Shady Grove Cemetery, recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the final resting place of over 250 African Americans who lived in and near Cape Girardeau. Many were born enslaved but lived to see emancipation and life into the early 1900s. Among these was Charlotte (Gordon) (Giboney) Cook Holmes, whose remarkable story spanned more than 90 years.
The headline in the October 20, 1914, newspaper read, “Pioneer Colored Woman Dies at Age of 99 Years.” The article that followed hits some high points of her life, but only scratches the surface of this woman’s remarkable story.
Charlotte, known in her old age as “Aunt” Charlotte, was born in Virginia between 1821 and 1824. Her age is inconsistent in records. The Clark family, headed by widow Susannah Clark, probably were her enslavers at the time of her birth. One daughter of Susannah Clark, Martha M., married Samuel Gordon, and Susannah likely sold or gifted Charlotte to the Gordons.
For unknown reasons, but probably to capitalize on commercial opportunities, the Gordon and Clark families decided to leave Virginia for Southeast Missouri. Samuel and Martha M. Gordon first appear in 1837, while the Clarks followed them within two years. Charlotte probably came with the Gordons. The party came by wagon according to Charlotte’s later account. Her obituary stated that she frequently spoke of the trip from Virginia to Missouri to her children and grandchildren. The Gordon party entered free territory when they crossed the Ohio, and Charlotte remembered that thereafter her enslavers locked up her and the other enslaved people at night for safe keeping.
Upon arrival in Cape Girardeau County, Samuel and Joseph Gordon purchased the large mill and surrounding 465 acres in what became Gordonville, holding it in trust for Samuel Gordon’s father, a wealthy businessman Baker Gordon. Samuel operated the mill and store in the community thereafter.
A sister of Martha M. Gordon, Susannah, married William Giboney in 1842 and either purchased Charlotte from the Gordons or received her as a gift. William Giboney later inherited several enslaved people from his father Robert in 1850, including a man born about 1815, Edmund Cook. Edmond came to Missouri as a child from Williamson County, Tennessee, after his enslaver, John Dunham, died. Dunham willed those he enslaved to his wife Polly and children, and she came to be with relatives in Cape Girardeau County by 1819. Robert Giboney, father of William Giboney, purchased Edmond from Mrs. Dunham in 1821.
Edmond and Charlotte became husband and wife when Edmond joined the household in 1850. Over the next 13 years, they would become the parents of 10 children. William Giboney died in 1852, leaving Susannah (Clark) Giboney as the enslaver of the Cook family.
Sometime after 1863, Edmond Cook likely passed on. Charlotte and family stayed near Susannah Giboney, her former enslaver, after emancipation. Susannah died in 1890. Charlotte remarried to Samuel “Sambo” Holmes by 1880, but he had died by 1900. Charlotte moved in with her son David Cook in the Pecan Grove community, southwest of Cape Girardeau near Shady Grove, after she was widowed the second time and lived with him until her death.
Charlotte Holmes lived a life that spanned from slavery in Virginia and Missouri to freedom, from the time of Missouri statehood to the eve of World War I, passing along stories of that life to her family. Her descendants live throughout the U. S. and continue to share these stories.
