Category Archives: sepia saturday

The Rev. John Brice Officiating

January 30, 2015African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Cleages, sepia saturday#Athens, #Lewis CleageKristin

athens overview wide — View of Athens, Tennessee, early 1920s

Lewis_cleage_obit — “Lewis Cleage of Athens, Tenn. who has been with his son, Jacob Cleage, of this city, for nearly two years, died Thursday afternoon at the city hospital, where he was taken Wednesday. The funeral services were conducted today at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Josie Cleage 1323 Massachusetts avenue at 2 o’clock. The Rev. John Brice officiating. Besides a daughter, Mr. Cleage is survived by four sons, Dr. Albert Cleage of Detroit, Henry and Jacob Cleage of this city and Edward Cleage of Athens, Tenn. The body will be taken to Athens for burial.”

I recently received this obituary for my great grandfather Louis Cleage. I noticed several things. First, he was not taken to Athens for burial. He is buried in an unmarked grave in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis pictured here. He lived in Indianapolis for two years before his death. And I wondered, who was Rev. John Brice? Had he been pastor at Witherspoon United Presbyterian, the Cleages church? Was he from their hometown, Athens, Tennessee? Here is what I learned.

John Brice was born in 1878 in Knox County Tennessee the 7th of the nine children of Hampton and Harriett Brice. Exceptional for these times they owned their own land. Although they were illiterate, all of their children attended school and learned to read and write. John attended Knoxville College Normal, graduating in 1899. He finished the Baccalaureate program in 1904 and graduated from Knoxville Seminary in 1909. He met his wife Ella Hawkins there. My grandfather, Albert B. Cleage Sr. attended Knoxville College during this same time, graduating in 1906.

In 1910 Rev. John Brice was pastor of First United Presbyterian Church in Athens, Tennessee. He roomed one house over from my great grandmother Celia Rice Cleage Sherman and her family, which included her second husband Roger Sherman (who is listed as an architect for First United Presbyterian Church), son Edward and his wife and two children, along with eight year old grandson Richard. My grandfather, his two other brothers and his sister and her family were already living in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Brice wasn’t pastor in Athens very long. By 1912 he was married and pastor of Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. My grandparents and my grandfather’s brothers were some of the founders of Witherspoon. Brice’s three youngest children were born in Indianapolis.

He served as a chaplain in France during WW 1. Following the war he taught and pastored in Alcoa, Tennessee. Alcoa was a company town set up by Alcoa Aluminum. They used cheap southern labor, black and white. When things fell apart as far as the vision that some of the professional black people on staff had hoped to implement, Brice moved to North Carolina to teach and work at the Palmer Memorial Institute, founded and run by his wife’s niece, Charlotte Hawkins.

Charlotte Hawkins Brown & Palmer Memorial Institute: What One Young African Could Do By Charles Weldon Wadelington, Richard F. Knapp

Rev. Brice died around 1960. A long time family friend and DNA relative has alerted me to John Brice’s death certificate on Ancestry.com. It also turns out that my dna cousin is related to John Brice’s grandson, Guion Stewart Bluford Jr.

Of his four children, three had careers in music. The youngest, Carol Brice had a career in opera. Johnathan and Eugene often accompanied her on the piano and also had careers of their own. Daughter Lolita Brice was an educator and married engineer Guion Stewart Bluford Sr. Their youngest son was Guion Stewart Bluford Jr, who was the first black astronaut, in spite of his high school counselor in the 1960s advising him to take up a trade because he wasn’t college material.

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I have not seen him since the war

January 24, 2015African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, sepia saturdayKristin

While looking through the 1894 very fragile copy of The Freeman, I came across a column called Lost Relatives. There were many columns like this after the Civil War where people wrote hoping to find family members – mothers, brothers, sisters, children – that were sold away to other plantations. This column was written 29 years after the war and people were still hoping to find their loved ones. It must have been amazing to find your mother looking for you when you never expected to see her again. When you didn’t know if she was dead or alive. The emotions I feel finding my long dead ancestors in wills and census charts, pales by comparison. Click to enlarge.

For more information about the Lost! newspaper items, go to this link Lost! African American Search Notices After Slavery.

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“Anthropoid, anthropoid, don’t kill me yet!”

January 8, 2015Cleages, sepia saturday#Henry Cleage, #Louis Jacob Cleage, #Old Plank, #Pearl CleageKristin

My sister Pearl as the anthropoid, about 1961 at Old Plank.

My family had a tradition of chasing the children around while acting like a monster. My Uncle Louis was the master and didn’t need any sort of mask or costume to send us screaming into the lake at Idlewild. He just twisted up his face and hands and came towards us and that was it.

My uncle Henry got the mask above from somewhere and incorporated that into the scary chases. You had to holler out “Anthropoid, anthropoid, don’t kill me yet!” when he got too close, in order to escape. Aside from putting on the mask for photo ops, I remember once time we put it on, wrapped in a blanket and sat on the lawn toward the road where we hoped to scare drivers passing the house. I don’t remember any wrecks so I guess no harm was done.

By the time my children came along, my cousin Warren used to take them on a bear hunt. I remember one time that he worked it out with another cousin to be out in the woods where he drove and stopped and told the kids, who as I remember were in the back of a pickup with a camper, that they were waiting there to see the bear. The other cousin starting growling and knocking on the truck and finally my cousin drove off, it was dark or almost dark. He said they had a close escape. Later, when we were all inside, the other cousin came around tapping on the windows. The bear!

My cousin and me playing in the sand during the visit Louis chased her into the lake. — My cousin and I playing on the beach in Idlewild. During the visit my uncle Louis chased her into the lake. July 1955.

Nobody was terrified of the bears or monsters, well maybe my cousin Barbara who did run into the lake, but mostly it was the enjoyable kind of being scared while knowing you are safe.

Two Men In Hats – about 1918

January 3, 2015Grahams, sepia saturday#Mershell C. GrahamKristin

Mystery friend of my grandfather Mershell C. Graham.

Another fine friend of my grandfather. Unfortunately also another unlabeled photograph. I think it was taken in Montgomery, Alabama around 1917 or so. You can see the scotch tape my grandmother used to fasten the pictures in the black paged album.

My grandfather Mershell "Shell" Graham. — My grandfather Mershell “Shell” Graham.

This photograph of my grandfather was taken in the same place as the one of his friend above. Wherever that may be is lost in the mists of time.

Detroit Cowboys, Then and Now

December 6, 2014Cleages, sepia saturday#Ernest Martin, #Warren EvensKristin

ernie_on_horse — Cousin Ernest riding his rocking horse, holding his revolver and pointing at the Rhododendrons in my grandmother Cleage’s backyard on Atkinson.

Riding the range as an adult. — Cousin Ernest riding the range as an adult.

Another post about Cousin Ernest – What Is Ernest Doing Now?

warren_cowboy — Cousin Warren back again this week in his cowboy attire. Could be the same Christmas as last weeks. He isn’t wearing his hat, but he had one.

Warren riding in recent times. — Cousin Warren and his horse in recent times.

Other posts about Cousin Warren – Warren’s Christmas Birthday Party, Warren Evens, Then and Now, A Silhouette of Cousin Warren

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A Silhouette of Cousin Warren

November 22, 2014sepia saturday#Warren EvansKristin

Here is a silhouette of my cousin Warren Evans in about 1951. He was born in 1948 and looks about 3 to me. I don’t know who did the cutting, as there is no signature.

A few years later Warren and his brother Dale at Christmas time with a horse under the tree.

Fast Forwarding to November 2014 Warren Evans was elected Wayne County CEO with 72% of the vote.

Earlier posts about Warren: Warren Evans – Then and Now and Warren’s Christmas Birthday Party.

Carrying The Damsel – 1939

November 13, 2014sepia saturday#MeadowsKristin

Last week while looking for a photograph of a fisherman for Sepia Saturday, I came across this photograph of a man carrying a woman on a sandbar in the river or creek that ran through the Meadows. I talked about the Meadows in last weeks Sepia Saturday post Hugh Fishing At the Meadows.

I don’t know who the couple is but I have put out a call and will post the information if/when I get it. Here is a photo of the same couple walking through the Meadows.

And here is a photograph of them walking on a ridge, the sky behind, the future before, and now so very far in the past.

Hugh Fishing At the Meadows

November 7, 2014Cleages, sepia saturday#Hugh Cleage, #MeadowsKristin

I have used some of this information before but the photographs are all first timers.

These photographs were taken at “The Meadows” near Capac, St Clair County, Michigan around 1939.

My Aunt Gladys remembers that her father Dr. Albert B. Cleage Sr and a bunch of fellow doctors bought it. It was to be a place where everyone could get away and the kids could meet and play… big house on the property with a porch that wrapped around 2/3 of the house… dances on the porches… near Capac Michigan… they sold it later. She kind of remembers parties on the porch… a getaway other than the Boule or Idlewild … her brothers and their friends spending a couple weeks at the meadows during the summer and brother Louis packing the provisions.

Hugh at meadows — “Hugh at Meadows” fishing with a homemade stick pole. I wonder if he caught the fish on the string below with that pole.

Hugh fish meadows 7:1939 — This photograph of Hugh was also taken at the Meadows in July 1939.

Some entries about the Meadows from Hugh’s brother Henry’s diary, several years earlier in 1936.

August 29 Meadows
Arrived at meadows at about 7:30 (getting dark) Had seen Velma before I left – I have her ring now – after had gotten our trunk in – we went down to creek – other’s brought some wood up and started a fire – I stayed down watching the creek and the farm – as it was dark they worried and came and got me.

August 30 Meadows
Sunday Richard’s club gave a picnic – we played ball off and on all day. Daddy came out and brought Bobby – wrote two letters – Velma and Carolyn. Bobby deliver them.

Last night when the others were in bed Morrow, George, Paul, Hugh and I sat around camp fire and sang – Nice but a little chilly (Benard’s parents came out)

Henry Cleage at the Meadows in July 1939.

August 31 Meadows
After breakfast some of us went swimming – after that we all worked on a raft till dinner – chopped heavy logs from a fallen tree – tied together with grape vines and barrel wire – after dinner went & christened it “Frogy Bottom” & launched it – it immediately sank – logs were too heavy – were we mortified – the same group sat around the campfire again sang after dark.

September 1 Meadows
“Gee! but I’m blue, and so lonely, I don’t know what to do, but dream of you!” (a song I like to sing out here)

Boys are playing horse shoes just after dinner – we fished and swam today – George caught a pretty large bass and I, trying to throw him across river to Morocco – threw him in.

I like to get on the hill and look down towards the creek in the evening and watch – The other nite I was there, Morocco, George, Hugh and Benard were chopping wood. Louis and Paul were sitting further down the hill with their arms full of wood – It was almost nite – The faint light from the west gave the scene a surreal quality – The grass uneven, the rolling land, the giant trees, the creek, all outlined in this light and the boys too reminded me of an illustration in the book “Tom Browns School Days.”

2014.10W.05 — To see more Sepia Saturday posts, CLICK!

Home Coming Banquet -1966

October 31, 2014Detroit, sepia saturdayKristin

October is Home Coming Month for the church I grew up in. At the time of this banquet on October 9, 1966, the church was known as Central United Church of Christ. Later it became the Shrine of the Black Madonna. Looking over the room, I can’t find myself. I was a junior at Wayne State University and lived at home so I don’t know why I wasn’t there. Maybe I just made myself scarce during picture making. Or maybe I had a lot of homework due the following Monday and pleaded out. I don’t remember ever helping serve or dish up the food. Now that I think of it though, I don’t see my cousin Jan either. Where were we? My sister Pearl was a freshman at Howard in DC so that explains her absence. But enough rambling.

The Banquet is taking place in the Fellowship Hall immediately after the morning service. Services started at 11:30AM. My father preached for about an hour so 1 really would be right after the service. The sermon that week was a part of a Series that extended over several weeks. Women are circulating around bringing plates to the table. Unfortunately there is no clock showing in these photos, so we don’t know what time it was.

By banquet time the next year, after the 1967 Detroit Riot, there would be afro hair styles here and there. This year there are quite a few hats, everybody still in their Sunday best, eating and waiting. There are real plates and glasses and silverware being used. I wonder if there was a dishwasher in the kitchen or if after waiting table the women washed all those dishes by hand.

When — I see my mother, Doris Graham Cleage (with the white blouse) and aunt Gladys Cleage Evans (sleeveless dark top) over at the window to pick up plates to serve the waiting crowd.

My uncles Henry and Winslow with my little Grandmother Cleage in the hat and my Aunt Anna.

My father's Sermon Notes. — My father’s Sermon Notes for that Sunday morning.

Annabell Washington 1966 — Ms Annabell Washington serving plates. She was one of the advisors for the youth fellowship. She later retired to Tybee Island, off of Georgia and became an artist, a painter.

grace & Jimmy boggs 1966 — Grace and Jimmy Boggs chatting with fellow diners while they all wait to be served.

Ed Vaughn, founder of Vaughn's Books. Sitting a few seats away on the left is Arthur Smith who later took an African name, but I can't remember it right now. — Ed Vaughn, founder of Vaughn’s Books. Sitting a few seats away on the left is Arthur Smith who later took an African name, but I can’t remember it right now. I wonder if the people at this end of the table had been waiting a long time for their food.

homecoming menu 1967 — I do not have the menu for the 1966 Banquet but it was probably similar to this one from 1967, except I think they had chicken.

Church dinner in the Fellowship Hall. — At the far end of this table was my family – on the left we see Henry Cleage, Winslow Shreve, Ernest Martin and Dale Evans with his eyes closed. On the other side is my Aunt Anna Shreve and her daughter Anna with glasses.

church_supper_anniversary — Mr. Perryman at the head of the table. To his right is Oscar Hand, I don’t recognize the next man, then my father, then a man, I suppose, from the United Church of Christ Associateion, Rev Webb and his wife giving the photographer a very firm look.

And from that day’s service “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” sung by Mahilia Jackson. Of course she didn’t sing at our service but this is the same version we used.

2014.09W.17 — For more Sepia Saturday offerings, CLICK!

Anti-Police Brutality Demonstration – 1963

October 23, 2014Detroit, Newsletters, sepia saturday#Albert B. Cleage Jr, #Louis CleageKristin

Police brutality was a problem in 1963, as it is today. Today I am sharing an issue of the Illustrated News that covered a demonstration held in front of the Detroit police station, then at 1300 Beaubien. The protest was against the killing of Cynthia Scott, an unarmed woman. She was shot in the back. The demonstration was peaceful and there was no interference by the police. The article says there were 2,500 people at the protest. Also “We wonder if a grand jury investigation might not clear the air and throw some light upon the police brutality practiced on Negroes and why such shootings never come to trial.” And that is something people are still wondering today. There was no investigation and the officer was not charged. Click on all pages to enlarge enough to read them.