Category Archives: Reeds

Theresa With Roses

Reeds, sepia saturday
Theresa Pearl colorized
Theresa Pearl with flowers.
Theresa Pearl .

“A Merry Xmas to you all. Here are some roses for your parting of 1915. Your little niece, Theresa P Reed. Age 1 yr. 9 months Dec. 1915.”

I had this colorized at MyHeritage in Color. The first on on the left is the one they colorized. The one in the middle is the original photograph with the flowers colorized by me. The one on the right is the MyHeritage colorization after I recolored the roses.

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Theresa Pearl was born in March 10, 1913 in Indianapolis Indiana. She was the third child of Hugh and Blanche Celeste Reed. Hugh was my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage’s brother

Theresa’s middle name, Pearl, was after my grandmother, Pearl.   That is probably why there are more photographs of her in the family photo collection than any of the other children. 

By 1928 the family had moved to Los Angeles, California where Hugh changed the family name to Averette (his father’s last name) and they began passing for white. In 1930 Theresa was a 17 year old student living with her family in Los Angeles California. She was identified by her nickname “Tut”.

https://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2022/08/sepia-saturday-635-20-august-2022.htmlAbout 1932 Theresa married Bennett Shaffer. Both of them had completed 2 years of college. Their daughter, Betty Jeanne, was born in 1934. Their son, Bennett Shaffer Junior, was born in 1935. The family lived in Los Angeles.

In 1940 Theresa and her family were lived in Glendale, California. Theresa and her husband, Bennett, were both 27 years old.  Bennett worked as distribution manager for a daily newspaper. Six year old Betty Jeanne was attending school. Bennett was only four and too young for school.

Theresa Pearl Averret Shaffer died in 1941 at age 28. She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Bennett died the following year.

Pearl Doris Reed Cleage Animated

Cleages, Kentucky, Photographs, Reeds

My paternal grandmother, Pearl Reed Cleage was born 135 years ago in Lebanon, Kentucky, the youngest of Annie Reed’s 8 children. She married Dr. Albert B. Cleage in Indianapolis, IN in 1910 and they had seven amazing children, including my father, who they raised in Detroit, MI.

She was a small woman who looked sweet as pie and had a backbone of steel. She didn’t begin to run down until she broke her hip in her 80s. In 1982, my grandmother Pearl died of congestive heart failure in Idlewild, Michigan.

I made this animation from the photo below using My Heritage, Deep Nostalgia. It was taken about 1900 when she was 16.

In 2018 I did a series of blog posts based on my grandmother’s letters. You can find the series here Pearl Reed Cleage’s Letters 1903-1905.

The United States Colored Troops Statue, Washington DC

African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Cleages, Kentucky, Reeds, Tennessee
African American Civil War Memorial, Washington DC
  • Abraham Cleage/Abram Cleag – I have so much new information, waiting to be written up.
  • Charles A. Cleage – I have his pension file and that of his widow, waiting to be written up.
  • George Cleage
  • George Cleage There were two, I have not written up this one yet.
  • Philip Cleage He died of smallpox, but his widow’s pension file is rich in information. Still have to write it up.

All of the men above belonged to the 1st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery

Organized at Knoxville, Tenn., February 20, 1864. Attached to 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, 23rd Corps, Dept. of Ohio, to February, 1865. 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, District of East Tennessee, Dept. of the Cumberland, to March, 1865. 1st Brigade, 4th Division, District of East Tennessee, to March, 1866.

SERVICE.-Duty at Knoxville, Tenn., till January, 1865. Operations against Wheeler in East Tennessee August 15-25, 1864. Operations in Northern Alabama and East Tennessee January 31-April 24, 1865. Stoneman’s operations from East Tennessee into Southwestern Virginia and Western North Carolina February to April. At Greenville and in District of East Tennessee till March, 1866. Mustered out March 31, 1866.

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage’s uncle Thomas Allen (formerly Thomas Ray, who later dropped his slave name of “Ray” and took his father’s name of “Allen”), served with the 5h Regiment USCT Calvary.

5th Regiment, United States Colored Cavalry
Overview:
Organized at Camp Nelson, Ky., October 24, 1864. Attached to 1st Division, District of Kentucky, Dept. of Ohio, to February, 1865. Military District of Kentucky and Dept. of Arkansas, to March, 1866.
Service:
Participated in Burbridge’s Raid from Kentucky into Southwestern Virginia September 20-October 17, 1864. Action at Saltsville, Va., October 2. At Lexington, Ky., October 19. Harrodsburg, Ky., October 21. Stoneman’s Raid into Southwestern Virginia December 10-29. Near Marion December 17-18. Capture of Saltsville and destruction of salt works December 20-21. Duty at Ghent, Paducah, LaGrange, Crab Orchard and Camp Nelson till August, 1865, and in the Dept. of Arkansas till March, 1866. Mustered out March 20, 1866.

 

Regiment lost during service 35 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 1 Officer and 151 Enlisted men by disease. Total 187.

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So much new information waiting to be written up, but to see what I have already done, click on the underlined links above.

For more Sepia Saturday posts, click!

Pearl’s Letters – An Index

Indianapolis, Letters, Pearl Reed's Letters, Reeds,

My Grandmother’s Letters
Finding The Letters
The Letters – The People
May 17, 1903 – Evangeline
July 3, 1903 – Hot Weather and A Train Trip
December 21, 1903 – Invitation to Christmas Dinner
January 27, 1904 – Illness and The True Reformers
January 31, 1904 – Misunderstood & Helping Homer Forget
February 7, 1904 – Evil Thoughts
March 8, 1904 – Guitar and Piano Lessons
March 17, 1904 – A New Address and The Mullins Move to Michigan
April 7, 1904 – Mother Very Ill, Minnie’s New Address
April 12, 1904 – Mother Ill Again
May 27, 1904 – Happy For Homer’s Speedy Return
June 16, 1904 – Minnie Coming to Visit
August 24, 1904 – An Entertainment
Aug 29, 1904 – An Invitation
November 8, 1904 – Pearl’s Mother Very Ill and Homer Shares “Vitality Supreme”
November 11, 1904 – Homer Advised Not to Visit
December 1, 1904 – Tired of Sarcasm and Baby Arthur Walks!
December 21, 1904 – Would She Be That Selfish?
January 2, 1905 – Mother Ill and Homer In Hot Springs, Arkansas
January 15, 1905 – Mother Better and Homer Describes Mountains
January 18, 1905 – Shall We Cease Writing?
January 27, 1905 – Minnie and Family Visiting, All Are Sick & Pearl Takes a Walk
February 6, 1905 – Pearl Accused of a Flighty Disposition & Illness in Homer’s Family
March 2, 1905 – Delighted With Stereoscopic Views, a Big Fire and Neglect of MacFadden’s Program
March 10, 1905 – Homer Sends Music and 50 Stamps. Hugh Whistles.
March 20, 1905 – Sorry to Read Homer’s Letter
April 21, 1905 – Busy Sewing for Mother’s Trip to Benton Harbor
April 26, 1905 – No Flowers For Easter & A Mystery Cousin
May 22, 1905 – Homer Reckless and Little Eulala Dies of Pneumonia
May 28, 1905 – A Walk, Request For A Photograph & Mother Ill in Benton Harbor.
June 25, 1905 – Pearl Receives Photograph of Homer, Promises to Send Hers in Return
July 11, 1905 – Missing Minnie & Music In The Night
July 16, 1905 – Music Through the Night and A Visit With Homer
July 22, 1905 – Mother Dangerously Ill, Pearl Fixes Hot Lemonade
August 27, 1905 – A Very Short Letter
Sept 7, 1905 – Pearl Sings & The Weather Cools
Oct., 24, 1905 – “Most exasperating of people…”
Oct. 29, 1905 – A Walk Into the Country, A New Aqueduct And A New Post Office
Nov. 28, 1905 – The Last Letter – An Invitation to Thanksgiving Dinner

Pearl Doris Reed Cleage Obituary

Cleages, Obituary, Reeds

PEARL D. CLEAGE, HELPED FOUND ST. JOHN’S CHURCH

DETROIT FREE PRESS

Date: Friday, July 23, 1982     Page: 7 B

Edition: Metro Final     Secton: OBT

Pearl D. Cleage, a founder of St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Detroit, died Saturday while vacationing in Idlewild, Mich. She was 94.

Mrs. Cleage, a Detroit resident since 1915, was the widow of the late Dr. Albert B. Cleage SR. and the mother of Reverend Albert B Cleage Jr., minister and founder of the Shrines of the Black Madonna, who began the Black Christian Nationalist movement in Detroit in the late 1960s. The Shrines are in Detroit, Atlanta and Houston.

Mrs. Cleage often lectured on African-American history. She was a member of the Auxiliaries of the Iota Boule and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternities.

Survivors include four sons, the Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr., Dr. Louis, Henry and Hugh; three daughters, Barbara Martin, Gladys Evans and Anna Shreve; nine grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.

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Other posts about my paternal grandmother, Pearl Doris Reed Cleage.

Introduction to the letters my grandfather Albert B. Cleage wrote to Pearl Reed before their marriage from 1907 to 1910.

Grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage’s Birthday
Pearl Reed Cleage With Baby Henry
Grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage – photographs
Two Newspaper Articles 1908 and 1960
Dr. Albert B. Cleage and Miss Pearl Reed Wed
1940 Census – The Albert B. and Pearl (Reed) Cleage Family
Pearl Doris Reed Cleage 1884 – 1982 – Two Photographs
Albert and Pearl Reed Cleage – Cemetery
Albert and Pearl (Reed) Cleage 1922
Grandmother Before the Party – 1971
Oh Dry Those Tears

Nov. 28, 1905 – The Last Letter – An Invitation to Thanksgiving Dinner

Great Migration, Indianapolis, Letters, Pearl Reed's Letters, Reeds, Thanksgiving,
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
Pearl Reed

Homer Jarrett
131 Puryear St. City

2730 Kenwood Ave.
Indianapolis, Indiana
Nov. 28, 1905

Mr. Jarrett,
Dear Homer, You are most cordially invited to take Thanksgiving dinner with us at our home Thurs. Nov. 30th. It will be very informal.

Yours sincerely
Anna Reed

P.S. I neglected to tell you that dinner will be served at “7:00 P.M.”
Anna Reed

_______________

click to enlarge

Oct. 29, 1905 – A Walk Into the Country, A New Aqueduct And A New Post Office

Indianapolis, Letters, Pearl Reed's Letters, Reeds,
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
Pearl Reed

Homer Jarrett
Forwarded from French Lick to
131 Puryear St. City

2730 Kenwood
Oct. 29, 1905

Dear Homer;

I wonder what you are doing tonight? Are you at home? I have but just returned home after leaving with Hugh about four o’clock for a walk. O, and it was a walk too Homer! We reached home about nine thirty o’clock.

I enjoyed it though. Everything was and is just beautiful. The trees all shades of yellow and red and the fields with the green and yellow pumpkins lying here and there amid the shocks or stacks of grain. Past groups of cows and horses all of which I gave ample space while Hugh laughed and tried to assure me that they were harmless. And such a lovely sunset!

He took me over the new aqueduct supposed to be the only one of it’s kind in the world. He helped to construct it. We walked on and on until the new moon came to warn us of the end of the day and we then winded our way in downtown stopped at the Dairy Lunch, got a lunch and caught the car and came home. Was to have gone to a friend’s house and from there to church, but Hugh suggested the walk and it just suited me, for it was just cool enough today to walk briskly.

What did you do today I wonder? Tell me about French Lick? Will you? Is it a pretty place? Do you like it there?

I wonder if you are at church now? Hope you are.

Yours Pearl Doras Reed

P.S. O Homer, I forget, did I tell you that the new Post Office was completed? I suppose you read of it in the paper? It is simply grand. I think I have been in it once since it has been completed.

What are you going to do Halloween? Celebrate? I hope you have a pleasant time.

Good night
Pearl

__________________

Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Baltimore Dairy Lunch The_Indianapolis_Star_Sat__Sep_10__1904
Baltimore Dairy Bar The_Indianapolis_Star_Sat__Sep_9__1905

Oct., 24, 1905 – “Most exasperating of people…”

Great Migration, Indianapolis, Letters, Pearl Reed's Letters, Reeds,
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
Pearl Reed

Homer Jarrett
French Lick, Indiana

2730 Kenwood Ave.
Indianapolis, Indiana
Oct., 24, 1905

Dear Homer

Most exasperating of people, your difficulties and troubles must have ruined your memory, for you asked me to or why I had not answered your letter and you should know that I wrote last and did so about six or seven weeks ago. Did your tribulations run away with your pen, ink, pencils and paper? You have my sympathy, I am sure.

You know very well that you did not come to French Lick to be near me, of course it sounds nice to be told that but of course you do not mean it Homer.

Where you did not answer my letter I thought you had gone south or some other place and was agreeably surprised to get your letter. Glad you are well and coming home, if “even for a visit” O Homer are you coming? Soon? I am curious you see?

What have you been doing with yourself for so long? Everything? How is your mother? Mine is quite well and sends her best regards to you. She tells me that she will be glad to see you again.

We are having ugly weather here Homer, it is raining now, just a fine penetrating rain that soaks you through.

I suppose I’ve about spoiled your temper Homer so I shall cease.

Pearl Doras Reed

P.S.
Wait a second, please, Homer, mother, just now, tells me to tell you that she wishes you were here now to paint this house, for you know you told her that you painted “houses”. She says she is trying to get ready for you Thanksgiving for she expects to have you out here.

Good night
your
Pearl

_________________

Sept 7, 1905 – Pearl Sings & The Weather Cools

Great Migration, Indianapolis, Letters, Pearl Reed's Letters, Reeds,
Pearl Reed

No envelope.

2730 Kenwood
Sept 7, 1905

Dear Homer;

Your letter came o.k. after I had despaired of receiving it and I was very glad to hear from you. I thought at first that you had gone south and that I should receive my letter back again but I was agreeably surprised to hear from you and that you are so near.

You spoke of the weather, yes I am glad it is cooler. Are you? Last Sunday I visited Riverside Park and although it was cool and I’ve had to wear jackets, I enjoyed it. We stayed out until about 7:30 P.M. and from there to church. We had our supper out there, of sandwiches, hot coffee and cream.

Last night (6th) I took part in a concert at Allen Chapel and did not get home until 1:00 A.M. We had a very nice time.

O Homer what are you doing? Are you well? May “we” hope to see you soon? How is your mother and friends at home? Mother and the boys send their best regards to you.

Homer forgive this pencil, for the old pen point refused to write at all and I have not another just now and it is 9:30 P.M.

I have worried you to desperation Homer I am sure and I shall say good-bye.

Yours truly, P.D.R.

________________

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Looking online I found that “The Old Maid’s Association” was a farcical entertainment for thirteen females and one male that was often put on by church groups as a money raiser in the early 1900s.

Miss Blanche Young mentioned in the news item, married Pearl’s brother, Hugh the following year. In 1905 she was a 17 year old high school student at Manual Training High School, a well respected and innovative new high school. Blanche was several years younger than Pearl. According to several news items, she was active in both the Ninth Presbyterian Church and Allen’s Chapel, as Pearl was. She lived about a mile from Allen’s Chapel and a mile and a half from Pearl.

Blanche was born on October 26, 1887 in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was the oldest of the seven children born to James Harvey Young, a teacher and Roberta Ruth (Jordan) Young, a housewife. Two of her younger siblings died before 1900. The youngest, Elizabeth, died of cholera in 1900 before she was a year old. Her mother died of meningitis in 1901.

Blanche’s father re-married a widow with a young daughter later that year. Soon afterwards he and his new wife moved to Southern California. They took the two youngest daughters. Blanche and her brother Clifford, remained in Indianapolis. Blanche completed two years of high school and married Pearl’s brother Hugh  in 1906 when she was 18 years old.

You can read more of Blanche’s story here Blanche Celeste Reed aka Celeste J. Averette.

August 27, 1905 – A Very Short Letter

Great Migration, Indianapolis, Letters, Pearl Reed's Letters, Reeds,
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
Pearl Reed

Homer Jarrett
1702 Chestnut St.
St. Louis, MO

2730 Kenwood Ave
August 27, 1905

Dear Homer;

Forgive me for not writing sooner but I thought you did not care to hear from me. How are you? Would like to be friends and hear from you soon and now.

Am in a hurry

Write soon
Just
Pearl Doras Reed