Georgia:  Chattooga County:  Kate Shropshire

====================================================================
USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing
free information on the Internet, data may be used by
non-commercial entities, as long as this message
remains on all copied material. These electronic
pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit
or for presentation by other persons or organizations.

Persons or organizations desiring to use this material
for purposes other than stated above must obtain the
written consent of the file contributor.

The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb
Archives to store this file permanently for free access.
This file was contributed by:
Dorothy Grigsby
dottie362@comcast.net
====================================================================

This is a photo of Kate Shropshire, former slave of Wesley Shropshire. 
Kate was born and raised on the Shropshire plantation in Chattooga 
County. She grew up with and was a playmate to Naomi Shropshire, the 
daughter of Wesley Shropshire. Naomi, born in 1843, grew very close to 
Kate. When Naomi married Captain Bale and moved to Rome, she took Kate 
along with her. Kate remained with Naomi her entire life. After the war, 
Kate continued to stay with Naomi who considered her family. Kate passed 
away before Naomi, and Naomi buried her and kept this photo of her on her 
wall where it remained until Naomi's death. It is not known the year of 
Kate's death but Naomi died in Rome at the age of 83 . 

Naomi wrote many newspaper articles about plantation life during her 
later years of life. She told of the hard times everyone had during and 
after wartime. She told of the gratitude that she had for her slaves 
during that time and not knowing how she would have survived during that 
time without them with all of the men gone to war and no one left to take 
care of the land but the women and the slaves. 

I received this photo from Naomi's great-great-grandson, Clayton Farnham, 
an attorney living in Atlanta, GA., whom I met while on a research trip 
to the Atlanta Archives. Mr. Farnham supplied me with much information on 
his Shropshire ancestors which was a great help to me. I appreciate the 
kindness of Mr. Farnham and will always remember him and his kind deeds. 

At this time I have not been able to connect this Kate with my family, 
but there are many similarities: 
My ancestors were Shropshires who were on the Wesley Shropshire 
plantation. 

The name "Kate" is found throughout the family in the years following the 
war. 

According to my oldest living relative on the Shropshire side, my 
ancestors were owned by Mrs. Naomi Shropshire and her husband Mr. Bale 
shortly before the war ended. Wesley Shropshire was getting older and 
could no longer afford the upkeep of so many slaves. When the war ended, 
my ancestors chose the Shropshire name instead of the Bale name because 
of the longtime connection to Mr. Wesley Shropshire. When one Aunt died, 
it is said that Wesley Shropshire, an old man by this time, attended the 
funeral and spoke saying that he had known the family their entire lives 
and that they were like family to him. He also stated that he had all of 
our family information written down in a book in his office if any of the 
family wanted it. It is not known whether anyone retreived the book or 
not, but as far as anyone knows, no one did. I am still searching for the 
book to this day hoping it survived and was not destroyed after Mr. 
Shropshires death. 

I know that my great grandfather Seab Shropshire (Sebron, Seaborn, etc.) 
who was born in 1845, had two sisters Margaret and Matilda, who we don't 
have much information on them after the war. 
This photo is the only connection that I have to the past and my 
Shropshire ancestors. At this time no family members have any pictures of 
relatives that lived during slavery. 
Dorothy Grigsby 
8331 Meyers Road 
Detroit, MI 48228 
dottie362@comcast.net