JGreenwood

This past semester, students in History 288/388 Public History seminar at Clark University did an outstanding job researching William Bullard’s photos of Worcester’s people of color.  At the start of the semester, each student chose a photograph to research. Frank Morrill made prints for each student and was “on call”  all semester, attending class and fielding numerous email queries. In addition to my guidance through genealogical and other on-line resources (they soon were teaching ME about on-line sources!), the students participated in workshops conducted by two nationally-known historians. Maureen Taylor, “the nation’s foremost photo detective,” according to The Wall Street Journal,  presented a workshop on how to read historic photographs for clues. Historian Scot French of the University of Central Florida, a pioneer in the field of digital history, shared his expertise with us, particularly the wonders of digital mapping, as well as his experiences working with the Holsinger Collection. (Rufus Holsinger of Charlottesville, VA,  was a contemporary of William Bullard, also a white photographer with a large black clientele.) Librarian Joy Hennig of the Worcester Public Library guided us through the many rich resources of the Worcester Room, which the students put to good use.

The students embraced their research with great dedication. Having the names and faces of people in the past with the goal of telling their stories ignited a passion for historical research.  As one of them put it, “I felt a real responsibility to them.”   Students experienced both the frustration and joy of research.  As one wrote in her final report, “Research is a vulnerable experience.  You can put so much of yourself into it and end up with very little or nothing to show for it.”  Her ultimate conclusion: “Dead ends happen, but you gotta move on.”

By moving on and displaying a great deal of grit and determination, they came up with some truly significant findings–and many leads to follow up.  While I can’t include all of their findings here, I will list some highlights:

• Zach Richall, who researched the photo of Solomon Pierce, found out that Solomon was named for his grandfather, who enlisted in the Massachusetts 54th at the age of 42, and was the oldest man in that famous Civil War regiment. Solomon’s uncles also fought along side their father, with Harrison killed during the 54th’s assault on Fort Wagner.
• Rosanna Cruz-Solla documented the involvement of Eugene Shepard in the Raymond Rifles, a “colored militia unit” in Worcester.
• Zena Wolf researched the Native American roots of the Johnson family and used the 1859 Earl Report to discover more about the family “and the way Native Americans were seen in society and through the law.”
• Corrine Jachelski explored several promising mapping options for the project and constructed some sample maps that incorporated historic photos of the Beaver Brook neighborhood and with the current neighborhood, providing a view of “then” and “now.”
• Ben Davis sketched out the context of Reuben Griffin’s service with the Massachusetts Sixth Regiment in the Spanish-American War.
• Gabby Seligman uncovered information about the life of D.T. Oswell, an accomplished music teacher,  orchestra leader, and barber.
• Sarah Salzman, piecing together some fragmentary evidence, came up with a compelling theory about the identity of “George Ward”, who has been a mystery to us.
• The “Perkins Working Group”–Eliza Lawrence, Alex Jeannotte, and Alicija Podbielska–while individually researching Martha, Rose and her brothers, and Anna Perkins, respectively– worked cooperatively on the extended Perkins family and came up with a treasure trove of information about them. We learned, for example, that both Isaac and Martha (Patsy) had their bodies returned for burial in Camden, SC, reflecting the long-term family ties to their ancestral land; that Edward was the pioneer in leading many family members to Worcester from Camden, and first appears in the City Directory in 1880; that Rose returned to Camden to care for her aged father, who died in 1912 at age 110.  Through their hard work we have been able to untangle the family relationships in the extended Perkins family and to tease out more of their fascinating story, from slavery  and emancipation in South Carolina, through Reconstruction and the loss of their land there, to migration to Worcester.

One of the students summarized her experience in her final report: “Though the research process can be so stressful and tedious, it is one of those things that we should all do at some point. In the midst of the madness, it is hard to fully see all of your research gains.  I obviously did not  find as much as I was hoping to find, but I can really say that this research has impacted me a lot and has taught me more in a semester than the hours of slides and lectures I see and hear in a year.”

Thanks to all of my students in History 288/388 Public History for your many contributions!

On Sunday, October 19, the Worcester Telegram and Gazette featured the Worcester People of Color Photo Project on its front page, with several photos from the collection.  And on Tuesday, October 28, the Telegram endorsed our project in an editorial. Thanks to the Telegram for the publicity and support, which has already resulted in several new contacts with descendants!

Here are the links to the story and the editorial:

http://www.telegram.com/article/20141019/NEWS/310199800/1116

http://www.telegram.com/article/20141028/NEWS/310289982/10221119

Thank you to Karen Holmes Ward for inviting us to appear on her show, CityLine, on October 19 to discuss our project. We have already made a number of contacts with descendants of people in the photos through this interview.

Karen Holmes Ward has a personal connection to the photos: her father-in-law is Bud Ward, featured in one of our posts. Our collection includes an image of Bud’s father, James Harold Ward, Sr., as a baby, as well as James Harold’s brother Clarence, sister Hattie, and uncle Louis.

You can see our interview by clicking the link below. The segment features beautiful visuals of some of the photos in the background.

http://www.wcvb.com/community/cityline/cityline-1019-segment-1/29167826

 

 

 

 

Janette: Frank and I had one of those days that we live for as historians when we had the pleasure of meeting Bud, Eulah, and Sterling Ward in Washington. Sterling learned about our project through Cheryl Toney Holley, when she publicized the project and our attendance at the Strawberry Moon Festival at the Hassanamesit reservation near Worcester. Sterling phoned me and said it appeared that we had photos of numerous family members—not just Wards but Wilsons, Smiths, Kennedys, and others. And, most notably, we had photos of his grandfather, James Harold Ward, Sr., as a baby. Not only did he want to see the photos, but he also hoped that we would share them with his 89-year-old father, James Harold “Bud” Ward, Jr. We were happy to do so!

The Ward family is well represented in our collection (see our post of the photo list) and we were thrilled when Sterling reached out to us. He is an accomplished genealogist and historian who has done an amazing amount of work on his family’s story, which he generously shared with us. (Sterling has also illustrated his genealogical research with numerous photos of family members, which helped us identify a number of unknown people in our collection.)  Sterling has traced his family back to Minger Brimage, originally from current-day Nigeria, and Maria Gatling, from Guinea, West Africa. Sold into slavery, they ended up in New Bern, North Carolina, where they had three children. One of their children, Mary Matilda Brimage, migrated to Worcester after the Civil War and died there in 1900. She was the matriarch of an extensive family, some of whom I wrote about in First Fruits of Freedom, as part of the Southern black migration to Worcester after the Civil War. But until I saw Sterling’s massive genealogical text, I had no idea about the nature and extent of those relationships and the impact that this family has had on the city of Worcester. (Time for a second edition! There is so much more to say!)

On August 18, Frank and I boarded the Amtrak to Washington and spent an amazing afternoon with the Wards. It was a thrill to share family photos with Bud, his wife, Eulah, and Sterling, and to hear more about James Harold, Sr. Known as “Boot,” he was an accomplished jazz drummer, who died at the age of 32, when Bud was only 7. We also heard stories about Bud’s Aunt Hattie and Uncles Clarence and Louis, who also appear in the photos. Sterling also identified some of other people in the collection, whose names we did not know. For example, “Mrs. Kennedy’s Baby” is Emily Kennedy (Sterling has this exact photo made from Bullard’s glass negative). Sterling also shared with us  a valuable photo album given to him by his cousin, Stanley Gutridge of Worcester, filled with images from the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, including Stanley’s grandfather, New Bern migrant George Wiggins, and a photo of a white Civil War officer, “Col. Cummings.” Could Col. Cummings be another “link” in the ex-slave migration to Worcester? Another lead to explore! More questions, more layers of complexity . . .

Not only did we have the chance to share photos and learn more about this remarkable family, but we also had the chance to get to know Bud and hear his extraordinary life story. As the son of widowed mother, Bud attended North High, served in the Jim Crow Navy during World War II, and then graduated from Cornell University. He pioneered in the hospitality industry and was the first African American Senior Vice President and Corporate Officer of a major hotel chain. He worked for the Marriott Corporation for almost 20 years, and played a key role in expanding the hotel division, including working with the team that developed the Courtyard by Marriott Hotels. After retirement he spent another 29 plus years as an entrepreneur in the Information Technology (IT) industry. Symbiont, Inc., a family-run IT business, now headed by Sterling, has provided IT services to the Defense Department, the Executive Office of the President, the Mayor and Council of the District of Columbia, Verizon, AT&T, Phillip Morris, and countless others. At one time Symbiont employed over 200 associates and generated over $21 million in sales. Though Bud is thrilled to be an entrepreneur — his career as an hotelier looms large. The Civil-Rights struggle was a two-pronged thing, he states. Marching and non-violent protesting in the streets was critical. But it was also important to have somebody on the inside of corporations to advise and counsel top officers. Bud saw this as the role of himself and other blacks in similar corporate positions. Today, Marriott Hotels ranks among the leaders in their practices of non-discrimination in hiring and promotions. In recognition of his vital role at Marriott, in December 2005 edition of HR Magazine, in a cover story article, Bud was recognized as one of fifty people that has most influenced the Human Resources profession during the last fifty years.

Bud is blessed with a playful sense of humor and a refreshing straightforward manner that resulted in a delightful afternoon and evening. The Wards even treated us to a delicious dinner before we boarded our train for the trek home.”

Many thanks to Bud, Eulah, and Sterling for welcoming us to their home and for the many generous ways they have enriched and helped shape this project!

 

Frank: When Janette says ONE of those days you live for as historians it is meant literally because the August 18^th trip to D.C. and back took 23 hours and 58 minutes.   Upon meeting Bud, the first thing he asked us about was if we were aware that planes were much faster than our 7 hour train ride and we all had a conversation-opening laugh. As Janette stated, Bud is straightforward and has a wonderful engaging personality. To those reading this who wonder “why the train” the answer is quite simple. The long ride allowed Janette and I to discuss and brainstorm our project in relative peace and quiet. As we research this project we continue to make connections in many directions so we constantly have to update one another.

Speaking with Bud we could not help feeling a strong sense of completing a link by meeting the son of the child in this negative from 1901, that we had looked at and wondered about so many times. We would look at this small child in the photo and wonder what life had held for him: Did he have a family? What were his dreams and how did life unfold for him? Bud had not seen these pictures before and it surely was a joy to hand them to him.

As Bud showed me around his wall of photos, we stopped to discuss one in particular that was of great interest. There he was on the early 1940’s championship basketball team from North High School in Worcester, MA. Any Worcester sports fans will love to read the connection here. Next to Bud, whose career rose to great heights, was his teammate Andy Laska, the legendary Assumption College coach for whom their gym is named. This was just one more connection and slice of community that make this project so fascinating. The story of James Harold Ward Sr. expanded for us as Sterling shared a photo of “Boot” as a drummer in a band.   Janette spoke about the impact this family had on Worcester and we are looking forward to researching so many other families as our quest continues. We left with several questions answered and many questions posed as the memories from Bud’s of his Aunt Hattie and Uncles Clarence and Louis along with stories about other relatives opened more avenues for us to research. It was a distinct pleasure to listen and learn knowing that we have much to research and many more connections to make.

 

This is Celia Perkins!  Today I located her gravesite at Hope Cemetery.  The details of Edward and Celia’s journey to Worcester are slowly being filled in.   

One would think that with a detailed map of grave sites in hand, helpfully supplied by Stephanie in the cemetery office, that it would be a simple task to locate the grave stones.  It is not, as the passing decades have taken their toll and some stones have sunk and been covered with grass.  In some cases no stone was ever placed, just the number of the grave marker.  Today’s search resulted in a genuine feeling of satisfaction as several were found and small pieces of the growing story found their way into the narrative. 

“What is this a negative of?  Asked Frank’s 10 year old granddaughter Hannah while working on a book they were co-authoring and holding up a 4 x 5 glass negative to the light. This innocent question led to untold hours of searching through Frank’s (that’s me) vast collection of glass negatives from c. 1900. By now you are probably wondering what the negative was of that led to all this research and ultimately to this blog and soon to a complete website. The following is a brief story of many chance happenings that followed Hannah’s question which itself was chance. We were looking at negatives of street scenes of Worcester and searching for just the right ones to add to our book (which is now published, “Worcester Through Time”, and available at bookstores and Amazon.com). Sorry for the plug, let me get back to the story. This negative was not a building but a portrait image and by chance it was misplaced in a box of street scene negatives. It was an image of Celia Perkins an African American woman who was born into slavery in 1858 in South Carolina and much later, with her husband Richard, moved to Worcester, Massachusetts. Fascinating isn’t it? That information was not on the negative but discovered through much research. Back to the story. A few weeks later I picked up the negative that was put aside and began to wonder if more images like this existed in my portraits section of negatives. It should be noted here that I had these portrait glass negatives for a number of years and they kind of took a back seat in the research because without identification they would become a research dead end. As the search through the collection began numbers were discovered on many of the of the images. The numbers which were as small as 1/16th of an inch high, were scratched into the bottom or side of the emulsion side of the glass negative. Hannah’s young eyes were invaluable in reading many of these which were difficult to determine even with a jeweler’s loupe. So how did I know it was Celia Perkins?……..Hang on as the intriguing story continues. The portrait collection is all from one photographer and by a stroke of luck many years ago I had a random conversation with the person I purchased the negatives from earlier.  He asked if I was interested in the photographer’s log book that that he had recently found.  The log book is a journal  full of numbers along with descriptions and identifications.  I had found gold!  All of these negatives are from 1890’s to 1918 so a log book is rare. There it was a very tiny # 76 at the bottom right of Hannah’s questioned negative. The log book indicated it was Celia Perkins!  In case you are wondering where all the other information came from, keep reading. After a couple weeks of searching there were about 30 portraits of African Americans living in Worcester connected to the log book. At this time, by complete chance, I was speaking with a Director of the Antiquarian Society about the history of Charlton Historical Society and at the end of the conversation he asked about other projects I was working on. In mentioning these images he said he knew individuals who may have a strong interest in them and gave me names to contact. I sent an email to Dr. Janette Thomas Greenwood who has spent many years researching and writing books about the migration of former slaves to the North and specifically to Worcester, Massachusetts. Her last book, a wonderful historical read, “First Fruits of Freedom” (one more plug) was the result of years of research. We didn’t connect right away and I thought maybe what I had was not as important and unique as I thought it was. I sent a second email as a last chance and Janette answered right away (she had been preparing for a one semester sabbatical from Clark University). By this time I had uncovered nearly 100 images through countless hours of holding them to the light and then scanning to be certain. The collection now is about complete and is nearly 200 images. When Janette visited to examine them she started to see names and images of individuals she had researched but did not know pictures existed. You often hear the following: “the rest is history” but in this case it fits so well. Janette and I have become partners on a quest to tell the story of the individuals and families who migrated to Worcester in their search for equality. Many of the descendants and friends of these individuals are alive today and we have spoken with several. We believe this is a series of stories within the larger story that will be exciting and historically important to tell.  Soon we will add some photographs including #76 of Celia Perkins….Please check back to our blog! Feel free to comment or ask questions.

If you know who any of these people are, please contact us! 

Note: We have listed names as the photographer, William Bullard, listed them, unless our research has shown a mistake, misspelling, etc., which we have corrected. We have added married names that we have found for females. We have also included possible names, based on our research, as of September 2014.

 

Mr. William Amar

Kenneth Anderson – 53 North Ashland Street

Mrs. Anderson’s baby (Frederick or Margaret?) – 53 North Ashland Street

Mrs. Bates baby (Rose Bates Wilson) – 28 Bowdoin Street

Mr. Howard Beckton & family (collage)

Mr. Howard Beckton Funeral flowers

William Beckton, Jr.

Florence Beckton

Bertha (Jacobs? Johnson? Higgins? Hawkins?) – Tufts Street

Bertha Brooks – Mason Street

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Brown

Mr. Richard Brown

Mrs. Richard (Cora L.) Brown

Frank and Annie (Jackson) Chatfield – Tufts Street

Claude Clark – 13 Dover Street

Mrs. Clark (Matilda Hardin)– 13 Dover Street

Zeline Clark – 13 Dover Street

Leo Clark – 13 Dover Street

Zenobia Clark – 13 Dover Street

Eugene Coates (baby) – Tufts Street

Willis and Betty Coles – 346 Park Avenue

Ralph Mendis

Sara(h) Davis

Thomas Dillon family: Thomas and Margaret with children: Thomas, Margaret and Mary, 4 Dewey Street

Thomas Dillon, 4 Dewey Street

Worcester Volunteer Fireman’s Association

Reuben Griffin, Spanish-American War veteran, four poses in uniform

Louise and Martha Harra

Mrs. Harra (Mary Price Harra)

Jackson children(2) – Bath Street

Johnson family group (James J. Johnson, Jennie Bradley Johnson, daughters Jennie and May (Rosa Mabel)

Jennie Johnson (Tolson), Tufts St Ext., several poses

May (Rosa Mabel) Johnson – Tufts Street Ext., several poses

Mrs. Johnson (Jennie Bradley Johnson)

Mrs. Johnson and girls (Jennie and May)

Kennedy Child (Likely Walter—Lorenzo and Margaret Kennedy’s son)

Mrs. Kennedy’s Baby (Likely child of Lorenzo and Margaret Kennedy)

Mrs. Kennedy’s Baby in Chair (Emily Kennedy)

Emily Kennedy in carriage

Mrs. Latham (Anna E Lovett)

Mrs. Latham (Anna Lovett Latham’s mother)

Mrs. Loudon’s father from Winfield Street

Loudon  girl, Winfield Street

Mrs. Loudon’s brother from Winfield Street

Mrs. Loudon

Bertha Mallory – Tufts Street

Bertha Mallory’s cat

Mrs. Mallory (Jennie Mallory?)

Walter McCrea (McCray?), several poses, 13 Dover Street

McCrea baby, 13 Dover Street

McGinty Carpenter (baby)

Mrs. Minkil’s Baby, John Street

Mrs. Susie Morris, 1 Winfield Street

Susie Morris (Bennett) and Harry Clinton Morris (children)

Miss or Mrs. Murphy (Mary Murphy?)

David T. Oswell with Viola 

Celia Perkins (3 photos)

Edward Perkins (2 photos)

Rose Perkins (3 photos)

Rose Perkins’ House (1 ½ Bath Street)

Rose Perkins and her brothers (3 photos)

Charlie Perkins (baby)

Thomas Perkins

Eliza Perkins

Anna Perkins  Carlos

Ike (Isaac) Perkins (two photos)

Mittie Perkins (child)

Martha (Patsy) Perkins, 90 Abbott Street

Mrs. (Angeline) Perkins and two children (Nellie and William)

Rosa Perkins

The Rev. William Perry and Family (Bethel AME Church)

Solomon Pierce

Mrs. Price and Son

Mrs. Rhodes baby (Jennie)

Lew Sawyer (child)

Raymond Schuyler and Children

Alonzo Shannon and George Ringels 

Shepard’s Children 

Mr. (Eugene) Shepard (2 photos)

Mrs. Shepard (Sarah Scott) and unknown lady

Mr. (Albert E.) Smith, John Street

Mrs. Mary Smith and James Martin Smith

Mr. Upsher (Joseph?)

Mrs. Upsher

Ward Children (Hattie, James Harold, Clarence)

Louis Ward

Luvenia, Lillian and Cora Ward,  John Street, Pink Street(2 photos)

James Harold Ward, Abbott Street

George Ward

Clarence and Hattie Ward, 5 Abbott Street

William Ward 56 John Street

William Ward’s baby (Charles A.) and David girl

Louis Ward

Mrs. Week’s baby, 1 Winfield Street

Weeks girl

Mrs. Week’s father’s flowers (funeral flowers)

Richard and Mary Wilson, Tufts Street

Mary Wilson

 

There are also a number of glass negatives of people whose names the photographer did not record.

 

 Learning in April about the Nipmuc heritage of so many people in the photos prompted Ranger Chuck Arning to contact Cheryl Toney Holley, Sachem of the Hassanamesit Nipmucs and to tell her about our project. Cheryl generously invited Chuck, Frank, and Janette to attend the Strawberry Moon Festival with the photos. Before the event she posted the names of the people in the photos to inform descendants about the collection which has already yielded great results! An accomplished genealogist, Cheryl also sent us information about a number of her ancestors who appear in the photos, including Kenneth Anderson, her great-great grandfather, and the Bates and  

Morris families.

 

On a sparkling cool June day, we participated in a moving ceremony focusing on the symbolic heart-shape of the strawberry, forgiveness, and prayers sent aloft from tobacco sprinkled on a blazing wood fire. We then spent a lovely afternoon sharing and listening. Among our many conversations: Nellie Toney told us about her cousin, Eugene Shepard and the family’s Native American roots in Sturbridge. Susan Pegan Wilson-Price and her brother, Glenn Wilson, found photos of ancestors on both sides of their family—the Wards and the Wilson—and shared stories with us. And we had a “small world” moment when Mildred McCowan, a retired detective with the Boston Police Department, told us that she worked many years with Paul Cato, Lois Perkins Cato’s son, whose Perkins ancestors are well represented in the collection. 

The stories we heard today about the African American-Nipmuc connection added another layer of complexity to our research. They really drove home to us that the photo collection represents, among other things, the creation of an enduring community that has often been rendered invisible. 

“That looks familiar. I have a picture like that.” With these words, Lois Perkins Cato fulfilled Frank’s dream of locating one of Bullard’s photos in the possession of a family member. Following up on Shirley Carter’s information a few weeks earlier, shared at the Worcester Public Library meeting, Janette headed to Boston to meet with her stepsister, Lois Perkins Cato. Seeing the image of her infant father, Aunt Nellie and Grandmother Angeline (called “Grammy”), Mrs. Cato immediately recognized it as one that she owns. Along with her son Paul, Mrs. Cato perused the photo collection. It turned out that not only did we have a photo of her dad, aunt, and grandmother, but we also have her great-grandparents (Paul’s great-great grandparents) on the Perkins side, Edward and Celia Perkins, the parents of Lois’ paternal grandfather.

Edward and Celia had been of special interest to us as they were born slaves in Camden, South Carolina, owned land in Kershaw County, SC, in 1870 and lost it by 1880, during the decade of white “Redemption.” They appear in Worcester by 1900 on Bath Street where Celia was a washerwoman and Edward a truckman. Edward died in Worcester in 1920 at age 87 and Celia died four years later at age 92. Their son, Emmanuel, born in South Carolina in 1874, married Lois’s grandmother, Angeline Jones, in 1897, and died in Worcester in 1911. Mrs. Cato noted “All she [Angeline] ever told me was that she was 12 years old when her mother moved her to Worcester” from North Carolina. Little information has been passed down about the South Carolina Perkins family, but Mrs. Perkins pointed out that her stepmother was from Camden, also, and that she spent many summers visiting relatives there. Mrs. Perkins pointed out that her father, William Dempsey, worked as a porter in Union Station and loved to hunt and fish. Paul also remembers “Grampy” as “a hunter. Loved to hunt.”

Mrs. Cato gave us a sense of what it was like growing up in the Beaver Brook neighborhood, where she attended Abbott Street School: “It was a close-knit neighborhood.” She recalls, “ We played together. It was a neighborhood. We were in and out of each other’s houses. . . . We played games together . . . there was a group of us girls who traveled together. We’d call each other. ‘What are you wearing today?’ and we’d all wear the same kind of white blouse and black skirt, that kind of thing.” She attended church at Belmont AME Zion Church and high school at Girls Trade and moved to Boston after high school. Summing up, she explained, “In Worcester, it was such a small community of black people. And everyone knew everyone.”

On a rainy spring morning in April, Frank, Janette, and Ranger Chuck Arning of the National Park Service, John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, met at the Worcester Public Library with Edna Spencer, Jean Holmes, and Shirley F.B. Carter, long-time residents of Worcester who grew up in the Beaver Brook area where most of the photos were taken. Braving a torrential downpour, these three women generously spent a good part of the morning perusing the photographs. As the photos were taken around 1900, those pictured as babies or children were adults when these three women were growing up. Yet many names and faces proved to be familiar to them. And even better, they provided as with some invaluable information and insights. First, they pointed out to us that a number of people in the photos were of both African American and Nipmuc heritage. Second, they brainstormed an extensive list of people of color in the Worcester area that we need to interview. But our hearts really skipped a beat when Shirley Carter came across a picture of William Dempsey Perkins, as a baby, in the lap of his mother, North Carolina-born Angeline, along with his two-year-old sister Nellie. Dr. Carter explained that “Bill” was her step-sister Lois’s father! We couldn’t wait to follow up on that one! We left the meeting deeply grateful to Edna Spencer, Jean Holmes, and Shirley Carter for the time they spent with us, the many insights and connections that they offered us, and for their enthusiastic response to the photos.