1940 Census – Frank and Mary Elkins Family

1940 Census, Grahams, ,

In the 1940 Census, the Frank and Mary Elkins family was living at 3045 Anderdon Street in Detroit, Michigan. The rent was $30 a week and they had lived in the same house in 1935.  Everybody in the household had been identified as “W(hite)”, that was crossed out and “Neg(ro)” was written over it. Unfortunately, no household on this page has the person who provided the information to the enumerator identified.

Frank Elkins at work.

The father of the family, Frank Elkins, was 57 years old and had completed 4 years of high school. He worked at an auto plant as a  courtesy driver. One of his granddaughters has informed me that he worked as a driver for Graham Paige Motors.

Three Marys - daughter Mary, mother Mary and my Aunt Mary V. Graham.

His wife, Mary, was 47 and not employed outside the home. She had completed 2 years of High school. She had made $50 in the last year outside of wages or salary.  Daughter Mary was 21 and single.  She had completed 4 years of high school and was not enrolled in school. She was not employed outside of the home.

Mother Mary Elkins and son Frank “Bud” Elkins

Young Frank was 19, single and had completed 1 year of college. He had attended school sometime since March 1, 1940. He was not employed.  His daughter, Dee Dee, remembers that Frank graduated with honors from Cass Technical High School and went right to work, starting  Elkin’s Electric Company.  He tried to join the Electricians Union, but they barred Black folks from joining.  In 1941 Frank and my aunt Mary V. Graham were married at Plymouth Congregational Church.

Cost of Attending Wayne University in Detroit in 1940

1940 Census, Grahams
From top left  – my mother Doris Graham; from 1940 Wayne Bulletin; Old Main at Wayne; my mother’s transcript.

In February, 1940 my mother entered Wayne University. She received a full scholarship from the Detroit Board of education and a scholarship from the Delta Sorority for an an additional $100.

How much did it cost to attend Wayne in 1940?  For residents of Wayne County, which my mother was, tuition for a full time student was $50. There was a $10 fee for entering freshmen.  Textbooks would have been $5 or under.

When I went to Wayne from 1964 to 1968, tuition came to about $300 a year. Text books were still about $10. By the time my daughter attended during the 1998 – 1999 school year, tuition and fees were $3,708 a year.  She says one book could cost $50. All of us lived at home and commuted, so had no housing costs.

My granddaughter Sydney, who is a freshman at Georgia State University and lives on campus. She could hardly believe these numbers. I just looked and tuition and housing this year, is over $20,000.

Fannie Graham’s Journal Entries -1940

1940 Census, Grahams, , ,

I published a longer post that included this information (without the actual pages) along with entries from my grandmother’s other journals  in 2010. I am only including information from 1940 this time.

Feb. 5, 1940
Dear God and Little Book: the mail has just brought us the long looked for letter from Wayne University and the Board of Education that Doris has received the yearly scholarship to Wayne… I shed tears of joy… for more reasons than one or even two and the main reason is she deserves it for being such a sweet little “trick”…even if we do say so ourselves.

February 12 – Doris’s birthday – 17 today. We had a nice dinner, cake, ice cream and gifts for her from all.

March 12, my birthday, among all a purchase certificate from JL Hudson’s from our daughters and dad

April 3 – Mary Virginia is 20 today. We had nice dinner cake and ice cream and gifts from us all – also Aunt Daisy never forgets with money.
Dad celebrates Christmas day.

April 12-The Grahams were enumerated. No mention in the Little Book.

June 7, 1940 Doris received $100 scholarship from the Deltas today… Isn’t that grand! It served 2 years.

June 10 — Mary Virginia has just gotten (through Jim and May) a good job at the County Bldg — God is so good to us. and today our Mershell Jr would have been 19 if he had lived – but we still say – God knows best.

1940 Census – Where We Lived in Detroit

1940 Census, Cleages, Grahams, , , , , ,

Several days ago Cassmob’s of Family history across the seas blog had an interactive map of places she’s been writing about in Papua, New Guinea. I immediately went to Google Maps to figure out how to do it myself. Below is a map of places my family lived during the 1940 Census in Detroit. If you click on the blue markers it will tell you who lived there and how they are related to my grandparents.


View 1940 Detroit, Michigan – Where we lived in a larger map

Detroit is divided by Woodward Avenue into Westside and Eastside. My Cleages are all clustered close on the Westside, which is also where I grew up. The Grahams are more spread out on the Eastside. Plymouth had a vibrant youth group program in the 1930 and that is where my parents met. The old Plymouth Congregational Church was urban renewed in the late 1970s and moved location but in 1940 it was located at Garfield and Beaubien, right in the middle of what is now the Detroit Medical Center.

There is a way to insert pop up photographs too which I am going to figure out next.

1940 Census – Jennie Virginia (Allen) Turner

1940 Census, Investigations, Turner, ,
4536 Harding Street, Detroit.

 In 1940 my 75 year old great grandmother, Jennie Virginia Turner, lived with her daughters at 4536 Harding, Detroit, Michigan. She lived about 10 minutes by car (not that they had a car) from her oldest daughter, Fannie Graham and her family on Theodore. Her nephew, James Edward McCall, lived about half way between the two with his family on Parker. She was listed as a widow and retired with 6 years of schooling. Everyone in the house is identified as “Negro”.  Jennie gave the enumerator the information.

Aunt Daisy was 48 years old, single, with 4 years of high school. She was the only one in the house working outside of the home. She is listed as a stock girl at a retail fur company. It had been my understanding that Daisy was a seamstress but she was also listed as head stock girl at a fur store in the 1930 census so I guess she wasn’t sewing. My mother told me years ago that Daisy also collected numbers at Annis to supplement the family income. When she lived in Montgomery, AL, Daisy was a teacher for several years and worked in her Uncle Victor  Tulane’s grocery store as a clerk.

Aunt Alice was 32 years old, single and had completed 9 years of school. This answered a question I had about Alice, did she finish high school after she moved to Detroit at age 15.  I don’t think she did.  If she started school at 6, she probably stopped when she moved to Detroit.

"Daisy with friends from work"
Daisy (the arrow points at her) with friends from Annis Furs.

1940 Census – Jacob and Gertrude (Brunt) Cleage

1940 Census, Cleages, Investigations,

The Old West Side Detroit neighborhood where my father's family and aunts and uncles and cousins lived in 1940. Uncle Jake's house was the second one up from the bottom of the map.

Jacob Cleage was my grandfather Albert Cleage’s oldest brother.  He and his wife, Gertrude, lived at 5670 Hartford Avenue, very close to my grandfather’s Cleage Clinic.  The house is no longer there, but there are 3 houses on either side of the spot where it stood   and it appears that all were built from the same plan.

Empty spot marked by "A" where Jacob and Gertrude Cleage's house once stood.

House near 5670 Hartford Ave. The least modernized house of the 3 and perhaps the closest to what their house looked like.

5670 probably looked like this house that hasn’t been renovated or sided. I think their house would have been painted and kept up.  They owned the house and it was worth $1,900 according to the 1940 census.

Jacob Cleage

Gertrude Cleage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were six people in the household. Everybody was identified as Negro and had been living at the same address in 1935.

According to the census  Jacob Cleage was the head of the house. He was 62 years old and had been born in Florida. He worked as a sweeper in an auto plant with 2 years of high school.  He earned $1,200 in 1935.

Gertrude Cleage, 58, wife, born in West Virginia. She was not working outside the home and had completed 3 years of high school.

John Cleage, 29, son (SON?? first I heard of Jacob having any children), born in West Virginia. He worked in the stock room of an auto factory and earned  $1,600 during 1935. He had 4 years of college and was attending college in 1940. He was married and his wife were seperated.

Jacob Cleage, jr, 24 son (ANOTHER SON???) also born in West Virginia. Not working with 3 years of college and attending college in 1940. He was single.

Robert Evans, 22, lodger, born in Alabama. He had attended school that year and had 2 years of high school. He wasn’t working and had earned no money. He was married.

Countess Evans, 22, wife of a lodger born in Alabama. Shw had 4 years of college, was not working and had earned no money. Countess spoke to the enumerator which probably accounts for the incorrect information.

Jacob Cleage was actually born in Tennessee and Gertrude was born in North Carolina. I never heard that they had any children and I’ve followed them down through the years from the 1880 census and other records and through family stories and photographs. My grandparents lived with them when my father was born in 1911. I can’t find Jacob Jr. or John Cleage any place else, not living apart with a different mother and not in any directories.   If all of these young people were living there in 1935, the lodgers would have been 17. Jacob Jr. would have been 19 and John would have been 24. That would have been a house full of students for one working man to support.  Jacob Cleage died in 1942, just two years later.

I wish Jacob or Gertrude had been the informant because I’ve got to take much of this with a grain of salt until more information comes my way.

Source: 1940 U.S. census, Wayne Co., Michigan, pop. Sch., Detroit, Ward 14 E.D. 84-785  Sheet No. 11 B  HH 191 Jacob Cleage. Informant – lodger. Click to view census sheet.

Man in a Plane

sepia saturday

I found this photo in my collection. It was dedicated to one of my aunts from what looks like “Tummil”. I do not know who he is or where he’s going or what happened to him.

New information: received this today  “The plane is an AT-6 Texan.  The man in the plane is definitely an officer and possibly a pilot.  The photograph was taken in the states, possibly circa 1940-1950 as that was when the majority of training took place.  TA stands for Trainer Aircraft.  Neither of us recognize the pilot.”

And yet more information:  “Please let your sister know that we are not saying he was not a Tuskegee Airman.  By the fact that he is sitting in an A-6 trainer suggests he was in the Tuskegee program   But right now we have no way of knowing if he graduated or when he was in the program.  If I get a name then all sorts of avenues open up.  We just need to get lucky where someone recognizes him as having been in their class.  We have records of each graduating class.  The first graduating class was 42-C-SE on March 6, 1942.  The “SE” stands for Single Engine so the first class was all  Fighter Pilots.  There were five graduating officers:
Captain Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.
2nd Lt. Lemuel R. Custis
2nd Lt. Charles DeBow
2nd Lt. George S. Roberts
2nd Lt. Mac Ross

There were forty-four Single Engine classes and twenty-one TE (Twin Engine) classes.  The last class to graduate was 46-C-TE on June 28, 1946, 2nd Lt. Claude A. Rowe from Detroit Michigan.  The problem is that there were approximately one thousand pilots who graduated.  Only three hundred (+) went over to Europe.  Of that group at last count we know of forty four who are still living.  But… I know a guy.  He is ninety three and sharp as a tack.  He was attached to Headquarters.  I’m going to send him a copy and see what he says.  By the way, he had to jump out of planes twice during the war.  When I interviewed him he told me all kinds of great stories.  But the last one did make me smile.  I asked him if, at the end he took anything from his plane before he left to get on the boat to come home.  I swear there was a twinkle in his eye when he said, “…Well, you know some of the ladies who built the planes would write their names on the inside of the cockpit in lipstick.  They would also leave their phone numbers.  I made some calls!”‘

To see more Sepia Saturday Posts, CLICK.

1940 Census – James and Minnie (Reed) Mullins

1940 Census, Investigations, , , ,

Minnie Reed Mullins was my grandmother, Pearl Reed Cleage’s sister.  James and Minnie Mullins were the parents of 12 children. At the time of the 1940 census only the youngest 3 – William, Harold and John – were still at home. Minnie was the informant. The house they rented for $20 a month at 4345 Tireman is no longer there. Here is a shot from Google Maps looking down the street from the now vacant lot.

Looking down the street from 4345 Tireman, which is no longer standing.

In the 1960s I sometimes walked down Tireman on my way to school. At that time the houses were still there. They were a mix of brick and frame two family and single family houses.  My uncle Henry talked about riding his bike down Tireman and out into the country when he was a boy.   The one time my sister and I tried it, we ended up in Dearborn and were called “nigger” by some white teenage boys.  But that is not today’s story.

James Mullins was listed as 75 years old and had not worked during the past year.  He and wife Minnie both had 8 years of school.  She was born in Kentucky and he was listed as born in New York.  I don’t know if Minnie was joking with the enumerator or trying to give them false information on purpose or if it was a misunderstanding.   He was actually born in Georgia according to all the other documents I have. Well, except for the 1930 census where his race was “Indian”, his place of birth was “Cherokee” and Minnie was identified as “white”.  In 1940 everybody living in the household was identified as “Negro”.

Mr. Mullins holding John. William “Bill” and Harold in front, about 1924. Benton Harbor, MI

Minnie Reed Mullins about 1924. Benton Harbor, MI.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A later photograph of William (known as Bill) and Harold Mullins.

William Mullins was 26 in the 1940 Census. He was born in Indiana. He had finished 4 years of high school. He had earned $960 wages in 1939 working 52 weeks as a machinist in an Auto Factory.

Harold was 24 years old. He was born in Indiana and had completed 4 years of high school. During 1939 he worked 52 weeks and earned $936 as a stock boy at a clothing store.

John Mullins

John was 18 years old, born in Michigan and had completed 3 years of high school. He was attending school so he was probably a senior at Northwestern High School. I know that John was also a musician and probably played during this time.

Just looking through other information I have collected for the Mullins family has shown me I need to plan another post where I pull it all together.

 Source 1940 U.S. Census. State: Michigan. County: Wayne. City: Detroit. Ward 14. Enumeration District: 84-788. Sheet number: 1-A. Household # 1. Head of household: James Mullins. Informant: Wife: Minnie Mullins.  To see the census page for the Mullins family click here.

1940 Census – The Albert B. and Pearl (Reed) Cleages

1940 Census, Carnival of Genealogy, Cleages, Investigations, , , , , , , ,
Albert, Pearl, Albert Jr, Louis, Henry, Hugh, Barbara, Gladys, Anna.
6429 Scotten, Detroit, Michigan

In 1940 my grandparents and family were living at 6429 Scotten at the corner of Moore Place. They owned the house and it was worth $5,000. They had lived in the same place in 1935 and in fact had been there for over 20 years as all the girls in the family were born in that house.  My grandfather was a medical doctor in private practice at the Cleage Clinic.  The amount of money he made in 1939 was a crossed out number, replaced with “0”. He was the informant, that is he is the one that talked to the census taker and gave them the information on the form.

My grandfather was 56 years old, born in Tennessee with plus 5 years of college. My grandmother was 50, born in Kentucky with 4 years of high school. My father was 28, born in Indiana, had plus 5 years of college and was absent from the home. All the other children were born in Michigan. Louis was 26, had plus 5 years of college and absent from the home. Henry was 24 and had 5 years of college. Hugh was 21 and had 2 years of college. Barbara was 19 and had completed 1 year of college. Gladys was 17 and had completed 4 years of high school. Anna was 15 and had completed 2 years of high school.

All of the children were in school. Anna was still attending Northwestern High school. Gladys had graduated in 1939 and was a freshman at Wayne State University. Henry, Hugh and Barbara must have been at Wayne. Louis graduated from Wayne State medical school in 1940 and was doing a residency at Homer Philips in St. Louis. My father graduated from Wayne in 1938 and was in the seminary at Oberlin College.

Source: 1940 U.S. Census. State: Michigan. County: Wayne. City: Detroit. Ward 14. Enumeration Districe: 84-787. Sheet number: 11-A. Head of household and informant: Dr. Albert B. Cleage.  To see the census sheet for the Albert Cleage family click HERE.

I hadn’t realized that one of my grandmother sisters and all of my grandfather’s living siblings lived within walking distance of their house.  I have labeled their houses, Northwestern High School, Wingert Elementary School and the Cleage Clinic.  I sort of knew this, but I didn’t realize it until I mapped it out after finding everybody in the same neighborhood.  In future posts I will share what I learned about each household in 1940.