From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)

Pallbearers (Versailles, KY)

The body of Mrs. Susanna Preston Hart Camden (1867-1929), wife of former U.S. Senator Johnson N. Camden, Jr. (1865-1942), was carried to the burial site in Frankfort, KY on the shoulders of six African American men. The names of the men were not given in the obituary in the New York Times.

The six men were servants at Spring Hill Farm in Woodford County, KY, where four of the men had been born; they were the children of former slaves at the plantation. Spring Hill was originally owned by the Shelby family; Isaac Shelby, for whom Shelby County, KY, was named, was Kentucky's first governor. Mrs. Camden was a descendant of Governor Shelby.

For more see "Mrs. Camden buried; servants bearers," New York Times, 1/14/1929, p. 19. 

Kentucky County & Region

Read about Franklin County, Kentucky in Wikipedia.
Read about Shelby County, Kentucky in Wikipedia.
Read about Woodford County, Kentucky in Wikipedia.

Kentucky Place (Town or City)

Read about Frankfort, Kentucky in Wikipedia.
Read about Shelbyville, Kentucky in Wikipedia.
Read about Versailles, Kentucky in Wikipedia.

Item Relations

Cited in this Entry

NKAA Source: The New York times (newspaper)

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Cite This NKAA Entry:

“Pallbearers (Versailles, KY),” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed September 30, 2023, https://ukscrc001.net/nkaa/items/show/1556.

Last modified: 2021-04-30 16:10:05