All posts by Kristin

G – Glimpses in Detroit’s Mirror!

April 8, 2023Detroit, Grahams, sepia saturday#Doris Graham CleageKristin

This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations. On Saturdays I’ve combined my usual Sepia Saturday post with the letter of the day. A double challenge.

Several years ago I shared the photograph below from my grandmother’s scrapbook of my mother dancing at a formal dance. The other day I decided to see if I could find any more information in the newspapers. I was overjoyed to find two articles in two different Detroit papers with photos and mentions of my mother. Both were African American newspapers. The Tribune was published by my maternal grandmother’s first cousin, James McCall.

From my grandmother Fannie’s scrape book. An article from The Tribune March 18, 1939

I am sharing the photo from the Michigan Chronicle and the original photograph from my grandmother’s album and the article from the Detroit Tribune, because it mentions what my mother was wearing.

In March 1939, my mother was 16 and a senior at Eastern High School. She graduated in January 1940, and entered Wayne State University.

The Michigan Chronicle, March 18 1939. My mother is in the center of the circle looking up at us.

Glimpses… In Detroit’s Mirror

By Sylvia Penn

The Detroit Tribune, March 18, 1939, page 4

Hello , Folk! The hour for twisting and turning our “little ole” mirror for you to catch reflections of the doings of Detroit, is at hand again. We have always heard that the weather is a safe topic of conversations at any time; so right here for a second or two, we shall discuss the weather Sunday and Monday of this week, we were tempted to think of Detroit as the “Crystal City,” instead of the Motor City for the handiwork of nature stretched before our gaze a picture of dazzling beauty with trees, houses and streets encased in ice. The sparkling beauty of it all equaled the splendor of the jewels in the King’s Crown. It was a magnificent sight, but it is all gone now, except the memory of it and in it’s stead we have warm sunlight, which reminds us that spring is just around the corner.

Yes, Folk, but there have been other scenes of beauty in Detroit other than that afforded by Dame Nature. Such was the Chesterfields ball at Wayne university last Saturday evening. The affair was as colorful as a rainbow and was distinctly an occasion for dress. The frilly crisp gowns worn by the young ladies were as beautiful and picturesque as springtime. The gowns were rampant in color, ranging from polka-dots to mulberry taffetas, sky blue satins and black and gold nets. Then there were the many lovely corsages, also orchids for two of the Chesterfieldians chose and pinned gorgeous orchids on the gowns of their company. The members of the club identified themselves by wearing green and gold ribbons in their lapel, these being Wayne’s colors. They further used the same color scheme in the. ceiling decorations. Of course, there were multi-colored balloons and a profusion of confetti. The swingy, swingy music brought forth the usual group of jitterbugs doing their number on the sideline with maybe one or two doing the “Boogey.” The Chesterfieldiana and their invited girl friends were: Bobby Douglas and Doris Graham, Doris looking very sharp in peach chiffon and corsage of sweet peas and roses, Howard Tandy and Martha Bradby, Martha very cute in black and white net, Jack Barthwell and Marjorie Cook, Marjorie being quite smart in black chiffon; Leven Weiss and Helen Nuttall, Helen very sophisticated in black taffeta striped with gold; Theodore Washington and Margaret Book, Billy Allen and Alice Tandy. Alice very ravishing in red and wearing orchids too; Tony Martin and Lorraine Porter. Louis Bray and Shirley Turner, Shirley lookin lovely in white crepe; Conklin Bray and Harriet Pate. Harriet quite charming in blue and white. Demar Solmon and Lillian Brown; John Roxvourgh and Mary L. Singleton; Robert Johnson and Veralee Fisher, Vera very stunning in her new gown of aqua-blue chiffon, embroidered with silver; Charles Diggs Jr. and Christine Smoot. …

Today I did two “G” posts, unawares. The other is G-Gardening.

G – GARDENING

April 8, 2023A-Z Challenge 2023#Dee Dee Elkins, #Doris Graham Cleage, #Idlewild, #me, Mershell C. GrahamKristin

This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations.

My grandfather working in his garden with my cousin Dee Dee. 1945

My mother looking at her corn at the first Old Plank Garden in 1961.

The Real Garden

Kristin Cleage

Our garden this year has been great, best I’ve had in years. Jim Tulani, James and Cabral got up a fence in early June that keeps the dogs from rolling around in the beds. Jim brought several pickup loads of horse manure from a local horse owner soon after the fence went up. He also roto-tilled several planting beds that were over grown and made a large double bed for the corn.

I got it planted soon after, before weeds could take over again and mulched everything heavily…the hay was here on time. We got all of this done pretty much before I started working. The beginning of the summer was hot and dry, so I watered. It soon changed to hot and wet, wet, wet. Now it’s cooling off and raining pretty well.

We’ve been eating summer squash, plenty of green beans (freezing some too.), collards, broccoli, swiss chard. The corn is tassling and there’s enough of it this year that you can hear it rustling in the wind. The pumpkins and winter squash may make it before frost if they hurry. Lots of green tomatoes, onions and red beans. The only down side so far is that the beans I planted with the corn (I even let the corn get up good before I planted them this year.) turned out to be bush beans and not Kentucky Wonder climbers. Looks kind of strange having those bush beans growing around the bottom of the corn.

I plan to put in lettuce, mustard, turnip and transplant kale as soon as the beans give out and by putting plastic over the pipes I bent over them, to eat from the garden up until Thanksgiving.

And next year with the fence already up, maybe I’ll really get some plants started and out early and have potatoes. The tomatoes Ayanna started this year look good. I did dream we had a killing frost a few nights ago, but I hope it was just a dream, I mean, it’s only August? No killing frost in August, even in the North woods, right?

The Ruff Draft May/June 1994 page 5

Today I did two G posts, unawares. The other is G- Glimpses in Detroit’s Mirror!

F – FALL 1948

April 7, 2023A-Z Challenge 2023, Photographs, Springfield, MA#meKristin

This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations.

I managed to scan a few pages of the old album before they crumpled. My father wrote on brief descriptions. In the fall of 1948 I was two. My sister Pearl would be born in December of that year. One of my favorite activities was playing in the dirt. I remember watching the neighbor mother fuss at her little daughter, who was about my size, for playing in the dirt. Even at that time I thought that was sad. There were two sets of stairs, one on each side of the porch, so people did not have to walk through my kitchen when they came out of the back door.

fairy castle — Kristin and Barbara digging in Nanny’s and Poppy’s yard.

Digging on uncle Louis’ Idlewild beach with cousin Barbara 1956.

Still enjoying the dirt in my garden 2006.

E – ELIZA

April 6, 2023A-Z Challenge 2023, African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, AlabamaKristin

This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations.

My 2X great grandmother Eliza Williams Allen was born into slavery on the plantation of Col. Edmund Harrison and his wife Jane Starke Irvin Harrison. Her mother was Ann Williams, a seamstress on the plantation. Who her father was is not known. When the youngest daughter of the Harrison’s, Martha James, married Milton Saffold in 1851, Eliza went with her as a wedding gift. Martha was 18 when she married. Eliza was about 12.

Martha gave birth to three sons before she died in 1856. At 16, Eliza gave birth to Saffold’s daughter in 1856. In 1857, Saffold married Georgia Whiting. Eliza was 17 when Saffold freed her and Mary. In 1860 I found them living, free, on a small farm with Nancy Wiggins and her daughters. I haven’t found a connection between Nancy and Eliza.

Later that year she met Dock Allen when he hid in the barn while escaping from a master known for cruelty and keeping vicious dogs to hunt escapees. Dock and Eliza married. They had 13 children. Eight lived to adulthood. After Freedom, Eliza’s mother, Annie Williams lived with the family until she died in 1898.

Centennial Hill Marker. Click for more information.

Eliza was a seamstress and Dock was a carpenter. Although neither of them were literate, they sent all of the children to school, the oldest through elementary school and the youngest completed two years of college. The family owned their own home in Montgomery’s Centennial Hill Community.

Eliza died on June 22, 1917 at 77 years of age and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery.

Burial place of Dock and Eliza Allen. Oakwood Cemetery, Montgomery, Alabama.

More about Eliza and her family

D – DIARY Entry – Henry 1936

April 5, 2023A-Z Challenge 2023#Henry CleageKristin

This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations.

My Uncle Henry Cleage was a twenty year old student at Wayne State University in Detroit when he kept this diary. He did eventually graduate and went on to geta law degree. He was a great thinker and during his life did a variety of things. Henry was also a printer and a publisher, publishing the Illustrated News, a radical black newsletter during the early 1960’s with family and friends. During WW2 he and his brother Hugh were conscientious objectors and spent the war farming in Avoca, Michigan. You can read the whole Diary here. Like many of us, he started off strong writing everyday, but as the year went on he petered out.

January 11
Awoke to find that I had lost 2 dollars very depressed. Wrote on theme. Played tonight at Quinn’s Lone Pine with Duke Conte, played bass, terrible night. Fingers sore. Noticed how good-looking Lene is… Ought to throw a line – Police stopped us at about 1:00AM. No permit to play until two. I was glad. Very animal acting bunch in River Rouge. Most of them seem friendly though.

January 12
Played matinee dance at Elks rest with Heckes, Toddy and Bill – Dracee’s band came in and sat in awhile (no trouble) Kenneth was there. Too tired and sleepy to study history. Get up early tomorrow (no English) Toddy is going downtown to get some books is supposed to get me ‘American Tragedy” and ‘Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations”

January 13
Haliver Greene died this morning -spinal meningitis. Didn’t get up early to study History, however there was no class – lecture tomorrow so I won’t slide, tonight. Toddy bought back two books about lives of Educators (putrid!!) only 25 cents a piece though – awfully windy out today-not so cold thought – like March. I would like to have been in the country, wrapped up good, walking into the wind at the Meadows, down the road towards the sand pile or over the hill to the creek – zest, spice, life, health, clear eye, firm step and all that sort of thing.

January 14
Cold out this morning although it became somewhat spring like after school. Went to show after school. Another big fight this morning, I think they think I skip classes because I am sleepy, nonsense. Bought ‘Bartlett’s Quotations” $1.53. Seems worthwhile. Read one of dictator books – Good – tonight as I was going to the store the weather brought memories of spring. Roller-skating in street, if not roller skating then walking. Everybody walking and friendly. The crowd at Krueger’s and the tent. Perhaps riding through Belle Isle – water, boats.

_______________

Henry’s sister Anna via my cousin Anna shared her memories of the combo: “Hi there! I had a chance to get Mom’s remembrances on Uncle Toddy’s band. This is what she recalls:
Uncle Toddy was trying to establish the business of being an agent where he would send singers and instrumentalists to different clubs etc. to perform. If he couldn’t get enough players, this is where he would ask Uncle Louis (player of drums), Henry (sax player, bass violin and vocalist), and sometime Mr. Hand (Oscar) – not really sure what he played – to fill certain jobs. Uncle Henry was a really good sax player and he had a great voice. Some group called the Vagabonds wanted him to play the sax for them. Mom thinks that Henry actually joined their band for awhile.”

C – CHESS

April 4, 2023A-Z Challenge 2023#Albert B. Cleage JrKristin

This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations.

My father Albert B. Cleage Jr playing chess about 1952

I recently took a survey of the family and found that all my children and grandchildren can play chess, most can also play dominoes. I was curious because we have so many photographs of the boys playing chess and hardly any of the girls. My husband and I used to play chess everyday when we first met. Unfortunately there are no photographs from those games played over 50 years ago.

Below is an article my son James wrote describing in detail his experience at the annual Optimist Chess Tournament held in Ludington, Michigan. Both he of my sons participated for several years.

Chess Tournament

by James A. Williams

Twelve year old James concentrating. Behind him we see his younger brother Cabral.

I had been practicing for months, three hours a day. Hoping to bring home the first place trophy from the annual chess tournament. I had two chances to claim the first place trophy and failed both times.

Game #1: My first game was a simple one and I won it easily.

Game #2: My second game was a little harder. But my opponent was intimidated by me due to the fact that I had beat him in two previous meetings earlier that day. He resigned.

Game #3: My third opponent was not as talented as my second opponent but much more skilled than my first. I won that game.

Game #4: My fourth game was what I anticipated to be the biggest game of the tournament. I was to take on the only other undefeated player in my group. I won that game and was 4-0 to that point.

Game #5: My fifth game was the one I needed to win in order to clench a #1 place. I lost due to a terrible blunder concerning my castle. I was headed to the playoffs and a second chance at #1.

The Playoffs

Game #6: I played my second opponent once again in a decisive game six. If I lost this game my first place hopes would vanish and the best I would be able to do would be #3, I won game 6.

Game #7: This was my last chance at #1. I was matched against the same opponent that had beat me in game five, an opponent that in my four years of tournament play I have never beaten in three meetings. I lost game 7 due to the fact that I overlooked a fork that would have stripped my opponent of his last playing piece and left him only pawns to defend against my rook, a knight and king.

Dashboard

I was forced to walk away with the second place trophy.

from The Ruff Draft March/April 1993

About the Ruff Draft

In 1991 my family began putting out a newsletter we called The Ruff Draft. We had recently started homeschooling. The purpose of The Ruff Draft was both to give real writing opportunities to Ayanna (15), Tulani (13), James (9) and Cabral (4), and to show extended family and friends that they were learning something.

In the beginning we used an Apple 2c. They wrote the articles and I typed them into the computer, printed them out and lay out the newsletter. Later my cousin Blair gave us a Mac and the whole newsletter could be done on the computer. There were drawings and photographs. Sometimes the readers sent in articles.

For four or five years we published bi-monthly and mailed it out all over the country to family and friends. As the writers graduated and moved on to bigger things away from home. You can see an issue of The Ruff Draft at this link The Ruff Draft – July 30, 1991.

B – BADMINTON

April 3, 2023A-Z Challenge 2023#Dale Evans, #Doris Graham Cleage, #Hugh Cleage, #Warren EvansKristin

This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations. On Saturdays I’ve combined my usual Sepia Saturday post with the letter of the day. A double challenge.

My cousins Warren and Dale playing against my uncle Hugh Cleage and my mother at Old Plank. My family bought this house about half an hour from Detroit in 1961. There was talk of moving there year around, but it never happened. We also played one-base-baseball, rode bikes and had a large garden. We went up on weekends and for longer periods during the summer. We only owned 2 acres of the 40 acre farm, not including the barn. In 1967 a man bought the barn and started keeping chickens and pigs there, though he didn’t live on or near the property. The animals regularly escaped. The pigs dug up our garden and the chickens roosted on the porch. Before Henry and the man came to blows, they finally sold the house to him.

Playing Ball – Old Plank – 1964
Reading Mad Magazine at Old Plank
Henry Rototilling Garden at Old Plank
Picking beans – Old Plank 1963
The Snake
Old Plank Road

A – APPROPRIATE Celebrations

April 1, 2023A-Z Challenge 2023#Albert B. Cleage Sr, Pearl ReedKristin

Pearl Reed. This photo was in the family photos and it is the one that appeared in the paper.

In the 1909 Easter season, my grandmother Pearl Reed sang at two events. Her photograph appeared in the section of the white paper “The Indianapolis News” entitled “News of Colored Folk” My grandfather Albert B. Cleage also appeared doing a reading at Witherspoon Presbyterian Church’s Easter service. I have included the newspaper column below. If you click you can enlarge it. I will also transcribe the two items that mention my grandparents below.

I am fulfilling two prompts with this post, the” first”A” in the A to Z Challenge and the Sepia Saturday post “Sing.”

**Indianapolis News**, Saturday, April 10, 1909

“Ressurrection of Christ.”

Witherspoon Memorial United Presyterian church will have special services at 10:30. The church is holding its services at the Y.M.C.A. rooms, North and California streets. The morning program will include a short sermon by the pastor, the Rev. D. F. White; Dr. Albert Cleage will read a paper on “The Resurrection of Christ”; Mrs. Pearl Donan will read the Easter lesson. There will be solos by Mrs. Othello Finley and Miss Pearl D. Reed, and a select chorus will sing “Hear His Voice.”

MUSIC FESTIVAL FRIDAY

Miss Pearl Reed One of Singers at Jones Tabernacle.

Among the special attractions of Easter week will be the music festival to be given next Friday evening at Jones Tabernacle, under the auspices of the Witherspoon Memorial United Presbyterian church. A carefully selected program has been arranged in which the best available talent will take part.

In addition to Miss Pearl Reed, a popular soloist, Miss Osie Watkins of Richmond, had been engaged to sing. Other features will be vocal solos by Aldridge Lewis and Mrs. Sallie Robinson. There will be instrumental solos by Alfred Taylor. The Twentieth Century Club of Jones Tabernacle, will serve refreshments at the close of the program.

From The Arbustus, 1911, Indiana University School of Medicine

Congregation of Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church 1909 About the church.

Oh Dry Those Tears! More Pearl singing.

Click for more Sepia Saturday offerings.

Almost APRIL!

March 31, 2023A-Z Challenge 2023Kristin

I am finishing up my posts for the April A to Z Challenge! I can’t believe I’ve completed all but two of my posts for the WHOLE CHALLENGE! I still have to complete “O” and “Y”, which I will wrap up today. I will be able to devote the month to visiting other blogs and replying to my (hopefully) numerous comments! And…

writing a poem a day for Na/GloPoWriMo (National/Global Poetry Writing Month) on my Ruff Draft blog. This is the 20th year of the challenge and the 5th year I have participated. I have been really lax about writing poetry since the Half Marathon last June!

Oh Dry Those Tears

March 23, 2023Cleages, Indianapolis, sepia saturdayKristin

My paternal grandmother, Pearl Reed Cleage was born in Lebanon, Kentucky. Her family moved to Indianapolis, Indiana when she was a young girl and that is where she grew up. She sang at various events before she married and my father was born and the family moved to Kalamazoo, MI. I found this newspaper article in the box of family photos and was able to find more information about the event in several local papers. I found one of the songs she sang (Oh Dry Those Tears) and I shared it below.

Sings in Concert at Simpson Chapel

Miss Pearl D. Reed The violin recital of Clarence Cameron White will be given this evening at Simpson Chapel under the direction of the Colored Y.M.C.A. Orchestra. He will be supported by the best local talent. The following program will be given:
Overture – “Northern Lights,” Y.M.C.A. Orchestra
Violin – Hungarian Rhapsodie, Clarence Cameron White
Song – “Oh Dry Those Tears,” Miss Pearl D. Reed.”
Piano – “Vaise in C sharp minor (b) Polanaise in A major. Mrs. Alberta J. Grubbs.
Violin – (a) Tran Merel: (b) Scherzo, Clarence Cameron White
Intermission
Orchestra – “The Spartan,” orchestra
Vocal – “Good-by”, Miss Pearl D. Cleage
Readings A.A. Taylor.
Selection – “The Bird and Brook,” orchestra

The Indianapolis Star, Friday May 8, 1908

“The Cameron White Recital”

Clarence Cameron White ably sustained his reputation as a violinist at Simpson Chapel church last week under the auspices of of the Y.M.C.A. Mr. White plays a clean violin; he gets all out of it there is – dragging his bow from tip to tip, and more if it were possible. He did not attempt any of the great big things – the big concertos, and perhaps for the best. Yet he showed his capability for such work and at the same time satisfied his audience. His encores as a rule were selections that the audience recognized and through the beautiful renditions it could easily form some estimate of his playing ability. Mr. White was a decided success. Seldom is has a good class of music been so thoroughly appreciated. He was supported at the piano by Samuel Ratcliffe whose playing was commendable. Miss Pearl D. Reed proved an acceptable contralto singer. The orchestra under Alfred A. Taylor did some very effective work. Mr. Taylor proved a reader of ability; he read several of his own selections. The audience was magnificent and paid the utmost attention to the renditions.”

The Freeman An Illustrated Colored Newspaper 1908 May 16 page 4

One of the songs Pearl Reed sang at the recital, “Oh Dry Those Tears”

Finding Eliza

Finding Eliza

All posts by Kristin

G – Glimpses in Detroit’s Mirror!

Glimpses… In Detroit’s Mirror

G – GARDENING

The Real Garden

F – FALL 1948

E – ELIZA

D – DIARY Entry – Henry 1936

C – CHESS

Chess Tournament

The Playoffs

About the Ruff Draft

B – BADMINTON

A – APPROPRIATE Celebrations

“Ressurrection of Christ.”

MUSIC FESTIVAL FRIDAY

Miss Pearl Reed One of Singers at Jones Tabernacle.

Almost APRIL!

Oh Dry Those Tears

Sings in Concert at Simpson Chapel

“The Cameron White Recital”