Recently KSAT News, San Antonio, aired a piece based on the interview that they did with me on Theresa McCloud Moore, a person who had been enslaved and lived at the Polley Plantation in Sutherland Springs.
You can watch the story here:
Azian Bermea did a great job of telling a bit of Theresa’s story quite beautifully in less than two minutes. However, I thought it would be great to be able to tell some of the rest of the story. You can read more of the details of Theresa’s life here:
https://stitchedtogethernotebook.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-enslaved-people-of-j-h-polley.html
These details have been gleaned from census records, slave schedules, family histories, archival letters, books of history and historical fiction, tax records, and probate wills.
There are still unanswered questions. I do not think that Teresa was not born into the Polley household, although she could have been enslaved by the family as early as 1843, when they lived in Brazoria. I know that she was part of the household in 1850 and in 1860, according to the Slave Schedules of those years. I do not know when or where Mr. Polley purchased her. I also do not know how she became acquainted with her husband, Aaron Moore. Her first child Henry was born in 1863, while she was still enslaved by the Polleys. Perhaps she named him after her enslaver Joseph Henry Polley. Her second child, Walter Aaron, was born in 1867, when she was living with her husband, Aaron L. Moore, in Fayette County, named, perhaps for the Mary Polley’s youngest child, Walter Webster, and Theresa’s husband, Aaron L. Moore.
However, in this blog, I would like to focus on the relationship of these four women: Mary Bailey Polley, Teresa McCloud Moore, Susan Polley Henderson Brooks, and Connie Findley Henderson Tiner.
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Mary Bailey Polley Courtest of Robin and Keith Muschalek |
Mary Bailey Polley was the wife of Joseph Henry Polley. They married in Brazoria and made the move to the Cibolo Valley in 1847. She had her share of sorrow, losing her firstborn son in 1834 in an accident in Brazoria, and burying her daughter Emmeline, who died in childbirth in 1848, and Emmeline’s daughter in 1850 within the first three years of their move to the Cibolo.
Theresa McCloud may have been purchased by the Polleys in Brazoria or after their move to the Cibolo. I could find no record of the purchase in either county. Mr. Polley's will and Josephine Golson's book, Bailey's Light, indicate that she had been with the family for a long time.Theresa was born in 1837. Mary’s daughter, Susan, was born in 1835, while the family was living in Brazoria. It is likely that the two girls grew up together.
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Theresa McCloud Moor to Mary Bailey Polley, February 4, 1869 page 1 |
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Theresa McCloud Moor to Mary Bailey Polley, February 4, 1869 page 2 |
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Theresa McCloud Moor to Mary Bailey Polley, February 4, 1869 page 3 |
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Theresa McCloud Moor to Mary Bailey Polley, February 4, 1869 page 4 |
This letter, written by Theresa to Mary Polley in 1869, was found among the Polley papers at the Briscoe Center for American History in Austin. It is amazing for many reasons. First it is amazing that Mrs. Polley kept the letter. There are only a handful of letters written to or from Mary Polley.
Here is a transcription of the letter:
Feb th 4 1869
Dear Mistress
Why in the world don’t you write to me I have written to you once or twice but have never received an answer I some times think you are mad at me the reason you don’t write to me but I dont know that I have ever done any thing to cause you to be offended at me if I have I am ignorant of it and also sorry if such is the case which I hope is not I have also written to Miss Adel Miss Hattie and Miss Adelia you all owe me a letter I wrote last Mistress I do want to see you so much and as soon as my husband can make it convenient to leave home I intend to try to go and see you we are living on our own place this year and have a good deal of improvements to make Last year my husband rented so this year we move to our own home My husband paid four hundred dollars for it It has
[Page 2]
Some improvements on it a dwelling house with two rooms and a gallery kitchen smoke house and corn-crib He has to repare all the field fence I have a very pretty shade in the yard of china trees We have been here just a month to day I feel so glad to think that we are on our own place and to add to my happiness I have a sweet little babe will be four months old the th16 of this month He is not a healthy child and of course has been of great trouble to us We call him Walter Aaron My health has not been very good until here of late have had a rising on my breast and I don’t sukle out of but one and that is my right breast I am just getting so I feel like myself again Is Miss Susan still living with you Has Pollie and [Gollie] grown much I expect they have forgotten all about me that there ever was such a being in excistance How is Miss Augusta and family Are they still living at the Springs yet Lollie and
[Page 3]
Belger are almost grown I expect Is Miss Hattie still at home yet How is her little babe Tell her she must answer my letter and tell me all the news as she promised to do Tell her that I have been looking for it a long time Tell Miss Adell she owes me a letter and also Miss Adelia I would also like to get one from Miss Susan In fact I would be pleased to receive one from any of the family Is Aunt Annie and Uncle Cato Celia Lizzie Bill and Elic still living on the place yet If so give them my best respects and tell them they must write to me and Matilda and her family where are they Mistress Where is Dr. Houston Are they living in San Antonio yet or over at they place I wrote to Callie some time ago but have never got one word from them Don’t know whether she is dead or live It looks like I cant hear a word from that part of the country It appears like every body out that way has stop writing to me
[Page 4]
From some cause but I cant tell what unless it is because I am married If that be the case I am just as proud to hear from my friends now as ever I was in my life Say to Miss Adel that I have never had a chance to get them pink seed for her yet Mistress please answer my letter right away for it is almost a year since I have heard a word from home and I do want to hear from you all so bad I think Miss Susan might write to me for she promised to do so In this letter I send [Gollie] some pointing to go round her panties I have not anything to send Pollie this time Tell her I will send her some thing next time I write Tell Johney he must write to me and let me see how fast he is learning and tell him that I have one of the prettiest little babies he ever saw Give my love to Walter and tell him that I have not forgotten him I must close give my love to all inquiring friends and accept a share for yourself
From Theresa Moore
This letter was from one of Mary Polley's enslaved persons. The handwriting of the letter is beautiful and the grammar is near perfect, suggesting that Theresa was taught to read and write by someone in the family, probably Susan. From some of the things that are said in letter, it seems likely that Theresa was Susan’s personal slave. All the people she asks about at the beginning of the letter are members of the Polley family. Later in the letter she asks about formerly enslaved people that might still be living in the area. Theresa may have gone with Susan when she married Connally Henderson on 3 August 1858, to be her personal slave. Connally left to fight in the Civil War and was killed at the Battle of Gaines Mill, 27 June 1862. When he left for the War, Susan, Susan’s daughter Mary, and Theresa probably returned to the Polley Plantation. Susan’s daughter, Connally Findley Henderson, was born in 1862, shortly after Susan's husband, Connally's father was killed in the Civil War. Susan named her daughter after her husband, Connally Findley, "Connie."
The tone of the letter is very tender. Teresa longs to hear from the folks back in Sutherland Springs. She had a difficult time with the birth of her second child, Walter Aaron, developing mastitis. She worried that the child was not thriving. Although his name appears in the 1870 Census, in the 1880 Census, Walter Aaron is not listed among the children of Aaron and Theresa Moore.
At the end of the letter, Theresa tells Mrs. Polley that she has included some pointing, a kind of needlepoint lace to decorate the underclothes of Susan’s little girls, Mary and Connally. She calls them by their nicknames, “Polly” and “Golly.” it must have been quite a while since she had gotten a letter from Susan, because Mary, “Polley,” had died in 1865, perhaps the same year that Theresa left the Polley Plantation with her husband Aaron. She might not have heard from the family in four years.
“Golly,” Connally Findley Henderson, grew up. Here are some photos of Connie, the little girl that Theresa sent the lace to.
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| Connally Findley Henderson ca. late 1860s |
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| Connally Findley Henderson June 25, 1874 |
In 1879, she married Jesse Lane Tiner.
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Connally Findley Henderson Tiner and Jesse Lane Tiner on their honeymoon in 1879 |
Connie and Jesse had twelve children. You can see her and several of her children in this photo from the 1880s.
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| Tiner Family in front of their new house ca. 1890 |
According to Mr. Tiner's 1898-1900 Diary, the family hired Patsy Turbin, a local Black woman to attend to Connie and the baby, while she recovered after the birth of her eleventh child, Mamye Althea, in 1899. Mr. Tiner had kind things to say about Patsy.
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Connally Findley Henderson Tiner ca. late 1920s |
Connie was affectionately known to her family as “Big Mama.”
A piece of lace gently binds the stories and the lives of these four women together, enslaved and enslavers, mothers and daughters, sharers of sorrows, longings, and moments of tender care.
Maya Angelou ends her poem ,“Human Family,” with these echoing lines:
But we are more alike, my friend,
than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friend,
than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friend,
than we are unalike.
Please make a contribution on the sidebar and help us save the Tiner Hendrick House so that we can uncover and share more of these stories about the human family.
A family member noted that Theresa's letter was written the month before Joseph Polley died in March, and a couple of months before Sarah Polley died in May (I think of TB). The Polley household would have been under great stress when that letter arrived.
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