Photograph by James Edward Williams – a corner of the Harmony Missionary Baptist Church Community Cemetery.James Edward & Samuel Williams – cousins with cameras.
My husband and his cousin recently attended an extended Williams/Butler family reunion in Arkansas. This reunion has been going on for 43 years, although not every year has seen a reunion, most have. While there they photographed some of the grave stones in the Harmony Missionary Baptist Church Community Cemetery in Sparkman, AK. The two headstones featured in today’s post are of my husband’s great grandparents. William and Mattie (Hawkins) Butler were the parents of 13 children that lived to adulthood. One of those was my father-in-law’s mother, Annie Willie Butler. Today I am sharing the grave stones. Soon I will be posting what I have learned in the records about the Butlers and their family.
W.M. Butler Photo by Samuel Williams. October, 2013. What does the sign at the top stand for? And the words at the bottom?“At Peace – Mattie Butler” Photo by Samuel Williams. October, 2013. I only wish I could see the dates at the bottom because I don’t have them!Homecoming Sunday at Harmony taken about 1989.
I don’t remember hearing memories of childhood Halloween celebrations from my parents. I do have a few memories of my own. When I was about 7 years old and we lived in the parsonage at 2254 Chicago Blvd in Detroit, the Youth Fellowship met in the basement. They were having a Halloween party. I remember my sister and I watching them come in all dressed in various costumes. I don’t know if it was the same year as this photograph was taken or not.
From the 1956 Youth Fellowship Yearbook
That same year we dressed up and went over to our cousin’s house to help distribute candy to the trick-or-treaters. I remember wearing my Aunt Mary Vee’s skirt and dressing as a Gypsy. We never were allowed to go trick-or-treating, but enjoyed passing out the candy. When we were highschool age, we would sometimes leave town for the day to avoid the whole holiday and passing out candy by not being home. I have no pictures of us in any Halloween costumes.
When my own children were old enough to know Halloween was happening, we did not live in the city. I remember my very young daughter’s going with the older neighbors up and down our short block trick-or-treating in Mt. Pleasant, SC. It was unseasonably cold and they had to wear winter coats over their homemade costumes.
We moved to Mississippi the next week, where we lived out in the country and there wasn’t any trick-or-treating, instead there would be an evening carnival at the school. The students would dress up and there would be booths with games and treats. In Excelsior Springs, MO I don’t remember my kids going trick-or-treating but two had paper routes and their customers gave them so much candy! Way, way more than anyone needed in a year.
The next move was to Idlewild, MI, in the middle of the Manistee National Forest. Some years there was a school carnival. Other years the kids went to town and trick or treated the 2 block business area. A couple of years my Aunt Gladys and Henry had a get together with cider and doughnuts for Halloween. The year when I was librarian at the Yates Township library we had a community party with bobbing for apples, a fishing booth and refreshments. Here is an article about it from the Ruff Draft, our family newsletter.
Some African American bloggers are sharing their own personal and family memories and stories, as they connect to the series “Many Rivers to Cross” that aired on PBS.
The Bloggers from African American Genealogy Bloggers who are sharing:
My father considered putting on plays a good project for the church youth groups. I remember one about a rummage sale that was put on in the basement of the parsonage on Chicago Blvd in the 1950s. Unfortunately, I can’t find any photographs. I remember a play he tried to put on with the Youth Fellowship in the 1960s where the actors just couldn’t get into the spirit of the play and it was canceled. Again, no photos.
My mother took acting classes at the local YWCA when she was a child and told me she learned how to fall down dramatically without hurting herself and that and her friend used to try and shock people sometimes when they were walking down the street by falling out. No photos.
But, when we lived in Excelsior Springs, MO in 1983 – 1985, my oldest daughters participated in several of the plays put on by the Community Theater. I remember Finian’s Rainbow and Peter Pan. There were lots of rehearsals in the evening and that we lived close enough to the practice place that they could walk downtown and back. This was good because we only had one car and it was often with my husband. We all missed the theater when we moved.
Jilo was in the production Excelsior Springs 1984 production of “Finian’s Rainbow”.
Jilo as Princess Tiger Lilly and Ife as a lost boy, in costume. The other’s are just in the photo.
Jilo and Ife ready for “Peter Pan.” Excelsior Springs 1984.
My maternal grandparent’s names were Mershell Cunningham Graham and Fannie Mae Turner Graham. They were both born in Alabama in 1888. Mershell was born in Coosada Station, Elmore County. Fannie was born in Hayneville, Lowndes County. Both counties are near Montgomery.
Before moving to Detroit, Mershell worked on passenger trains in the dining car. After coming to Detroit in 1917 he worked on a Great Lakes Cruise ship as a steward and finally put in 30 years at Ford Motor Company in the parts dept at the River Rouge Plant, before retiring.
My grandmother Fannie, managed her uncle Victor Tulane’s store in Montgomery before her marriage. After their marriage in 1919, she didn’t work outside of the home. They both lived until I was in my mid-twenties. My grandfather died in 1976 at 86 years. I was 26. My grandmother died in 1977 at 87. They both died in Detroit. We spent every Saturday at their house when I was growing up and for the last year of college, they lived downstairs from us. They lived in that flat until they died. So I knew them and also research them.
Albert & Pearl 1922. Detroit
Albert & Pearl 1950s
My paternal grandparents were Albert Buford Cleage and Pearl Doris Reed Cleage. Albert was born in Louden county, TN in 1883. Pearl was born in Lebanon, KY in 1886. They were married in Indianapolis in 1910. My grandfather worked on a Great Lakes Cruise line summers until he finished Medical school and became a family physician.
We lived down the street from them for several years when I was 5 and 6 years old. We saw them often. My grandfather died in 1957 after being ill for awhile. He was 73. I was 11. My grandmother lived until 1982. She was 96. I was 35. I knew both of them. I also research them.
Below are links to some of the many posts about my grandparents on this blog.
Both of my grandfathers worked on the Great Lakes steam ships. My maternal grandfather, Mershell Graham, worked as a steward for the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company when he first came to Detroit in 1917. He had previously worked in the dining cars of passenger trains. After several years he got a job at Ford Motor Co. where he remained until his retirement 30 years later.
My paternal grandfather, Albert B. Cleage, Sr, worked for the same company in 1909. He was a medical student in Indiana and earned money during the summer by working on the Eastern States cruise ship as a waiter. The excerpts in this post are from his letters.
June 19 1909 I left Indianapolis last night at 7:25. Stayed all night in Hamilton Ohio. Am now in Toledo at 10 AM. Will leave for Detroit 2: 15.
June 20, 1909 Arrived in Detroit yesterday at 4:00 PM, and left for Buffalo via “Eastern States” Star. on which I am at work. Was lucky. Am well, found two old school friends on same boat!
June 20, 1909 I am sitting in an old ware-house door on the wharf at Buffalo, – tell me there isn’t an element of romance in my location to say the least. I will be in Detroit again tomorrow and will see many of the boys whom I know there. You can imagine how worn out I am – just stopped traveling this morning, and if the boat ever comes into dock again I shall go immediately to bed. I went uptown to get some things and it went up the Lake and left me, but it will return soon.
Albert B. Cleage
June 24, 1909 Lawrence has come and we are working together.
June 27, 1909 (On board the Steamer “Eastern States” – Lake Erie) This is Sabbath night about 10:00 o’clock and we are about six hours ride out of Detroit and about twelve miles from land in the shortest direction. Surroundings are such as to impress one with his insignificance and emphasize the fact that he is indeed kept by Jehovah’s care. I shall first endeavor to acquaint you with the boat on which I am working. It’s name is “The Eastern States” and runs from Detroit to Buffalo. We leave Detroit one day at 5 PM and arrive in Buffalo the next morning at 8 o’clock, staying in
Buffalo all day we leave again for Detroit in the Evening at 5 PM you see we spend one day in Detroit and one in Buffalo. Today we were in Detroit and would it interest you to know how I spent it? Well, if it will interest you; after breakfast was over about 9 am, I went down to our “quarters” (I suppose you have only a faint conception of what that word means – I describe it later.) and slept until 11:30 – served lunch, after which Aldridge and I walked up town for about 2 hours – smoked some cigars, came back to the boat and took a couple of hours more of sleep. So you see I am putting in plenty of time sleeping. This stuff I’m sure does not interest you and I will not bore you longer but as I promised to say something about our “quarters”
It is one large room about 35 x 40 ft. in which are 32 beds – just think of it!! Those beds or better bunks are arranged in tiers of three and I at the present time am sitting on my bed (the top one) and there are two other fellows below me. What ventilation we get comes through six small port holes the diameters of which are about 6 in.
The fellows are a cosmopolitan aggregation, men from everywhere and at any time you can hear arguments and discussions on all subjects – Sensible and nonsensible. There are several students on board – boys from Howard University, Wilberforce University, Oberlin University, Michigan, and Indiana and out of them there are some very fine fellows to know… I could talk all night about the desirable and the non-desirable features of my Steamboat experience.
This isn’t the dining room of the Eastern States but the City of Detroit was a sister ship so it was probably similar.
July 3, 1909 (Enroute to Buffalo, Steamer Eastern States) Yesterday while Lewis and I were walking up the street in Buffalo, whom did we see standing on the corner (as if lost) but Miss Berry of Indianapolis, her brother and his wife and a Miss Stuart an Indianapolis teacher. Well to be sure we were surprised and they too seemed agreeably so. We spent the day with them taking in the zoo and other points of interest. They visited our boat and we showed them through it. That was experience number one.
Secondly – our boat was in a storm last night I awoke last night amid great excitement in our quarters and found that it was only possible for me to lie in bed with quite a great deal of effort. The old boat was being mightily tossed and driven and the angry waves were rising a high as your house or higher. We were sometimes on top of them and again between them at all times with a feeling that we would every minute be swallowed up by them. Great excitement prevailed. Most of the waiters got up and put on life preservers thinking they would have need of them. I neither was afraid or sick. Nothing serious happened and we arrived in Detroit only a few hours late this morning.
We are tonight taking over to Buffal0 a 4th of July Excursion. A large crowd is aboard. A great number of extra waiters are aboard and an extra amount of noise is present and unfavorable to letter writing accept the effort…
After WW2, automobile travel replaced steamer travel and gradually the ships were retired, burned and scrapped. Here is a timeline for the Eastern States from the link above.
Laid down as EMPIRE STATE.
1902, Jan Launched Wyandotte, MI.
1909 Owned Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co, Detroit, MI.
1930 Owned Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co., Detroit.
1950 Laid up, Detroit.
1956, Jun 21 Owned Lake Shore Steel Co & Siegal Iron & Metal Co, Detroit.
I have kept many journals during my life. Unfortunately I’ve only kept them for short periods of time, sometimes a day, sometimes several months. I have used all sorts of journals and sometimes just plain notebooks. I think that because the pages are spread out in various journals, I should type all the entries into one file on the computer. I could print it out. Or I could take pages from where they are and put them in acid free sleeves in a binder. Right now I’m sure they are not much use to anyone. Even I find it hard to locate information from a particular time and place.
I do have several journals from family members. I have my grandmother Fannie’s Little Book and a big scrapbook. I have my grandfather Mershell’s work notebook. And I have my Uncle Henry’s Diary kept in 1936.
Below are more or less random pages from 4 of my journals from 1967, 1972, 1981 and 2001. I’ve transcribed with some correction of grammar or spelling where it makes it easier to understand.
December 4, 1967 – Bronze pour, junior year Wayne State University. I was 21 years old.
12/4/67
The fire’s green, noisy, can’t hear voices hardly. getting ready to cast – pour. have big cans set up. 2 to do it. Katze (note: the teacher in charge of pour) has visor on. (room) smells dusty, dusty. hard to breath. dirty. sand all over floor. fire flame big, roars, loud – dust – loud dust. Can’t be ready yet. glasses just ran downstairs. sculpt must really get involved in it.
Can even hear roar on steps. Like train. Sounds like burning. Smells like hot metal – no wonder. at other end of room someone works with some tool – makes sparks & higher buzzing noise off and on combines with steady roar. Room covered with white dust didn’t answer – the (maybe the um sound was yes)
They poured and it ran out so had to heat more, spilled it on floor, started fire. Burned 3 folks feet. not badly. Oxygen stored in there. Fireboxes not hooked up! no evacuation of building. Linoleum on floor. Total chaos.(Note: before the spilled hot, liquid metal, everyone thought the floor was cement but it turned out that there was cement looking linoleum.)
man holed up in his house on west side.
February 3, 1976 – Raising rabbits and tomatoes, Simpson County, MS. I was 29 years old.
2-3-76
Fed goat & rabbits twice. pollinated tomatoes & pruned more for transplanting in greenhouse #1. Those need watering. soaking them overnight to get better start. Those with roots do better (& small leaves) than large leaves & no roots. Fill holes with water when transplanting.
Found 2 red tomatoes in #2 when pollinating. found Velma rabbit had ear canker. looked in Rabbit book & called Ruth Shiers about treatment says common & should treat rabbits monthly as precaution. Put Vaseline on it. Need camphophenic to treat it & all others as a …
July 4, 1981 – Trip to Norway. I was 34 years old.
July 3, 1981 friday
Started out a very sunny warm day until after lunch – ended up being cold & RAINY. Went to the theater to see a fairy tale of a princess a would be prince who had to get 3 feathers of a dragon to win her. Very good – even understood a few words. Before it started, a tall man came up & said he should have written a synopsis & did I know the story – then he started telling it to me. (Note: He was the playwrite.) The people who organized this outing, neglected to call in reservations & we had to wait for cancelations, luckily there were some. After we went in the cold rain to get varme polster, pomme frit og ice!(?) It was COLD with dress, bare legs & sandals but a good evening & it’s nice to be back & warm. Paul was at Blinern stop.
Class is harder – ie. lessons are, class remains the same. Spent more time in language lab today. Mary Kate reads at 3,000 words a minute. Now to bed.
July 4, 1981 Saturday
Classes in morning. Sunny day went downtown in afternoon with Joan & Kari. Walked all the way over to St. Olaf’s Church.
Campus party was tonight. Jilo (Note: my 11 year old daughter.) went & stayed until midnight, danced a few dances with a nice Howard student. I went for a moment with little Kari & her mother. It looked like everyone was having a good time. Reminded me of those terrible parties & never danced. it also made me miss Jim.
Went for a long walk with Joan, little Kari, her mother & a lady I can’t remember, who also never liked parties. Walked all over in a different direction, to the stadium.
June 29, 2001 – Train trip home to Michigan from Seattle. I was 54 years old.
June 29, Friday
“This land is your land, this land is my land…”
Woke up in Montana. isolated cabins on the sides of wooded mountains. mountain (rushing streams) line of parked cars in the middle of no where. a deer on the side of the tracks, pine trees, poplar or is it aspen? “Big sky” low clouds.
James, the Chinese steward, had a laugh this morning with the Irish woman across the aisle. He’d thought she’d be Chinese (note: because her name was “Lee”.)… “Robert E. Lee wasn’t Chinese”, she pointed out, a bit peevishly.
I awoke around 7:30 (6:30) Seattle time) yawn. Could have slept longer. Mountains of feathery pines. So close together. The highway right below, a stream leads up, up, up the mountains to a meadow. “I knew the mountains would make you well.” Breakfast of yogurt parfait.
On closer view, what appears to be meadow may be bushes. Least that’s what the one we passed was. Going through open covered tunnels? bridges? Better than the dark holes.
Rock is gray, slate like layers, dirt was mauve this morning. Began taking photos. Why didn’t I do that all along??? What a waste. Oh well. Jilo & ife have bot expressed an interest in cross country travel.
Down the corridor a couple are discussing their vacations & train trips. The rocks do look like the earths bones. I need to use the bathroom…
Are we lower or higher? trees are smaller, fewer. More grass. God’s golf course out there?
Montana high plains. rutted dirt road comes out of fields to the truck. Several piles of dumped household stuff. Irrigation. Houses, small, alone. A man with orange flags. Clouds I could reach out the window and touch. Sage brush again every where. Wonder if it’s like my sage.
April 5, 2004 Shared Journal with my daughter ife. I was 57 years old.
My daughter and I were going to fill this journal up, mailing it back and forth from Idlewild, MI to Seattle, WA. We started it when her twins were 6 months old. We never completed the book.
Monday morning April 5 – full moon 11:04 AM
Waiting until time to leave for Ludington for my first mamogram. Another sunny, cold day. Yesterday I saw a robin on my walk and there was a crocus in the garden. Spring is really here. (my entry from Michigan)
Tuesday 8…….A quick sketch of the Deifenbaccia that is in front of the west window of the living room. it is doing much bettwer since it was repotted inot a larger pot and now that it gets nice strong light. I spend a lot of time watching it grow.
Both Sean and Sydney are finally napping.. they don’t want to be moved from my lap though… cuts down on being able to use this time… (ife’s entry from Seattle)
My aunt Anna Cecelia was born January 29, 1925 in Detroit, Michigan. She is the little ghost baby being held by her mother, my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage.
J.L.C. Mama and nana peela
Barbbara & Gladys J.L.C.
My aunt Gladys looks like she is either returning or leaving the scene via time travel.
Mr. Louis Cleage Age 12, – 1925
Mr. Louis Cleage, age 12 wrote names on the backs of the photos.
Here is a family photograph from about 20 years later. From L to right we have Barbara (who we can actually see.) Henry, Anna, mother Pearl and in the front is Gladys.
The room is cold.
The bed hard with
too few quilts.
More fumes than heat
come from the small
gas heater in the fireplace.
All around, the empty,
crumbling campus.
Inside the spirits swirl
in the cold air.
Several years ago my husband and I attended a conference in Selma Alabama by the Black Belt African American Genealogical & Historical Society. We stayed with our friend, Donald Stone on the campus of the Snow Hill Institute. It was once a thriving and bustling school but since the early 1970s when it was closed due to school integration, it’s been pretty much deserted. Stone, who is a descendent of the founder lives there. We stayed in the house next to the one he was in. It was so sad to see what was once an important educational institution, empty. Below is a short interview with Donald Stone. Above is a poem I wrote during the August Postcard Poetry month about the experience of spending the night there.
For more information about Snow Hill Normal and Industrial School:
