Homer Jarrett
426 Muskingun St. City
2730 Kenwood Ave.,
Aug 29, 1904
Mr. Jarrett;
Dear Friend
Mother and I request your presence at our home Wednesday Evening. From eight till ten o’clock. Please do not find an excuse Homer, and I will promise not to run away this time. It is not formal and we shall look for you.
Hoping to see you Weds Even. We remain,
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Reed and Pearl
Homer Jarrett
412 Muskingun St. City
(penciled in ##23 W. Ohio City)
2730 Kenwood Ave.
City
August 24, 1904
Mr. Jarrett;
Friend I write to beg forgiveness for running away Sunday evening. You will forgive me when you learn that I went on an errand of mercy. When I returned Mr. and Mrs. Ewing were almost ready to go home. Did you attend the entertainment at Ninth Presbyterian Church last night?
Good by,
Pearl Doris Reed
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What entertainment was happening at Ninth Presbyterian Church on August 23?
And what was a conundrum supper?
Looking around online, I found that a “conundrum supper” was a fund raising ploy used in the late 1890s and the early 1900s. Each menu item was presented in the form of a riddle.
Homer Jarrett
412 Muskingun St. City
2730 Kenwood Ave
June 16, 1904
Dear Homer,
Your kind letter was received. I have the most delightful news for you Minnie and the children will be here on the 28th for a ten day visit. Are you not pleased?
Forgive me for forgetting you. Are you well? I hope you look better than you did Sunday. Come out Sunday and we will decide where we will go. I thank you for complimenting my “Gingham gown”. I like it quite well.
Did you get the Marons you spoke of? I was speaking with an acquaintance a few days ago and he had visited the island of Jamaica and the surrounding countries. Have I tired you with this stuff? Forgive me if I have for you know I was born to tire people.
Yours truly,
Pearl
______________
The “Marons”? Because she mentioned Jamaica, I was thinking she might have meant “Maroons”. The Maroons were people who escaped from slavery and live free in the swamps and forests.
Minnie Mullins had three children at this time; Helen 4, James 3, Benjamin 2 and was pregnant with Arthur, who would be born in September 1904.
Homer Jarrett
#412 Muskingun St. City
2730 Kenwood City
May 27, 1904
Mr. Jarrett,
Homer I was glad or rather pleased to hear of your speedy return. Shall be at home Sunday P.M.
Yours,
Pearl
Homer Jarrett
230 Bird St. City
2730 Kenwood Ave. City
April 12, 1904
Homer;
Your letter found mother much better and I thank you for your interest in her. You remember I spoke in the last letter to you of an invitation to an entertainment and that I thought that I would be unable to go, well I changed my mind and did go. We had a very nice time. There were about seventy-five there. We stayed until about twelve o’clock. I will be at home Wednesday, evening and shall expect you out. I had not heard of the entertainment at the Chapel although I met and spoke with a young man of that church last evening. I suppose he forgot it.
Good-Bye
Pearl
P.S. Write to Minnie for she is anxious to hear from you
Your Pearl
___________________
I wonder what kind of birthday anniversary it was with 75 people. I hope the rally at Allen Chapel was successful in lifting the debt.
Homer Jarrett
#230 Bird St., City
2730 Kenwood Ave
City
April 7, 1904
Dear Homer;
Forgive me for not writing sooner, but don’t you know I did write but tore up the letter a few hours after. Mother is very ill now and has been since Easter eve. I am having a terrible time. I could not go to church Easter Morn and have just received an invitation to a friends at her birthday anniversary but had to send her my regrets. Pity me.
Your little friend
P.S. I am in an awful hurry, forgive this writing.
Your Pearl
P.S. Minnie’s address is #337 Colfax Ave. Benton Harbor Mich.
Homer Jarrett
230 Alleghany St. City
2714 Kenwood Ave., City
March 17, 1904
Dear Homer;
I write to inform you that Minnie and Mullins have gone to Michigan to reside permanently. She told me that you did not know of it and I promised to inform you. I hope this finds you in good health for it leaves me quite indisposed.
Hoping to hear from you soon, or see you at our home.
I remain
Yours,
Pearl
New Address # 2730 Kenwood simply the number changed,
Pearl
_________________
A Wikipedia entry says “The Sanborn Maps were originally created for assessing fire insurance liability in urbanized areas in the United States.”
I wanted to know what Pearl’s house looked like. When my daughter Ayanna and I drove around Indianapolis looking for family homes, we found the house gone, now a parking lot. I took a walk in the neighborhood via Google Maps. The houses nearby were on low rises, with steps going up to them. I looked at other houses on the Sanborn Map and found some still standing. I got a bit carried away, looking at the map, finding historic houses still standing. I finally made a composite of what the house may have looked like. I must admit that I added a porch.
Why Renumber and Rename Streets? A long article from The Indianapolis Journal April 8, 1895 about why they renumbered the streets. It took years and years to complete the project.
Homer Jarrett
230 Alleghany St. City
2700 Kenwood Ave
Indinapolis
February 7, 1904
Mr. Jarrett,
Homer, for the evil thought and words concerning my mother, which you spoke a few weeks ago, I forgive you as I hope to be forgiven of my many sins and faults. My mother does not know anything about it and has often asked why you never visit any more. She shall never learn your terrible thoughts of her . She will always think you one of the most gentle young men in the city, if I can help it.
Sincerely
Pearl D. Reed
2714 Kenwood Ave.
Indianapolis, Indiana,
January 27, 1904
Homer Jarrett
9 Walnut St.
Hot Springs, Ark
Homer,
I received your letter about fifteen minutes ago and was pleased that you should be so solicitous of our welfare as to write to inquire about our health.
I am sorry to relate but I have a very bad cold from the exposure of Sunday evening. I was unable to be at my work Tuesday and, today was confined to my bed ‘till a few hours ago taking horrid old bitter remedies for my cold, and feel real badly yet, although I intend to go down town tomorrow whether or no.
I had intended to go to Allen’s Chapel Friday eve, but this slight illness has caused me to change my program for the week. If I am able to be at my work I will be contented. I am grateful to you for your kindness, but I am unable to accompany you on that evening.
You seem to be hurt over my calling you a coward. I said it, because, at the time you acted like one, but otherwise, I do not think you are. Forgive me if I spoke too plainly, for I did you an injury in doing so perhaps.
You must also forgive me for causing you to break your vow, in accompanying us to church and home. You should not have broken it Homer. You told me once before that you wanted to forget me and I told you that I would help you. We did quite well until Sunday Eve, and I suppose that you forgot. It shall not occur again, since, you wish it so, for I would not have you do an injury to yourself for me for anything, Homer.
Thanking you for every kindness that you have done for me and wishing you a successful career, I will say
Good-bye
Pearl D. Reed
_________________
What did my grandmother Pearl miss and who were the True Reformers?
The Order of True Reformers has made elaborate arrangements for a public installation at Allen Chapel tonight, at which 105 officers will be installed. The affair is under the direction of W. S. Henry, chief of the Indiana department. An address of welcome will be delivered by the Rev. H. E. Stewart, and a response by the Rev. Charles Williams. An address will be made by the Rev. James M. Townsend on “Negro Enterprises,” and one on “Advantages of Race Protection,” by the Rev. J. F. Walker. The installation will be conducted by the Rev. J. T. Carpenter, of Washington, D.C., who is department general of the order. Representatives of the seven fountains (lodges) of the city will respond. There will also be music and recitations.”
More information about the history of True Reformers Bank.
Born in 1849, Browne was a former Georgia slave who escaped joined the Union Army in the North. After the Civil War, he founded the Grand Fountain United Order of True Reformers, a black fraternal organization. In 1887 when Browne visited Charlotte County, Virginia to establish a local branch of the True Reformers, he encountered problems. The branch arranged to keep its savings with a white shopkeeper in the county, but with racial tensions high after an 1887 lynching, the shopkeeper told other white residents that local blacks were organizing and raising funds, and the branch was forced to disband. Browne decided the True Reformers would have to found and run a bank itself so that its finances could not be monitored by whites. ” To read more, please click on the linked text.
It was June of 1971 and my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage was waiting for the party to begin. Uncle Hugh is in the kitchen getting things ready. Grandmother was 87 and didn’t break her hip for some years yet. I remember so many dinners around that table. There were always cakes with caramel icing for birthdays. This time it looks like there are two cakes – one chocolate and one with caramel icing. Both have candles.
Candy corns in the little silver dish. There were often candy corns in the covered candy dish that always on the front room table coffee table. Candy corns or red and white striped peppermints or sometimes chocolate kisses.
I can think of several June birthdays. My father turned 60 that year. My cousin Anna Pearl turned eleven and her sister Maria turned nine. It must have been an all June collective party. I wish I had been there. My oldest daughter Jilo turned one that June.
