My mother Doris Graham and her older sister Mary Virginia Graham in 1929A to Z
This year as we begin the 2020s, I decided to go back a hundred years to the 1920s and write about what happened to my family during that decade. My grandparents had settled down to marriage and family and my parents and their siblings were too young to participate in any “roaring” that was going on.
While preparing my posts, I found out several things that I wish I had asked my grandparents about, but strangely never thought to do so. I managed to cover all of the letters in the alphabet and to tie them in with my family in some way. I actually started in February to decide on the words for each letter and to chose photographs. In March I started writing the posts. The plan is to be completely done by the time I post this.
It has been a while since I participated in Sepia Saturday. I seem to have already used photos that would go with the present prompts, in previous posts. However, when I saw that Sepia Saturday had been active for 500 weeks, I thought I would post some of the photos I shared in the past that matched the posts shown in the prompt collage at the bottom of this page. I got the idea after reading Peter’s blog.
Click to enlarge. My photos chosen to match the prompt below.
Subject and Photographer – My Father Takes My Photograph and appears in the mirror. Groups of Students My father and his eighth grade graduating class. Love and Marriage Gladys Helen Cleage and Eddie Warren Evans Wed. The Missing Posts Warren Evans on a Tractor and Henry Cleage in court. Looking Over The Fence – My grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage looking over the fence. Hugh Fishing at the Meadows – My uncle Hugh Cleage catching big fish with a basic pole. The Midget Band – My grandmother Fannie Turner Graham’s first cousin & her family band. Siblings -My mother Doris and her sister Mary V and brother Howard at Belle Isle.
This picture was taken at Belle Isle in 1930, which used to be a city park in the Detroit River and was free to all. It has since been changed to a state park and there is a fee for entry. Howard must have been almost one year old, he had been born the previous September. He seems to be wearing a gown. Mary Vee was ten and Doris was seven.
My father’s youngest sister, Anna Cleage, is the only person I recognized in this “Saddle Shoe” column. In December of 1943 she was 19 years old and a student at what is now Wayne State University. Anna was 14 years younger than my father, Albert “Toddy” Cleage and two years younger than my mother, Doris Graham. From looking at these news items, I would guess that my mother went around with the older crowd, while Anna hung out with the younger group. The names in news items I recognize are the friends of my parents and those my Uncle Henry mentioned when he talked about the olden days. I always found my Aunt Anna very friendly and quite talkative and willing to share her memories with me when I would visit. She is the one who remembered when her grandmother, Anna Celia Rice Cleage Sherman had a stroke at their kitchen table when Anna was five. She was named for her grandmother – Anna Celia Rice Cleage Sherman.
Alice and Daisy Turner – Boblo Island 1961. Last photograph.
Mrs. Daisy Turner, 70, of 4536 Harding, was dead on admittance to Receiving Hospital last week after collapsing in the bedroom of her home.
Mrs. Alice Turner, 65, of the same address, a sister, told police that her sister complained of an upset stomach for several days prior to her death.
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Neither Daisy Turner nor Alice Turner ever married, so the item should have read Miss Daisy Turner and Miss Alice Turner. Alice was born in 1908, she was actually 53 when her older sister Daisy died.
Click on the red links in the paragraphs below to learn more.
This photograph was taken in Montgomery during 1892 while the family was in mourning for husband and father, Howard Turner. Jennie Virginia Allen Turner holds two year old Daisy while four year old Fannie is beside her.
Daisy Turner was my grandmother Fannie Turner Graham’s younger sister. She was born in 1890 in Lowndes County, Alabama. Her father, Howard Turner, was shot to death at a barbque when she was one year old. She grew up in her mother’s parent’s (Dock and Eliza Allen) house in Montgomery. Her mother, Jennie Allen Turner was a seamstress.
Jennie married again and had one daughter, Alice Wright in 1908. After she and her second husband separated, she went back to her maiden name and Alice was always known as Alice Turner.
Daisy is in the center of the center row. Her mother Jennie Allen Turner is in the first seat on the right in the same row. Alice is seated next to her mother.
Daisy graduated from State Normal School and taught school for several years in the Montgomery area. Then she worked at her uncle, Victor Tulane’s store., also in Montgomery. Later Daisy worked at Annis Furs in Detroit.
My mother told me that Duncan Irby was the love of Daisy’s life. It was a star crossed love and they never married. Both devoted themselves to their families and died single.
Daisy Pearl Turner died November 24, 1961. My mother was afraid she had died of food poisoning and so threw out all the food at Daisy’s and Alice’s house.
I was 14 that year and working hard to buy everyone in the family the right gift. I remember thinking I would not be buying anything for Daisy that Christmas.
Reading an article in the Dec 12, 1939 edition of The Detroit Tribune, about a concert Marian Anderson gave in Detroit, I was surprised to find a number of family members and friends among those who attended. My mother had several of Marian Anderson’s records, but she never mentioned hearing her in person. Click on images to enlarge.
“According to Anderson biographer Allan Keiler, she was invited to sing in Washington by Howard University as part of its concert series. And because of Anderson’s international reputation, the university needed to find a place large enough to accommodate the crowds. Constitution Hall was such a place, but the Daughters of the American Revolution owned the hall.
“They refused to allow her use of the hall,” Keiler says, “because she was black and because there was a white-artist-only clause printed in every contract issued by the DAR.” Denied a Stage, She Sang For A Nation
The Detroit Tribune Dec. 12, 1939
Photographs of some family members and friends who attended the concert. Family photographs.
Doris Graham (my mother)
Albert “Toddy” Cleage (my father)
Mary V. Graham (my mother’s sister)
Daisy Turner and mother, Jennie Turner (Fannie’s sister & mother)
Alice Turner (Fannie’s sister)
Fannie & Mershell Graham (My maternal grandparents)
Margaret & Victoria McCall – the publishers daughters – cousins
The Detroit Tribune. 1942 Dec 12 “Jacob Cleage of 5670 Hartford Avenue is quite ill at his home.”
Jacob Cleage was the second child and first son of the five Cleage offspring of Louis Cleage and Celia Rice Cleage Sherman. He was born in 1874 in either McMinn or Loudin county Tennessee. According to his death certificate he was in the Spanish American War. For years he worked as a waiter in Knoxville, where he met and married Gertrude Brunt. They had no children.
They moved to Indianapolis, Indiana where all of his siblings, except Edward, moved. He continued to work as a waiter and also in real estate. Eventually they all ended up in Detroit, Michigan. He worked in the Sheriff’s department for several years. Continued to sell real estate and, according to his death certificate worked as a janitor.
I found the above clipping in the archives of The Detroit Tribune. It announced his serious illness five days after he died. I could find no mention of his death in the paper. I found his death certificate on Ancestry and the one new piece of information I found was that he served in the military during the Spanish American War.
Jacob Cleage’s death certificate with notes. There is so much information here. Click to enlarge.
To clarify, Jacob Cleage’s nephew, Louis Jacob Cleage was his physician. Louis Jacob Cleage was named after his grandfather Louis and his uncle Jacob.
Seventy years later, the descendants of those earlier Thanksgiving dinners are wildly scattered and number in the hundreds. My family gathered around my table, others gathered in other cities. Here is a write up in the style of a news item.
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Three generations gathered at the Thanksgiving table of the Cleage-Williams family Thursday. Although several members were unable to attend, four of the daughters and their children arrived bearing their specialties – collards, mac & cheese, cranberry sauce, bread, salad and more. Along with the turkey and dressing provided by grandmother, Kristin and the broiled salmon cooked by Grandfather James all was served atop an Ecuadorian tablecloth provided by a long time family friend.
There was laughter and lively discussions; songs were sung dramatically, and a game of dominoes was played. The family expects to gather again at Christmas time, hopefully with the missing family members present.
