Documented History

Mary was a resident of Page County, Virginia, in 1845; she is listed as one of seven enslaved individuals in an inventory of the estate of Daniel Strickler taken in June of that year. She was sold to Strickler’s son Harrison Strickler in June 1845; no further records listing her by name have yet been found.


Speculations

Mary is listed as a woman in the 1845 inventory of Stricker’s estate, suggesting that she was born prior to 1832. A thirty-nine-year-old Black woman is listed along with men of nineteen and twenty-one under Harrison Strickler’s household in the 1850 slave census; if the woman is Mary, that suggests she was born in about 1810 or 1811. No woman of a similar age is listed under that household in the census taken in 1860.


Connections

Andrew, Arthur, Edmund, Mary Louisa, Sarah, and Rebecca were enslaved along with Mary in the household of Daniel Strickler as of 1845.


Sources

Page County, Virginia, Will Book C, Last Will and Testament of Daniel Strickler, dated 1 April 1845, recorded 28 May 1845, page 43; digital image, Ancestry.com, “Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983.”

Page County, Virginia, Will Book C, list of property assigned to Elizabeth Strickler, widow and relict of Daniel Strickler, 11 June 1845, pages 50-51; digital image, Ancestry.com, “Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983.”

Page County, Virginia, Will Book C, “Appraisement of the personal Estate of Daniel Strickler dec’d as appraised into current money this 11th and 12th days of June 1845,” pages 51-52; digital image, Ancestry.com, “Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983.”

Page County, Virginia, Will Book C, “Sale Bill of the Personal Estate of Daniel Strickler dec’d as sold by the Exec’s on the 13th and 14th days of June 1845,” pages 52-53; digital image, Ancestry.com, “Virginia, Wills and Probate Records, 1652-1983.”

1850 U.S. census, Page County, Virginia, slave schedule, District 49, unpaginated, Harrison Strickler, slaveowner; digital image, Ancestry.com, “1850 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules”; citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication M432.