Douglas, Martha

Born: 1828-10-10 Rockingham County, North Carolina

Died: 1853-01-19 Washington, DC

Alternate name: Martin

Born into an influential North Carolina planter family, Martha Martin attended finishing schools in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC. She married Stephen A. Douglas in 1847 and she inherited her father’s large Mississippi plantation the following year, which Douglas managed from Illinois. She bore Douglas three children but died after giving birth to the youngest in 1853.

Samuel Martin and Robert Martin, Sr., The Martin Family History (Yuba City, CA: Francie Lane, 2016), 4:303; Robert W. Johannsen, Stephen A. Douglas (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 207-11, 381; Gravestone, Settle Cemetery, Rockingham County, NC.