Caroline (Tracy) Dye (1810 - 1918)

Born 1810 in Spartanburg, Spartanburg County, South Carolina, USA

Wife of Martin Dye — married 11 Jun 1867 in Jacksonport, Jackson, Arkansas, United States

Died 26 Sep 1918 at about age 108 in Newport, Jackson County, Arkansas, USA

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Biography

Caroline (Tracy) Dye is Notable.

Caroline (Tracy) Dye was born in Appalachia, in South Carolina. See Appalachia Project.

Caroline (Tracy) Dye was a centenarian, living to age 108.

Caroline (Tracy) Dye was an Arkansan.

Aunt Caroline was a former enslaved African-American Hoodoo woman, soothsayer, rootworker, conjuror, property owner and Blues legend that lived in Newport, Jackson County, Arkansas.

Caroline was born in 1810 or 1843 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She was married to Martin Dye on June 11, 1867 in Jacksonport, Arkansas.^[1] Aunt Caroline passed away on September 26, 1918 in Newport, Arkansas and was buried in Gum Grove Cemetery.^[2]

Louis Finch (~1866-) was listed as a nephew of Caroline and Martin in the 1900 census of Bird, Arkansas.^[3]

→   Aunt Caroline Dye was born Caroline Tracy in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Her gravestone cites her age at the time of her death as 108 years old, which would put her birth year at 1810. However, several US federal census forms in Jackson County from the year 1870 to 1910 estimate her birth year should be between 1843-1853. Note, it was not uncommon for incorrect birth years to appear on the census forms of formerly enslaved people. And like many other persons who were born into slavery, the names of Caroline's parents are unknown. However, she and her 12 siblings were owned by William (1789-1841) and Nancy Tracy, who operated a plantation in Spartanburg...
...While prominent residents of Newport mocked her abilities in public, they sought her instruction before they made any important decisions, especially those pertaining to business. They begged her to keep their late-night visits to her home a secret. She would often confront those who were skeptical of her gifts and prove them wrong...^[4]

→   Caroline Tracy Dye, better known as “Aunt Caroline,” was a highly respected seer whose name was recognized in Arkansas and the Mid-South in the early years of the twentieth century. The fact that she was an uneducated African American made her popularity at the time all the more unusual...^[5]

→   One of Arkansas’ biggest Blues legends wasn’t even a Blues singer at all. “Aunt” Caroline Dye, of Newport Arkansas, passed away September 26, 1918. Born a slave in Spartanburg South Carolina, immigrating to Arkansas some time in young adulthood, much of the rest of Caroline’s history is the stuff of Arkansas legend...^[6]

→   Aunt Caroline Dye was a famous hoodoo woman or two-headed doctor who lived in Newport, Arkansas. Details of her life are fairly sketchy. According to one blues historian (Stephen C. La Vere), she was born in 1810 and died in 1918 at the age of 108; according to another (Paul Oliver) she died in 1944. Neither story completely fits the evidence, however. In the photo shown here, distributed as Dye's business or souvenir card (and published by La Vere in 1999), she wears clothes of early 20th century vintage and appears to be a strong woman in her 60s, not the tottering 90- to 100-year-old she would have had to have been to have been born in 1810. La Vere's 1918 death date does not seem correct, for in Harry Middleton Hyatt's massive collection of interviews with hoodoo practitioners collected during the 1930s, one informant clearly remembers having seen Dye perform a cure on her own cousin in 1929 at Newport, Arkansas (this story is given in full below). Furthermore, the Memphis blues singer Will Shade wrote a song about Dye in 1930, and seemed content in the fact that she was living at that time. Oliver's 1944 death date, however, also seems suspect, for in 1938, in the second interview Hyatt conducted with a Memphis conjure woman named Madam Collins, they discuss the fact that Dye had passed away. (This too is given in full below.)...^[7]

→   In a memorable interview with Dorothy Scarborough, W.C. Handy said that the gypsy woman in his "St. Louis Blues" was Aunt Caroline Dye, of Newport, Arkansas. The song, he explained, was of folk origin, made up of Negro sayings, and in the second stanza the reference to the fortune teller was based on the saying, "I've got to go to see Aunt Ca'line Dye." Miss Scarborough then quotes from the song:

Been to de Gypsy to get mah fortune tole,

To de Gypsy done got mah fortune tole,

'Cause I'se wile about mah Jelly Roll.

Gypsy done tole me, "Don't you wear no black.

Go to St. Louis, you can win him back." ^[8]

→   One of the paradoxes of the Jim Crow era of segregation was the allowance made for black female fortune tellers. "Aunt" Caroline Dye of Newport, Ark., was perhaps the most famous of these black clairvoyants.
From 1890 to 1965, Arkansas and the rest of the South was a land of strict segregation. Black children studied in all-black schools, black travelers were denied lodging in hotels, almost all churches were segregated, and when black folks cast off their mortal coil, they were buried in black cemeteries. Still, large numbers of white people sought out Mrs. Dye, and paid her well for her services...^[9]

→   “Aunt” Caroline Dye was known thoughout the region as a seer. At the time of her death in 1918, Dye’s estate included numerous farms and exceeded $100,000. Memphis musician W.C. Handy sings about her in his 1923 “Sundown Blues”: “I’m going to Newport, Arkansas, I’m going there to see Aunt Car’line Dye, Why she’s a reader and I need her . . . She reads your fortune and the cards don’t lie.” ^[10]

→   One thing not in question is Aunt Caroline Dye’s reputation as a psychic. Caroline Dye apparently had “the gift,” even when she was young. But she only became known nationally for being a seer after the Dyes moved to Newport around the turn of the century. They lived on Remmel Avenue. Composer W.C. Handy said Caroline Dye was “the gypsy” mentioned in his 1914 song “St. Louis Blues,” one of the most covered songs ever...
...Dye didn’t use a crystal ball and seldom read palms, and wouldn’t help those who sought romantic advice. But Dye often used a deck of cards, and Handy’s lyric goes, “her cards don’t lie.” Dye’s specialty was the recovery of lost or stolen items, even livestock. She never advertised, or even charged for her services, but accepted gratuities. A landowner and a rich woman, perhaps not even Aunt Caroline herself could have foreseen how successful she would become. Dye, called “one of the most celebrated women ever to live in the Midsouth,” is said to have died Sept. 26, 1918, at 108 years old. She is buried in Jackson County.
She was featured in song: • “St. Louis Blues”, • “Sundown Blues”, • “Aunt Caroline Dyer Blues”, • “Hoodoo Woman”, • “Wang Dang Doodle” ^[11]

• Memphis Jug Band - Aunt Caroline Dyer Blues
  
    Lyrics
  • Johnnie Temple - Hoodoo Women
    
    • Wang Dang Doodle - Willie Dixon
      
      • Aunt Caroline Dye Blues
        

• Hidden Figures: 'Aunt' Caroline Dye #BlackHERstoryMonth 7/28
  
  
  
  • Aunt Caroline Dye
    
    
    
• The Secret History of Memphis Hoodoo
  
  (Mentions Spiritual Healer Carolyn Dye - train to Newport, AR from Memphis, TN: The Carolyn Dye Special)

Sources

1. ↑ "U.S., Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records, 1846-1867"
   The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; Records of the Field Offices for the State of Arkansas, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872; NAI: 215; Record Group Title: Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861 - 1880; Record Group Number: 105; Series Number: M1901
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 1231 #90032852 (accessed 12 June 2023)
   Caroline Tracy (20) marriage to Martin Dye on 11 Jun 1867 in Jacksonport, Jackson, Arkansas.
2. ↑ Burial: Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45489151/caroline-tracy-dye: accessed 11 June 2023), memorial page for Caroline Tracy -Aunt Caroline- Dye (1810-26 Sep 1918), Find A Grave: Memorial #45489151, citing Gum Grove Cemetery, Newport, Jackson County, Arkansas, USA; Maintained by Arkieologist (contributor 47246586).
3. ↑ "1900 United States Federal Census"
   Year: 1900; Census Place: Bird, Jackson, Arkansas; Roll: 62; Page: 19; Enumeration District: 0052
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 7602 #35602676 (accessed 12 June 2023)
   Carlina Dye (52), wife, in household of Mart Dye (57) in Bird, Jackson, Arkansas. Born in South Carolina, USA.
   Mart Dye 57, wife Carlina Dye 52, boarder Windell Sanders 18, boarder Frank Sanders 16, nephew Louis Finch 34, boarder Gertie Risley 14.
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Caroline_Dye
5. ↑ https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/aunt-caroline-dye-14/
6. ↑ https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/articles/hoo-doo-woman-arkansas
7. ↑ https://www.luckymojo.com/auntcarolinedye.html
8. ↑ https://www.lyon.edu/aunt-caroline-dye-the-gypsy-in-the-st-louis-blues
9. ↑ https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/sep/17/a-clairvoyant-s-many-claims-to-fame-201/
10. ↑ https://jacksonhistory.net/1918-aunt-caroline-dye/
11. ↑ https://arktimes.com/entertainment/arkansongs/2005/06/30/aunt-caroline-dye

• "1870 United States Federal Census"
  Year: 1870; Census Place: Bird, Jackson, Arkansas; Roll: M593_56; Page: 302A
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 7163 #472226 (accessed 12 June 2023)
  Caroline Dye (24), Keeping House, in Bird, Jackson, Arkansas. Born in South Carolina.
  Martin Dye 28, Caroline Dye 24, Lucy Dye 6, Martha Dye 14.
• "1880 United States Federal Census"
  Year: 1880; Census Place: Bird, Jackson, Arkansas; Roll: 47; Page: 526A; Enumeration District: 140
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 6742 #39653240 (accessed 12 June 2023)
  Caroline Dye (27), wife, Housekeeping, in household of Mart Dye (37) in Bird, Jackson, Arkansas, USA. Born in South Carolina.
  Mart Dye 37, wife Caroline Dye 27.
• "Arkansas, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1818-1998"
  Wills; Author: Arkansas. Probate Court (Jackson County)
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 8638 #2549882 (accessed 12 June 2023)
  Caroline Dye probate in 1845-1912. (Husband Martin)
• "1910 United States Federal Census"
  Year: 1910; Census Place: Newport Ward 2, Jackson, Arkansas; Roll: T624_53; Page: 29b; Enumeration District: 0073; FHL microfilm: 1374066
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 7884 #571664 (accessed 12 June 2023)
  Caroline Dye (67), widowed head of household in Newport Ward 2, Jackson, Arkansas, USA. Born in South Carolina.
  Caroline Dye 67, servant Nora Marshall 49, servant Cornelia Carr 48, servant Calvin Wimley 51, lodger James H Fogg 55, ward Mattie Valentine 13.
• "Arkansas, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1818-1998"
  Wills; Author: Arkansas. Probate Court (Jackson County); Probate Place: Jackson, Arkansas
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 8638 #323791 (accessed 12 June 2023)
  Caroline Dye probate in 1912-1928 in Jackson, Arkansas, USA.
• https://arkansasgravestones.org/view.php?id=620923
• https://arkansasgravestones.org/view.php?id=1220132
  Caroline Tracy was born into slavery, about 1843. William Tracy (her family's slave owner) had died and his widow, Nancy moved to Arkansas. Caroline Tracy had a baby daughter, Hannah, before the death of Nancy Tracy in 1861. All of the slaves were the part of the 'Tracy Estate' until after the Civil War.
• Burial: Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45489151/caroline-tracy-dye: accessed 11 June 2023), memorial page for Caroline Tracy -Aunt Caroline- Dye (1810-26 Sep 1918), Find A Grave: Memorial #45489151, citing Gum Grove Cemetery, Newport, Jackson County, Arkansas, USA; Maintained by Arkieologist (contributor 47246586).

See also:

• https://twitter.com/witchdctralex/status/1232108420628541442
• https://www.facebook.com/mosaictemplars/photos/a.58781380739/10157728251920740
• https://www.conjuredoctors.com/aunt-caroline-dye.html
• https://readersandrootworkers.org/wiki/Aunt_Caroline_Dye

• Wikipedia: Aunt Caroline Dye
  
• Wikidata: Item Q113950689, en:Wikipedia