My uncle Hugh Cleage standing by the sound car he rigged up for the 1962 Congressional election in Detroit. My Aunt Gladys, my sister and I spent hours in that car riding through our community. “Make your children proud. Vote for Frederick Yates, a Negro in the 15th District…” One of us would ride in the car reciting as Gladys drove down the street while the other would leaflet the houses. My sister and I were both in high school. I would turn 15 in August 1962. My cousin Jan sometimes rode with us but she was too young to man the mic.
Below are 4 pages from 2 issues of the Illustrated News put out before the election. Click to enlarge. Diggs was re-elected but none of our other candidates won.
This is the first of a series about the freed former slaves from the Cleage plantations in Athens Tennessee once they were free. Unless I mention that they are my relatives, they are not related by blood. Our families came off of the same plantations – those of Samuel, Alexander and David Cleage, but were not blood relatives.
Isaac Turk, his wives Fanny Cleage and Malinda White and all 6 of his children were born into slavery. All of them lived to see freedom, except his first wife Malinda who died in 1857.
U.S. Colored Troops 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment, Knoxville Tennessee. I like to think the men I studied are pictured. Source: Library of Congress The USCT Chronicle
Isaac Turk was born around 1828. He was 36 years old on February 8, 1864 when he joined the United States Colored Troops in Knoxville, Tennessee. He stood 5 feet 6 inches with a dark complexion, black eyes and black hair. His occupation was listed as “farmer”. He had been a slave on David Cleage’s plantation in Athens, Tennessee.
Isaac was married twice. He married Malinda White in 1844. The Rev. Samuel Hope performed the ceremony. They had five children together, William (Do not know birthdate), Mariah born in 1849, Penelope “Neppie” born 1850, Steve born 1851 and Isaac born 1852. Malinda died in 1857.
After his first wife’s death, Isaac married Fanny Cleage. Rev. Henry L. Rowley performed the ceremony. Henry Rowley was enslaved, probably by Erastus Rowley, born in Massachusetts and a professor of languages in the 1860 census, who lived down the way from David Cleage where Isaac and Fanny were enslaved.
Isaac and Fanny had only one child, a daughter Margaret, born August 1859. Charlotte Bridgeman Cleage and Sarah Cleage were both present at the birth along with Dr. M.R. May, a white doctor who also lived near David Cleage.
In February of 1864, Isaac Turk made his way from Athens to Knoxville and enlisted in Company A, U.S. Colored Troops 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment as a musician, a drummer. On July 20 of the same year, he died in the regimental hospital from what was described as “congestion of stomach.”
Knoxville Tennessee
July 25, 1864
Received of Lieutenant A.B. Eliott Commanding Company A 1st US colored Artillery “Heavy” the following effects of Isaac Turk, private Co. “A” 1st U.S. Colored Artillery “Heavy” now deceased, which I am entitled to as his Legal Representative, viz. child.
One hat, one cap, one uniform coat (musician) one blouse lined two pair trousers, two flannel shirts, one pr shoes, one woolen blanket.
Margaret(X her mark) Turk
Because Isaac Turk was not going by the name Cleage, I would not have known he was a slave on David Cleage’s plantation. I discovered him while checking Charles A. Cleage, who I knew had been a slave on that plantation and also in the U.S. Colored Troops, in the Civil War Pension Index. There I found Fanny Cleage Turk, widow of Isaac Turk applying for her pension. In her file several people who had been enslaved on the same plantation gave testimony. Charles A. Cleage described how he knew the birth date of Isaac Turk’s daughter Mariah, who also applied for a pension as a child.
“…Charles A. Cleage, who, I hereby certify, is a respectable and credible person, and who, being duly sworn, declares in relation to the aforesaid claim as follows: that he and the said soldier Isaac Turk were slaves and belonged to the same master during the year 1849 and on up to the war of the rebellion they lived as the custom was, within a few nods of each other, both being married and having children; he further states he is enabled to fix the date of birth of Mariah Witt, daughter of said soldier Isaac Turk, by the birth of his own daughter Juley Ann Wats, which as his family Bible Record shows, occured July 29th 1849, said Mariah Witt being born just one month later which would make the birth of said child Mariah August 29th 1849.”
Fanny Cleage first appears in the Article of Agreement between the overseer Samuel Cleage in 1834. I was unable to find Fanny or her daughter Margaret after the hearings. Fanny and the children signed their names with an X. I was able to follow most of the other children. In the censuses, I found that his sons eventually learned to read and write, although they could not in the 1870 cesus. The women (sisters or wives) did not. The grandchildren were all literate. Turk’s sons worked as laborers. His daughters did not usually work outside of the home.
When I began looking for the Cleage freemen and women after 1865, I found several men had enlisted in Company A, U.S. Colored Troops 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment based in Knoxville, Tennessee. Knoxville is about 60 miles from Athens, depending on which route you take. McMinn county is in the Appalachian mountain range, so it wasn’t a straight, flat walk. I have identified 7 Cleage men who enlisted. The name is spelled various ways, even within the same man’s folder. They enlisted at different times and I wish I knew the story of how they decided to leave, how they got away and how they made their way 60 mile to Knoxville to enlist.
Routes from Athens to Knoxville, distance and time it would take to walk from Google Maps.
“Lewis Cleage of Athens, Tenn. who has been with his son, Jacob Cleage, of this city, for nearly two years, died Thursday afternoon at the city hospital, where he was taken Wednesday. The funeral services were conducted today at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Josie Cleage 1323 Massachusetts avenue at 2 o’clock. The Rev. John Brice officiating. Besides a daughter, Mr. Cleage is survived by four sons, Dr. Albert Cleage of Detroit, Henry and Jacob Cleage of this city and Edward Cleage of Athens, Tenn. The body will be taken to Athens for burial.”
Louis Cleage’s unmarked grave
I recently received this obituary for my great grandfather Louis Cleage. I noticed several things. First, he was not taken to Athens for burial. He is buried in an unmarked grave in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis pictured here. He lived in Indianapolis for two years before his death. And I wondered, who was Rev. John Brice? Had he been pastor at Witherspoon United Presbyterian, the Cleages church? Was he from their hometown, Athens, Tennessee? Here is what I learned.
Rev John Brice.
John Brice was born in 1878 in Knox County Tennessee the 7th of the nine children of Hampton and Harriett Brice. Exceptional for these times they owned their own land. Although they were illiterate, all of their children attended school and learned to read and write. John attended Knoxville College Normal, graduating in 1899. He finished the Baccalaureate program in 1904 and graduated from Knoxville Seminary in 1909. He met his wife Ella Hawkins there. My grandfather, Albert B. Cleage Sr. attended Knoxville College during this same time, graduating in 1906.
In 1910 Rev. John Brice was pastor of First United Presbyterian Church in Athens, Tennessee. He roomed one house over from my great grandmother Celia Rice Cleage Sherman and her family, which included her second husband Roger Sherman (who is listed as an architect for First United Presbyterian Church), son Edward and his wife and two children, along with eight year old grandson Richard. My grandfather, his two other brothers and his sister and her family were already living in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Brice wasn’t pastor in Athens very long. By 1912 he was married and pastor of Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. My grandparents and my grandfather’s brothers were some of the founders of Witherspoon. Brice’s three youngest children were born in Indianapolis.
He served as a chaplain in France during WW 1. Following the war he taught and pastored in Alcoa, Tennessee. Alcoa was a company town set up by Alcoa Aluminum. They used cheap southern labor, black and white. When things fell apart as far as the vision that some of the professional black people on staff had hoped to implement, Brice moved to North Carolina to teach and work at the Palmer Memorial Institute, founded and run by his wife’s niece, Charlotte Hawkins.
Charlotte Hawkins Brown & Palmer Memorial Institute: What One Young African Could DoBy Charles Weldon Wadelington, Richard F. Knapp
Rev. Brice died around 1960. A long time family friend and DNA relative has alerted me to John Brice’s death certificate on Ancestry.com. It also turns out that my dna cousin is related to John Brice’s grandson, Guion Stewart Bluford Jr.
Of his four children, three had careers in music. The youngest, Carol Brice had a career in opera. Johnathan and Eugene often accompanied her on the piano and also had careers of their own. Daughter Lolita Brice was an educator and married engineer Guion Stewart Bluford Sr. Their youngest son was Guion Stewart Bluford Jr, who was the first black astronaut, in spite of his high school counselor in the 1960s advising him to take up a trade because he wasn’t college material.
I have been working on the freedom stories of my list of formerly enslaved men and women from the Cleage plantations and it’s amazing. I start to write about 1 person and find some information that takes me deeper into the life of their community that time and life during slave times. I found several who fought with 1st United States Colored Heavy Artillery. The widows and orphans petitions for pensions are especially helpful as names I know appear as witnesses and testify to living on down the row on the plantation or being present at births.
As I continue to work, I wanted to share this recording made in the 1940s of people who lived during slavery talking about their lives. Their voices are so clear and present, not at all like the garbled transcriptions I come across where the people sound like they barely know the English language and there is nothing of the beauty of their voices.
While googling for information, I came across a book on that mentioned how slaves came to Athens and McMinn County in a section called “The Black Community.” I quote below.
“When Nash arrived, there were black persons in their 80s and 90s who had been among the first to come to the county. Blacks had originally come into the county either with the settlers, or as a result of being purchased at “slave sales” up until the time of the Civil War. By the 1800s, few—if any—slaves came to this immediate area directly from Africa. Virginia had come to be known as the “slave breeding ground,” and most major cities in that state had periodic sales in which the slaves were sold at auction. The slave owners usually attended the auctions together, and marched the slaves back to their new homes in groups. East Tennessee was a major route south toward Atlanta. If someone became ill or could not make the full trip, he would be sold, traded,or given away along the route. In this way, less affluent people might acquire one or two slaves across several years. “Slaves” in this situation simply meant an additional hand to work beside the slave owners in their fields and mills. The huge sprawl of cotton fields, with hundreds of field hands and their overseers spread out across a vast acreage, was unknown in McMinn County. At the height of slavery, there were only a small number of persons in the county owning more than half a dozen slaves.” McMinn County by C. Stephen Byrum pages 78 & 79
This is a brief summary of Samuel, Alexander and David Cleage from 1810 to 1870 as the family went from enslaving no one, to collectively owning over 120 people. These are the plantations on which the people in this series lived during slavery.
Samuel Cleage
Samuel Cleage
Samuel Cleage was born in 1781 in Pennsylvania. The family later moved to Botecourt, VA. His father, Alexander Cleage, had no enslaved persons according to the Federal Censuses he appeared in.
Samuel worked as a building contractor in Virginia. In 1810 he was 29, had a household consisting of 7 white people and 1 enslaved person. After his parents died in 1823 he moved his whole household to McMinn County, Tennessee. He was about 42 years old. Read about the move at C is for Cleage Bricks.
The trip took several years because he stopped to build brick houses at farms along the way, collecting pay in gold and enslaved people. Although some sources say that he arrived with hundreds of enslaved and barrels of gold, the 1830 Census lists a household of 4 free whites and 15 enslaved blacks. After arriving, Samuel picked out a parcel of about 1,125 acres and using enslaved labor, built a fine brick house. The land that Samuel Cleage bought was part of the land opened for white settlement when some Cherokee, hoping to profit from the already occurring influx of whites, signed the Calhoun Treaty. It was called the Hiwassiee Purchase.
In a 1834 agreement between Samuel Cleage and his overseer, 7 enslaved persons were named and 2 little boys were unnamed. Some of the tasks mentioned in the agreement are clearing land, distilling and planting. Article of Agreement Between Samuel Cleage and Overseer – 1834.
By 1840 the household consisted of himself and his wife and 23 enslaved people. Eleven are involved in agriculture. In the 1850 census Samuel and his wife shared their home with his son David, his wife and 2 small sons. They now owned 31 slaves, 1,200 improved acres and 20 unimproved with a value of $20,500. That translates to about $560.000 in today’s dollars. Samuel Cleage died in 1850 at age 69.
Alexander Cleage
Alexander Cleage
Alexander Cleage, born in 1801, was the oldest son of Samuel and Mary Cleage. He married Jemima Hurst in 1832 when he was 31. She brought 4 enslaved women to the marriage. One was my 2X great grandmother. They were named in her father Elijah Hurst’s Will. The first census I found him was for 1840. There were 6 white family members and 4 slaves – 3 women and a boy. That is 1 less woman than the 4 that came to the marriage.
By 1850, Alexander was a bank officer. There were 9 white family members and 31 slaves, 24 women and 7 males. His real estate was worth $5,750. In 1852 there was some moving around of slaves from Samuel Cleage’s estate and Alexander came into possession of 12 named slaves. In 1857 there was a bill of sale for an unnamed slave.
In 1860, Alexander was a farmer with estate was worth $43,500 and a personal estate worth $55,000. There were 7 family members, 52 slaves and 8 slave dwellings. He wrote his Will that year and gave the names of the 12 slaves his wife received at her marriage and “their increase”, plus two men. I only recognize 2 of the names as being the same as those in Elijah Hurst’s Will.
In 1870, Alexander was a 69 year old farmer. He owned land worth $40,000 and his personal estate was worth $20,000. Two of his 2 children, a young man 23 and a girl 13, at home and both attended school during the past year. Everyone in the family was literate. There are no slaves in the household, but the 16 year old live in black servant is illiterate and she has not attended school during the past year.
David Cleage
David Cleage
David Cleage was born in 1806 in Virginia. I have 2 bills of sale for 3 named slave boys, ages 10, 11 and 13 for 1841 and 1842. In 1846 David married Martha Bridgman. She brought at least 1 enslaved girl with her, Charlotte who was about 10.
In 1850, David Cleage was 44. He was a cashier at the bank in Athens, TN. His real estate is valued at $1,000. He and his family are sharing a home with his parents. He owns 32 slaves.
By 1860, the number has risen to 75 slaves living in 8 slave dwellings. He is still a cashier at the bank, real estate worth $2,000 and personal estate worth $90,000. The household includes 5 family members and an overseer.
In 1870 David was 64,a retired banker with real estate worth $18,700 and a personal estate worth $41,995. All 7 people in the household are literate. The children between ages 21 and 8 attended school within the last year.
I pulled this list together using documents from the plantations of Samuel, Alexander and David Cleage and Elijah Hurst. All four were located in McMinn County, Tennessee. During 2015, I am going to go through the list and write about each person that I can find after Freedom in 1865. I completed 4 earlier. You can read their story by clicking on the linked names. I will start tomorrow with a general description of each plantation.
My sister Pearl as the anthropoid, about 1961 at Old Plank.
My family had a tradition of chasing the children around while acting like a monster. My Uncle Louis was the master and didn’t need any sort of mask or costume to send us screaming into the lake at Idlewild. He just twisted up his face and hands and came towards us and that was it.
My uncle Henry got the mask above from somewhere and incorporated that into the scary chases. You had to holler out “Anthropoid, anthropoid, don’t kill me yet!” when he got too close, in order to escape. Aside from putting on the mask for photo ops, I remember once time we put it on, wrapped in a blanket and sat on the lawn toward the road where we hoped to scare drivers passing the house. I don’t remember any wrecks so I guess no harm was done.
By the time my children came along, my cousin Warren used to take them on a bear hunt. I remember one time that he worked it out with another cousin to be out in the woods where he drove and stopped and told the kids, who as I remember were in the back of a pickup with a camper, that they were waiting there to see the bear. The other cousin starting growling and knocking on the truck and finally my cousin drove off, it was dark or almost dark. He said they had a close escape. Later, when we were all inside, the other cousin came around tapping on the windows. The bear!
My cousin and I playing on the beach in Idlewild. During the visit my uncle Louis chased her into the lake. July 1955.
Nobody was terrified of the bears or monsters, well maybe my cousin Barbara who did run into the lake, but mostly it was the enjoyable kind of being scared while knowing you are safe.
I have looked for the original article about the death of Samuel Cleage in 1850 with no results, other than this short item. After reading the obituary, I noticed the following items along with ads for ink, land, “newest goods” and the Forest Hill Academy. There was an article about the new President Filmore and the ads below, which jumped out at me.
“By virtue of a decree of the chancery court at Cleveland, Tennessee made at __ February term, 1850 in the case of John D. Traynor and his wife Mary Ann Traynor and others against William B. Cozby, William McDonald and David Ragsdale Administrators of John Cozby deceased and others. I will on Tuesday, the 20th day of August next, expose to public sale at Smith’s cross Roads, in Rhea County, Tennesseem twenty two Negroes belonging to the estate of said John Cozby, deceased.
The above Negroes will be sold on a credit of six months the purchaser giving bond with two or more suffcient securities for the price of the slave or slaves purchased. James Berry C. & M. July 12, 1850 – 4 Pr’s fee $3.50 94.”
A Likely Negro Girl for Sale!
The subscriber has a likely NEGRO GIRL which he will sell on reasonable terms. Said girl is in her 15th year, likely, o good size, healthy and stout. His residence is in McMinn county, 12 1/2 miles South of Athens on the road leading to the mouth of Ocoee. Any person wishing to purchase can call and see for themselves Thos. Trew McMinn co., July 26, 1850 – 3 96
Run Away
“From the subscriber living in Monroe county, head-waters of Estanallee creek, a black woman named EASTER, very black, about 38 years old, pleasant countenance, and quick spoken. She left on the 15th last; had a good lot of clothes, and took with her two quilts, two counterpanes and many other bed clothes. Said woman was formerly owned by Capt. Thos. Pagmore. She may be in that section or making her way off.
Any person who may arrest said girl and return her to me, or confine her so that I can get her will be liberally rewarded for their trouble. ELIZABETH CARTER, July 30, 1850- 96″
Samuel Cleage was the owner of my 2 X great grandfather, Frank Cleage. In July of 1850, Samuel Cleage was killed by Ambrose Griffith. Unfortunately the only information that I have is a very splochy xerox copy of an article from (I think) a 1850 Athenian Post. I do not have the previous article that talks about the reason for the argument that led to the murder. I looked for Ambrose Griffith in the 1840 and 1850 and 1860 census. The only person by that name was a young man born in 1842 (too young to have been the murderer.) In 1860 he was overseer for Samuel Cleage’s son, David.
“In the last issue of our paper appeared an account of a difficulty between Samuel Cleage and Ambrose Griffith in which the former was cut and stabbed by the latter. This occurred on the morning of the 17th June. Sam Cleage died of his wounds the following Saturday night. The funeral sermon was preached on the succeeding Monday by the Rev. J.H. Martin at Mars Hill Presbyterian Church, Athens of which the deceased was a member. His friends who were with him in his last hours state that he was conscious of his dying condition and full of hope – even forgiving(?) the miserable man who’s fatal act was depriving a stricken wife and _____ children of their natural protector. We are __________ with him ___ and_____ was regarded him as ________ Since his connection with the church which occurred seven years ago, his walk had been consistent with _____ actions. The widow and the ______ children ___ the ___ this afternoon that was___upon them.
It is said that Griffith remained secreted in the neighborhood until he learned that Cleage was dying and then fled the country. We are not advised whether any steps are being taken to have him captured and brought to ______ for his crime. This is the fourth murder committed within the last two or three years – two in this town and two in the immediate vicinity- and in neither case has any vigorous or well directed effort been made to bring the murderer to the seat (?) of justice. Here as elsewhere the community is horrified at such things for a day or two and then drops into stolid indifference until startled(?) by the announcement of another bloody tragedy. It is so all over the United States. Punishment for crime of the higher grade is the exception and immunity the rule and the fault rests not with the officers of the law, but a demoralized and degenerate public sentiment which hunts down and sends a petty thief to the penitentiary and lets the red handed murderer escape without an effort.”
My uncle Hugh Cleage standing by the sound car he rigged up for the 1962 Congressional election in Detroit. My Aunt Gladys, my sister and I spent hours in that car riding through our community. “Make your children proud. Vote for Frederick Yates, a Negro in the 15th District…” One of us would ride in the car reciting as Gladys drove down the street while the other would leaflet the houses. My sister and I were both in high school. I would turn 15 in August 1962. My cousin Jan sometimes rode with us but she was too young to man the mic.
