I write to inform you that Minnie and Mullins have gone to Michigan to reside permanently. She told me that you did not know of it and I promised to inform you. I hope this finds you in good health for it leaves me quite indisposed.
Hoping to hear from you soon, or see you at our home.
I remain Yours, Pearl New Address # 2730 Kenwood simply the number changed, Pearl
_________________
The house on a 1915 Sanborn map. At the time of the letters, Pearl’s Uncle Thomas, brother of her mother, and his wife lived in the house at the other end of the lot.
A Wikipedia entry says “The Sanborn Maps were originally created for assessing fire insurance liability in urbanized areas in the United States.”
I wanted to know what Pearl’s house looked like. When my daughter Ayanna and I drove around Indianapolis looking for family homes, we found the house gone, now a parking lot. I took a walk in the neighborhood via Google Maps. The houses nearby were on low rises, with steps going up to them. I looked at other houses on the Sanborn Map and found some still standing. I got a bit carried away, looking at the map, finding historic houses still standing. I finally made a composite of what the house may have looked like. I must admit that I added a porch.
My vision of 2730 Kenwood.
Possible layout of Kenwood house
Why Renumber and Rename Streets? A long article from The Indianapolis Journal April 8, 1895 about why they renumbered the streets. It took years and years to complete the project.
An announcement of the Mullins family’s move to Benton Harbor, Michigan appeared in a local black newspaper, The Indianapolis Recorder.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
Pearl Reed
Homer Jarrett 230 Alleghany St. City
2700 Kenwood Ave March 8, 1904
Homer; Your letter was handed me at supper and don’t you know, that I was rather glad to hear from you. I did not answer your letter before, because I thought you were tired of hearing such “silly” “little” letters. You have managed nicely to keep yourself out of sight lately, since I’ve come to think of it, I think it has been about a month – don’t you?
I heard of the bad news that you had from home and Homer I send you my sympathy. Are they better now, I mean the ones that were ill?
In regards to my music, why I suppose I am getting on quite well. My tutor flatters me and tells me that I am doing “Oh, so nicely”, but I don’t believe one half of what is told me. Do you know I’ve changed from the guitar to the piano? You must think me the most changeable person Homer, but I get so tired of everything so very soon, you know.
Aren’t you tired of this stuff Homer? Well I am.
Good-bye Pearl
_____________
Did Pearl forget the letter she wrote just a month ago telling him off for insulting her mother?
Guitar? I had no idea my grandmother ever took guitar lessons. Some years later, she taught her niece Helen (Minnie’s oldest daughter) to play the piano. When I decided to stop taking piano lessons, she told me I should continue because I could play at parties and for friends.
Pearl would have heard about Homer’s family back in Georgia being sick from Minnie, who was married to Homer’s cousin, James Mullins.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
Pearl Reed
Homer Jarrett 230 Alleghany St. City
2700 Kenwood Ave Indinapolis February 7, 1904
Mr. Jarrett,
Homer, for the evil thought and words concerning my mother, which you spoke a few weeks ago, I forgive you as I hope to be forgiven of my many sins and faults. My mother does not know anything about it and has often asked why you never visit any more. She shall never learn your terrible thoughts of her . She will always think you one of the most gentle young men in the city, if I can help it.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
2714 Kenwood Ave., Indianapolis, Indiana January 31, 1904
Homer Jarrett 9 Walnut St. Hot Springs, Ark
Homer;
Pearl Reed
Your letter was received and I was rather surprised at the way you misunderstood everything that I said in my letter. I did not mean that anyone out here would try to injure you, for the boys all like you and respect you. They often speak of you with praise, and are always glad to see you whenever you come out.
You will please note that I meant that you would probably neglect your studiesand thereby fail to make your grade if you thought of me often. You spoke of a certainvow that you had made and I did not want you to break it or, do anything else injurious to yourself, for me.
You wanted to forget me, you said, and, I thought you meant it and I have been trying to help you. You know I told you that I would. Homer, you had a novel way to find out what I thought of all the things which you have said to me. I congratulate you my friend.
Have I tired you Homer? I will cease now in I think I have explained my poor little letter. Now you understand me, do you not? I would be forgotten for your own sake, that you might be a learned man, and that your mother and friends would be proud of and pleased with you, Homer.
Hoping that I am fully understood at last, I remain,
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
2714 Kenwood Ave. Indianapolis, Indiana, January 27, 1904
Homer Jarrett 9 Walnut St. Hot Springs, Ark
Homer,
Pearl Reed
I received your letter about fifteen minutes ago and was pleased that you should be so solicitous of our welfare as to write to inquire about our health.
I am sorry to relate but I have a very bad cold from the exposure of Sunday evening. I was unable to be at my work Tuesday and, today was confined to my bed ‘till a few hours ago taking horrid old bitter remedies for my cold, and feel real badly yet, although I intend to go down town tomorrow whether or no.
I had intended to go to Allen’s Chapel Friday eve, but this slight illness has caused me to change my program for the week. If I am able to be at my work I will be contented. I am grateful to you for your kindness, but I am unable to accompany you on that evening.
You seem to be hurt over my calling you a coward. I said it, because, at the time you acted like one, but otherwise, I do not think you are. Forgive me if I spoke too plainly, for I did you an injury in doing so perhaps.
You must also forgive me for causing you to break your vow, in accompanying us to church and home. You should not have broken it Homer. You told me once before that you wanted to forget me and I told you that I would help you. We did quite well until Sunday Eve, and I suppose that you forgot. It shall not occur again, since, you wish it so, for I would not have you do an injury to yourself for me for anything, Homer.
Thanking you for every kindness that you have done for me and wishing you a successful career, I will say
Good-bye Pearl D. Reed
_________________
What did my grandmother Pearl miss and who were the True Reformers?
The Order of True Reformers has made elaborate arrangements for a public installation at Allen Chapel tonight, at which 105 officers will be installed. The affair is under the direction of W. S. Henry, chief of the Indiana department. An address of welcome will be delivered by the Rev. H. E. Stewart, and a response by the Rev. Charles Williams. An address will be made by the Rev. James M. Townsend on “Negro Enterprises,” and one on “Advantages of Race Protection,” by the Rev. J. F. Walker. The installation will be conducted by the Rev. J. T. Carpenter, of Washington, D.C., who is department general of the order. Representatives of the seven fountains (lodges) of the city will respond. There will also be music and recitations.”
More information about the history of True Reformers Bank.
Born in 1849, Browne was a former Georgia slave who escaped joined the Union Army in the North. After the Civil War, he founded the Grand Fountain United Order of True Reformers, a black fraternal organization. In 1887 when Browne visited Charlotte County, Virginia to establish a local branch of the True Reformers, he encountered problems. The branch arranged to keep its savings with a white shopkeeper in the county, but with racial tensions high after an 1887 lynching, the shopkeeper told other white residents that local blacks were organizing and raising funds, and the branch was forced to disband. Browne decided the True Reformers would have to found and run a bank itself so that its finances could not be monitored by whites. ” To read more, please click on the linked text.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
Pearl Reed
Homer Jarrett #230 Alleghany St. City
2714 Kenwood Ave., December 21, 1903
Mr. Jarrett –
Homer, do you remember a girl that you once knew and visited some times in the north part of this city? If you do, well that girl would like very much for you to come out to her house Christmas Day and take dinner with her and family, if you will be so obliging. It will give us great pleasure Homer if you will take dinner with us then, will you?
You are far from your home and mother and I would be delighted if you would share mine on this day of “Peace on Earth, good will toward men.”
How are you? We have not seen you since the Sunday that you were out. Did you know that Minnie had moved on West Street now? I was at her house one evening last week, for a few minutes, and discovered that she had changed her dwelling.
I shall expect you for dinner Friday Homer and you will not disappoint us?
Your Pearl
____________________
Bookmark to Pearl from her brother Clarence E. Reed. Christmas 1903.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
Pearl Reed
2714 Kenwood Ave. Indianapolis, July 2, 1903
Homer Jarrett Exchange Hotel Union Stockyard City
Homer; I received your interesting little letter and was delighted to hear from you. I do not feel very well, in fact, I do not believe any one could this warm weather, unless they were composed of iron. Do you?
I think we shall leave for Benton Harbor Monday A.M. if I am not mistaken. We were speaking of our trip today and mother spoke as though she wanted to stay only two weeks, but I shall try to persuade her to stay two months.
Homer you spoke of our going to the park Sunday, well, if we go, I think it had better be at 2 P.M., for it will be cooler then.
If I have worried you with this message, forgive me. I am tired and angry and had to vent my ill humor on someone. Good-by. Pearl D. Reed
Pearl and her mother traveled from Indianapolis and Benton Harbor at least once a year to visit her older sisters Sarah Busby and Louise Shoemaker and their families. They would have taken the train. One train left at 7 AM and arrived in Benton Harbor at 8 PM that same day. The later train left at 11 AM and arrived the next day at 3:10 PM. Fri, Jul 17, 1903 – Page 9 · The Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis, Indiana) · Newspapers.com
The trip was 303 miles and lasted about 13 hours. The cost of a ticket in 1903 was about two cents a mile, bringing a the cost of one ticket to $6.06.
When I graduated from college, I took a trip to San Francisco via the Greyhound Bus. My grandmother Pearl packed me a big lunch to carry with me. I remember fried chicken enough to share and white buttered bread. And fruit. I imagine they packed a good lunch for the train trip.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
Pearl Reed
2714 Kenwood Ave., City May 17, 1903
Homer Jarrett Exchange Hotel Union Stockyard, City
Mr. Jarrett,
Homer I am indeed very sorry that I was not at home Saturday when you came. In looking through “Evangeline”, I found your little missive and was glad to hear that you liked and enjoyed the books. Mother was feeling badly when you were here and is worse now. She was confined to her bed all of today. You need not answer this Homer for it is of no consequence and is not worth spending the time on.
It was June of 1971 and my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage was waiting for the party to begin. Uncle Hugh is in the kitchen getting things ready. Grandmother was 87 and didn’t break her hip for some years yet. I remember so many dinners around that table. There were always cakes with caramel icing for birthdays. This time it looks like there are two cakes – one chocolate and one with caramel icing. Both have candles.
Candy corns in the little silver dish. There were often candy corns in the covered candy dish that always on the front room table coffee table. Candy corns or red and white striped peppermints or sometimes chocolate kisses.
My parents at the party, a corner of Henry. Blair and Anna Pearl are at the kids table in the front room.
A better view of the front room. You can see the candy dish on the table behind Maria’s chair.
I can think of several June birthdays. My father turned 60 that year. My cousin Anna Pearl turned eleven and her sister Maria turned nine. It must have been an all June collective party. I wish I had been there. My oldest daughter Jilo turned one that June.
During the past month I have been working on the forty letters I recently found written from 1903 to 1905 by my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage to her friend Homer Jarrett. Homer was a cousin of her sister Minnie’s husband, James Mullins.
After reading through the letters, I transcribed them. It wasn’t always easy because her hand writting seems hurried and is hard to read. There were a few words I couldn’t make out at first but after going back, I have figured out most of them.
Next, I looked in newspapers of the day to find out about the temperatures when she said it was hot or cold. I looked for announcements about concerts, church events and people that she mentioned. I googled the books she wrote about. I looked for how much money a black laboring man made during those years. It wasn’t much. I’ve wondered about their Christmas and Thanksgiving menus.
Now I am trying to reconstruct the house she lived in with her older brothers and mother. I found the house in the Sanborn and Bast Atlas maps. At first I was happy with that, then I wanted to know what the house looked like. For several days I’ve been looking at pictures online of historic houses in Indianapolis, Indiana and at drawings of possible layouts. Now I’m wondering about furniture.
The letters themselves gave me a window into the life my grandmother was living back in the early 1900s. The other information helps me to light up the rooms I’m looking into. Eventually I will be ready to put it all together.
