F – Sanitary FOUNTS

A-Z Challenge 2024, African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Alabama, Edelweiss, Montgomery Alabama

In 1918 and 1919 thirty-seven young women, friends and neighbors of my grandmother Fannie Mae Turner were members of the Edelweiss Club in Montgomery, Alabama. These are snapshots from their lives, place and times.

Day Street School is were our Edelweiss Hostess for today, Gwendolyn Lewis, taught. Day Street School was first mentioned in the Montgomery Advertiser in 1898. It was added to the other two public schools for African American students. Day Street School was a two story frame building. There was no light except that which came in through the windows. Heat was from stoves.

In March of 1918, the principal, teachers and the Day School League raised between four and five hundred dollers for improving the school grounds. The school yard was graded and sodded. A concrete wall was built from the street to the front door and the sidewalk was improved. A new flag was purchased by the students. In December of that year sanitary toilets were installed to replace outhouses and a sanitary drinking fount was installed.

Day Street School had twelve teachers in 1918. Five of them – Alice Snow, Gwendolyn Lewis, Sadie Gilmer, Lorene Farris and Jesse Freeman, were associated with the Edelweiss Club.

Gwendolyn, Hattie and Fannie 1919 Detroit, Michigan

Edelweiss Club Meets

The last two meetings of the Edelweiss Club were held at the homes of Miss Madeline Abercrombie on High Street, and Miss Gwendolyn Lewis, on Tuscaloosa Street, February 7th and 22nd respectively. Delightful repasts were served on each occasion. Miss Madge Brown was the guest at the meeting at Miss Lewis’s. Whist was played. The first prize was won by Miss Winefred Nixon; the guest prize by Miss Madge Brown.

Weather Forecast: Probably local rain Friday and Saturday. Montgomery temperature: highest 50; lowest 35

Gwendolyn Lewis was born in 1895, the youngest of the two children of George W. and Venus (Hardaway) Lewis. Her brother Lafayette was three years older. Their father was a postal carrier, the first and only black carrier at the time. Their mother graduated from Fisk University and taught school for several years before her marriage.

In May of 1900, their house burned to the ground. In 1906, when Gwendolyn was eleven, her father was arrested on charges of stealing mail. There was stolen mail found on his person and in his house. He was bound over for trial. His $500 bond was paid by Nathan Alexander, a member of the same church and a respected African American businessman. In 1908, George Lewis died.

After her husband’s death, Venus went back to teaching and taught until 1922. In the 1910 Census the family was living in a house they owned free of mortgage. Brother Lafayette was working as a florest. Gwendolyn was a student and Vensus was teaching.

Gwendolyn graduated from State Normal School in 1912. Other Edelweiss members in that class were – my aunt Daisy, Gwendolyn’s cousin Juanita Davis, Sadie Gilmer, Isolene Hunter and Winifred Nixon.

Gwendolyn began teaching at Day Street School the following year and taught until she married my grandfather’s best friend, Clifton Graham, in August 1918. They moved to Detroit soon after.

E – EDELWEISS

A-Z Challenge 2024, Edelweiss, Montgomery Alabama

How did this club come to have the name of “Edelweiss”? The women that were members were African American, not of German heritage. World War 1 was ongoing when the club started in January 1918. The song “Edelweiss” from the Sound of Music had not yet been written. The only book I found that may have been around at that time is Edelweiss: A Story By Berthold Auerbach, published in 1861. The edition I found online was published in 1878. There are modern editions so it might have been around in the early 1900s.

I found this synopsis of the story at Edelweiß: “One of the most famous stories about the edelweiss is of a young man risking his life climbing the steep rocky face of a mountain to gather edelweiss flowers for a woman as a demonstration of his love and bravery. In the 1861 novel ‘Edelweiss’, German author Berthold Auerbach exaggerated the difficulty of acquiring the flower, claiming: “The possession of one is proof of unusual daring.” This presentation was a reinterpretation of the story following an invitation to perform at F14 Gallery in Dresden, Germany.”

The Emancipator, Montgomery, Alabama · Saturday, February 09, 1918

“The Edelweiss Club met last Friday evening with Miss Juanita Davis on South Union Street, and was delightfully entertained.”

Juanita Davis was born in 1893.   She was the youngest of the six children Samuel and Mary (Hardaway) Davis. Juanita and her siblings attended school growing up. They all lived to adulthood.

Samuel Davis was a literate carpenter. They lived at 609 Grove Street, on the corner of S. Union. It was down the block from First Congregational Church and about a block south of Madeline Abercrombie and a block north of Fannie and Daisy Turner. Swayne School, Booker T. Washington School and the Montgomery Training School were very nearby. They owned their home free and clear of mortgage.

Her mother, Mary Hardaway, was born free to Josephine Hassell a free woman of color who in 1845 had been granted, the right to remain and live in Montgomery as a free person. The law was free people of color had to leave the state without such an Act by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Alabama.

When Juanita was twelve, her father died of uremic convulsions in 1905. He was 53. Uremia is caused by extreme, irreversible damage to your kidneys. This is usually from chronic kidney disease.

Juanita’s oldest sister, Viola, taught at Cemetery Hill School from 1904 until she married in 1911. After their father died, Viola was the only one working outside of the home. She continued teaching at Cemetery Hill until 1911, when she married.

Juanita started teaching in 1910.  She was 22 when her mother died. Juanita continued teaching up to 1922. She was active socially, attending club meeting and whist parties.  She may have married or died, but I was unable to find her after 1922

D – DELIGHTFUL Luncheon

A-Z Challenge 2024, African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Edelweiss, Montgomery Alabama

Every meeting of the Edelweiss Club included a delightful luncheon of some kind. Sometimes it was a salad, sometimes an ice, sometimes a two course luncheon.

I wish I knew what the delicious foods prepared were, but I do not. I looked at some old recipes and realizing that most of these meetings occurred in the evenings after work on a weeknight and that they did not have cooks to prepare the delightful treats, they or a female relative must have prepared the meal. What delightful luncheon can I find?

Dyanne Dillon of the blog Backsies is What There is Not suggested in the comments for “C” that congealed salads may have been on the menu. In the cookbook “Dainty Desserts for Dainty People” by Knox Gelatine, published in 1917, I found not only desserts but main dish recipes like the one below.

The Montgomery Times, Montgomery, Alabama • Tue, Jan 22, 1918
Some of the ingredients needed for tuna dish underlined in red

My sister suggested pimento sandwiches and my daughter suggested cake. These delights will be covered in future posts.

C- CEMETERY School

A-Z Challenge 2024, African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Edelweiss, Montgomery Alabama

Jessie Freeman was born in 1888 in Montgomery. She was the eighth child of Rufus E. and Alice (Larkins) Freeman. Two of the children died young. Jessie’s mother died before 1900, when we find Jessie living with her Aunt Mary and two younger sisters. They were attending school. She graduated from St. Normal school in 1911 and started teaching at Cemetery Hill School the following year. She was 24 years old.

“The Cemetery Hill school building (for colored pupils) was erected in 1888 at a cost of $2,100.  Subsequently the Council expended about $800 dollars more in furnishing and improving the building. This building is well located on the hill just south of Oakwood Cemetery, where the city owns several acres of valuable property. The building has seating capacity for 300 students and the property is valued at $3,000.” The Montgomery Advertiser Montgomery, Alabama · Friday, May 29, 1891

The Montgomery Times Montgomery, Alabama Mon, Sep 30, 1912 · Page 5. Edelweiss members – Jessie Freeman, Willease Simpson, Annie Wimbs and Naomi Rodgers.

There were three fires that burned African American buildings in January 1913. Cemetery Hill School, which burned to the ground, Swayne School that was not a complete loss and the Negro Lodge Hall. There was talk of arson, and the fire marshal decided that the Swayne School fire and the Lodge fire were of incendiary origin. The Cemetery Hill School fire was ruled accidental with the blaze beginning in the basement and spreading upwards to the roof until the whole building was engulfed. Windy conditions fanned the fire. No one was injured in any of the fires.

The cost of replacing the building was estimated at $4,000 ($2,000 covered by insurance) and $800 for the desks, black boards etc. The school relocated temporarily to a church building and seems to have been rebuilt in a timely fashion.

Jesse Freeman taught second grade at Cemetery Hill for several years and then taught fifth grade at Day Street School for several years. By 1919 she was teaching eighth grade at Booker T. Washington school where she taught until her death at age 60.

The Emancipator, 26 January, 1918

“The Edelweiss Club was entertained last Friday evening by Miss Jessie Freeman. After whist the members of the club were served to a delightful luncheon. The guests were Misses Alice Snow, Lucile Caffey and Ophelia Peterson. The prizes were won by Miss Juanita Davis and Miss Annie Wimbs.”

I wonder what constituted “a delightful luncheon”? Sounds like a good topic for the letter “D”.

B- Booker T. Washington School

A-Z Challenge 2024, African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Edelweiss, Montgomery Alabama
Daisy Pearl Turner

Fannie’s younger sister Daisy graduated from State Normal School in 1912 at age 20. She began teaching the following year at the State Normal School. She taught several years in Selma, Alabama and had to board there, only coming home for holidays and summer. In 1919 she was assigned to teach at Booker T. Washington elementary school, right next door to her home.

I wonder if she was happy about that or if she was sorry to lose the the freedom she probably had and the friends she had made in Selma. Her lost love, Duncan IRBY was in Selma, which could have made it harder or easier to leave, depending on if she had already refused his proposal of marriage.

A Short History of Booker T. Washington School

“Booker T. Washington School Named for one of the nation’s premier educators, Booker T. Washington School began through the efforts of an expanding Swayne College. Its large enrollment forced Swayne’s officials in 1916 to erect a new building which they named for the great educator. And even larger enrollment propelled officials in 1925 to add a junior high department with the same name. Three years later, the Montgomery Industrial School, which had been sold to the city, became a part of the junior high department and the site of the first high school. In May 1940, 88 students became the first graduates, and, in 1948, the old Swayne building was demolished to make way for the new $250,000 high school at Union and Grove Streets. A dedication program was held on 3 April 1949, and an auditorium-gymnasium was added in 1954. Only two principals – Pro. J. A. Edwards, who resigned in May 1942, and former basketball coach and teacher, C.T. Smiley, who assumed his duties in September 1942 – served the school. The school’s nickname was Yellow Jackets and its colors blue and gold. It was known for its excellent faculty, students, school spirit, marching band, and athletic teams.” Information from Alabama Historical Association markers 2003

The Montgomery Advertiser Sunday, June 8, 1919. Associated with the Eldelweiss Club were Effie Mae Todd, Cecile Walton, Daisy Turner, Anita Nesbitt, Madge Brown, Juanita Davis, Jessie Freeman, Naomi Rodgers and Janie Binford

Although Booker T. Washington school was built to relieve the horrendous overcrowding at Swayne School, there were 100 students to a classroom at the time with some on half days and still all of the African American students that wanted to attend school were not able to squeeze in, almost immediately Booker T. was also overcrowded. According to an article in the Montgomery Advertiser of October 2, 1917, “Negro Schools Crowded

At the negro (sic) schools, there is hardly room for the proverbial one more. Booker Washington school, which includes the three schools – old Swayne school, the new eight-room brick building and a cottage in the school yard; there are 1,022 pupils. Day street has an enrollment of 556; Cemetery Hill, 292, and Vesuvius, 124.”

More about Swayne School when we get to S.

All buildings eventually included in the Booker T. Washington “complex” are labeled. Also labeled are Fannie and Daisy’s house, Tulane Groceries, First Congregational Church and their grandparent’s house – Dock and Eliza.

Many African American schools were named after Booker T. Washington, who rose from slavery to be the head of Tuskegee Institute, in Tuskegee Alabama. You can click on his name for a look at his autobiography.

More posts about Daisy Pearl Turner

Daisy Turner Dead at 70. Nov 24, 1961
Daisy Turner and Duncan Irby
Joe Turner – Land, Mules and Courts

A – Abominable Weather

A-Z Challenge 2024, African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Edelweiss

It all began during a January cold wave with snow expected across Alabama. My grandmother Fannie Turner held the first meeting of the Edelweiss Club. She was 29 years old and lived with her mother, a seamstress and two sisters, Daisy a teacher and Alice a school girl. They lived in the African American Centennial Community of Montgomery, Alabama.

"Jennie Allen Turner and Daughters"
Fannie, Jennie (mother) Alice. Daisy standing.

Most of the members of the Edelweiss Club were teachers. Fannie was one of the few who worked in family businesses. She managed her Uncle Victor Tulane’s grocery store.

Click to enlarge. Advertisment for Tulane Grocery

Below is my mother’s description of her mother Fannie’s job.

“She never tired of telling me about taking inventory, counting money, keeping books, dealing with the help and customers and demanding respect from the drummers. Drummers were white salesmen trying to get orders for their products and you can imagine how difficult it was for a handsome black woman doing a man’s job to get respect from them.  But she knew the power of her ability to give or withhold orders and she used it without apology.  Her whole tone when she straightened her back and raised her head to tell it was not of asking for respect, but demanding it – and loving the demanding!     She managed the store for the twelve most satisfying years of her life.  Then she married in 1919.”

Transcribed below. Click to enlarge.

Edelweiss Club Entertained by Miss Turner

On Friday afternoon, the 11th inst. ( ie. ‘of the current month’), the Edelweiss Club, composed of a number of prominent young women of this city, was delightfully entertained at the residence of Miss Fannie M. Turner, 712 East Grove Street. Several invited guests were present. After the games were played a delightful luncheon was served.

The bad weather made page one of the Montgomery Times January 12, 1918. Click to enlarge.

More posts about Fannie Turner

Fannie Mae Turner, Enumerator 1910
Grandmothers 1912
My Social Butterflies – 1911 & 1937
The Proposal – 1918
The Proposal Accepted – 1918
Fannie Mae Turner about 1919
Fannie Turner Animated
Announcement – 1 February 1919
From Montgomery to Detroit – Plymouth Congregational Church – 1919
Mershell Graham and Fannie Mae Turner Marriage License – 11 June 1919
Graham-Turner Wedding – 1919 Montgomery Alabama

The Edelweiss Club

A-Z Challenge 2024, African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Alabama, Edelweiss, Montgomery Alabama
Some of the members of the Edelweiss Club.

This year am finally going to write about the Edelweiss Club of Montgomery, Alabama.

This will be my eleventh year participating in the A to Z Challenge. I am going to present the lives of some of those women as my A to Z theme.

Who were the members of the Edelweiss Club?  They were thirty seven women who attended the monthly meetings, starting January 12, 1918 and continuing monthly during the school year until  May 3, 1919. Thirty of them were teachers. One was a seamstress. Three worked in family businesses.  The majority of the members were single. Most married as time went on. Some moved out of town.  A good number never married.

Their parents were born in the mid 1850s to the  1870s and would have been teenagers when slavery ended or were born during Reconstruction. All of them came from literate homes. Most of their parents owned their homes. Some owned them free and clear. Others were mortgaged. Their fathers tended to work for themselves as barbers, carpenters and plasterers. Bertha Loveless’ father was an undertaker. Madge Brown’s father was a farmer. Alberta Boykin’s father was a mail carrier. Several lived with their widowed mother or an aunt. At least two were from out of town and boarded. Most had multiple siblings.

There were no more reported meetings after May 3, 1919.

AtoZChallenge theme reveal 2024 #atozchallenge

How I Met Nikki Giovanni

Biography
Me with my new afro, summer 1967
Portrait of Nikki Giovanni by w:Elsa Dorfman circa 1980?

The first time I ever heard of Nikki Giovanni, I was on a chartered bus headed down to Cincinnati to fellowship with another church. Nikki was going to read her poems for us and I wondered who this Italian poet was? It was May 20, 1967. I was 20 years old, a junior at Wayne State University. Nikki was 23. My sister Pearl was 18, a freshman at Howard University. She was not there because she was in DC.

I remember that the program took place in the church basement and that they fed us. I remember the feeling of camaraderie between the churches. Nikki read her poems and I was relieved to find out she was not an Italian guy. I don’t remember meeting her personally or talking with her one on one.

Excerpt from sermon given on Sunday, May 21, 1967. The day after the trip.

“I’m just looking around to see how many of you went to Cincinnati that didn’t get here this morning. Some of you didn’t quite make it. Most of you are here. We had a good time yesterday. We went to Cincinnati. We had two buses, about 70 people. We ate all the way there and all the way back. And it was a little different than our trip to Kalamazoo because when we got there we found brothers and sisters. We were in agreement. We had a good time. They were nice to be with, and we were all trying to do the same thing, and it was nice to know that the Nation is not just limited to the four walls here: that there are people out there that want to be a part of what we’re doing, so we took them into the Nation. I want you all to know. The Nation is growing every time we take a trip. We are going to take another one pretty soon, so you all can be getting your bus fare together and putting it aside.

It was a good trip. We were very happy that we were able to take some of our young people from the student organization. We just took them. We had a few extra seats there. We are going to let you help pay for those extra seats a little later on, but it was a good trip, and we think that these trips are very important. We had a message in Cincinnati and we think we made friends.

Central United Church of Christ Detroit

Most of them are coming back to the Black Arts Conference that’s going to be held here, sponsored by Forum, 66, here at the church, of course, people are coming from all over the United States to the Black Arts Conference. I hope when your friends from out of town call you up or write and ask you about it, you will know what they’re talking about. Black Arts Conference is going to be sponsored by Forum ’66, held here at the church, the last two days of June and the first two days of July. Young people are coming from almost all of the colleges and universities around the country. People who are beginning to understand what the Nation is are coming from everywhere, so when your friends ask you about it, and they are going to be asking you because a lot of them are coming, looking for some place to stay when they get here.

So help Forum ’66 and help us because this a real contribution. It helps to establish Detroit as a place where whatever is going on as far as black people might be concerned, is taking place. We are at the center. The Black Arts Conference is one symbol of that fact and so for that reason, if for no other, it’s important. See what they’re thinking and let them know what we’re thinking and for that reason it’s also important.”

From a sermon delivered May 21, 1967, by Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr. Later Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman.

-2 –

Our house 5397 Oregon

The 2nd Black Arts Conference took place from Thursday, June 29 to Sunday July 2 , at our church. Nikki Giovanni spent one night at our house during the Conference. At the end of the first day, someone, (my father?), suggested she stay with me at my mother’s house. I remember it was dark out and asking Jim to gave us a ride home. I rode in the front, Nikki rode in the back. Later, Nikki asked if Jim was my boyfriend. I said he had been but he was with someone else now. She said there still seemed to be something between us. There was and we got back together, but that’s the only conversation I remember us having. The rest of the time she stayed somewhere else. Once again, Pearl was elsewhere. I am sure of that because Nikki slept in her empty room.

– 3 –

The last time I saw Nikki was during the 1990s. I lived in Idlewild, Michigan with my husband Jim and six children. One evening Mable Williams, wife of Robert Williams (advocate for self defense), and I went to hear Nikki read her poetry at Ferris State University, half an hour away. After the reading Mable asked if I wanted to stay and say hello to Nikki. I looked at all the students milling around trying to get a word with her and said no. So we just left.

Death, War and Slavery 1860 Autauga, Alabama

African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Alabama, Grahams

In November 1859 Crawford Motley Jackson, large slave holder, became ill. Bronchitis set in. On February 26, 1860, he died at age 43. He held 136 people in slavery.

Death of Gen. Crawford M. Jackson

The Autauga Citizen Prattville, Alabama · Thursday, March 01, 1860

It becomes our melancholy duty to announce to our readers the death of our distinguished fellow citizen, Gen. C. M. Jackson, who died at his residence in this county, on Sunday last, 26th inst. His unexpected death has cast a gloom over this whole county, in which he was universally known and esteemed. The Confederation, in commenting on the untimely end of one whom we all loved and respected so much, uses the following language: Gen. Jackson was a man of marked ability and intelligence and commanded great respect and influence among his fellow men whenever thrown into consultation and deliberation with them. He frequently represented Autauga county in the State Legislature; and two years ago was unanimously elected Speaker of the House; the duties of which he discharged with an ability, success and popularity rarely equaled by any of his predecessors. He has been sent upon two occasions to represent the Democracy of his District in the National Convention of the Democratic party, and always discharged his duties to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. Being a gentleman of varied information, of a kind, social and charitable disposition, his intercourse with his friend and neighbors was as charming and agreeable as it was useful and instructive. In him they have lost a friend indeed – one whose place will not be easily supplied, or soon forgotten.

The Autauga Citizen Prattville, Alabama · Thursday, Dec. 20, 1860

The death of such a man as Gen. Jackson is a public calamity. Endowed by nature with a mind and social qualities of the highest and most attractive order, he filled the duties of a patriotic and upright citizen in a manner that reflected credit upon himself and benefit to the State. Alabama had no more worthy son, and she has cause to mourn at his loss.

His remains were attended to the grave by the neighboring Masonic and Odd Fellows Lodges, and a host of relatives, friends and acquaintances.

The Autauga Citizen Prattville, Alabama · Thursday, March 01, 1860

Crawford Motley Jackson belonged to one of the largest slave holding families in Autauga County. He owned 136 people when he died in 1860. His brother-in-law, Lunceford Long held 161 people in slavery. Jackson’s older brother, Absalom enslaved 61 people.

My 2X great grandmother, Prissy and her six children were among those enslaved on General Crawford Motley Jackson’s plantation. Using DNA evidence, at least some of her children were fathered by Crawford.

During the next several years, the estate was probated. Because he left no wife nor white children, his brother, and various nephews and nieces were his heirs. Several of them died during the process and the enslaved would have to be shuffled around to those still living, or sold off. The probate record is quite large and includes several lists of those enslaved among the mules, farm implements and household items.

Families were kept together until children reached the age of about 12 – 15, at which time they were often placed in a different household than the rest of their family.

1860 Map of Alabama with percentage of enslaved population based on 1860 census data.

According to U.S. Census data, the 1860 Autauga County population included 7,105 whites, 14 “free colored” and 9,607 slaves. 57.6% of the population was enslaved.

On November 8, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th president of the United States. The Slave holding South was enraged at the possibility of losing their enslaved workforce. Succession soon followed. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. As you can see below, no one was freed by it.

“Big Prices, – At a sale of negroes (sic) in this place on Saturday, 10th inst., five negroes, two boys 20 years old each, one woman 50 years old, one woman 25 years old, and her child aged four years, sold for $6,500, an average of $1,300 to the negro (sic). This would seem to indicate that the people in this region have very little faith in old Abe’s proclamation. It certainly beats any sale ever before made in this county.”Big Prices, – At a sale of negroes (sic) in this place on Saturday, 10th inst., five negroes, two boys 20 years old each, one woman 50 years old, one woman 25 years old, and her child aged four years, sold for $6,500, an average of $1,300 to the negro (sic). This would seem to indicate that the people in this region have very little faith in old Abe’s proclamation. It certainly beats any sale ever before made in this county.”
The Autauga Citizen (Prattville, Alabama) 15 January 1863