or is this Louis?
and this Henry?
Henry Cleage
My mother, Doris, being held by her mother, Fannie
Not a bridge, a ferry
In my new batch of photos, I found another photograph in the #160 series that I showed in my last post, here. I didn’t notice, until after I posted this photo a few minutes ago, that there were words on the building, “Levy Bros.” “Falls City Ferry and Transportation Co.” Looking at the landscape, behind the ferry and building, I saw a distant shore. No longer looked like Athens, TN! Which is why I deleted that post and started looking things up.
I googled “Falls City Ferry and Transportation Co.” and found this entry in ‘The Encyclopedia of Louisville’ page 286. “The last ferry operation was between Louisville and Jeffersonville. The original company, facing difficult competition from electric interurban car service over the Big Four Bridge beginning in 1905, was reorganized as the Falls City Ferry and Transportation Co. in December 1920, with David B.G. Rose as principal shareholder. Among the minority shareholders was Harland D. Sanders, later of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. Though the passenger load declined through the 1920’s vehicular traffic increased as automobiles proliferated. There was as yet no vehicular bridge between Louisville and Jeffersonville. Fares were low. During the 1920’s pedestrians were carried for five cents. Once aboard they could ride all day for that modest fee.”
Louisville is not on the Detroit, MI to Athens, TN route. It is on the route from Athens, TN to Indianapolis, IN, where Uncle Hugh Reed still lived. In fact, I have a photograph of my father and his brothers taken with Uncle Hugh’s sons, perhaps on the same trip. In this photo we have front row, Henry and Hugh Cleage. In the back row, Albert Cleage (my father), Hugh Reed Jr, Thomas Reed and Louis Cleage. About 1921 in Indianapolis, IN. My father is wearing the same outfit.
Poem for Poppy
Today I am transcribing my Grandfather, Mershell C. Graham’s funeral program. I’ve been looking for my grandfather’s funeral program for several months. It wasn’t in the binder, where it should have been, or in the box with the not yet filed funeral programs. Today, while looking for something else, I found it. It was in my file cabinet in a folder having nothing to do with anything relevant. The poem was written by my sister, Pearl Cleage.
Poem For My Grandfather
(for M.C. Graham)
The handing down of things
worn smooth between your fingers.
The handing down of parts of you
in hurried kitchen ceremonies.
The smell of biscuits
and the smell of heirlooms.
A story about trains.
A whisper of hard times
and magic in the face you hold so close to mine
and smile.
The handing down of things.
The handing on of you…
By Pearl Cleage
In Memorium
Mershell C. Graham
Thursday, September 6, 1973, 12 Noon
Plymouth United Church of Christ
514 Garfield
Detroit, Michigan
Rev. Nicholas Hood, Pastor
Order of Service
Processional……
Hymn ……
Invocation …….
Scripture …….
Hymn …….
Eulogy …….
Benediction …….
Interment
Detroit Memorial Park
In Charge
Charles T. Cole Funeral Home
Honory Pallbearers
Friends of Mr. Graham
Active Pallbearers
Members of the Men’s Club
Mershell C. Graham was born December 25, 1887, in Coosada Station, Alabama. He received his early Christian training in the First Congregational Church of Montgomery, Alabama. He met his beloved wife, Fannie Mae, in the church. They celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary in June of this year. They had four children and shared a long and beautiful life.
He was one of the founders of Plymouth United Church of Christ and was a devoted member of the church all of his life. He served as treasurer for many years and was Trustee Emeritus. He was retired from the Ford Motor Company after over thirty years of service and was a member of the U.A.W. and the N.A.A.C.P.
Mr. Graham passed on September 3, 1973, at his home at 16260 Fairfield. He leaves to mourn his loss his wife, Fannie, his two daughters, Mary Virginia Graham Elkins and Doris Graham Cleage; five grandchildren Doris Diane Elkins; Kristin Cleage Williams; Barbara Elkins; Pearl Cleage Lomax and Marilyn elkins; and six great-grandchildren; Maricea McNeil; Harry McNeil; Frank Elkins; Lonnie Elkins; Jilo Williams and Ife Williams.
He was preceded in death by his two sons, Mershell C. Graham Jr and Howard A. Graham.
Photos, Photos Everywhere
This week I spent hours putting my photographs from the paternal side in order. First by grouping them into piles according to the numbers on the reverse side. After dividing them up by number, I then started dating the files. I was able to determine who some of the babies were in later photos by which siblings were already there and how old they were. I will show some of these in a later post. It’s been slow going and I almost missed Sepia Saturday. However I thought I should make an entry. Above you see some of the piles.
These two photographs have the same number. I have wondered for years if that boy with the stocking cap on standing next to the car was my father. When I saw the photo of my Uncle Louis (on the left) and my father, Albert, with the stocking cap, I saw it was him. There are other photos that have both boys that have different numbers but they appear to be taken at the same time on one of the family’s annual trips to Athens Tennessee, my grandfather’s hometown. One brother, Edward, remained in Athens. The rest of the family ended up first in Indianapolis, IN and then in Detroit, MI.
Here are some other posts about the Athens branch of the Cleages.
Uncle Ed’s daughters – 1917. Memories to Memoirs, and Juanita and Daughters.
To Read more Sepia Saturday post and to participate click HERE.
The 4th Annual i Gene Awards at Finding Eliza (and My Cleages)
This time last year I didn’t know the i Gene Awards existed. This year I am here to present the Awards for the best posts on my blogs in five categories. First I would like to thank my ancestors for saving so many photographs, stories, letters, journals and scraps of paper and seeing that they got to me. It has made my job so much easier. And now on to the awards.
The Best Picture Award goes to My Mother – 1952 a Sepia Saturday offering that caused much speculation about why she seemed to be avoiding the camera. Was she shy? Was she coy? Did she lose her earring? Was there a cat under the chair? We will never know but I would like to thank my mother, Doris Graham Cleage, for being so photographically mysterious.
The Best Screen Play Award goes to Eliza and the People in Her Life – a Chart This would be a multi-generational saga that begins in slavery and ends in freedom. We have slavery, lust, an escape to freedom while being chased by hounds, true love, vengeance, the surrender of Montgomery, reconstruction, family bonds, death in childbirth, hard work and much, much more. The chart is the cast of this drama. I would like to thank my sister Pearl Cleage for being my casting director. Her picks are below:
- Young Eliza — Jurnee Smollett/played the debating girl in “The Great Debators” and was the young girl featured in “Selma, Lord, Selma!” and “Eve’s Bayou.” good actress.
- Old Eliza — Barbara O/Yella Mary from “Daughters of the Dust.” amazing actress and looks like she could be what Jurnee would look like old. (let’s say old Eliza is the one who starts telling the story in flashbacks so she’d start and then Jurnee would fade in as Eliza in her twenties when she meets Dock.
- Dock — Jeffrey Wright/played Muddy Waters in “Cadillac Records.” he’s a little old, but he looks like he could be Dock and he’s an amazing actor.
- Annie Williams — Viola Davis/in her 40’s, so she could be in a flashback/she was nominated for an academy award for her role as the mother in “Doubt.” last year, she won a Tony for playing Rose in “Fences” on b’way.
- Milton Saffold — here come the movie stars… maybe Jake Gyllenhaal he was in “Brokeback Mountain” and lots of movies. he’s a good actor. the right age, in his 30’s.
- Georgia Whitting — Reese Witherspoon, usually comedic, but was really good playing June Carter Cash in the movie about Johnny Cash. She’s from Tennessee so she could call on her roots.
- Edmund and Jane Harrison — oh, let’s throw in a couple of really BIG time movie stars for fun. how about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt?
- Martha Harrison — how about Dakota Fanning? she’s young, blond, not a bad actress.
- Clara Bolden – Tariji P. Henson. got nominated for an Ocsar for a weird movie two years ago. was also a star of the awful movie, “Hustle and Flow”, but that wasn’t her fault. she’s pretty good and can play sad and angry, two emotions required of colored mistresses.
The Award for Best Documentary goes to In Which I Hit the Google Photo Jackpot, another Sepia Saturday offering. In this one I wrote about the information I found trying to explain why the Tulanes might have been sitting so far apart on the porch, get side tracked into researching Victor Tulane’s family and then talk about all the photographs I found for this family, using google, while just trying to illustrate the original information.
The Award for Best Biography goes to the two part series about my Grandmother Fannie Mae Turner Graham 1888 – 1974 – part 1 and Fannie Mae Turner Graham 1888 – 1974 – Conclusion I would like to thank my mother, Doris Graham Cleage, for writing this series in 1976.
Last but not least, The Award for Best Comedy goes to a post for which I have to give credit to my Uncle Henry Cleage (Does it seem to you, right about now, that I wrote only half of these posts, at most??) for the short story Just Tell The Men – A short story by Henry W. Cleage.
A big thank you to Carnival of Genealogy hostess, Jasia, at Creative Gene for creating these Carnivals!
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A letter to my grandmother Fannie
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.
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
The Whole Bunch – 1922
Today I spread all my Cleage photos out on the table and began putting them into order by number or date. While I was doing this, I found another photograph in the sequence that I posted about twice this week. Click here to see the photo of my grandparents, where I speculate that it was taken soon after their marriage. Several people wondered what he was holding over his shoulder. Click here to read about my discovery of the numbers on the back of most of the photographs.
I can see the people more clearly in this group photograph but, it is in bad shape. Starting from the left, are two headless women and I don’t know who they are. The little girl is my Aunt Barbara, next to her is my Uncle Hugh, Uncle Louis, Uncle Henry, Theodore Page (who looks like he has a double), a mystery girl, and the FLAG that my grandfather held over his shoulder. Behind them are, an unknown man, my great grandmother Celia Rice Cleage Sherman, her son Jacob, my father Albert “Toddy”, three people I don’t know then my grandfather Albert B. Cleage Sr. In the background are some other people. I don’t know who they are or where they are.
Click here to read other Sepia Saturday stories and to join in with a Sepia Saturday post of your own.
More Information About Yesterday’s Photo and a Discovery
Last night I posted an undated photograph of my grandparents. I assumed it was taken soon after they were married in 1910. Then one of my daughter’s asked me when it was taken and where it was taken. I went back to my box of Cleage photos to see if I could find some others taken on the same day. After going through quite a few pictures, I noticed that there were numbers on the back of the photographs.
Here is the back of the photo in question. That is my handwriting. I started looking for other photos with the number 573. Voila! I found two. One says ‘Toddy and Theodore Page”, not in my handwriting. Toddy is my father and Theodore Page was the nephew of Gertrude, my great uncle Jacob’s wife. He was living with them in Detroit, according to the 1930 census.
Taking a side trip, I began to look for information about Theodore (Roosevelt) Page. I found him at age 6 living with his parents, Jacob and Anna Eliza Page, and siblings William and Ophelia living on a farm in Mississippi in 1910. By 1920 he was 16 years old. He and his mother were living with sister his Ophelia and her husband, Henry Red, in Arkansas. He worked on the family farm and had attended school in the last year. I’ve been trying to find Uncle Jacob’s wife’s maiden name for years. Maybe finding her sister will help.
The other photo with the number 573 on it is a very blurry group photo. I see my grandmother Pearl on the far left with little Barbara in front of her. Hugh is next to Barbara, My father is in the front row center, next to him is my great grandmother, Celia Rice Cleage Sherman, a little kid, probably my uncle Henry is next. Behind Henry we see Theodore Page. My grandfather is on the end. Is he still holding the mystery object from the other photo?
Now I’ll make another attempt to date the photo. My father was born in 1911. He could be 10 or 11. Barbara was born in 1920. She could be 2. Gladys was born the end of September in 1922. Does my grandmother look pregnant? My estimate is summer of 1922.
With this new information I will begin sorting, and scanning the box of photos in the near future.
Albert and Pearl (Reed) Cleage -1922
My father’s parents at a picnic in 1922. My grandmother was pregnant with my aunt Gladys. My grandfather is holding a flag. I thought I should start my 100 posts about my father with something about his parents. Today a photo, tomorrow some basic information.