More Women in Hats

Cousin Bettie McDaniel Neal
Cousin Sadie Havard McDaniel
Ruby Young Hunter
Mary Coleman & Miss Willis

Neal and McDaniel photographs are courtesy of Anthony Neal, Sr.
Hunter and Coleman photographs are courtesy of Christi Young.

Take another look at Women and Hats.

Tombstone Tuesday - Edmond Woods

In Memory of Edmon Woods
Bornd 1835
Died 1905
Farewell My Wife & Children
All From You A Father Christ Doth Call
Cool Spring MB Church Cemetery
McCall, Franklin County, MS

Edmond Woods served with the 58th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry in Natchez, Mississippi

Photograph Courtesy of Willie L Robinson

Amanuensis Monday - Paying the Freedmen 1865-1866

William Emmerson freedmen received for himself and his two children Willis & Amanda of D McArn 35.60$ amount due for labor rendered from August 22nd 1865 to Jan 1st 1866
his mark X
William was former slave of McArn, married to Elizabeth and their children were: Willis (unsound), Manda, Nancy, Scott, Isaac, Rena, Preston, Jacob, Isabella, William, James, Martha, and Frances

Frank Corbin freedman received of D McArn 16.50$ sixteen fifty cents amount due from August 22nd 1865 to Jan 1st 1866
his mark X
Frank was husband of Rachel during slavery, former slave of McArn. his breast and chest was badly mashed. The couple had one child, Harry, cripple from birth.

Joseph Sartin freedman received of D McArn 11.00$ eleven dollars amount due for labor rendered from August 22nd 1865 to Jan 1st 1866
his mark X

Charles Sartin freedman received of D McArn 16.90$ sixteen dollars ninety cents D McArn amount due for labor rendered from August 22nd 1865 to Jan 1st 1866
his mark X

Chester Sartin freedman received of D McArn 25.00$ twenty five dollars amount for labor rendered from August 22nd 1865 to Jan 1st 1866
his mark X
All three Sartin men were former slaves of McArn. The relationship between the three men is unknown. Charles' descendant married into my maternal family.

Rachel Corbin freed woman received of D McArn 14.33$ fourteen thirty three cents amount due for labor rendered from August 22nd 1865 to Jan 1st 1866
her mark X
Rachel was Frank's wife during slavery, had one child, Harry, cripple from birth. Rachel suffered with pain in head and breast.

George Parker freedman received of D McArn for himself & his two sons Henry & Andrew 31.35$ thirty one dollars thirty five cents amount due for labor rendered from August 22nd 1865 to Jan 1st 1866
his mark X

Duncan McArn was born on February 14, 1810. He moved from North Carolina to Jefferson County, MS, around 1835. McArn taught school in Franklin County during the first five years of his residence in MS. He married Catherine Torrey of MS on May 9, 1844. McArn soon began cultivating cotton on a plantation near Fayette, Jefferson Co. Duncan McArn died February 24, 1875.

According to the Jefferson County, Mississippi, 1860 Slave Schedule, Duncan owned 51 slaves.

McArn (Duncan) and Family Papers, Collection Number: Z/1487, Box 8
Collection found at Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Happy 78th, Mama

This is my mother with her first born son.
Mama, happy 78th birthday. Although Alzheimer's Disease has taken so much from you and us, you are loved and precious as ever. May you have many more peaceful birthdays.

Sunday's Obituary - T. C. Coleman

Mr. T. C. Coleman departed this life Sunday February 5, 1989, at Kings Daughters Hospital, Brookhaven, Mississippi.

He was born October 26, 1908 in Lincoln County, Mississippi and attended the Lincoln County Public Schools

Boomie, as he was known to his many relatives and friends, served during World War II in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945.

At an early age he united with the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, where he served as Church Clerk for a number of years and Chairman of the Deacon Board. He attended services regularly until his health began to fail.

Boomie retired from Escambia Wood Treating Co., Brookhaven, Mississippi.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Luther and Eddie Roberts Coleman and one brother, George Coleman.

He leaves to cherish his memory one son, Mr. Jimmie Coleman of Brookhaven, MS; Three daughters, Mrs. Belinda Irvin of Wesson, MS; Mrs. Brenda Coleman of Baton Rouge, LA; Mrs. Gwendolyn Gayle Kennedy of Houston, TX; Two sisters, Mrs. Lula Mae Jackson of Bogalusa, LA and Mrs. Amy V. Beard of Brookhaven, MS; Two sons in law, Bruce Irvin and Lee Kennedy; one brother in law, Louis Beard; Eight grandchildren and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, other relatives and friends.

Madness Monday - Killed his Sister
Madness Monday - Killed his Sister - Part 2
Madness Monday - Killed his Sister - Part 3

Wordless Wednesday - Mary Shaw & Daughter ca. 1855

Mary Ann McLaurin Shaw
1828 - 1894
Wife of William Shaw
and
Daughter "Maggie" Margaret Almarinda Shaw
1853 - 1921
William and Mary were slave owners of Samuel Shaw b 1823
in Jefferson County, Mississippi
Samuel's descendants married cousins of my cousins.

Source: Shaw-McCallum Papers
Special Collections of Mitchell Memorial Library
Mississippi State University

Amanuensis Monday - Letter from a Slave to her Former Mistress - 1858

This letter was written by Harriet Walker to Mary Shaw, wife of Thompson Breckenridge Shaw. Harriet, living in Arkansas, wrote inquiring about her children who were living on the Shaw farm in Jefferson County, MS. The letter does not tell us how long she had been away from her children nor whether Harriet, husband and other children were sold as a group. Apparently, the husband was separated from the family, causing sadness for Harriet.

Columbus, Arks
June 7th 1858

My Dear Mistress,

It has been a great while since I heard from you or my children and I know not whether any of you are now in the land of the living. but write begging you to please let me now how they are getting along in the world. Me and my two daughters Caroline, and Mary, my son Colby are still owned by Dr. Walker we have a very kind master and mistress. My son Jim belongs to his son Jim and my two daughters are now grown. I begin to feel very old. I often wish I had never left you but at that time thought I would be with my husband as long as we lived. We never know when we are doing for the best.

I am so very glad my children are so well satisfied and have good homes. tell them to stay by their masters and mistress as long as they can. they do not know what it is to have their families scattered and never expect to see them again.

I am very sorry indeed to hear of Old Masters death, but thus passeth away the world and what was your loss was his infinite gain, and all we can do is to strive to meet him in the world to come where there will be no more pain, no more parting.

And now Mistress, tell my children to be good and faithful servants, to honor their master's, and mistresses and in all things do what is right snd honest and set a good example for their children, and above all things to serve their God, and teach their children the same, for they will have to give an account of their deeds in that last day. give my best love to them and tell them I often think of them.

Farewell my dear Old Mistress please answer this is the last request of your old and faithful servant

Harriet Walker

Source: Shaw (Thompson B.) - McKell Papers
From Special Collections of Mitchell Memorial Library
Mississippi State University

Our White House on Washington Street 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Week 31: Grandparents’ House. Describe your grandparents’ house. Was it big or small? How long did they live there? If you do not know this information, feel free to describe the house of another family member you remember from your childhood.

My memories of my maternal grandmother begin and end in this house.

This modest house was our house of comfort. I loved going to visit when I was a child in the 1960s, then, it was Aunt Bee's house. The childless Aunt Bee didn't have a room full of toys, in fact, no toys. There were no swing sets, no bicycles, but we felt free. Free to roam and run on three huge acres with pecan and fruit trees, and a vegetable garden. It was one of the few places where I saw a smile on my mother's face, where she was relaxed.

The house came into the family after my great grandfather Monroe Markham's death in 1932. Monroe and his wife Mary raised their family of 15 children on the land where Monroe had been enslaved in Caseyville, MS. Monroe rented land from the son of the last slave holder and his childhood playmate Prentiss Buie. Monroe b. 1852 was gifted to Prentiss b. 1850 when they were young children. When Prentiss died in 1926, Monroe, wife and three unmarried daughters were asked to leave, they went to live with their eldest son.

After Monroe's death, the women decided that their future was in owning their own home. The land was purchased in 1933. Prentiss' daughter Hallie Buie came to visit Grandma Mary and this is how she described the house in a letter she wrote to her sister in 1936.

"Mrs. Thompson took me to see Aunt Mary. She lives with her three daughters who bought three acres of land just outside the city limits, Brookhaven, and have put up a nice house, everything is so neat and clean about the place and so many flowers were blooming in the yard and their ferns on the front porch, in nice pots, are so pretty, the house faces the east. Willie Markham, Uncle Monroe’s son, lives in the next house."

The original house was a living room, dinning room, kitchen and two bedrooms. The outhouse was in the back yard, which I have a vague memory. Later they would add a small pantry, small sitting room and an inside toilet with running water.

The women in the house were Grandma Mary, Aunt Bee(Beatrice), Aunt Louella, and Aunt Inez. Grandma Mary went to glory in 1937, Aunt Inez in 1938, their wakes were held in the house. Aunt Louella left and married Elijah Howard, and Aunt Bee and her brand new husband Silas Johnson would have the house to themselves.

By the early 1960s, Luella and Bee's husbands were deceased. Aunt Bee was taking care of her two sisters, my grandmother Alice and Aunt Luella, both stricken with senility or Alzheimer's Disease.

Grandma, Aunt Luella and Aunt Bee's faces would light up with joy when we, my mother and her three to five children, went for visits. There was a small gate to the left side of the house and when the taxi driver would toot the horn, they would all come to unlatch the gate. We would run into their arms for hugs. They smelled clean, sunshine clean with a hint of lemon. They wore long dresses with aprons, thick cotton stockings on their legs and black or brown shoes with the laces neatly tied. They would ha and ho over us, made us feel so special.

Aunt Bee was the cook, she was a great cook. She would set the table with pretty rose pattern dinnerware. Bowls filled of southern main stays was put on the table; grits, ham, fried chicken, field peas or butter beans with okra, buttered rice, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, homemade canned fruits and jellies, homemade biscuits, corn bread and chocolate cake from scratch.

My mother was frugal with the food. I think her philosophy was to leave more food on the table than was presented. Aunt Bee would be in the kitchen and would hear one of us ask our mother for some more of something and mama would tell us we had enough. Aunt Bee would tell mama to let us children eat. Mama word was law and when she said no, no was no.

One of my last memories of my grandmother is her sitting on this back porch in a cane backed chair. She didn't talk with us but would smile and play hide and seek games with her hands, hiding a leaf, plum, whatever we put in her hands. We would run up and down those steps and jump off the porch. From a child's perspective, the steps were steep and the jump from the porch was daring.

When it was time for us to go home, back to Jackson, Aunt Bee would load my mother with the fruit of the land. She would have pecans, peanuts, vegetables from the garden, canned fruit and jellies. We would nibble from these gifts, remembering the visits for a long time.

I remember once when we were in the taxi cab headed to the bus station, looking back toward the house, I saw my grandmother and grandaunts walking back to the steps. Their heads were slighted bowed and the shoulders stooped. I knew then they were missing us as we were already missing them. I also knew they would be okay to settle back into their routine.

Aunt Louella died in May 1966, Grandma in August 1966, and Aunt Bee in May 1989, all of Alzheimer's Disease.

The house remains in the family.

Wordless Wednesday - Boy and a Car, 1930s

Alex John "AJ" Howard, Jr
b. 1931
Son of Alex John Howard, Sr and Byrnetta Bryant

Photograph Courtesy of Anthony Neal, Sr

Amanuensis Monday - Pastor's Response to Decision in Murder Case

Church Record Sunday - Murder Committed by Church Clerk

Cornelius Washington Grafton was the pastor of Bensalem Presbyterian Church in Lincoln County, Mississippi.

Here is his response to the decision of the church elders in the case of church clerk Jonathan McCallum who killed Dock Gordon.

Bensalem Church Sept 17th 1882
The Session met and was opened with prayer. Present Rev C W Grafton, A Baker, C Blue and John Gilchrist.

The following paper from Rev C W Grafton - read and admitted to record.

I concur with all my brethren who had the following principals.

1st The civil officer is God's minister - appointed to execute wrath upon offenders.

2nd A divine law clothes wither the right and duty to use force where ever necessary in the arrest of a criminal - force that will lead to the sheadding(sp) of blood or the destruction of life if the case demands.

3rd That the criminal who resist the operations of the law by attempting to escape or otherwise is resisting the ordinance of God and does it at his own peril.

But it does not seen clear to my mind that our brother used the necessary con? to prevent the effusion of blood in the above case. Such precoussion(sp) I think is required by the moral law and therefore I do not agree with my brethern in their decision rendered yesterday.

C W Grafton, Moderator

Source: Bensalem Presbyterian Church Session Records - March 6, 1881-April 6 1947