Category Archives: sepia saturday

Dr. Albert B. Cleage and Miss Pearl D. Reed were married at noon Thursday…

Carnival of Genealogy, sepia saturday,
My grandmother, Pearl Doris Reed, was born in Lebanon, Kentucky in 1886.  She the youngest of the seven children of Anna Allen Reed.  Pearl’s father was Buford Averitt, a white physician.  By 1888 Pearl’s oldest brother, George, had moved to Indianapolis Indiana to work at Van Camps cannery. The rest of the family soon followed.
My grandfather Albert Buford Cleage, Sr was born in Louden, Tennessee in 1883.  He was the youngest of the five children of Louis and Celia (Rice) Cleage.  The family eventually moved to Athens Tennessee.  In 1906 he graduated from Knoxville College and moved to Indianapolis to attend Purdue University College of Medicine.  Three of his older siblings were already there.  He moved in with his brother Jacob and his wife Gertrude. His brother Henry also lived in the house.
Albert and Pearl met at church.  They both signed the petition to organize a United Presbyterian Church on April 30, 1907.   Pearl sang in the church choir and also at community and church events.  By the time I heard her sing she had a frail, old voice.  I wish I could have heard her back in her prime.  In 1907 Pearl was 21. Albert was 24.
The courtship lasted for three years. Pearl’s mother was against the relationship because she thought Albert was “too dark”.  Of course this caused problems with them meeting and going anywhere together.  Many letters were exchanged and they met at church functions.  Their houses were about 2.3 miles apart.  It was a straight trolley ride down N. Illinois in those days. Today that would be a 23 minute ride by bus.  I imagine it took a bit longer by trolley in the early 1900s.
As Albert neared the end of his course of study, his thoughts turned to where he would practice and to their marriage.  They set the date for October, 1910.  He graduated in June and as an intern was appointed to the City Hospital. On September 2 he received his Physicians License and on September 29, 1910 Albert and Pearl applied for a marriage license.  Later that day, they were married in a quiet ceremony at Pearl’s house. The Indianapolis Star column “News of Colored Folk” contained this item,
“In the presence of relatives and immediate friends of the two families Dr. Albert B. Cleage, Intern at the City Dispensary and Miss Pearl D. Reed, 2730 Kenwood Avenue were married at noon Thursday. The Rev. D.F. White of the Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church officiated.  Immediately after the ceremony Dr. and Mrs. Cleage left on their wedding tour, during which they will visit the Appalachian Exposition at Knoxville, Tenn., and points farther south.”  The points farther south would have been his family’s home in Athens, Tennessee.
Another piece News of Colored Folk, dated Oct. 2, 1910 said, “The Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church and Sunday school gave a linen shower Friday evening in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Albert Cleage at the home of Mr. and Mrs. R.A. Kelley 1917 Highland Place. Dr. and Mrs. Cleage have returned recently from their bridal trip to Knoxville, Tenn, and are at home at 913 Fayette street.”
The add in the lower corner of the collage above has several pictures of women in traveling suits and big hats. The photograph of my grandmother over it shows her wearing a similar suit and hat, although not quite as flamboyant. Although this photograph was taken later in 1910 at a medical convention, I imagine this is the outfit she wore for her wedding tour. The little blue house is the one they came home to on Fayette street and the photo in the corner shows two women and my grandfather and my very happy looking grandmother at the medical convention later that year.
My grandparents ended up in Detroit where my grandfather practiced medicine and they raised their seven children.  They were together 46 years, until my grandfather’s death in 1956. There are 9 grandchildren, 21 great grandchildren and 20 great great grandchildren.  We’ve spread out over the United States and Canada.
This is a Sepia Saturday offering and an entry in the Fall Marriages Genealogy Carnival.

They Worked at Annis Furs

Detroit, sepia saturday, Turner,
Staff at Annis Furs. My great grandmother Jennie Turner is on the far right, middle row. Next to her is her daughter Alice. Aunt Daisy is right in the center of that middle row, #4.

The staff at Annis Furs in Downtown Detroit. Taken in the 1920’s.  My great grandmother, Jennie Virginia Allen Turner is in the second row, far left. Her daughter Alice is next to her. Skip the next woman and her daughter Daisy is there, 4th from the left.  The three of them got jobs at Annis Furs soon after moving to Detroit from Montgomery, Alabama in 1922.  I remember a little teddy bear Daisy made for my younger cousin Marilyn Elkins out of scraps of real fur. To read more about my Great Grandmother Turner, click Jennie Virginia Allen Turner.

Above is a photograph from the Burton collection at the Detroit Public Library.  The Annis Fur Company is in the corner building. Although this was taken in 1917 I think the area looked pretty much the same 7 years later.  To see a photograph of the Woodward Ave in 1910 click at Shorpy. You can see Annis Fur Post and Grinell Bros Pianos on the left, looking down the crowded street, past the Eureka Vacuum sign.

For more photos of crowds of women and other fascinating subjects, click Sepia Saturday.

Albert B. Cleage Jr. – Album Page

Cleages, sepia saturday

Today I have posted a page from a small photo album that featured a page for each member of my father’s family, plus some family friends. The contact size photos were not very carefully pasted in and are not identified or dated. Judging by the ages of the people, I think they were taken about 1938. Which makes my father, Albert B. Cleage Jr (Also known as “Toddy” to family and friends), 27. The theme this week is a man sleeping while posing for a photograph.

To see another page from the album, click Grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage
To see Sleeping (and other) Sepia Saturday offerings, click HERE.

Births, Deaths,Doctors and Detroit – Part 2

Grahams, sepia saturday,
 
Timeline

As I was transcribing my grandmother Fannie Turner Graham’s  records of her children’s births and deaths, I began to wonder about the lives of Dr. Ames and Dr. Turner (no relation) who attended these events.  As I read about their lives in various online sources I also learned about Detroit race relations, some of which I knew but I had not put them together with the lives of my family and those they knew. I also realized some tie-ins with my paternal Cleage side of the family.  They all get mixed up in this post.

On April 3, 1920  Mary V(irginia)  Graham was born at home with  Dr. Ames attending. My mother, Doris Graham Cleage did not remember him fondly. “It was a very difficult delivery, labor was several days long.  The doctor, whose name was Ames, was a big time black society doctor, who poured too much ether on the gauze over Mother’s face when the time for delivery came.  Mother’s face was so badly burned that everyone, including the doctor, thought she would be terribly scared over at least half of it. But she worked with it and prayed over it and all traces of it went away.  Mary V’s foot was turned inward.  I don’t know if this was the fault of the doctor or not, but she wore a brace for years.”

Dr. James Ames came to Detroit in 1894 after graduating from Straight University in New Orleans and Howard University Medical School in Washington D.C. He was elected to the Michigan State House of Representatives from Wayne County’s 1st district for a two year term, 1901-1902.

In 1900 the total population of Detroit was about 285,704. When my paternal grandparents, Albert B. and Pearl Cleage, moved their family to Detroit in 1915 the black population was about 7,000. By the time my maternal grandfather, Mershell C. Graham, arrived in 1917 the black population had soared to over 30,000.

Black doctors were routinely denied admitting privileges at white hospitals.  This meant their patients had to be admitted to the hospital by a white doctor.  They were sometimes also denied the right to treat their patients once they were admitted.  Often hospitals had segregated wards and once they were full, black patients had to find another hospital.  In 1918, 30 black doctors came together and founded Dunbar Hospital. Dr. Ames was Medical Director and Dr. Alexander Turner was Chief of Surgery.  My grandfather Dr. Albert B. Cleage was one of the doctors. Dr. Ames is first row second from left in the photo of the Dunbar staff above.  My grandfather is first row, last one to the far right.

Fannie Graham’s second child, Mershell C. Graham Jr, was born June 10, 1921 at Dunbar Hospital with Dr. Turner in attendance.  In that same year, membership in the Ku Klux Klan in Detroit totaled 3,000.  The third child, my mother, Doris J. Graham, was born February 12, 1923 at Women’s Hospital with Dr. Turner attending.  By that time membership in the KKK in Detroit was 22,000.  In November of that year between 25,000 and 50,000 Klan members attended a rally in Dearborn township, which is contiguous with Detroit’s west side.

By 1925  Detroit’s total population was growing faster than any other Metropolitan area in the United States, the black population was over 82,000.  Housing segregation was widespread, although there were neighborhoods such as the East Side neighborhood where the Grahams lived that black and white lived together without friction.  Perhaps the area wasn’t posh enough to invite trouble. Maybe the large number of immigrants accounts for it. Unfortunately that was not the story citywide as people began to try and move out of the designated black areas into the other neighborhoods. Families moving into homes they had purchased were met by violent mobs that numbered from the hundreds into the thousands. This happened in 1925 during April, June, twice in July and in September.

An Angry Mob Greets Physician in All-White Neighborhood in 1925
RoNeisha Mullen and Dale Rich The Detroit News
Dr. Alexander Turner College Graduation Photo
In the 1920s, Dr. Alexander Turner was one of the most prominent black doctors in Detroit.  A successful practitioner and surgeon, Turner co-founded Dunbar Memorial Hospital in 1918. The 27-bed hospital had an operating room and catered to Detroit’s black community.  Widely respected, Turner moved easily between Detroit’s black and white worlds. He held appointments at two white hospitals that barred most black doctors. He owned a chain of pharmacies and operated two private offices, and his clientele was 75 percent white.
But none of that mattered when the doctor moved his family into a house on Spokane Avenue, in an all-white neighborhood on the city’s west side.
On June 23, 1925, as Turner, his wife and mother-in-law were moving into their new home, they were greeted by members of the Tireman Avenue Improvement Association — thousands of people carrying rocks, potatoes and garbage, news reports said.
At the time, the neighborhood was off-limits to blacks. And it was common practice for mobs of whites to keep blacks from integrating neighborhoods, said Charles Ransom, a reference librarian at the Graduate Library at the University of Michigan.
The Turners had only been in the home five hours when the group attacked. At gunpoint, two men forced Turner to sign his deed over to them and, with the help of the police, had the Turner family escorted out of the house.
The family returned to Turner’s Warren Avenue home, which contained one of the doctor’s two offices, several bedrooms and a five-car garage. Turner later moved to Ohio, where he died in 1944.
Albert B. Cleage Jr age 15

While writing this I realized that in 1925, my father, Albert B. Cleage Junior, was 14 and attending Northwestern High school with the children of the families that forced Dr. Turner out of his home. The elementary schools for both communities fed into Northwestern High School, which my father and his siblings attended.  No wonder my grandmother Pearl Cleage is famous for going up to the school and fighting segregated seating and other inequalities practiced at the time.  Ironically, in the ’60s when my sister and I were living on Oregon Street, several blocks from where Dr. Turner tried to move in, and attending Northwestern High School, the community was 99 percent black.

On November 1, 1927  Mershell C. Graham Jr was killed when he was hit by a truck on the way back to school after lunch. He was taken to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, a Catholic Hospital on Detroit’s East side. Dr. Turner was there with him when he died.

On September 9, 1928 Howard Alexander Graham was born at Woman’s Hospital with Dr. Alexander Turner attending.  By 1930 Detroit’s population was 1,568,662.  On March 4, 1932, Howard Graham died. I know that his first name was that of Fannie’s father. I wonder if his middle name, Alexander was for Dr. Alexander Turner.

Some links you might find interesting:
Part 1 – Births, Deaths, Doctors and Detroit – Grandmother Fannie’s Notes
The Sweet Trials:  An Account
Click For other Sepia Saturday Posts

Steps

Grahams, sepia saturday, ,

"On our back porch 1959. Kris 13 & Nannie. She's just turned 13."

I look so comfortable leaning into my grandmother.  Nannie was 71.  It was almost back to school time.  One more year ahead at McMicheal Junior High for me. Right now I’m wishing I could  go back there again, even for just one of those Saturdays in my grandparents backyard. 


 For other Sepia Saturday offerings, click HERE.

Theresa Pearl Reed – Sepia Saturday #90

sepia saturday,

On the back of the photograph is says “A Merry Xmas to you all.  Here are some roses for your (faded words – if you can read them let me know!) Your little niece, Theresa P. Reed.”  “Hugh’s daughter.”

Theresa was my grandmother Pearl’s brother Hugh’s youngest daughter.  She was born in Indianapolis, IN in 1914.  There are several other photographs of her as she grew up to about the age of 12 or 13.  Unfortunately I cannot find the family in the 1930 census, although I do find her father later on. Hoping I can find them in the 1940 census and back track.

You can read about Theresa’s father, Hugh Marion Reed by clicking HERE.
You can see more fascinating Sepia Saturday posts by clicking HERE.

Another Photographic Mystery Solved

sepia saturday,

Ubert Conrad Vincent

Sylvia Vincent

Yesterday after talking on the phone with my cousin Jacqui and posting the identities of the people in the formerly mystery photo, I decided to look online for a photograph of Ubert Conrad Vincent as an adult.  Instead I found a newspaper article in The New York Age from Saturday, May 7, 1927 with a photograph of him as a three year old.  As soon as I saw it I realized it was the same small boy in another photograph I had from my grandmother’s collection. It wasn’t labeled or dated, but my mother had written on the back “I don’t know who he is but he’s too pretty to throw away!” I hope this doesn’t mean she was tossing photos of those who weren’t all that pretty.

There was also an unidentified photograph of a little girl that is clearly the same little girl in the family portrait, Sylvia Vincent.

To tie this in with this Sepia Saturday’s theme, corner grocery stores, Conrad and Sylvia’s maternal grandfather was Victor Tulane who, among other businesses, owned a corner grocery store housed in the Tulane building on the corner of High and Ripley streets in Montgomery, AL. I offer several photos of the store from 1919 to 2004 below. For other fine photographs and stories about stores of all kinds and who knows what else click SepiaSaturday.

Trip to Jekyll Island

sepia saturday

Usually I do not post photos from the present but, when I saw the theme for this week’s Sepia Saturday was a Georgia live oak and I had just returned from a trip to Jekell Island, GA with photos of Georgia live oaks with Spanish Moss dripping off of them it was too good to pass up.

My daughter photographing the same live oak. Wish we’d gotten a better shot. Next time.

Corner of the veranda where I sat and waited for my daughter to finish her meetings. Note the live oak in the background.

Daughter in the Atlantic Ocean.

Me in the Atlantic Ocean.

Our toes just touched the water.


The Angel Oak

To finish up, here is a postcard from my collection.  We actually visited this 1,500+ year old oak in 1975 but did not get a photograph!  Hard to believe. Click this link to learn all you ever wanted to know about the Angel Oak.  For other posts of trees of all types click SepiaSaturday.

Jeanette McCall McEwen

Allen, sepia saturday

Cousins Annie Lee and Jeanette with their sons.

 With youngest son.

  Jeanette and husband Robert


Jeanette was born on February 18, 1897 in Montgomery, Alabama. She was the youngest of the six children of Edward and Mary (Allen) McCall.  Her oldest brother, James McCall was the blind poet in She was owned before the war by…. Her father, Edward McCall, was the cook and turn-key at the city jail. Her mother, Mary Allen McCall, was a seamstress.  Jeanette attended Alabama State Normal school, a primary through high school for African Americans in Montgomery that all of her siblings and cousins attended.

Jeanette’s best friend was Stella Brown, who later married her older brother Roscoe McCall. Jeanette attended Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi and met her husband, Robert Anderson McEwen there.  By 1920 Robert and Jeanette were married and living in Chicago as roomers.  On January 2, 1920 she gave birth to her first son, Robert Jr.  Robert Sr. worked at the post office.  By the time their second son, Raymond, was born  on December 16, 1923, Robert was a dental student.  Jeanette did not work outside of the home.

By 1930 Robert was a dentist.  Jeanette died December 22, 1931.  I do not know the cause of death yet. You may see another photograph of Jeanette here.  Robert remarried before 1938 to Ethel, last name unknown at this time. He died June 29, 1938.   You can see more car related (or not) Sepia Saturday offerings here.