Tag Archives: Phillip Cleage

“He was a slave of Alex Cleage…”

African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Cleages, Slavery, Tennessee,
Chattanooga 1863 National Archives

This is Issac Carlton’s second statement.

Deposition D

Isaac Charlton
1 Mar 1890

That he is 49 years of age; that he is a painter by occupation and that his post office address is Chattanooga, Tenn. (corner of Hurricane Avenue and Line Streets.)

            Philip Cleage served in the same camp with me: Co. “A” First U.S.C.H. Artillery. I knew Cleage for three or four years before the war. He was the slave of Alex Cleage, of Athens, Tenn., and I used to live up there. Cleage was a hale and hearty man up to the time he was taken sick with smallpox here in Chattanooga. This was a short time before the regiment was mustered out. He was taken to the hospital here, and then died of smallpox. I was doing camp guard duty and passed him out to the hospital. He was taken away in an ambulance and in a few days I heard of his death.  It was said he had black smallpox.

            In 6 or 8 months after we were mustered in at Knoxville, the whole company was claiming for a furlough. Capt. Elliott wanted to know who were married and who single, as he wanted to grant the married men a furlough. Cleage and I got a furlough, as we were both married men. I didn’t know who his wife was at that time. I first knew of his marriage to Katie, the applicant, here in Chattanooga, when she came to the camp in the spring of 1865.

            I was first duty sergeant of the company, and had orders to keep all women out of camp, except married women. Katie came there and was admitted as Philips wife. They lived and cohabited together in camp as man and wife. Two women and two men occupied the same cabin and Philip and Katie were two of them. I didn’t know the other couple. They lived together as man and wife until Philip was carried away to the hospital. Philip stated to me time and time again, that he had been married to Katie and that she was his lawful wife. I haven’t a bit of doubt that Philip and Katie were lawfully married under the slave customs, though I was not a witness to the marriage ceremony.  The officers all recognized them as man and wife and no question was raised as to their presence in camp.

            I have seen Katie nearly all the time since the war and know that she has not remarried – at least I have no knowledge of the fact if she had been. She has two illegitimate children since the war.

            I remember Cleage got a furlough for the purpose, as he said, of going to see and get his wife. I don’t think he brought her back. This was while we were at Knoxville, not Chattanooga. This was when we had been in the service 7 or 8 months it is a mistake in my affidavit where it says Cleage got a furlough at Chattanooga, in 1865. But after they came together in Chattanooga, they lived together as man and wife and he introduced Katie as his lawful wife.

            I am in no way related to the claimant and have no interest in her claim.

            I have understood the questions asked me, and the answers to them have been correctly recorded in this deposition.

Isaac Charlton

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Hamilton County Courthouse. Isaac Charlton worked here as janitor for several years. In 1910 it was struck by lightening and burned down.

Isaac Charlton was born into slavery in North Carolina about 1840. He was in the USC Heavy Artillary troop with Philip Cleage. After mustering out, Isaac and his wife Mahala remained in Chattanooga. According to the 1870 census, Mahala could not read or write while Isaac was literate.

Isaac Charlton signed his name on his deposition instead of marking it with an “X”.

Mahala died soon after 1870. Issac married Edmonia Scruggs. They had one daughter, Josephine who was born in 1873. Edmonia was literate and Josephine attended school through the 5th grade. Over the years Isaac worked as a janitor in the courthouse, a porter at a store, a painter and a laborer.

In 1879 Isaac applied for and received his invalid pension for Civil War service. He died when he was 51 and is buried in the National Cemetery in Chattanooga. Because I do not have his pension file, I do not know what exciting information may be there.

Isaac’s wife Edmonia filed for her widow’s pension the month after Isaac’s death. She moved to Knoxville and worked as a cook. She died there of pneumonia on April 6, 1906. She was 58 years old. Edmonia is buried in the Daughters of Zion Cemetery in Knoxville.

Josephine spend some time in Alabama, where she married and gave birth to a daughter. She eventually returned to Knoxville and died there in 1955 at 82 years of age.

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Resources I used for this post include: Katie Cleage’s Pension file, Ancestry.com, Hamilton County Tennessee Geneology Society, google search.

For links to the other posts in this series, click this link – Katie Cleage’s Pension Hearing

“I have had two children…”

African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Cleages, Slavery, Tennessee, ,
This is the house that Alexander Cleage purchased in 1860, about the time he bought Katie. The columns were not added until 1930, so they were not there during the life times of the people in this pension file. The porch where he married Katie and Philip was probably around back or on the side, but I could not see it on google maps.
“In 1860 Alexander Cleage, another prominent settler, acquired the farm and house for $20,150 ($609,921.08 in today’s money.) The Civil War practically bankrupted Cleage and the property was sold after his death in behalf of his creditors.” You can read details about this house in the application for designation as an historical site.

Deposition “C”

Case of Katie Cleage
March 1, 1890
Chattanooga, Hamilton, Tennessee.

Before me, R. C. Getchell, a special examiner of the Pension Office, personally appeared Katie Cleage, who being by me first duly sworn to answer truly all interrogatories propounded to …

That she is 41 years of age; that her post office address is No. 519 Cedar St., Chattanooga, Tenn.

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I am the widow of Philip Cleage, the soldier. I just know Philip was a soldier and belonged to the first U.S. H Artillery. I don’t know what company he belonged to.

I was married to Philip Cleage before the war – I was about 16 years old when we got married. We were married at Athens, Tenn., and my old master, Alex. Cleage, married us. My master told me that I must marry one of the home boys, and so I married Philip. We were married at our master’s house, right in the porch. My master read a passage from the Bible and then told us we were man and wife. There was no one present at the marriage, except us two and the old master. I disremember whether the war was going on or not at the time we were married. It was long before Sherman’s men came along. I was 13 years old when my master bought me, and I guess it was about three years after that when we got married. I lived with Philip before we got married, and that’s why we came to get married. Cleage found out that I had been living with Philip and then he made us marry. I had just one child before we married and this child was born dead. I had another child in the next year after our marriage and this one lived but one day. Philip was living at the time this second child died.  This was all the children I ever had by Philip. I have had two children since my husband, both of them are now living. These children are both illegitimate, as I have never married since Philip died.

 I married Philip before he was mustered in the army. We had been married a good while before he enlisted. We lived and cohabited together as man and wife from the time of our marriage until he enlisted. We lived with Mr. Cleage all the time and we were both his slaves. Mr. Cleage is dead, but his wife is still living.Philip had right good health from the time of our marriage to his enlistment. He went into the army and died a soldier. He died in hospital, of smallpox. I didn’t know where the hospital was located. I was with Philip when he first come out with small pox. I was in camps with him when he broke out with smallpox. It was here in Chattanooga at his camps. I sewed in the regiment, and went to him and slept with him every night from the time the regiment came to Chattanooga until he broke out with smallpox. He was taken sick, and Dr. Wright, the surgeon of the regiment, said he had smallpox. I seen him all broken out with smallpox. After I gave him his tea, he broke out with smallpox, and was then sent to the hospital and I never saw him live any more. They sent me word that he was dead shortly after he was taken to the hospital. I wanted to go to the hospital with Philip; but the doctor said I mustn’t as I would die too if I went. He had the black small pox, so it was said. I had the (looks like: varalid) just after Philip died. I was vaccinated long before I married Philip.

(Question: were people being vaccinated for small pox on plantations in the 1800s?)

Can you make out the highlighted word?? varolid? Answer (variolid) and more information in the comments section.

The children I have had since my husband died are both living. One of them will be seven the first of next June, and the other five on the first of next April. I have had sexual intercourse with but one man since my husband died, and he is the father of these two children. This man is a married man. He is a colored man, and has a wife living. He was not married at the birth of the first child. I had no intercourse with this man after the birth of the second child. I had the man arrested and tried to get him to support the children and every once in awhile he would bring me some money. This man’s name is John Washington and he lives here in Chattanooga. No, I was never married to Washington. I had him arrested for bastardy. I never lived with him at all. I cohabited with him just long enough to have these two children. They put him in jail when they arrested him; and I didn’t know what they did with him.  I swear positively that the only man I ever married was Philip Cleage. I have never got any bounty or back pay, but have made application for both.

I was working here in Chattanooga when my husband’s regiment came here. My husband heard of my being here, came and got me and took me into camps, and I went and stayed with him every night until he was taken down sick. No objection whatever was made to my going into camp and living with my husband. I “served out” every day, but did all his washing.

I was a seamstress at my master’s house, but I slept with Philip every night. They gave us a room in which to sleep. Philip was employed on the farm and I in the house.

In camp, my brother and his wife and Philip and I staid together in one tent, occupying two bunks. My brother, Abe Cleage, went to Texas years ago, and I don’t know where he is now. The last I heard of his wife, she was in Rome, GA. I haven’t heard from her for a good many years. John Rowland and Ike Chilton know that we lived and cohabited together here as man and wife. I have lived here since the war. Everybody knows I haven’t remarried.

 I was engaged to be married to Washington, but the marriage was broken off.  This was why I had two illegitimate children by him. Both children were born before he married another woman.

 I have understood the questions asked me, and the answers to them have been exactly recorded in this deposition.

Tomas Giffe    Katie Cleage X (her mark) N.C. Gelchell

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You can read some of Katie’s brother Abe’s story here Abraham and Amanda Cleage I have learned much more about them since receiving their pension files and I will be writing about them in the future.

I found the information for this post in Katie Cleage’s Civil War Pension file, on ancestry.com and familysearch.org.

For links to the other posts in this series, click this link – Katie Cleage’s Pension Hearing

Katie & Philip Cleage

African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Cleages, Tennessee

Philip Cleage was born into slavery about 1843 on the plantation of Alexander Cleage in Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee. Philip was the third child of the four known children of Julie Ann Evans. He grew up to work on the farm. Sometimes he drove the coach.

Katie Cleage was born on the Hurst plantation in Mouse Creek, McMinn County, Tennessee. She was the fourth of the seven known children of Hulda Hurst. When Katie was 13, Alexander and Jemima (Hurst) Cleage bought her from Jemima’s brother, Lewis Russell Hurst. She was put to work as the seamstress.

In 1862, when Philip was 19 and Katie was 16, they were married by the slave holder, Alexander Cleage. They had two children together. The first was stillborn. The second died soon after birth.

When Sherman’s army came to the area, Philip and other men from the Cleage plantations joined the 1st U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery (USCT).

As the confusion of war intensified, Katie decided she would leave too. She first went to Cleveland, Tennessee and after working a variety of sewing jobs, eventually ended up in the USCT camp in Chattanooga. She lived on the base with her husband until he died of smallpox on 9 February 1866. In 1883 Katie filed for a widow’s pension. Her life story is told in her depositions and those of members of her community, including others who had been enslaved on the Cleage plantations, neighbors, men who served in the same unit as Philip and members of the slave holding Cleage family.

Using these testimonies and related information I will reconstruct Katie’s life in the coming series of blog posts.

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For links to the other posts in this series, click this link – Katie Cleage’s Pension Hearing