Tag Archives: #Louis Jacob Cleage

Aunts & Uncles

52 weeks of personal history, Cleages, Grahams, The Book of Me, , , , , , ,
Pearl and Albert with their children and 3 of the grandchildren. My sister and I were at our other grandmothers and the youngest 4 were not yet born. 1951.
Pearl and Albert with their children and 3 of the grandchildren. My sister and I were at our other grandmothers and the youngest 4 were not yet born. 1951.

 Because my family seemed to socialized mainly with each other and a few long time family friends, I saw a lot of my aunts and uncles. When I was growing up, we spent every Saturday with my mother’s sister, Mary V. and her daughters at our maternal grandparents. We all rode over and back together. We also lived down the street and went to the same school so we saw her often.

My father’s family was very close and worked on political and freedom causes together through the years. We all went up to Idlewild together. Uncle Louis was our family doctor. My first jobs were working with Henry and Hugh at Cleage Printers.  I babysat one summer for Anna and Winslow.  I worked at North Detroit General Hospital in the pharmacy with Winslow. I worked with Gladys and Barbara at the Black Star sewing factory. My mother married my Uncle Henry years after my parents divorced so he was like a second father to me.  I raked their memories for stories about the past for decades.

My mother and her sister with cousin Dee Dee inbetween. Front row: Me, sister Pearl and cousin Barbara.
My mother and her sister with cousin Dee Dee inbetween. Front row: Me, sister Pearl and cousin Barbara.
Aunts by blood and Uncles by marriage.
Aunts by blood and Uncles by marriage.
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Aunt Abbie – my great grandmother Turner’s sister.

I had 4 aunts and 5 uncles, by blood. Two of my uncles died when they were children so I never knew them. All of my aunts married so there were 4 uncles by marriage. Three, Ernest, Frank and Edward, were eventually divorced from my aunts. I didn’t see them very much after that. Ernest lived in NYC and only appeared now and then so I didn’t know him very well beyond the fact he was very good looking and polite. Uncle Frank, who we called ‘Buddy’, was a an electrician. I remember him taking us to Eastern Market and boiling up a lot of shrimp,which we ate on soda crackers. And a story he told about a whirling dervish seen in the distance that turned into a dove. Edward, who we called Eddie was a doctor and I remember little about him except he was quiet and when I had a bad case of teenage acne, offered to treat it for me.  Uncle Winslow was there to the end. I saw him often and I felt very connected to him. He had a wicked sense of humor and liked to talk about the past when I was in my family history mode. None of my uncles were married during my lifetime so I had no aunts by marriage.

We didn’t call our aunts and uncles “aunt” and “uncle”.  We called them by their first names only.  I did know two of my great aunts, my maternal grandmother’s sisters, Daisy and Alice.  I knew one of my 2 X great aunts, Aunt Abbie. She lived with my grandparents until she died in 1966. Aunt Abbie was Catholic and I still have a Crucifix that she gave me.

I remember calling Daisy “Aunt Daisy”, but Alice was just “Alice”.  Aunt Daisy had a distinctive voice and she laughed a lot. I remember going to dinner at their house once, and going by on holidays.

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My maternal grandmother’s sisters, Aunts Alice and Daisy. On Bob-lo Island 1961.

There were a host of great aunts and uncles that I never met but I knew from stories about them so that I felt like I knew them.  Aunt Minnie and Uncle Hugh were my paternal grandmother’s siblings.  I must have met several of my paternal grandfather’s siblings but I was small and don’t remember them, Uncle Jake, Uncle Henry, Aunt Josie and their spouses.  And on the maternal side I heard so much about my great grandmother Jennie’s siblings that I felt I knew them too.  When I started researching, these were not strangers – Aunt Willie, Aunt Mary, Aunt Beulah, Aunt Anna.

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2X Great Grandmother Eliza and her children. My 2X great aunts and uncle.  Aunt Mary, Ransom, Aunt Abbie, Aunt Beulah, Eliza, Great Grandmother Turner, Aunt Anna and Aunt Willie. Don’t know why Ransom was just ‘Ransom’.

We didn’t call any of my parent’s friends ‘aunt’ or ‘uncle’. Not surprising since we didn’t call our own aunts and uncles, ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle’.

Left to right: Albert, Josephine, Edward. Back L Henry, back R Jacob
Left to right: My grandfather Albert Cleage with my great aunt and great uncles, Aunt Josie, Uncle Ed. Back L Uncle Henry, back R Uncle Jake.

Building Louis’ Cottages – Idlewild 1943 to 1945

Cleages, sepia saturday,

In 1943 my Uncle Louis Cleage and family friend, Paul Payne bought some lots in Idlewild, Michigan. Idlewild is a black resort located in the Manistee National Forest in Lake County. It’s 5 hours north of Chicago and 4 hours northwest of Detroit. Lake Michigan is half an hour away at Ludington.  I’ve posted some photographs, documents and letters showing the progress of the original cottages. They did much of the work themselves.  If you find the letter my grandfather wrote back to Detroit hard to read, scroll down to the transcription below.

Original cottage under construction.
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Dr. Albert B. Cleage, my grandfather.
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Louis Cleage on the patio.
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Paul Payne in Idlewild.
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On the dock looking at Lake Idlewild.
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1944idlewildletter

During  WW 2, two of my uncle’s were conscientious objectors and farmed near Avoka, MI. They had milk cows and chickens, among other things. Their younger sister sold the eggs in Detroit around the neighborhood. While she was up in Idlewild, she needed someone at home – her mother – to handle the egg route. Like a paper route, but with eggs. Read more here.

P.S. “Pee Wee” speaking. My egg route book is in my room on the table in the small bookshelf. You know that black book, don’t you? Oh, yes, add Mrs. Duncan on Scotten to Monday’s list.

7/29/1944        Idlewild of Idle men and wild women.

Dear Folks –

We arrived about 2 o’clock. The trip was uneventful except for rain – on and off.  Mrs. Hedgeman and Stith were here when we arrive just about ready to leave.  Cottage is nice, was awfully cold and gloomy out.  The rain seems over now and we are hoping for a brighter, warmer and happier day tomorrow.

The girls are now investigating the yard, lake, boats, etc.  Gladys and I crossed the continent and visited the cottage with bad writing of J.L. Cleage and Payne – well, will say you have a nice location with huge possibilities.  Nice beachhead etc, and hedgerows.

House is wired, but electricity has not been brought in from road.  I have seen Mr. Ellison. He was not in when I first went but talked to the man who was and he wired it.  He stated could not get the wire for bringing it into the house on account of it being a “tourist” cabin; and he didn’t think would be able to get it this year.

Later saw Mr. Ellison who said he would see about it again Monday and let me know what he can do.  I will also see the Edison Co. if possible and urge the emergency toward the war effort etc.

There don’t seem to be many people here. However it is so cold they maybe in the house.  Hope everything is alright. We will get the boat tomorrow.  Everything will be ok. Write further instructions, if any – Anna Celia’s egg route book in her room on bookshelf –

Daddy

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Starting work on the new cottage.
drawing idlewild cottage
Sketch on envelope
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The original cottage.
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The forms with the new patio. New cottage.
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Old stairs on the left. They were made of logs set in the sand. The new steps you can see on the right, all cement and even and smooth.
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For other Sepia Saturday offerings, CLICK!

Cleage Cookout – August 1958

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My uncle Hugh by the gate.
My uncle Hugh by the gate.

I remember several cookouts in my grandmother Cleage’s backyard. There was the one where the tables were set up right in front of the gate that looked out on the street. There was some sort of minor argument about this. Afterwards, my sister and I called any sort of family argument a “cookout.” On that occasion Grace Lee Boggs dropped by, not for the cookout, but for some political reason, dating it in the 1960s.

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You can just see Hugh’s head behind Louis, my mother, Henry.

The cookout pictured below took place during the summer of 1958. My uncle Louis bought a big blue plastic swimming pool that took up most of the cement part of the yard. I don’t remember it being there any other summer. Once, my sister Pearl was drowning when my uncle Henry noticed her on the bottom of the pool, reached down and pulled her out. I don’t know why she didn’t stand up.  She was 9 and I turned 12 that August.  The bushes on the fence were full of tiny, pink roses during the season. Those are still my favorite roses.

Pearl remembers: I am still mystified as to why I didn’t just put my feet down. I don’t remember being at the bottom of the pool. I remember going down and splashing my way back up to the top and not being able to stay with my head above water. and then Henry came over and grabbed me and pulled me up and out. who knows what was going on? and we had those little plastic life preservers, too. how deep was the damn thing anyway?

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Pearl, my aunt Gladys, Kris, cousin Ernie in the pool. It was blue plastic with a metal frame.

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My mother sitting beside the pool.

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My aunt Barbara standing by the fence between my grandmother’s and the Smith’s.

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A Mystery Rider & A Run-Away Horse

Cleages, sepia saturday,
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Unknown Rider – Mexico 1960s.

#1  During the 1960s my Uncle Louis and various family members and friends traveled to Mexico. They stayed in out of the way hotels and places. Louis became very proficient in Spanish and was happy to talk to any of us in Spanish. Unfortunately, I never was invited on any of these trips. The above photo is an unmarked photo from the Cleage collection. I think it was taken in Mexico. Then again, maybe it was taken in Michigan in the country during the 1940s.

#2  I posted this article about a horse jumping through a windshield in 2011.  Thought I would give it another go.  Victor Tulane was my great grandmother’s sister Willie’s husband. He was a successful Montgomery businessman.

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Horse Jumps through Automobile Windshield

Considerable Excitement Attends Runaway On Court Square Tuesday Afternoon.

Much excitement and some damage was the result of a run-away horse crashing into an automobile in front of Alex Rice’s store on Court Square late yesterday afternoon.

The horse, which was pulling a buggy, became frightened on the first block of South Court Street and dashed toward Montgomery Street.  An automobile belonging to Theo Meyer was parked in front of Alex Rice’s and the front feet of the horse went through the wind shield.

Beyond sustaining several minor cuts, the horse was unhurt and the damage done to the automobile, too, was small.

Victor Tulane was owner of the horse.

Montgomery Advertiser – Montgomery, Alabama – January 27, 1915 – page 16

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Click for more Sepia Saturday photos of horses, riders, and more.

 

Y is for Yacht

A-Z Challenge 2013
a-to-z-letters-y-1

This is my 25th post for the April A-Z Challenge.  Today I have a photo of my Uncle Louis Cleage’s yacht. He seems to be appearing a lot, here at the end of the alphabet. Somewhere in my collection, I remembered a comment of my father’s, something like, “Louis joined the capitalist class” when he got the yacht.  I thought it was in the collection of letters he wrote home but after reading through them several times without finding it, I think it might have been in the old, crumpling, photo album. I can’t find that either, but either way, that puts the purchase of the yacht during the late 1940s, after the end of WW2.  I was only on the boat once and I got sea sick. I also got train sick and bus sick.

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louis_boat
Louis Cleage on board.

Louis must have sold the boat in the early 1950s because I don’t remember it later.  My uncles used to talk about going over to Walpole Island,  unceeded territory at the mouth of the St. Clair River, and sitting around talking with the First Nation People.  There was mention of campfires and my Uncle Hugh almost staying or being left.  I remember a boy in my 6th grade art class who was from Walpole Island. His name was Frank Shipman and he opened a jar of glue for me when no one else could get the top off.  Later he moved to Wabash street.  I didn’t think it compared with an island between two rivers.

Two boys from Walpole Island.
Two boys from Walpole Island.  Photograph from the Cleage photo collection.

X is for X-Ray

A-Z Challenge 2013

a-to-z-letters-xThis is my 24th post for the April A-Z Challenge.  My Uncle Louis Cleage was a doctor. He had a puffy finger on his left hand. It was the result of an accident with an X-ray machine. Skin grafts to repair the damage gave it the puffy look.

My sister and I called it the “puff gunger finger”. You can see the finger on his hand as he plays the organ here. I have enlarged it below.

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Louis playing the organ while Hugh reads the paper. 2270 Atkinson, Detroit.

louis_handsFrom a letter written home from Los Angeles by my father in 1944.

P.S. Is anybody sick?  I dreamed some sort of nightmare this afternoon about somebody being sick … seemed like Louis had something wrong with his hand or something … probably just something I ate.

My Aunt Gladys assured us that Louis had injured his hand years before this.

Little Boys Wearing Dresses 1916 & 1919.

Cleages, Photographs, Reeds, , ,
Theresa Pearl, mother Blanch, and Thomas Perry. Names based on birth dates and the other photo.
Hugh Marion b. 1910. Thomas Perry b. 1916. Theresa Pearl b. 1914. Anna Roberta b. 1908.

Recently I received a scan of the photograph on the left from my cousin Jan. The reverse side of the postcard type photo says “Theresa Pearl’s Birthday   March 10, 1919”  The handwriting looks as though the same person who wrote on the back of this photo Christmas card of Theresa Pearl.  I am not sure that the woman in the photo is their mother, Blanch. I am checking.  I hope I am right because I have no other photos of her.

Note: Yes, that is Blanch Celeste Reed Averette, the mother. I was able to confirm it with some of her descendants.

Below is a photograph of my father Albert at about 3 years old in a little dress.  Younger brother Louis is sitting on the chair in a long gown. It was taken in Kalamazoo Michigan about 1916.

A pattern for a boys dress from that era.
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