Georgia Kennedy aged 102 dies here

KENNEDY, LINCOLN, CARVER, HOOKER, LEE, DAVIS, MITCHELL, JACKSON, EARLY, NOBLE

Posted By: Mary Lanigan (email)
Date: 3/24/2008 at 14:42:03

GEORGIA KENNEDY, ONCE A SLAVE DIES AT 102 yrs old

KENNEDY, LINCOLN, CARVER, HOOKER, LEE, DAVIS, MITCHELL, JACKSON, EARLY, NOBLE
Courtesy of the Ottumwa Courier December 25, 1943

Georgia W. Kennedy, a former slave whose age is said to be 102, died at 4:30 p.m. on Christmas Day at the Wapello County Hospital at Ottumwa.

Georgia who lived on her own acreage on route 5, had been in failing health for several months and when it became impossible to secure adequate help for her two months ago she was moved to the County Hospital.

She was born on the Culverson Plantation near Red Rock, GA. where her mother was a nurse for the Culverson children and her father drove the household liveries. When she was six years old her father was sold to the Drovers and she often told how he waved good bye to her as he was led down the road for the last time. Shortly after the sale of her father, Georgia and her mother were sold to a Dr. Carver of Anniston, ALA. There her mother nursed the children and Georgia assisted with the general household duties.

When the Civil War began, Georgia and her mother were taken to Chattanooga, where Dr. Carver was head of a Confederate hospital unit and Georgia's mother was made head nurse and Georgia was one of the nurses. During the battle of Lookout Mountain, Georgia would recall how she and the others carried tubs of water to the beseiged Confederate Troops, who were attempting to withstand the charges Gen. Joe Hooker's North Troops. As the title of the battle shifted, Georgia said that she had found herself in the camps of the Yankee's but always managed to get back to the Confederate lines. On one such occasion; she found herself in the camp of the 126th Volunteer Regiment from New York City, she was told that one of the young officers she served was George A. Mitchell; Grandfather of Charles H. Mitchell of OTTUMWA. More than 50 years later, when Mitchell was two weeks old, she became the Mitchell nurse maid and remained in the service of the Mitchell family until her death.

TAUGHT HERSELF

After the Civil War she returned to Carver Hall and served as a nurse for the Carver children. From the Carvers' she she went to work for the Nobles, a steel and banking family of Anniston, remaining to their employ for over 40 years.

Georgia taught herself to read and write by watching and listening to the private tutors of her charges. She learned well in this schooling and could quote long passages from the scriptures.

She traveled extensively and had visited almost every state in the union. She remembered many of the incidents of the Civil War and figures of the Civil War; among them; Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Steve Early, and Jefferson Davis.

FOUR HUSBANDS DIED

From the Noble family, she went to work for the parents of Charles Mitchell of On April 1, 1911 of Ottumwa. She was married four times and buried each of her husbands. She had one son who preceded her in death a number of years ago. She also had one brother Lewis, who died about 12 years ago, and her last husband Abram Kennedy died in October of 1942.

Funeral services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lester and Jay Funeral Home in charge of the Rev. Henry J. Parker; pastor of the Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church.

She will be buried in the Mitchell Plot in Oak Ridge Cemetery; Springfield, ILL., across the driveway and almost in the shadow of the final resting place of Abraham Lincoln, the man who made it possible for her to come to Ottumwa.

Transcriber note~~Wapello County Hospital is now called the Wapello County Iowa Care Facility; often referred to the poor farm.