Category Archives: Great Migration

Graham-Turner Wedding – 1919 Montgomery Alabama

September 24, 2017African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Detroit, Grahams, Great Migration, One Place Study, TurnerKristin

I recently found that The Emancipator newspaper was online at Newspapers.com. The Emancipator was published from October 1917 to August 1920. My grandmother’s first cousin, James Edward McCall and his wife were the publishers. You can read more about him at the link above.

Lowndes Adams sang a solo. Victor Tulane walked the bride in. Clifton Graham was best man. Naomi Tulane played the piano.

"Jennie Allen Turner and Daughters" — Fannie, Jennie, Alice with Daisy standing in back.

Announcement

Mrs. Jennie Turner wishes to announce the engagement of her daughter, Fannie Mae, to Mr. Mershell C. Graham of Detroit, Mich. The marriage to take place in the spring.

Mershell and Fannie (Turner) Graham. August 1919 Detroit, Michigan.

Graham-Turner Wedding

Graham-Turner Wedding

On Sunday, June 15th at four o’clock Miss Fannie Turner and Mr. Merchell Graham were happily united in marriage at the home of the bride on E. Grove St. The home was prettily decorated for the occasion.

Just before the entrance of the bridal party, Mr. Lowndes Adams sang a beautiful solo, immediately after which the groom entered the parlor to the strains of Mendelson’s wedding March, with Mr. Clifton Graham, his brother, as best man. The bride entered with her uncle, Mr. V.H. Tulane, who gave her away, gowned in white satin with real lace and pearl bead trimmings the hat, a beautiful creation of white Georgette, the bride made a very pleasing appearance. She carried a large bouquet of roses and fern.

The home was crowded to its fullest capacity, fully two hundred guests being present which bespoke the esteem and popularity in which the young couple are held.

The presents were many and varied, consisting of silver, cut glass, linen, wearing apparel, money, and many useful household articles.

Rev. E.E. Scott performed the ceremony and Miss Naomi Tulane presided at the piano.

The guests were served delicious refreshments.

The happy couple left Sunday evening for Detroit, Mich., their future home.

Some of the Graham’s friends in Detroit. Mershell and Fannie are at the end of the line.

On Friday evening, 29th inst. at 8:30 the beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. M.L. Walker, St. Jean Ave., was the scene of a delightful entertainment complimentary to Mr. and Mrs. M.C. Graham. The guests were limited to Mrs. Walker’s Club members and their husbands. The house was artistically decorated with cut flowers. Progressive Whist was played, mints and salted peanuts were served throughout the evening, after which a delicious salad course with punch was served.

________________

Mrs. J.W. Topp had a few friends over to meet Mr. and Mrs. M.C. Graham on Saturday evening. Progressive whist was played after which a delicious two course luncheon and punch were served.

_________________

Mrs. J.A. Martin entertain quite a few friends at a real Southern dinner Sunday afternoon at 4 o’clock. Among the guests were Mrs. M.L. Walker, Mr. and Mrs. M.C. Graham, Mrs. Thompson, Mr. Moses Thompson, Mr. Chas. Love, the Dale Family, Mr. and Mrs Mills, Mrs. Dora Davis, Mr. James Payton, Mr. Joe Shannon, Mr. Oliver, Mr. Barnette, and others.

__________________

Fire-bombing – A Williams Family Memory

July 17, 2016Great Migration, WilliamsKristin

My husband James was a baby, the youngest of the five children of Chester and Theola Williams, when they moved from Dermott, AK to St. Louis, MO about 1945. At first they stayed with Theola’s sister who lived on Keokuk Street. James older brother Harold, born in January 1942, was kindergarten age, the family moved to a house they bought on Washington Blvd and Whittier Street.

Route from the house to the school. From Google maps.

Screen shot 2016-07-17 at 12.01.14 PM — Cole Elementary School from Google maps. Click to enlarge.

Harold remembers that he started kindergarten about 1947 at Cole Elementary School, which was around the corner from the house. He did not finish the year out because their house was fire bombed. They had moved into a white neighborhood where they were not wanted. The oldest sister, Jocelyn Maxine remembered that their mother was very calm as she moved the children from the front of the house, where the bomb entered, to a back room.

Because of the bombing, the city of St. Louis gave the family an apartment in Carr Square Village, a public housing project. When the family included nine children, they had outgrown that apartment and moved to Pruitt–Igoe, a large housing project first occupied in 1954. Eventually there were 12 children and the family bought a house on Cabanne Street. They lived there until about 1970 when they moved to Inglewood Court, where they lived until that property was taken by the city to build a strip mall about 2005.

My husband has been trying to find validation for this oral history, mainly searching old newspapers. So far he has not had any luck, but I think that he may have been searching the wrong years, so we are hopeful that eventually the story will be validated.

Ula Mae’s Uncle Lowndes Adams – Alabama & Detroit

April 25, 2016A-Z Challenge 2016, African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Great Migration, Montgomery Alabama, One Place StudyKristin

This is my 4th year participating in the A-Z Challenge. I am writing about people who were born into slavery and lived to be free, and their descendants.

Lowndes Adams and Rufus Taylor, Montgomery, Alabama

Today I am going to write about my maternal grandfather’s friend Lowndes Adams. Lowndes parents were both born into slavery. He and his siblings were born free after the Civil War and raised in Montgomery Alabama. I have written several other posts about Lowndes over the years and there are links at the bottom. Lowndes had a niece named Ula Mae and she was kind enough to lend us her “U” for this post. (Click on photographs to enlarge.)

“THE ADAM’S OF MONTGOMERY, ALA.

“In presenting interesting colored families of the state and elsewhere from time to time, we could not overlook this one. This group is Mrs. Ida M. Adams and her children. The history of this family is connected with that of Tuskeegee Institute, a brother, George Adams, being one of the founders of that school. Reading from right to left is the elder daughter, Sarah, now Mrs. W.C. Payne, she graduated from Miss Whites School for girls and subsequently from the State Normal School of Montgomery and taught several years in that city. Next to her is Jesse, then the only son, Lownes, who is the father, as well as brother and son, for the paternal head of this family is dead, and Lownes is faithful in his stead. to his right is Maud another teacher in the state schools, and by her hands Emalina. who is now Mrs. Edgar Spigener, and whose baby, Edleline is in its grandmother’s arms. On either side of Mrs. Adams is the younger daughters, Alice and Janie respectively. With such families as this we must base our hope for acclaiming the Negro’s future.” (Date about 1912. Name of Newspaper not known.)

Three generations of the Adams Family 1940s — Three generations of the Adams Family in the 1930s. Lowndes is in the center back directly behind his mother Ida Mae Adams. I believe that Ula Mae is in this photograph but I do not know for sure. Copyright Kevin Payne.

In a series I wrote several years ago about my grandparent’s migration north, I wondered if my grandfather had seen Lowndes again. Later I found that Lowndes died in Detroit in 1976, several years after my grandfather. Recently I found Lowndes’ WWII draft registration card and saw that he was living in Detroit in 1942 and worked at the Ford River Rouge Plant, which is where my grandfather worked. They lived less than 2 miles apart. This morning, I found that Lowndes lived in Detroit as early as 1935 and worked as a trim finisher at the Ford plant. In 1940 he lived with his older sister Jesse Ida and her family. He was a high school graduate.

In the 1950 Census, Lowndes Adams was living with his nephew, Lowndes Payne and his wife Marie at 101 E. Philadelphia in Detroit. He was employed as a typist at an auto plant. He was 57 years old. His nephew worked as a bench inspector at an auto plant. Marie was a homemaking teacher at a city high School.

Other posts about Lowndes William Adams:

The Migration Part 3 – Those Left Behind
Lowndes Adams
Lowndes Adams Found in 1965 – Migration Story Part 5
3 Men in Hats
Letters from home – Montgomery to Detroit 1917
…to be where you can breathe a little freedom

Thanks to Kevin Payne, a descendant of the family for sharing the lower two photographs and giving me permission to use them on my blog.

The Great Migration

November 15, 2013African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Great MigrationKristin

In the latest episode of Many Rivers To Cross, the Great Migration was briefly discussed. It got me to thinking about my family who pretty much all left the south in the early 1900s. I wrote an earlier series about the Graham side of my family and their move from Montgomery, Alabama to Detroit in 1917. You can read about that at these links:

To continue the story, I will start by writing about my Grandfather Albert B. Cleage and his siblings move from Athens, TN to Indianapolis, IN and finally to Detroit, Michigan, with mention of Uncle Edward Cleage and his family who remained in Athens.

Next I will cover my Grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage and the Reed family’s move from Lebanon, KY first to Indianapolis in the 1890s and on to Benton Harbor and Detroit, Michigan, with Uncle Hugh (Reed) Averette moving out to Los Angeles California.

Finally I will write about Eliza and Dock Allen’s children leaving Montgomery for Chicago, Detroit and New York.

I wanted to add my husband’s family, not sure if I will write them up soon though. They started in Dermott, AR. Catherine Williams went to Seattle, WA. Vennie Jean Williams went to Arkadelphia. Sterling Williams spent time in Little Rock before going to Chicago. Chester and Theola (my in-laws) moved to St. Louis, MO. Members of both the Davenports and the Williams migrated to Chicago. Many relatives remained in rural AR, although none of my husband’s aunts or uncles.

As I write I will probably come up with stories within stories. This should provide me with writing material for weeks!

To see other posts I’ve written about this series , click this link My Responses to Many Rivers to Cross. You will also find links to other bloggers responding to this series by sharing their own personal family stories.

For those interested, I found the map I used at this site about the Great Migration.

Winter In St. Antoine

November 14, 2013African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Detroit, Great Migration, Many Rivers To Cross#james McCallKristin

by James Edward McCall

In St. Antoine the snow and sleet
Whiten and glaze the drab old street
And make the snow-clad houses gleam
Like crystal castles in a dream.
There, many swarthy people dwell;
To some, ’tis heaven, to others, hell!
To me the street seems like a movie stage
Where Negros play and stars engage.
They laugh and love and dance and sing
While waiting the return of spring.
Some drown their heart-aches deep
In winter time on St. Antoine.

There, on the gutters frozen brink
A dope-fiend lies, with eyes that blink
And from a neighboring cabaret
come sounds of song and music gay.
At windows, tapping, here and there,
Sit dusky maidens young and fair,
With painted cheeks and brazen eyes.
and silk clad legs crossed to the thigh
Upon the icy pavements wide,
Gay brown-faced children laugh and slide
While tawny men in shiny cars
Drive up and down the street like czars.

Into a church across the way
There goes a bridal party gay.
While down the street like a prairie-fire,
Dash a bandit car and a cruising flyer.
Around the corner whirls a truck,
An old coal-peddler’s horse is struck;
The horse falls on the frozen ground,
The dark blood spouting from its wound.
A motley crowd runs to the scene;
A woman old, from shoulders lean,
Unwraps a quilt her hands have pieced
And spreads it o’er the shivering beast.

Among the swarthy folk who pass
Along the slippery street of glass,
Are some in furs and some in rags;
Lovely women, wretched hags,
White-haired migrants from the South;
Some wrapped in blankets, pipes in mouth;
Some smile while others seem to shiver,
As though they long for Swanee River;
But though they dream with tear wet eyes
Of cotton-fields and sunny skies.
They much prefer the heaven and hell
On St Antoine, where free men dwell.

******

James Edward McCall was my Grandmother Fannie Turner Graham’s first cousin. He was a poet and a publisher. He lost his sight due to illness while a medical student at Howard University. He and his family migrated from Montgomery Alabama to Detroit Michigan about 1923.

You can read more about James Edward McCall, Poet and Publisher 1880 – 1963 here.

Links to my previous posts in this series and to other African American Bloggers blogging about this series are at Many Rivers to Cross

The Steamer “Eastern States”

October 10, 2013Cleages, Detroit, Grahams, Great Migration, sepia saturday#Albert B. Cleage Sr, #Mershell C. GrahamKristin

Both of my grandfathers worked on the Great Lakes steam ships. My maternal grandfather, Mershell Graham, worked as a steward for the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company when he first came to Detroit in 1917. He had previously worked in the dining cars of passenger trains. After several years he got a job at Ford Motor Co. where he remained until his retirement 30 years later.

My paternal grandfather, Albert B. Cleage, Sr, worked for the same company in 1909. He was a medical student in Indiana and earned money during the summer by working on the Eastern States cruise ship as a waiter. The excerpts in this post are from his letters.

Most of the photos and clippings about the Eastern States were found in the Great Lakes Maritime Database.

0047751_028_F_EASTERNSTATESJP2-re1-final_tbnms1ic_1941x958

June 19 1909
I left Indianapolis last night at 7:25. Stayed all night in Hamilton Ohio. Am now in Toledo at 10 AM. Will leave for Detroit 2: 15.

June 20, 1909
Arrived in Detroit yesterday at 4:00 PM, and left for Buffalo via “Eastern States” Star. on which I am at work. Was lucky. Am well, found two old school friends on same boat!

June 20, 1909
I am sitting in an old ware-house door on the wharf at Buffalo, – tell me there isn’t an element of romance in my location to say the least. I will be in Detroit again tomorrow and will see many of the boys whom I know there. You can imagine how worn out I am – just stopped traveling this morning, and if the boat ever comes into dock again I shall go immediately to bed. I went uptown to get some things and it went up the Lake and left me, but it will return soon.

June 24, 1909
Lawrence has come and we are working together.

0047751_009_F_EASTERNSTATESJP2-re1-final_tbnms1ic_1925x1354

June 27, 1909 (On board the Steamer “Eastern States” – Lake Erie)
This is Sabbath night about 10:00 o’clock and we are about six hours ride out of Detroit and about twelve miles from land in the shortest direction. Surroundings are such as to impress one with his insignificance and emphasize the fact that he is indeed kept by Jehovah’s care. I shall first endeavor to acquaint you with the boat on which I am working. It’s name is “The Eastern States” and runs from Detroit to Buffalo. We leave Detroit one day at 5 PM and arrive in Buffalo the next morning at 8 o’clock, staying in

Buffalo all day we leave again for Detroit in the Evening at 5 PM you see we spend one day in Detroit and one in Buffalo. Today we were in Detroit and would it interest you to know how I spent it? Well, if it will interest you; after breakfast was over about 9 am, I went down to our “quarters” (I suppose you have only a faint conception of what that word means – I describe it later.) and slept until 11:30 – served lunch, after which Aldridge and I walked up town for about 2 hours – smoked some cigars, came back to the boat and took a couple of hours more of sleep. So you see I am putting in plenty of time sleeping. This stuff I’m sure does not interest you and I will not bore you longer but as I promised to say something about our “quarters”

It is one large room about 35 x 40 ft. in which are 32 beds – just think of it!! Those beds or better bunks are arranged in tiers of three and I at the present time am sitting on my bed (the top one) and there are two other fellows below me. What ventilation we get comes through six small port holes the diameters of which are about 6 in.

The fellows are a cosmopolitan aggregation, men from everywhere and at any time you can hear arguments and discussions on all subjects – Sensible and nonsensible. There are several students on board – boys from Howard University, Wilberforce University, Oberlin University, Michigan, and Indiana and out of them there are some very fine fellows to know… I could talk all night about the desirable and the non-desirable features of my Steamboat experience.

This isn't the dining room of the Eastern States but the City of Detroit was a sister ship so it was probably similar. — This isn’t the dining room of the Eastern States but the City of Detroit was a sister ship so it was probably similar.

July 3, 1909 (Enroute to Buffalo, Steamer Eastern States)
Yesterday while Lewis and I were walking up the street in Buffalo, whom did we see standing on the corner (as if lost) but Miss Berry of Indianapolis, her brother and his wife and a Miss Stuart an Indianapolis teacher. Well to be sure we were surprised and they too seemed agreeably so. We spent the day with them taking in the zoo and other points of interest. They visited our boat and we showed them through it. That was experience number one.

Secondly – our boat was in a storm last night I awoke last night amid great excitement in our quarters and found that it was only possible for me to lie in bed with quite a great deal of effort. The old boat was being mightily tossed and driven and the angry waves were rising a high as your house or higher. We were sometimes on top of them and again between them at all times with a feeling that we would every minute be swallowed up by them. Great excitement prevailed. Most of the waiters got up and put on life preservers thinking they would have need of them. I neither was afraid or sick. Nothing serious happened and we arrived in Detroit only a few hours late this morning.

We are tonight taking over to Buffal0 a 4th of July Excursion. A large crowd is aboard. A great number of extra waiters are aboard and an extra amount of noise is present and unfavorable to letter writing accept the effort…

0047751_010_F_EASTERNSTATESJP2-re2-final_tbnms1ic_752x908

After WW2, automobile travel replaced steamer travel and gradually the ships were retired, burned and scrapped. Here is a timeline for the Eastern States from the link above.

Laid down as EMPIRE STATE.
1902, Jan Launched Wyandotte, MI.
1909 Owned Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co, Detroit, MI.
1930 Owned Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co., Detroit.
1950 Laid up, Detroit.
1956, Jun 21 Owned Lake Shore Steel Co & Siegal Iron & Metal Co, Detroit.
1956, Dec 12 Burned as spectacle, Lake St. Clair.
1957, May 6 Scrapped.

2013.09W.19 — For more Sepia Saturday CLICK!

Mershell Graham and Fannie Mae Turner Marriage License – June 11, 1919

June 11, 2012African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Grahams, Great Migration, Montgomery Alabama, One Place Study, poetry & literature, Turner#Fannie Turner Graham, #Mershell C. GrahamKristin

On June 11, 1919 Mershell Graham and Fannie Mae Turner applied for a marriage license in Montgomery, Alabama. They were married by Rev. E.E. Scott at First Congregational Church in Montgomery on June 15. I have no photographs of the marriage or memories that were handed down. I could find no record of their marriage license in the Montgomery Advertiser. They seemed to have no section devoted to “News of the Colored Folk” as some newspapers did.

Mignon, Jean, Hattie, ?,?,?,Emma Topp, Mershell, Fannie

Soon after the ceremony my grandparents left and returned to Detroit where Mershell was working. I assume they took the train, which would have been segregated at that time. They roomed with friends from home, Moses and Jean Walker. There were other roomers, all of them saving up to be able to purchase their own homes.

To read Mershell’s letter of proposal read The proposal To read Fannie’s letter of acceptance read – The acceptance

I found several marriage related, handwritten poems in my grandparents papers and have printed them below. I wonder if they read these during the ceremony or exchanged them.

The gift
Yes, take her and be faithful, still, and may your bridal bower,
Be sacred kept in after years, and warmly breathed as now,
Remember tis no common tie that binds your youthful hearts
Tis one that only truth should breath and only death should part.

Remember tis for you she leaves her home and mother dear,
To have this world with you alone, your good and ill to share,
Then take her and may future years mark only joys increase
And may your days glide sweetly on in happiness and peace.

The Brides Farewell

Soon, soon I’ll go – from those I love
You, Mother, Sister, among the nest,
Where I will often think of you,
Far in the distant west.

Farewell, Mother, though I leave you
Still I love you, Oh! believe me
and when I am far away
Back to you my thoughts will stray.
Oft, I’ll think of you and home
Though in other lands I’ll roam.
Yes, though miles may intervene,
I will keep thy memory green
Mother, sister, from my heart
Thoughts of thee shall never depart.

He Had Hidden Him Under The Floor

September 8, 2011African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Great Migration, memories, Montgomery Alabama, One Place Study#Montgomery, #TulaneKristin

The Tulane building in 2004. During the time of this event the Tulane family lived upstairs and the store was downstairs.

Here is a story my cousin Jacqui told me about her grandfather, Victor Tulane and his rescue of Dr. William Watkins in Montgomery, Alabama. This story was told to her by her mother, Naomi Tulane Vincent. Naomi was twenty and the family was living above the store on Ripley and High Street when it occurred. The Watkins family lived several blocks away on Union Street.

Walking distance between the Tulane’s @ A and the Watkin’s @ B was about 3 minutes according to Google Maps.

It was the middle of the night when the Tulane family woke up to car lights shining in the windows. They got up and looked out into the yard. It was full of cars and trucks. Victor Tulane told his wife, Willie Lee and daughter, Naomi to go back to bed, everything would be all right.

He let the white men in and they told him they were looking for William F. Watkins, a black dentist who lived several blocks away. Mr. Watkins, they said had insulted one of their wives and they wanted him. Was he there, they asked? Victor told them that nobody was there except his wife and daughter. They could look for themselves. They went through the whole house looking everywhere. Finally, satisfied that Dr. Watkins wasn’t there, they left.

As dawn approached, Victor brought Dr. Watkins out from his hiding place beneath the floor. He put him in the car, piled produce on top of him, drove him to the train station and put him on a train heading north to Chicago.

___________

Jacqui remembers meeting William Watkins in New York when she was a child. He was an old man with a white beard. He looked just like Colonel Saunders, she said, and asked if I could find out anything about him, if he was married, did he have children, when did he die? Using various online sources, I was able to put together the following timeline.

Timeline for William Franklin Watkins

1879 – Williams Franklin Watkins Jr. born to William and Sarah (Fauntleroy) Watkins in Montgomery, Alabama.
1880 Census – Montgomery, Alabama – William Watkins Sr. was a carpenter. William was 1 year old.
1900 Census – Montgomery, Alabama – The family lived at 518 Union Street. William Sr. was a carpenter. There were 6 children at home, including 21 year old William Jr. who was at school. The oldest daughter, Lula was 26, a widow and teaching. She had a 4 year old son.
1910 Census – Montgomery, Alabama – Williams Watkins is living at home with his parents and four other siblings.
1914 – William Watkins, Sr. Dies

Obituary from the Montgomery Advertiser – March 11, 1914
William Watkins Dead

William Watkins, well known negro (sic) of Montgomery, died at his residence, 518 South Union Street, Tuesday evening at 5 o’clock. He had been living in Montgomery nearly fifty years and was thoroughly identified with negro church, society and business life. He was a contractor and builder and stood well in business circles. He was a member and deacon of the Negro Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and a trustee of Swayne School

1917 – William Watkins Jr and Gussie Rue Harris marry in Birmingham, Alabama (Gussie’s home town.)
1918 – WWI draft registration card information. William is a dentist in Montgomery, Alabama. Address is the family house on 518 Union St. He is married to Gussie Rue Watkins. His eyes are brown and hair is dark. He’s of medium height and build.
1918 – Son William III born in Alabama
Between the draft card in 1918 and the 1920 census – the event described happened.
1920 Census
*William is a Lodger in Washington DC and practicing dentistry. Identified as Mulatto. He was 40.
*Wife Gussie living with her parents with their son William in Birmingham, AL.
*William’s brother Charles is living in Los Angeles, CA. He is a carpenter.
1924 – Daughter Alice born in Washington DC.
1930 Census – Los Angeles, CA William F. Watkins 51 years old. His wife Gussie and their two children, Williams and Alice, are also in the household. He practices dentistry in his own office.
1936 – His mother dies and is buried in Montgomery, AL
1954 – William F. Watkins died

I found some of William Watkins extended family on Ancestry.Com and was able to see some photos of the family. The person I contacted said he did look like Col. Saunders. Unfortunately they had never heard this story.

************

For photographs and other posts about the Tulane family click on the links below.
Another Photographic Mystery Solved. Photos of the Tulane family and the store.
Tulane Calls On Members of Race to be Patriotic. Article from 1918
Sepia Saturday – In Which I Hit the Google Jackpot. – More finds about the Tulanes.

The Proposal

May 3, 2011African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Alabama, Detroit, Grahams, Great Migration, Letters, Montgomery Alabama, One Place Study, Photographs#Fannie Turner Graham, #Mershell C. Graham, #ProposalKristin

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.

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

Lowndes Adams Found in 1965

April 22, 2011Grahams, Great Migration, Investigations#Lowndes Adams, #migrationKristin

Today while looking for old Easter pictures, I found a partial answer to the question I asked at the end of my blog post on the migration from Montgomery to points north – Did Lowndes Adams and my grandfather ever see each other again, or keep in touch? I found a photo from 1965 of Lowndes and four of his sisters. I don’t know where it was taken, not at my grandparents house for sure, but it shows they did keep in touch. From L to R we have: Jessie, Maude, Jane, Alice and Lowndes.

Here is a list of household members in the 1900 census.
James M Adams       53
Ida Adams          41
Sarah Adams              18
Emaline Adams          16
Maud Adams              13
Ida Jessie Adams        12
Lowndes W Adams    9
James Russel Adams    6
Alice Adams                 3

Although Jane doesn’t appear in this census, she does appear in the 1910 census as an 8 year old.

More about the migration here:
The Migration From Montgomery to Detroit
Migration Story Part 2
Migration Story Part 3
The Migration Continues Part 4

Now back to looking for those Easter pictures.

Finding Eliza

Finding Eliza

Category Archives: Great Migration