Category: Reeds

Mr. James Mullins – 1863 – 1944

Today was Mr. Mullins birthday and I thought I would share some information about him.

James Mullins was born about 1863 in Shilo, Harris County, Georgia. He was the third child of the 14 children of Isaac and Sallie (Jarrett) Mullins. He worked on the family farm until some time after 1880. On 27 April, 1898 he married my grandmother Pearl’s sister, Minnie Averitte Reed, in Indianapolis, Indiana.  In the 1900 Census he was listed as a fireman and the first of their 12 children, Helen, was a year old.  The family lived next door to Minnie’s mother and siblings on Willard. In 1910 they were still in Indianapolis and he was still a fireman.  There were 8 children.

The family moved to Benton Harbor, Berrien County, Michigan about 1916.  In the 1920 Census they were living in Detroit and Mr. Mullins is listed as a carpenter at an auto factory.  In 1930 the family was in Benton Harbor, living on Broadway with various family members living up and down the same street. Mr. Mullins was listed as a common laborer in this census.

By 1940 the family was back in Detroit and you can read about them in this post – 1940, Minnie and James Mullins.  Throughout the years the family members were variously identified as mulatto, black, Negro, white and Indian in the Census.  Mr. Mullins died in Detroit on July 10, 1944. He was 80 years old and unemployed.  The cause of death is listed as “terminal uremia”.  His wife, Minnie was the informant.  He is buried in Detroit Memorial Cemetery.

Click to enlarge. Mr. Mullins, Aunt Minnie, their children, some of the children’s spouses and some of the grandchildren.

 My uncle  Henry shared some of his memoried of Mr. Mullins in the 1990s.  “Mullins was always referred to that way.  He was a very stern, hardy type.  Admired the Irish.  Had the long Irish upper lip himself. A very ‘Indian’ looking fellow. They lived in Benton Harbor and later moved to Detroit.  ‘Sir Walter Lipton’, that’s the only kind of tea he’d drink.  Rather, whatever kind he drank was that.  He’d be talking about only drinking ‘Sir Walter Lipton’, and when he finished, Minnie would tell him, “Oh, Mullin, hush up! You know that’s Salada Tea.”  When he moved to Detroit with his family the last time they figured he was 90 something years old.  He died one day walking from Tireman all the way downtown.  I think he just fell out.  Like the old one horse shay, he just give out.“

Henry continued, “Aunt Minnie would talk a lot of trash.  She said he’d sit down with a bottle of wine and eat all the food, talking a lot of trash about he was a working man, he needed his strength and the rest of them were all starving to death.  All that was Aunt Minnie’s talk.  We never heard his side of it.  They lied on him and he never defended himself. They never made fun of him because he’d a beat everybody’s brains out.  He never found it necessary to say anything.  I think Aunt Minnie embellished the truth because I know we went there and tore up his lawn, his pride and joy, and he didn’t say anything much.  He had a grape arbor.  We (Me, Hugh, Bill and Harold), had a tent out there.  We’d get to wrestling and tear up the tent and the grapes and he didn’t say anything.  Probably crippled Bill and Harold after we left because they should have known better, we were just kids.”

Little Boys Wearing Dresses 1916 & 1919.

Theresa Pearl, mother Blanch, and Thomas Perry. Names based on birth dates and the other photo.
Hugh Marion b. 1910. Thomas Perry b. 1916. Theresa Pearl b. 1914. Anna Roberta b. 1908.

Recently I received a scan of the photograph on the left from my cousin Jan. The reverse side of the postcard type photo says “Theresa Pearl’s Birthday   March 10, 1919”  The handwriting looks as though the same person who wrote on the back of this photo Christmas card of Theresa Pearl.  I am not sure that the woman in the photo is their mother, Blanch. I am checking.  I hope I am right because I have no other photos of her.

Note: Yes, that is Blanch Celeste Reed Averette, the mother. I was able to confirm it with some of her descendants.

Below is a photograph of my father Albert at about 3 years old in a little dress.  Younger brother Louis is sitting on the chair in a long gown. It was taken in Kalamazoo Michigan about 1916.

A pattern for a boys dress from that era.
Click for other Sepia Saturday posts.

Getting An Education – Fearless Females

What education did your mother receive? Your grandmothers? Great-grandmothers? Note any advanced degrees or special achievements.

On My Maternal Side
My 3X great grandmother, Annie Williams,  was born about 1820 in Virginia into slavery. According to the 1880 Census, when she was about 60, she spoke English and could not read or write.

Eliza - my 2x great grandmother

Her daughter, my 2X great grandmother, Eliza Williams Allen, was born in Alabama about 1839 into slavery. She was freed by 1860. According to the 1910 census, she was about 67, spoke English and could not read or write

"Jennie Allen Turner in hat"
Jennie - my greatgrandmother

Her daughter, my great grandmother, Jennie Allen Turner was born free in Montgomery, Alabama in 1866. According to the 1880 Census, she was 13 years old, had attended school in the past year, spoke English and was literate.  I found one of my favorite books at her house “Lydia of the Pines.”

Fannie - my maternal grandmother

 Her daughter, my Grandmother Fannie Mae Turner Graham, was born in 1888 in Lowndes County, Alabama. She grew up in Montgomery. According to the 1900 census, she was 11 years old, at school, spoke English and was literate. My mother told me that when Fannie graduated from high school – State Normal, was offered a scholarship to Fisk but refused it and took a job in her uncles store, which she managed until she married in 1918. Also according to my mother, Fannie could quickly add long columns of numbers in her head.

Doris - my mother

My mother , Doris Graham Cleage,  was born in Detroit in 1923. She graduated from Eastern High School in Detroit and received a full scholarship to Wayne State  where she earned a BA with distinction as a Sociology major in June/1944. She returned to school in 1951 and earned teaching certification. In 1958 she became a masters candidate in education, completing her Master’s of Education Degree in the fall of 1958.  She took postmasters classes in education during a sabbatical in 1963. She also took evening classes  in 1968, when I was a senior at Wayne State.

My great grandmother, Emma Jones Turner (My grandmother Fannie’s paternal grandmother) was born about 1840 in South Carolina into slavery.  According to the 1880, 1900 and 1910 census she spoke English and was literate. I wish I knew more about her. I never heard a story about her. After my grandmother’s father was killed when she was 4 years old, her mother broke all ties with her husband’s family.

On My Paternal Side

Celia - my great grandmother

My great grandmother Celia Rice Cleage Sherman was my grandfather’s mother. She was born about 1855 into slavery in Virginia and brought to Tennessee as a child. She was about 10 when freedom came. In the 1880 census she could neither read nor write. By the 1930 census she spoke English and could read but could not write.  I wonder if my grandfather or his siblings taught her to read when they went to school.

My 2X great grandmother, Clara Green was born into slavery about 1829 in Kentucky. She was my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage’s grandmother. In the 1880 census she was listed as about 55, spoke English and could not read or write.

Her daughter, my great grandmother Anna Allen Reed  was born  about 1849 in Kentucky into slavery.   According to the 1910 Census she spoke English but could not read or write. Anna’s four older children were illiterate while the four youngest were literate.

Pearl - my paternal grandmother

Her youngest daughter, my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage was born in Lebanon, Kentucky in 1886. In the 1900 census she was 16 and where it says if you were or were not in school it says “Book 1” I don’t know what that means.  At any rate she was literate and spoke English. My Aunt Barbara told me she finished high school. I remember my grandparent’s house being full of books.

 

 

George Reed 1867 – 1945

George Reed was my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage’s oldest brother. He gave his birth date as January 10, 1867, in Lebanon, Marion County, Kentucky.  He never married and had no children but as the oldest in a home without a man, he became the man of the house.  He never learned to read or write and earned his living as a laborer.  We have no photographs of him.

George is found in the 1870 through 1910 Census with his mother Anna Reed and various siblings.  After Anna died and Pearl married I haven’t found him in any census but I did find him in the Indianapolis City Directory again in 1930. Turned out, George was not listed in the 1920 or the 1930 census due to the census taker stopping at the end of the 2800 block of Kenwood (both times).  George does appear in the 1930 and 1940 Indianapolis City Directory at 2730 Kenwood Avenue.  Pearl married in 1910 and mother Anna died in 1911, which means that George lived at 2730 Kenwood, alone, for over thirty years.  Today the 2700 block of Kenwood is a parking lot.

George is listed as 3 in the 1870 census and 13 in the 1880 census.  This would make him born in 1867.  George is listed as 28 in the 1900 which would make him born in 1872, same as on his death certificate.  Clearly there is a five year discrepancy in his age as reported on various documents.

According to my aunt, George migrated to Indianapolis as a young man of 15 to work at the Van Camp Canneries in 1887.  Since there are two colored George Reed’s in Indianapolis during the 1880s we need to be careful here.  Our George is listed in 1891 at 11 Willard Ave.  There is a George E in 1889 and a George in 1888 in the City Directory that also may have been him.  I believe that George did arrive in Indianapolis in 1887, however he would have been twenty years old and not fifteen at that time. During the next several years the whole family followed George to Indianapolis.

 My Aunt Anna told me that a friend of her parents called them from Indianapolis in 1945 to tell them that George had been found wandering around disorientated.  My grandparents went and got him and he stayed with them in Detroit where he died later that year.  He died on May 28, 1945.  His body was sent back to Indianapolis by train and he was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery.  There is a simple marble slab with his name and dates on it.  I visited once.  You can see it here.

Click to enlarge

George Reed Funeral

“Funeral services for George Reed, 73, colored, who died Monday at the home of Dr. and Mrs. A. B. Cleage, Detroit, were held today at the C. M. C. Willis mortuary, with the Rev. J. A. Alexander, pastor of Bethel A. M. E. church, officiating. Burial was in Crown Hill. the body was accompanied here by Dr. and Mrs. Cleage and Henry Cleage, Detroit. Mr. Reed became ill here a year and a half ago and was taken to Detroit where he had lived with his sister, Mrs. Cleage. Survivors, besides Mrs. Cleage, are two other sisters, Mrs. Sara Busby, Benton Harbor, Mich; and Mrs. Minnie Mullins, Detroit; and two brothers, Clarence Reed, Chicago, and Hugh Reed, who has lived in the West several years.”

According to the Administrator’s Final Report there was $18,462.91 (Worth $243,814.95 in today’s dollars.) on deposit at the Railroad Men’s Building and Loan Association.  He had a dividend on a savings account for $193.50 in 1945 and another $195.24 for 1946.  Royalty from Rubber Stock came to $3.00, which brought his assets to $18,854.65.  He also owned a single home at 2730 Kenwood, Ave.  Included in the $1,025 costs for the administration of the Estate are $9.65 railroad fare to carry his remains back to Indianapolis and $75 to the Hoosier Monument Company.

George Reed 1873 – 1945

George Reed was my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage’s oldest brother. Their mother, Annie Ray Allen Reed, was a single mother for most of her life and George was the man of the house. His resting place in Crown Hill Cemetery looks very peaceful.

Thanks to Megan Heyl and her husband for taking this photograph.

Thanks to Megan Heyl and her husband for taking this photograph.

Last Will and Testament of George Reed

You can read about George Reed’s life at this post George A. Reed

George Reed Probate Record

Canning With Aspirin Instead of Sugar – Front page story

Recently I have had great luck finding important family information in online newspapers.  I had not used Ancestry’s newspaper collection for a long time because it was so awkward to use.   Imagine my surprise when I noticed there was a tab right up there with ‘Historical Records’ and ‘Family Trees’ called ‘Stories and Publications’.  I decided to put in a few names and see what I could find.   I found little items of arrests, obituaries, marriages and the article below about how my Grandmother Pearl’s sister, Sarah Reed Busby, got around the lack of sugar during WW 2 by using aspirin to can her berries.  I had just heard about this article from a cousin I met several weeks ago and there it was on my computer!  I took a break in the middle of writing this post to go look again and found a photograph of Robert Chivis, who I had no photo of previously. Robert is the grandson of another sister of my grandmother Pearl.

All Around Our Town
Canning Tip–Use Aspirin!

Did you ever hear of putting up fruit with aspirin?  Mrs. Sarah Busby, 1238 Broadway, a first-rate colored cook of many years’ experience, is doing it and doing it successfully.  She has the sugar rationing on canning licked, for no sugar is needed.

Her method is this: sterilize the glass jars, pack them full of rasberrries, and on the top of each pint drop one aspirin tablet.  Fill the jar with water that has been chilled ice-cold in the refrigerator, and seal quickly.  No cooking is needed.

This method, which Mrs. Busby discovered some time ago as a canning tip in a newspaper, is recommended for strawberries.  She also has used it effectively on both red and black rasberries and is contemplating trying it out on dew berries.

The fruit retains its shape and color without becoming mushy, and while the taste is a little on the tart side its flavor is true to the fruit.

Mrs. Busby’s cooking experience has included 28 years at the Washington resort, where she annually canned around 500 jars of fruit jams, jellies, and pickles every summer.

When pharamcist Jack Brown of the Battlement Drug company was asked about the chemical reaction of aspirin on raspberries he said it was o.k.  It’s the acetylsalicylic (you say it) acid in asprin that acts as a germicide and stops fermentation.

Mrs. Busby insists that the water on the berries must be very, very cold.  She says not to be alarmed when the water on the aspirin “riles it up” for that settles down after sealing.  For a quart of fruit, she uses two aspirin.

Right this way, ladies – no more headaches over the canning season!

Lillian Louise Reed Shoemaker With Nieces

Aunt Lu (Lillian Louise Shoemaker) with Nieces
Front: Thomas and Theresa. Back Hugh and Anna.

A few weeks ago, a cousin from a “lost” branch of my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage’s family found me through Ancestry.com.  Her father and his siblings grew up thinking they were of Italian descent.   My cousin was trying to find out what ship they came over on when she discovered they weren’t Italian, they were African American and my cousins.  Since then we have been exchanging information and photographs.  The newest one from her is the top photo.  It shows her great grandmother, Louise Reed Shoemaker, with two girls.  There is no information on the photograph. 

The photograph on the bottom is a photograph from my grandmother’s collection of their brother Hugh Reed’s children.  The girls look a little older in my cousin’s photo but to me it’s clear they are they same people, even though they weren’t able to get a good scan yet.

Not a bridge, a ferry

In my new batch of photos, I found another photograph in the #160 series that I showed in my last post, here.  I didn’t notice, until after I posted this photo a few minutes ago, that there were words on the building, “Levy Bros.”  “Falls City Ferry and Transportation Co.”  Looking at the landscape, behind the ferry and building, I saw a distant shore.  No longer looked like Athens, TN!  Which is why I deleted that post and started looking things up.

 I googled “Falls City Ferry and Transportation Co.”  and found this entry in ‘The Encyclopedia of Louisville’ page 286.  “The last ferry operation was between Louisville and Jeffersonville.  The original company, facing difficult competition from electric interurban car service over the Big Four Bridge beginning in 1905, was reorganized as the Falls City Ferry and Transportation Co. in December 1920, with David B.G. Rose as principal shareholder.  Among the minority shareholders was Harland D. Sanders, later of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame.  Though the passenger load declined through the 1920’s vehicular traffic increased as automobiles proliferated.  There was as yet no vehicular bridge between Louisville and Jeffersonville.  Fares were low.  During the 1920’s pedestrians were carried for five cents.  Once aboard they could ride all day for that modest fee.”

Louisville is not on the Detroit, MI to Athens, TN route.  It is on the route from Athens, TN to  Indianapolis, IN, where Uncle Hugh Reed still lived.  In fact, I have a photograph of my father and his brothers taken with Uncle Hugh’s sons, perhaps on the same trip.  In this photo we have front row, Henry and Hugh Cleage.  In the back row, Albert  Cleage (my father), Hugh Reed Jr,  Thomas Reed and Louis Cleage. About 1921 in Indianapolis, IN. My father is wearing the same outfit.