All posts by Kristin

Fannie Mae Turner, Enumerator 1910

Grahams, Investigations, Turner,

After reading   My Grandfather was an Enumerator on the blog ABT UNK, I decided to write something about my grandmother Fannie M. Turner who was  an enumerator for the 1910 US Census in Montgomery, Alabama.  She was 22 and lived with her mother and younger sisters in Montgomery, although not in the district she enumerated.  Her grandmother Eliza Allen lived in the district. It was looking at the entry for Eliza that I first noticed that my grandmother was the enumerator.  Recently I found a newspaper article online about the appointed census takers that said in part:

“Montgomery – City – Whites: Albert S. Ashley,  E.F. Davis, James C. Westbrook, Leopold Loab, Thomas Robinson, R. Brownlee Centerfit, Charles S. Spann, Louis Lyons, Edgar W. Smith, Mrs. Fannie B. Wilson, Handy H. McLemore, Thomas M. Westcott, Alto Deal, Miss Gene Finch, Frank G. Browder. Negroes–To enumerate negro (sic) population only–Gertrude V. Wilson, Eli W. Buchanan, Fannie M. Turner, David R. Dorsey.”

Fannie M. Turner began work April 15, 1910 and enumerated her Aunt Abbie and her Grandmother Eliza on pg 2. She finished on April 26.  Mrs. Fannie B. Wilson (white) completed the enumeration of Montgomery, Ward 4 by counting the white residents on several pages after that.  As noted in the newspaper article, Negro enumerators could only count Negros.  I wonder how that worked. Did my grandmother go to the door, note that they were white and tell them someone else would return to count them later? Did the neighbors alert her?  Since she was already familiar with the neighborhood, did she already know where the white people lived or did all the white residences live in the same area?

My grandmother was a working woman who managed her Uncle Victor’s grocery store from the time she graduated from State Normal School until she married my grandfather in 1919.  Wish I knew the stories she must have had to tell about that two weeks of counting the citizens in Ward 4.

Jeanette McCall McEwen

Allen, sepia saturday

Cousins Annie Lee and Jeanette with their sons.

 With youngest son.

  Jeanette and husband Robert


Jeanette was born on February 18, 1897 in Montgomery, Alabama. She was the youngest of the six children of Edward and Mary (Allen) McCall.  Her oldest brother, James McCall was the blind poet in She was owned before the war by…. Her father, Edward McCall, was the cook and turn-key at the city jail. Her mother, Mary Allen McCall, was a seamstress.  Jeanette attended Alabama State Normal school, a primary through high school for African Americans in Montgomery that all of her siblings and cousins attended.

Jeanette’s best friend was Stella Brown, who later married her older brother Roscoe McCall. Jeanette attended Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi and met her husband, Robert Anderson McEwen there.  By 1920 Robert and Jeanette were married and living in Chicago as roomers.  On January 2, 1920 she gave birth to her first son, Robert Jr.  Robert Sr. worked at the post office.  By the time their second son, Raymond, was born  on December 16, 1923, Robert was a dental student.  Jeanette did not work outside of the home.

By 1930 Robert was a dentist.  Jeanette died December 22, 1931.  I do not know the cause of death yet. You may see another photograph of Jeanette here.  Robert remarried before 1938 to Ethel, last name unknown at this time. He died June 29, 1938.   You can see more car related (or not) Sepia Saturday offerings here.

“Horse Jumps through Automobile Windshield”

Amanuensis Monday,
Horse Jumps through Automobile Windshield
Considerable Excitement Attends Runaway On Court Square Tuesday Afternoon.

Much excitement and some damage was the result of a run-away horse crashing into an automobile in front of Alex Rice’s store on Court Square late yesterday afternoon.

The horse, which was pulling a buggy, became frightened on the first block of South Court Street and dashed toward Montgomery Street.  An automobile belonging to Theo Meyer was parked in front of Alex Rice’s and the front feet of the horse went through the wind shield.

Beyond sustaining several minor cuts, the horse was unhurt and the damage done to the automobile, too, was small.

Victor Tulane was owner of the horse.

Date: January 27, 1915
Location: Alabama

Paper: Montgomery Advertiser
Article from The GenealogyBank

Where I’m From

poetry & literature, The Book of Me

(Randy Seaver of Genea Musings posted this for Saturday Night Fun.  You can also find the template here – “Where I’m From“.)

I’m from Motor City Burning.
From Jags shrimp, cousins down the
street and the River Rouge Plant.

I’m from moving every few years.
From parsonages, two family
flats, faded wine carpet and
summers in Idlewild.

I am from grape vines in
grandmother’s backyard and
collard greens in Poppy’s.

I’m from the “Cleage Look”
and Mommy’s firm closed lips. From
“Do you want to scrub floors for the
rest of your life?” and “What
were you thinking?”

I come from church starting
Congregationalists and Presbyterians. From
Black Christian Nationalists and Catholics.

I am from Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.
From smothered chicken, baking powder biscuits,
caramel iced cakes and sweet potato pie.

I’m from Eliza’s freedom and Dock’s
escape.  From “I know nothing about you
people.” And digging yams in the rain.

I am from slaves, seamstresses, carpenters,
doctors, teachers, auto workers and dreamers.
From Annie, Matilda, Celia and Clara.

I’m from talking and analyzing  around
the dinner table. From meetings
and protests. From newsletters and
demonstrations.  From freedom now.

I come from the creamy crumbling pages of
my father’s photo album.  From my
grandparents faded love letters. I come
from those who survived.

My Detroit Rebellion Journal – 1967

Cleages, Detroit, sepia saturday, ,
My father, Rev. Albert B. Cleage & me.

I wrote this after the Detroit riot in July of 1967.  I was 20. I had been in Idlewild, MI at my Uncle Louis’ cottage with my Aunt Gladys and some of my cousins when it started. I ended up at my Grandmother Cleage’s house where my father, several uncles and cousins were also gathered. Her house was on Atkinson, about three blocks from the 12th street corner where the riot started. Aside from a little editing for clarity, these are my memories from 1967.

____________________________

 The fire siren that night in Idlewild went on and on and on. Gladys got a phone call that a riot had started. We left that morning. The sky was pink with smoke as we drove into the city.

During the riot, when it got dark, we turned off the lights, put on black clothes and waited. The shots that had been going all day got louder, closer, smashed together. We sat on the porch and watched the tanks go up and down the street full of white boys wearing glasses, aiming their guns at us.

One during the day went by in a yellow telephone repair truck. He rode in the elevated stand, pointing his rifle. We looked back at him.

Lights from helicopters whirred over us. Troops went down 12th, down 14th. The street shook. Afraid to sleep because somebody might shoot through the window, we stayed up until the sky got light. My cousins cleared out the furniture in front of the windows, so they could shoot.

Should they let them get in or shoot before they reach the porch? They lay there on quilts, looking out the window. Seeing soldiers and armored trucks in flowerpots and dump trucks. Dale asked how the gun worked. Ernie shows him by the hall light.

The guns sounded like they were in the alley. I sat on the landing. Thorough the window it was dark and unreal outside. Blair came up, scared, so we went in the basement and turned on a program about Vietnam, but then off to a horror movie nobody watched.

Daddy came down, with a drink, to use the phone and dictate demands to the papers. Ernie showed us how to bolt doors if someone tried to come in the window.

They tried to get Grandmother down to watch TV, but she wouldn’t. She stayed upstairs, watched TV and came out only at times to turn lights on and silhouette everybody hiding guns as the soldiers were pulled back.

On the police radio: Fifty policemen wounded in one hour. They were run out of the Clairmont Square again. A woman turns in her sniper husband.

Dale was left on the porch when they flashed light on the porch and summer-salted in. Bullets were so close I was afraid and went back inside.

Grandmother turning on lights with armed flower pots aiming at us.

Turning Vietnamese guns up loud to drown out theirs. Jan and I, sleeping on the hard scratchy rug. Ernie wanting just a ring to show he was there. Dale taping, taking pictures to show his children. Jesus painted Black.

All that Sunday cars full of white folks went down Linwood past the Church. Windows rolled up. Sightseeing. Long, slow lines, car after car, windows shut tight. Troop Jeeps going by pointing guns.

For other Sepia Saturday offerings click HERE.

Where My Greatgreat Grandparents Were Born

Investigations

 I am running a bit late but Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings presented the following challenge Saturday evening:

1)  List your 16 great-great-grandparents with their birth, death and marriage data (dates and places).  [Hint – you might use an Ancestral Name List from your software for this.]

2)  Determine the countries (or states) that these ancestors lived in at their birth and at their death.

3)  For extra credit, go make a “Heritage Pie” chart for the country of origin (birth place) for these 16 ancestors. [Hint: you could use the  chart generator from Kid Zone for this.] [Note: Thank you to Sheri Fenley for the “Heritage Pie” chart idea.]

4.  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook or google+.

Because all of my Greatgreat Grandparents were born in the United States, I made a pie chart in Photoshop using the states where they were born.  “Unknown” was born either in Virginia or Tennessee.
 
Maternal Side.
Eliza Williams Allen – born a slave in Alabama. Died free 22 June 1917 in Montgomery, Alabama
Dock Allen – born a slave in Georgia about 1839.  Died free 29 May 1909 Montgomery, Alabama.
They were married about 1860 in Alabama.
Joe Turner – born a slave in Alabama about 1939. Died 7 Feb 1919 Lowndes County Alabama.
Emma Jones Turner – born a slave in South Carolina about 1840.  Died before 1909 Lowndes County Alabama. They were married in 1861 in Lowndes County, Alabama.
No death or marriage information at this time.  They lived in Elmore county and probably died there.
Pricilla – born a slave about 1832 Alabama
Joseph Jackson – born a slave about 1838 South Carolina
Going by Census information for William Graham as I have no more information about them.
William Graham’s mother – b. Alabama
William Graham’s father – b. Alabama
Paternal side.
Frank Cleage – was born a slave in North Carolina about 1816
Judy Cleage – was born a slave in Tennessee about 1814.
They were married 11 August 1866 in McMinn County, Tennessee.  I cannot find them after the 1870 census so although I think they died free in Tennessee I am not sure at this point.
Mother of Celia Rice – born a slave in Virginia. Died free in Tennessee.
Father – Unknown white male in the Rice family – born free, owned Celia’s mother. Born in either Virginia or Tennessee.  Assume died in Tennessee. No marriage involved here.
Clara Hoskins Green – born enslaved in Kentucky about 1829.  Died free in Lebanon, KY after 1880.
Robert Allen – born free 1823 in Kentucky.  White slave owner. Died in Kentucky. No marriage involved.
John Averitt – white – born free in Kentucky 28 Feb 1810 died 1894 in Kentucky.
Elizabeth Tucker Averitt – white – born Kentucky 2 Sep 1813 died in Kentucky, date unknown.
They were married 17 April 1835 in Washington County, Kentucky.