This is my 4th year participating in the A-Z Challenge.  I am writing about people who were born into slavery and  lived to be free and their descendants.  They are not my ancestors.

Otis Graham was born in Elmore County in 1869, to John and Anna Graham. She grew up surrounded by family. Her grandparents lived next door and her uncles lived nearby. All of them were farmers. The family was recently out of slavery, which ended in 1865, and they were unable to read and write.  Otis lived with her uncle Henderson after her father died. She attended school through the 2nd grade.

Otis was married to Edward Avery on October 21, 1885 at The Good Baptist Church in Elmore County by Elder Rames. Edward’s father, Frank Avery was a witness.

By 1900 Edward owned his farm, with a mortgage. He was 33 and could read, but not write. Otis, at 32, had given birth to seven children and all were still alive and living at home. The two oldest, 13 year old Willie and 11 year old Daisy attended school.

I do not know what happened during the next twenty years because I could not find them in the 1910 census. In 1920, the family was living and farming on rented land in Liberty, Autauga County. Otis was 50 and Edward was 54.  There were four children at home. All of them had been born after 1900. That makes at least 11 children in the family.  Mary was fifteen and the oldest child at home. She and thirteen year old Gertrude were both literate. Eleven year old Boss and eight year old Graham were not. No one had attended school in 1919.

Edward died before 1930.  65 year old Otis and her youngest son, Graham were back in Elmore County. They lived in a rented house. Graham supported them doing general labor. Otis was not employed.

In the 1940 census we learn that 23 year old Graham Avery completed 6th grade. He was doing farm labor.  75 year old Otis was a laundress working from home. She had completed 2nd grade. They were in the same area living in a rented house.

I found a death record for an 88 year old Otis Avery in Mobile Alabama for 1959. It does not include parents or husbands name because it is just an index entry and not the death certificate, so I am not positive it is for her.

Most of the children remained in Elmore county. One daughter and her family moved to Pittsburgh, PA. Graham ended up in Birmingham, AL.

This is my 4th year participating in the A-Z Challenge.  I am writing about people who were born into slavery and  lived to be free.

I was looking for one of my enslaved ancestors named William Graham when I found an 1860 estate file on Familysearch.com for Judge William A. Graham  with a list of slaves to be divided between his heirs.  I hoped my great grandfather was one of those named.  I decided to go through the list of 60 plus and see what I could find out using online records. I still don’t know if the William on the list is mine or not, but it has been interesting to find out what happened to those listed after they were freed in 1865.

Nelson Graham was born into slavery in Georgia. Both of his parents were born in North Carolina. Caroline was born into slavery in Alabama. Her parents were also born in North Carolina.  They ended up on the plantation of Judge William A. Graham in Autauga County, Alabama and appear on the 1860 estate list. They appear in lot 1 with their three youngest children, six year old Sallie, five year old Duncan and one year old Fanny. They were to go to Judge Graham’s daughter Eliza Fay of Autauga County. Two of their older children, eleven year old Caroline and thirteen year old Nelson were included in lot 5. They were to go to Judge Graham’s daughter Maria McLemore of Autauga County.  Twenty year old William was in lot six which went to Judge Graham’s son Alfred Graham of Rusk, Texas. Seventeen year old Henderson was in the undivided group.

In 1870 Nelson and Caroline were living in Montgomery. Five of their children were living with them; Caroline, 20; Sallie, 16; Duncan, 14; Fannie, 8 and five year old Elsie.  Nelson had no occupation. Caroline was keeping house. No one in the household could read or write.

In 1880 Nelson Graham and his family lived on Peacock Track in Montgomery. Of their children, only their 21 year old Fannie still lived at home. There were four grandchildren living with them – thirteen year old Willie Graham, six year old Duncan Wilkerson, five year old Sarah Powell and three year old Irene Holtzclaw.  Nelson worked as a drayman. Fannie was a house servant. The two older grandchildren were in school and the two little ones were at home. Caroline did not work outside of the house. Neither of the parents were literate. Fannie and Willie were.

Nelson appears in the Montgomery Directory in 1883 and 1893 as a laborer living on Peacock Track. After that I cannot find him or Caroline.

This is my 4th year participating in the A-Z Challenge.  I am writing about people who were born into slavery and  lived to be free and their descendants.

Today I write about Libbie Logan Stewart who was the daughter of  Ellen Logan, the cook for the Peaslee family both during and after slavery. You can read about Ellen at this post Ellen Logan – Louisville, Kentucky.

Libbie was born into slavery in 1863 in Louisville, Kentucky.  Alice Norcross Cane describes her thus in her book Slightly Historical. “She (Libbie) was smart and capable and almost white. She and her little brother, from their likeness to a Northerner stationed in the neighborhood, were evidently his unacknowledged children.“

“By early 1862, Louisville had 80,000 Union troops throughout the city. … By May 1862, the steamboats arrived and departed at the wharf in Louisville with their cargoes. Military contractors in Louisville provided the Union army with two hundred head of cattle each day, and the pork packers provided thousands of hogs daily. Trains departed for the south along the L&N railroad.” Louisville, Kentucky, in the American Civil War

In 1870 six year old Libbie lived with her mother Ellen, her siblings and the other servants in the two-story building in back of the Peaslees. In 1873 when Libbie was nine years old, her mother and newborn baby died in childbirth.  It was not rare for girls as young as this to act as nursemaids, usually with an older person to oversee them. Perhaps those were Libbie’s duties. By the time she was sixteen in 1880 Libbie was literate. She continued to work for the Peaslees until her marriage to Frank Stewart, a coachman, in May of 1886.  They married at the house and Alice remembered it in Slightly Historical:

“She was married from our house to the coachman of the Henning family. A hack drawn by two horses took them away the night of the wedding. This was the first wedding my sisters and brother and I had ever witnessed and was, for us, a big event. … Libby made her home one we enjoyed visiting. She kept it apple-pie condition. Her tiny front yard was ablaze with flowers and she herself was always neat in appearance.”

Libbie and Frank moved to their home at 1958 Sixth Alley. There Libbie had a yard full of flowers. They never had children. Frank continued to work as a coachman until 1908 when he became a butler.  Libbie did not work outside of the home until that same year when she is listed as a laundress in the city directory.

The next year she began working at the Louisville Girls High school where she continued working for the next six years. Frank also began to work as a janitor. During this time they rented their house on Sixth Alley, eventually moving to another rented house on Levering Street Rear where Frank continued to live until his death at 71 years in 1928.  Libbie remained there and worked as a domestic until at least 1935.

She died suddenly of a heart attack on October 24, 1942.  She was 79 years old. Both she and her husband are buried in Louisville Cemetery.  Louisville Cemetery was incorporated by several prominent black citizens in 1886.

I found my information in “Slightly Historical” by Alice Norcross Cane; in census, marriage, death records and Louisville city directories on Ancestry.com, familysearch.com and rootsweb Kentucky death records. Also helpful was the Wikepedia description of Louisville during the Civil War.

This is my 4th year participating in the A-Z Challenge.  I am writing about people who were born into slavery and  lived to be free.

I was looking for one of my enslaved ancestors named William Graham when I found an 1860 estate file on Familysearch.com for Judge William A. Graham  with a list of slaves to be divided between his heirs.  I hoped my great grandfather was one of those named.  I decided to go through the list of 60 plus and see what I could find out using online records. I still don’t know if the William on the list is mine or not, but it has been interesting to find out what happened to those listed after they were freed in 1865.

Kate appears on page two of the 1860 estate file of Judge William A. Graham.  She was three years old and valued at $300. Kate was not in a family grouping.  She was among a group of children that appeared to be without parents.  Kate was placed in lot 4 along with 16 year old Emily and child, six year old Jane and 18 year old John.  They were to go to William A. Graham of Autauga County, Alabama.  Out of that group I have only been able to trace John, who I wrote about at Betsy & John Graham.I was unable to find Kate in the 1870 census or beyond.

This is my 4th year participating in the A-Z Challenge. I am writing about people who were born into slavery and lived to be free. I was looking for one of my enslaved ancestors named William Graham when I found an 1860 estate file for Judge William A. Graham with a list of slaves to be divided between his heirs. I hoped my great grandfather was one of those named. I decided to go through the list of 60 plus and see what I could find out using online records. I still don’t know if the William on the list is mine or not, but it has been interesting to find out what happened to those listed after they were freed in 1865.

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I wrote a bit about Emanuel Graham and several generations of his descendants here.  Today I am going to take a closer look at Emanuel’s son James.  James Graham was born into slavery in 1848, probably on Judge William A. Graham’s plantation. His parents were Emanuel and Elsie Graham.  In the 1860 estate file, James appears with his family group as a six year old valued at $700. James, his parents and his two year old sister Clara were in Lot 2, which was to go to to the Judge’s daughter Ellen Graham Strain in Shelby County, Alabama. James older siblings were in separate lots. Ten year old Betsy was in Lot 6 to go to Alfred Graham in Rusk, Texas. Eleven year old Harris was in Lot 9 to go with Sarah Graham Sims in Macon County, Alabama. Thirteen year old Charles was in Lot 7 to go with Lenora Graham in Prattville, Autauga County, Alabama.  The settling of the estate seemed to drag on for several years and I am not sure if they were separated.

In 1870 Harris, 22; Betsy, 20; James, 16 and Clara, 12 were all living with their parents in Prattville.  Clara was the only one attending school. Emanuel was a farmer with $100 worth of personal estate. Elsie was keeping house. Harris and James worked as farm labor on the family farm. Betsy was a domestic servant. Nobody could read or write.

James married Cynthia Gibbons in 1877. They were both about 23. In 1880 they were working for the Northington family.  They had two children, two year old Mary and one year old Christopher.

By 1900 they owned their own farm free of mortgage. James was farming. Cynthia had given birth to ten children and all were still living,  nine in the family home.  Their ages ranged 22 down to four year old Samuel. Nobody had attended school that year. Viola and Elsie were able to read. Manuel and Albert were laborers on the home farm. Cynthia’s brother Robert owned and farmed the land next to them.

In 1910  Five of James and Cynthia’s sons were living at home and working on the farm. They were all literate. One of the children had died.  James does not appear in any other records after 1910.

In 1920 Cynthia and the youngest son, Samuel were working the home farm. Son Manuel and his family owned land and were farming next door. Son Haywood and his family rented and farmed next to Manuel.

Samuel died in 1926. His mother Cynthia does not appear in any more records. I was unable to find death records for James or Cynthia Graham. Of the children that I was able to follow, all remained in Autauga farming except for Haywood who moved with his family to Youngstown Ohio where he worked as a laborer until he died in 1979.

This is my 4th year participating in the A-Z Challenge.  I am writing about people who were born into slavery and  lived to be free and their descendants.

Today I will write about Henderson Graham of Alabama. This is another case of the name appearing in the estate file of William A. Graham of Autauga County and then turning up with his family in 1870 in Elmore County. Elmore County was created from parts of several other counties, including Autauga. I need to look and see who the Graham slave holders were in that area. William A. Graham and his children can’t have been the only Graham slave holders in the area. Or maybe they were. At any rate, here is the story of Henderson Graham as pieced together from records.

Henderson appears in the 1860 estate file as a seventeen year old young man given a value of $700.00. He was born about 1843.  In 1870 the only Henderson Graham in the area is found living with his family in Elmore County. The family includes Eli Graham, 48; Hester Graham, 47; Henderson, 15 and 12 year old Eli.  Eli senior was a farmer. Hester was keeping house.  Living next door were John and Anna Graham and their two children Otis and Ester. John was also a farmer.

 On October 23, 1873 Henderson married Caroline Duncan in Elmore County.  When I looked at the marriage license, I noticed that Griffin and Texas Jackson were the couple above them.  Griffin was Prissa Jackson’s son. Both couples were married by George Washington.

In 1880 Henderson was farming.  He rented the land for shares, that is he had to give part of his crop in payment. His father and brother Eli were also farming this way.  Henderson worked 50 acres. He had $90 worth of livestock. The estimated value of everything produced on the farm in 1879 was valued at $400.  He had one milch cow and one other cattle; six swine; ten barnyard fowl who produced 20 dozen eggs in 1879. He planted 18 acres of Indian Corn which produced 180 bushels and 36 acres of cotton which produced six bales. He grew 15 bushels of sweet potatoes on a quarter acre.

Henderson and Caroline had two small children, a daughter Alice three years old and a son Judge one. His niece Otis lived with them.  She was eleven and attending school. Hester Duncan, Caroline’s fourteen year old sister lived with them and worked on the farm, as did Mary Long.  Henderson did not live far from his father and his siblings. His dwelling was #279 on the 1880 census and his father was #311.  None of them were literate.

Between 1880 and 1900 three more sons were born, Eli in 1885; Butler in 1887 and Clinton in 1889. Caroline died sometime after the birth of Clinton. In 1899 Henderson married Patsey, who had one daughter, Minnie King.  In 1900 Henderson was farming. He owned his farm but it was mortgaged.  His four sons and step-daughter, ages 22 to 13 were living on the farm.  Only the oldest, Judge, was able to read and write.  They were all listed as farm labor and none were in school.  Patsey had birthed five children and four were still alive.

Henderson’s daughter Alice, her husband William and their three year old daughter Rosa lived next door. They had been married three years. Alice had birthed two children and one was alive. William was farming on his own mortgaged farm. He was illiterate while Alice was able to read and write. Nine year old Alfried Owens lived with them and is listed as ‘nurse’.

In the 1910 Henderson is listed as 62 years old. Every year he gets closer to that birth year in the estate file. He and Patsey had been married nine years. It says this is his 3rd marriage and her 4th. I take this with a grain of salt as I have found no other marriages. He now owns his farm free and clear (Yay!) His son Clinton lives with them and works on the farm. Two step-grandchildren, Patsey and Peter Duncan live with them. Fourteen year old Patsey attended school while eleven year old Peter did not. Both Clinton and Patsey are literate.  Henderson’s son Eli rents a far down the road and farms with his wife Mary.

Patsey died in Montgomery in 1915. Henderson died on January 4, 1925 in Elmore County, Alabama.  He was buried in Goodship Cemetery. He was 82 years old and his birth year is given as 1843, which finally gets us back to the birth year in the 1860 estate file.

I saw a lot of tangents to go off on while researching Henderson and I plan to come back to this family later in the month. I especially enjoyed finding the connection with an extended family member of mine in the marriage record book. I am glad he was able to own his farm free and clear.

This is my 4th year participating in the A-Z Challenge.  I am writing about people who were born into slavery and  lived to be free.  Sometimes I also write about the descendants of slaves who were born free.  Today I will write about Georgia and Mitchell Graham of Alabama.

I started by searching for the Georgia listed among the enslaved in the estate file of Judge William A. Graham. In 1860 she was 8 years old and valued at $700. I found a Georgia in 1870 living with her mother Millie Washington and Millie’s husband George and seven year old George, in Elmore, Elmore County, Alabama, ten miles from the Judge’s plantation in Prattville. There was a Millie listed in the estate file.  In the file she was “not valued” and no age or monetary value was given. Millie Washington found in 1870 was 58, which would have made her only about 48 in 1860. I wasn’t sure if these were the people from the Graham plantation, but I followed them anyway because her name started with “G” and because their story was so varied and interesting.

Mitchell Graham and Georgia Washington were married in Elmore County on January 8, 1876. Four years later we find them with three small children. Georgia’s widowed mother lived with them. They were farming their own land. Fifteen acres were improved and 25 acres were wooded.  The value of his farm, including land, implements and animals, was $150.  He had $3 worth of farm implements and $75 worth of livestock.  The value of all farm products (sold, consumed and on hand) for 1879 was $125.  He had one working ox, no milch cow, 1 swine and 4 barnyard fowl.  Mitchell planted four acres of Indian corn which yielded 40 bushels. He planted 15 acres of cotton and got two bales.

By 1897 the family had left the farm and moved 108 miles north to the city of Birmingham, Alabama. They rented their home. In 1900 Mitchell, 46, was working as a laborer in a rock quarry, as did one of his sons. Georgie was 44 had birthed 12 children. Eight were living.  Seven of the children, from age two to age 22 were living at home.  They had been married 24 years. Everybody in the household was literate.  Georgia didn’t work outside the home. The oldest son worked as farm labor. The oldest daughter worked as a cook. The fifteen year old son was an errand boy and the next two children were in school. The baby was two.

Ten years later Georgia, 49, and Mitchell, 50, owned their home, although it did have a mortage. Mitchell and one of his sons worked as a builder at a pipe shop and had been out of work for 16 weeks.  Three of the children were still home, including 12 year old Stella who attended school. Two grandchilden, ages six and three, lived with them and they had a border.  Georgia worked as a laundress from home and had not been out of work at all.  One of the sons and the border were coal miners and had not been out of work.

In 1917 and 1925 Mitchell appears in the City Directory as an Evangelist and a minister. I could not find them in the 1920 census.  Mitchell died on October 29, 1925.  He was 73.  Georgia died on January 15, 1928.  She was 76.  I found it inspiring that they were so open to change.  And I loved finding so much information about them.

Special note to my husband who is my proof reader:  Take the age changes from census to census with a grain of salt.

This is my 4th year participating in the A-Z Challenge.  I am writing about people who were born into slavery and  lived to be free.  Sometimes I also write about the descendants of slaves who were born free.  Today I will write about Frazer Lane, who was mentioned in my A post about Allen Lane.

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“…It is my will that my four Negroes be free at my death, namely Perry, Allen, Frazer, and Mariah, and that my sons Henry S. Lane and Higgins Lane by my Executors to execute this my will. In witness thereof I hereunto set my name this 22nd day of July 1841.“

James H. Lane

“I also will that Samuel Stone and Newton Reid be my Executors in connexion with Henry S. Lane and Higgins Lane as aforesaid. In testimony whereof I hereunto set my hand this 28th September 1846. I also do will to Perry (note: from census records I believe this name should be Jerry) and to Allen and to Frazer their Horses as known by the name of their horses at present.“

James H. Lane, the slave owner who wrote the above Will, was born in Virginia and moved to Kentucky where he farmed. He outlived 2 wives and left a third a widow when he died in 1846. He had 8 children and 4 slaves.

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Frazer was born into slavery in 1808.  Slaves were not enumerated by name in censuses. In the 1810 through 1840 census no one in the household was enumerated by name except the head of household.  Looking at those censuses we find that James Hardage Lane had 4 slaves.

In 1850 Frazer was enumerated by name along with all the other free people, including 165 other black people, in Montgomery, Kentucky.  He was 42 years old and shared a house with Allen and Jerry.  They were laborers, probably on nearby farms.

In 1860 Frazer, age 53, owned $600 worth of real estate and had personal estate worth $285. He was farming and married to Nellie, who was 50 years old.

In 1870 Frazer was 65 and farming. There is no value for real estate but he had $308 personal estate. Nellie was 60 with no occupation given. Also sharing the house was Jerry, 76, listed as a laborer. And 23 year old Mary Lane. All are listed as unable to read or write and born in Kentucky. There were still no relationships listed so I can speculate that Mary was his daughter, but I don’t know.  Jerry and Frazer were listed as black while Nellie and Mary were listed as mulatto.

The 1880 census was the last I found for Frazer and Nellie Lane.  They were now 72 and 71.  They are in Montgomery county, Mt. Sterling post office.  Frazer is still farming. Nellie is keeping house. Living with them is ten year old Horace Borne with occupation of houseboy. Frazer and Horace are listed as born in Kentucky while Nellie and her parents are listed as born in Virginia.  I wonder if this was the first time she actually spoke to the enumerator.  Nobody could read or write.

You will notice that there is not an even ten year age gain between the ten year censuses.  That could be because different people gave information to the enumerator. In this case the difference is actually minimal.  Sometimes people gain 20 years or only two years during that ten year period.

What I wish I could have found – If Mary was their daughter and what happened to her. If Horace was a relative and what happened to him. When they died and of what.  What happened to the farmland he owned in 1860.