Former slave Charity Ross finds her long-lost daughter after 45 years

- Compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, society president

The Valley Falls New Era, Jan. 14, 1899, featured the following story from the Kansas City Journal:

"An old colored woman sat in the Union Depot yesterday, rocking to and fro, whimpering and moaning softly, while her tears fell on an envelope, which bore her address, 'Charity Ross, Valley Falls, Kan.,' written neatly but crudely. It was the first and only word she has had from her daughter for 45 years.

"The old woman said she had passed the 100-year mark. She had just learned that her daughter, whom she saw sold to a southern slave dealer and carried away as a young woman, was still alive and living on a small farm in Mississippi. The old mother did not have enough money to buy her ticket. She had nothing to eat.

"The notion of trying to find what had become of her child came to her over a year ago. It was 15 years before the war when her daughter was sold. When she went to Kansas about five years after the close of the (Civil) war, she gave up all hopes of ever seeing her daughter.

"The first letter was written for her by a neighbor and was directed to her old master. After months of waiting, she received a letter from him telling her to write to a man who is today living on the farm which forms part of the old plantation. He was the man who brought the purchaser of her daughter to him and from him she might get definite information.

"Another letter was written and again she waited for months before a reply came. This time she secured information by which she came into communication with her daughter. She said she sold everything she owned in Valley Falls to raise money to go to Gunnison, Miss. She sold her cow and the little house in which she had lived with all its furniture.

"Detective Bradley counted her money and found she lacked only 40 cents. He spoke to several people around the depot, raised the balance and purchased a ticket. The porter brought her a basket of food which would last until she got to Memphis. She says her daughter is about 63 years old."

The local museum will be open at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 25. Admission is free.