An obituary of Martin, written in 1915 by the university's librarian, John S. Patton, notes that during the Civil War the Carrs hired Martin out to Bolling Haxall, a wealthy Richmond industrialist, but that Martin ran away "in the guise of a Confederate soldier" and returned to Charlottesville. There he labored in the military hospital superintended by J. L. Cabell, a professor of medicine at the university. In an as-told-to recollection published in the yearbook Corks and Curls in 1914, Martin described how he tended wounded soldiers in the Rotunda. "It didn't make no difference how much they was sufferin'," he said; "they didn't make no noise."
Martin married at least three times. The date of his marriage to Martha Jane Bullock is unknown. In 1865 he married Patsy Washington and with her had one son and seven daughters, of whom at least six lived to maturity. Martin was a tall man—six-foot-two by some accounts—and while often depicted as being unable to read and write, he likely could do both. In 1890 he wrote a letter to College Topics, the school newspaper, recounting how he came to work at the university.
Martin died at 1 a.m. on October 6, 1915, of a strangulated hernia. Both his death and funeral, which was held two days later at the First Baptist Church in Charlottesville and attended by many in the University of Virginia community, were front-page news in the Daily Progress newspaper. He was buried at the Daughters of Zion Cemetery in Charlottesville. In the summer of 2012, the university laid a plaque dedicated to Martin near the university's chapel.
Time Line
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July 4, 1826 - Henry Martin is born enslaved at Monticello.
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1827 - Henry Martin, a slave owned by the estate of Thomas Jefferson, is likely sold to William Carr.
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ca. 1847 - Henry Martin is hired out by the Carr family to a relative who runs a boardinghouse near the University of Virginia on what will come to be known as Carr's Hill.
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1861–1865 - During the Civil War, Henry Martin labors in Richmond and in Charlottesville, where he helps tend the Confederate wounded.
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1865 - Henry martin and Patsy Washington marry. They will have one son and seven daughters.
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February 1866 - Henry Martin is hired by the University of Virginia to haul coal.
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1868 - By this year Henry Martin is working as the head janitor and bell-ringer at the University of Virginia.
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1890 - Henry Martin writes a letter to College Topics, the University of Virginia's student newspaper, recounting how he came to work at the school.
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October 27, 1895 - Henry Martin rings the bell at the University of Virginia alerting the community to a fire in the Rotunda's annex.
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March 18, 1909 - The University of Virginia board of visitors notes Henry Martin's retirement and allots him a pension of $300 per year.
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October 6, 1915 - Henry Martin dies in Charlottesville. He is buried at the Daughters of Zion Cemetery there.
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Summer 2012 - The University of Virginia lays a plaque dedicated to Henry Martin.
References
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Wolfe, B. Henry Martin (1826–1915). (2018, October 29). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Martin_Henry_1826-1915.
- MLA Citation:
Wolfe, Brendan. "Henry Martin (1826–1915)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 29 Oct. 2018. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: April 20, 2017 | Last modified: October 29, 2018
Contributed by Brendan Wolfe, editor of Encyclopedia Virginia.