THOMAS FOOTE'S STORY, A free Negro.
Reference: Personal interview with Thomas Foote,
at his home, Cockeysville, Md.


"My mother's name was Eliza Foote and my father's name was Thomas Foote.
Father and mother of a large family that was reared on a small farm
about a mile east of Cockeysville, a village situated on the Northern
Central Railroad 15 miles north of Baltimore City.

"My mother's maiden name was Myers, a daughter of a free man of
Baltimore County. In her younger days she was employed by Dr. Ensor, a
homeopathic medical doctor of Cockeysville who was a noted doctor in his
day. Mrs. Ensor, a very refined and cultured woman, taught her to read
and write. My mother's duty along with her other work was to assist Dr.
Ensor in the making of some of his medicine. In gaining practical
experience and knowledge of different herbs and roots that Dr. Ensor
used in the compounding of his medicine, used them for commercial
purposes for herself among the slaves and free colored people of
Baltimore County, especially of the Merrymans, Ridgelys, Roberts,
Cockeys and Mayfields. Her fame reached as far south as Baltimore City
and north of Baltimore as far as the Pennsylvania line and the
surrounding territory. She was styled and called the doctor woman both
by the slaves and the free people. She was suspected by the white people
but confided in by the colored people both for their ills and their
troubles.

"My mother prescribed for her people and compounded medicine out of the
same leaves, herbs and roots that Dr. Ensor did. Naturally her success