a wedding present.

When I began doing genealogical research, I realized that this is unlikely since there was no one in the family of an age to get married near the apparent time of her birth. I suspect that if there is truth to this story it is far more likely that it was Mrs. Jones' mother who was the wedding present. And indeed, the 1860 census lists John Venable Hardwicke, my grandmother's grandfather, as owner of three people, one of whom was a 25 year old black female. I do not know whether this woman was Mrs. Jones' mother, but it is certainly possible and is consistent with the family story.

In any event, there was a very close relationship between Mrs. Jones and the Hardwicke family. Apparently, she and her mother stayed with the Hardwickes after Emancipation, working as domestics. They even moved with them to Lynchburg for a time and then back to Richmond, again with the Hardwickes. When Mrs. Jones grew too old to work, my great aunt promised her a place to live for the rest of her life. It was a promise that was kept even after my great aunt died. Mrs. Jones died in 1961. Though no one seems to have known what year she was born, she was thought to have been about 100 years of age when she passed away.

I have always wondered about that close relationship. Of course, it could have arisen simply because she was a good and loving woman. But could it also have been because John Hardwicke was actually her father? I have no way of knowing. Perhaps her descendants could answer that question, but at this point I do not know how to find them.

I have long wanted to understand Mrs. Jones’ genuine place in my family, and I would be most eager to be in touch with anyone reading this who might have information to share with me.