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.
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.
On Sunday, February 9, 2009 my daughter, Ife and I drove over to Montgomery, AL. It’s only a 2.5 hour drive from Atlanta. She had to pick up some art work and I wanted to see if the store my Grandmother Fannie managed before she married was still standing. I also wanted to find Eliza and Dock Allen’s graves in Oakwood Cemetery.
Oakwood Cemetery layout from Google Maps. The older section has Dock and Eliza’s graves. The Newer one holds the Tulanes. The Tulane housing projects, named after Victor Tulane, are across from the cemetery.
First we picked up the art. The artist’s husband gave us directions to the cemetery and the store. We found the cemetery easily. It was open and there was a man walking into a little office near the entrance. Ife parked and I went in and showed him the information I had, a location for the grave site of Victor Tulane. He told us to follow him to the place we could look. It was out of that section of the cemetery and around a few blocks and over the tracks to the newer part of the cemetery, which he drove up into, us following. He finally stopped and said it should be there in that area, waving vaguely around.
Ife and I got out and started looking. There were old graves, some newer ones from the 60’s and even 70’s and some from the 1800’s. We walked up and down hills and probably over graves and couldn’t find it. He came back with a map and asked if we’d looked further down. So we went in that direction. I told him I had some death certificates and asked if he could tell me where the graves were located if I gave him the names. He said I should bring them up to the office and he would copy them and look in the file.
We continued to look and finally Ife saw this grave with the name we were looking for “Tulane”. It was a child’s grave. On the other side it said “Alean”. She looked next to it and there was the grave we had spent all that time looking for. We had walked by that place several times but there was an upright grave marker that said “Ophelia M. Peterson” so we just went by without looking at the flat, cement slab, which was the grave we were looking for. I still don’t know why Ophelia’s stone is right up above it or who she was.
We then went up to the office and I took my death certificates in. He copied them and asked if he could copy Dock Allen’s photograph, which I had stuck in the mylar pocket with the death certificate. After making copies, he got out his file drawers and found Victor Tulane and two children, age 2 and 10 months. My mother used to talk about how spoiled their daughter Naomi was, but she never mentioned or maybe even knew that they had lost two babies. I think that might help explain the spoiling. He found Dock and Dock Allen (father and son) and Eliza. He said they were buried on that side in Scotts Free Burial Ground – when it started they let people bury for free. He drove ahead of us and showed us the section where the graves were and we walked around and finally found the grave marker for Dock and Eliza. We regretted not bringing flowers or something to leave but we hadn’t expected to even get in.
Ife standing to the right of Dock and Eliza’s grave. Tulane Homes in the background.
As we were leaving the Cemetery, wishing we had brought some flowers or an offering of some kind, I noticed a name out of the corner of my eye, “Sallie Baldwin.” It was like finding another relative. A cousin of a cousin and I spent weeks, months figuring out how our families connected and about her relatives. Her mother was alive then and kept giving us information that my friend didn’t believe but it always turned out to be true. James Hale, a well known and well to do black Montgomery businessman contemporary with the Tulanes, was her son-in-law and is buried here also.
Sallie Baldwin and family.
When we left the cemetery we drove down Ripley Street towards the Tulane Grocery store. Ripley runs next to Oakwood Cemetery. The block where my grandmother and her family lived with Dock and Eliza Allen is now paved over for parking lots and government buildings. The store is still there and looking good. I feel that it’s time for another trip to Montgomery.
My grandfather, Mershell C. Graham sitting on the porch railing of his unofficially adopted family’s home in Montgomery, Alabama in the early 1900s. Mary Graham seated in the rocker and her son John Clifton seated on the stairs.
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.
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 · Wednesday, January 27, 1915 The GenealogyBank
Here is another article I found recently on Genealogy Bank about Edward McCall and his family. I appreciate the information I find in these articles, I had been unable to find the date of Annie Belle’s marriage to Jefferson Martin before. I appreciate the atmosphere of the times that I get but I find the condescending racism very grating. At any rate, this article certainly gave me a picture of their large house decorated with lights and flowers and glowing for their oldest daughter’s wedding. Annie Belle was the first of the McCall children to marry and the first of Eliza’s grandchildren to marry. Mary Allen McCall was a fine seamstress and I’m sure the wedding gown was beautiful. Maybe one day a photograph will surface!
POLICE SURPRISED “UNCLE ED.” ________________ Daughter of Faithful Negro Presented With Watch at her Wedding.
As a mark of respect for Ed McCall, the faithful negro who has served more than thirty years as cook at police headquarters, nineteen patrolmen and Police Captain Miles Smith attended the wedding of his daughter, Annie Belle McCall, to Jefferson Martin of Nashville, Tenn. Wednesday evening at 7 o’clock, at the residence of McCall, 336 South Jackson Street.
“Uncle Ed” McCall, as the veteran patrolmen affectionately call the old negro has reared a large family. He owns a comfortable home and he has educated his boys and girls. When time came for his daughter to be married he celebrated the occasion in his own pecullar way. He signalized the approach of the event by surprising the patrolmen with a fine dinner in their honor at headquarters Wednesday evening at 6 o’clock.
The wedding was to take place at 7 o’clock at the home of the old negro on South Jackson Street, and the patrolmen had reserved a surprise for “Uncle Ed”. They had purchased a handsome diamond encrusted watch for the daughter of the old negro on her wedding day.
When the patrolmen reached the residence of McCall they found it brilliantly lighted and decorated with artistic effect. Annie Belle McCall has been a teacher in the State Normal School and Principal W.B. Paterson of that institution had sent exquisite flowers from his own gardens to make the residence fragrant and beautiful.
Before the wedding ceremony John W.A. Sanford, Jr, as spokesman for the police, presented the watch to the young woman.
A large number of white citizens of Montgomery attended the wedding and warmly congratulated the bride, whom they said was well worthy of every happiness that life holds.
“Uncle Ed” McCall, who is the father of James Edward McCall, the blind poet now at school in Michigan, was grateful for the kindness shown him upon this important occasion to his household. He said that the incident merely demonstrated that where a negro was faithful to his trust he would earn the respect of the best citizens of his community.
This article appeared in The Montgomery Advertiser, November 9, 1906 For photographs and more information about Annie Belle McCall Martin and her family click Their Own Marching Band and More About Annabell’s Family.
Yesterday someone sent me a small newspaper item about my great grandmother on the Cleage side, visiting her children in Indianapolis in 1914. Then I read a blog post on Reclaiming Kin about breaking down a brick wall with a newspaper article. This sent me searching newspapers on The Genealogy Bank. I expected to find more of the little society items about teas and meetings I have found in the past. I found several interesting articles, One about a horse owned by Victor Tulane putting it’s hoof through a car window and a photograph of my mother selling tickets to a church dance in 1951. I started putting in the names I don’t usually look for, like my grandmother Fannie Turner. I found two articles about her which I will share later. Then I put in Edmund Harrison’s name.
Oral history tells us that Col. Edmund Harrison of Montgomery owned my 2x great grandmother, Eliza, during slavery. My cousin Margaret McCall Thomas Ward searched for decades to find something that would prove this. I joined her search in 2002 but we were unable to find anything … until I came across the article below about Margaret’s father, James McCall. It is that written record! I really, really wish I could call Margaret and tell her what I found but she has been gone for almost 4 years now. This is just a short part of the article, it was very long with many poems included.
James Edward McCall, A Montgomery Negro Boy, Is an Intellectual Prodigy “Blind Tom” of Literature Writes Clever Poetry, None of Which Has Ever Before Been Published—Lost His Eyesight by Hard Study.
The Montgomery Advertiser
James Edward McCall
The Montgomery Advertiser, March 28, 1904. “Young McCall’s thoughts are high. He is a muscian as well as a poet, and his happiest hours are spent in solitude with his thoughts which are ever bright and cheerful nonwithstanding his affliction. James Edward McCall is the oldest son of Ed McCall, for twenty-three years a cook at the Montgomery police station and one of the best known and most respected negroes (sic) in Montgmery. Ed McCall was owned by W.T. McCall of Lowndes County. His aged master is still living on the old plantation and he has no truer friend or more devoted servant than Ed McCall. The mother of the young poet was Mary Allen, daughter of Doc Allen, for many years a well to do negro (sic) carpenter of Montgomery. She was owned before the war by the late colonel Edmund Harrison of this county.”
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.
Mershell “Shell” Graham
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
After reading the letters my grandfather’s friends wrote to him in Detroit from Montgomery, I wondered what happened to those he left behind. Did they stay? Did they leave? I know that my grandparents never returned to Montgomery once they married so I wondered if he ever saw any of them again. I didn’t find them in the photographs in the backyard of the house on Theodore but, if they had moved to Detroit there wouldn’t have been any backyard photos. Those were reserved for out of town guests.
Lowndes, Rufus and Lewis with Lowndes niece,Edoline Speigner.
The six young men mentioned were Lowndes Adams, Robert Blakley, Rufus Taylor, Lewis Gilmer, Edgar Speigner and Nathan. I was able to follow them with varying degrees of success. There were twists and turns and connections and dead ends. And always more information to look for and check. Today I decided to write up what I have found so far.
Lowndes William Adams was born February 11, 1893, in Montgomery, Alabama to James and Ida Adams. James was a grocer. Lowndes was the 5th of 7 children. They all were educated and several of his sisters were teachers. Lowndes worked as a stenographer and later was the branch manager of an insurance company. He never married and shared his home with his widowed mother, several sisters, nieces and nephews. He was in Montgomery in 1930. He died in Detroit in 1977. My grandfather died in 1973. I wonder if they had a chance to spend time together.
Lowndes older sister, Emma Lena, married Edgar Speigner before he registered for the WW 1 draft in 1917. Edgar was born September 17, 1882, in Montgomery. He and his brother Charles were raised by their mother, Carrie Taylor who was a cook. Tall and stout, he worked as a pullman porter all of his adult life. Edgar and his wife Emma, raised four children. He died in 1954 in Montgomery, Alabama.
Rufus Taylor was born January 19, 1886 in Montgomery. His parents were Jordan and Fannie Taylor. Rufus was a cousin of Victor Tulane. Victor was married to Eliza and Dock’s daughter, Willie Lee. Rufus lived with the Tulane family for many years and worked in the store first as a clerk and then as a salesman. He remained in Montgomery and married Nan Nesbitt Jones. As far as I know he had no children but helped raise Nan’s son, Albert, from her first marriage. Nan Nesbitt was the niece by marriage of another of Dock and Eliza’s daughter, the youngest, Beulah. That is, Nan was the stepdaughter of Beulah’s husband’s sister. (Are you confused yet?) Rufus died in Montgomery at the age of 51 in 1937.
Mystery woman, Rufus Taylor, his wife Nan.
After posting Migration Story Part 3 last week my cousin, Ruth (who is not related to Nan) asked her cousin (who is related to Nan) if Nan was married to Rufus Taylor, who was Victor Tulane’s cousin and my grandparent’s friend. The answer was, yes, Rufus was Nan’s third of four husbands. After Rufus died, Nan married a Mr. Murphy and ended up in Ohio, where she died in 1988.
I believe Nathan was Nathan Nesbit, a cousin of Nan but have not been able to follow a trail, yet.
Lewis Abram Gilmer was born in Alabama on May 18, 1885. I’m not sure if he was born in Montgomery but he was raised there by his parents Louis and Carnelia Gilmer, along with 7 siblings. His father was a porter, a butler and a chauffeur. Lewis worked as a bank messenger in Montgomery. He and his wife, Annie, had four children. The oldest was born in 1919 in Montgomery. The second was born in1924 in Mississippi and the two youngest were born in 1925 and 1927 in Detroit, Michigan. Lewis worked as a porter at a department store in Detroit. He died there in July, 1969. I tried to find a link between Lewis Gilmer and Ludie Gilmer, who was the son-in-law of Beulah Allen Pope. No luck. Both their wives were named Annie but not the same Annie.
John Wesley Blakley was born January 22, 1893 in Montgomery, Alabama. He married Virgie Dorsette Beckwith, who wanted to leave the south according to John’s letter to Mershell. He was a barber in Atlanta before WW 1 and in Chicago, Illinois afterwards. He and his wife do not seem to have had any children. John was in Chicago in 1942. I have not yet found a death record or census records for 1900, 1910 or 1920 so I do not know his parent’s names or if he had siblings.
You can find part 1 and part 2 by clicking on these links.
Really I had begun to say little mean things about you, for it did look like you were going to take as long to write as you did when you first landed in Detroit. You may know what a pleasure it is at all times to receive a letter from a friend and pal.
Well, Cliff and Chisholm are there and how do they like Detroit. Tell Chisholm I know he will conserve a week looking at the skyscrapers and be sure to hold him when he is taken out to the lake. It was a great surprise to know that he left with Cliff, as no one seemed to have been aware of his leaving until several days back. Of course there is no need of advertising your intentions, but he and Cliff both got away without my knowing.
We have been having some real cool weather for this time of the year, and it has caused everything to be unbalanced somewhat.
Yes, I thought strongly of leaving this place on account of the depressing standing of our business and since it has changed for the better, I think I’ll stick a little longer. I thought that my leaving would have been compelling from that point of view.
Edgar is home now, the Pullman Company gave him a run out of here to Mobile so he has transferred here. He told me that he saw you and so many others that he knew and all seem to be getting along fine.
Would you believe me if I say that John Blakey, Lewis Gilmer, Rufus Taylor and myself are the only boys here and we look “motherless.”
Say, I want you to write me if you should see anything that you think may interest me. Have you payed any attention along the typewriter lines; and should you see anything in the papers concerning this particular line of work – send it to me.
Was in Pensacola on April 29 to see my sister. Had a dandy time, and went out to the Navy yard and saw some of our latest methods of war-fare. Tell Chisholm and Cliff to write me sometimes, and my regards to Charlie Anderson and wife in fact, all of my friends that you come across. Now I am expecting to hear from you real soon. With best wishes from us all,
Your chum, Lowndes
Lowndes Adams, Rufus Taylor and Lewis Gilmer
Montgomery Ala Feb 27/1918
My Dear Pal; Your letter of a few days ago was received, and I can assure you that a line from my old friend was highly appreciated. I remember writing you some time ago and for some reason I did not hear from you until now, but failing to put my address on my letter naturally would leave you in doubt as to where to write me, all of which I am very sorry. I was indeed glad to hear that you and the other boys were all enjoying the very best of health and that the government has used good judgment in classing all of you in class A-1 and I only want you to know that when ever you all get there, you can rest assured that you will have the opportunity of seeing me for I am now in the old city taking my examination, they passed me all OK. So you can see it is very likely I shall soon be somewhere in a training camp, I do wish however that it was possible for me to train somewhere in the Northern camps instead of the southern camps. I am sure you understand why. I shall leave tonight for Atlanta where I shall wait until they are ready for me to report for duty. I was out to see your Mother Monday afternoon. Found her looking and feeling the very best of health and was very glad to see me and to know that I had heard form you. Of course she is worried over the thought of you boys having to go to the army, but said that if there was no way to keep out of it, why she felt she would have to make some sacrifice which is indeed a fine spirit. I also stopped by Gwen and her mother’s. They were both looking fine. She was sick when I was here Xmas so I didn’t get a chance to see her and of course you know I couldn’t leave the city without seeing the Fairest Lady of the land. Glad to say that she is looking just fine said that she would like so much to see you.
Montgomery is as dry as a chip. There is really nothing doing here, all of the boys of our push have gone away with the exception of four Adams, Taylor, Gilmer and Nathan. Mack; I wish it was possible for me to say just at present whether or not I will be able to come west or not this spring or even in the summer but as things are arranged now it is hard for me to say. But if I am not called in to service real soon, why I shall have more time to think it over.
I am doing nicely in Atlanta. I have the 5th chair in a 12 chair shop, which, of course is the largest shop there. So far as getting along OK why I really have no reason to complain, but there is a desire to have that privilege to breath for once in life one deep breath of pure free atmosphere as a man, as well as meeting again with old friends.
I wish to be remembered to Cliff and Chisholm and to you all. I hope your every efforts will be crowned with success.
Trusting that I shall hear from you again real soon, I am your friend, J.W. Blakely, #8 Central Ave. Atlanta, GA
