Another Picnic – Summer 1921
Category Archives: Cleages
Henry At The Beach – Idlewild, MI About 1925
Athens, Tennessee, about 1919
This is a double exposure that I found in my Cleage photos. It was probably taken by my grandfather since my father was only about 8 or 9 years old. It is in the batch with other photographs taken in Athens, Tennessee around 1919. There seem to be sheets on a clothesline in the foreground. Athens is in the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains and was my Grandfather Albert B. Cleage Sr’s hometown. He took his family back for a visit most summers when they were growing up.
There are links to other photos from trips to Athens below.
- Summer Visit to Athens, Tennessee
- Couple on a Bridge
- Photos, Photos, Everywhere
- Not a Bridge, A Ferry
A Mystery Rider & A Run-Away Horse
#1 During the 1960s my Uncle Louis and various family members and friends traveled to Mexico. They stayed in out of the way hotels and places. Louis became very proficient in Spanish and was happy to talk to any of us in Spanish. Unfortunately, I never was invited on any of these trips. The above photo is an unmarked photo from the Cleage collection. I think it was taken in Mexico. Then again, maybe it was taken in Michigan in the country during the 1940s.
#2 I posted this article about a horse jumping through a windshield in 2011. Thought I would give it another go. Victor Tulane was my great grandmother’s sister Willie’s husband. He was a successful Montgomery businessman.
Horse Jumps through Automobile Windshield
Considerable Excitement Attends Runaway On Court Square Tuesday Afternoon.
Much excitement and some damage was the result of a run-away horse crashing into an automobile in front of Alex Rice’s store on Court Square late yesterday afternoon.
The horse, which was pulling a buggy, became frightened on the first block of South Court Street and dashed toward Montgomery Street. An automobile belonging to Theo Meyer was parked in front of Alex Rice’s and the front feet of the horse went through the wind shield.
Beyond sustaining several minor cuts, the horse was unhurt and the damage done to the automobile, too, was small.
Victor Tulane was owner of the horse.
Montgomery Advertiser – Montgomery, Alabama – January 27, 1915 – page 16
Family Faces – Memorial Weekend 2013
In September of 2012 members of the family met in Detroit to celebrate my Aunt Gladys (my father’s sister) 90th birthday. On Memorial Weekend we again gathered, this time to celebrate my Ernest’s and Susan’s 25th wedding anniversary. Some of the same people were at both, some were at one and not at the other. It was wonderful to see cousins and cousins spouses, once again at a celebratory event. The younger cousins are getting to know each other. The aunts are getting a chance to see each other and older cousins are getting a chance to see each other outside of facebook! I hope we can continue to meet often to celebrate family. Often enough that the children will not just know they’re family, but feel it.
I hope I didn’t leave anybody off. If I did, please advise and I will add them. The header photo is from the September gathering, put them together and you have almost the whole Albert and Pearl Cleage branch of the family. One day maybe we can get those missing family members there too!
Eight Generations of L3b MtDNA from Susan Rice Regan
Susan Rice Regan is the earliest name I can call for this line. She was born into slavery about 1833 in Virginia and later brought to Tennessee. She gave birth to two sons and three daughters. Her sons were Henry Rice and Philip Ragan. Her daughters were Anna Celia Rice, Sarah Sallie and Mollie Ragan.
Her daughter Anna Celia Rice, my paternal paternal grandmother was born into slavery in Virginia or Tennessee about 1855. Celia had 4 sons, including my grandfather Albert, and 1 daughter, Josephine (also called Josie). MtDNA is passed from the mother, to the daughter, to the grandaughter to the great grandaughter in a straight line. Although sons receive their mothers MtDNA, they do not pass it on to their children. Their children will receive their own mother’s MtDNA. So, I am going to be talking about daughters of daughters in this post.
Josephine married James Cleage, (from a different Cleage family) and had 5 children, 2 sons and 3 daughters, Henrietta, Lucille and Hattie Ruth. My cousin Felix, a descendent of Hattie Ruth, shared a chart of family members with me about five years ago. There are probably more family members out there since then. Additions and corrections welcome!
Henrietta had 1 son and 3 daughters, Margaret, Hortense and Ruth. I don’t have any information about their children. Lucille had 2 sons and 1 daughter, Mary, who had 1 son only. Hattie Ruth had 5 daughters, Vivian, Betty, Beverly, Marion and Erma.
Vivian had 2 daughters, Josephine and Laura. She had 7 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren and 1 2xgreat grand at the time I received my list.. I don’t know how many were daughters. Josephine had 2 sons. Laura had 5 children, 2 boys and 3 girls. She has at least 2 granddaughters.
Betty had 3 daughters, 2 lived to adulthood. Sandra had 3 daughters, Bernita, Jamiliah and Aisha. Bernita had 5 daughters. Jamiliah had 1 son and 3 daughters. Aisha had no children. Charlene had 2 daughters and 5 granddaughters.
Beverly had 1 son and 2 daughters, Tanya and Kim. Tanya has 1 daughter, Danelle. Kim has 2 daughters, Mahogany and Celeste.
Marion had 2 sons and 2 daughters, Alma and Ruth Anne. There were 5 grandchildren, but I don’t know how many were daughters of daughters.
Erma had 3 sons and 7 daughters, Beatrise, Marcella, Haleema, Fatima, Aleah, Ameena, Leshia. I don’t know the breakdown of her 16 grandchildren, but I know there were some granddaughters.
Susan Rice Ragan’s two younger daughter’s each had one daughter each.
Sarah/Sallie married first Henry Hale and they had two sons and a daughter, Blanche Augusta Hale. Blanche had three sons had no daughters.
Mollie married Grant Hodge and had a son and a daughter, Dora Hodge. Dora had no daughters.
*****
Special thanks to my cousin Denora for permission to use the photograph above of Hattie Ruth’s daughters, granddaughters and great grands. And to Felix for the information in the chart. And to Tanya for getting her DNA tested. Family makes it happen.
Mother’s Day Telegram -1940
About 1940 my uncle Louis was in St. Louis as an intern at Homer G. Philips Hospital. He sent my grandmother in Detroit this telegram on Mother’s Day. These photographs were taken a few years later.
Fancy Free In The Hollywood Bowl – 1944
“The air was cool at night. I stretched out my arms in the moonlight and flew. I raced and raced in the cool night expanse, on the largest stage in the world. Around me the mountains ribbed the sky. Under my feet lay the beat of a full symphony orchestra.”
— Agnes De Mille, Dance To The Piper, pg 174
This excerpt below is from a letter written by my father to his parents and siblings in Detroit. You can see my mother hanging up clothes and my father smoking during that same time, up in the header photo.
2130 South Hobart Blvd. #4
Los Angeles, 7, California
September 2, 1944
Hi Folks:
It’s Sunday afternoon…hot as usual…Everything goes along about as usual (the poor get poorer and the rich get richer)…
We went to the Hollywood Bowl last night to see the incomparable “Ballet Theater”…Russian Ballet by S. Hurok. The Bowl is way out in “West h—” from were we live. It took over an hour on the street car to get there… and the last mile took about half of the time… the street-car would move about an inch and wait for ten minutes and then move another inch. We were late…as usual… but in plenty of time to see all we cared to see. The Bowl is a dished out place down in between some mountains…with thousands of seats rising up the mountain sides in front of the stage. The place was jammed! We had the cheapest seats, naturally, which Doris purchased through the Red Cross for a slight reduction…but by climbing over the backs of the seats…very undignified…we managed to sneak into the next higher priced section..where we could see the performers… after a fashion…the section where we belonged …ran on and on…up the mountain…and the people on the stage must have looked like little ants or something…which was just as well…considering the nature of the performance. The dancing was about what you would expect Pee Wee, Gladys and Barbara to put on after a week-end of rehearsal out in the barn. Romeo and J. went on and on for hours…The people sitting next to us…who apparently had never heard of Shakespeare…decided the dance must be about an Egyptian princess or something. “Fancy Free” which was supposed to be terrific…dragged on and on and on…long after the dance was finished. All in all it was quite an evening. We left before the last extravaganza in order to catch a street car before the mob…ran a block and a half…and finally caught what they humorously call street cars out here..and made our way home…
Black Face, Minstrel Shows and An Article
Several weeks ago I read a post on Sheryl’s blog A Hundred Years Ago, about a school play put on in 1913 in which her Grandmother acted the part of Chloe, the maid, in black face. It wasn’t a minstrel show, but there was some discussion about what was accepted in those days and what is accepted now. I googled “minstrel shows” and found photos and articles which show minstrel shows occurring as late as the 1960s in the US. I didn’t realize how many schools, scouts and civic groups put on ministrel shows and plays using black face.
Later, I was looking through my father’s letters home to Detroit while he was a minister in Springfield, MA and I saw the article below about a church that was going to put on a minstrel show in 1947 in Springfield . The NAACP was trying to convince them that this was a bad idea that perpetuated stereotypes about black people that were not true. My father wrote the article below which appeared in the newspaper, The Springfield Republican.
The first link below goes to a page about blackface and racism, in the past and in the present, with links. The other pages are articles and pictures of minstrel shows from 1901 to 1967. I was surprised that there was a television show in Britain called “The Black and White Minstrel Show” that broadcast until 1978.
- Blackface! – The History of Black Racist Stereotypes
- The Last Minstrel Show – 1901 (Last one 1967)
- Minstrel Show At Trappe High School – 1951 & 1953
- The Junior Choir Minstrel Show -1957
- The Third Grade 1950 Minstrel Show
- Minstrel Show in Newspaper, April 11, 1960
- Golliwogg – Wikipedia
And a discussion of racism and stereotypes in comics
Alice Reads A Thrilling Comic – #Sepia Saturday 174
This photo comes from my Cleage stash and features Alice, my Uncle Henry’s first wife, reading a Thrilling Comic. How did she happened to be reading it? Did she enjoy comics? Love thrillers? Was she posing (or posed) for the photo? Was the comic book laying around because that is where Henry got his short story ideas? Judging by her eyes, she does look mildly thrilled.
Thrilling Comics
“Thrilling Comics was one of the longest runs the publisher had. It ran for eighty issues. The issues themselves featured many different kinds of comic stories like the standard superhero story as well as westerns, detective, stories, comedies, comic strips, short stories and many more.” The series started in 1940 and ran through 1951. To see all the covers for the 80 issues, click Thrilling Comics.
