For this year’s A to Z Challenge, I will be posting an event for that date involving someone in my family tree. Of course it will also involve the letter of the day. It may be a birth, a death, a christening, a journal entry, a letter or a newspaper article. If the entry is a news item, it will be transcribed immediately below. Click on photographs to enlarge in another window.
Henry, Albert Jr. (my father) Albert Sr, Gladys
Detroit Free Press April 18, 1924 page 15
Cleage family going to church.
Were there Easter baskets back in the 1920s? Yes there were. You could get fillers or buy a ready made basket. I remember my Grandmother Pearl Cleage gave us ready made Easter Baskets in the 1950s .
Hudson’s Department Store – Detroit Free Press Wednesday, April 02, 1924
One hundred years ago, it was Easter Sunday and my father and his family were ready for church. They were members of St. John’s Presbyterian church, in Detroit, Michigan. My grandparents Albert and Pearl Cleage were founding members. Just a few weeks ago, I wrote about my Cleage family 100 years ago. You can read it at THE CLEAGES 100 YEARS AGO – 1925.
Warren Cleage EvansHead nurse, Mrs. Turner and Dr. Eddie Evans 1952Gladys holding baby Warren on a trip home. Sister Barbara stooping down.
In the 1950 Census Eddie and Gladys (Cleage) Evans and their one year old son Warren, were living in Tuskegee, Alabama on the campus of the Tuskegee Institute. The U.S. Army Air Corps had established a training program at Tuskegee in 1941. That is where the Tuskegee Airmen were trained.
All three were identified as Negro. Eddie and Gladys were both 27 years old. Eddie Evans had been born in Alabama and had worked 70 hours the previous week as a resident doctor of internal medicine at the Tuskegee Veterans Administration Hospital. This hospital opened in 1923 and was the first and only staffed by Black professionals.
Glady Cleage Evans was born in Michigan. She had not worked outside of the home in the past weeks and was listed as “H” – being home. Her hours of work in the home were not counted. She was also listed as having an occupation as an art teacher in an elementary school, even though she was not at present engaged in it.
There was a note concerning their address, which was given as “8th house on right”. The note said: 2) Line 28, items 3, 8th House on right from Lincoln Gates on Franklin Road was omitted to meet schedule given the serial number 47. It was later discovered this house had 5 dwellings units. These units were given the lowest unused serial number beginning with 58 to 61 inclusive, with no. 62 given to unit 50 – last available no.
Lincoln Gate is the main gate into Tuskegee Institute. Franklin road goes around the edge.
Warren Cleage Evans was one of the numbers that were enlarged upon at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, since he was only one year old, he did not really have any information to enlarge upon.
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.
Michigan Chronicle, February 8, 1947. Front page
“Hugh, Gladys and Anna Cleage of Scotten took their share of places in the annual city ice skating meet which was held at Belle Isle last Sunday afternoon. Anna won first place and a gold medal in the Senior girls’ novice; Gladys, third in the same event and a gold medal. Hugh competed in the men’s 220 and two-mile events.”
Years later, my aunt Anna told me that the story was wrong. She actually came in third and Gladys won the race. She remembered taking an early lead in the race but soon falling behind as Gladys easily over took her. One reason might have been that Anna kept looking over her shoulder to see Gladys smiling as she gained on her. They learned to skate at the Northwestern High School skating rink, which was a few blocks from their home on Scotten Avenue. Years later, my sister and I also learned to skate there.
The Michigan Chronicle, February 8, 1947
After being asked how two gold medals were given, I looked for more news articles that would set the record straight. Unfortunately, I found none. I can only suppose that the Chronicle got it wrong and only 1st place winner, Gladys Cleage got a gold medal. Third place winner Anna Cleage should have received a bronze metal.
I did find two articles, one tells that there was a meet. The other mentions a Northwestern High School student who won an earlier national meet.
Detroit Free Press, Sun, Feb 02, 1947 · Page 1
The Detroit Tribune, Sat, Feb 01, 1947 · Page 10
John James, Junior, of Northwestern High School, became the first Negro ever to win a championship in a North American or nation meet when he won the Intermediate two-mile event in the DETROIT NEWS sponsored North American Meet at Belle Isle on Sunday. James, a 16-year-old Northwestern Junior, is also a bike racer of local repute.
My grandmother Pearl Cleage holding my baby Aunt Gladys.
Gladys Helen Cleage, the sixth of the seven children of Albert B. and Pearl (Reed) Cleage, was born on September 29, 1922 at home on Scotten. Gladys attended Wingert Elementary School with her siblings when she turned six in 1928. She was eight years old when the decade ended.
My Aunt Gladys and I used to walk a mile in the evenings when we both lived in Idlewild in the 1980s. She told me that one year she had been sick so much that her father decided she would stay home the following school year. She was looking forward to it, but over the summer her health improved and she had to go to school after all.
Gladys also told me that she liked to play with dolls but neither of her sisters really cared for dolls so she would have to beg them to play, which happened rarely.
Barbara and grandmother Celia Rice Cleage Sherman – 1921
Gladys and Barbara – 1923.
Barbara and Gladys
Barbara, Hugh and Henry
Hugh, Anna, Gladys, Barbara – 1927
Barbara, Albert ,Gladys, mother Pearl, Anna, father Albert about 1928
The photographs used in this series are from my personal collection. Please do not use without my express permission.
Barbara Pearl Cleage was the fifth child and first daughter born to the Cleages. She was also the first child born in the house on Scotten Avenue. She was born at home on July 10, 1920.
She soon grew taller than her older brother, Hugh. This made her self conscious until a dressmaker, Mrs. Chase, convinced her that she was very good looking. Barbara always looks quite stylish in her photos, even when a young girl. When I mentioned seeing her in a photo of “The Social Sixteen”, a group of young people that included my mother and her sister who met at each others homes and held dances and other social events, she said that they only let her in because of her older brothers.
Barbara was featured as person of the month in our family news letter, The Ruff Draft. My children put it out for family and friends during our homeschooling years.
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This little magazine was published by some of the same people that published Crisis Magazine when Barbara was only a few months old. The purpose was to provide positive images and stories for African American school children.
Published Monthly and Copyrighted by DuBois and Dill, Publishers, at 2 West 13th Street, New York, N. Y. Conducted by W. E. Burghardt DuBois; Jessie Redmon Fauset, Literary Editor; Augustus Granville Dill, Business Manager
Three of my father’s six siblings, Hugh, Gladys and Anna Cleage. February 8, 1947
“Hugh, Gladys and Anna Cleage of Scotten took their share of places in the annual city ice skating meet which was held at Belle Isle last Sunday afternoon. Anna won first place and a gold medal in the Senior girls’ novice; Gladys, third in the same event and a gold medal. Hugh competed in the men’s 220 and two-mile events.”
This article is from one of the Detroit daily papers and is undated, but I would place it in the early 1940s. Years later when I was talking about this photo with my aunt Anna, she said that the story was wrong and that actually she came in third and Gladys won the race. She remembered taking an early lead in the race but soon falling behind as Gladys easily over took her. They learned to skate at the Northwestern High School skating rink, which was a few blocks from their home on Scotten. When my sister and I were in high school at Northwestern in the early 1960s we skated at the same rink. We got racing skates because Hugh and Gladys were so cool skating on the Lagoon at Belle Isle, but we were never gold medal material. The old Northwestern High School is no longer there. It was torn down and a new school was build where the skating rink used to be.
Cabral, Ife, Tulani and James skating.
In 1986 my husband and I moved to Idlewild, Michigan with our children. We lived on Idlewild Lake. When it was frozen we skated right in front of the house. Hugh and Gladys could still skate circles around us. During the summer when Gladys and I walked around the Lake, people from Detroit’s Old West Side would stop us to ask if she was the skating champion. She was in her early 60s. This week I wish I had some skates. It would make it so much easier to get around frozen Atlanta. Above is a picture of four of my children skating on Idlewild Lake about 1990. To see more Sepia Saturday offerings click here.
Geraldine Cleage Hill, Hildred Evans, Paul Payne, Dr. Albert B. Cleage Sr, Hugh Cleage, Barbara Cleage, Anna Cleage, Louis Cleage
I found another two articles about Eddie Evans and Gladys Cleage. This one tells a little more about what the happy couple was doing before the wedding. It also mentions more friends of the family, including Dr. Gamble and his wife who were old family friends of my grandparents. I came across my uncle Hugh’s birth certificate the other day and noticed that Dr. Gamble delivered him. He also signed the death certificate for my grandmother’s brother George Reed when he died in Detroit in 1945. Dr. Gamble died later in 1948. Here is a link to a speech my grandfather delivered at his funeral service.
Dr. Gamble in front of Freedman’s Hospital. My grandparents on the steps.
I found the missing paragraphs online in The Detroit Tribune, April 3, 1948.
My father’s sister, Gladys Helen Cleage was married to Eddie Warren Evans on Thursday, March 25, 1948 at Plymouth Congregational Church by Rev. Horace White in Detroit, Michigan. There were descriptions of the wedding gown and of the brides maids gowns. Unfortunately the last several lines of the article have been lost to the passage of time so we have to guess at the color and particulars of the brides maids dresses. It was mentioned that the grooms sister wore a violet gown. I wonder if the brides sister’s dresses were rose because the theme of roses and violets. But would they dress in rose and carry red roses?
The article misspelled Cleage as “Cleague” a few times, while also spelling it correctly several times. A typo made Paul’s last name of “Payne”, “Cayne”.
Geraldine Cleage Hill, Hildred Evans, Paul Payne, Dr. Albert B. Cleage Sr, Hugh Cleage, Barbara Cleage, Anna Cleage, Louis Cleage.Plymouth Congregational Church, the original building on the East side of Detroit.
The original Northwestern High School stood on the corner of Grand River and West Grand Blvd in Detroit. It was built in 1911.
When I finished writing up this post, I googled Northwestern High School and found the following statement in an online article from 2011 about school closures in Detroit:
“The academic program at Northwestern High School will close and the Detroit Collegiate Preparatory High School program will relocate from the east wing of Northwestern into the main academic part of the facility. Because of the importance of the Northwestern name to DPS and the community, this new program will be called Detroit Collegiate Preparatory High School at Northwestern.”
So, like so many other places of importance in my early life in Detroit, Northwestern High is no more. The original building was replaced in 1980 and the school was closed in 2011. So many of my family attended high school at Northwestern, some just for a year or two. Here is something about those who graduated, starting with Alberta Cleage in 1927 and ending with my sister Pearl in 1966.
Click on any image to enlarge.
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Cousin Alberta Cleage, my grandfather’s brother Edward’s daughter, came up from Athens Tennessee to stay with her Uncle Albert and his family and graduated from Northwestern High School in 1927.
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My uncle Louis Cleage graduated Cum Laude in 1931 and appeared in a picture of the physics lab, right there lower right, first desk. Advertisements for his medical practice appeared in the Norwester in 1941 and 1942.
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Henry Cleage appears in a photograph of the orchestra in 1933 and as a graduating senior in 1934. He is in the back row, 4th from the left with his cello.
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My uncle Hugh Cleage graduated in 1936, unfortunately that yearbook is missing.
Hugh Cleage
My aunt Barbara Cleage graduated in summer school in August of 1938
Barbara Cleage
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My aunt Gladys Cleage graduated in 1939. In the photo on the right Gladys is standing in front of the back steps. You can see Henry over her right shoulder. Not sure who the other two are but my grandmother Pearl is looking through the screen door.
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My cousin Geraldine Cleage, Uncle Henry Cleage’s daughter graduated in 1940. They lived a few blocks from my grandparent’s house on Scotten.
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Anna Cleage graduated from Northwestern in 1942 and appeared in the Norwester and in 1947 in the yearbook when she graduated from Wayne State University.
Anna’s Wayne State University graduation photograph from 1947.
I, Kristin Cleage, graduated from Northwestern in 1964.
That is me in the middle, 2nd row. I pretty much looked like that throughout my high school career. I did not take a senior photo and didn’t plan to go to my graduation, but did end up going. Do not remember a thing about it.
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Pearl Michelle Cleage 1966 graduate
My sister Pearl Cleage graduated from Northwestern in 1966.
Pearl gave the valedictorian speech at her graduation. Jim advised her to speak out against the war in Vietnam. She was horrified at the thought and regrets now that she did not do it.
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Several family members attended Northwestern for part of their four year high school career and then transferred to other schools. Some were Ruth Cleage, Shelton Hill, Ernest Martin and Betty Floyd.
The new Northwestern High School, dedicated in 1980, stood down the street from the old site on West Grand Blvd.
Bonzo, MV and Doris Graham. August 1932. Backyard of Theodore, Detroit,MI
My mother Doris and her sister Mary Virginia with their dog Bonzo. The picture was taken in August 1932, about 6 months after their brother Howard died of Scarlet Fever. Mary V. was 12 and Doris was 9. The sisters were granddaughters of Jennie Virginia Allen Turner, who was the daughter of Dock and Eliza Allen. My mother later had a sister-in-law named Gladys Cleage, who will celebrate her 93rd birthday this Saturday. I could not find a photograph of her with a sister and a dog, but here she is with sister Anna.
Gladys and Anna Cleage, about 1930 beside their home on Scotten, Detroit.
Gladys and Anna were the grandchildren of Lewis and Anna Cecilia Cleage, and great granddaughters of Frank and Juda Cleage of Athens, TN.
