Black Pioneer Mary Jane Holmes Shipley Drake as seen in 1924

100 years ago the morning paper published a feature on Mary Jane Shipley Drake.

February 10th, 1924

It's weird. By our standards now it's racist. In its time, maybe it was progressive. It's hard to say.

The Advocate seemed to praise the piece as it appeared in the Oregonian.

February 2nd, 1924

But, again, reading it today, as it seems to aspire to an even-handed scholarship, a kind of ethnographic tone, it is not neutral, and is shot through with normative whiteness and an irenic, harmonizing interpretation of slavery.

Right off, the headline reads "A Slave in Oregon Now Living Free." And the first sentence, as if readers might not have understood the significance of the word "slave" in the headline, is to racialize Drake with tag, "Mary Jane Shipley Drake (Colored)." It keeps pointing this out, tagging people in the piece as they first appear. Especially with the headline establishing the topic, the relentlessness in underscoring Blackness is weird. They are Black first, people second.

It is also completely silent on Holmes v. Ford, an important and relevant court case (see link below).

Today we would give more stress to this, that "speaking from experience, she would not favorably compare slavery with freedom." Like how much doubt is there?

Its author, an important professor at what became OSU, may not deserve extra criticism, but as an artifact of its time the piece is telling.

The piece in whole:

By Dr. J. B. Horner

Professor of History, Oregon Agricultural College

Mary Jane Shipley Drake (Colored) Portland is one of the few persons now living who served an a slave in the pre-war times in Oregon. She is undoubtedly the last of those who were sold as property in Oregon where slavery was occasionally practiced, though not authorized by law.

Mrs. Drake resides at a home for aged at 472 Sellwood avenue, where Wilson Benefiel of Irvington and the writer recently interviewed her. She lacks 10 months being 100 years old. Because of her great age she is practically helpless. Her mind, however, is fairly clear at intervals.

When questioned by the writer regarding her servitude in Oregon Mrs. Drake said that at one time she was the slave of a Mr. Ford who lived, near Dallas, Polk county, and who had brought her from the south. Interrogated concerning the treatment she received from her master, she said that he never struck her, but she insisted that, speaking from experience, she would not favorably compare slavery with freedom.

Husband Pays for Wife

In 1857 while she was yet in bondage, Mrs. Drake was married at her Polk county home to Reuben Shipley (colored), who had purchased a small farm four miles west of Corvallis. At that time he was 57 years of age and she about 28.

On the morning after the wedding the newly-married couple were about to repair to their Benton county home, when the husband was informed that while Mary was his wife. She remained the property of Mr. Ford, who had paid for her, and that the husband must pay for her also before she would be permitted to leave the premises.

Contrary to the advice of Eldridge Hartless, the Rev. T. J. Connor, and other citizens of Benton county, Reuben Shipley, who himself had been a slave and had already lost a wife in slavery as will be related hereafter, paid the ransom of $400 or more - some say $800 - and that evening the couple arrived at their cottage in the shade of Mary's Peak. This was the end cf the first day of Mary Shipley's freedom.

Raised Six Children

Here on a farm of 80 acres the industrious couple brought up a family of six children - Wallace, Ella, Thomas, Martha, Nellie, and Edward. The Shipley family was highly respected. The children mingled freely with the white children and Mr. and Mrs. Shipley were entertained in some of the finest homes in Benton county, among which were the homes of Eldridge Hartless, Gamaliel Newton, Ichabid Henkle, Squire Julius Brownson, Dr. J. R. Bailey and S. K. Brown.

Upon the death of Reuben Shipley in 1873, the widow proved her ability to care for the family and conduct the farm. In 1880 she left Corvallis with her family, and in after years she was married to Mr. Drake (colored) who subsequently died. All her children have died except Edward, who is in the employ of a railway company in Portland.

Great Church Worker

Throughout her lifetime Mrs. Drake has been an active Christian. In Benton county she was a member of the United Brethren church, while in later years she has been identified with the African M. E. Church.

In connection with Mrs. Drake's first marriage, it is interesting to note that her husband. Reuben Shipley, had come across the plains from Missouri to Oregon as a slave with Robert Shipley, his master, in [18??] and who gave freedom to Reuben after the latter had complied with the terms of an agreement previously made between him and the master. One who knew both men informed the writer that while Reuben was the slave of Robert Shipley the two had through long association be come attached to each other as brothers.

Reuben had been married to a slave on a plantation about 30 miles distant from the Shipley home in Missouri. By this marriage there were two sons. Once each month Reuben was granted a week-end with his family. It is said that the respect for the colored man was such that along the way between the two plantations he was accorded the courtesy of "eating with the white folks," which practice was unusual in the south.

Shade Trees Remain

Soon after Reuben Shiply arrived in Oregon his wife died, and the master of the two sons declined an offer from their father to ransom them. It was under these circumstances that Reuben Shipley purchased a home, married again, and brought up a family in Oregon as has been related in this narrative.

The home where this family was reared was later converted into a farm shop. It was crushed under the weight of the deep snow a few years ago, and there remains little to indicate its location except the great shade trees planted by Reuben Shipley for his Oregon bride in 1857.

See also:

• At Wikipedia, "Mary Jane Holmes Shipley Drake"
• Her burial record at Findagrave
• at KLCC, "New historical marker in Philomath honors early Black residents of Benton County" and at R. Gregory Nokes' blog, "Reuben Shipley honored in Philomath, Oregon"
• At the Oregon Encyclopedia, "Holmes v. Ford" and on "John Baptiste Horner"
  
• The probable (but not certain) burial of her father, Robin Holmes, at the IOOF Pioneer Cemetery here and her mother in Portland at Findagrave