Theresa, Blanche/Celeste and Thomas Reed/Averit on Theresa’s birthday. 1919, Indianapolis, IN
Although I haven’t participated in Sepia Saturday for a long time, when I saw the prompt for today I thought of the above photo, which I have never shared on Sepia Saturday and thought it was a good match. So, here I am.
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When Hugh Reed’s second daughter was born, she was named after his baby sister, my grandmother. When I found the birth certificate online, I was surprised to find that the baby originally had my grandmother’s full name, Pearl Doris. Later, she was called Theresa Pearl. Did the parents decide on Theresa later because it sounded more “posh”? I will never know.
Pearl Reed Cleage and baby Albert. 1911 Indianapolis, IN
My maternal grandfather, Mershell Cunningham Graham was born about 1887 in Coosada Station, Elmore County, Alabama. He was the fourth of six children. His parents farmed. His maternal grandmother lived in Elmore county, but she doesn’t appear in any records after the 1880 census so she was possibly dead before he was born. His maternal grandfather was the slave holder and he died in 1860, well before Mershell was born. Mershell’s father, William Graham, doesn’t appear with his parents, so I don’t know who they were, much less if they lived nearby and were alive when my grandfather Mershell was.
Albert B. Cleage Sr.
My paternal grandfather, Albert B. Cleage, was born in 1884, the youngest of five children. His father, Louis Cleage was share cropping in Loudin, Tennessee. After Louis Cleage and his wife Celia Rice Cleage, divorced, she moved back to Athens where her mother Susan Rice Regan lived. Susan lived until 1911 when my grandfather would have been grown. I am sure that he knew her.Susan and al of her children had been enslaved on a Rice plantation south of Athens. Celia’s father was an unknown slave holder by name of Rice and I’m sure that my grandfather never met him. Albert B. Cleage’s paternal grandparents were Frank and Juda Cleage. They were enslaved on Alexander Cleage’s plantation in Athens, Tennessee. They do not appear in any records after the 1870 census. According to the testimony of Adeline Sherman in the pension case of Katie Cleage, Frank and Juda died before 1890, when she gave testimony. I doubt that they they lived long enough for my grandfather to meet them.
Pearl Doris Reed 1904
My paternal grandmother, Pearl Doris Reed, the youngest of eight children, was born about 1886 in Lebanon, Kentucky. Her mother Annie Allen Reed and her maternal grandmother, Clara Hoskins Green, lived near each other. Clara died after 1880. Annie’s father is listed as Robert Allen. I cannot find a Robert Allen in their area. Pearl probably would have met Clara if she lived until the 1890s. Annie and her children moved to Indianapolis, Indiana about 1891 when Annie and her oldest son George appear in the city directory. Pearl was about five years old. Her father Buford Avritt was a white doctor who, according to oral history, did not support the family in their time of need. I was warned never to mention his name to my grandmother. I’m sure she never met her paternal grandparents.
You can read about my maternal grandmother and her grandparents at this ink -> when it goes up
Theresa Pearl colorizedTheresa 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
