Individual Details

1850 Census. Palmyra, Marion Co, MO, Hh 330
David Gentry, 49, Carpenter, b. VA
Marie Brooks, 40, Black
Josephine, 9, Mulatto
Henry C., 7, Mulatto

1960 Census. Palmyra, Marion, MO, Hh 904
David Gentry, 60, Carpentry
Maria Brooks, 60, Black, washer woman
Josaphine, 17, Mulatto
Henry C., 16, mulatto, day labor

1870 Census. Palmyra, Marion, MO, Hh 495
David Gentry, 69, Carpenter
Maria Brooks, 65, Black, keeping house
Rosa Howard, 26, Mulatto wash woman
Henry C. Brooks, 27, Black, laborer

1880 Census. Palmyra, Marion, MO, Hh 228
David Gentry, 80, widowed, carpenter
Harry Clay Gentry, 37, son (race was "M" but marked over "W")

Newspaper clipping:
David Gentry died at his home in this city last Saturday. For twenty-five or thirty years he had lived the life of a hermit and was rarely seen off his own premises. Years ago he associated himself with a Negro woman and two children by her, are, we understand, his heirs. At one time his standing in the community was good, but on account of his conduct he was ostracised by his own race.

FindAGrave #227998163
David Gentry had come to Marion County, Missouri as a young man. In the 1830s, Mr. Gentry married a woman named Elvira Fry. No records exist to tell us what happened to Elvira. By 1850, David Gentry appeared to have one male slave, aged ten, living in his household. He also had Maria Brooks, a forty year-old Black woman, living in the household as his wife. [NOTE: There are no relationships stated in the 1850 census - Maria was in his household as a washer woman - both children, Josephine 9 and Henry 7, were in the house - not listed as slaves but as Mulatto children.]
David and Maria had two children of their own, both listed as mulattos. In 1850, Josephine was aged 9 years, and her brother, Henry, was 7. Josephine and Henry both carried the surname of Brooks in their early years. Later they would take the surname Gentry.
When David Gentry died in 1888, he left his estate to his two mixed-race children.

Birth	1801
Marriage	28 Jan 1830	Marion County, Missouri - Elvira Fry
Death	14 Jul 1888	Palmyra, Marion County, Missouri
Divorce		Elvira Fry

Spouse

Elvira Fry (1813 - 1841)

Spouse	Maria Brooks (1801 - 1877)
Child	Josephine Gentry (1841 - 1923)
Child	Henry Clay Gentry (1843 - 1904)