All posts by Kristin

Presbyterian Church Connections in the Cleage Family

African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Cleages, Detroit, ,
 
Louis and Albert Cleage

Yesterday I was working like mad to complete an entry for the “Carnival of Genealogy – Our Ancestors Places of Worship”, by the midnight deadline when I came across two interesting pieces of new information.

First, even though I thought I had done this before with no success, I asked my cousins to ask their mothers what church they had attended as children in Detroit.  The answer came back – St. John’s Presbyterian Church. At first I thought there was some confusion because I knew that my father had been pastor of St. John’s Congregational Church in Springfield, Mass. and St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church in Detroit but St. Johns Presbyterian? I didn’t remember ever hearing of it before. So, I googled it and found that not only was there a St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Detroit but that my Cleage grandparents were among founders and that it was founded in 1919, the same year my Graham grandfather was participating in the founding of Plymouth Congregational Church, also in Detroit, also on the East side.  I looked for more information on St. Johns.  I searched for even one photograph of the old church. I came up with very little. I looked through the family photos for something that looked like it was taken at a church but also found nothing aside from a few where the family is on their way to church. I did find the information below.

Detroit and the Great Migration 1916-1929, by Elizabeth Anne Martin Religion and the Migrant

“We, the believers in Christ members, are very proud of our rich heritage. We rejoice always; give praise and thanksgiving to our Lord for His abundant blessings of the faithful shoulders we stand on. We accept our charge of ensuring an African-American Presbyterian witness for our Lord in the city of Detroit, Michigan and beyond to the glory of God! St. John’s Presbyterian Church was among the new congregations formed because of the migration. In the winter of 1917 Reverend J.W. Lee, “field secretary for church extension among colored people in the North,” came to Detroit hoping to establish a Presbyterian church. He was disturbed by the fact that many migrants of the Presbyterian faith had turned to other denominations because there were no Presbyterian churches in Detroit. In April 1919 Lee organized thirty-nine believers into a new congregation. He served as pastor until 1921, when he recruited a southern preacher front Alabama to take his place. By 1925 the Sunday services at St. John’s were so popular that some people arrived as much as three hours early in order to secure seats. Hundreds of persons had to be turned away at both Sunday and weekday services.”  One clarification, there were Presbyterian churches in Detroit but they were white.

Something the churches my grandparents helped fond have in common is that they were both urban renewed and torn down to make way for, in the case of Plymouth, a parking structure and I’m not sure what for St. Johns but neither of the historic church buildings are standing today, although both churches are still going strong in their new buildings.

Next I decided to google the church my grandfather, Albert Cleage attended when he was growing up in Athens Tennessee. I found that he was too young to have helped start First United Presbyterian Church, it was founded in 1890 and he was born in 1883. However, his step-father, my great grandmother Celia Rice Cleage Sherman’s second husband, Rodger Sherman, is listed as the architect of the church on Wikepidia.  Amazed?  Yes, I was.  Mr. Sherman and Celia Cleage weren’t married until 1897,  First United Presbyterian church had been standing for 5 years by then.  The church is still standing and still looking good today.

First United Presbyterian Church – 2004

From the Website “J. Lawrence Cook – An Autobiography”
 “After a short time at Fisk, just how long I do not know, my father (note: J.L. Cook) entered Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee. [5] He worked to pay his expenses, and was also aided by donations from individuals back in his home town of Athens. In 1888 he received his bachelor’s degree from Knoxville College and entered Allegheny Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to prepare for the Presbyterian ministry. [6] On 9 April 1890 he was licensed as a minister by the Allegheny Presbytery, and with this credential returned to Athens to establish a United Presbyterian mission. Fresh out of seminary, he began holding services in an old dance hall. [7]”

Other posts about church founding in my family. 
From Montgomery to Detroit, A Congregational Church – COG Our Ancestors Places of Worship

Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church 1909, Indianapolis Indiana

 
 
 
 
 

From Montgomery to Detroit, A Congregational Church

Carnival of Genealogy, Grahams

Northern Congregationalists came south to Montgomery, Alabama after the Civil War.  First Congregational Christian Church was founded in 1872.  They also supported a school nearby. My grandmother, Fannie, attended both the school and the church. She met her husband, Mershell, in the church.

When Mershell Graham, my grandfather, migrated north to Detroit in 1918 many of his friends, who were also members of First Congregational Church, were also leaving segregated Montgomery.  In 1919 a group of nine gathered together to form Plymouth Congregational Church.  They first met in members houses and in borrowed space  until they were able to purchase their own building, a former Synagogue, in 1927. They moved in, in May 15, 1927.

 

Plymouth Congregational Church – September 1928. Detroit, Michigan

Plymouth had been in the building a little over a year when this photo was taken. My grandfather, Mershell C. Graham, is standing behind his daughters, Mary V. and Doris (my mother).  Their cousin, Margaret McCall, is standing between them.  They are in the front row, towards the left side of center.  The minister, Rev. Laviscount, is standing behind Mary V.  My grandmother, Fannie, had just given birth to their youngest son, Howard, so she was not able to be there.

You can read an online history of Plymouth Congregational Church of Detroit Michigan HERE.
A post about the Cradle Roll my grandmother Fannie filled out at Plymouth  HERE.
You can read about Witherspoon Presbyterian Church which my paternal grandparents were founders of HERE.
Learn about the Presbyterian Churches founded by the Cleage side of my family HERE

Another Photographic Mystery Solved

sepia saturday,

Ubert Conrad Vincent

Sylvia Vincent

Yesterday after talking on the phone with my cousin Jacqui and posting the identities of the people in the formerly mystery photo, I decided to look online for a photograph of Ubert Conrad Vincent as an adult.  Instead I found a newspaper article in The New York Age from Saturday, May 7, 1927 with a photograph of him as a three year old.  As soon as I saw it I realized it was the same small boy in another photograph I had from my grandmother’s collection. It wasn’t labeled or dated, but my mother had written on the back “I don’t know who he is but he’s too pretty to throw away!” I hope this doesn’t mean she was tossing photos of those who weren’t all that pretty.

There was also an unidentified photograph of a little girl that is clearly the same little girl in the family portrait, Sylvia Vincent.

To tie this in with this Sepia Saturday’s theme, corner grocery stores, Conrad and Sylvia’s maternal grandfather was Victor Tulane who, among other businesses, owned a corner grocery store housed in the Tulane building on the corner of High and Ripley streets in Montgomery, AL. I offer several photos of the store from 1919 to 2004 below. For other fine photographs and stories about stores of all kinds and who knows what else click SepiaSaturday.

Jeanette McCall McEwen – Death Certificate 1897 – 1931

Allen, Investigations, ,
4744 Langley. Jeanette on stoop with son Robert with google maps photograph.

I received Jennette McCall McEwen’s death certificate in the mail this week.  I wrote about her earlier here and here.  Here is the new information I gleaned both from the death certificate and from a re-reading of other documents I have for this family.

According to both the 1920 census and Robert junior’s birth certificate, the family was rooming at 4744 Langley in Chicago, IL.  See a photo of the house above.  Little Robert was born at home on January 2.  Robert Sr. worked at the post office.

Provident Hospital

On December 16, 1923 second son, Raymond was born in Provident Hospital, one of the first black owned and operated hospitals in the United States.  Robert Sr. was a dental student while Jeanette continued to work inside the home.  The family had moved to 652 E. 46th St.

By the time of the 1930 Census Robert Sr was a practicing dentist.  Jeanette was not working outside of the home. When I first found Robert and Jeanette in the 1930 census several years ago, I wondered why they had no children because I had heard that they were the parents of two boys.  After looking at the neighbors I found that 10 year old Robert Jr and 7 year old Raymond were living as lodgers in the apartment of Harry and Zada McClatchey.  At the time I thought it must be a mistake, but after looking at the death certificate I realized there was a good reason for the boys to be out of the home.

Jeanette died at home of influenza on December 27, 1931.  The informant, the person who gave the personal information on the certificate, was her older brother Leon Roscoe McCall.  Her doctor was her brother-in-law Joseph Howard, MD.  He had begun treating her on Christmas day, although she became ill on the 20th of December. A contributory cause was “phthisis pulmonalis” or consumption.  Jeanette found that she had tuberculosis in February of 1930. The Census took place in April. Robert and Raymond were probably out of the house to keep them from being infected.  She had been unable to continue to do her usual work as a housewife since July 1931. Jeanette McCall McEwen was buried in Lincoln Cemetery in Cook County on December 30, 1931.  Now I’ll send for Robert McEwen’s death certificate to see if he also died of tuberculosis.

 

Just The Facts – Timeline For My Great Aunt Alice

Timeline,

1866 October 1 – Jennie Allen Turner born (Alice’s mother)
1888 March 12 – Fannie born (Alice’s oldest sister)
1890 May – Daisy born (sister)
1905 Jennie married Wright  (according to the 1910 census)
1908 August 18 – Alice Elizabeth Wright born in Montgomery, Alabama
1910 Census – 7th Precinct, Montgomery     19 April 1910
Top of the page is Sallie H. Wright, a widow and a teacher
Address 712 E. Grove Street
Jennie T. Wright – age 40 2nd marriage, 5 years Dressmaker – 3 children, all living (44)
Fannie Mae Turner – age 20 book keeper (22)
Daisy Turner – age 17 clerk (20)
Alice Wright – age 2 father born North Carolina (after this census Alice’s last name is always given as “Turner”, Jennie’s first husband was Howard Turner who died in 1892.)
1918 – Daisy taught school at Booker Washington Elementary
1919 – Daisy taught school at Booker Washington Elementary
1920 Census – Precinct 7 (part of) 19 January 1920 Montgomery Alabama
Address 712 Grove Street
Jennie Turner – age 52 – Widow Seamstress (54)
Daisy Turner – age 25 clerk at grocery (30)
Alice Turner – age 11 – attended school, can read and write.
1921 July 31, photo taken in Windsor, Ontario with Beulah and Robert Pope
1922 Nov. 23 Letter from Victor Tulane, he’s shipping Gr.Turner’s things to Detroit.
1924 Oct 11 – Certificate of Survey for Theodore applicant Fred L. Marsh
1920’s – Undated photograph of seamstresses at Anis Furs.  Jennie, Daisy and Alice are all in the photo.
1930 Census – Precinct 57 3 Apr 1930 Detroit, Michigan
Address 4836 Harding
Jennie Turner – age 62 – owns home. Worth $7,000  Widow. Not working (64)
Daisy Turner – age 30 – single Head portreress at a Fur Store (40)
Alice E. Turner – age 21 – single. Not working
1954 March 28 – Mother Jennie dies. Alice continues to live with sister Daisy in same house.
1961 November 24 – Daisy dies after a days illness. Alice moves in with her sister Fannie and her husband Mershell.
During this time Alice is diagnosed with schizophrenia.
1963 SSN issued 365-48-4560
1964 August 18 – Alice made her best/last cake (Entry in Fannie’s bible)
1966 April 18  Alice’s Aunt Abbie becomes ill and is moved to a nursing home. Dies on this date.
1968 Summer – Family moves to a flat with Doris (Fannie’s daughter & Alice’s niece)
1973 September 6 – Brother-in-law Mershell Graham Sr dies (Alice’s brother-in-law)
1973 – Sister Fannie has a stroke and is moved to a nursing home. Alice is moved to senior housing.
1974 August 13 – Sister Fannie Mae Turner Graham dies.
1974 September 27 – Guardianship of Alice Turner, a mentally incompetent person, to niece Doris
1982 April 30 – Niece Doris dies and guardianship turned over to niece Mary V.
1994 November 16 – Alice dies after being in failing health.
1994 November – Cremated and ashes buried in mother Jennie’s grave in Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery.

Finding Alice

Allen, Investigations, Photographs,
Robert Pope, Jennie V. Turner, Beulah Pope (back) Alice Turner, my Aunt Daisy.

August 18 was my Great Aunt Alice’s birthday.  I decided to do a quick post about her. Found a few photographs.  Wrote out my memories. Something wasn’t right. I wrote a cousin and my sister asking for their memories. They both sent them and of course all of our memories both overlap and are different. I found my mother’s memories. I looked for more photos. I looked for documents. I realized some of what I “knew” I couldn’t document. So, I’ve spent the last week trying to figure Alice’s life out when there is no one left to ask about particulars. Now I’m working on a timeline to incorporate both the facts and the memories and the contradictions. Today I dug out a photograph I vaguely remembered as being of Alice and my great grandmother Jennie in Canada. As soon as I found it, I realized that the young man and one of the other women were also relatives. The woman behind my great grandmother was her youngest sister, Beulah Allen Pope and her son, Robert is the young man in the front. I recognized them because Robert’s daughter sent me a photograph of them that must have been taken the same day because they are wearing the same clothes.  The photo is dated “July 31, 1921 Toronto Windsor, Canada.” I did not realize they were there so early. More wondering and looking.  I have ordered Alice’s Social Security application and death certificate hoping to find more information.

Photo sent by cousin Ruth. Taken in Detroit.

Trip to Jekyll Island

sepia saturday

Usually I do not post photos from the present but, when I saw the theme for this week’s Sepia Saturday was a Georgia live oak and I had just returned from a trip to Jekell Island, GA with photos of Georgia live oaks with Spanish Moss dripping off of them it was too good to pass up.

My daughter photographing the same live oak. Wish we’d gotten a better shot. Next time.

Corner of the veranda where I sat and waited for my daughter to finish her meetings. Note the live oak in the background.

Daughter in the Atlantic Ocean.

Me in the Atlantic Ocean.

Our toes just touched the water.


The Angel Oak

To finish up, here is a postcard from my collection.  We actually visited this 1,500+ year old oak in 1975 but did not get a photograph!  Hard to believe. Click this link to learn all you ever wanted to know about the Angel Oak.  For other posts of trees of all types click SepiaSaturday.

Alphonso Brown – Marriage Certificate

Allen, Investigations,

Aunt Abbie, Fannie, Mershell (my grandparents), Alphonso, Henry, Me, Doris (my mother)

Aunt Abbie, my great grandmother’s sister, lived with my grandparents , Fannie and Mershell Graham since the time I was born. Aunt Abbie’s son, Alphonso, came to visit her sometimes during the summer. My mother told me that he never married and lived alone in New York, as did his brother, Earl.

While looking through New York records for anything I could find about Alphonso or Earl, I came across a marriage record for Alphonso Brown and Helen Wilson. I immediately sent for a copy.  It arrived today.  Aunt Abbie’s son was indeed married Dec. 17, 1928 to Helen Wilson in New York.  More family information/memories proved wrong.  This is my second bachelor uncle to actually have been married.