Tag Archives: #Victor Tulane

V.H. Tulane

A to Z Challenge 2018, Detroit, Great Migration, Montgomery Alabama, One Place Study

This year I am going through an alphabet of news items taken from The Emancipator newspaper, published  between 1917 and 1920 in Montgomery, Alabama.  Most are about my grandparent’s circle of friends. All of the news items were found on Newspapers.com. Each item is transcribed directly below the clipping.  Click on any image to enlarge.

_________________

Victor Tulane was my grandmother Fannie’s uncle by marriage.  He was the husband of Willie Lee Allen, my great grandmother Jennie Virginia Allen’s sister.

The Emancipator 23 Mar 1918 Sat pg 3
Victor Hugh Tulane

I thought his obituary summed up his life pretty well.

Victor H. Tulane Dead

 Montgomery, Ala., Jan, 16., 1931

Transcribed from The Chicago Defender Jan 17, 1931 via ProQuest Historical Newspapers online database.

Victor H. Tulane, a leader of his Race here for many years, died at his home, 430 S. Union St., at the age of 57.  His rise to affluence, through his own industry and native shrewdness, was little short of remarkable.  Prior to his death he owned a mercantile business and operated a real estate agency of considerable scope. Tulane first came to Montgomery when he was 15 years old, having walked here from Wetumpka, where he was born.  His first job was porter in a saloon, but later he opened a store at the corner of High and Ripley Streets. which he operated for about thirty years.  He later rented his store and entered the real estate business, and before his death had accumulated a comfortable estate.

For many years Tulane served on the board of trustees of the Tuskegee Institute.  He was also chairman of the board of trustees of the Hale infirmary.  He was widely known for his generosity and willingness to serve in charitable movement.  He was actively connected with the community chest and was one of the first to donate toward the Y.M.C.A. building for colored persons.

Surviving are his widow, Willie L. Tulane of Montgomery, and his daughter, Naomi Tulane Vincent, New York city.  Funeral arrangements will be announced later by the Loveless Undertaking company.

_______________

Victor Tulane wrote this letter to my grandmother Fannie as her mother and sisters were in the process of moving up from Montgomery to join her in Detroit.  This was soon after Fannie and my grandfather, Mershell, bought their house on Theodore, where they lived for over 40 years.  They had two children under five and the third, my mother was on the way.  

"Letter to Fannie Graham from Victor Tulane."
Letter to Fannie Graham from Victor Tulane

V. H. Tulane
Real Estate and Insurance

Scott Building 123 Monroe St

Telephones
388
555

Rents Collected                                                                                     Homes Bought
Loans Negotiated                                                                                            And Sold 
Estates Managed

Dear Fannie,
I am enclosing check from this M.R. & Ins. Co; for ten dollars which the sec’y should have mailed you some time ago.

We are winding up the affairs of this company and will send you another payment on stock acct. pretty soon.  I think that the company will be able to pay off it’s stock holders dollar for dollar.

I trust this will find all well and getting along nicely.

Your mother’s things were shipped yesterday.  Trust they will arrive on time and in first class condition.  Remember me to all the folks.  Tell the kids hello!
Let us have a line from you when convenient.

Your Uncle,
Victor

__________________

Other posts about Victor Tulane

I found this information on Ancestry.com in Census Records, Directories, Death Records, Military Records and Marriage Records. News items were found on Newspapers.com. I also use Google Maps. Photographs and correspondence from my family archives.

The Celebrated Tulane Coffee

Montgomery Alabama, One Place Study, sepia saturday,
Naomi Tulane about four years old. 1904. (Copyright Jacqui Vincent)

This photograph of my grandmother Fannie’s cousin, Naomi Vincent was printed on the cans of Tulane Coffee.  This was one of her father Victor Tulane’s many projects, which included real estate, founding a Penny Bank, and owning Tulane’s Grocery. He was also on the Board of Directors of Tuskegee Institute and a generally active citizen of Montgomery. I found the advertisement below in the Montgomery Advertiser.

V.H. Tulane, Prop. was married to my great grandmother’s sister, Willie Lee (Allen) Tulane. Miss Fannie M. Turner, Mgr., was my maternal grandmother.

Years later, he traveled North selling Alaga Syrup. Naomi traveled with him and it was on a trip to New York City that she met her future husband, Dr. Ubert Vincent.

Alphonso Brown, Victoria McCall, 1970 photo of former Tulane Grocery, More recent photo of empty building.

A blog post about an exciting night at the Tulane Grocery Store  He Had Hidden Him Under the Floor

Click photo for more Sepia Saturday posts.

A Mystery Rider & A Run-Away Horse

Cleages, sepia saturday,
stranger on horse_mexico
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.

horse+jumps+through+car+windshield

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

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

 

“Child of Victor Tulane…”

Tombstone Tuesday,

When I visited Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery in 2009 to find some of my family’s burial places, the sexton gave me Records of Interment for those buried in the plots. Along with Dock and Eliza Allen and their 27 year old son Dock, we found the plot for Victor Tulane and his family. In addition to Victor’s Record of Interment I received records for two of his little daughters who died at the ages of 2 years old and 10 months old. There were no names recorded. E ach was identified as “Tulane, Victor (child of)”.  Later I found an item of deaths in the Montgomery Advertiser for June 15, 1901 with a list of those who died on June 12, 1901. Again, the baby was listed only as “Child of Victor Tulane.” When the death came up on my genealogy program this morning, I didn’t know which one it was.

In the cemetery plot, there was a stone for Victor and Willie Tulane. Next to it is a flat stone with a large vase on one end. One word is written on three sides of the vase  “Tulane”, “Agatha” and “Alean”.  Unlike my Uncle Mershell who I memorialized  on Sunday, I heard nothing about Agatha and Alean before I went to Oakwood. I only knew about their sister who grew up, Naomi. My cousin, who is Naomi’s daughter, did not remember about them, except to suppose that their deaths were a factor in her grandmother’s fearful and overprotective rearing of her mother.

My mother wrote once that Aunt Willie Tulane had maids and never had to work while her sister, my mother’s grandmother, Jennie was a struggling widow.  Although I can’t know this, I believe Aunt Willie would have given up some of her comfort if all of her daughters could have lived to grow up and grow old.

A letter to my grandmother Fannie

Amanuensis Monday, Grahams, Letters, Turner,
I am sharing a letter from Victor Tulane to my grandmother Fannie after her family moved up from Montgomery to Detroit.  Soon after she and my grandfather bought a house her mother and her two sisters joined them.  They had two children under 5 and my mother was on the way.  Read more about Victor Tulane here and about my grandmother here.

"Letter to Fannie Graham from Victor Tulane."
Letter to Fannie Graham from Victor Tulane

Rents Collected                                                                                     Homes Bought       Loans Negotiated                                                                                         And Sold 
Estates Managed

V.H. TULANE
REAL ESTATE AND INSURANCE
SCOTT BUILDING 123 MONROE ST.
Telephone 388
                 555                                                                                        
                                                                                                      Montgomery, ALA.,        Nov. 23, 1922

Dear Fannie,
I am enclosing check from this M.R. & Ins. Co; for ten dollars which the sec’y should have mailed you some time ago.

We are winding up the affairs of this company and will send you another payment on stock acct. pretty soon.  I think that the company will be able to pay off it’s stock holders dollar for dollar.

I trust this will find all well and getting along nicely.

Your mother’s things were shipped yesterday.  Trust they will arrive on time and in first class condition.  Remember me to all the folks.  Tell the kids hello!
Let us have a line from you when convenient.

Your Uncle,
Victor