On May 21, 1961, my grandparents, Fannie and Mershell Graham, lined up their guests for the ritual photographs in their Eastside Detroit backyard. These are streaky polaroids. One of the first things I noticed about the lower photograph is the uncut grass. I don’t remember ever seeing it like that.
Verso: “Our backyard 9-21-1961 (right to left) John Wesley, John Bishops son, Ernest and Shell”
In the photo above (from left to right), my grandfather Mershell stands on the left. Ernest and John Bishop’s son are in the middle and my grandmother’s first cousin, John Wesley Allen is on the far right. I don’t know who Ernest, John Bishop or his son were and I don’t have enough information to look into the matter right now. John Wesley was visiting from Chicago with his wife, Bobbie, who appears in the women’s line below.
Verso: “Bobbie, Bluetta, Mrs Bishop, Daisy, Fan, Alice, Abbie. Taken by John Wesley Allen in our back yard 9-21-61. Daisy passed 11-24-61. Her last picture.”
We start this picture with my 2x great Aunt, Abbie Allen Brown on the left end. Abbie was aunt to my grandmother and her sisters and to John Wesley Allen in the other photo. Next to Abbie is my grandmother’s youngest sister, Alice Turner; then my grandmother Fannie Turner Graham; sister Daisy Turner. Next in line are two women I don’t know. I’m not sure the one second from the right is named Bluetta but that’s what it looked like to me. On the far right is John Wesley Allen’s wife, Bobbie Conyer Allen.
All of my direct family members in these photos were born in Alabama. Bobbie was born in Sumter county Georgia. Their ages range in age from Alice, who was 53 up to Aunt Abbie, who was 85. Daisy died unexpectedly from an aneurysm on November 11 of that same year. This was her last picture. After that Alice moved in with my grandparents and Aunt Abbie.
I have decided to go through my grandparent’s photographs and see how many of their friends I can trace. Yesterday I was looking at my grandfather, Mershell C. Graham’s friends from home when I came across “Hands up. Just a little desperato. You know why.”
I turned it over and saw there was a bit written there in pencil. Holding it up to the sunshine coming in the window, I was able to read: “From my friend Charlie Watkins. 10/22/07. Mershell Graham. Chas’ wife Emma Dee died 1949.”
In 1907 my grandfather was still living in Montgomery, Alabama. When looking for information about people who aren’t relatives, I’ve found it very helpful to start a tree for them on Ancestry. I’m able to put all of the information I find in context. I made Charles Watkins with wife Emma Dee (maiden name unknown at that point) the starting couple.
I was zipping along finding information when I decided to check out some photographs that were suggested. Imagine my surprise when I realized that Charles Watkins was the brother of William Watkins that I wrote about earlier here He Hid Beneath the Floor. It tells the story of Victor Tulane, my 2X great uncle by marriage, hiding a family friend, Montgomery dentist, William Watkins, under their floor to save him from white vigilantes. When I wrote that post I researched the Watkins family. I recognized the photograph of their father, William Watkins Sr.
Charles married Emma Thompson, a seamstress, in 1910 in Montgomery. By 1917 the family was living in Chicago, IL. They had two children, William born in 1912 and Sarah born in 1916. Emma was no longer working. Charles was a carpenter, as his father had been. By 1920 they were living in Los Angeles, California. He was the first member of the family to move west. Others followed later as most members of the family left Montgomery after brother William was smuggled out to escape the mob.
Charles Watkins died in Los Angeles at the age of 74. I still don’t know why he was a little desperado.
Clifton Graham was the son of my Grandfather Mershell Graham’s “play” brother, that is they were not blood relatives but considered each other brothers because they were both Grahams from Montgomery, AL. I don’t have much information about him and was unable to find much online. He was born May 28, 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama. By 1920 he and his family were in Detroit, Michigan. Below is a photograph of John Clifton (always called Clifton) and his brother Lewis with my Aunt Mary V. and my Uncle Mershell Graham, as children. They were all living in Detroit and I would guess it was taken on Memorial Day or the 4th of July at Belle Isle, a park in the middle of the Detroit River. My mother was probably a baby at the time and too young to be in the photograph. Read more here V…-mail.
Clifton, Mary V, Lewis, Mershell Graham. About 1923. Click to enlarge.
The two letters below were written to my Grandparents in March and July of 1945 by John Clifton Graham from Europe during WW 2.
Click to enlarge.
March 29, 1945
Dear Folks,
Time permits me to drop you a line or two and let you know that I am well, even though I am somewhat in the inner confines of Germany, a country that has been completely pulverized and at present being subjected to the terror of our Air Forces.
There is much to tell but due to censorship, I am restricted to a great extent, which you no doubt know. The weather the past few days has been grand and spring is in evidence at ever turn in this war torn country. We are getting a rest for the time being but it is like the lull before a storm, thus by the time this letter reaches you much will have passed under the bridge.
I received a long letter from M.V. last week and will answer today, while time still permits. I must close now so as to time my correspondence due over a period of 2 weeks, My regards to Grandma Turner, Alice, Aunt Daisy,
Love Cliff Jr.
What was happening in March 1945
March 29: The Red Army enters Austria. Other Allies take Frankfurt; the Germans are in a general retreat all over the centre of the country. March 30: Red Army forces capture Danzig. March 31: General Eisenhower broadcasts a demand for the Germans to surrender.
Click to enlarge.
June 25 1945
Dear Folks,
Received your letter of June 9th and appreciated the fact that you dropped me a line or two. I heard from M.V. yesterday and she is quite well, likewise my pin up gal Diane.
I have passed the convalescent stage and fit as fiddle once more. I have been transferred out of my present ward and now await transportation to a replacement depot, up somewhere near Paris from there, I shall be assigned to either my original unit or another unit altogehter.
I hope that I can come home from here but at present the outlook isn’t too optimistic but I shall keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. Give my regards to Grandma Turner, Daisy and Alice and all my love to both of you. Write again soon.
Your nephew Cliff Jr.
June 5, 1945 – Allies divide up Germany and Berlin and take over the government. June 26, 1945 – United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.July 1, 1945 – American, British, and French troops move into Berlin. July 16, 1945 – First U.S. atomic bomb test; Potsdam Conference begins. July 26, 1945 – Atlee succeeds Churchill as British Prime Minister.
Cliff did survive the war and return to make a life for himself in Detroit. I’m trying to find more specific information but so far I have only found several church booklets from Plymouth United Church of Christ in the 1960s that show he was very active in the church. There are even a few group photographs. Unfortunately they aren’t labeled so I don’t know which is him. Found a photograph of him in 1973 with my grandfather, Mershell Graham. Taken just a few months before my grandfather died.
“Clifton and Daddy at Cliff’s house – Summer 1973. My last good picture of Daddy” written by my mother, Doris Graham Cleage.
This is another card from the collection of my maternal grandparents, Mershell and Fannie Graham. Unfortunately there is no name and no address so I have no way to find out who she is. Because it is dated 1920, the first Christmas after their marriage in 1919, I believe she was an old friend from Montgomery, Alabama sending them a card in their new home in Detroit. I will echo their unnamed friend by saying “Merry Xmas!”
A Christmas card from my Grandparent’s ( Mershell and Fannie Graham) collection, date unknown. I read on a post by Pauline on Family History Across the Seas about the people who sent Christmas Cards. It started me thinking about the cards I had from my grandparents collection with photographs of people I only knew were friends of the family, but nothing else about them. I wondered what I could find out. I picked this one out because, unlike some of the others, it had a name and a street address, although there was no date and no city. My grandparents lived in Montgomery, AL before moving to Detroit in 1919, so I started there. Here is what I learned from the census and Montgomery Directory about Addie Smith.
Addie Smith “Ma Smith” is written on the shingles near her face level.
“Merrie Christmas and happy New Year. Addie Smith 105 Hutchinson St.” My mother wrote “Don’t know date- friend”
Addie was born in 1869 in South Carolina to parents also born in South Carolina. In 1888, (the year my grandmother was born), Addie married Fountain Smith, a laborer about 14 years her senior. This was her first marriage. Fountain may have been married before. They had no children.
By 1906 Fountain and Addie were living at 105 Hutchinson Street in Montgomery. She would live in this rented house for the rest of her life. A Fountain Smith filed for bankruptcy in 1906. Over the years Addie Smith worked as a char woman/janitress in the Post Office. She may have also worked in that capacity in other public buildings.
At 53 years old, on October 26 in 1922, Addie Smith died. She is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery. Fountain lived another 8 years, dying on November 3, 1930. He would have been about 62. Because Addie died in 1922 and my grandparents moved to Detroit in 1919, I am guessing that this card was sent in 1920.
My grandparents Fannie and Mershell Graham soon after their marriage in 1919.
Looking at a map of the 4th Ward in Montgomery in I found that Hutchinson street no longer had houses below #800, However, my great Uncle Victor Tulane had a grocery store at Ripley and High street. My grandmother Fannie managed the store for a number of years before her marriage. This store would have been several blocks from Addie and Fountain Smith’s house. I am supposing that this is how they met.
In the 1950s, when my sister and I were in elementary school, my grandmother took us downtown to Kresge’s to pick out a mother’s day present for our mother. My grandfather must have driven us, because my grandmother didn’t drive. She suggested an apron. We picked out a beautiful red one with black binding trim around the edges and a picture of an old fashioned cast iron stove on the front pocket. I still remember going down the dark wood stairs to the basement and picking out that apron. As we grew older we realized that my mother hated receiving gifts that had anything to do with housework. (Click this link to see a photograph of the store Kresge on Woodward Ave. in Detroit, 1950s.)
My grandmother often had an apron on when we were over because she would be cooking or washing dishes. She kept them on even when posing for group photographs in the yard with out of town visitors.
Roscoe McCall (Fannie’s first cousin), Fannie Turner Graham (my grandmother), Stella McCall (Roscoe’s wife), Abbie Allen Brown (my 2X great aunt), in my grandparent’s backyard. Detroit, MI summer of 1960. Roscoe and Stella were visiting from Chicago.
Aunt Abbie, Aunt Alice, Nanny, Daisy, two friends, cousin John Allen’s wife, Bobbie. Bobbie was visiting from Chicago.
“The Women’s Missionary Union: The trip to Frankenmuth, Michigan is on June 24, Saturday cost $10, also, the apron sale is today May 7, come down and buy your favorite mother or mother-in-law a beautiful apron.”
Mershell and Fannie Graham, my grandparents are mentioned as shut-ins.
From 1990 until 1996 we put out a family newsletter called the Ruff Draft. In December of 1990 we solicited Christmas Memories from our readers, who were mostly relatives. This one was sent in by my mother’s older sister, Mary Virginia. In the photo are my mother Doris (1923-1982) and her sister Mary V. (1921-2009). It was taken in their backyard on Detroit’s east side.
Doris and Mary V in their backyard. Detroit Eastside 1929.
I can remember Poppy waiting till Xmas Eve to go and get our tree. We (Doris and I) usually went with him…and bringing it home to decorate. He had a stand that he made himself. We went up to the attic to haul down boxes of decorations that had been carefully put away. Some very old. I can remember one little fat Santa that Mom always put in the window, he had a pipe in his mouth. Doris and I shared a bedroom which had the door to the attic in it. When we were at the “believe in Santa Claus stage” we thought that once we went to sleep he would tip down the attic stairs and put our toys, etc, under said tree. I think I laid awake waiting for the old boy to show up. Of course I never saw him ’cause I went to sleep, but the stuff was always under the tree. Mom was always busy in the kitchen getting stuff together for Xmas dinner and the house would be full of wonderful odors. If Xmas fell on a Sunday, we would go to church. And we used to have lots of snow. Although we came up during the depression, we always had something to eat and something under the ole tree even if it wasn’t what we asked for. It was a tradition that Xmas dinner was at our house and Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma Turner’s. Daddy cooked the ole turkey and made the most delicious stuffing. He could cook. Mom learned from him. She couldn’t boil water when they got married. Dad taught her cause he had worked in restaurants as a young man.
These photographs were taken in the winter of 1958 at my Graham grandparent’s house on Theodore Street, East side of Detroit. My grandmother, Fannie Turner Graham, is looking through the side door. When you entered through this door you were on a landing, you could go down to the basement or up into the kitchen. The window with the lace curtain we can see above the door was on the landing between the downstairs and the upstairs. The phone sat on this landing on a little table my grandfather made. This table now sits near me holding several plants in the sunshine.
Nanny at the side door.
Poppy on the side of the house. You can see more of the side of the house here. Taken on the same day.
Front, Poppy and cousin Marilyn. Back, Kristin( that is me with my hand on Poppy’s head) and Pearl. I remember those green plaid scarves.
These photographs must have been taken soon after the Jordan’s house next door was bought by the factory across the street. The house was torn down, the trees were uprooted (we’re standing on a stump above), gravel was added and a parking lot was made. When these photos were taken, I was 12, my sister was 10, my grandparents were 70 and Marilyn was 5.
I decided to write about my maternal grandfather and the church he helped found in 1919, Plymouth Congregational Church. Please click on the images to enlarge them and read the articles below.
My grandparents, Mershell and Fannie (Turner) Graham met in the First Congregational Christian Church in Montgomery, Alabama. They were married there by Rev. Scott on June 14, 1919. After the ceremony, Mershell took his new bride back to Detroit to begin their new life. One thing that would be familiar was the worship service at the newly formed Plymouth Congregational Church.
Fannie and Mershell soon after their marriage in 1919.
When Mershell, migrated to Detroit from Montgomery, AL in 1917, many of his friends, were also leaving. In 1919, nine of them gathered together to form Plymouth Congregational Church. At first they met in members homes and in borrowed and rented spaces. In 1927 they were able to purchase their own building, a former Synagogue. They moved in May 15, 1927.
Plymouth Congregational Church at the corner of Garfield and Beaubien streets on the East Side of Detroit.After church about 1927. Mershell holding my mother Doris, Fannie standing behind Mary V. and Mershell Jr. in front.
Plymouth Congregational Church – September 30, 1928. Detroit, Michigan
Plymouth had been in the building about 1 year when this photo was taken. My grandfather, Mershell C. Graham, is standing behind his daughters, Mary V. and Doris (my mother). Their cousin, Margaret McCall, is standing between them. They are in the front row, towards the left side of center. The minister, Rev. Laviscount, is standing behind Mary V. My grandmother, Fannie, had just given birth to their youngest son, Howard, so she was not able to be there.
An article with some of the history of Plymouth Congregational Church.Mershell Graham’s name was misspelled as “Gardner” above.
My parents met at Plymouth’s youth group. My father was ordained there. In November of 1943, my parents were married at Plymouth by Rev. Horace White. On a visit home to Detroit while we were living in Springfield, MA, I was Baptized there, also by Rev. Horace White.
Invitation to my father’s Ordination.My grandmother Fannie, my grandfather Mershell and my mother Doris. I am standing on the table. I believe it was during this visit that I was Baptized at Plymouth.
Because I attended my father’s church on Sunday’s, I don’t have many memories of sitting in the pews at Plymouth. My memories are of going with my grandfather to fix thing, usually the furnace. My sister and my cousins and I would roam around the empty church while we waited for him to make the repairs.
Plymouth Congregational Church, now Plymouth United Church of Christ, was forced to relocate when the area was urban renewed in order to build the Medical Center in the 1970s. White churches were allowed to remain in the area while black churches were forced to relocate. The new church is located at 600 E. Warren Ave. and continues in use by Plymouth today.
My cousin Marilyn recently sent me copies of some photographs and family documents. Tucked into the envelope was this poem. She asked me to share it, and even though modesty made me hesitate to publish it, here it is.
My Cousin Kris
I’m helping Marilyn roller skate. About 1958 on Calvert in Detroit.
She keeps all the pictures,
And copies all the stuff.
And after all that creative work,
That still is not enough.
She sends copies to the family
And searches for the lost.
All out of her pocket,
Never asking for a cost
She loves the work she’s doing,
And is very computerized.
She’ll create a family tree
And come up with great surprises.
Always helping family,
Raising all her own
Productive, wonderful children,
From the seeds that she has sown.
Another generation
Has come into her life
Beautiful, smart grandbabies
The daughters, now a wife.
She has a laugh that makes me smile
And we remember olden days.
A cousin I can talk to
With great listening ways.
My cousin Kris, so smart
To go with a special soul
A mind forever thinking
And a warm heart of gold.
Cuz, keep doing what you’re doing
Be blessed in all your days
Know you’re appreciated
In oh, so many ways!
