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Chapter Twenty Five

The Hardy Salter Family

Jasper County and Newton County 1870-1900

The Early Years

The 1860 United States Census was the last census showing the enslaved listed by age and gender only in the household of the slaveholding families. In1866 a census was held in most southern states freed men, women and children were required by law to have a surname. Former enslaved men and women were able to choose any name they desired. In most cases they chose the name of the last slaveholder. In some cases they chose the name of a previous slaveholder. And in other cases they did not choose a name of any former slaveholders. Some wanted to distance themselves from slavery altogether. After Emancipation Proclamation from all indications and research information Hardy chose “Salter” [spelled “Saulter”] as a surname for his family and settled in Mississippi in Jasper County.

The Hardy Salter family once freed appeared not to continue their contact with the Salter /Saulter families, however, Hardy had taken the Salter /Saulter surname. One former slaveholder Augustus Salter [spelled Sartor], was listed in the 1850 1860, 1870, 1880 United States Census and lived in Jasper County. The1866 Mississippi State and Territorial Census Collection in Jasper County, Mississippi list Augustus Sartor living on a farm in North East Jasper County. Listed in the1866 Mississippi State Census living near Augustus is the recently freed Frank Salter, [spelled Saulter] the son of Hardy Salter and twenty-five unnamed members of his household.

(Augusta Sartor relocated to Montrose in Jasper County and is buried in the Montrose Cemetery. Later the Sartor Family descendent migrated to Louisiana. (Per Skip Weber great great grandson of Augusta (spelled) Sartor)

Except for the former enslaved Salter no one with the surname Salter were found living in Jasper or Newton Counties after 1880. There are a variety of speculations that would account for the apparent break with the former slaveholding families. Hardy may have signed a mandatory labor contract and was sent out to work on the Griffin farm. Or perhaps, as suspected, the Griffins/Horn/ Mc Carty and the Salter/Sartor families may have had family ties either through business or marriage. Also often after the War several plantation owners left the area leaving their former enslaved workers behind. Recent research shows the Hardy Salter/ Saulter families were listed in the 1870 census living on the Griffin farm in Jasper County and working as farm laborers. Living with Hardy is his wife, Louisa, a son, Alfred Salter and twenty- eight year old Charley Mc Carty and three Mc Carty children, Peter age three and two, daughters ages two and one.

(In the1880 census Frank Salter states his parents Hardy and Louezer (Louisa) were born in Virginia. The 1870 Census shows Hardy Saulter/Salter and his wife Luezer (Louisa) born in North Carolina.)

In 1880 Hardy and his wife, Louisa continued to live on the Griffin farm in Jasper County. The aged couple planted what they could with the help of young Peter Salter. Hardy‘s second son, Cason Saulter, his wife, Cherry, and their two children lived on the adjacent farm. The Washington Salter family had lived in Jasper County adjacent to the Hardy Salter family from 1870 until sometime after 1880. Research shows the family migrated to Delhi, Louisiana.

(Peter Salter was listed a Peter Mc Carty in the 1870 census)

Hardy and Louisa Salter died sometime between 1881 and 1890. After the death of Hardy and his wife their descendants set out to accomplish a new kind of freedom. The Salter Freedmen began to build their own community within the rural southern areas and setting about as best they could starting their own farms and small businesses. The Salter family wanted nothing more than to be free and enough land to make a living for themselves and their children.

In the 1870 Census Frank Salter [spelled Saulter], was listed as; a farm laborer on rented land, with his wife seventeen year old Dora, a daughter six month old Mary Francis and a brother, Alfred Saulter. By the 1880 census Frank had relocated with his wife and daughter and his brother Alfred and settled in Newton County near the developing Freedmen Settlement south of Hickory, Mississippi. Frank, Dora and Alfred worked as laborers on what appeared to be the Robert Griffin farm adjacent to a farm belonging to Richard K. Horn. Also living with the family was 11 year old Luezer Saulter. As of this printing no information regarding Luezer has been discovered that would help to explain her connections with the family. Family elder could not recall any stories related to her identity. It is possible that she may have been a sister to Frank, Cason and Alfred. Luezer would have been 21 years old and was not found in the 1880 census she may have died before the next census, or married, and would have been listed with her husband’s surname.

After, 1880 Frank, his wife and their fifteen year old daughter Mary Frances had settled in Newton County. Between 1870 and 1880 three more children were born to Frank and Dora: Charity, Louise, and Alice. By1900 Frank and Dora had moved to the Good Hope Freedmen Settlement. Susie Anna had married Milton Hayden, Addie married Frank Williams and Isaac married Mary Johnson, daughter of Filmore Johnson and they all settled in the community of Good Hope. Bob, the twin brother of Isaac, had died by 1910. Charley, Willie, Lucy and Nellie remained in the household. The 1910 census shows the younger children of Frank and Dora and a five year old grandchild, Ruby Maddox, still living in the household.

(See Index of Family Given Name for Ruby Maddox) (Ruby is the daughter of Alice Salter) Alice was no longer living in the household. In 1893 when she was seventeen Alice married Stephen Tullos and the couple had moved to Meridian, Mississippi by 1910. Alice died sometime before 1920.

Frank Salter died sometime before 1920. The 1920 census shows Dora, a seventy years old widow had moved back to Jasper County. Dora was living on a small farm with her grandson Dan Salter, her mother Hannah Garner and her sister Massalee Garner. After her mother died Dora moved back to the Good Hope Settlement. One year later eighty-one year old Dora died in her home in Good Hope Settlement.

Cason Salter the second son of Hardy Salter married Cherry Anderson in 1870 and they had thirteen children. Cherry died in1928. After Cherry’s death, Cason relocated to Chicago, Illinois to live with his children. Several of his descendants, Warren, Harrison, George and Frank, left the South during “The Great Migration” and migrated to Chicago. Cason died about 1930 and is buried in Chicago, Illinois.

Alfred Salter/ Salter the youngest son born to Hardy and Louisa Salter was born enslaved in Alabama in1854. Alfred moved into Newton County in Mississippi in 1880 with his older brother, Frank Salter. Alfred married Mariah his first wife in about 1890. Mariah died around 1898. Ninety six year old Mariah Saulter Wilson, her name sake and granddaughter, tells the story of her hardworking grandmother and as a very young woman, after the birth of her eight children, “she worked right up to her death.”

After working in the kitchen most of the day cooking and baking she sat in a chair and died. By the early 1900’s Alfred married a second time to Mandy Beason and they had one son, Handy Beason Saulter. Handy Salter was listed in the 1910 census living with his grandparents, Handy and Lillie Beason in Jasper County. We have no further information on Alfred, Lillie or Handy as of this printing.

The Salters and other newly freed men and women in the county were able to buy land in Newton County, along the Jasper County border in what is now called Good Hope Colored Settlement Community. Landownership, however, did not exempt the Salters and other community members from segregation and discrimination sanctioned by Jim Crow legislation. To minimize their influence, the families of Good Hope ventured beyond their community only when necessary. However, the Salter elders had a very secure knowledge of what they believed and what they were about, despite their early beginnings. They knew their strengths and their set of beliefs. They were hard workers, farmers, teachers, timber men, preachers and small businessmen. Mary Salter Stamps, the daughter of Will Salter, said at the 40 th Salter/Saulter Family Reunion in Minneapolis, “We are who we are because of them.”

Salter Family Of Good Hope Settlement

Frank Salter was born in 1835 in Georgia (Possibly Washington County GA). After he was freed he relocated with his wife and children to an area in rural Hickory, Mississippi. He married Dora Garner in 1868, when she, was thirteen years old and Frank was twenty three. They had several children. Frank was able to buy several acres of farm land in the settlement.

More on Frank Salter (The Salter of Good Hope Settlement)

Lillie Salter Colman was the daughter of local farmers, Cason and Cherry (Johnson Anderson) Salter. Lillie married Willie Coleman who was a farmer in the Good Hope community

(See Salter family history) at a very young age. (As of this printing they had no children.)

The elders recalled she was very beautiful and adventurous. She visited her big brother Frank Salter and his wife Sallie Johnson Salter in Chicago as often as she could. In 1919 after returning home from Chicago she contracted tuberculosis and died on December 23, 1919 and she is buried in Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery.

Addie Salter the daughter of Frank and Dora salter. Addie married Frank Williams and they had the following children; Arthur, J.Q, Seymour and Albert. Frank purchased farm land in the Good Hope Colored Settlement in about 1920 Addie Salter died in 1920 and is buried in the Good Hope Church Cemetery.

More on Salter (The Salter of Good Hope Settlement)

Mary Francis Salter the daughter of Frank and Dora salter. Mary Francis married a farmer Henry Dyess and they worked a large farm in the Good Hope Colored Settlement. In 1892 a son Thomas Dyess was born. In 1895 Mary Francis died and is buried in the Good Hope Church Cemetery. In 1899 Henry married Louise (Babe) Salter the sister of his late wife.

More on Salter (The Salter of Good Hope Settlement)

Louise Salter married Henry Dyess after the death of his first wife. The family remained in the Good Hope Settlement and continued farming Henry and Louise had three known children Frank, Sophia and Rebecca Frances. Rebecca Frances was born on August 13, 1914 and died five days later. Living in the home in 1910 was seven year old Lucile Dyess and five year old Henry Dyess Jr. Sophia married Jim Mitchell and they had a daughter Theresa. Theresa married Percy Chapman and had three children. In the early 1950s Theresa and Percy Chapman relocated to Denver, Colorado. Theresa died in 2016 in Denver. In 1920 sixty-three year old Henry died sometime before 1930 and Louise married Frank Petree Jr. they continued to live on the Dyess farm in the Good Hope Settlement until their death.

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Isaac Salter the son of Frank and Dora Salter married Mary Johnson. Mary was the daughter of Filmore and Bettie Levy Johnson. Mary and Isaac had six children; Rubin, Clayborn, Broomsy, Lonnie, Robert and a daughter Addie Lee. Isaac and Mary were born in Good Hope and were members of Good Hope church. Isaac was one of the trustees that help raise money to build the church. Both Isaac and Mary played vital rolls in the church and in the community. In 1935 they took to live with them three orphan relatives Alonzo, Grace, and J T Pruitt. Isaac Salter born July 7, 1886 died in Freeport Illinois on January 1969.

More on Salter (The Salter of Good Hope Settlement)

Will Salter owned a large piece of land that extended to the land owned by his brother Isaac Salter. Daniel Johnson the son of Filmore had a large track of timber and farm land near the Jasper County line. Will Salter the youngest child of Frank and Dora Salter married Judy Pruitt, Will enlisted in the army and fought in World War I. Will and Judy had six children; Classie, Ruth, Mary, Ivory, Grace and Rebecca. Decades later the land remains in the hands of his descendants. Most of the land purchase by the Salter families.

More on Salter (The Salter of Good Hope Settlement).