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About Martha Tolton
Martha Tolton and her children escaped slavery in Missouri by boating across
the Mississippi River to Quincy. She was the mother of Father Augustus Tolton, the
first African American priest in the United States.
Enjoy a movie
with a reenactment of Martha Tolton. You will need
Windows Media Player to enjoy
this movie. Martha Tolton is portrayed by Mett Morris of Quincy. Depending on
your computer and Internet connection, it may take a few minutes to download. This is the
bigger broadband version.
Try this link
if you have a dial-up. The file is smaller, but not near the quality of the larger file above.
Go to Mother Tolton photos and audio descriptions
Go to index of Mother Tolton photos and descriptions
Martha Tolton Biography
Martha Jane Chisley Tolton was born on the John Manning’s plantation in Mead
County, Kentucky probably about 1833 to Augustine Chisley and Matilda Hurd,
slaves on the plantation. Martha had one known younger brother, Charley.
In 1849, Martha was part of a “wedding present” to Susan Manning and Stephen Eliot.
Eliot had acquired land in the frontier state of Missouri.
Soon Martha was on her way to Brush Creek in Ralls County, Missouri, leaving behind her
parents and brother forever.
In 1851, Martha met and later married a slave from a neighboring plantation,
Peter Paul Tolton. Both Martha and Peter had been baptized Catholic,
because their masters were Catholic. It was the custom for the slave owner to
baptize and provide some religious instruction to his slaves.
Martha and Peter were married in St. Peter’s Church, Brush Creek, Missouri.
The owners of Martha and Peter agreed to the marriage with the following conditions:
the couple would live on the Eliot plantation, Peter would remain a slave of the
neighboring family, while Martha and her children would remain slaves to the Eliot family.
In 1854, Martha gave birth to a son, Augustine (Augustus) Tolton, and also bore
two other children, Charles (the eldest) and Anne (the youngest).
When the Civil War began,
Peter decided to run away to join the Union army,
promising to return to free his family.
Martha supported her husband in his
decision to flee and fight, and so one night
she helped him to escape to St. Louis.
As the war raged on, a year passed without word from Peter.
Life for a slave on the Eliot farm became increasing dangerous and
Martha was afraid that the Eliot family would sell her children.
Finally, one night Martha decided to flee taking her three children,
the youngest about two years old, with her. Heading east toward the Mississippi,
they made there way across the fields to Hannibal. Narrowly escaping arrest as
runaways by Confederate officials in the town, the family was rescued by Union
soldiers who claimed that Hannibal was under Union jurisdiction. Martha and
her children were smuggled to the riverbank and loaded into a rowboat. Martha rowed
the boat across the Mississippi to land in Illinois and made her way north some twenty miles
to Quincy. She settled in the east side of the city, sharing a small home with a widow, a
Mrs. Davis, and her daughter Mary Ann.
Martha had not heard anything about her husband, Peter, until the war’s end.
It was then that she learned he had died in St. Louis shortly after joining
the Union army. Meanwhile, Martha and her two boys found employment in a cigar factory.
Martha also wanted to educate her children and continue to raise them in the Catholic
faith. The family attended St. Boniface Church in Quincy where much of the service
was spoken in German (for the benefit of the many German immigrates who attend the parish).
Therefore, the children, especially Augustine, learned to understand some German.
In 1863, Martha lost her eldest son, Charley, to pneumonia.
Later, she tried to enroll Augustine and his sister, Anne, in Catholic school
and they were admitted briefly to St. Boniface. Unfortunately, escalating racial
problems forced them to withdraw from school, but Augustine’s aptitude for learning
prompted several of Quincy’s Catholic clergy to contribute to his education.
Finally, Fr. Peter McGirr, of St. Peter’s Church, took over the
education of Augustine and Anne in spite of racial prejudice. When Augustine
expressed a desire to become a priest, Fr. McGirr and other area Catholic clergy
sponsored him to study at the seminary in the Vatican in Rome (1880).
Augustine was ordained a Catholic priest in Rome in April of 1886 and was
ordered to return to Quincy to reopen St. Joseph’s Catholic Church for Negroes.
When Augustine returned to Quincy, Martha became his housekeeper and sacristan for the church. In 1889, he was transferred to Chicago to open a parish for Negroes,
St. Monica. As soon as he was settled, he brought his mother and sister to Chicago.
Martha again filled his need for a housekeeper. Anne also found a job and
later married. In July of 1897, during a sever heat wave, Augustine collapsed and
died at the age of 43. Following his wishes, Martha and Anne brought him back to Quincy
for burial in St. Peter’s Cemetery alongside Fr. McGirr. Martha and Anne returned to
Chicago where Martha continued to work at St. Monica’s until her death in 1911.
Anne died in 1912, and her daughter (Martha’s granddaughter) Rose died in 1922. They are
all buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery on the southwest side of Chicago. St. Monica’s Church was
closed in 1924 and torn down in 1945.
Information from:
From Slave to Priest by Sr. Caroline Hemesath, O.S.F. Franciscan Herald Press, Chicago: 1973.
Written by Patricia Tomczak, Dean of Library and Information Resources,
Quincy University September 2005.
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