D is for Doctors, Dentists, Nurses and Pharmacists

A-Z Challenge 2013
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a-to-z-letters-d

This is my fourth post for the April A-Z Challenge. I am blogging every day in April using the letters of the alphabet as prompts. Today I am going to write the medical people in my extended family, past and present.

I have included the Eliza and Dock Allen Descendents towards the left and the Cleages and Reeds towards the right. Things get a little messy in the middle.

I decided to do this collage when I realized there were quite a few medical people in the family.  If I forgot anyone, forgive me.  There are several people that married into the family here, usually shown with their spouse. From left to right, starting with the top row we have:

  • Ubert Vincent (1889-1938) in the operating room as a student. Ubert was married to Naomi Tulane, Eliza and Dock’s granddaughter.
  • Next we have Pat, who is a nurse and descends from the Mullins line of the Reed family.
  • Then my grandfather, Albert B. Cleage, Sr., (1883-1957) sitting on the steps with other doctors on the staff at Dunbar Hospital in Detroit.
  • Last in the top row is my Aunt Gladys Cleage’s husband, Edward Warren Evans giving a shot to Malcolm X after his house was bombed and he came to Detroit to speak.

2nd row:

  • Ubert Vincent again standing outside of the hospital in New York City that he founded.
  • Next is Dr. Joseph Howard (1880-1941), husband of Otilla McCall Howard who is from Mary Allen McCall’s line from Eliza.
  • A tiny photo of Angie, who is a nurse and married William Chapell, in the Jennie Allen Turner line of Eliza and Dock Allen.
  • Next is a photo of Angie we can actually see without enlarging.
  • Hubert Conrad Vincent (Ubert’s son) who was also a doctor. I have no adult photo of him, yet.
  • Dr. Maria Shreve Benaim who is the daughter of Winslow and Anna Cleage Shreve, both pharmacists. Winslow Shreve is next to his daughter.
  • Skipping past my grandfather Dr. Albert B. Cleage Sr enlarged on the stairs we have his son, Dr. Louis Cleage giving a polio shot.

3rd row:

  • Starts with Ubert and Naomi Vincent’s daughters – Sylvia and Jacqui who were both nurses.
  • And moves right along to dentist Robert Bingham who is Jacqui’s son and Ubert’s grandson.
  • Going up to the next photo we have another dentist, Robert McEwen who married Jeanette McCall, again from Mary Allen McCall’s line, which goes back to Eliza.
  • Next is Edward McCall who studied to be a doctor but went blind and became a poet and a publisher instead. Another of Mary McCall’s children.
  • Now we drop down to the bottom to finish out this row.
  • Under Jeanette and Robert we have another dentist, Dr. Charles Pope. He was the son of Eliza and Dock’s youngest daughter, Beaulah Allen Pope. His twin sister, Anne’s husband, Ludie Gilmer was also a dentist but I have no photograph of him.
  • Next we have nurse Maricea who comes through Jennie Allen Turner’s line from Eliza and Dock Allen.
  • Moving back to the Cleage/Reeds we have Dr. Janine Bergerac Fromm who is from Hugh Reed Averette’s line.  She is a psychiatrist.
  • Next her is pharmacist Anna Cleage Shreve working in her brother Louis’s pharmacy.
  • Next is Dr. Susan Thrasher-Martin.  She is married to Dr. Ernest Martin who is from the Albert B. Cleage and Pearl Reed line. He is a psychiatrist.
  • There is a little tomb stone tucked right above Susan’s head. I have no photo of Dr. Beauford Avritt but wanted to get him in here.

Hope this wasn’t too confusing.  There are also quite a few teachers and artists/musician/writers in the family. All deserving of a collage at some point.

10 thoughts on “D is for Doctors, Dentists, Nurses and Pharmacists”

  1. Amazing that you have so many people in your family who have been medics. I think we only have the one midwife/sister and she only started delivering babies to support herself after her husband died of typhoid in the 1800s.

    Out lot are primarily farmers and labourers.

    1. I used to think about being a midwife back in the days I was having babies. I’ve thought about it and I think that when slavery ended, the branches of my family who had skills, like carpentry, and lived in the cities. Missionaries from Northern churches came down and set up schools after the civil war so they were able to educate their children. Those families that had two parents working were able to do more for their children than widows like my great grandmother. The two parent families in cities sent their children on to college.

      The branches of the family that remained in the country and farmed were not able to educate their children as easily. Their children continued as farmers, especially if the family owned their land. Otherwise they worked other people’s land or became laborers.

      At least that’s the way it seemed to work in my family.

  6. Hi Kris,
    What an awesome collection of photographs! You have so much family history, you are so lucky to know so much about your family’s past. My dad used to tell me stories about how he went out to find a doctor for Malcolm X during his last visit to Detroit. I wonder if that was when your photo taken.

    1. Alex, yes that is a picture from the same visit. Louis was in Idlewild so they got Warren’s father, Eddie to give the shot.

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