Henry is taking me out on Lake Idlewild in the little sailboat. It was used to practice the skills needed to sail the big sailboat on the Detroit River. You can read about that boat here -> Sailing Log Detroit River – 1970
A Finger and a Sail Boat
Category Archives: sepia saturday
Blanche, Theresa and Thomas Averette
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.
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.
On the Church Steps, May 17, 1936
This is a bonus post and not a part of the A to Z
Eleven years ago in 2014, I published this photograph of my grandmother on the steps of her church with some friends. I decided to look on newspaper.com and see if anything was going on at Church that Sunday. There was! It was the 17th Anniversary of Plymouth Congregational Church.
Written on the back of the photograph by my grandmother Fannie:
“Mrs. C. L. Thompson, Miss Watt, Mrs. Martha Lee (Died July 1937), F. Graham. Taken as we talked on our Church steps 5/17/36 by Jim Dunbar”
______________
PLYMOUTH CHURCH TO CELEBRATE 17TH ANNIVERSARY
REV. WHITE TO DELIVER SERMON
Plymouth Congregational Church, at Garfield and Beaubien, will celebrate its seventeenth anniversary,! Sunday, May 17 and during; the week following.
The minister, Rev. Horace White, will deliver the anniversary sermon, Sunday, May 17. Special music will be rendered by the choir.
Other features of the week’s program will include an address on “The Social Message of the Church,” by Rev. A. C. Williams, pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church, Tuesday, May 19. His Senior Choir will provide the music. Wednesday, May 20, at 7 p. m. the church’s annual birthday dinner will be held, and after the dinner, Dr. Harold M. Kingsley, of Chicago, will speak. Friday, May 22, will be observed as “Frolic Night.’’ The young people of the church will furnish the program. All members and friends of the church are invited to join Plymouth in celebrating the seventeenth anniversary of its work in Detroit.
In 1936 the Grahams lived on THEODORE Street on the east side of Detroit. My grandfather Mershell worked at Ford’s Rouge plant in the Electrical Stacks. He was 49 years old. He was one of the founders of Plymouth Church.
My grandmother Fannie was 47 years old. She didn’t work outside of the home. They kept chickens, had a large garden and several fruit trees. My grandfather rode the streetcar to work and they drove “Lizzie” to church. They had bought their first car, “Lizzie” two years earlier and kept it until the late 1950s.
My aunt Mary Virginia was 16 and my mother Doris was 13. Both were students at Eastern High School on East Grand Blvd and within walking distance of their house.
This photograph was taken the previous Sunday , Mother’s Day.
From Montgomery to Detroit – Plymouth Congregational Church – 1919
P – PLYMOUTH Congregational Church – 1928
The Grahams – A Day In 1931
My grandfather Mershell C Graham was the son of Mary Jackson Graham who we saw scheduled to be auctioned off with her family after the death of slave holder Crawford Motley Jackson in 1860. We move forward 70 years to to see what was happening with the Graham family in 1931,
Click on any image to enlarge in another window. Click on any link to open relevant information in another window.
These two photos of my mother, Doris (wearing the dress with scarf) and her family were taken in the backyard of their Detroit home in 1931. Doris was eight, her sister Mary Virginia was eleven. Baby brother Howard was two years old.
Maybe they had just come from church, or were on their way. I wonder if my grandfather was pointing to one of the airplanes that were just beginning to become more common.
Mershell was 44. My grandmother Fannie was 42. They kept chickens, had a large garden and several fruit trees. The girls attended Barber Elementary school several blocks away. My grandfather rode the streetcar to work and they took the streetcar to church. They didn’t have a car until 1934.
From my grandfather's little pocket notebook. This was the only entry from 1931. "Transferred from HP (Highland Park) plant to Rouge plant Mar. 14, 1930 Went to work in Elect(rical) Stacks Mr. J.H. Arthiston foreman"
Below are some 1931 comments from Howard’s baby book, written by my grandmother.
Saw his first circus – 2 1/2 years old – and what a thrill. July 1931
On Oct 23 1931 – Howard came into bathroom while Dad was trimming my hair.
Where have you been I asked?
Answer …In the children’s room.
Question—What doing?
Answer – “Lecturing on common-sense.”
The above is true – Believe it or not.
Had more sense then any child his age we’ve ever seen.
In my grandmother Fannie’s scrapbook, I found two library cards made by my mother, Doris and her older sister, Mary Virginia in 1931. My mother was 7 and Mary Virginia was 11. There is no book listed on my mother’s card but Mary Virginia names “The Children’s Story Hour” on hers. I wonder what other books they borrowed and lent or if this was a one time happening. I notice that Mary Virginia returned her book on time.
Related Posts
The Graham’s in the 1930s
Mershell Graham’s Notebook – 1930s
Home Library 1931
Births, Deaths,Doctors and Detroit – Part 1- Grandmother Fannie’s notes
Memories of Cats
As far as I know my ancestors did not have cats, although many had dogs. We had some cats in Mississippi, they lived in the barn and were sort of wild. Where did they originally come from? I cannot remember.
We moved to Idlewild, Michigan in the fall of 1986 and brought our cat Taffy with us. She had been gifted to us by our neighbors in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. Taffy founded a dynasty that lasted over 20 years. We spayed and neutered the last batch. Most of the cats eventually wandered off and never returned, but one named Panther stayed for over 17 years and moved to Atlanta with us where he soon died, never adjusting to city life at all.
Memories
James: Wow. Mumia enjoyed the photo of me and the cat.
Me: Do you remember that? Or the cat on your shoulder.
James: When I saw it I was like “Aaaaaargh – Why do I have the cat all up in my face like that!!!” I remember the hat and know where I must have been standing on the deck. But I don’t remember the actual picture. I first asked Mumia if he recognized anyone in the picture, he thought it was his friend Levon. We were trying to figure out how old I was. That cat looks pretty big. I was thinking sixish?
Me: It was our first winter in Idlewild, 1986/87. You were about 4/5.
In Mississippi I remember a lady who bought our goat milk and wanted one of the wild barn cats. They were a variety of colors, but she only wanted a white cat. His name was Peter Pan and he bit my husband’s hand while he was trying to catch him. He was finally caught and handed over.
Ife: I remember dropping kittens over the railing at the house in Mississippi to see if they would land on their feet.
Me: I remember telling you all to stop dropping them.
James: Did you ever try it after clipping their whiskers?
Ife: No. We didn’t strap buttered bread on their backs either.
James: I remember the results of an experiment we did involving falling cats – with and without whiskers. but I don’t remember doing the actual experiment.
Sydney: those dandelions are huge
Me: They must be dandelions big sister.
James: Or the children are tiny
Me: They weren’t that tiny
Ife: I just saw some of those and asked the person whose garden they were in because I remembered these pictures. They are wild onion/garlic (alums). They are purple before they go to seed.
Tulani: Memories of cats?! I have plenty… I remember when cutie pie climbed up your leg trying to get to what you were cooking on the table, and that the second taffy used to be able to pull open my bedroom door….I remember bottle feeding kittens…
Plenty more…I’m sure…
James: I remember the kittens being found in the pile of wood over by the rabbits. Also, I remember Cabral naming one of the kittens Cutie Pie…I have that sad memory about the cat and mailbox.
Me: I remember one mother cat who was hidden in the car and chewed Cabral’s bottle . I put her out at Head Start and she was gone forever. Never made it home. Her kittens must be the ones Tulani remembers bottle feeding.
We did this experiment as part of our home school science class. We buttered a piece of bread and tied it onto the back of a cat. When dropped from the height of a picnic table, the cat landed on it’s feet. I think to be a real test of the sayings – bread always lands buttered side down and a cat always lands on it’s feet – we would have had to have a piece of bread the same size as the cat, which we didn’t.
My sister Pearl’s memories of her cat, Scatter
That was Scatter. Here he is. A great cat. He came to our door one day when he was tiny. I tried to shoo him away but when Zeke walked up behind me, he let out a loud cat wail and leaped up on the screen like he was finding his long lost friend. Zeke gave him some water. Then some milk. Then some tuna. Then he moved in! Lol. For almost 20 years!!
We had to stop letting him out because we live on such a busy corner. He used to hunt when he could go out. He’d bring home a dead chipmunk and eat it on the porch! Yuck! He was fast. He ran from our porch across our street one day and pounced on a blue jay in a tree across the street!
Only cat we ever had. He was very cool. He’s buried in the backyard.
Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church – 1909
This is a photograph of the congregation of Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, IN in 1909, two years after they organized. This photograph is from the personal collection of my cousin Vivian Vaughn McDonald. My grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage is the third person on the top right. My grandfather, Albert Cleage is next to her. They wouldn’t be married for two more years. Next to Albert is his brother Jacob and next to him is their brother Henry. Directly in front of my grandfather Albert is Jacob’s wife, Gertrude.
I was told that my grandfather’s sister Josephine, also a church member, was not there for the photograph, but was home pregnant with Hattie Ruth, the youngest of her five children. Her husband, James Cleage stands four people to the left of Henry. James Cleage was from a different branch of Cleages. In the second row, second from the right, is Henrietta Cleage, oldest daughter of James and Josephine.
In the 1909 Indianapolis City Directory Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church is listed as located in Realty Hall with Rev. David White as Pastor. I wonder if he is in this photograph and if so, which one he is?
I finally found a photograph of Rev. David French White! He was older, but I think he is the man in the front row holding two boys on his knees, seventh from the left. What do you think?
The history below was from the Witherspoon web page, however they have taken the history section down. My grandparents, Albert Cleage and Pearl Reed, are both listed as founders.
On April 30, 1907 the Presbytery of Indiana of the United Presbyterian Church held a called meeting at Realty Hall in response to a petition signed by 31 persons asking to be organized into a United Presbyterian congregation.
Begins With 31 Members
Prof. David Graham of Rushville was moderator and Rev. W. W. McCall of Greensburg was secretary. Other members present were Rev. Fred W. Schmuch of Milroy, Rev. N. B. McClung of Vevay, Rev. Mr. McDill of Madison, and Dr. Cowan of Indianapolis.
The petition was discussed at some length. By unanimous vote an organization was decided upon. The 31 members who signed the petition were as follows: Henry W. Cleage, Mrs. Carrie Perkins, Mrs. Emma Moore, A. T. Roney, Mrs. Cora Donann, Mrs. Cathern Crenshaw, Mrs. Daisy L. Brabham, Albert Cleage, Mrs. Gertrude Cleage, James Myers, Mrs. A. L. McElrath, O. F. Dennis, Mrs. Hattie Mitchell, H. M. Mitchell, Mrs. Theresa Finley, Othello Finley, Miss Edith Finley, Miss Luell E. Hibbett, Mrs. Mary Peterson, Mrs. Anna Bowman, John T. Fox, Miss Pearl Reed, Thomas H. Bransford, Mrs. O. F. Dennis, Miss Alice Mathews, Miss Hilda Reeder, W. J. Perkins, Henry Moore and H. L. Hummons.
The Bus Ride
I graduated with a BFA in December of 1968 and caught the Greyhound bus out of town right after Christmas. I had $500 from savings and graduation gifts. Bus fare was cheap. I can’t find the fare online, but $35 comes to mind. At the time, it was the only way I could figure out to leave home. That was my only plan – leaving home. Until this trip the farthest west I’d been was to Ludington, Michigan on Lake Michigan.
My grandmother Cleage said she wanted to pack a box lunch for me. She packed lots of fried chicken, bread and butter and various fruits. And I think I remember some pound cake. There was so much food, I couldn’t have eaten it before it went bad on my cross country trip. I remembering sharing some with a young man also heading west. And when we crossed into California I only had an apple left. We were warned to turn over any fruit and a fruit smelling dog walked through the bus, sniffing for fruit. He missed my apple and I hope that I didn’t import any virus or bugs with my rogue apple. Here are my memories of the five day bus trip west.
From a letter I wrote on Christmas, 1968 “My father said I’m crazy, but if that’s what I want to do he’ll try and give me some money if i need it. But he didn’t think it was good planning etc.”
My cousin Jan remembered: I remember being there and thinking it was very romantic and grown up you going away and all. You always did what I wanted to do before i was old enough to. And you and Pearl were my idols.
… i think it was my idea to go over and send you off properly. plus i wanted to pack myself in your luggage
My sister Pearl remembered:
here’s what i think i remember. you had on a pea jacket and a long scarf looped around your neck and you were grinning sorta like in this photo. you had on jeans, i think, maybe bellbottoms… almost certainly… but mainly what i remember is that you didn’t seem scared (i was terrified for you!) and you seemed really happy to be going/going/gone! i also remember how weird it was going home with ma and henry. whew…]
January 5, (I think, the date is smeared) 1969
Dear Ma and Henry,
I am in Utah. Ech. So far no lechers for seat mates, only soreness. I’ll never ride a bus again. The country looks just like Michigan until Wyoming when it got hilly and now is getting more and more mountains. I’ll write more later.
I knew you would like the patriotic pic on front (Monument to Mormon Pioneers in Temple.
love,
Kris
January 7, 1969
Dear Mommy and Henry,
I’m doing O.K. so far. It’s really strange not to know where anything at all is. Today I’m going over to Berkeley, if I don’t get lost on the bus. I’ll never ride on another bus trip! I thought I’d never walk again.
The people on the bus were O.K That is everybody minded their own business, but the seats were too small you couldn’t get comfortable or sleep. And no water. My whole face was flaking off from dehydration when I got here. I opened a back, I mean bank account and so my money is safe. The Y is okay. I don’t see anyone up here but I hear them moving so they must be here. There’s a sink in the room, so I can get lots of water and last night I washed my hair. The bathroom is across the hall. This morning I woke up to the sound of some construction work at 5 – what were they doing working at 5? Downtown here looks like Detroit downtown, but bigger.
The towns I went through on the bus were Chicago, Des Moines, Salt Lake City (not a very interesting place, don’t go there) Reno, (Is it easy to get married there? They had churches with Christmas lights and lit crosses. Pathetic) Also Wyatt Earp’s town in Wyoming. Up to the end of Iowa the scenery all looked alike, but then there were mountains. From a distance, they looked low, like you could run up the side. There was a shepherd herding sheep and leading a horse. I’ll write later, now I’m going to get something to eat. My phone and address are:
415-775-6500 ext. 402
YWCA
621 Sutter Street #402
San Francisco 94102
Write soon,
love,
Kris
On envelope: I got luggage
January 8, 1969
Dear Aunt M.V.
I went over the bridge to Berkeley and it’s really high. Every student at Berkeley seems to have his own personal dog that runs along with them. I never saw so many dogs. They must take them to class.
Kris
By January 16, I was writing my parents from Washington, D.C. where my sister was a student at Howard. You can read more about the next parts of this trip “Once I worked in a sewing factory“
Air Raid Drills
When I was attended Roosevelt Elementary school in the 1950s, I remember air raid drills. We all sat in the hall like those children below. There would be singing and then we’d all cover our heads with our hands, which would have done a lot of good if a bomb or tornado came through. Luckily, none did.
I remember hearing the air raid siren go off one day when I was on the way home from school. I was five or six years old. I don’t remember hearing it before that, but I might have been home already. I didn’t know it was a monthly test, I just knew it sounded weird and frightening. No one else was out on the street. I came to my grandparent’s house before I got to ours and stopped there. They told me it was a test to make sure the siren worked. They didn’t mention atom bombs or tornadoes.
T – TRAIN TRIP Revisited
This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations.
Several years ago, I wrote about a trip to the west that my grandparents, Albert and Pearl Cleage made by train from Detroit to California. They were traveling with a group. I wasn’t sure when or where they went, aside from starting in Detroit. Since then I have found photographs that show they visited The Garden of the Gods in Colorado, the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and a beach with Oil derricks in the distance which may be Venice, California. They also visited an old west set and a mission bell, which I have so far been unable to locate.
I also decided that a photo of the grown children still living at home, eating dinner with my parents, dates the photo between 1951 and 1953 when we lived in that house.
We moved back to Detroit in 1951 and lived down the street from my grandparents who lived on Atkinson. At that time my aunts and uncles in the photo below lived with my grandparents.
My mother seems to be on her way to the kitchen, perhaps to refill a serving dish. From the left, we have my uncle Louis, my mother, Uncle Hugh and part of Aunt Anna and my father. I believe that this dinner took place when my grandparents took the trip. I can think of no other reason that they would all be crowding around the dinner table. The photographer must be my uncle Henry, who doesn’t appear in the photo. Where were my sister and I? Perhaps sitting at a different table. Perhaps it was after dark and we were in bed.
Jumping
My cousin Jan leaping amazingly.
You probably think I am going to tell you she went on to have an illustrious career with the Alvin Ailey dance troupe, but no, she did not. I asked her how long she danced and she replied “let’s see, started around 13, stopped around 25. I danced somewhat with Shashu born and a teeny bit after Kamau.”
I believe there was also some modeling and transcribing of court sessions. Jan eventually moved to Canada and, along with Leonard, raised 4 wonderful, smart and talented children. She has 5 grandchildren. Jan now spends her time doing what needs to be done. This includes, but is not limited to, keeping up with her far flung family, copying and sending me family photos via email, posting inspiring quotes on fb and moving to a higher plane in a spiritual sense. She still wears her magnificent collection of bangles.
I saw the leaping photo in 2013 and I was very impressed. Jan was so much younger than I was in those days and I have to admit I wasn’t paying enough attention to her life back then. Amazing how the passage of time makes the years that seemed so wide in youth narrow as we age.
I’m sorry I never saw Jan dance but so happy to have these photos.
