A state historical marker approved by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources will be unveiled at noon Saturday for The Old Folks Home, a facility in Essex County that offered care and boarding for poor, elderly African Americans in the early 1900s.
The dedication ceremony for the marker will be held at the marker’s location across Route 17 from 28882 Tidewater Trail, Limited roadside parking will be available at the dedication site. Guests may also find parking at Angel Visit Baptist Church at 29566 Tidewater Trail, which is less than a mile away from the dedication site. Free shuttle service is available from the church to the site beginning at 11 a.m. This event is free and open to the public.
The Woman’s Baptist District Missionary Convention opened The Old Folks Home in Essex County circa 1909 to provide care for impoverished elderly black people, some of whom had been enslaved and did not know their families, a release said. The home was supervised by a live-in matron and an all-female trustee board. It offered its residents life essentials as well as end-of-life arrangements.
Funded by churches, individual donors, and timber sales, the home operated for approximately 30 years, through the late 1930s. It exemplified a nationwide social reform that began in the late 1800s in which charitable groups, often led by women, established residences for the indigent elderly as alternatives to public almshouses. During its years of operation, The Old Folks Home—like other residences for senior black people—experienced the effects of racism and poverty, the release said.
The Old Folks Home was unique in that it provided a home and care to elderly African Americans long before the concept of a nursing home or adult home was widely known, the release said. It cared for them in life and in death, arranging burials for some of them on the grounds of the home.
The seven founding trustees and six women who later became trustees of The Old Folks Home will be recognized at the dedication. The home’s founding trustees were Martha Ellis Braxton (1875-1918) of Lancaster, Rosa Wheeler Cauthorne of Ozeana (now Dunnsville), Sallie Page Gaines (1856-1956) of Walkerton, Mary Ann Harris (1865-1945) of Urbanna, Mattie Gatewood McGill (1875-1932) of Church View, Mary Eliza Cook Moody (1874-1937) of Jamaica, and Susan A. Jackson Smith (1863-1941) of Gloucester.
Subsequent trustees of The Old Folks Home were Ida Smith Cauthorne (1884-1965) of Ozeana (Dunnsville), Naomi Harris Dabney (1888-1967) of Fredericksburg, Mary Payne Harris (1875-1944) of Harmony Village, Mary Brook Jones (1888-1990) of Indian Neck, Fannie Smith Turner (1886-1947) of West Point, and Williana Stewart Williams (1876-1961) of Little Plymouth.
Descendants of the founding trustees of The Old Folks Home and descendants of the later trustees are expected to be in attendance at the ceremony and will lead the unveiling of the marker. A post-dedication public reception will take place at Angel Visit Baptist Church.
The Rev. Dr. Carla E. Lightfoot, moderator of the Southside Rappahannock Baptist Association and pastor of Angel Visit Baptist Church, will preside over the dedication. The Rev. Dr. Maurice Dabney Finney and Bessida Cauthorne White, both who are descended from a founding trustee and a subsequent trustee, will speak on the program. Dr. Leonard Edloe, pastor of New Hope Fellowship in Hartfield, will deliver the principal message.
The marker is sponsored by the Southside Rappahannock Baptist Association.