Category: African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research

"She was owned before the war by the late Colonel Edmund Harrison of this county."

Yesterday someone  sent me a small newspaper item about my great grandmother on the Cleage side, visiting her children in Indianapolis in 1914.  Then I read a blog post on Reclaiming Kin about breaking down a brick wall with a newspaper article.  This sent me searching newspapers on The Genealogy Bank.  I expected to find more of the little society items about teas and meetings I have found in the past. I found several interesting articles, One about a horse owned by Victor Tulane putting it’s hoof through a car window and a photograph of my mother selling tickets to a church dance in 1951.  I started putting in the names I don’t usually look for, like my grandmother Fannie Turner.  I found two articles about her which I will share later.  Then I put in Edmund Harrison’s name.

Oral history tells us that Col. Edmund Harrison of Montgomery owned my 2x great grandmother, Eliza, during slavery. My cousin Margaret McCall Thomas Ward searched for decades to find something that would prove this.  I joined her search in 2002 but we were unable to find anything … until I came across the article below about Margaret’s father, James McCall.  It is that written record!  I really, really wish I could call Margaret and tell her what I found but she has been gone for almost 4 years now.  This is just a short part of the article, it was very long with many poems included.

 James Edward McCall, A Montgomery Negro Boy, Is an Intellectual Prodigy
“Blind Tom” of Literature Writes Clever Poetry, None of Which Has Ever Before Been Published—Lost His Eyesight by Hard Study.

The Montgomery Advertiser
James Edward McCall

The Montgomery Advertiser,  March 28, 1904.
    “Young McCall’s thoughts are high.  He is a muscian as well as a poet, and his happiest hours are spent in solitude with his thoughts which are ever bright and cheerful nonwithstanding his affliction.
    James Edward McCall is the oldest son of Ed McCall, for twenty-three years a cook at the Montgomery police station and one of the best known and most respected negroes (sic) in Montgmery.  Ed McCall was owned by W.T. McCall of Lowndes County.  His aged master is still living on the old plantation and he has no truer friend or more devoted servant than Ed McCall.  The mother of the young poet was Mary Allen, daughter of Doc Allen, for many years a well to do negro (sic) carpenter of Montgomery.  She was owned before the war by the late colonel Edmund Harrison of this county.”

Mary Allen McCall, James Edward McCall’s mother

The Proposal

Fannie Mae Turner

Dear Fan,

I am feeling fine today and I hope that this will find you and all at home well.  I am off from my work today.  No, not sick just felt like taking a bit of rest and too it has been raining all day and it was such a fine day for sleep before taking my midday nap I had to talk a little to my sweetheart, I only wish I could hear her voice and be made to feel happy.  Dear I don’t know anything of interest to write about just now.  Things are pretty quiet in Detroit, the factories are all getting ready for a big after war business and I think this city will get her share of it.  I am sorry that your mother has been sick, I hope she is O.K. and her self again.  

     Miss Snow formerly of Montgomery now Mrs. Kelly of Detroit lost her husband last week, I think she will bring the body home for burial. They have him now in storage until she is ready to leave for home with him.  Now dear  I wrote you sometime ago and told you that I had something to tell you when I saw you, but I just can’t keep it any longer, what I want to tell you dear is this, I feel as if I have tried a single life long enough and now I am going to ask you to become my wife.  Now dear, if you will commit to the above request let me know right away and I will write and ask the permission of your mother to marry you, and with her consent we will then fix the time of the wedding.  Now I hope you won’t let this shock you any, and please answer me as soon as possible, if we should get married I shall want you to come to this city to live after the wedding, so dear while you are considering the questions of marriage you may also consider the question of residing in Detroit, also.  

Mershell “Shell” Graham

   Now dear please don’t keep me waiting too long for an answer to this letter, as I am over anxious to hear what your answer will be.  Remember me kindly to your mother and sisters, with lots of love and many thousand kisses I close, looking to receive an early and favorable reply

    I am as ever the same,

    Shell

To read Fannie’s acceptance letter click here

Lillian Louise Reed Shoemaker With Nieces

Aunt Lu (Lillian Louise Shoemaker) with Nieces
Front: Thomas and Theresa. Back Hugh and Anna.

A few weeks ago, a cousin from a “lost” branch of my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage’s family found me through Ancestry.com.  Her father and his siblings grew up thinking they were of Italian descent.   My cousin was trying to find out what ship they came over on when she discovered they weren’t Italian, they were African American and my cousins.  Since then we have been exchanging information and photographs.  The newest one from her is the top photo.  It shows her great grandmother, Louise Reed Shoemaker, with two girls.  There is no information on the photograph. 

The photograph on the bottom is a photograph from my grandmother’s collection of their brother Hugh Reed’s children.  The girls look a little older in my cousin’s photo but to me it’s clear they are they same people, even though they weren’t able to get a good scan yet.

From Montgomery to Detroit

Dock Allen was born around 1832 into slavery in Georgia.  He died free in 1909 in Montgomery Alabama.  He was a carpenter.  His mother, Matilda Brewster was born in Georgia into slavery.  I don’t know when or where she died.

Eliza Williams Allen was born into slavery about 1839 in Alabama.  She died free in Montgomery Alabama in 1917.  She was a seamstress.  Her mother, Anne Williams was born into slavery in South Carolina about 1820 and died free in Montgomery before 1900.

Dock and Eliza’s daughter Jennie Virginia Allen Turner was born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1866.  She was a seamstress.  She died in 1954 in Detroit, Michigan.  In 1887 she married Howard Turner.  He was born in Lowndes County Alabama in 1864.  He was murdered in Alabama in 1892.  His father, Joe Turner, was born into slavery in Alabama about 1839. He was a farmer. He died free in Alabama in 1919.  Howard’s mother, Emma Jones, was born into slavery in South Carolina about 1840 and died free in Alabama in 1901.

Jennie and Howard’s daughter, Fannie Turner Graham was born in Lowndes County, AL in 1888.  She died in Detroit, Michigan in 1974.  She managed a grocery store before her marriage to Mershell C. Graham in 1919.  Mershell and both of his parents were born in Alabama.  Mershell moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1918.  In 1919 he returned to Montgomery to marry Fannie.  They both returned to Detroit immediately following the wedding where they roomed with friends from Montgomery for several years.  Mershell worked at Fords Motor Co. in the parts section.  When they were ready to buy their own house they sent for Fannie’s mother, Jennie and two sisters.  All of Fannie and Mershell’s children were born in Detroit.  In 1946 Fannie’s Aunt Abbie came up from Montgomery and lived with Mershell and Fannie until her death in 1966.

By the 1960s all of Dock and Eliza’s children and grandchildren had left Montgomery and were living in Detroit, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; Madison, Wisconsin and New York City.  Mershell’s relatives remained in Alabama but contact was lost and we don’t know what happened to them.  Joe and Emma’s children stayed in Lowndes County, some moving to Montgomery and Birmingham by the 1930 census.  Because my grandmother lost touch with them before leaving Alabama I only know by following the census where they went.  I believe some eventually moved to Chicago but I’ll have to wait for the 1940 census to verify.

My cousins and I grew up in Detroit surrounded by family on both sides, who had left Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee to end up there.  Of my grandparents five granddaughters, two remain in Detroit as do their children and grandchildren.  One now lives in California where the majority of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were born and live.  My sister and I, along with most of our children and grandchildren live in Atlanta Georgia.

Victor and Willie Lee (Allen) Tulane

Willie Lee and Victor Tulane on the front porch of their house on Union Street in Montgomery.

 

Willie Lee and Victor Tulane on the front porch of their house on Union Street in Montgomery.

“Naomi sent this to me – Aunt Willie and Uncle Victor.  She – beautiful and he -wonderful!!” in my grandmother Fannie’s writing.

Your “Papa’s mouth looks like Roosevelt He was going to say something when Dr. took it.”  I assume in Aunt Willie’s writing.

“Naomi sent it to me.  Aunt Willie and Uncle Victory (?) 1920?”  again in my grandmother’s handwriting.

  on the side it says in my mother’s handwriting ”
Willie was Grandmother Turner’s older sister.”

Click for more Sepia Saturday posts click.

Victor and Willie Lee Tulane and children

Victor and Willie Lee (Allen) Tulane are buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Alabama.  Two of their children who died in early childhood are buried next to them.  My daughter Ife and I visited the cemetery in 2009.  It was on a Sunday and we didn’t expect anyone would be there to help us find the graves but the sexton was there and he was very helpful.  We also found Dock and Eliza (Williams) Allen are also buried there, in the older part of the cemetery.  One day I will post those photos and tell the whole story.

Naomi Tulane’s Engagement Photograph 1920

Naomi Tulane Vincent.  Her engagement photograph. There is a matching one of her husband Ubert but, unfortunately, I do not have one.  Naomi was the daughter of Victor and Willie (Allen) Tulane.  She was married in Montgomery, Alabama in 1920 and then moved to New York as the wife of a society doctor.  For more Sepia Saturday offerings.

More About Annabell’s Family

I spent yesterday looking for information on this family to go with the photographs and a few random remarks from my cousin Margaret about them.  Here is what I found.  Annabel was born in 1882, the second of the six children of Edward and Mary (Allen) McCall.  Her mother was a fine seamstress, sewing privately and her father was turn-key at the Montgomery jail.

Annabel married earlier than her other siblings to a man by the last name of Martin.  They had one son in 1908 who they named Jefferson.  Unfortunately Mr. Martin soon died.  In 1910 she married his brother Edward Martin, a widower who brought his two young sons to the marriage, Edward, 3 and Estil, 2.  Edward was fifteen years older then Annebel.  He was a tailor who owned his own home and was his own boss.  Annabel was working for the United States Gov. at the post office in Nashville, TN.

They had five more children together. Young Anna was born in Alabama in 1913.  Edward, Thelma and Caruso were born in  Muhlenberg County, Kentucky in Jan. 1915, March 1916 and October 1920.  Geneva was born in between Edward and Thelma, although there is barely enough space for her to fit in.  I did not find A birth record for her in Kentucky.

In 1920 we find the family in White City, Florida.  Not only is Edward going by Edwin but they have added an “s” to Martin and claim all of their parents were no longer born in Tennessee and Kentucky (him) or Alabama (her) they were born in Italy.  They are also listed as white instead of mulatto as they had been previously.  Edward is still tailoring from his owned home.  Annabel is not working outside the home although with 7 children under 13 she’s working plenty inside it.  The census was taken in January and Caruso was not born until October, back in Kentucky.  Edward #3 is now listed as born in Aabama,  Geneva in Louisiana and Thelma in Arkansas.  Either one of the children got creative with the ennumerator, they were on the lam or they were passing and covering their tracks.

“Annabel- her family + us”

The photograph taken above is from my grandmother Fannie’s album.  She wrote on the top “Annabel her family + us”.  Annabel and my grandmother were first cousins.  My aunt Mary V. is the little girl standing apart looking at the camera.  She was born in 1920.  My grandmother is holding Mershell, born in 1921 on her lap.  My mother was born in Feb. 1923 so I would put the year at 1922.  That must be Caruso leaning on his mother Annabel’s knee.  The little girls are probably Geneva and Thelma.  That is my grandfather Mershell Graham leaning so cool in the back.

In 1930 Annabell and her family were still in Detroit.  The two oldest boys are no longer at home.  They would have been 22 and 23.  The rest of the children are living at home.  Annabel works as a seamstress at a store.  The three oldest children are  delivery people at a fur store.  I think this would be Annis Furs which used to be in Detroit right behind Hudson’s.  My great grandmother and her daughter Daisy were worked there for many years.  The Martin family is back in the Negro race.

Wordless Wednesday – their own marching band