A Portrait of Judy Garland's Great Grandmother, Mary Ann Marable Baugh

What did Mary Ann Marable Baugh look like? That was a question Curry Wolfe, Mary Ann's great great granddaughter and I asked over and over. During the eight years I researched the Baugh family for my book, "From Tennessee to Oz," I collected a great deal of information on Mary Ann. Yet, through all this time, I wanted to see her face. Young or old, I wanted to know hat she looked like.

Mary Ann Marable Baugh’s life spanned nearly a century. Born in Virginia in 1812 - the same year the British invaded American, Mary Ann was the youngest of five children and the only girl. When she was twelve, she traveled across the wilderness to reach the center of the newly formed state of Tennessee, a land that was said to be a paradise. Society in this part of America was rough, but by other accounts, something like Jane Austin’s England. It was a very social world. 

Mary Ann's grandfather, the Rev. Henry Hartwell Marable, had become a Methodist minister late in life and was known for his powerful voice and passionate sermons--sermons he preached for over fifty years - longer than Judy Garland would live. 

Today, Rev. Marable’s Tennessee home can be seen at the Historic Sam Davis Home and Plantation in Lebannon, Tennessee. http://www.samdavishome.org The old log house awaits the needed funds for it's restoration. Five years after Marable’s death, the home became the birthplace of Southern hero, Sam Davis.

For a picture of this house, please visit my site: http://vaudevillesongs.tripod.com/fromtennesseetooz/id5.html

Certainly, Mary Ann visited this home many times as a young girl, until her very handsome distant cousin, John Aldridge Baugh came and took her to Alabama - at least for the early years of their marriage. In this this very simple home of her grandparents, Mary Ann learned about kindness and welcoming strangers from all walks of life. Her uncle John, brother of her father, married the daughter of Andrew Jackson’s business partner, Ann Watson, and eventually entered politics. 

During the thirty years of her marriage to John Baugh, Mary Ann gave birth to ten children. One little girl died in childhood, but most were healthy. Her youngest daughter, Clemmie, who was born with a disability of the spine, would one day marry Will Gum. 

Mary Ann lived through the Civil War, no small feat in Rutherford County. The African American slave, Miranda, whom she had known since childhood (and perhaps who was one of the closest and most trusted persons in her life) stayed in her household until her death. But despite whatever hardships she experienced,  none was worse than the fear of her son-in-law, Will Gum. Whether she had become senile or had reason to worry, this writer cannot say, but these facts taken form many records are presented in “From Tennessee to Oz, Parts 1 and 2.

During the eight years of the adventure writing this book, Curry Wolfe and I had many intense discussions about Mary Ann. There were so many ins and outs to her personality and to her life, yet one question we could not answer was, “What did she look like?”

Her family had money. Certainly, at one time there was a portrait of the lovely Mary Ann Marable. Yet,  when the Union soldiers came to town, many things were taken or destroyed. It seems that Benjamin Marable’s home was in the line of battle during the Battle of Stones River. Perhaps the house was burned to the ground. If not, many items were taken.

During the late 1860s and onward, there were photography studios in Murfreesboro. Mary Ann’s oldest daughter, Bettie, had her portrait taken around 1865. A great granddaughter kept this large picture carefully in her house; the house was very close to where Mary Ann  and family lived during the work. Surely, we thought, there must be a painting or portrait out there somewhere. If so, it may be unmarked. Another reason why it has yet to be discovered.

And so now, while hope has dwindled, we still wait with the question. What did Mary Ann Marable Baugh look like?

Baugh Family African Americans - Part of Judy Garland's Family History

Because February celebrates the history of black Americans and the life of Martin Luther King who so bravely and peacefully worked to procure equality and rights for his brothers and sisters of color, I thought it would only be right to finally speak about some of the persons of color who were part of Judy Garland's family, mainly in the form of slavery.

In researching Garland's paternal family in Tennessee, it was hoped by both myself and Judy's relative, Curry Wolfe, that we would not find that they had owned slaves. At the very least, - if that were the case - we hoped that they were not unkind slave owners. 

Early in my research, a descendant of a Knoxville fort owner, explained to me that in the late 1700s and early 1800s in Tennessee - or the Southwest Territory, as it was then called - slaves were often bought as help-mates to travel through the wilderness and settle the land. Usually, the "masters" worked side by side with these persons of color. Later, slavery became something quite different. In the beginning, however, there is no way the settlers could have survived the wilderness and built their towns and farms without additional help.

When researching the Gum(m) family, we could only verify one woman slave bought by the direct line of that family. She was given as a gift by Norton Gum to his wife, Sally. However, on Judy's father's maternal side--the Baughs and Marables--there were many slaves.

In the mid-1800s, as Garland's great grandfather, John Aldridge Baugh worked to increase his landholdings and he bought quite a few slaves to farm that land. It was a sad day when I first held property records in my hands showing the sale of human beings as so much property. In time, I learned that unlike some neighbors who bought and sold slaves, John Aldridge Baugh and his wife Mary Ann Marable Baugh, with maybe two or three exceptions, kept the slaves like family, and noted the birth of each child in the family Bible.
Some of these persons stayed with the family even after slavery was over. Some moved to town and were still connect to the family even when Judy Garland's father Frank Gumm, was a little boy. Realizing this, I began to study these person's genealogy with the hope I might find some descendants.

One important person in the life of the Baugh family was Miranda Marable Baugh. It appears that Miranday, as she was called, joined the Marable family in Virginia as a young girl. She was about 3-5 years younger than Mary Ann Marable and so the two girls grew up together. Miranday traveled from Virginia to Tennessee with Mary Ann and when she married John Aldridge Baugh, Miranday went with her. 

It seems Miranday married or had a child with one of the slaves on the Marable Farm. Their son, Willis Baugh referred to his father as Clem Marable during an interview in the 1900s regarding his history and his service as a Confederate soldier. 

During the time Mary Ann Baugh was giving birth to her 10 children, Mirandy was giving birth to about 10 children of her own. Some of Mirandy's children did not survive as noted by Willis in his interview. Others listed in the family Bible to note the names of their parents. We do know that among her surviving children were Willis, Gilbert and Jane. Willis went with two of the masters in the Civil War. As result, he saw some of the worst Battles anyone could imagine, most prominently, the Battle at Shiloh.

When the Baugh family moved to Murfreesboro after the war, Miranda joined them. Mary Ann gave her a house to live in. By now, Miranda's name was Miranday Miller (there were many Millers in Millersburg). When "Aunt Ran" or "Mammy Ran" as the family called her, moved to Murfreesboro, she was joined by her daughter, Jane Hoover. Jane had been working as a cook up in Nashville and had a couple of boys. Eventually, she remarried and moved to a small house not far from Frank Gumm's family. This was between 1900 and 1910.  Eventually the house where Aunt Ran lived in was inherited by Judy Garland''s grandmother, Clemmie Gum. After the Gum home burnt, the family moved into Ran's old home, and Ran Miller (sometimes listed as Hoover) moved in with her daughter.

My Meeting with Mary Fox, Granddaughter of Willis Baugh
From Tennessee to Oz, Part 2

In search of Miranda's  descendants via her daughter, Jane, I was unable to find any. Either they had no children or they left the area. Neither was I able to find a grave or date of death for Miranda, who died sometime between 1910 and 1920. This was very sad to me, but I had a surprise coming. One day a women lent me a book on a neighboring county and by chance I saw the name "Willis Baugh" listed in it. The information in the book allowed me to trace a granddaughter for Willis. Amazingly, she had a photo of her grandfather, which someone had found blowing along the railroad tracks. This photo is in Part One of From Tennessee to Oz. When I returned to Tennessee, Mary agreed to meet me for lunch one day, an event I found quite thrilling. I was truly connecting past and present. 

In researching the African American history in Tennessee, I learned that that many African American descendants do not want to know about the days of slavery. It is no doubt a painful chapter in their past. In some cases, they may find that they are related to the white masters who held their ancestors in slavery. I found that many black persons in Tennessee were hesitant to speak about their history to a white person, but a couple of ladies who were quite elderly and past fear or caring told me that women of color had no choice over what the white man wanted.

Looking back on this past, I found nothing but admiration for these persons - for what they endured and for how they came out. They lived difficult lives, often loosing a loved one, even a child, who was sold away. They often worked hard and lived in deplorable conditions (though a Union soldier visiting Murfreesboro during the war said that black folks in that town lived  better than poor white folks). Yet with all that these persons endured, it is also true that they were usually the ones who showed the young white children the most love and affection. A Tennessean lady informed me that historically, the relation of white children to their parents was one of formality. The relation to the black "mammy" (which I might add is also what white folks also call their white mothers) was one of affection, love and warmth. They also exposed the children to some of their culture. So, in relation to Judy Garland's paternal family, we might comment that these persons, referred to as servants" were also family and had an affect in the formation of the children, including young Frank Gumm who loved to sing. One of his favorite songs was "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen," an old Negro spiritual.

For more information, read "From Tennessee to Oz" Parts I and II or contact me regarding the genealogy. I will help if I can.