[African Americana] Kentucky:

MARRIAGE LICENSE. THE COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY. TO ANY MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL, OR OTHER PERSON LEGALLY AUTHORIZED TO SOLEMNIZE MATRIMONY. YOU ARE HEREBY PERMITTED TO SOLEMNIZE THE RITES OF MATRIMONY BETWEEN HAMP COSBY [COL] AND MARGARET BURTON [COL] THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW HAVING BEEN COMPLIED WITH. WITNESS MY SIGNATURE AS CLERK OF THE WARREN COUNTY COURT, THIS 25TH DAY OF DEC. 1901.

[Bowling Green? KY], 1901. Printed typescript Certificate, 5-1/2" x 8-3/8," completed in manuscript. Signed in ink, "Wm. H. Edley C.W.C.C. By Frank J. Potter D. C." Text surrounded by decorative border. Old folds, minimal wear. Very Good. Docketed on verso in ink manuscript: "Hamp Cosby and Margaret Burton [Col] 373."
[joined with] MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE. THIS IS TO CERTIFY, THAT ON THE 25 DAY OF DEC. 1901, THE RITES OF MARRIAGE WERE LEGALLY SOLEMNIZED BETWEEN HAMP COSBY [COL] AND MARGRET BURTON [COL] AT MT. ANTHONY IN THE COUNTY OF WARREN IN THE PRESENCE OF JAMES T. PRUITT & J.V. JOHNSON. SIGNED M.Y.H. HOLLAND" Printed typescript Certificate, 5-1/2" x 8-3/8," completed in manuscript, text surrounded by decorative border. Very Good.

State laws in Kentucky prohibited legal marriages between Blacks and Mulattoes while enslaved and after the Civil War, until the Cohabitation Act of 1866 passed in Kentucky on February 14, 1866. The Act provided that "all negroes and mulattos may intermarry with each other in the same manner and under the same regulations that are provided by law for white persons." This allowed cohabitating Blacks to legally marry and their children to be declared legitimate if they paid a fifty-cent fee and recorded with the county clerk their intention to remain married. For an extra twenty-five cents, they could obtain a certificate. [Kentucky Historical Society Legislative History, website of Kentucky General Assembly.]
Warren County is in south central Kentucky; Bowling Green is the county seat. William H[enry] Edley [1860-1935] was a West Point cadet, served as Chief Deputy for the Circuit Court Clerk of Bowling Green, Adjutant in 3d Kentucky Regiment Infantry, and Warren County Court clerk for four years. He moved to Oklahoma where he was elected delegate to the Oklahoma constitutional convention and served in several committees, then to Wyoming in 1908 where he was made receiver of public moneys at the Lander land office from 1913-1922 and ran for Democratic candidate for Assessor in 1922.
Frank J. Potter [1877-1939] was a Bowling Green farmer in his early years until he met the famous Edgar Cayce, the self-proclaimed clairvoyant. who started out as a photographer. Cayce moved to Bowling Green in 1902 and worked for a bookstore owned by Potter's cousins. Potter met and partnered with Cayce in the purchase of a local photography studio in 1904. Cayce studied photography and worked as a photographer in Bowling Green until 1910, at which time he went into business with a few men to establish the Hopkinsville Psychic Reading Corporation. Potter went on to become a salesman with a local coal company and then a fire insurance company. He spent many years caring for his ailing sister and later his ailing mother, after which he had a nervous breakdown. He committed suicide by shooting himself in the head in a hotel room on New Year's Eve in 1939.
Hamp[ton] Cosby [1875-1958] and Margaret Burton [1884-1931] grew up in Kentucky and lived in Warren County for many years after their Christmas wedding. Hamp was a farmer, later a criminal, and Margaret was a housewife. The 1910 U.S. Federal Census [USFC] shows Hamp leasing farm property, while the 1920 USFC lists him as the property owner. He registered for the World War 1 draft on Sept. 12, 1918. Margaret died in 1931 from chronic cardiac-renal vascular disease. Hamp was arrested in January, 1936, for grand larceny after burglarizing the Planters' Tobacco Warehouse and stealing a shotgun belonging to the owner, Virgil Hendricks. Forgery was added to the charges after Hamp signed a bond required by the Magistrates' Court with the name of Lon Dodd, a retired grocery man. He omitted a "d" in Dodd's name which raised suspicion among officials. He was sentenced in April, 1936, to two years in jail. He was later admitted to the Western State Mental Hospital 1848. He made three attempts to escape over the years, with the third bringing about his death. His body was found on July 6, 1958, on a farm abutting the hospital grounds; he had been dead for about a month with no signs of foul play. Item #41263

Price: $450.00