Catherine, known as Katie, was born on the Hurst plantation in Mouse Creek, McMinn County, Tennessee. She was the fourth of the seven known children of Hulda Hurst. When Katie was 13, Alexander and Jemima (Hurst) Cleage bought her from Jemima’s brother, Lewis Russell Hurst. She was put to work as the seamstress.
Phillip Cleage was born into slavery about 1843 on the plantation of Alexander Cleage in Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee. Phillip was the third child of the four known children of Julie Ann Evans. He grew up to work on the farm. Sometimes he drove the coach.
In 1862, when Phillip was 19 and Katie was 16, they were married by the slave holder, Alexander Cleage. They had two children together. The first was stillborn. The second died soon after birth.
When Sherman’s army came to the area, Phillip and other men from the Cleage plantations joined the 1st U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery (USCT).
As the confusion of war intensified, Katie decided she would leave too. She first went to Cleveland, Tennessee and after working a variety of sewing jobs, eventually ended up in the USCT camp in Chattanooga. She lived on the base with her husband until he died of smallpox on 9 February 1866. In 1883 Katie filed for a widow’s pension.
Her life story is told in her depositions and those of members of her community, including others who had been enslaved on the Cleage plantations, neighbors, men who served in the same unit as Phillip and members of the slave holding Cleage family.
Using these testimonies and related information I reconstructed Katie’s life in a series of blog posts in 2019. Recently, I found this Bill of Sale between L. R. Hurst and his brother-in-law Alexander Cleage for Katie (Catherine), and her siblings. They are not related to me, but are part of the community that my Cleages were also a part of on Alexander’s plantation.
Register
L. R. Hurst – bill sale – Alexander Cleage
State of Tennessee McMinn County October 19th 1857, For and in Consideration of the sum of Six thousand five hundred dollars, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, I have this day sold and delivered unto Alexander Cleage Six negroes, Vis, Charles, about eighteen, Abram, aged about sixteen, Isaac aged about fifteen years, Catharine, aged about thirteen, years, and Horrace & George, twins, aged about eight years, slaves for life, I bind myself to warrant and defend the title to said property given under my hand date above, witness, J. S. Hurst, L. R. Hurst
Related posts
“My husband purchased her when quite a child…” – Jemima Cleage
Katie Cleage Civil War Pension File