This is my 12th year doing the A to Z April Challenge. For this year’s A to Z Challenge I am posting an event involving someone in my family tree for that date. It may be a birth, a death, a christening, a journal entry, a letter or a newspaper article. If the entry is a news item, it will be transcribed immediately below. Click on photographs to enlarge in another window.
Jeanette McCall
The Emancipator Montgomery, Alabama Sat, April 6, 1918 Page 3
McCALL-McEWEN WEDDING.
Miss Jeanette McCall, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward McCall, of this city, and Lieutenant Robert A. McEwen, who is stationed at Camp Dodge, were quietly married Monday morning, April 1st, at Des Moines, Iowa. Lieutenant McEwen is a native of Winnona, Miss., and will probably sail for France at an early date.
________________
Lieutenant Robert A. McEwen did indeed eventually get sent to France after completing his training at Camp Dodge.
I do not know if Jeanette’s husband is in this photo.
Jeanette and Robert Anderson McEwen
I wondered how Jeanette and Robert met when they lived in different states. Then I saw that Robert McEwen graduated from Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Jeanette’s older sister Otillia was a teacher at Mississippi Industrial College, right across the road from Rust College. Jeanette visited her frequently, giving her the opportunity to meet Robert Anderson McEwen.
The couple lived in Chicago after he left the service. He was a dentist and she did not work outside of the home. They had two sons.
Jeanette McCall was my grandmother Fannie Turner Graham’s first cousin. Their mothers, Mary Allen McCall and Jennie Allen Turner, were sisters. She died in 1931 of influenza on top of tuberculosis. She was 34 years old.
For this year’s A to Z Challenge, I will post an event for that date that involves someone in my family tree. The letter of the day will also be involved. It may be a birth, a death, a christening, a journal entry, a letter, a poem or a newspaper article. I have pre-written all of my posts, although I may nudge them a little here and there. Below is an index to my posts 2025.
This will be my twelfth year doing the A to Z Challenge. I’ve considered several different themes in the past week. After reading On This Day in April by CRGalvin, I decided to use the event of the day for my theme also. Everyday during April I will pick an event from that date from my family history and write about that, using different years and decades and branches, I hope to find enough to fill up the calendar.
Making it even more interesting will be making the events of the day also match the letter of the day!
Killed In Lowndes Howard Turner of This City Killed at a Colored Folks Picnic. Hayneville, June 30. -[Special.]- Last Saturday the colored people had a picnic across Big Swamp near Hayneville. The result is Howard Turner, who came from Montgomery was killed by one Phillip McCall. Too much whisky and too many pistols. Phillip surrendered this morning. The Weekly Advertiser (Montgomery, Alabama) Thursday, July 1, 1891 Page 2
We were always told that my grandmother Fannie Turner Graham’s father was killed at a barbecue when she was four years old. After years of being unable to find any documentation, I found this news item on Newspapers.com several years ago.
Howard’s widow and children.
Jennie Allen Turner in mourning dress with daughters Daisy and Fannie. 1891.
“In Memory of My Husband Howard Turner who was instantly killed by Philip McCall June 27, 1891.
Vengence is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay.”
Yesterday while searching for more information about my great grandfather Howard Turner, I found this on Ancestry.com in the Alabama, Surname Files Expanded, 1702–1981. It looks like it came from the cemetery. Is it the inscription on his grave stone?
I looked for and found the Hayneville Cemetery, but can find no entry for Howard Turner. I wish I could see that grave stone. Reading it gave me a whole new vision of my great grandmother. I can understand the anger expressed in this inscription.
My maternal grandfather, Mershell Cunningham Graham was born about 1887 in Coosada Station, Elmore County, Alabama. He was the fourth of six children. His parents farmed. His maternal grandmother lived in Elmore county, but she doesn’t appear in any records after the 1880 census so she was possibly dead before he was born. His maternal grandfather was the slave holder and he died in 1860, well before Mershell was born. Mershell’s father, William Graham, doesn’t appear with his parents, so I don’t know who they were, much less if they lived nearby and were alive when my grandfather Mershell was.
Albert B. Cleage Sr.
My paternal grandfather, Albert B. Cleage, was born in 1884, the youngest of five children. His father, Louis Cleage was share cropping in Loudin, Tennessee. After Louis Cleage and his wife Celia Rice Cleage, divorced, she moved back to Athens where her mother Susan Rice Regan lived. Susan lived until 1911 when my grandfather would have been grown. I am sure that he knew her.Susan and al of her children had been enslaved on a Rice plantation south of Athens. Celia’s father was an unknown slave holder by name of Rice and I’m sure that my grandfather never met him. Albert B. Cleage’s paternal grandparents were Frank and Juda Cleage. They were enslaved on Alexander Cleage’s plantation in Athens, Tennessee. They do not appear in any records after the 1870 census. According to the testimony of Adeline Sherman in the pension case of Katie Cleage, Frank and Juda died before 1890, when she gave testimony. I doubt that they they lived long enough for my grandfather to meet them.
Pearl Doris Reed 1904
My paternal grandmother, Pearl Doris Reed, the youngest of eight children, was born about 1886 in Lebanon, Kentucky. Her mother Annie Allen Reed and her maternal grandmother, Clara Hoskins Green, lived near each other. Clara died after 1880. Annie’s father is listed as Robert Allen. I cannot find a Robert Allen in their area. Pearl probably would have met Clara if she lived until the 1890s. Annie and her children moved to Indianapolis, Indiana about 1891 when Annie and her oldest son George appear in the city directory. Pearl was about five years old. Her father Buford Avritt was a white doctor who, according to oral history, did not support the family in their time of need. I was warned never to mention his name to my grandmother. I’m sure she never met her paternal grandparents.
You can read about my maternal grandmother and her grandparents at this ink -> when it goes up
Albert B. Cleage was born in Tennessee in 1884. He moved to Indianapolis, IN in 1909 to attend Medical School. There he met and married Pearl Reed, who was born in Kentucky and came to Indianapolis as a small child. Soon after the birth of my father in 1911, the family moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan where my grandfather became the first black physician. After several years, they moved to Detroit.
The Cleages and friends at Idlewild, Michigan 1925. Three of the children are not in the photo – Louis, Hugh and baby Anna. Cannot identify the others.
In 1920 they bought a large brick house on the corner of Scotten and Moore Place on Detroit’s Old Westside. By 1925 they were the parents of seven children, my father Albert (14), Louis (12), Henry (9), Hugh (7), Barbara (5) Gladys (3), and baby Anna born in January of that year.
Family home 1920-1948. 6429 Scotten Avenue. Detroit, Michigan.
My grandfather’s medical office was several blocks away at 4334 McGraw. He and Dr. Grimes, a dentist, shared the space. My grandmother had plenty to do at home with seven children and didn’t work outside the home after she married.
Dr. Cleage shared an office with in the house above in 1925.
Dr. Grimes and Dr. Cleage on the office steps
Pearl and AnnaHugh, Barbara, Gladys and Albert Cleage. 1925LouisHughAlbert and AnnaHenry, Albert Jr, Albert Sr, Gladys
Eighth grade class at Wingert Elementary School. My father is second from left, front row. 1924
My father, Albert Jr with his eighth grade class at Wingert Elementary school. The school was a block from their house. Henry, Hugh, Louis and Barbara were also students at Wingert in 1925.
Two of Albert’s siblings, Jacob and Henry, and their families plus his mother Celia were also living in Detroit by 1925. They lived within walking distance of each other. My great grandmother Celia lived with my grandfather. His sister Josephine still lived in Indianapolis. His brother Ed remained in Athens, Tennessee and died there the following year.
They were members of St. John’s Presbyterian church, where Albert and Pearl had been founding members. They had a car which Albert used for work. They took trips both in Michigan and to Indianapolis and Athens to visit family.
Last week I realized it was 102 years since my mother Doris Graham Cleage was born on February 12, 1923 in Detroit, Michigan. When I read the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun theme was your family 100 years ago. I decided to do it. Click on the links for more information. Click on the photographs to enlarge them.
The Grahams, maybe Belle Isle park, Detroit, 1925 Left is my grandfather Mershell C, Graham holding my mother Doris. My grandmother Fannie Turner Graham is holding my uncle Mershell C. Graham Jr and my aunt Mary V.
My grandfather came to Detroit from Montgomery, Alabama in 1917. In 1919 he went back and married my grandmother and they returned to Detroit. By 1925 they had been there six years. They had three children, all born in Detroit, Mary V. (5), Mershell Jr (4) my mother Doris (2).
6638 Theodore Street, Detroit, Michigan
Mershell and Fannie bought a frame house at 6638 Theodore on the east side of Detroit when my mother was on the way. Fannie’s mother and her two sister’s came up from Montgomery and moved in with them. In 1925 all three worked at Annis Furs.
Staff at Annis Furs. My great grandmother Jennie Turner is on the far right, middle row. Next to her is her daughter Alice. Aunt Daisy is right in the center of that middle row, #4.
My grandfather worked at the Highland Park Ford Plant as an inspector. My grandmother didn’t work outside of the home after her marriage. My aunt Mary V. at five, would have been attending half day kindergarten at Thomas Elementary school, several blocks from their house.
They were active members of Plymouth Congregational Church where my grandfather Mershell had been a founding member. They didn’t have a car. They walked or traveled by streetcar.
Although this sermon was preached on New Year’s Day in 1967, as I listen to it, I think it could have been preached today. On that day we didn’t know that the Detroit rebellion was ahead. On this day we don’t know what is ahead for us.
My father preaching with the Black Madonna painting behind him.
Sermon Notes for Sunday January 1, 1967 – click to enlarge.
Portrait of Nikki Giovanni by w:Elsa Dorfman circa 1980?
The first time I ever heard of Nikki Giovanni, I was on a chartered bus headed down to Cincinnati to fellowship with another church. Nikki was going to read her poems for us and I wondered who this Italian poet was? It was May 20, 1967. I was 20 years old, a junior at Wayne State University. Nikki was 23. My sister Pearl was 18, a freshman at Howard University. She was not there because she was in DC.
I remember that the program took place in the church basement and that they fed us. I remember the feeling of camaraderie between the churches. Nikki read her poems and I was relieved to find out she was not an Italian guy. I don’t remember meeting her personally or talking with her one on one.
Excerpt from sermon given on Sunday, May 21, 1967. The day after the trip.
“I’m just looking around to see how many of you went to Cincinnati that didn’t get here this morning. Some of you didn’t quite make it. Most of you are here. We had a good time yesterday. We went to Cincinnati. We had two buses, about 70 people. We ate all the way there and all the way back. And it was a little different than our trip to Kalamazoo because when we got there we found brothers and sisters. We were in agreement. We had a good time. They were nice to be with, and we were all trying to do the same thing, and it was nice to know that the Nation is not just limited to the four walls here: that there are people out there that want to be a part of what we’re doing, so we took them into the Nation. I want you all to know. The Nation is growing every time we take a trip. We are going to take another one pretty soon, so you all can be getting your bus fare together and putting it aside.
It was a good trip. We were very happy that we were able to take some of our young people from the student organization. We just took them. We had a few extra seats there. We are going to let you help pay for those extra seats a little later on, but it was a good trip, and we think that these trips are very important. We had a message in Cincinnati and we think we made friends.
Central United Church of Christ, now Shrine of the Black Madonna, Detroit
Most of them are coming back to the Black Arts Conference that’s going to be held here, sponsored by Forum, 66, here at the church, of course, people are coming from all over the United States to the Black Arts Conference. I hope when your friends from out of town call you up or write and ask you about it, you will know what they’re talking about. Black Arts Conference is going to be sponsored by Forum ’66, held here at the church, the last two days of June and the first two days of July. Young people are coming from almost all of the colleges and universities around the country. People who are beginning to understand what the Nation is are coming from everywhere, so when your friends ask you about it, and they are going to be asking you because a lot of them are coming, looking for some place to stay when they get here.
So help Forum ’66 and help us because this a real contribution. It helps to establish Detroit as a place where whatever is going on as far as black people might be concerned, is taking place. We are at the center. The Black Arts Conference is one symbol of that fact and so for that reason, if for no other, it’s important. See what they’re thinking and let them know what we’re thinking and for that reason it’s also important.”
From a sermon delivered May 21, 1967, by Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr. Later Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman.
-2 –
Our house 5397 Oregon
The 2nd Black Arts Conference took place from Thursday, June 29 to Sunday July 2 , at our church. Nikki Giovanni spent one night at our house during the Conference. At the end of the first day, someone, (my father?), suggested she stay with me at my mother’s house. I remember it was dark out and asking Jim to gave us a ride home. I rode in the front, Nikki rode in the back. Later, Nikki asked if Jim was my boyfriend. I said he had been but he was with someone else now. She said there still seemed to be something between us. There was and we got back together, but that’s the only conversation I remember us having. The rest of the time she stayed somewhere else. Once again, Pearl was elsewhere. I am sure of that because Nikki slept in her empty room.
The last time I saw Nikki was during the 1990s. I lived in Idlewild, Michigan with my husband Jim and six children. One evening Mable Williams, wife of Robert Williams (advocate for self defense), and I went to hear Nikki read her poetry at Ferris State University, half an hour away. After the reading Mable asked if I wanted to stay and say hello to Nikki. I looked at all the students milling around trying to get a word with her and said no. So we just left.
