Juanita Cleage’s Christmas in Athens, Tennessee

December 6, 2013Christmas, CleagesKristin

Alberta, Ola and Beatrice Cleage. Juanita's older sisters. 1919 Athens, TN. — Alberta, Ola and Beatrice Cleage. Juanita’s older sisters. 1919 Athens, TN.

Christmas and Early Childhood

by Juanita Cleage Martin
From the book “Memories to Memoirs”

Our Christmas trees were cedar instead of pine. A bunch of kids would go together a few days before Christmas looking for Christmas trees. We would sometimes find them along the roadsides, but our special place was at Keith’s, across from Community Hospital before Community Hospital. We always found a good shapely tree in that section. I guess we didn’t realize we should ask someone. Nobody bothered, as we never seen anyone to ask. Our decoration was ropes of tinsel, and we often strung popcorn and cotton.

My favorite toy was a big doll. In our day, dolls were stuffed with sawdust, and their heads and arms were made of plastic, not like plastic of today. I remember I left it outside and the rain ruined it and made puffed splotches like blisters. I cried, as I dearly loved this doll. My sister Bea was the doctor. She gathered wild purple poke berries and covered the places. I continued to carry and play with it until it finally tore to pieces.

*********************

Juanita Cleage Martin was the daughter of my grandfather, Albert Cleage’s brother, Charles Edward Cleage. They lived in Athens Tennessee. Juanita was born February 11, 1922. I don’t know how old she was when she got the doll for Christmas but this Cuddles doll was made from 1926 through 1928 to 1940 and sold through the Sears Catalog. Maybe this was the doll she got for Christmas. The body was cloth while the face and limbs were “composition” which was made by mixing sawdust and glue and compressing them in a mold. Composition does not react well to water. I remember a doll sort of like this that was left over from my mother and her sister’s childhood. I wonder what happened to them.

1928-1940 Cuddles or Sally-kins, 14-27″ tall, composition head, arms, legs (some limbs are rubber), cloth kapok stuffed body, molded hair, tin flirty sleep eyes, with lashes, open mouth with upper & lower teeth, tongue, mama crier, wore an organdy dress, bonnet and rubber panties, (Little Sister has flannel diapers). Made by Ideal.

For more about Juanita and her family – Mattie and children and Childhood Memories.

Childhood Memories by Beatrice Cleage Johnson – Athens, TN – 1926

December 5, 2013Christmas, CleagesKristin

This is another from the Christmas series that I am reposting from the early days of my blog. Two of my father’s first cousins, Juanita and Beatrice participated in a workshop to turn their “Memories to Memoirs” in 1990 in Athens, Tennessee. I was able to get a copy of them from my cousin Janice (Juanita’s daughter). Today I am posting Beatrice’s memories of her childhood, which sets the scene and also has some Christmas memories. Tomorrow I will post her sister Juanita’s Christmas memories.

"Uncle Eds wife and children" — Back: Ola, Helen, Alberta. Front: Beatrice, Mattie, Juanita.

**From “Memories To Memoirs” – Chapter 2 – Early Years of Life**

By Beatrice Cleage Johnson
Written in 1990

1926 – I remember the early years of my life living at 216 Ridge Street. We used wood and coal stoves for heating and cooking. I will never forget the range stove that my mother cooked on. She made biscuits every morning for breakfast. There was a warmer at the top of the stove for left overs. I would always search the warmer for snacks. We had an outside toilet. Everyone that we knew had these, so we thought this was it. We never dreamed of ever having inside plumbing.

We had a water hydrant in the front yard and every night it was my job to fill the water buckets which had stainless steel dippers in them. My sister also helped with the chores. My other job was to clean the lamp chimneys. We used oil lamps. Momma always inspected them to see if they were clean. I decided then, if I ever made any money I would have electricity put in our house. And I did. I would babysit during the summers and save my money.

I have always loved poetry. I learned many poems and stories from my mother and sisters, such as “Little Boy Blue” and “Little Red Riding Hood”. I think my favorite food was any kind of fruit. I was always happy to see Summer, when the apples and peaches were plentiful. I always looked forward to Christmas. We never saw any oranges until then. I remember my first doll. It had a china head and straw body. I loved it so much. Momma always made a special white coconut cake for Christmas, which I looked forward to. She made other pies and cakes, but the coconut was my favorite. We didn’t get too many toys for Christmas, but my sisters and I enjoyed everything we got for Christmas.

"Edward Cleage" — Charles Edward Cleage.
My grandfather Albert’s brother.

My father became ill and my mother was to be the sole support of the five girls. I was six years of age when my father passed away in 1926. My youngest sister, Juanita, was three years of age and she didn’t remember him, but I did. After he died my uncles took the two older sisters, Helen and Alberta, to Detroit to live with them. Alberta stayed and finished high school there, but Helen came back home and helped Momma care for the three of us. Ola, Juanita and myself went to high school here.

We always celebrated the holidays. Thanksgiving was very special as my birthday would sometimes come on Thanksgiving Day. We always had special food on these days. Pies, cakes, chicken, rabbit. On Halloween we always dressed in our older sister’s and mother’s clothes. One of the main pranks the boys would do was to push the outside toilets over. We used to beg them not to push ours over. In those days, there was no trick or treat. It was all tricks. Easter was also special. Momma would make us a new dress for Easter, and Helen always bought me black patent leather slipper.

Mary V. Graham Elkins Remembers Christmas

December 3, 2013Christmas, GrahamsKristin

From 1990 until 1996 we put out a family newsletter called the Ruff Draft. In December of 1990 we solicited Christmas Memories from our readers, who were mostly relatives. This one was sent in by my mother’s older sister, Mary Virginia. In the photo are my mother Doris (1923-1982) and her sister Mary V. (1921-2009). It was taken in their backyard on Detroit’s east side.

Doris and Mary V in their backyard. Detroit Eastside 1929.

I can remember Poppy waiting till Xmas Eve to go and get our tree. We (Doris and I) usually went with him…and bringing it home to decorate. He had a stand that he made himself. We went up to the attic to haul down boxes of decorations that had been carefully put away. Some very old. I can remember one little fat Santa that Mom always put in the window, he had a pipe in his mouth. Doris and I shared a bedroom which had the door to the attic in it. When we were at the “believe in Santa Claus stage” we thought that once we went to sleep he would tip down the attic stairs and put our toys, etc, under said tree. I think I laid awake waiting for the old boy to show up. Of course I never saw him ’cause I went to sleep, but the stuff was always under the tree. Mom was always busy in the kitchen getting stuff together for Xmas dinner and the house would be full of wonderful odors. If Xmas fell on a Sunday, we would go to church. And we used to have lots of snow. Although we came up during the depression, we always had something to eat and something under the ole tree even if it wasn’t what we asked for. It was a tradition that Xmas dinner was at our house and Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma Turner’s. Daddy cooked the ole turkey and made the most delicious stuffing. He could cook. Mom learned from him. She couldn’t boil water when they got married. Dad taught her cause he had worked in restaurants as a young man.

The Year I Was Born – 1946

December 2, 2013Biography, The Book of Me#meKristin

Ransom Allen

November 30, 2013Allen, sepia saturdayKristin

Ransom Allen was the oldest son of Dock and Eliza (Williams) Allen. He was born free in Alabama about 1860. He and his 7 siblings grew up in Montgomery. He was my great grandmother Jennie’s older brother. His father was a carpenter. His mother was a seamstress. He became a barber.

In 1883 Ransom married Callie Whitaker in Troup County, GA. I don’t know how or where they met, but she was born in Georgia. In 1888 their son, John Wesley, was born in Montgomery. John was the only one of their three children to survive childhood.

The family relocated to Chicago, IL about 1917 where Ransom continued to barber and John worked as a Mechanic. John married Bobbie Conyer and their only son, Harold Thomas, was born in 1932 in Chicago, IL.

In 1933 Ransom’s wife Callie died. The following year Ransom died at age 74. Their only grandson died in 1946 at 14 years of age. That was the end of Ransom’s branch of Dock and Eliza’s family.

Free Food All Over Motown – 1972

November 29, 2013Many Rivers To CrossKristin

My first inclination on thinking of a post for this final episode of “Many Rivers To Cross” was to make a list and talk about all the things Gates didn’t mention. It was getting so long that I decided I wasn’t going to do that. This did spark a lively discussion between my daughters, my husband and myself on Thanksgiving Day.

There was something in my archives that related to this last episode directly – some clippings about “Detroit’s First Survival Day”, a food give-a-way by the Black Panther Party. I was never in the Panthers, I knew some of them and worked with some of them when I was part of the Black conscience Library. I showed a few films put out by the California branch. One line I remember about organizing, “… house by house, block by block, city by city across this racist nation…”. The Detroit Panthers were about 10 years younger than the leaders of the California Panthers. While Huey P. Newton was 30 in 1972, the Detroit Panthers were in their late teens and early 20s.

To read other African American bloggers posting about the “Many Rivers To Cross Series”, plus a link to my other posts in the series CLICK HERE!

Links to My DNA Posts

November 25, 2013DNA - GeneticsKristin

: CLICK TO ENLARGE THE GRAPHIC BELOW! My DNA from various places. Starting in the upper left: 23andMe; Ancestry.com; Dr. McDonald; GEDmatch.

So far I have written six posts describing my DNA findings. Here are links. I am working on a couple of more.

My Matrilineal Line and More May 27, 2010

My 23and Me DNA Test Results September 27, 2011

Seven Generations of L3e3b – My Mtdna May 13 2013

Seven Generations of L3e2a1b1 – My Grandmother Pearl’s Mtdna May 16, 2013

Revisiting My 23and Me DNA findings May 17, 2013

Eight Generations of L3b Mtdna from Celia Rice Cleage May 18 2013

The Great Migration

November 15, 2013African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Great MigrationKristin

In the latest episode of Many Rivers To Cross, the Great Migration was briefly discussed. It got me to thinking about my family who pretty much all left the south in the early 1900s. I wrote an earlier series about the Graham side of my family and their move from Montgomery, Alabama to Detroit in 1917. You can read about that at these links:

To continue the story, I will start by writing about my Grandfather Albert B. Cleage and his siblings move from Athens, TN to Indianapolis, IN and finally to Detroit, Michigan, with mention of Uncle Edward Cleage and his family who remained in Athens.

Next I will cover my Grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage and the Reed family’s move from Lebanon, KY first to Indianapolis in the 1890s and on to Benton Harbor and Detroit, Michigan, with Uncle Hugh (Reed) Averette moving out to Los Angeles California.

Finally I will write about Eliza and Dock Allen’s children leaving Montgomery for Chicago, Detroit and New York.

I wanted to add my husband’s family, not sure if I will write them up soon though. They started in Dermott, AR. Catherine Williams went to Seattle, WA. Vennie Jean Williams went to Arkadelphia. Sterling Williams spent time in Little Rock before going to Chicago. Chester and Theola (my in-laws) moved to St. Louis, MO. Members of both the Davenports and the Williams migrated to Chicago. Many relatives remained in rural AR, although none of my husband’s aunts or uncles.

As I write I will probably come up with stories within stories. This should provide me with writing material for weeks!

To see other posts I’ve written about this series , click this link My Responses to Many Rivers to Cross. You will also find links to other bloggers responding to this series by sharing their own personal family stories.

For those interested, I found the map I used at this site about the Great Migration.

Through the Door

November 14, 2013Grahams, sepia saturdayKristin

These photographs were taken in the winter of 1958 at my Graham grandparent’s house on Theodore Street, East side of Detroit. My grandmother, Fannie Turner Graham, is looking through the side door. When you entered through this door you were on a landing, you could go down to the basement or up into the kitchen. The window with the lace curtain we can see above the door was on the landing between the downstairs and the upstairs. The phone sat on this landing on a little table my grandfather made. This table now sits near me holding several plants in the sunshine.

Poppy on the side of the house. You can see more of the side of the house here. Taken on the same day.

With Poppy in the backyard. Front, Poppy and cousin Marilyn. Back, Kristin and Pearl. — Front, Poppy and cousin Marilyn. Back, Kristin( that is me with my hand on Poppy’s head) and Pearl. I remember those green plaid scarves.

These photographs must have been taken soon after the Jordan’s house next door was bought by the factory across the street. The house was torn down, the trees were uprooted (we’re standing on a stump above), gravel was added and a parking lot was made. When these photos were taken, I was 12, my sister was 10, my grandparents were 70 and Marilyn was 5.

Winter In St. Antoine

November 14, 2013African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Detroit, Great Migration, Many Rivers To Cross#james McCallKristin

by James Edward McCall

In St. Antoine the snow and sleet
Whiten and glaze the drab old street
And make the snow-clad houses gleam
Like crystal castles in a dream.
There, many swarthy people dwell;
To some, ’tis heaven, to others, hell!
To me the street seems like a movie stage
Where Negros play and stars engage.
They laugh and love and dance and sing
While waiting the return of spring.
Some drown their heart-aches deep
In winter time on St. Antoine.

There, on the gutters frozen brink
A dope-fiend lies, with eyes that blink
And from a neighboring cabaret
come sounds of song and music gay.
At windows, tapping, here and there,
Sit dusky maidens young and fair,
With painted cheeks and brazen eyes.
and silk clad legs crossed to the thigh
Upon the icy pavements wide,
Gay brown-faced children laugh and slide
While tawny men in shiny cars
Drive up and down the street like czars.

Into a church across the way
There goes a bridal party gay.
While down the street like a prairie-fire,
Dash a bandit car and a cruising flyer.
Around the corner whirls a truck,
An old coal-peddler’s horse is struck;
The horse falls on the frozen ground,
The dark blood spouting from its wound.
A motley crowd runs to the scene;
A woman old, from shoulders lean,
Unwraps a quilt her hands have pieced
And spreads it o’er the shivering beast.

Among the swarthy folk who pass
Along the slippery street of glass,
Are some in furs and some in rags;
Lovely women, wretched hags,
White-haired migrants from the South;
Some wrapped in blankets, pipes in mouth;
Some smile while others seem to shiver,
As though they long for Swanee River;
But though they dream with tear wet eyes
Of cotton-fields and sunny skies.
They much prefer the heaven and hell
On St Antoine, where free men dwell.

******

James Edward McCall was my Grandmother Fannie Turner Graham’s first cousin. He was a poet and a publisher. He lost his sight due to illness while a medical student at Howard University. He and his family migrated from Montgomery Alabama to Detroit Michigan about 1923.

You can read more about James Edward McCall, Poet and Publisher 1880 – 1963 here.

Links to my previous posts in this series and to other African American Bloggers blogging about this series are at Many Rivers to Cross

Finding Eliza