Henry Cleage with the press about 1965
This works for this weeks Sepia Saturday – “Man and Machine”. For other Sepia Saturday posts click here.
From Montgomery to Detroit
Dock Allen was born around 1832 into slavery in Georgia. He died free in 1909 in Montgomery Alabama. He was a carpenter. His mother, Matilda Brewster was born in Georgia into slavery. I don’t know when or where she died.
Eliza Williams Allen was born into slavery about 1839 in Alabama. She died free in Montgomery Alabama in 1917. She was a seamstress. Her mother, Anne Williams was born into slavery in South Carolina about 1820 and died free in Montgomery before 1900.
Dock and Eliza’s daughter Jennie Virginia Allen Turner was born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1866. She was a seamstress. She died in 1954 in Detroit, Michigan. In 1887 she married Howard Turner. He was born in Lowndes County Alabama in 1864. He was murdered in Alabama in 1892. His father, Joe Turner, was born into slavery in Alabama about 1839. He was a farmer. He died free in Alabama in 1919. Howard’s mother, Emma Jones, was born into slavery in South Carolina about 1840 and died free in Alabama in 1901.
Jennie and Howard’s daughter, Fannie Turner Graham was born in Lowndes County, AL in 1888. She died in Detroit, Michigan in 1974. She managed a grocery store before her marriage to Mershell C. Graham in 1919. Mershell and both of his parents were born in Alabama. Mershell moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1918. In 1919 he returned to Montgomery to marry Fannie. They both returned to Detroit immediately following the wedding where they roomed with friends from Montgomery for several years. Mershell worked at Fords Motor Co. in the parts section. When they were ready to buy their own house they sent for Fannie’s mother, Jennie and two sisters. All of Fannie and Mershell’s children were born in Detroit. In 1946 Fannie’s Aunt Abbie came up from Montgomery and lived with Mershell and Fannie until her death in 1966.
By the 1960s all of Dock and Eliza’s children and grandchildren had left Montgomery and were living in Detroit, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; Madison, Wisconsin and New York City. Mershell’s relatives remained in Alabama but contact was lost and we don’t know what happened to them. Joe and Emma’s children stayed in Lowndes County, some moving to Montgomery and Birmingham by the 1930 census. Because my grandmother lost touch with them before leaving Alabama I only know by following the census where they went. I believe some eventually moved to Chicago but I’ll have to wait for the 1940 census to verify.
My cousins and I grew up in Detroit surrounded by family on both sides, who had left Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee to end up there. Of my grandparents five granddaughters, two remain in Detroit as do their children and grandchildren. One now lives in California where the majority of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were born and live. My sister and I, along with most of our children and grandchildren live in Atlanta Georgia.
More on the Exciting Vincents
Recently I received a phone call from my cousin Jacqui. We met by phone several years ago. My great grandmother Jennie was her grandmother Willie’s sister. Jacqui sent me photographs of ancestors I did not have – one of Eliza (for whom this blog is named) and of two of Eliza’s children – Anna and Ransom. Earlier this month, Jacqui sent me a packet of information about her father’s side of the family. Included was this photograph of her father, Ubert Conrad Vincent and also some of his parents. Read more about the Tulanes and Vincents in these posts. Hitting the Google Jackpot. Naomi Tulane’s Engagement Photograph. Willie Allen Tulane. Victor and Willie Allen Tulane. Victor, Willie and Children’s Graves. And more. I had no idea I had done so many posts on this branch of the family.
Anyway, back to the phone call from cousin Jacqui. She mentioned that she did not know the names of her grandparent’s parents. Of course I decided to see what I could find. The information I started with was from a Power Point Program Jaqui used for a presentation about her father.
Rev. Andrew B. Vincent
- Born on Cherokee Territory in Ashville, NC
- Professor at Shaw University.
- Later became Dean – School of Theology
- Received an honorary Doctoral Degree on his retirement in 1904.
Cora P. Exum
- *Born in Wilson, NC
- *Professor at Shaw University
- *Taught Domestic Science
- *She had 14 children.
I first looked at Ancestry.com and found Andrew and Cora Vincent in Raleigh, North Carolina in the 1900 and 1910. In both of these censuses everyone was listed as “black” with self and parents born in North Carolina and they were enumerated in Raleigh Ward 3, Wake, North Carolina.
In 1900 the household included
- Andrew D Vincent 43
- Cora P Vincent 31
- Mable Vincent 13
- Ubert C Vincent 9
- Cora P Vincent 6
- Ruth E Vincent 4
- Baby Vincent 3/12
Andrew and Cora were married in 1884 and had been married for 16 years. She had birthed 8 children and 5 were living. His occupation was listed as missionary. They were all identified as black.
In 1910 the household included
- Andrew B Vincent 50
- Cora P Vincent 42
- Ubrot C Vincent 19
- Cora Vincent 16
- Ruth Vincent 14
- Alfred B Vincent 10
- Reba G Vincent 6
- Burnice Vincent 2
- Alice Hardin 20 (listed as a servant)
Rev. Andrew Vincent was working as a missionary for a Sunday school.
In the 1919 Raleigh, NC City Directory, Andrew, Cora and Cora Pearl Vincent were all listed as teachers.
In 1920 the family was enumerated in New York, New York. Andrew was not ennumerated there. Perhaps he was out of town on an Evangelistic tour when the census people came to the house because he is back by the 1925 census.
Household Members:
Name Age
Cora Pearl Vincent 50
Ubert C Vincent 27
Pearl Vincent 24
Reba Vincent 15
Bernice Vincent 11
Claudia Foy 36
Hebda Vincent 9
Cora was listed as the married head of the household. Ubert was a doctor at Bellevue Hospital. The whole household was identified as black and born in North Carolina.
In the 1925 New York State Census, the family is ennumerated in New York, New York. All were identified as “C” colored. Housework meant Cora and Pearl were doing their own housework in their own home.
Household Members
Name Age Occupation
- Andrew Vincent 67 minister
- Cora Vincent 45 housework
- Pearl Vincent 20 housework
- Bernice Vincent 16 at school
- Heba Vincent 14 at school
Next I went to Family Search. I searched for Andrew Vincent and didn’t find who I was looking for, so I put in Cora P. Exum. The first couple to come up were A.B. Vincent and Cora P. Exum for 26 July 1884. The marriage took place in Goldsboro Twp., Wayne, NC. There were no parents listed for Cora but A.B.’s were listed as H. Vincent and N. Vincent. Both were identified as black.
Back to Ancestry.com. I looked for H. Vincent and found some John H. Vincents in the 1870 census and decided to just look for all the Vincents in N.C. in 1870. There were over 8,000. On the first page I found a Nettie Vincent married to Henry Vincent. I believe they got Nellie’s age wrong as in the 1880 census she and Henry are the same age. Relationships are not given in the 1870 census.
The household included:
Name Age
Henry Vincent 35
Nellie Vincent 54
Brown Vincent 12
Phillip Vincent 13
June Enox 2
Abz Bird 2
Henry was listed as mulatto. The rest of the family was listed as black. Henry was a wagon maker. Nellie was keeping house and Brown was at home. I know that people often went by their middle names so this seems a good possibility for Andrew’s family. It would help to know what his middle name was.I found Henry and Nellie Vincent in the 1880 census. They lived alone. They were both enumerated as being 50 years old. Henry was a farmer.
To confuse matters a bit, there was a 60 year old Caroline Vincent living one house over from Henry with her 24 year old son, Brown Vincent. In the 1870 census there was a Caroline Vincent and a house full of Vincents, including a 14 year old Brown Vincent living in the same area as Henry, Nellie and our Brown. I think that this Brown is Caroline’s son and not Andrew Brown Vincent, who should be at Shaw University by that time.
Today I found a death certificate for Phillip Vincent (remember him from the 1870 census above?) His parents are listed as Henry and Caroline Vincent with the informant being Phillip’s wife. Perhaps she got the name wrong? Perhaps Henry had two families and two sons named “Brown.”
I was unable to find Cora Pearl Exum in any census before her marriage record of 1884. Some time ago, I had access to the ProQuest Historical Newspaper Collection and I was able to find and download, many items related to the Tulane/Vincent family. I finally remembered this and looking through them, I was able to find an obituary for both Andrew and Cora Vincent. The Chicago Defender, national edition May 28, 1927. Obituary 2 “May 28, 1927 Physician’s Father Dies. Andrew Brown Vincent of 116 W. 130th St., father of Dr. U. Conrad Vincent, well known physician of 209 W 135th St. died at his late residence Saturday morning. The funeral was held Wednesday evening from Abyssinia Baptist church. “
Ta tum! His middle name was BROWN! Today, I goggled Andrew Brown Vincent – Shaw University and found :
VINCENT, ANDREW . . . . . Pleasant Grove, N. C. on page 9 as a student in Shaw University’s Normal Department in the 1876 – 1877 school catalogue. I also found an ebook History of the American Negro with an entry several pages long on Andrew Brown Vincent, mother’s name Nellie Vincent. Much interesting information.
Cora’s obituary reads as follows, with, unfortunately, no mention of parents or siblings.
The New York Amsterdam News June 29, 1932. pg 11
Hold Last Rites of Mrs. Vincent
Mother of Physician Dies at Home Here – Husband Was N.C. Educator
The body of Mrs. Cora Pearl Vincent, 55, who succumbed June 21 at the residence of her son, Dr. Ubert Conrad Vincent, 251 West 138th street was buried Friday beside that of her husband in the family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery.
Three pastors officiated at the funeral services the same afternoon at Abyssiania Baptist Church. They were the Rev. A. Clayton Powell, Jr., assistant pastor of the church; the Rev. J.W. Brown of Mother Zion and the Rev. Richard M. Bolden of the First Emanuel Church.
Arrangements for the funeral were in the hands of the Turner Undertaking and Embalming Company, 107 West 136 street, and the pallbearers were Drs. Paul Collins, Ira McCowan, Chester Chinn, J.W. Saunders, Charles A. Petioni, William Carter, Jesse Cesneres and Police Sergant Samuel Jesse Battles.
Mrs. Vincent, whose husband, Dr. Andrew B. Vincent, was on the faculty of Shaw University for fifteen years, was born at Wilson, N.C., in 1873. She resided at Raleigh, N.C., until arrival in New York thirteen years ago.
She was the mother of fourteen children, six of whom survive her. Besides Dr. Vincent they are Ruth, Pearl, Albert, Berniece and Mrs. Reba Ragsdale, the latter of the Dunbar apartments. Ruth, who lives in Chicago, came East for the funeral of her mother. The other children reside at 1849 Seventh avenue, where Mrs. Vincent made her home.
Read a variety of Sepia Saturday posts by other people here.
How I made my Sixties Blues Quilt
Today is National Quilting Day. I am going to post about making the “Sixties Blues” quilt. About 1975, when I was pregnant with my 3rd daughter, I decided to make a quilt. I have a box of African fabric scrapes that I used. As the years went by and more babies came along, mine and those of friends, I made many African fabric patchwork quilts. Sometimes I had a pattern but usually I just put the fabric together however it moved me. Here is one I made for my granddaughter Kylett several years ago.
In 2008 I took a Photo-quilting class. Over the years, I had made patchwork quilts but had no idea there were methods to square up the corners and other fine points I never learned because I was making it up as I went along. It took me much of this 8 week class to design my first photo quilt, sew the top together and baste the three layers (top, fill and backing) together. This is my Ancestor baby quilt using pictures of family babies from the early 1900′ to the 1920s. At this same time I was getting back into printmaking. My major in college was printmaking but once I graduated, I ended up living various rural areas and I did not have access to the supplies and equipment I needed until we moved to Atlanta four years ago. where I took a class, in printmaking to refresh my mind after a 40 year break. After that semester ended, I decided to continue with the printmaking and put the quilt on the back burner. For three years.
This fall I decided to take another quilting class to force myself to finish the baby quilt. I didn’t quite finish in the first 8 weeks so I signed up for the next eight weeks and FINALLY completed the quilt, which I will put in the Annual Southwest Atlanta Art Center. I decided to do the “Challenge quilt” for the show held each spring at Southwest Atlanta Arts Center. For each show there is a “challenge quilt” that participants can do or not. This year it can be no larger than 24 X 24 inches and has to be all one color, including the thread. I decided to do one about the years of my life from 1966 to 1969. Although there were high points to those years, there were also some depressing times so I chose blue for the color. I have been making collages for all of my adult life. I have done a collage on the wall in most of the houses we lived in over the last 40 years. I decided to do this quilt much like a collage.
I have plenty of photographs from that period. I chose the ones I wanted to use, scanned them and used photoshop to fix them if they needed it, resized them and turned them blue. I inverted several so that they look like negatives. I printed the photographs on Jacquard cotton squares, 8.5 x 11 inch cotton sheets with a removable backing. (I’m not being paid by Jacquard). I made 5 squares, 8 x 10.5 inches, two and a half on top and two and a half on the bottom. I used one square for each year, give or take a bit. I arranged them much the same as I would for a collage on a wall using various sizes and shapes, over laping when I liked the look of it. There are some light spots that I am going to color in with blue pencil to be within the guidelines.
After I finished that one, I decided I like to work small and quickly made a smaller quilt which I wanted to look like the album pages that the original photographs were on. Then my grandaughter came to visit during her spring break and I didn’t get any more quilting done. She returned home today and I’m thinking about my next quilt. The next session starts next week and the show opens April 29 at Southwest Art Center and stays up about a month if you are going to be in Atlanta, drop by.
For other Sepia Saturday photos go here.
Quilted Wall Hanging
A quilted wall hanging made of sepia photographs taken in 1938 by my father, Albert B. Cleage Jr and his brothers.
Top row: Hugh Cleage, Barbara Cleage, Albert B. Cleage Jr., Henry Cleage, Gladys Cleage, Albert B. Cleage Jr
Middle row: Henry Cleage, Doris Graham (My mother), Hugh Cleage, Gladys Cleage, Barbara Cleage, Hugh Cleage, Louis Cleage playing the lute.
Bottom row: Louis Cleage, Gladys Cleage, Anna Cleage, Henry Cleage, Albert Cleage Jr. Anna Cleage and family friend Paul Payne.
These are all from a small photo album with contact sheet size photos. Every family member has their own page, as several friends do. Everybody except Anna, the youngest. Why? Did she dislike getting her photo taken? Did she take the page out? Did they ignore her because she was the youngest?
This quilt is 20in x 15 in. I am enjoying working small.
For other family photograph quilts see “Sixties Blues” and “Ancestral Babies”. For more Sepia Saturday offerings go here.
1960s Blues – another quilt
A quilt of my life and those in it for the years 1966 through 1969 with on photo of me and my oldest daughter in 1971. It is about 23 X 23 and was done for the upcoming quilt show at Southwest Atlanta Art Center next month. The challenge was to make a quilt all in one color.
Grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage
Today is my Grandmother, Pearl Doris Reed Cleage’s, birthday. If she were alive today she would be turning 125 years old. In her honor I have posted some photographs of her from the little black album with the little photos taken by her sons around 1938.
She was born in Lebanon, KY in 1886 and moved with her family to Indianapolis, IN when she was about six. She met her husband, Albert Cleage, at Witherspoon Presbyterian Church where she sang in the choir. They married in 1910 after he received his Physician’s License. Their first child, my father, was born in 1911. Pearl was warned never to have more children because it would probably kill her. They moved to Michigan soon after and by 1915 had settled in Detroit. My grandmother eventually bore and raised seven children. She died at age 96 in 1987.
For more posts about Pearl Cleage click the following links: Grandmother holding my father in 1911 and My Grandmother’s Family Tree and Indianapolis Research and Two Newspaper Articles 1908 and 1950. For more Sepia Saturday photographs CLICK.
My mother in Shadow
This photograph was probably taken about 1937 or 1938 by my father. To see other shadowy family photos look Proof Positive – A Short Story and here.
The Cleage Sisters at Home about 1937- Wordless Wednesday
Positive Proof – A Short Story by Henry Cleage
Proof Positive
By Henry Cleage
Before Jones placed the evidence before me, I was doing all right with my paper “The Gaylord Gazette.” I wasn’t getting rich, mind, but I was holding my own in a comfortable fashion. I was even approaching that beloved stage where a man can begin accumulating those little extra things, those cultural folderas of gracious living—like, for instance, a fireplace.I was going to put one in the front room of my building. There are two rooms altogether, a large room in the back for my press and linotype and a small room in the front for my desk and Jones’ desk. A rail runs across the front room separating our desks from the waiting room. The waiting room is for the public, people who drop in with a news item or a horsewhip for the editor. No one has horsewhipped me yet, so in gratitude I decided to put the fireplace along that south wall about where those two middle chairs are. Jones likes a fireplace too.
So you see, I was easing along pretty debonair. Gaylord was a comfortable little town. Not too big and full of news like some. That is until Jones uncovered that evidence.
Even though I am an old newspaperman of the old school, I was mortally shocked when the thing was brought out into the open. Of course you may say a newspaperman should be immune to shock, and that’s all right for you to say. But I am the one who has to rebuild his whole philosophy of life at my age.
Jones is my demon reporter. Kristin Jones is her full name but I just call her Jones on account of she is a good “newspaperman.” She is the product of the Gaylord public schools with four years of Vassar thrown in for confusion. She has a gigantic capacity for managing. When she returned from school she immediately looked for something to manage and I, sitting there, very comfortable in my snug little office must have appeared the easiest thing to get a grip on. Jones has a stranglehold on the Gazette now, but I jut can’t find it in my heart to complain. She manages with such a flair that it is good just to sit and watch her.
Jones is twenty-two and she has deep brown eyes and wavy brown hair which bounces on her shoulders. Sometimes, though, when she is turning out some deathless prose for a threatening deadline, she piles it up in a disheveled heap on top her lovely head and it is something, I’m telling you. And when she puts on her little derby hat and dashes out of the office with her big brown brief case, I have to chuckle. She is a journalist, she says. She says that is what they call it at school. She says the day of the sloppy reporter writing his story on the back of a grimy envelope is gone. The reporter has a responsible position and with this responsibility comes the necessity for dignity—and a briefcase.
I say “O.K.” I am too old to argue with youth. Why I have been out of State University nine years! I’m going on thirty-two. But when I was in school, I always wanted to be one of those slick newspaper guys with a cigarette and chewing gum. But like I said, we older folk have got to step aside and let the young folk have a say. We had our chance. Besides I am an owner, publisher, editor and reporter so I got to be a little bit pompous and such.
But don’t mention these sentiments to Jones anymore. I used to and she would get mad for some reason or other. Like once she was trying to make me start a readers’ survey.
“What’s that?” I asked at a complete loss.
“A survey,” she said patiently, “to determine your readers’ preference in reading material.”
“Oh,” I said, “I know all about what they prefer.”
“Why don’t you print it then?”
She was getting a bit pointed here, I thought.
“Too much of that stuff ain’t good for them,” I said innocent as a lamb.’’ Well she certainly laid me out. And she was right too. What right had I to assume to know my readers’ taste and then on top of that to decide whether it is good for them yet.
“O.K., O.K., “ I interrupted when she stopped to inhale. “You are right. It’s just another new idea an old man like me never heard of. Thanks for bringing it up.”I leaned back in my chair like I wasn’t long for this world.
“I appreciate your teaching me these new, youthful methods,” I added. I sort of groaned like my hardening arteries were hurting. For some reason this seemed to irritate Jones, but she controlled herself.
“Just what is it your readers prefer but you feel is too rich for their blood?” Jones asked, obviously changing the subject back to the point.
“Comics,” I admitted.
Jones slapped her derby back on her head and switched out. She forgot her briefcase. I wondered what I’d said wrong.
So you can plainly see why I steer clear of the “youth question” now. Anyway I am busy putting out a paper, and it is getting harder all the time. I’ve been so restless lately. Some days I have the awfullest time concentrating on the “Notices of Auction Sales.” I go through the “Marriage Announcements” like sixty though.
And in the evening when the breeze is soft and the quiet is dark and full of shadows, I find my usual pastimes are boring me. Last night, for instance, I walked out on the poker game at the firehouse and went for a walk. I take a lot of walks lately. Oh it’s rugged all right! And now on top of all, Jones has got that evidence.
She had been mentioning, for weeks, that her evidence was almost complete and she said I would be proud of her good work when she “exposed” the culprit. I wondered who it was. I hoped it wasn’t anyone I knew. I found out Tuesday afternoon.
I was just getting comfortable when Jones came in. My feet were nicely balanced in the top drawer of my desk and a soft clover hayish wind was nuzzling my neck. Two little flies were buzzing against the screen—buzz—buzz-buz-bu—b. I had only just closed my eyes for a mere second when she rudely flung my feet from their comfortable position and into the wastebasket. I felt trapped!
She had on a green sweater and a skirt. I don’t know what color her skirt was but it was a green sweater. It had little pockets on each side and a pin was stuck on the left pocket.
“Well,” she said looking at me with those eyes, “have you got to the nerve to see my evidence.”
“Do it take nerve?” I asked in a veritable chaos of confusion.She reached deep down in her briefcase and drew out a nickel notebook. She fixed me with a narrowed pair of eyes.
” June 19—“ she began, but something forced me to speak.“Jones, my dear,” but she raised a hand for silence.
“Because, said Jones, “the evidence concerns you and your walks and things.”
“I haven’t got the nerve,” I sobbed, “take it away.”
“On one condition,” she said.
“Anything,” I pleaded.
So now we are married and Jones manages me and the Gazette legally. I wonder why she never asked me in for a dish of tea when I was walking by her house all those times.