This is my 7th year participating in the A to Z Challenge. In the 2015 challenge, I wrote about the Cleages formerly enslaved on the plantations of Samuel and his sons Alexander and David Cleage of Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee. Most of the people in these posts are not related to me by blood or DNA, however my ancestors were enslaved on the same plantations with them.

Late last year, I ordered the Civil War Pension files of the Cleage men who served in 1^st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery (USCHA), during that war. Through these files I learned that their lives were much richer and more complex than census, death and other records can show. I am using the information from pension files and records that I found through the pension files for this years challenge.

I was afraid I would be unable to find a “Z” name or word related to the pension files. I was overjoyed to find in my family tree a Zona Bayless. She was the sister-in-law of George Cleage, the George Cleage who remained in Athens, Tennessee. After inspecting the only census record in which Zona Bayless appears, I discovered that there was a transcription error and her name was actually Missouri. Missouri is the name she appeared under in the 1880 census before disappearing from the record.

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Department of the Interior
Bureau of Pensions

Washington D.C.
May 12 1894

Sir

You are informed that the name George “Cleage” has not been found on the rolls of I.1^st U.S.C.H.A. The correct spelling of clients name should be given and if he enlisted and served under any other name than this one he now bear he should state under oath what that name was and he should prove by at least two comrades that he is the identical person who so enlisted and served. His discharge certificate should be furnished if possible.

He also state whether other was any other soldier of the same or similar name in you Co. or Regt?

Very respectfully,
Commissioner

Joel I. Payatt
Athens, Tenn.

I wrote about the other George Cleage here George Cleage X 2. This post is about the George Cleage who lived in Athens, Tennessee.

George Cleage was born about 1845 in McMinn County, TN. His family was enslaved on Alexander Cleage’s plantation. His parents were Jim and Hulda Hurst and he had at least five siblings, including Abram Cleage who served in UscHeavy Artillary and Katie Cleage who was the widow of a U.S.C. Heavy Artillary soldier.“

I was unable to find George Cleage in the 1870 census. About that time he married Jemima Bayless, who was born into a free family of color about 1854 in McMinn County. I could not find her in the 1870 census either.

In 1880, George and Jemima Cleage had three young daughters, Anna, 6, Mary, 4 and Lizzie, 2 years old.  George was employed as a laborer. Jemima was keeping house. Neither of them could read or write. In 1893, George applied for a pension. He did not follow through and it was dropped.

By 1900 George was a widower.  Two of his daughters were enumerated with him in the 1900 census.  Daughter Anna had married Frank Cunningham who died before 1900. Anna has one child with her husband, 2 year old Mazinia Cunningham.  George’s daughter Lizzie was working as a cook.  Both of the daughters were literate, George was not.

That is the last I found of George Cleage. Lizzie disappears soon after the 1900 census. She may be the Lizzie Cleage in Knoxville or she may not. Mary and Anna ended up in Indianapolis where they died in the 1920s.  Anna is listed in the city directories as “Anna Cleage (widow of Frank) and that caused me some confusion because I thought she might have been a wife of my great grandfather Louis’ brother Frank Cleage, but that turned out not to be the case.  She must have gone back to her maiden name after Frank Cunningham died.  My grandfather and three of his siblings lived in Indianapolis at this time. I wonder if the two families crossed paths.

This is my 7th year participating in the A to Z Challenge. In the 2015 challenge, I wrote about the Cleages formerly enslaved on the plantations of Samuel and his sons Alexander and David Cleage of Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee. Most of the people in these posts are not related to me by blood or DNA, however my ancestors were enslaved on the same plantations with them.

Late last year, I ordered the Civil War Pension files of the Cleage men who served in 1^st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery (USCHA), during that war. Through these files I learned that their lives were much richer and more complex than census, death and other records can show. I am using the information from pension files and records that I found through the pension files for this years challenge.

George Clegg (Cleage) had two children with his first wife Martha and seven children with his second wife, Hulda. Yorkanini was the sixth of the seven children George Clegg had with his wife Hulda. She died between 1900 when she appeared on the census and 1902, when she failed to appear on the form George filled out naming his living children. He actually had been married three times, but forgot to mention the first wife and the two children that stayed with his mother, Sallie Cleage Marsh when he left for Mississippi. He wrote a second letter to correct his omission. Unfortunately, he didn’t add their names to that letter.

Department of the Interior
Bureau of Pensions
Washington, D.C., March 1, 1902

So. Div
George Clegg
Co I. 1 Reg’t U.S.C. Vol. H.A.

Sir:
Will you kindly answer, at your earliest convenience, the questions enumerated blow? Th information is requested for future use, an it may be of great value to your family.
Very respectfully,

George Clegg
Hightown
Alcorn Co. Miss.

No. 1. Are you a married man? If so, please state your wife’s full name, and her maiden name. Answer: Yes. Miss Huldy Settle

No. 2. When where, and by whom were you married? Answer: July 6th 1899. Near Hightown Miss, Rev. John Dicky.

No. 3. What record of marriage exists” Answer: I have none – on record at Corinth, Miss.

No. 4. Were you previously married? Answer: Yes Rachel Garheart. Died Aug 16th 1895.

No. 5. Have you any children living? If so, please state their names and the dates of their birth. Answer: Yes. all by first wife no children by present wife. Marry Stovall born Aug 16th 1875, Corintha Willey born July 15th 1877 – George Clegg Nov. 16th 1879 Robert Clegg Dec 1st 1881 Clinton Clegg March 4th 1883 – Maudie Clegg born Nov 10, 1892.

Date of reply March 10, 1902
George (his X mark) Clegg
Witnessed H. Gammel

Dear Sir,
I mailed to you on the 10th of this month a blank executed by me in regard to my marriages, present wife and former wife. I did not execute the papers correctly. I omitted givig the name of my first wife, whom I married just after the close of the Rebellion at Athens Tenn. I only giv names of wives marriages contracted in this state – thinking that was all that was necessary. Please return said paper with another blank and oblige
yours truly
George Clegg

This is my 7th year participating in the A to Z Challenge. In the 2015 challenge, I wrote about the Cleages formerly enslaved on the plantations of Samuel and his sons Alexander and David Cleage of Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee. Most of the people in these posts are not related to me by blood or DNA, however my ancestors were enslaved on the same plantations with them.

Late last year, I ordered the Civil War Pension files of the Cleage men who served in 1^st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery (USCHA), during that war. Through these files I learned that their lives were much richer and more complex than census, death and other records can show. I am using the information from pension files and records that I found through the pension files for this years challenge.

It was glimpsing W. R. Sherman’s name on the papers below that alerted me to Susan Rice Ragan being my xxgreat grandmother.

William Roger Sherman was born into slavery in 1846 in Maryland. His mother’s name was Charlotte Blackwell. He ended up in Athens Tennessee and that is where he was at the end of the Civil War. On October 31, 1866 he married Jane Ewing. They had three children – Mary, Marsha and John. Sherman was a house carpenter. In 1870 he had $100 worth of real estate and $100 worth of personal property. Both Sherman and his wife could read. Seven year old Alice Cleage lived with them and attended school. As his children grew old enough, they also attended school.

William Roger Sherman is listed as the architect for First United Presbyterian Church, an historic black church in Athens, Tennessee built in 1892. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. It was the church that my family in Athens attended through the years.

William Roger Sherman married my great grandmother Celia Rice Cleage, in Athens, Tennessee on April 25, 1897.  He was 51.  She was 45.  It was a 2nd marriage for both. In 1900 all of his children were in homes of their own. I found two – Mary was a seamstress and John was a brick layer. Three of Celia’s children – Edward, Henry and Albert (my grandfather) were students and living at home. Everybody in the household was literate.  Celia’s daughter Josie and her family lived in the house next door. William’s son John and his family lived next door to Josie’s family.

In 1910, Sherman was 64 years old. He rented his house, which seems kind of sad for a carpenter. He hadn’t been out of work at all the previous year. Celia was working as a cook. Celia’s son Charles and his family were sharing the house, as was her son Henry’s eight year old son Richard.  Charles and his wife ran a restaurant. I imagine that is where Celia cooked. Richard was in school. Everybody except the 2 year old and the infant were literate.

By 1920 the household had broken up. Sherman, age 75 had moved in with his daughter Mamie Kennedy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was not working. Mamie was a steward (a person responsible for supplies of food) at a local school. She was the widow of Frank Kennedy and owned her own home. Also in the household were two of her stepsons and her brother John’s daughter. All of the young people were high school or college students.

Six months later, William Roger Sherman died of tuberculous of the bowels. He had been sick for a year before he died. His daughter was the informant on the record.

My great grandmother Celia lived in Detroit with her son Albert and his family in 1920. She died of a stroke in 1930.  According to their death certificates, both William R. Sherman and Celia Rice Cleage Sherman are buried in Athens, Tennessee. I have been unable to find in which cemetery (or cemetaries) they are buried.

This is my 7th year participating in the A to Z Challenge. In the 2015 challenge, I wrote about the Cleages formerly enslaved on the plantations of Samuel and his sons Alexander and David Cleage of Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee. Most of the people in these posts are not related to me by blood or DNA, however my ancestors were enslaved on the same plantations with them.

Late last year, I ordered the Civil War Pension files of the Cleage men who served in 1^st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery (USCHA), during that war. Through these files I learned that their lives were much richer and more complex than census, death and other records can show. I am using the information from pension files and records that I found through the pension files for this years challenge.

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My great great grandmother, Susan Rice Ragan died of Valvular heart disease at age 76. This document from her Widow’s Pension file contains a statement of the attending physician.

STATEMENT OF ATTENDING PHYSICIANS

Give date of the pensioner’s death – December 6th 1911
Give date of commencement of pensioner’s last sickness: Valoula heart disease for years.
From what date did the pensioner require the regular and daily attendance of another person constantly until death? For several months.
During what period did you attend the pensioner? Oct 15th 1911 to Dec 6th 1911.
State nature of disease from which pensioner died: Exhaustion following valvular heart disease.
Does your bill include a charge for all medicine furnished the pensioner during last illness? yes.
I certify that the foregoing statement is correct.
Jan 23rd 1912
Jasion L. Proudfoot M.D.
Attending Physician

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“Valvular heart disease is characterized by damage to or a defect in one of the four heart valves: the mitral, aortic, tricuspid or pulmonary. The mitral and tricuspid valves control the flow of blood between the atria and the ventricles (the upper and lower chambers of the heart).”
Valvular Heart Disease – Johns Hopkins Medicine

This is my 7th year participating in the A to Z Challenge. In the 2015 challenge, I wrote about the Cleages formerly enslaved on the plantations of Samuel and his sons Alexander and David Cleage of Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee. Most of the people in these posts are not related to me by blood or DNA, however my ancestors were enslaved on the same plantations with them.

Late last year, I ordered the Civil War Pension files of the Cleage men who served in 1^st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery (USCHA), during that war. Through these files I learned that their lives were much richer and more complex than census, death and other records can show. I am using the information from pension files and records that I found through the pension files for this years challenge.

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This is one of the after death bills found in Susan Rice Ragan’s pension file.

In Account With

Mrs. L. C. Evans & Son
Undertakers and Embalmers
Telephone 44-2

Funeral expense of Susan Reagan $44.50. I here by certify that I hold W. R. Sherman responsible for any claims that I may claim have for funeral expense her deced supplies furnished for funeral expenses of Susan Reagan certificate No. 126.156

Mrs L. C. Evans & son

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I was surprised to find a telephone number on the bill sent in 1911. I could not find a local paper with an advertisement concerning telephones, but this one is for Tennessee in that year.

Mrs Evans and Son funeral home buried several of the people I have been looking at during this challenge. When her husband died in 1898, Mrs. Evans was left with eight children from the ages of 18 to 10 months. She was farming in 1900 but by 1910 she was identified as an undertaker and her older sons had taken over the farming. By 1930, she had retired and her son Harry was listed as the undertaker. In addition to farming, I think some of the sons were involved all along.

This is my 7th year participating in the A to Z Challenge. In the 2015 challenge, I wrote about the Cleages formerly enslaved on the plantations of Samuel and his sons Alexander and David Cleage of Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee. Most of the people in these posts are not related to me by blood or DNA, however my ancestors were enslaved on the same plantations with them.

Late last year, I ordered the Civil War Pension files of the Cleage men who served in 1^st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery (USCHA), during that war. Through these files I learned that their lives were much richer and more complex than census, death and other records can show. I am using the information from pension files and records that I found through the pension files for this years challenge.

Today a timeline for my newly found GG grandmother with notation of where I found the information.

Susan Rice Ragan

Age 0: Birth  abt 1835 • Virginia

Age 19: Birth of Son Henry Rice (1854–) Tennessee. 1870 U. S. Census

Age 20: Birth of Daughter Anna Celia Rice: Feb 1855 • McMinn County. 1870 U. S. Census

Age 20: Marriage to Nelson Ragan:10 Dec 1855 • McMinn County. Widow’s Pension File

Age 22: Birth of Son Philip Ragan 26 Dec 1857 • McMinn County. Widow’s Pension File.

Age 25: Birth of Daughter Sarah Ragan:20 Jun 1860 •McMinn. Widow’s Pension File.

Age 25: Enslaved by William L.Rice. 1860 McMinn County Slave Census

Age 29: Husband Nelson Ragan mustered into the United States Colored Heavy Artillery in Knoxville, TN.

Age 29: Death of Husband Nelson Ragan (1838–1864)20 Mar 1864, Knoxville, TN Military Records & Pension File

Age 29:  21 Mar 1864 • McMinn County, TN Began to receive her $8 a month Civil War Widow’s Pension, back dated to her husband’s death. Widow’s Pension File.

Age 29: Birth of Daughter Mary Susan Ragan 20 Jun 1864 • Athens. Widow’s Pension File.

Age 34: 23 Jan 1869 • Susan applied for her Widow’s Pension. Widow’s Pension File.

Age 35: 1870 • Athens: Henry 15, Ann (Celia) 14, Phillip 10, Sarah 8, Mary 6. Celia can read, no one else can. Susan receiving pension. No outside work listed. 1870 U. S. Census.

Age 40: 25 Dec 1875 • Stops receiving  $2 per month for Phillip, has reached 16. Widow’s Pension File

Age 41: 19 Jun 1876 •  Stops receiving pension for Sarah as she has reached 16. Widow’s Pension File

Age 45: 19 Jun 1880 • Loses $2 pension for Mary as she reaches 16.

Age 45: 1880 • Athens, Widowed; Head; 2 children, Phillip(laborer) and Mary, who is literate and in school. 1880 U. S. Census

Age 55: Jun 1890  Census of Pensioners. 1890 Veteran’s Census

Age 65: 1900 Widowed; Birthed 5/3 alive;Sarah – cook, birthed 6/3 alive and her 3 – Frank (waiter), Blanch & Charles Hale (at school). 1900 U. S. Census

Age 75: 1910: Widowed; rents house, illiterate,Grandson Frederick Hodge, 18 laborer at odd jobs. 1910 U. S. Census

Age 76: 4 Nov 1911 Last pension payment of $12.00 Widow’s Pension File

Age 76: Death 6 Dec 1911 Died of heart disease. Doc. charged $4. Cared for by daughter Mary Hodge. Widow’s Pension File.

Burial Dec 1911 • Buried Hammond’s Cemetery, Athens. Find-a-Grave

This is my 7th year participating in the A to Z Challenge. In the 2015 challenge, I wrote about the Cleages formerly enslaved on the plantations of Samuel and his sons Alexander and David Cleage of Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee. Most of the people in these posts are not related to me by blood or DNA, however my ancestors were enslaved on the same plantations with them.

Late last year, I ordered the Civil War Pension files of the Cleage men who served in 1^st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery (USCHA), during that war. Through these files I learned that their lives were much richer and more complex than census, death and other records can show. I am using the information from pension files and records that I found through the pension files for this years challenge.

Charles Hale was the grandson of Susan Rice Ragan (my XX great grandmother) and the son of her daughter Sarah Hale Gallimore, which makes him my first cousin twice removed. Although not expected to live, Nellie Hale did survive and lived until 2004.

2 Negroes Arrested in Attack on Hale and Wife

A hat, lost by one of the two bandits who shot and critically wounded Charles Hale, well-to-do negro grocer, and his wife Nellie, at their home, 2519 Herman street, late Saturday night, led to the arrest of two negro men, one of whom yesterday confessed that they both fired on the couple.

The two negroes who are charged with hiding in the Hale home and attacking the man and his wife in an effort to rob them when they came home from Hale’s grocery store are Robert Waddy, 26, coal dealer, 2811 Clifton road, and George McAdoo 19, 2627 Herman Street, charged with assault with a pistol with intent to commit murder, burglary, and carrying pistols.

Though Waddy steadfastly denies any implication in the crime, McAdoo, in his confession, outlined the entire scheme, accusing Waddy of laying the plans and furnishing the weapons.

Hale and his wife are not expected to live, offices said.

Feeling in the Northwest Nashville section where the Hales were leaders in the negro neighborhood, is heated.

Incessant detective work on the part of Detectives Leo Flair, John Shepperson, George Redmond, Earl Gore and Sergeant John Griffin resulted in the arrest, for investigation, of McAdoo, Monday night. A hat which had been found near the scene of the shooting shortly after the Hales had been waylaid as they came into their house had been identified as McAdoo’s.

Quizzed by Chief of Detectives Elkin Lewis on Tuesday, McAdoo made a full confession, implicating Waddy, who was arrested late yesterday by the afore-named officers. The charges were then placed against both negroes, although Waddy steadfastly denied implications.

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Hale – Wednesday morning, January 8, 1931, at 5 o’clock at a local infirmary, Charles Hale, aged 42 years. survived by wife, Mrs. Nella Hale; mother, Mrs. Sallie Gallimore of Harriman, Tenn., and David Gallimore of West Palm Beach, Fla., sister, Mrs Blanche Drake of Harriman, Tenn.; cousins Dr. Albert Clage, Jake and Henry Clage. all of Detroit, Mich., and Miss Josie Clage of Indianapolis, Ind.; Nephews, Albert, William and Jap Drake and Alton Hale, all of Harriman, Tenn. Remains will be at his home 2519 Heiman street. Thursday, afternoon, Funeral Friday. January 20 at 2 p.m. from St. Luke C.M.E. Church, corner 26th and Heffernman streets. Services will be conducted by the pastor, Rev. P. Jas. Coleman, assisted by Elder Preston Taylor, Pallbearers: Clarence C. Terry, Nick Stuart, Harrison Kendall, Westley Crutcher George Fugett and H. E. Clarke. The remains will be placed in the vault at Greenwood cemetery, Taylor & Co., Funeral Directors.

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The names in bold are those of my grandfather, Dr. Albert B. Cleage and his siblings, another proof of relationship between the two families. Now I have to figure out who Alton Hale is.

This is my 7th year participating in the A to Z Challenge. In the 2015 challenge, I wrote about the Cleages formerly enslaved on the plantations of Samuel and his sons Alexander and David Cleage of Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee. Most of the people in these posts are not related to me by blood or DNA, however my ancestors were enslaved on the same plantations with them.

Late last year, I ordered the Civil War Pension files of the Cleage men who served in 1^st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery (USCHA), during that war. Through these files I learned that their lives were much richer and more complex than census, death and other records can show. I am using the information from pension files and records that I found through the pension files for this years challenge.

Today’s testimony is from Amanda Cleage’s Widow’s Pension File.

Deposition B

Mrs. Mattie Davis
56 years old
1239 Birch Street, Lost Angeles, California

I am the wife of Mason Davis.  I was born in Louisiana and raised in Texas, and lived in the state of Texas before coming here to California to reside. I have been living here in Los Angeles with my husband for 21 years, having come here from Austin, Texas.

I had lived in and about Austin, Texas ever since I was a baby and never lived in any other part of the state. I first became acquainted with Abram Cleag, the soldier, and his wife, the claimant, Amanda Cleag, when they first came to Dr. Phillips plantation near Austin, San Marcos, Texas, to which place they had gone with the Tucker family from Athens, Tenn., as they told me after I became acquainted with them.

I can’t state exactly what year it was that the Cleags came to Dr. Phillips plantation near Austin, Texas, but I knew them in and about Austin, Texas all of twenty (20) years.

The Cleags had rented land from Dr. Phillips and farmed it. My husband and I were also farming land which we had rented from Dr. Phillips, and we were the first people that the Cleags got acquainted with near Austin.

They remained on the plantation all of a year, and there worked in and about Austin, and at times worked for Dr. Phillips. After the Cleags left Austin, Texas to come here to Los Angeles, we followed them within a few months afterwards, and met them here and have known them ever since up to the time of Abram Cleag’s death in Long Beach, Calif., about a year ago. We used to visit back and forth and Mrs. Cleag and I do yet since they went to Long Beach from this city.

I know of my own knowledge, from association and observation, that the soldier, Abram Cleag, and his wife and widow, this claimant, lived together as man and wife all the time. I knew them in Texas, and all the time I knew them in Los Angeles, and Long Beach, Cal., up to the time of the soldier’s death, as aforementioned.

I personally know that they were never separated, never lived apart, and were never divorced during all these 40 odd years I knew them as man and wife, and I personally know that claimant has not remarried since the soldier’s death.

During his lifetime – Abram Cleag told us that he had been in a Tennessee regiment during the war, and it is my understanding that he was drawing a pension for his army service

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Mattie and Mason Davis were born into slavery. They raised seven childen. One died in infancy. They farmed in Texas. After moving to Los Angeles, Mason Davis worked as an express man, driving a delivery truck. For awhile, Mattie worked as a laundress.

The whole family was literate by the 1900 census. Both of them registered to vote. After Mason died in 1919, Mattie lived with her sons until her death in 1927.

Something I was surprised to learn about the family was that Mason and Mattie Davis’ great grandson, Allen Clayton Hoskins played “Farina” in the original Little Rascals.