Amanda Cleag received her widow’s pension, commencing May 11, 1908 she received $12 a month. When her pension stopped on her death, August 8, 1921, it was $30 a month.
Pension Received
Category Archives: Cleages
Deposition by Notary Public Shooner
During her testimony Amanda Cleag was questioned about the signature on her deposition because she could not write. She explained that her granddaughter Avalon signed for her. In this depositon, the notary who took the deposition explains how Avalon came to sign the document.
Deposition E
Edmund D. Shooner
25th day of May, 1909
Long Beach, Los Angeles, California
I am 65 years of age. My post office address is No 134 East 2nd St., Long Beach Calif – Occupation, Real Estate and notary public.
I have been a resident of this city for the past six years, and I have been acquainted with this claimant, Amanda Cleag since a short time after the death of her husband, the soldier, Abram Cleag, whom I had known a year or so before his death.
I remember well and distinctly that just about a year ago this claimant came into my office with her niece, Avalon Pierce, and A. J. Orelli and had me execute an application for pension for her and her niece, Avalon Pierce, and A. J. Orelli signed her said pension application as identifying witnesses and her niece, or rather her granddaughter, Avalon pierce, signed claimant’s name to the said pension application; as claimant was unable to write her own name. I personally know that claimant Amanda Cleag, authorized her granddaughter, Avalon Pierce to sign her, Amanda Cleag’s name to that pension application, which I now identify, since you have exhibited that said pension application to me. That entire pension application is in my own handwriting, except the signature of the claimant made by the identifying witnesses, one of whom being the said granddaughter.
I remember well and distinctly that claimant, authorized Avalon Pierce to sign her, claimant’s name to that pension application and if such authorization had not been given to said Avalon Pierce by Amanda Cleage, I would not have officially executed said pension application.
Yes, sir, that is my signature, as notary public to that pension application now before me, sworn to by the claimant at the time, and it is legally correct as far as my knowledge extents in these pension matters; yes claimant acknowledged under oath the contents of her pension application, and authorized her signature to be attached to it by her granddaughter, Avalon pierce and I personally saw the said Avalon Pierce sign the name Amanda Cleag to the said application, and saw her sign her own name as an identifying witness and saw Mr. A. L. Orellie sign his name as an identifying witness, that date May 6, 1908.
From information recently obtained for me from claimant, her granddaughter, Avalon Pierce is dead.
Am not interested The words “since” “not” and “by” interlined before signing.
This has been read to me, I have understood questions and my answers are correctly recorded
Edmund D. Spooner
Notary Public
Desponent
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 25th day of May, 1909
“…Amanda belonged to Alec, David’s brother”
Deposition A Case of Amanda Cleage by Jerry Cleage
I am about 75 years old, I reckon. I live in Athens, Tennessee.
In slavery I belonged to David Cleage and Amanda belonged to Alec, David’s brother. I knew Amanda. In the time of the war she was married to Lou Deadrick and she got a divorce from him after the war. I knew Lou well; he went from here to Chattanooga several years ago.
After her separation from Lou Amanda did not marry again here; she soon afterward went away with a white family named Tucker, and I have never seen her since.
With the Tucker family also went a colored man named Abe Cleage, who had been a soldier – his name was Abram Cleage.
Abraham had no wife here; he had had no wife here – I knew him and his brothers well. All of his brothers are dead. Abe never came back home and I haven’t known whether he is alive or not of late.
Amanda and Abram were not married when they left here; I don’t know whether they married afterword or not. I think I hear they did. Amanda’s mother lived here and I use to hear about Amanda sometimes through her.
I have lived in this county all my life. Amanda had only one husband up to the time that she left here.
I have no interest in this claim for pension. I understood the foregoing as it was read and my statements are correctly recorded.
Jerry Cleage (His Mark)
Attest
Florence Cleage
Celia Deadrick
Nellie Deadrick
Posts about Jerry Cleage
“…and a slave for life” Bill of sale
Jerry Cleage and Charlotte Bridgeman
He also testified in various other pension applications.
No Marriage Record Found
From my drafts. A letter stating that no marriage record was found for Abram and Amanda Cleag.
Department of the Interior
Bureau of Pensions
Washington, D.C.
Atlanta, GA., July 2, 1909
Sir:
With this report are returned the papers in claim No. 893, 806, of Amanda Cleag, as widow of Abram Cleag, Co. 1, 1st U.C. Colored Heavy Artillery, referred to this division to determine whether the declaration filed May 11, 1898 was legally excuted and whether the claimant is the legal widow of the soldier. The case was received in this district, with right to notice waived, for testimony “as to lawful widow”.
The surname of the soldier is written Cleage in McMinn County, Tennessee.
The claimant was divorced from one Lon Deaderick in December 1867. See exhibit A and on Deaderick apparently was her only husband up to the time that she permanently left McMinn County. I searched the entries in the marriage records of McMinn County for December 186 and for the years 1868 and 1869 and I failed to find the claimants name as Armstrong, Cleage or Deaderick. I failed to find the soldiers name in the said records for the period from the year 1865 to the year 1870. And it appears that this soldier had no wife before he left McMinn County with the claimant.
I searched the indexes of the marriage records on file in the office of the County Clerk of Hamilton County, Tennessee, covering the period from the year 1865 to the year 1870 and I failed to find evidence of the marriage of the claimant to the soldier. Lon Deaderick (deposition D) has testified that he knows that the claimant was not married to the soldier as they passed through Chattanooga on their way to Texas, as the train on which they traveled did not make a longer stop than 10 minutes in Chattanooga.
Sarah Morrison (deposition B) has testified that she is about 102 years old. She is strong physically and mentally and her memory apparently is very good.
The several persons whose testimony I have taken in this case, with the exception of Lon Deaderick, are mulattoes; they are very fairly intelligent are of good reputation. Deaderick, I think, may be rated fair.
“…necessity compels him to labor when he can”
From my unpublished drafts. Abram Cleag’s doctor describes his condition.
Physician’s Affidavit
Los Angeles, California
7 October 1893
I first became acquainted with claimant in summer of 1892 when called to see professionally a member of his family, sometimes in fall of same year. I was called upon to treat claimant, who was suffering from a severe attack of lumbago and was wholly unable to labor and without help unable to turn himself as bed.
In addition he has laryngitis and bronchitis. I should think of long standing.
Ever since I have known him I have never considered him a man able to perform hard manual labor, but necessity compels him to labor when he can.
In my opinion I should think that he is ½ incapacitated.
I make this affidavit in my own handwriting.
J. W. Harris MD
Are you a married man?
From my drafts. Abram testifies about his marriage and children.
Question 1. Are you a married man? If so, please state your wife’s full name and her maiden name.
Answer: Amanda Cleag.
Question 2. When, where, and by whom were you married?
Answer: At Athens in 1862 by Rev. Henry Rowley
Question 3. What record of marriage exists?
Answer: Have none.
Question 4. Were you previously married? If so, please state the name of your former wife and the date and place of her death or divorce.
Answer: No.
Question 5. Have you any children living? If so, please state their names and the dates of their birth.
Answer: Sally Idena Cleag
“…first came to Dr. Phillip’s plantation”
Another from the drafts folder. More testimony for Amanda Cleag’s Widow’s Pension hearing. His wife testified here Rented Land.
“Pomona, South Pasadena and Compton are incorporated as cities. Long Beach is also incorporated for the first time, but is disincorporated years later in 1897 (but then reincorporated before the end of that year). Heavy floods occur. The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce is established at a meeting of the city’s principal boosters. Los Angeles Times publisher, Harrison Gray Otis, makes the motion. A small African American community forms in Los Angeles, initially centered around First and Los Angeles Streets. Occidental College is founded in Eagle Rock.” Click on map to go to page.
***********
Deposition C in Amanda Cleag’s Widow’s Pension Claim
Mason Davis
I am 57
My address is: 1239 Birch Street, Los Angeles California
Occupation: Express man
I have been living in Los Angeles for about 21 years and I lived in and around Austin, Texas, for 20 years before coming here to reside.
I first became acquainted with Abram Cleag and his wife Amanda Cleag when they first came to Dr. Phillip’s plantation, near Austin, Texas, all of forty years ago, and I knew them in and around Austin, Texas for all of 20 years, and I knew them as long here in California. They came here a little ahead of me and my wife, from Austin, Texas.
When they first came to Dr. Phillips plantation, they were a young looking married couple, and said they had come from San Marcos, Texas, where they had gone from Athens, Tenn. with the Tucker family, and that the Tucker family had gone into the state of Virginia to live.
No, I do not know how long Abram Cleag and Amanda Cleag had been married before they came to Dr. Phillip’s plantation, and I don’t recollect that they ever told me where they had gotten married, but Abram Cleag told me that he had been in the army during the civil war, and after he came here he got a pension for his army service.
I know personally, however that Abram Cleag and Amanda Cleag always lived together as man and wife all the time I was associated with them in Texas for 20 years, and that they lived as man and wife all the time here in California up to the time of Abram Cleag’s death in Long Beach, Calif., about a year ago. Yes, sir, I attended his funeral in Long Beach, and saw him dead. My wife and I used to visit the Cleags in Long Beach, and have styed at his home for a week at the time.
I personally know that Amanda Cleag, this claimant for pension has not remarried since the death of her husband, Abram Cleag, and that she has had to work to support herself.
Yes, I know of my own knowledge that Abram Cleag and Amanda Cleag always lived together as man and wife, never being separated or divorced, during all the 40 or more years I knew them up to the time of Abram Cleag’s death, and that they were known and recognized as man and wife by all who know them both in Texas and California. I also know that the Cleags had two children born to them, but none of them are alive. She had a granddaughter, Avalon Price, with whom she lived in Long Beach, after the death of her husband Abram, but that granddaughter died recently and Amanda is now alone in the world. She has no relations alive that I know of, and I don’t know that Abram Cleag has any living relatives.
Question: Had Abram Cleag been married before his marriage to Amanda Cleage, this claimant for pension, as you may have heard?
Answer: I never heard that he had been married before his marriage to Amanda, and he never told me that he had been.
Question: Had Amanda, the claimant been married before her marriage to Abram Cleag, the soldier?
Answer: Not that I know of. I never heard it said by either of them that Amanda had been married before her marriage to Abram Cleag. If either one of them had ever been previously married, I never heard of it.
It is my understanding that they had grown up in Tennessee, but I never met anyone who knew them there.
No, I never heard that Amanda Cleag had been married to a Lou Dedrick, from whom she was divorced before her marriage to Abram Cleag. I can’t hardly believe that, as she was a young woman when I got to know her in Texas.
I know for sure, however, that they always lived together as man and wife all the years I knew them, and that they were never separated or divorced.
Yes, that is my signature to that joint affidavit shown me. No, I can’t fix the date any better that I have done to you, when I first got to know the Cleags.
Am not interested nor related. This has been read to me and I have understood questions, and my answers are correct.
Mason Davis
27 May, 1909
Guided by the Ancestors
A post about finding my great great grandmother Susan Rice Ragan that I wrote several years ago and never published.
Riding home today after getting my ears dewaxed, my mind wandered to… pension files.
Recently I joined fold3 to find information about one of the people I wrote up in the Katie Cleage’s series – Lucy McCaury. I couldn’t find anything about her, so I decided to see if there were any interesting widow’s files from the same Troop with the Cleages. I found one yesterday for Susan Regan, from Athens TN. As I went through her file, I noticed a name I recognized – W.R. Sherman and thought, well, I know him. He was my great grandmother Celia’s second husband. He was writing concerning final expenses for Susan Regan and he listed himself as son-in-law. It took me overnight to realize that would make her Grandma Celia’s mother.
Susan Ragan and the three children of Nelson Ragan/Reagan were named in the file. They were born in 1857, 1860 and 1864. My great grandmother was born in 1855. Henry was born in 1854. They weren’t named in the pension file because they were not Nelson’s children and therefore didn’t qualify for any pension money. In the 1870 census, Susan Ragan appears with those three plus Ann and Henry. All were using the Ragan surname. I had looked at that file several times before when trying to find Celia in the 1870 census and discarded it because the names were “wrong”. This time I remembered that Celia’s first name was Anna on her death certificate.
Monday I was following my newly found 2X great grandmother Susan Ragan through the census records on ancestry.com. She was only appearing in every other census. I finally decided to go ahead and add her to my main family tree as my great grandmother’s mother. (I had set up a separate tree for them until I was sure.) Once I added her as my great grandmother’s mother, she appeared in the missing censuses as Susan Rice . “Rice” being the name of their former slave holder and my great grandmother’s father so “Rice” became one of Susan Rice Ragan’s surnames and she began to show up when she used that surname. The children identified as ‘Ragan” before, now appeared as “Rice” in those censuses. It’s all so amazing to me. I even found her grave on Find-a-grave and had it transferred to me.
Other posts about Susan Rice Ragan
TIMELINE: Susan Rice Ragan
NELSON Ragan
QUITE a Surprise
ON this the 29th day of March…
PHILLIP Born Dec. 21, 1857
VALVULAR Heart Disease
UNDERTAKER: Susan Rice Ragan’s burial
SHOT By Robbers
WILLIAM Roger Sherman
“Had the soldier been married before his marriage to you?”
I published part I of Amanda Cleag’s Deposition during 2019 at this link – Amanda Cleage. While going through blog posts I never published, I found this one and decided to publish it today.
Part II of Amanda Cleag’s Deposition
Question: What persons or person are in or about Athens, Tenn. now who knew you and the soldier there before your marriage?
Answer – I don’t know of anyone in there. I have had letters written there to different persons whom I knew, but my letters have all been returned to me. Well, I knew Amos Jackson and his wife, colored; Mr. and Mrs. Ross, colored, and Mr. and Mrs. Blizzard, colored, and Mr. and Mrs. Turner, colored.
Question-Where had you lived after the war and before your marriage to the soldier?
Answer: I worked for and lived with Mr. and Mrs. John Bridges in Athens, Tenn., after we had been freed by General Sherman, and I lived with them until I went to live with Mr. Ben E. Tucker and his family, just above Athens, and left with them to go to San Marcos, Texas, for awhile. We were in San Marcos, Texas for about a year with the Tuckers, then husband and I went to Austin, Texas, on our own account, engaging in farming and where we first became acquainted with Mr. Davis and his wife, on Dr. Phillips farm. We all were on the same farm, renting land from Dr. Phillips.
Question: Where did your husband live after he came out of the army and before his marriage to you?
Answer: He lived right there in Athens, Tenn. Working for Dr. Atlee, and with whom he remained until he went with the Ben E. Tucker family and myself to Texas, as aforesaid.
Question: Had your husband, the soldier been married, before his marriage to you?
Answer: No sir, he never had been. I know it because I lived right there with him. No sir, he did not have a slave wife. He never lived with any woman in martial relations before his marriage to me, that I know of or ever heard of. He may have run around with women, for all I know, but I never knew or heard of his living with any women as man and wife live together. I lived continuously with the soldier from the time of my marriage to him as aforesaid, never being separated or divorced from him, up to the time of his death, which occurred here in Long Beach, California, April 14, 1908, and he was buried here in the cemetery.
Before my mother married my father she was also owned by Russell Hurst who owned the soldier, and mother told me that she had the care of the soldier as a little boy, for some reason or the other, and my mother always told me that the soldier never had been married before his marriage to me. My father, mother and the soldier were afterwards sold to the Cleags. Yes, father had been owned by the Armstrongs previously and used to go by that name and also the name of Cleag. By which one he was ever called.
My father and mother are both dead. I had four brothers and three sisters. Three of my brothers are dead, but I do not know where the other one is, if alive. Two of my sisters are also dead, but the third one, Mrs. Sallie Ross, wife of George Ross, was living in Washington, D.C., when I last heard from her 5 or 6 years ago. If I am not mistaken she was living at Tacoma, near Washington D.C.
Question: How many times had you been married before your marriage to the soldier?
Answer: I was only married once before my marriage to the soldier. I was first married to Lou Dedrick in Athens, Tenn., while I was still a slave and owned by Thomas Cleag. I was married about six months before the close of the war. My second husband, the soldier, had not come out of the army then: I can’t fix the date better than that. I was married to Lou Dedrick by a colored preacher named “Uncle Sam Armstrong”. He was an old man. I was married in “Cindy Dedrick’s” house, sister of first husband. I only lived with my first husband Lou Dedrick, for six months, when I got a divorce on account of cruelty and threats on my life. “went before the Grand Jury” and got my divorce. Lawyer Blizzard my divorce proceedings for me, and I was given a general decree of divorce by the Court and it must be of record. No, I haven’t my divorce paper now. Yes sir, I was given one. It got misplaced and lost with other papers in Tennessee. Yes, I went into court to get my divorce. I know I did get a divorce from Lou Dedrick, and I was given a divorce paper. Lawyer Blizzard saw that I got my rights and I got the paper.
Lou Dedrick went away after I got a divorce from him, and I have never seen him since or heard of him. I don’t know whether or not his sister, his sister is alive and if her so, her place of residence. He had no other relatives that I know of. He never was a soldier, but had lived in Athens, Tenn., for a long while. I was just a young girl when I married him, about 14 or 15 years old. I was too young to marry him. I had one child by him, which subsequently died. I had 2 children by the soldier, which also died. My oldest child, a daughter, died during the San Francisco, Cal., earthquake.
I swear between God and man I was only married once before my marriage to the soldier, as aforesaid, and that I never lived with any man as his wife, without being married to him. I only had those two marriages. That is the God’s truth. Yes, I was divorced from Lou Dedrick, and Lawyer Blizzard got the divorce for me in Athens, Tenn.
The soldier had four brothers, Isaac, Charley, George, Jeff and Jerome Cleag and two sisters Kitty and Sarah Cleag. The four boys lived in Chattanooga, Tenn., and they all died there. Kitty also died in Chattanooga and Sarah died in Atlanta, Ga. The soldier has no relatives alive that I know of. I know that they all died before my husband, except Sarah, who died since his death. Her name was Mrs. Sarah McMillan, and she died in Atlanta, GA.
After my marriage to the soldier as herein before set forth, we went to San Marcos, Texas, with the Tucker family and remained there a year with them. When they went into Virginia some place to live, as Mr. Tucker was a sick man and died in Texas, and my husband and I went to Dr. Phillips farm, a mile from Austin, Texas, and we lived there and in and about Austin, Texas, until we came here about 22 years ago, and have lived in Los Angeles and Long Beach all the time since then. Mr. and Mrs. Davis, whom we knew in Austin Texas, came out here shortly after we did.
While in Austin, Texas, I can refer to Mr. and Mrs. L. Leverman, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Jenkins, Mr. and Mrs. Bantam, all colored people. Also the following white people: Mrs. Mary Deets, George Marcum, a storekeeper, Mr. and Mrs. Bertie Barns, grocery business, the finest in the city, and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Freedman.
Question: you have stated in an affidavit that you were married to the soldier in the year 1866 in Athens, Tenn. How about that?
Answer: That is a mistake. I was married to the soldier in Chattanooga, Tenn., while on our way to Texas as I have told you, and it was about two years after the war was over. The person who drew up that affidavit misunderstood me.
Question; Can you write your name?
Answer: No I cannot. No, I never learned to write my name.
Question; who wrote your name “Amanda Cleag” to that pension application I now exhibit to you?
Answer: My name on that pension application now exhibited to me, was written by my deceased granddaughter, Avalon Pierce, at my authorization. Yes sir, I told my granddaughter Avalon Pierce to write my name to that pension application, because I could not write my name, and afterwards I swore to the correctness of the contents of said application, and the notary public, who drew up my pension application, and before and how it was executed, said it was all right. He said my granddaughter could sign my name for me, because I was unable to write it myself. Mr. Spooner was the notary public I appeared before to execute only application for pension. He didn’t tell that I had to sign by mark, because I couldn’t write, but another notary public, before whom I appeared to execute an affidavit in my said pension claims, said I would have to sign by mark, and I did so. My granddaughter, Avalon Pierce, also signed my name as aforesaid, has been dead for three months, having died in this city on account of tuberculosis.
Question: By whom can you prove that the soldier was not married before his marriage to you, and that you lived continuously with him from the time of your marriage to him to the day of his death?
Answer: I don’t know as I can prove that he was never married before his marriage to me outside of my own statement, but I can prove by Mr. and Mrs. Davis that one lived together as man and wife in Texas from the first time they knew us there, and also they have known me all the time I have lived in California, or nearly all the time. No, sir, I have not remarried since the soldier’s death.
Question: By whom do you expect to prove that you were only married once before you marriage to the soldier, and that you were divorced from your first husband, Lou Dedrick?
Answer: I can’t get “no” proof of that, as I don’t know where any of those people are who knew me before my marriage to the soldier. Maybe some of those people can be located in Athens, whose names I have given you. I have given you all the information I possess in regard to that.
Question: How is it you stated in your pension application that you never had been married before your marriage to the soldier?
Answer: I didn’t think it necessary to say anything about that because I had gotten a divorce from my first husband. I know I did. No, I never was married in my life more than twice, first to Lou Dedrick, and the second and last time to the soldier. Mr. J.G. Parrish of Long Beach, Calif. is my pension attorney, but I have not paid him or anybody the any money for services rendered
This statement of mine herein made to you is the exact truth and I have not concealed any important facts. There is nothing more I can tell you.
You have explained to me all my rights and privileges, and I waive my right to be present or represented in the further examination of my claim.
Witness: J.G. Parrish A.C. McPeak
Amanda (x her mark) Cleage
25th May 1909
Alford L. Leonard (special examiner)
Other posts about Amanda and Abram Cleag
Abraham and Amanda Cleage – this is the first one I published in 2015 before I ordered their pension files.
Sarah IDENA Cleag – Amanda and Abram’s daughter
RENTED land – a neighbor of Amanda and Abram talks about how they met
DEADRICK & DIVORCE – Amanda’s first husband gives his version of their marriage.
BOTH BURIED in Plot 40 – Both Abram and his granddaughter Avalon are buried in the same plot.
X – Xmas 1950
This is my ninth year of blogging the A to Z Challenge. Everyday I will share something about my family’s life during 1950. This was a year that the USA federal census was taken and the first one that I appear in. At the end of each post I will share a book from my childhood collection.
This was our last Christmas in Springfield. In the fall of 1951, we moved to Detroit. I remember the metal dollhouse I received. It was like the one in the ad below but didn’t have the garage and patio.
Pearl received this ferris wheel. A very colorful metal toy that wound up and went around. I remember that ferris wheel was around long after the dolls and the dollhouse bit the dust. Eventually it wouldn’t wind up any more, but we manually turned it.
Pearl also received this musical rocking chair. She still has it. You see my grandson Matthew standing next to the chair on the left. This chair has a bad habit of flipping over if it was rocked too hard. I remember it being taken back and exchanged. The replacement chair was no better. You had to rock gently. Pearl remembers our mother disconnecting the music box after awhile.
________________
I’m also participating in the Genealogy Blog 1950s Blog Party hosted by Elizabeth Swanay O’Neal, “The Genealogy Blog Party: Back to the 1950s,” Heart of the Family™ https://www.thefamilyheart.com/genealogy-blog-party-1950s/