MRS. SHOEMAKER, BERRIEN RESIDENT FOR 44 YEARS, DIES
Mrs. Lillian Louise Shoemaker, 63, died at 4:30 a. m. today at her home, 693 Maiden Lane. She was born in Lebanon, Kentucky, October 27, 1874.
She was married to Solonus Shoemaker on June 26, 1891, in Berrien county where she had been resident for 44 years. Mrs. Shoemaker leaves a son and daughter, F. E. Shoemaker and Mrs. Wright, both of Benton Harbor; three sisters, Mrs. Sarah Busby of Benton Harbor, Mrs. Minnie Mullen and Mrs. A. B. Cleage of Detroit; three brothers, H. M. Reed, Clarence A Reed of Chicago, George Reed of Indianapolis, Ind. Friends may view the body at the Reiser mortuary. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
An obituary leaves out so much of a person’s life. So it is with Lillian Louise Shoemaker’s obituary.
My grandmother’s older sister Lillian Louise Reed was born about 1873 in Lebanon, Kentucky. She was the fourth child of Anna Allen Reed. Her father was Palmer Reed. I don’t know if she was able to attend school, but she was able to read and write later in life.
In the 1880 Census “Lulu” was seven years old. Her family lived on Railroad Street. She lived with her mother, Annie (31) who did washing. o
0ldest child, 17 year old Josephine “Josie” had no employment given, but probably helped her mother with the washing, the children, the cooking etc. Brother George was 13 and employed as a servant. Sarah “Sallie” was ten, Hugh was four and Minnie was two. Clarence and my grandmother Pearl had yet to be born, Annie’s mother Clara and her husband James Green, a carpenter, lived next door.
1880 was 16 years after the end of slavery. The people over 16 would have been born into slavery. There were fifty people in nine households on this page. Two households were headed by women. Everybody was identified as mulatto or black. All had been born in Kentucky, as were the majority of their parents. Twenty six were under 17. Five of the children attended school. No one in Lulu’s household did. Two adults could read but not write.
There was one person on the page with consumption (TB of the lungs) and two with scrofula, (a tuberculosis infection of the neck’s lymph nodes). Antibiotics would have cured it in less than a year, but there were no antibiotics.
People worked a variety of occupations. Three worked on farms, four were servants, two drove wagons, three were laborers. There was one each; working at a grocery, working a meat stand, working in a brickyard and as a carpenter. There were four women keeping house.
In 1887 sixteen-year old Sarah Jane moved north to Indianapolis. In 1889, Sarah married James Busby and moved further north to his hometown in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Lillian must have gone to visit her sister in Benton Harbor because on June 10, 1891, seventeen year old Louise married twenty-six year old Michigan native Solomus Shoemaker, in Berrien County, Michigan. Both the Busby and the Shoemaker families had originally been enslaved in Virginia escaped to freedom in the North several generations earlier.
Lillian’s and Solomus’ marriage was not a smooth one. During the trial after the tragic shooting (see below), it came out that they had sometimes lived apart. In the 1900 census they were living apart. Lillian and one year old Mildred were living with a family and she did washing. In 1916 Lillian filed for divorce. The case was dropped and they remained married until his death in 1925.
A HORRIBLE TRAGEDY
John Williams, Colored, Assaults and Shoots Mrs. Lulu Shoemaker, Also Colored.
THE WOMAN LIKELY TO DIE.
Assault Was Committed on Broadway Last Night-Williams Shoots Himself.
Lulu Shoemaker, a colored woman living on South Broadway, was atacked by John Williams, the colored man who works for J. Stanley Morton, about 9 o’clock last evening, nearly in front of the residence of George Faulkingbam on Broadway. The neighbors were attracted by the firing of several shots and the screams of the injured woman.
According to her story she left the car at the corner of Columbus and Empire avenues and when she turned the corner on Broadway in front of Mr. Teetzel’s she became aware that a man was following her He assaulted her and when she made an effort to escape he forced her down and began firing at her. Two bullets lodged in her face, one in her ear and one grazed her side. Her clothing was set on fire from the powder. When she began screaming, he grabbed the parcels that she was carrying and ran back towards town. She started for Mr. Faulkingham’s house and while they were trying to find out the nature of the trouble Mrs. Shoemaker’s husband and sister came to her and took her to her home a few rods away. Dr.s Bostick and Watson were sent for and dressed her wounds. The bullets could not be located and in all probability the woman will die.
The circumstances were reported to Chief Hepler last night and at 3 this morning the chief accompanied by Officers Thorn and Johnson and Mr. Morton visited the barn of the latter where Williams slept. The colored man refused to open the door and when the lock was broken and the barn entered Williams was found lying on his bed a stuped (sic) state with a bullet in his side. He was taken to jail and it was discovered the wound was not dangerous.
Williams told several stories. At one time he proposed to confess. At another he declared that he was innocent and that another man was with Mrs. Shoemaker who was jealous of him and that the “other fellow” shot him and the woman. The story does not go, however, as Williams is a notorious case and has shot people before, one being the case of Mrs. Goines less than a year ago.
The Evening News Benton Harbor, Michigan Wed, Sep 21, 1898 Page 1
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In 1899, a year after the shooting and the trial, daughter Mildred was born. She had a little scar on her cheek, where her mother had a scar from being shot. Four years later in 1903, their son Floyd was born.
Lulu Shoemaker died of cardiac asthma caused by congestive heart failure. Solomus died of apoplexy, a stroke. Husband and wife are buried in Chrystal Springs Cemetery in Benton Township, Berrien County.
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Several years ago, a granddaughter of Lillian Louise’s son Floyd, found me through Ancestry.com. Her father and his siblings grew up thinking they were of Italian descent. My cousin was trying to find out what ship they came over on when she discovered they weren’t Italian, they were African American and my cousins. We exchanged information and photographs and met once. This is one of the photographs she sent.
