Tag Archives: #Henry William Cleage

Z – Zealously Founding A New Church

A-Z Challenge 2025, Cleages, Indianapolis

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 William Cleage

The Founding of Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church

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.
April 30, 1907 • Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, USA
This is from a history of Witherspoon church that used to be on the church website, but no longer is there.

Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 May 1907 page 2

A called meeting of the Presbytery of Indiana of the United Presbyterian church met in this city at Realty hall Tuesday night and organized a colored organization with thirty one members. Dr. H. L. Hummons, Henry W. Cleage and Thomas H. Bransford were elected Elders. Dr. J. Pl Cowan of the Woodruff Place United Presbyterian church was elected moderator of the session and will have charge of the organization until a minister can be secured. There will be preaching at Realty hall Sunday afternoon at 4:00 p.m.

Members of the Presbytery present were Prof. David Graham, of Rushville, moderator, W. W. McCall of Greensburg.

_____________

The Indianapolis News, Indianapolis, Indiana • Sat, May 11, 1907 Page 3

I didn’t realize until I was working on this post that Henry W. Cleage’s two year old daughter died of broncho pneumonia one day after he was involved in the founding of Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church. Martha Christina Cleage had been born in Indianapolis, Indiana October 10, 1904. She was named for her maternal grandmother Martha Loving .

Henry’s wife Minnie Loving Cleage, died sometime after the daughter was born and before her death. The only evidence I have found of her in Indianapolis, aside from her daughter being born there, is an unclaimed letter in the post office in 1905.

The Indianapolis News, Indianapolis, Indiana · Saturday, November 02, 1907

Special ordination exercises were held at the Witherspoon United Presbyterian church Sunday evening. The Rev. J. P. Cowan assisted the Rev. C. W. McCall, pastor, in the services in which Henry W. Cleage was ordained a ruling elder of the church. The following have been elected trustees: Philip Tasch, James Meyers and O. Finley.

Witherspoon History – Witherspoon Presbyterian Church webpage
H is for Henry William Cleage
H is for Henry Hummons

W – Witherspoon Celebrates 40th Anniversary

A-Z Challenge 2025, Cleages, Indianapolis, ,

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, Gertrude, Ola and Pearl Cleage, 1947 photo from my family archives

We visited the Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church in 1910 on their third anniversary in U – United Presbyterian Congregation Celebrates. Today we move forward to 1947 and the 40th anniversary. My family founders have traveled from Detroit back to Indianapolis for the event. They have aged from their twenties to their sixties in the photo above. Some have died – Jacob and Edward Cleage. More have been born. My grandparents have seven children. Henry and Ola have two. Once again my grandfather is speaking.

The Indianapolis News Indianapolis, Indiana • Sat, Apr 26, 1947 Page 11

The Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church will observe its 40th founders day Sunday with all-day services. The pastor, the Rev. Clinton Marsh, will speak at 11 a. m. Dr. A.B. Cleage, Detroit, who was among the early members of the church, will be guest speaker at 7:30 p. m. Dr. J. L. Hummons, who was organizer and founder of the beginning group, will be master of ceremonies. Before the address by Dr. Cleage there will be a brief sketch of the history of the church, which was moved from North West and Walnut Streets to the present site about 15 years ago. Among former out-of-town members expected are- Mrs. A.B. Cleage and Henry Cleage. an active member of the church and leader in its activities until he transferred from a federal position here to Detroit several years ago.
The Indianapolis News Indianapolis, Indiana • Sat, Apr 26, 1947 Page 11

For Z we will go back to the founding of Witherspoon. Luckily for me, they were founded in April and continued to celebrate through the years.

___________

Other posts related to Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church.

Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church – 1909
John Wesley Cobb 1883 – 1958
The Rev. John Brice Officiating
H is for Henry Hummons
Presbyterian Church Connections in the Cleage Family

Athens Teachers – 1894

Cleages, sepia saturday, Tennessee
Teachers at Athens Tennessee Academy.

This information came from an article in an unnamed newspaper sent to me several years ago. To read the full article about the Athens Academy from The Athens Post, 21 December 1894. Page 22 – see Athens Tennessee Academy  Henry William Cleage – 1894

STANDING LEFT TO RIGHT

MISS M. LEA JONES
a native of Dallas, Texas, attended Knoxville College for a number of years. She received her appointment as intermediate teacher to the Athens Mission in the Spring of 1900.

HENRY W. CLEAGE
is a native of Athens. He entered and finished the course of the Athens Academy under Rev. Cook’s administration. He then attended Knoxville College. His teaching one year at Riceville gave him his first ideas of the practical side of the profession in which he is now engaged. At present he is a member of the corps of instructors of the Academy of Athens.

MRS. MINNIE J. ARTER
in childhood enjoyed the advantages of the public schools of Americus, Ga., her native home. After graduating from Knoxville College, she taught seven years in the city schools of Americus and seven years in the mission schools in Alabama. She is now in charge of the teachers’ home and parsonage.

PROF. COLLIER
all of Mr. Collier’s instructors in his youth, except one, both in and out of the Atlanta University, were teachers from the North. He was graduated from the State Normal School at Fayeteville, N. C. Mr. Collier’s experience extends from the rural district to the principalship of graded schools. He is at present substitute teacher in the Athens Academy. Mr. Collier is in very feeble health.

SEATED LEFT TO RIGHT

MRS. MINNIE B. CLEAGE
is not in the profession now, but she finished the course at the Academy of Athens, and was a student at Knoxville several years. She is now the wife of Henry W. Cleage.

JAMES W. FISHER
attended the public graded schools of Eufaula, Ala, his home town, during most of his boyhood. He next attended Knoxville College in which he pursued his studies for five years. He was in charge of the Mt. Zion District school in Alabama for three years. His present position is assistant principal of the Athens Academy.

REV. JOHN T. ARTER,
principal of the Athens Academy, is a graduate of the class of ’95, Knoxville College; also of the class of ’98, Alleghany Theological Seminary. For two years he served at Catherine, Ala., as pastor of the U. P. (United Presbyterian) Church. He now has charge of the Athens U. P. church.

MRS. LOUISE COLLIER
entered the City School In Savannah GA when quite a child. Later she attended the Atlanta University for a number of years. While yet in school she accepted a position as teacher near Americas, GA. She afterwards taught in the city graded schools of Americus where she continued to teach for seventeen years, resigning there to accept her present position in Athens.

MISS CHRISTIANITA TOTTEN
of the Danish West Indies, came to this country in 1891, entered Knoxville College and graduated from the Normal department in 1885, after which she taught in the Missions for Freedmen for six years. She is now in charge of the sewing department and is very active in the mission work of Athens.

Related Posts


H is for Henry William Cleage

For more sepia saturday posts, click

H is for Henry William Cleage

A-Z Challenge 2013
Teachers at Athens Academy.
a-to-z-letters-h

This is my eighth post for the April A-Z Challenge. I am going to write about my Great Uncle Henry William Cleage. He was born about 1877, in Louden County, Tennessee, the third child of Louis and Celia (Rice) Cleage.   The family moved to Athens where he attended Athens Academy, which was organized by northern Presbyterian missionaries. His parents divorced before 1889, when Celia married Roger Sherman. 

Henry W. Cleage

is a native of Athens. He entered and finished the course of the Athens Academy under Rev. Cook’s administration.  He then attended Knoxville College.  His teaching one year at Riceville gave him his first ideas of the practical side of the profession n which he is now engaged.  At present he is a member of the corps of instructors of the Academy of Athens.

Mrs. Minnie B. Cleage

is not in the profession now, but she finished the course at the Academy of Athens, and was a student at Knoxville several years.  She is now the wife of Henry W. Cleage.

From an unidentified Athens, TN newspaper 1900-1901.
The former 910, now 914 Fayette.

In 1900 Henry married his first wife Minnie B. Loving, August 20, 1900. His son, Richard Henry Cleage was born the following year.  Their daughter, Martha Christina Cleage, was born in 1904 in Indianapolis. She died there in 1907. Her mother Minnie died between 1904 and 1907. In 1910, we find Henry Cleage living in Indianapolis with his older brother, Jacob and Jacob’s wife.  Richard was in Athens, TN with his grandmother.

Henry worked at the post office during most of the time he lived in Indianapolis. He and his brothers Jacob, his brother’s wife and his younger brother, Albert, shared the house at 910 Fayette for years until they younger men married and moved.

In 1918 Henry married his second wife, Ola Mae Adams. He met her while he was a postman  and she was living there with her sister.  They were married in her hometown, Danville, KY. and took a trip through Michigan after the wedding. His younger brother, Albert was married and living in Detroit, MI by that time.

While in Indianapolis, Henry Cleage was active in the founding of Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church and the colored Y.M.C.A.

Witherspoon Presbyterian Church
Witherspoon Presbyterian Church. Henry Cleage is in the center back row, 7 from the right. His brothers are to the right of him. My grandmother, Pearl is 3rd from the right.  Taken in 1909 in Indianapolis, IN.

His daughter, Geraldine, remembers her father fondly “He was a very loving, caring and giving person and a devoted family man, not only to his family but also his siblings families.”

His nephew, also named Henry Cleage, remembered “When I was at the Post Office and would get into trouble, he’d get me out.  He was very righteous.”

When the Cleage Brothers Corporation opened a grocery store in Detroit, Henry Cleage managed it during it’s short life.

Henry Cleage and family plus two family friends. Early 1930s.
Henry Cleage and family plus two family friends. About 1928. Front, seated is his mother, Celia Rice Cleage Sherman. Behind her are daughters Ruth and Geraldine. In the back row we have the unidentified friends on each end with Henry W. Cleage and his wife, Ola Mae.  They are in front of their house at 6315 Stanford, Ave. Old West Side, Detroit.

I can’t believe I didn’t write up Uncle Henry’s family for the 1940 census. I will have to remedy that later and for now we will leave Henry William Cleage and his family in 1928.

You can read more about Henry William Cleage in these posts:

A Church and Two Brothers – Two Splits

Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church

What did Lewis Cleage Look Like?  to see a photo of the five youthful Cleage siblings – Josephine, Jacob, Henry, Edward and Albert.

A Church and Two Brothers – Two Splits

Cleages, , , ,

In March of 1953, a disagreement between my father, then known as Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr., pastor of St. Mark’s Community, United Presbyterian Church and a group of members who were not happy with the direction he was was taking the church, came to a head. My father and 300 members of the congregation resigned and founded St. Mark’s Community Church, which several months later became Central Congregational Church and in the 1960s became the Shrine of the Black Madonna.

1953_Church_split2

The split within the church also precipitated a family split. The ties between my grandfather, Dr. Albert B. Cleage Sr. and his brother Henry Cleage were  broken. The close relationship they shared throughout their lives, was gone. My sister didn’t know she had a cousin Shelton Hill (Uncle Henry’s grandson) until he introduced himself when they were classmates at Northwestern High School.

Left to right: Albert, Josephine, Edward. Back L Henry, back R Jacob
The Cleage siblings: left to right front; Albert, Josephine, Edward. Back left Henry. Back right Jacob

My grandfather Albert B. Cleage Sr. was the youngest of five siblings.  He and his brother Henry were always close. They helped organize Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis and worked together to open the black YMCA there. During the 1930s and 1940s, they lived several blocks from each other on Detroit’s old West Side and saw each other almost daily.

After my father, Albert B. Cleage Jr. (later known as Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman) was ordained in 1943, he served as pastor of churches in Lexington, KY, San Francisco, CA and Springfield, MA.  During those years he often wrote home asking his family to help him find a church in Detroit.  More than once he mentioned getting his Uncle Henry to help.

In 1951 a group representing the United Presbyterian Church, including Albert Sr. and his brother Henry, organized St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church. It was located on 12th Street near Atkinson. My father was called to be the pastor. They started with 90 members and increased to over 300 during the following two years.

Uncle Henry and my father were both strong minded men. By the spring of 1953, they had reached an impasse over who was in charge and whether the focus of the church should be  on its own members or on the larger community. An emotional church meeting in March 1953 caused a split between both the church members and the brothers, Albert Sr. and Henry.

In 1956 my grandfather Albert was very sick with cancer when the family heard that Uncle Henry was quite ill and in the hospital.  Soon after they heard that Uncle Henry had died. They wondered if they should tell their father.  He was so sick and they didn’t know how it would affect him.  In the end, they didn’t have to. My grandfather was lying in bed and said “Henry died, didn’t he?” They said he had. Grandfather said, “I thought so.”  They never figured out how he knew.

My grandfather was too sick to go to the funeral. Afterwards, Uncle Henry’s family had the funeral procession drive by my grandparent’s house on Atkinson. The cars drove past very slowly.  It was a gesture toward the healing of a rift that began with the church fight in 1953.

Henry William Cleage died April 10, 1956. My grandfather Albert Buford Cleage Sr. died a year later on April 4, 1957.  Both are buried in Detroit Memorial Cemetery in McComb County, Michigan.