52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Week 19 – Missie (Missy) Austin

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Week 19 – Missie (Missy) Austin

Missie was born according to most documents in Georgia between 1866 and1868.  This would be about ten years after her oldest brother, Henry Carroll/Cal was born in 1858.  Henry is my 2^nd great grand father, also born in Georgia.  According to the 1870 US Census for Lawrence County, Missie was the fourth born child (age1) of Emma Sims who married Joseph Austin about 1868.   The mystery of where Missy and some of her siblings were born in Georgia before migrating to northwest Alabama creates a brick wall in our family research.  Missy grew up in the small rural town of Town Creek, Lawrence County, Alabama on a tenant farm. 

Missie married Fred Sherrod 14 April 1888 in Lawrence County.  Fred died in 1894 and in the 1900 U.S Census, Lawrence County list Missie is a widow with five children;  Lela (1890), Velma (1892) William (1893) Gertrude (1894), Fred Ida (1895).  Fred would have been a young man of about thirty-five and not finding a death certificate makes me wonder whether he became ill or had an accident leading to his death.  Missie a young woman of about thirty-three with five children continued on the tenant farm to make a living and provide for them.  Missie knew the work of a farm after all that is what her parents Joseph and Emma did from the time they arrive in Town Creek shortly after emancipation. 

Fortunately, she met and married Hugh Jackson in Leighton, Colbert County on the 4^th of January 1903.  Missie and Hugh had a son, Emmett and a daughter, Beatrice Jackson.  Life must have been on the upswing  for the couple had seven children that of course would help on the farm along with them.  However, the forward movement lasted too short awhile for by 1920, Missie was back on her on living as a widowed head of house.  The house couldn’t have been too large yet Missie, her eighty-three year old mother, Emma along with some of her children and grandchildren lived in the home.  Can’t imagine how they managed but they did. Missie’s mother, Emma Austin died in 1927 and by 1930, Missie was living with her single younger son, Emmett who was twenty-seven.  This represents a culture of assisting family and making the best of circumstances.  No record has been found of where Missie was during the 1940 Census but we are fairly certain she remained in Alabama throughout her life. 

Missie Austin Sherrod Jackson died in Morgan County, Alabama in 1952.  My gg aunt Missie lived through difficulties with her parents being enslaved to beginning anew in a new state, tenant farming, becoming a new wife twice, having seven children, making it on her own and providing home a for her mother Emma Austin in her last years.  There is no question that each of stands on the shoulders of our ancestors.  The question now is will we leave enough strength for our descendants to stand on our shoulders. 

This family historian feels the responsibilities that have been passed on by our ancestors.

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Week 18 Mary Eliza Bailey Watkins

Mary Eliza Bailey is my great grandmother on my paternal mother’s side of the family.  Mary was born about May 1876 in Macon, Hale County, Alabama to Prince Bailey (1851-1930) and Adeline King (1852-1931).  Both of Mary’s parents appear from the records to have been born in Alabama.  Prince Bailey’s parents are recorded as being born in South Carolina.  Mary’s siblings listed in 1870 are all sisters, Caroline (1871), Lena (1879), Margaret (1883) and Anna (1885).  Mary was one of the middle sisters.  The family lived in Beat 8, Macon, Hale County, Alabama in 1880 and her father, Prince worked as a laborer.

So far on this journey, this is the first picture found from this generation and was taken in Indiana, Pennsylvania during the late 1930’s.

Mary met and married Wesley Watkins on 8 December 1892.  She appears to have been fourteen years old and in my mind very young to get married in our times.  By the 1900 census great grandmother Mary was married to Wesley, living in Gallion, Hale County, Alabama and had the following children: Lula, Smith, Floyd, Oather/Otis, Wesley and Lillie Mae.  She would have one more child in 1916, my grandmother Lois.  I find it exciting that I met all of my uncles and aunts with the exception of Lula (must find out what happened with her).

Mary’s husband Wesley worked as a coalminer and followed the coalmining industry to Ernest, Pennsylvania by the 1930’s.  One of her younger sons, Otis remembered growing up in Demopolis that is 9.72 miles from Gallion (Hale County) in Walker County.  Walker County was once ranked as the leading producer of coal in the country.  Our family verbal history is that Mary’s father, Prince Bailey was from Mississippi and sure enough I did find a record from Clarke County, Mississippi that supports him living there and working as a labor in the household of a Margaret Bailey. 

The life of a coalmining wife was surrounded with concern and worry of men going into the mines and possibly not surviving the workday.  The mining companies provided separate house for different groups of people yet underground in the mines the men took the same risk and endured the same hazards.  I’ve heard that Mary participated in bootlegging yet I’ve found no proof of the story.  Mary lost her husband in 1929 in Ernest Pennsylvania to a heart attack.  By the 1930 Census, she was living with her youngest daughter, Lois who was expecting her first child, my father.  Mary died in Pennsylvania about 1953 after a brief illness.

It is fit to write about Mary Eliza Bailey Watkins on this eve of Mother’s Day.  The journey will continue with hope and plans to learn more about my great grandmother.

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Week 17 - Salina Sherrod Brooks

Salina Sherrod Brooks and as my cousin Dorothy reminds me it is Salina drawn out in the pronunciation.  It must be my northern accent not totally dissolved in my thirty seven years of living in the South.

Salina is a very interesting person in our family and why I have not absolutely proven her relationship, it exist without a doubt in my heart.  The dreaminess exist in the heart of most genealogist/family historians and in this case, it is not about a famous person by people's standards.  Records on Salina Sherrod were first found in the 1866 State of Alabama Census in Lawrence County.  Interesting she was found as head of household with a number of younger females living with her.  The census lists the head of household's name, sex and ages of others in the home.  The index lists her name as Selina Sherod.  This is one of the spelling variations of Salina Sherrod that has been found.  In this record, Salina had three female girls under ten years of age, three females 10-20 and one 20-30.  Oh how I wish I knew their names. [source is ancestry.com: Alabama State Census 1820-1866 for Selina Sherod]

From the 1870 US Census in Township 4 Range 8, Lawrence County, Alabama it appears that those females would have been Lydia (1855) Danella (1859) Rebecca (1864) Celia (1866) and Amanda (1868).   From 1870 US Census on, Salina is listed as a Mulatto.  Salina Sherrod married Lewis Brooks on the 19 Aug 1867.  Lewis was one of the black head of household listed in the 1866 Alabama Census.  Question is were any of Salina's daughters fathered by Lewis.  Various records show they used Sherrod as a surname and at other times Brooks.

Verbal family history is that Silas and Louisa Sherrod was Celia Sherrod's parents. Celia married Henry Carroll/Cal in Lawrence County, Alabama in 1882.  However, US Census show in 1900 that Louisa had one child and that son was Earen (Earnest) so it opens the door that Silas had some other relations and who knows it may have been with Salina that led to her daughters, Lydia, Danella, Rebecca, Celia and Amanda.  Celia Sherrod Carroll died in 1910 and her husband, Henry Carroll/Cal was administrator of Salina Sherrod Brooks' estate.  Later records show Salina as grandmother to Eva Bynum MacDonald Lewis.  I met Eva many years ago and she told me she was my cousin and grew up in Colbert County, Alabama.  My great uncle Robert and her argued whether it was Colbert or Lawrence County.  Both were born in Alabama in 1891 and grew up together as cousins.  Both of these family members as I found records on this journey were listed as mulattoes at times. While their race does not prove anything other than somewhere along the way there was a mixing of partners.

Summary is that Salina born in 1841 Alabama was a mulatto and own land.  It leaves one to wonder whether she was fathered by a Sherrod plantation slave owner.  How did she acquire land so soon after slavery in 1866?  Silas was a slave among Colonel Benjamin Sherrod as well as his grandfather. This is documented in the US Claim Commission that he filed in 1871 with Walter Sherrod (grandson of Col. Benjamin) being a witness.  The journey continues to prove or disapprove any possible theories by this Family Historian.

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Week 16 - Charlie McClendon

Charles McClendon was born in Odessadale, Georgia, a little town in Meriwether County, Georgia on the 8 of June 1888.   His mother, was Sylvia Martin who married Cornelius McClendon.  Sylvia was the younger sister of my great grandmother, Josephine Martin that married Wiley Woodard in 1868.  Sylvia and Cornelius married  in 1879,  had eight children and the two families grew up in the small community of Odessa.   Charles/Charlie McClendon and John Henry Woodard grew close as first cousins while growing up and that relationship continued through their moves working as coalminers, marriages and raising their children.  Charlie and John Henry's companionship went on until the death of John Henry in January 1932 with Charlie being the informant on John's death certificate.  Charlie maintained close to John's children after his death.  I remember my mother who was born in 1932 talking about him.  She spoke of a picture of Charlie in a white suit that I wish that I could find.

Cousin Charlie was the fourth child of Cornelius and Sylvia.  His siblings were Lula Belle (1870), Leanah (1880), Cornelius Jr. (1882), Mattie (1891), Savannah (1893), Jermiah (1894) and Tobe (1898).  This information was found in the 1900 US Census for Odessadale, Meriwether County, Georgia.  This family was also found in the same area in 1910.  I visited the area in 1990 and met a 92 year old, Ida Strozier who was very familiar with the McClendon and Woodard families that lived in the area.  She particularly recalled Sylvia and that Cornelius had died before Sylvia.  Two census records, a local cemetery without well marked headstones and the word of a senior member of the community were excellent resources on my search.

The challenge of not finding either cousin Charlie or grandfather, John Henry Woodard in the 1920 Census to date still stands.  John's sister, Hannah Woodard Rosser and her husband, Henry Rosser moved to Etowah, Alabama and I believe influenced Charlie and John Henry move to Alabama.  John Henry met and married his wife in Jefferson County. Records show they married in 1913 and so it is pretty safe to say the move took place after 1910.  On 5 June 1917, cousin Charles registered in the World War I Draft Card files.  He was working as a coal miner, had a wife with two children, was tall with medium built and registered in Marvel, Alabama.  While I couldn't locate him in the 1920 Alabama Census by the 1930 Census he was living in Fairmont, Marion County, West Virginia.  Three of his six children were born in Alabama from 1920-1926, he registered for the draft in 1917 so these fact pretty much place him in the area.  Now his other three children born between 1914-1919 were recorded as being born in Georgia.  This leads me to believe, he married his wife Sarah in Georgia; left Georgia for Alabama to work as a miner and moved his family to Alabama later.  It appears that since John Henry Woodard married Susie Mae Young in Jefferson County in 1913, they may not have  moved at the same time to Alabama.  Interesting the census record show cousin Charlie and his wife, Sara, married when they were twenty-eight years old so it was about 1916 and perhaps in Georgia.  Sara's maiden name may have been Ludon and she may have been born in Terrell County Georgia.  More research is needed on Sara.  

By the 1930 US Census, Charlie and his family along with his cousin, John Henry Woodard and family all lived in Fairmont, Marion County, West Virginia working as coalminers.  Charlie and Sarah lived at 1221 Field Street and own their own home.  Five of their children, Ann D., Mabel, Theodore, Charles Jr. and Earl R. were living with them by the 1940 US Census in Fairmont.

Charlie registered for WWII Draft in Marion on 27 April 1942.  He is listed as working for Kingston Pacs in Hemphill, West Virginia.  The card describes him as about 5'11" tall, medium built and weighting about 174 pounds with brown eyes and black hair.  He signed the form.

The last I remembering hearing was Charlie lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and so did several of his children.  The Social Security Death Index records his death as 1 June 1966.  It always excites me when the records and verbal history fits well.   The records reveal a great deal of information yet I would love to sit on a bench with him to discuss his experience. More to be found on cousin, Charlie McClendon and I can't wait to continue my journey.

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Percy Carroll Week 15

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Week 15 Percy Carroll

Percy, my great great uncle was born either September 1895 or 25 November 1899 in Leighton, Colbert County, Alabama.  After twenty some years of research, I’m convinced that my ancestors just picked a date or let someone make a date up for their birth.  Granted many of them didn’t have much education and I’m convinced that the record keepers made them up also.  Recently, I had to renew my driver’s license and had to provide almost every document possible, birth certificate, social security card, marriage license and two bills with my name on it.  Reflecting on my ancestors and the moving target date of their birth, I can’t help but wonder why this didn’t come earlier. However, the clerk told me when I questioned the need for proof needed after having a license for forty-nine years and providing a birth certificate then why it was necessary, she told be it was due to 911.  Wish some natural emergency, not tragic would have initiated some proof of birth back in the day.  Back to Percy who seemed to consistently used CARROLL as his surname.  Out of nine brothers he is one of two that used the name for most used Carroll when they were young then began using CAL.

The verbal history is that Percy left Alabama, moved to Detroit and worked for Chrysler Automobile Company.  In 1900 and 1910 he lived in Leighton with his immediate family.  He even registered for World War I Draft on 12 Sep 1918 at age 19 in Colbert County yet by 1920 no record was found in the US Census.  He does show up, in what I think is him, in Detroit, Michigan as a lodger in the home of Erman Strong who was also born in Alabama.  Percy lived on Scotten Avenue and worked as a laborer in an Auto Shop.  Who knows that may have been a Chrysler Automobile Shop.  By 1931, Percy is listed in the Detroit City Directory working as a janitor, was that with Chrysler?  Could be Percy who is listed in the 1940 US Census for Detroit at 5687 23^rd Street, single and working as tailor.  At this point, I really don’t know yet for some reason every generation of Carroll/Cal named a boy Percy.  Could be he was named after another Percy in the family.  We find no record of him marrying or having children but again who knows.  I do know he died in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois on 24 March 1971 and lived with a woman named Flora Carter.  They lived in a small house and my cousin that I connected with a few years ago went to Chicago after hearing of his death.

Here’s to you Percy and I am delighted to meet you in these confusing records.  Oh, the journey of a Family Historian and oh how I love it.

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks John "Carroll" Cal Week 14

John Cal

I label him "John Cal" for other than the 1900 US Census, Town Creek, Lawrence County, Alabama, he is always listed that way.  John is my great grandfather and one of Henry Carroll/Cal's  and Celia's (Sherrod) older sons.

John Carroll/Cal was born in Leighton, Colbert, Alabama, on 12 Jan 1885 (according to some records). His draft registration card of 1918 states he was born 12 January 1881.  So he may be the first or the third child of Henry Carroll/Cal Sr. (May 1858) and Celia Sherrod (October 1864). Dallas Carroll (07 May 1883), Charles Carroll/Cal (07 January 1884), Sielas Carroll (06 March 1886), Robert Carroll (August 1891) 5, Henry Jr. Carroll/Cal (15 June 1892), Earnest Lee Sr. Carroll/Cal (15 July 1893) 6, Berta Estell Carroll (November 1896) 4, Percy Carroll/Cal (25 November 1899) and Otis/Odis Carroll/Cal (1 Apr 1900) 1,7 are his siblings. He shows up on the1900 US Census in Leighton, Colbert, AL, USA.  John was one of ten children of this marriage.

On 3 Dec 1905 he married Sally Copeland (1887) in Town Creek, Lawrence, AL.  Rev. Sherren, Minister of the Gospel married John Cal and Sally Copeland.   John was twenty and Sallie was eighteen years old (born in 1887 in Alabama).  She is the daughter of Julius and Praline may be Pearline (Burt) Copeland of Creek, Alabama.  Julius Copeland was a member of the United States Colored Troops and joined in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1863 before his marriage to Pearline.  John and Sally lost their first child between 1904 and 1907. No name or sex of this child was found.   Their first surviving child was Minnie Pearl in 1908.  John was twenty-three when his brother, Silas died on the 13 of November in 1908 at the young age of 21. He went on to have four children with Sally Copeland (1887).   Minnie Pearl Carroll/Cal (24 May 1908), Richard C. Carroll/Cal (1909), Henry Howard Carroll/Cal (12 May 1910) and George Alvin Carroll/Cal (15 May 1912).  John and Sally lived with her parents while they were married.   When John Carroll/Cal was 25 years old, his mother Celia Sherrod died on 26 December 1910 and this was prior to him leaving Alabama.  About 1911, before the birth of George "Alvin", John found himself in a situation due to a struggle or death of a white male in the area.  John had to leave the area, end up in jail or face some other penalty for the situation.  He left Alabama for Virginia and West Virginia finally settling in Marting, Fayette, WV working as a coal miner.  Conditions of working as a coal miner could have been and most likely a rough lifestyle.

According to legal documents, Sally filed a complaint stating that John left the area with Alberta Bowling in 1915.  While she expressed this in a legal complaint, no proof of her statement could be found and Sally amended her complaint in 1917.  John was in Marting, Fayette County, West Virginia on September 12, 1918 according to his WWI Draft Registration Card. He listed Sallie Cal of Town Creek as his nearest relative. However, on 14 Nov 1921, Sally Copeland Cal divorced Johnnie Cal in Moulton, Lawrence, AL, when he was 36 years old.   She had satisfied the requirements of placing a newspaper notice and posting an announcement on the Moulton courthouse.  Johnnie Cal did not reply or show up at court to answer the filed complaint.

Whatever the mystery of John's Alabama departure was significant enough to keep him away until his   later years.  John suffered with diabetes, lost one leg while in West Virginia and the other one after family member brought him back to Town Creek, Alabama.  Rumor was that his wife (ex) waited for him the rest of her life and she died in 1962.  John never remarried but had lived with another woman, Rena, that was a widow with one daughter from her previous marriage.  She went by Rena Cal and died in 1945.  John was the informant on her certificate yet did not list himself as her husband.  John died in 1975 and is buried in the Cal Family Cemetery that his father started in early 1900's.  He is buried next to his daughter, Minnie Pearl Cal without a headstone.

The journey of this family historian is sometimes sad yet at the same time worth the journey to find and document the stories.

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Wesley Watkins 1870-1929 Coalmining

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks – Wesley Watkins 1870-1929

Wesley Watkins was the name he went by in the found documents and as family members referred to him.  Several of his descendants would also carry this same name. The difference in naming pattern has been John Wesley Watkins.  He is my great grandfather on my paternal (Henry H. Carroll) maternal side (Lois Watkins). 

Wesley was born in Walker County, Alabama August 1870, five years after slavery to John Wesley Sr. and Amanda Andrews.  Wesley married Mary Eliza Bailey in 1892 and their children were Lulu, Smith, Floyd, Otis/Ocie, Wesley, Lillie Mae and Lois (my grandmother) between 1898 and 1912 in Alabama.  Wesley worked as a farm laborer in 1880 and yet somehow according to family stories became involved in the coalmine industry in Jasper, Walker County Alabama.  The story shared with me by my great uncle, Ocie and my father, Henry was that he was in charged of the black company store for the coal mining company.  His sons, Smith, Floyd, Ocie and John Wesley would go back and forth between the black store and the white store performing errands during the early 1900’s.  The freedom of movement between the two stores concerned my great grandfather Wesley and often I have wondered about that part of the story and needed to move beyond dates, places and names.

Researching the mining industry in Alabama opened many doors.  Walker County Alabama was part of the 70,000 square miles from Pennsylvania and Ohio to Central Alabama that had coal deposits at the southern end of Appalachian coalfields.  Alabama Coal Mining Company was the first company mining in the area and was owned by William Phineas and went back to around 1849. Coal mining began in Alabama during the 1830’s.  Phineas was known to have used slave labor to mine the coal.   My mouth fell open when learning about how state prisons began leasing convicts, arrested and incarcerated for insignificant offenses like vagrancy since many black men had no way to prove they were employed that is unless they were fortunate to have a landowner vouch for them.  Thousands of black men were held in involuntary slavery due to minor charges that sheriffs and law enforcement would charge them with and earn money for convictions.  They would leased those jailed to plantations/farms, railroads, lumber camps, etc. and the state of Alabama as well as other states in the Deep South gained by the leasing of humans to commercial enterprises.  The advantage is this forced labor was beneficial to the appropriate state budget and in some states made up ten percent of their budget.  This involuntary slave labor lasted right up to World War II (1940’s).

So my Family History Journey leads me to want to learn more about the terrible conditions of the mining industry for so many of my branches participated in coal mining.  The book and Public Broadcasting TV station on “Slavery By Another Name”

caught my attention.  The book was by Douglas A. Blackman and covers how coal mining in the south forced blacks into involuntary service after the “official” slavery period was over in 1865.  It was harsh labor yet financial incentive was given to all that participated with the exception of the black male.  Because personal individuals no longer owned slaves there was no real interest in keeping those workers alive.  One case stated that about one third of the prisoners that worked in the mines died in Alabama yearly.  This labor system has pretty much been excluded from America History yet lasted after Reconstruction in 1877 through 1928.  The NAACP investigated many cases and even set up “underground railroads” in Georgia to assist blacks to leave the rural parts of the state.  The Federal Government after turning their heads for years in fact for five decades finally acted in the mid 1930’s.

So what does this have to do with my great grandfather, Wesley Watkins?  The family story is he was concerned for his sons going back and forth between the racial divided stores and felt it was time to migrate north.  Now Pittsburgh Pennsylvania was the sister city of Birmingham and participated in the coalmining industry, which he knew a great deal about, so he packed his family up and I believe secured employment near the area in Ernest, Indiana County, Pennsylvania in the middle to later 1920’s.  Wesley’s mother Amanda Andrews (age 78) was living with him in the 1920 US Census for Walker County and it is my belief it was after her death that they all moved to Ernest.  Wesley died of a heart attack on 6 Sep 1929 and is buried on 10 September in Oakland cemetery in Earnest, Indiana Pennsylvania.  Below is the record that his youngest daughter Lois Watkins, my grandmother recorded in his 1928 Bible.