Frances Jane Ridge Densmore (September 12, 1843 - September)
The daughter of a Cherokee farmer and a Black woman, Frances Jane Ridge Densmore navigated a life marked by the harsh realities of economic exploitation.
Frances Jane Ridge was one of five children born to Jefferson Ridge, a Cherokee farmer from Arkansas, and Corine King Ridge, a Black woman. Kidnapped at a young age with some of her siblings, Frances was sold into slavery and separated from her family.
As an enslaved woman, Frances’s labor became a commodity. She adopted the surname "Densmore" from her first enslaver in Arkansas, a stark reminder of her loss of identity. Frances had two sons in Missouri and was later sold to Louis Horst, a plantation owner in Austin, Texas.
After the end of slavery, she remained in Austin and had four more children with the plantation owner's son. While she raised these children, the two were not married. Though the means are not known, she was also reunited with her parents and siblings that she had been separated from as a child.
Frances made a living as a cook, working at the end of her life at the newly opened Stephen F. Austin Hotel in downtown Austin. Working within the limited employment options available to her as a Black woman, her position nonetheless reflected her skills and passion–a passion that seems to have been passed down through the generations. Several of her descendants also became cooks, and one has compiled recipes into a cookbook celebrating her traditional recipes.
Frances Jane Ridge Densmore now rests in Bethany Cemetery along with the family that was so important to her including three of her sons and a number of grandchildren. Her role as a mother is foremost on her gravestone, which says, “Blessed indeed is the memory of a sainted mother and the conselation [sic] that comes from knowing that weary hands at last are resting in the life that knows no end.”
Mr. Jefferson Ridge, a Cherokee farmer from Arkansas and Mrs. Corine King Ridge, described by family records as a Black woman, were the parents of Frances Jane Ridge and her siblings. Frances Jane Ridge and some of her siblings were kidnapped at a young age and sold into slavery. Frances Jane Ridge used the "Densmore" surname of her first slave owner for the remainder of life. Frances Jane Ridge Densmore had a younger sister named Margaret Ridge Davis, Ellen Ridge Sternam Caldwell and a brother named Ellis Ridge Sternam. Also, Ellis Ridge was found on a Travis County census record as Ellis Dinsmore. Frances was also related to Frank Hannah and his family of Springfield, Greene County, Missouri and to the Fosters of Calvert, Robertson County, Texas, as well as, Lewis Caldwell and the Edmund and Ellen Ridge Sternam Caldwell family in Travis County, Texas. Frances Densmore had two mulatto children, William Wells and Thomas Jefferson Wells who were born in Illinois, both buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin, Texas. Frances was finally sold to Louis Horst, a plantation owner in Austin, Texas. According to the older family members, Frances was a slave on the Horst Plantation and did not just work for the Horst family. The only job Frances held after slavery was working as a cook at the Stephen F. Austin Hotel in downtown Austin, Texas. Frances Densmore had four mulatto children by the slave owner's son, Charles Carl "Charlie" Horst: Ernest Edward "Ed" Horst, Mary Elizabeth Horst, Robert Horst and Walter Horst. Frances Jane Ridge Densmore died in Sept. 1925 in Coyle, Logan County, Oklahoma. Please Note: Frances was a slave and was never married to Charles Horst. In her later years Frances lived with her daughter, Mary, who was married to Thomas Black. Frances Jane Ridge Densmore and three of her sons, Ernest Edward (Ed) Horst, Walter Horst and Robert Horst, are buried in Bethany Cemetery in Austin, Travis County, Texas.