On page 51 of Factory Man, Macy states that Mary Hunter, the long time maid of J.D. And Pocahontas Bassett, thought so much of her employers that she left them her entire estate when she died in 1940, with the stipulation it be used for the education of African American children. On the following page, she refers to a text by the late historian John B. Harris which states Mary Hunter, the maid who had never learned to read or write, had amassed an astonishing forty thousand dollars. I have not personally read the Harris text, but.... I must disagree. Henry County Virginia Circuit; Court Will Book 18, page 56: the last Will and Testament of Mary Hunter stipulates after the payment of her final expenses and burial, the remainder of her estate was to be distributed not to J.D. And Poky, but to their children, Wm. M. Bassett, J.D. Bassett, Jr., Mrs. Blanche B. Vaughan and Mrs. Anne B. Stanley. No strings, no stipulations. Later, on page 130, the Account Current of W.M. Bassett, Executor of the Estate of Mary Hunter, decd, stated her cash in the First National Bank of Bassett came to $782.64, her bed was worth $5.00 and other tangible property $5.75 for a total of $ 793.39. After the payment of her final expenses, filing fees, cost of funeral, headstone and the fence around her grave, there remained $388.96 to be divided four ways. Mrs. Vaughan, Mrs. Stanley and their brothers each received $97.24.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 16:32:17 +0000
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