It's a Winter Church Day for Mother Huggins!

Losing a Family Member -- Uncle Plum

News midday - Plum was last seen little after 3pm Friday.  Aunt Honey and Rod (Lawrence's cousin) made the drive to Chandler to see Plum... no answer at the door so his daughter was summonned with a house key.   Plum was found... in the house.  It seem so heartless and unbearable to say... found dead in his home.....

We will visit and have to face a funeral in the coming week.   It was last March 19 of 2010 that we visited with Uncle Plum and took pictures of our wonderful visit with him.

The Battle that my Great Grandfather fought!

Arkansas Post
Fort Hindman January 9-11, 1863

  Result: Union victory
Campaign: Operations against Vicksburg (1862-1863)
Commanders: Rear Adm. David D. Porter and Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand [US]; Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Churchill [CS]
Forces: Army of the Mississippi [US]; Fort Hindman Garrison [CS]
Casualties: 6,547 total (US 1,047; CS 5,500) Classification: IV.1 (Class C)
  Arkansas County, AR
  Arkansas Post National Memorial

Roster of the Drew County Grays

The “Drew County Grays” was organized at Monticello, Drew county, Arkansas, on June 16, 1862.  About 110 men served in this company, mostly men from Drew county, with a few from Ashley, Chicot and Desha counties.  Captain William D. Trotter commanded the Grays.  The company marched to White Sulphur Springs, near Pine Bluff, where the 24th Arkansas Infantry Regiment was organized.  The Grays were assigned as
Company E.  The 24th Arkansas was assigned to the First Brigade of Colonel Robert R. Garland, headquartered at Fort Hindman (Arkansas Post).  Part of the 24th Arkansas was stationed at Fort Hindman, and part was stationed at St. Charles, Arkansas.  Arkansas Post was besieged by a combined Federal army/navy force in January 1863.  The garrison surrendered on January 11, 1863, and the troops were sent to the U.S. Military Prison at Camp Douglas, Illinois.  They were exchanged at City Point, Virginia, on April 10, 1863, and spent the rest of the war east of the Mississippi River in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
That portion of the 24th Arkansas which was at St. Charles, and thus escaped capture, was consolidated with portions of Dawson’s 19th Arkansas Infantry and Crawford’s Arkansas Battalion to form Hardy’s 19th
Arkansas Infantry.  Hardy’s regiment spent the rest of the war west of the Mississippi River in the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi.

Widow's Application for Pension ~ 1927

 Anderson, James A      ~    my great grandfather.....
Third Lieutenant—Enlisted in Co. E, 24th Arkansas Infantry, at Monticello, Arkansas, June 16, 1862; appointed third lieutenant, June 16, 1862; captured at Arkansas Post, January 11, 1863; confined at U.S. Military Prison, Camp Douglas, Illinois; exchanged at City Point,  Virginia, April 10, 1863; resigned, March 1, 1864; 
..........born June 2, 1830; died June 14, 1905; buried in Dermott City Cemetery,  Chicot county, Arkansas;               widow Mattie Anderson filed Arkansas pension application #29293 from Chicot county, August 15, 1927.


                         State of Arkansas: County of Chicot.      


I,   Mattie Anderson,     do solemnly swear that I am the widow of   Captain James A. Anderson,     who served as a soldier in the army (or sailor in the navy) of the CONFEDERATE STATES, being a member of   Company B. W.D. Trotter,     Regiment of the   24th ARK    from the State of   ARK,  or a member of the crew of the ship called                       ;  that he was honorably discharged (paroled or released) from such service on or about the   last    day of   war  , 186 5  , and did not desert the same; that I am now and for the past twelve months have been, a bona fide resident of this ................................................ in action in excess of the value of $500.00 (not including the value of homestead; nor have I conveyed title to any property to enable me to draw a pension, and that I am not in receipt of any income, annuity, pension or wages for any services, the emoluments of an office in excess of $250.00 per year; that my    late   husband died     June 14th, 1904   I have never asked for pension or receive anything in any way for services;  Cap. Anderson was first 2nd Lieutenant and made Capt of Gun Boat on Miss River and.... served there until surrender in 1865     and that I have not since remarried, so help me God.                (Signature)       Mrs. Mattie Anderson  Subscribed and sworn to before me, this    26th day of July,  1927      Henry Gaster NP


Capt Anderson served under Col Hardy also Gen Churchill 

The Warren W. Fisher Side of the Family . . . .

With Big Mama and Dad Sipuel resting in the right behind this headstone... Their oldest son Lemuel has a flat headstone (Military) to the right...

See How Happy We are to go to the

Cemetery.... !!

The Love and Respect for our Foreparents actually translates into a smile, a tearful remembrance... and a good time.... in going to Chickasha!

 Now, let's work this ground....   Tamaira is putting down flowers... Lawry is 5 months pregnant with MZ Anayah Marie Shabazz.....  May 2008

WHEW !  Now let's rest a minute.... of course, we'll sit here on Papa Huggins' headstone... well on Mama's side-anyway!

Is it Tombstone Tuesday all over again??

Yippee for me!

These Pictures are gonna surprise and spur me onto several writing sessions.   Because there is another phot0 of Big Mama... if standing in same backdrop with another woman.   So -- did they go to a Convocation -- well dressed... what year...???

 This is a surprising picture of my grandfather Rev. T. B. Sipuel:  I notice the fingers.... the little finger is missing with only three fingers and a thumb remaining.....

Question begs to be asked..... Who stood across the street while these preachers and women stood on the steps for this picture to be taken?  Big Mama is not in this picture.  I believe its E. M. Page with Dad Sipuel... How could I find out which building -- what city --  Church women dressed in white (missionaries, no hats) and the other men are all dudied up... with their hat and suits.

1921 Race Riot in Tulsa Oklahoma

The Tulsa Race Riot  by Scott Ellsworth

....."two previously unheralded Tulsans, named Dick Rowland and Sarah Page, walked out of the shadows, and onto the stage of history.


Although they played a key role in the events which directly led to Tulsa's race riot, very little is known for certain about either Dick Rowland or Sarah Page. Rumors, theories, and unsubstantiated claims have been plentiful throughout the years, but hard evidence has been much more difficult to come by.



Dick Rowland, who was black, was said to have been nineteen-years-old at the time of the riot. At the time of his birth, he was given the name Jimmie Jones. While it is not known where he was born, by 1908 he and his two sisters had evidently been orphaned, and were living "on the streets of Vinita, sleeping wherever they could, and begging for food." An African American woman named Damie Ford, who ran a tiny one-room-grocery store, took pity on young Jimmie and took him in. "That's how I became Jimmie's 'Mama,"' she told an interviewer decades afterwards.



Approximately one year later, Damie and her adopted son moved to Tulsa, where they were reunited with Damie's family, the Rowlands. Eventually, little Jimmie took Rowland as his own last name, and selected his favorite first name, Dick, as his own. Growing up in Tulsa, Dick attended the city's separate all-black schools, including Booker T. Washington High School, where he played football.78



Dick Rowland dropped out of high school to take a job shining shoes in a white-owned and white-patronized shine parlor located downtown on Main Street. Shoe shines usually cost a dime in those days, but the shoe shiners -- or bootblacks, as they were sometimes called -- were often tipped a nickel for each shine, and sometimes considerably more. Over the course of a busy working day, a shoe shiner could pocket a fair amount of money -- especially if he was a teenaged African American youth with few other job prospects.



There were no toilet facilities, however, for blacks at the shine parlor where Dick Rowland worked. The owner had arranged for his African American employees to be able to use a "Colored" restroom that was located, nearby, in the Drexel Building at 319 S. Main Street. In order to gain access to the washroom, located on the top floor, Rowland and the other shoe shiners would ride in the building's sole elevator. Elevators were not automatic, requiring an operator. A job that was usually reserved for women.79



In late May 1921, the elevator operator at the Drexel Building was a seventeen-year-old white woman named Sarah Page. Thought to have come to Tulsa from Missouri, she apparently lived in a rented room on North Boston Avenue. It also has been reported that Page was attending a local business school, a good career move at the time. Although, Tulsa was still riding upon its construction boom, some building owners were evidently hiring African American women to replace their white elevator operators.80



Whether - and to what extent -- Dick Rowland and Sarah Page knew each other has long been a matter of speculation. It seems reasonable that they would have least been able to recognize each other on sight, as Rowland would have regularly rode in Page's elevator on his way to and from the restroom. Others, however, have speculated that the pair might have been lovers -- a dangerous and potentially deadly taboo, but not an impossibility. Damie Ford later suggested that this might have been the case, as did Samuel M. Jackson, who operated a funeral parlor in Greenwood at the time of the riot. "I'm going to tell you the truth," Jackson told riot historian Ruth Avery a half century later, "He could have been going with the girl. You go through life and you find that somebody likes you. That's all there is to it." However, Robert Fairchild, who shined shoes with Rowland, disagreed. "At that time," Fairchild later recalled, "the Negro had so much fear that he didn't bother with integrated relationship[s]."81



Whether they knew each other or not, it is clear that both Dick Rowland and Sarah Page were downtown on Monday, May 30, 1921 -- although this, too, is cloaked in some mystery. On Memorial Day, most -- but not all -- stores and businesses in Tulsa were closed. Yet, both Rowland and Page were apparently working that day. A large Memorial Day parade passed along Main Street that morning, and perhaps Sarah Page had been required to work in order to transport Drexel Building employees and their families to choice parade viewing spots on the building's upper floors. As for Dick Rowland, perhaps the shine parlor he worked at may have been open, if nothing else, to draw in some of the parade traffic. One post-riot account suggests another alternative, namely, that Rowland was making deliveries of shined shoes that day. What is certain, however, is that at some point on Monday, May 30, 1921, Dick Rowland entered the elevator operated by Sarah Page that was situated at the rear of the Drexel Building.82



What happened next is anyone's guess. After the riot, the most common explanation was that Dick Rowland tripped as he got onto the elevator and, as he tried to catch his fall, he grabbed onto the arm of Sarah Page, who then screamed. It also has been suggested that Rowland and Page had a lover's quarrel. However, it simply is unclear what happened. Yet, in the days and years that followed, everyone who knew Dick Rowland agreed on one thing: that he would never have been capable of rape.83



A clerk from Renberg's, a clothing store located on the first floor of the Drexel Building, however, reached the opposite conclusion. Hearing what he thought was a woman's scream, and apparently seeing Dick Rowland hurriedly flee the building, the clerk rushed to the elevator, where he found a distraught Sarah Page. Evidently deciding that the young elevator operator had been the victim of an attempted sexual assault, the clerk then summoned the police.



While it appears that the clerk stuck to his interpretation that there had been an attempted rape -- and of a particularly incendiary kind -- no record exists as to what Sarah Page actually told the police when they initially interviewed her. Whatever she said at the time, however, it does not appear that the police officers who interviewed her necessarily reached the same potentially explosive conclusion as that made by the Renberg's clerk, namely, that a black male had attempted to rape a white female in a downtown office building. Rather than issue any sort of an all-points bulletin for the alleged assailant, it appears that the police launched a rather low-key investigation into the affair.84



Whatever had or had not happened in the Drexel Building elevator, Dick Rowland had become a justly terrified young man. For of all the crimes that African American men would be accused of in early twentieth century America, none seemed to bring a white lynch mob together faster than an accusation of the rape, or attempted rape, of a white woman. Frightened and agitated, Rowland hastened to his adopted mother's home, where he stayed inside with blinds drawn.85



The next morning, Tuesday, May 31, 1921, Dick Rowland was arrested on Greenwood Avenue by two Tulsa police officers, Detective Henry Carmichael, who was white, and by Patrolman Henry C. Pack, who was one of a handful of African Americans on the city's approximately seventy-five man police force. Rowland was booked at police headquarters, and then taken to the jail on the top floor of the Tulsa County Courthouse. Informed that her adopted son was in custody, Damie Ford seems to have lost no time in hiring a prominent white attorney to defend him.86



http://www.ipoaa.com/tulsa_race_riot_story1.htm

Tulsa, Pauls Valley OK + COGIC Dad Sipuel

Tulsa also had acquired, by 1921, practically all of the trappings of older, more established American cities. Four different railroads -- the Frisco, the Santa Fe, the Katy, and the Midland Valley -- served the city, as did two separate inter-urban train lines. A new, all-purpose bridge spanned the Arkansas River near Eleventh Street, while street repair, owing to the ever-increasing numbers of automobiles, was practically constant. By 1919, Tulsa also could boast of having its own commercial airport.

Tulsa was, in some ways, not one city but two. Practically in the shadow of downtown, there sat a community that was no less remarkable than Tulsa itself. Some whites disparagingly referred to it as "Little Africa", or worse, but it has become known in later years simply as Greenwood.5 In the early months of 1921, it was the home of nearly ten-thousand African American men, women, and children.




Many had ties to the region that stretched back for generations. Some were the descendants of African American slaves, who had accompanied the Creeks, Cherokees, and Choctaws on the Trail of Tears. Others were the children and grandchildren of runaway slaves who had fled to the Indian nations in the years prior to and during the Civil War. A few elderly residents, some of whom were later interviewed by WPA workers during the 1930s, had been born into slavery.6



However, most of Tulsa's African American residents had come to Oklahoma, like their white neighbors, in the great boom years just before and after statehood. Some had come from Mississippi, some from Missouri, and others had journeyed all the way from Georgia. For many, Oklahoma represented not only a chance to escape the harsher racial realities of life in the former states of the Old South, but was literally a land of hope, a place worth sacrificing for, a place to start anew. And come they did, in wagons and on horseback, by train and on foot. While some of the new settlers came directly to Tulsa, many others had first lived in smaller communities -- many of which were all-black, or nearly so -- scattered throughout the state.

The overall intellectual life of Greenwood was, for a community of its size, quite striking. There was not one black newspaper but two - the Tulsa Star and the Oklahoma Sun. African Americans were discouraged from utilizing the new Carnegie library downtown, but a smaller, all-black branch library had been opened on Archer Street.


When it came to religious activity, however, there was no question at all where Tulsa's African American community stood. Church membership in Tulsa ran high. On a per capita basis, there were more churches in black Tulsa than there were in the city's white community as well as a number of Bible study groups, Christian youth organizations, and chapters of national religious societies. All told, there were more than a dozen African American churches in Tulsa at the time of the riot, including First Baptist, Vernon A.M.E., Brown's Chapel, Morning Star, Bethel Seventh Day Adventist, and Paradise Baptist, as well as Church of God, Nazarene, and Church of God in Christ congregations. Most impressive from an architectural standpoint, perhaps, was the beautiful, brand new home of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, which was dedicated on April 10, 1921 -- less than eight weeks before the riot.

Oklahoma's black World War I veterans finally returned to civilian life, they, too, came home to a state where, sadly enough, anti-black sentiments were alive and well. In 1911, the Oklahoma state legislature passed the infamous "Grandfather Clause", which effectively ended voting by African Americans statewide. While the law was ruled unconstitutional by a unanimous vote by the U.S. Supreme Court four years later, other methods were soon employed to keep black Oklahomans from the polls. Nor did the Jim Crow legislation stop there. In the end, the state legislature passed a number of segregation statutes, including one which made Oklahoma the first state in the Union to segregate its telephone booths.

Racial violence, directed against black Oklahomans, also was a grim reality during this period. In large part owing to conditions of frontier lawlessness, Oklahoma had long been plagued by lynchings, and during the territorial days, numerous suspected horse thieves, cattle rustlers, and outlaws, the vast majority of whom were white, had been lynched by white mobs. However, from 1911 onward, all of the state's lynching victims, save one, were African American. And during the next decade, twenty-three black Oklahomans -- including two women -- were lynched by whites in more than a dozen different Oklahoma communities, including Anadarko, Ardmore, Eufaula, Holdenville, Idabel, Lawton, Madill, Mannford, Muldrow, Norman, Nowata, Okemah, Oklahoma City, Purcell, Shawnee, Wagoner, and Wewoka.30




The Sooner State also proved to be fertile ground for the newly revived Ku Klux Klan. Estimates vary, but at the height of its power in the mid-1920s, it is believed that there were more than 100,000 klansmen in Oklahoma. Chapters existed statewide, and the organization's membership rolls included farmers, ranchers, miners, oil field workers, small town merchants, big city businessmen, ministers, newspaper editors, policemen, educators, lawyers, judges, and politicians. Most Klan activities -- including cross burnings, parades, night riding, whippings, and other forms of violence and intimidation -- tended to be local in nature, although at one point the political clout of the state organization was so great that it managed to launch impeachment proceedings against Governor John C. Walton, who opposed the Klan.31



Tulsa, in particular, became a lively center of Klan activity. While membership figures are few and far between -- one estimate held that there were some 3,200 members of the Tulsa Klan in December 1921 -- perhaps as many as six-thousand white Tulsans, at one time or another, became members of the Klan including several prominent local leaders. At one Klan initiation ceremony, that took place in the countryside south of town during the summer of 1922, more than one-thousand new members were initiated, causing a huge traffic jam on the road to Broken Arrow. Tulsa also was home to a thriving chapter of the Women of the Ku Klux Klan as well as being one of the few cities in the country with an active chapter of the organization's official youth affiliate, the Junior Ku Klux Klan. There were Klan parades, Klan funerals, and Klan fund-raisers including one wildly successful 1923 benefit that netted some $24,000, when 13 Ford automobiles were raffled off. In time, the Tulsa Klan grew so solvent that it built its own brick auditorium, Beno Hall -- short, it was said, for "Be No Nigger, Be No Jew, Be No Catholic" -- on Main Street just north of downtown.32



The local Klan also was highly active in politics in Tulsa. It regularly issued lists of Klan-approved candidates for both state and local political offices, that were prominently displayed in Tulsa newspapers. According to one student of the Klan in Tulsa Country during the 1920s, "mayors, city commissioners, sheriffs, district attorneys, and many other city and country office holders who were either klansmen or Klan supporters were elected, and reelected, with regularity." In 1923, three of the five members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from Tulsa Country were admitted klansmen.33



In addition to cross burnings, Tulsa Klan members also routinely engaged in acts of violence and intimidation. Richard Gary, who lived off Admiral Boulevard during the early 1920s, still has vivid memories of hooded klansmen, a soon-to-be horsewhipped victim sitting between them, heading east in open touring cars. Suspected bootleggers, wife-cheaters, and automobile thieves were among the most common victims -- but they weren't the only ones. In May 1922, black Deputy sheriff John Henry Smitherman was kidnaped by klansmen, who sliced off one of his ears. Fifteen months later, Nathan Hantaman, a Jewish movie projectionist, was kidnaped by Klan members, who nearly beat him to death. The city's Catholic population also was the target of considerable abuse, as Tulsa klansmen tried to force local businessmen to fire their Catholic employees.34



Not all white Tulsans, of course, or even a majority, belonged to the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Among the city's white Protestants, there were many who disdained both the Klan's tactics and beliefs. Nonetheless, at least until the mid-1920s, and in some ways all the way until the end of the decade, there is no doubt but that the Ku Klux Klan was a powerful force in the life of the city.35

According to Carter Blue Clark, whose 1976 doctoral dissertation remains the standard work on the history of the Ku Klux Klan in Oklahoma, McCarron "shortly had twelve Kleagles [assistant organizers] working out of his office selling memberships throughout the city, and very soon throughout the state." While Clark concluded that the Klan "could not be credited with precipitating the riot" -- a finding shared by most scholars of the riot -- he also determined that Klan organizers had been active in the Tulsa region beforehand.36

What Grandmother Said....

I'm turned on to the things my mother said this evening. 

While visiting my mother at St.Anns Nusring Center  this Sunday evening... I chatted a while about that now infamous picture of the Hudson 1951 Hornet that was in the picture with my Big Mama in Chickasha, OK.   
Mentioning it - my mama immediately said... that was your daddy's car! Beige (she shook her head... like yea.. I know for sure!  I said what...who took the picture? are you sure? how did you and daddy afford that...  We were poor weren't we?  U let him buy it??  Why...how??
From my readings,,, the Hudson Motor Car Company (based in Detroit MI) began 1909-ended production in 1957...it merged with Nash Motors in 1954...and was known as American Motors.   It was in 1951 that Hudson introduced the HORNET... noting a Super Six chassis and outfitted with a 308 cubic-inch inline 6-cyclinder power engine: dual carbureators, dual manifold induction system, powers up to 180 to 210 MPR  (now you know I have no idea what all of this means  LMBO):  this big beauty sat low which gave it an excellent center of gravity:  seating for six!  It had flowing, curvy lines and enclosed rear wheels which made it sleek and aerodynamic for it's day! As a collector's item, value of these cars are mid $30's and up now-a-days.

 My mother repeated several times... about how proud my daddy would be in bragging... "...he would set a glass of water on the dash... and drive without spilling a drop... a smooth-riding automobile!"  The car reportedly sold well the first year but was not able the change its look as quickly (yr-to-yr) and did other Independent Auto Mfgrs... so it eventually became out-dated.  About Sports... just a startup in Dayton beach, FL -- there was a new race-sanctioning body was getting underway, calling themselves NASCAR -- and this Baaad..shut-yo-mouth car...dominated the scene! -- winning 27 NASCAR Grand National Races in 1952: it won 22 races in 1953 and 17 races in the YEAR OF MY BIRTH -- 1954!
She laughed and said.. "Your daddy always like new, big cars!  We were some of the high paid families at that time in Chickasha... Your daddy worked at TInker and I did too.  We commuted every day."  And again in my disbelief -- I said did we ride in that car?  She said "yes, we drove you all down to the Geary church all the time."  I chatted, well you all had two just two kids, Howard and James. How did you LET daddy buy that car... it was expensive!  She said "yea we made good money, but he like to buy nice cars,,, If I told him not to buy it... he would anyway!"   So I said... what did you have? New clothes...  She laughed again and said... "I guess I was taking care of you kids... I didn't need clothes working at Tinker"

I told her how distinctive I looked all over the web for the hood design.  I looked at Fords, Chevy, A Packard, Nash --  she  said... "Howard had a Nash!" 

We left the dinner table.. and I had mama talking.  Several times she would, squinch her eyes, rub her nose... and say "... I can't remember-that's too much too long ago!

About her dad -- we discussed the guy that looked kinda funny - was COGIC church secretary... T A Lewis.  She said he was a master carpenter... he built their house at 605 First Street.... " ...he build it identical to his own house (she didn't remember where he lived,,, nor if he was from Mississippi or how Dad Sip met him) but that they were good friends... "he had to be to put up with my daddy.... he liked peanuts...daddy woud buy them... my daddy would throw peanuts at him... into his mouth (motioning and smiling as she thought about... as if she might have been a girl sitting squat on the floor looking at these two preachers at a very relaxed moment!). 

She said.. 'Your daddy went to some town, I don't remember.. I didn't want to see it... but your daddy liked to know and ask... he told me he went to TA Lewis's house... and it was a carbon copy to your mom and dad's home!"

Yes, and I think that's how I have such a keen interest in things... remembering the meaning behind the pictures and places and people....   I remember driving with daddy and the stories he would tell.

I asked why didn't Big Mama work?  She went to college in AR?  Yea, she did.   Mama laughed..."she was white... she did'nt work.....she worked one time -- one day -- the woman called her Bell... and she quit.  She didn't like that, she was Mrs. Sipuel!... no -- she never worked."  So I asked,,, but you all were well off... she said yes.   I asked.... Well, in Chickasha -- there were blacks in homes over across the railroad tracks.  Mama interjected quickly  (vivid memory) "EAST,,, east side... we lived over there when we first lived in Chickasha... Daddy built our house with TA Lewis... and he moved us to First Street.  He never liked for us to miss school -- he would ride us kids on his back... walk us to school on his back."   I said... so you all really valued education... Lemuel was a lawyer... you all went to college???  Even Big Mama's sister's were to college...


I asked her more questions... "He (Dad Sipuel) came from Mississippi to meet Big Mama in Chicota, (mama pronounces Chicot as such)  AR... He worked on the railroad... don't know which one..... No... I don't know when, but he did lose a finger .   We discussed that there was no pension, no compensation for a black man if he filed a claim....No, she never met his brothers or family.  I asked if he ever worked any where that she remembered as a girl.  No... he always did church work.   He was the Overseer for so many years.  His birthday was always 12-24 for certain.  No, no gifts... she couldn't ever remember giving him anything... we were just kids.   But we celebrated on Christmas Day with a big dinner for him.  '


I asked if she remembered any other church he pastored beside the one I remember next door to their Chickasha home.  She said "Pauls Valley,, he build that church. TA Lewis-he gave him money to build it.  Mother Jeannie V Hearne was from Pauls Valley, OK and took credit for founding that church.  But she didn't Pastor, he did...I know he did"   I mentioned that I'd follow up on that CHurch history; then I asked about after 1946- Bishop Mason appointed his as Bishop over the State of Oklahoma....  I thought then E. L. Thompson was next in line.  She corrected me-succinctly.... "J. B. Hawkins was Bishop after my dad.. he died.. his time was short... then Thompson, and Coy Brown, etc."

So this is another followup lead I've been missing in OK COGIC history!   Tried to Google a Holiness Church... There was a Bethlehem Black Baptist Church....in Pauls Valley, OK  church phone 405-238-5818  no answer... hmmmmm.  Pastor Micheal Eaton.... http://heargodswordatbethlehem.com/index.html
his phone#  268 9151


Lastly, we talked about CD Fisher, Warren Fisher and relative Mrs. Pat Fisher Reed at Fairview Baptist Church.

Using A Name Thesaurus via Name Variants

Surname	Match Score
Sipula	88
Sipel	86
Spuel	83
Sipell	82
Sippel	82
Scipel	80
Spuell	80
Sypula	79
Sipeli	79
Sipelo	79
Sippell	79
Sipil	77
Sipla	77
Siple	77
Sipol	77
Scippel	77
Sipal	77
Sypel	77
Cipula	76
Spuehl	76
Sipwel	76
Speule	76
Sipelii	76
Sipels	76
Sipely	76
Sipfel	76
Sipu	76
Sipello	76
Spiule	75

I typed in Sipuel and found these 29 matches...

What is a name variant ?
Database applications that involve the storing and searching for personal data often need to allow for a degree of variation in the spelling of both surnames and forenames.

Variations can be introduced into database applications as a result of typographical errors where letters are interchanged (e.g. Nobel and Noble), letters are substituted (e.g. Stevens and Stephens), letters are added (e.g. Colins and Collins) or removed (e.g. Clarke and Clark).

Variations can also be introduced as a result of alternate spelling for names with the same or very similar pronunciation (e.g. Cavenagh and Kavenagh or Ewaland Yule or Sean and Shawn). This is a particular problem where the transcription is from the spoken word.   

Beautiful Poppies!!1 Mid Winter... thinking of spring!

http://www.namethesaurus.com/Thesaurus/Search.aspx

Let's Match My Age to the Approximate Year

Going back thru a slew of old black/white photos....  I've seen them before: there is no date or place on the back side.  And I just failed to notice many features.... a wealth of time/historical data in the picture and its background... a way to chronologically date my Family Heritage.

First Time period: from my birth 1954 up until abt 1959  -- the Huggins-Sipuel pictures depict Chickasha, OK @ 601 S. First Street.  Big Mama rented the house to us free LOL: and she owned the 605 next door property.

First four Huggins children were all born in Chickasha... @ 601 S, 1st Street with Big Mama attending as the midwife... Howard III  b. 06-16-1949; James Travis b. 11-18-1650; Orville Thurston b. 03-29-1952; Beverly Jean b. 01-09-1954.


"In a visit to see Mama at St. Anns last week... Wendell Ray who is now 50+ didn't know the story of my mixed up birthday... remind me to post it also... one of these days...@@  !!!  Mama told Wendell about his own birth at Clinton Hospital... he was born breach...  some old lady didn't think he was a pretty baby....   I remember a Frederick picture of mama holding Wendell as a newborn.

This house porch is smaller in setting of posts:  I pulled a closeup in order to see the numbers on the front of our house 601 S 1st Street   --   a wagon for us kids.  I'm feeling nostalgic about this RED Metal chair on the front porch.....  I STILL HAVE IT... Daddy must have brought it all the way to Woodridge ... and its rickety and in the storage house!   YEAH!!! I just love old stuff... all of which Lawrence wants to get rid of as junk!

In Chickasha////  Several -- many, many other pictures will show us playing outside at this house, we lived across the street from Lincoln Elementary School in Chickaska, OK and a First Baptist Church where I'd sit on the steps and play and attended Girl Scout meetings there!

  

  Lots of memories around this property... can vividly see all the side area where Daddy would raise chickens in a chicken house (hundreds of little yellow fluffy chicks)

and he'd do laundry with a wringer style washing machine outside....

There were trees he would plant... would then have mulberries

A Few Facts:   Mulberries can grow as a wild purple/red fruit - they leave a stain when ripe and drop to the ground, or birds eat them and leave purple dropping.  Why we stayed healthy...an excellent source of vitamin B, vitamin C, vitamin K and iron, dietary fiber, riboflavin, phosphorus, magnesium and potassium. Resveratrol, an antioxidant found in red grapes and red wine, has been heavily publicized for its positive health benefits. These benefits include lowering cholesterol, preventing cancer, blood clots, diabetes and aiding in weight loss


There were always vegetable planted, and fruit trees and lots of peaches to can and make jelly and pies!

Back to the Frederick picture BELOW 

From 1959 up until abt 1962 ??? (3-yr period) -- I attended 1st-2nd- and 3rd (age abt 6-8) Grades in Frederick, Oklahoma where daddy was sent by Bishop Hawkins to Pastor.  

Boy.. what a smile on my face!     My daddy looks happy (about Age  35)... We are living in Frederick, OK and standing in front of the Parsonage provided to a Young Pastor of Hawkins Chapel COGIC... the church is in the background- next to our house!   It's summer...the year is probably 1961:  Wendell was born in the area town of Clinton, OK in 1959 (makes him about 3yrs old)  I was abt 7 --Orville was abt 8: James was abt 9:   - or 63 -

Wendell has a trike... and I'm in front of a bike!   Then, to top it off --- Mama is taking this picture of us.... the very next photo seems to be Mama standing with us (daddy taking the picture).   Question... where is Howard Junior -- age of about 11 or so!

Notice, how many times Orville is standing taller than James Travis?  Good looking boys with good haircut... customized by daddy of course!



There is one other picture I remember where we are standing outside in Frederick... and there is a CAR parked on the side area....that can be identified and dated... ???


Thirdly, we moved back to Chickasha from 1963 up until abt 1965 -- summer that Tana was Born! (a 3-yr period) -- I attended 4th-5th-6th grades (ages 9 - 11yr) 

I googled to find the car again.....  ypiiee

 The car will date this picture.... it's Daddy's new 1962 Buick LeSabre  !! 4 dr Hardtop, 410 Widcat, A/C, Pwr. steer. & brakes, AM radio !!  I wonder where Daddy was working and/or pastoring now that we lived back in Chickasha..   mama (mother of 5 kids -- age 36-39 years old)   got a job at Grady Memorial Hospital and a lab technician... learning OTJ... she liked the people and work she did!    And Here I am with Wendell as a 9 yr old 4th Grader attending Lincoln Elementary School in Chickasha, OK.   All-black school for 3-yr period.   Kinda cute... I think I was!


Oh the naive little sheltered girl that I was.   Somebody remind me to post about knowing about the birds and the bees.... via Tana was born in 1965!  




http://www.namethesaurus.com/Thesaurus/Search.aspx

Looks like a Good Day for Helen and Her Kids...

The time and place in 1956 in Chickahsa OK... a glimpse inside (probably) this picture was taken in the 601 First Street home.... Could it have been a Sunday... for the ear-bobs on mom, the ruffles on Beverly, and the lightweight shirts the smiling happy boys are wearing....!   I love it!

Research Tool:    Southern Claims Commission Records
http://www.slcl.org/branches/hq/sc/scc/scc-main.htm

Claims were made to the Southern Claims Commission based on losses in the twelve states in rebellion at the beginning of the Civil War. Those states were:
	Alabama Arkansas Florida Georgia	Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina	Tennessee Texas Virginia West Virginia

Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher opens son's heart to history | NewsOK Photos

Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher opens son's heart to history NewsOK Photos

Patchwork Oklahoma Statehood to the 50's

My Grandparents timeline in Chickasha started at abt 1922; following their oust from Tulsa City limits following the Tulsa Race Riot of May 1921.  

Prior to statehood in 1907, the drafted OK Constitution didn't include segregation because delegates knew that President Theodore Roosevelt would probably object and veto statehood documents.

But just a few minutes after Roosevelt approved statehood, the first move for the White lawmakers was in set in stone segregation laws their first Senate Bill!  Segregation was inclusive to all persons of African ancestry.  Whiskey solons banned interracial marriages and miscegenation making them felonies..... prison time for black men and women!

Here's what else I learned from Bob Blackburn @ the OKC History Pages....Quoted:  State law also targeted ministers who performed ceremonies for mixed couples; they, too, could be charged with felonies. The legislature banned interracial schools at all levels. Many public facilities along with common carriers were segregated. Some 540 railroad depots in the state had to be altered to fit the new separate waiting rooms requirement, while new coaches also had to be added to the lines. Over time, legislators segregated everything from hospitals to housing to cemeteries to restaurants. In 1915 Oklahoma made national history by becoming the first state in the Union to segregate public pay telephone booths.

When Oklahoma became the forty-sixth state in 1907, it could have been described as a patchwork quilt of destroyed Indian reservations. Its citizenry consisted of southern cotton farmers, midwestern wheat farmers, and western cattlemen, with minorities of American Indians, African Americans, and ethnic Europeans.

So in 1951, Did Big Mama Buy This Car?

the largest, most powerful six-cylinder engine available in an American car in 1951.


Or is she beaming alongside a friend (male or female -- minister or civic leader, her son or daughter's car)??  Undoubtedly, this was an African American's new pride and joy...  a luxury car just off the line!  

Dad Sip died in 1948;  This couple had reared successful kids... Lemuel married and practicing law.. he served military.... Ada Lois was in the midst of her OU Law studies/Married to Warren.   Youngest daughter Helen was also married.
This Automobile...was reported to be the largest, most powerful six-cylinder engine available in an American car in 1951 -- four door sedan costing almost $3000.

This enlarged engine was only available in one model-the new-for-1951 Hornet. The Hornet was based on the 124-inch-wheelbase Commodore, and it wore special exterior badging; the upgraded interior featured assist handles, tailored seatback pockets, precision instruments in a polished chrome housing and Commodore-style cloth/vinyl upholstery. Available in four-door sedan ($2,568) and two-door Club Coupe ($2,543)

            SMALL TIME TOWN -- CHICKASHA OKLAHOMA
 
How Much things cost in 1951
?????????????  
Yearly Inflation Rate USA 7.88%
Average Cost of new house $9.000.00
Average wages per year $3,510.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 19 cents
Average Cost of a new car $1,500.00
Loaf of Bread 16 cents
LB of Hamburger Meat 50 cents
Bacon per LB 52 cents
Eggs per dozen 24 cents

Technology 1951

•First oral contraceptive ( the Pill )invented by Luis E. Miramontes
•Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States.
•First Color Television Pictures broadcast from Empire State Building

1951 Hudson Hornet Found IT ! !

Hudson Hornets featured a functional "step-down" design with dropped floorpan and a chassis with a lower center of gravity than contemporary vehicles that helped the car handle well – a bonus for racing. The Hornet's lower and sleeker look was accented by streamlined styling. The car's "unique, low slung appearance and silky handling earned Hudson an image that – for many buyers – eclipsed luxury marques like Cadillac's

Week 3: The Automobile

Week 3: Cars.  Are there some car mysteries in my family that might well tell me about my grandparents?  Expand on this topic and describe the car(s) your parents drove and any childhood memories attached to it.

This challenge runs from Saturday, January 15, 2011 through Friday, January 21, 2011.

Back on June 2009 (tag Big Mama) I listed a photo of my maternal grandmother proudly standing beside an old care (my impression,,, hmmmn) as she was living in Chickasha OK @ her home: I know it was next door heading south / of 601 S. First Street (she and Dad Sipuel owned both properties).  QUESTION:  was this her first... with such a proud smile.  And who and what was cut out of the picture?  I don't know that I have the original photo... I scanned a good number of documents here at my place of employment.

A funny thing happened////   I cropped the car out of this photo... So to have this blog is to have the original Photo !!!

I asked my husband to help me identify this car....he was stumped and didn't have time.  So I began my google search as seen in the following posts....    The distinctive hood shape and ornament was the key feature.  I checked Packards, Ford, Chevy, Nash, Cadillac, Olds... and then the magical find!

Here are a few facts seldom highlighted about my grandparent.   My husband said wow... did they have money back in the day?  YEP.... my sister and I noted throughout all old family photo's that the Sipuel children always had shoes and socks (not barefoot like other children of that time period)  Little Lemuel was fully clad in one of his baby pictures.


Big Mama owned two homes and another couple of lots in Chickasha, OK.  They were well-to-do in Tulsa prior to the 1921 Riot...  Dad Sip was pastoring several churches even at that time.   It's said that Big Mama never worked; that she was a homemaker and civic leader in the community.  

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Question 4 Today

What is the oldest... or rather earliest recorded date on a headstone in my family for which I can obtain a picture of the headstone?

Leroy Township, Boone County, Illinois

Burr Oak Cemetery  is located on Englehart Rd, 1/4 mile east off Burr Oak Rd [3 mi S of the Wisconsin state line.] Note: Burr Oak Rd runs north off Hunter Rd in Leroy Township.  The cemetery lies on the north side of the road.


I visited this Cemetery for the first time when my Aunt Ruth Travis Bias was laid to rest November 2006 I beleive??????
It was cold, and I didn't know at the time that there were other relatives here... otherwise I would have trekked  awhile!

Kittie (Kate) Smith McGehee is the oldest known sister to my Grandmother Martha Belle Smith Siuel

She was living in the town of Halley (Desha County) AR at the time of her marriage to Harrison Mcgehee on Feb 19, 1891.  She was 23 years old (est birthyr 1868) - but may be truly be just 21 yrs of age.  Harrison's age was reported as 24 years (est 1867)    Marriage license date: 18 Feb 1891  Film number: 2027477

Digital GS number: 4307847   Image number: 00910   Page: 132   Source: Arkansas County Marriage Records, 1837-1957

http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/ssdi/?kbid=9064&m=9


On the June 25th 1900 US Census (location Bowie Township (Chicot County) Arkansas)  my Aunt Kittie's birthday was still listed at about 1867....she was the mother of 6 living children (one died) and the couple had been married for ten years.  


McGehee,  
Harrison     Head Black Married  Born Dec 1866 - Age 34
Kittie         Wife B F Oct 1867 -33
Beulah      daug B M Nov 1890 -10
Sarah        daug B F Mar 1893 -7
Bessie       daug B M Jun 1894 -6
Vergie      daug B F Dec 1896 -4
Altha        son B M July 1897 -3
Blanche   daug B F Feb 1900  0

Smith
. . . . .  Belle sister      B F Jan 1885 -15
. . . . .  Scott daug     B F Sept 1881 -19
. . . . .  Cindy mother B F Jun 1847 -  53 Census data say she  LUCINDA, CINDY or SINDIA was the mother of 14 children - 7 living.  Lucinda and her parents were born in Lousiana... she could not read, nor write.  Yes-speaks English

Remembering my Roots

Dare I Not Miss

1-11-11

!! The 57 is ALMOST 80 yrs old!!

so says a five year old...

Me and Big Mama Sipuel ~ A Birthday Shared

to do list - - BACK UP MY DATA.... BUY IT NOW

Create Detailed Comparison Charts.   Elyse's Blog info for which I want to remember and do!   I've subscribed to newsletter... A better year a comin'

Create a table that lists every fact you have on your common name ancestor. List facts for your ancestor such as occupation, residences, name of spouse, land transactions, city directory listings, names listed on obituaries, church records, newspaper listings, etc. Be sure to get every detail possible from every record you have. This will help you see at a glance what you know about this person and help you separate your ancestor from other people with the same name. Tip: If you are looking at two (or more) people of the same name and in same area (town or county) but you aren’t sure which one is your ancestor, then create the above chart that lists all of this information for each of these people. This will help you compare these two people and when you find a new record, you’ll be able to better identify who it applies to.


Cluster Research: While there may be a bazillion John Jones’, there won’t be as many that have a wife Susan, daughters Elizabeth and Margaret, and sons Joseph, William, and Abel. If you can add ages to these family members, you’ll up your chances of being able to find them in census and other records. But don’t just stick to the immediate family: expand your target to learn about every neighbor, business associate, witness, and sponsor you can find. Knowing who your ancestors associated with can help you separate them from everyone else.

Use a Variety of Records: Use all sorts of different records when doing your research. This will help you confirm some of the information you already have and help you gather new information that can identify your ancestor. Don’t just use the internet to find records – go to different repositories, your local family history centers – and if you are lucky enough to live in Salt Lake City then go to the Family History Library. Explore record groups that you aren’t comfortable with.

Just because your ancestors have a common surname does not mean that you can’t research them. You just have to get creative and be persistent.

Are your genealogy computer files backed up? Are they safe from a hard drive crash? Are they safe if your computer gets stolen? Mozy is a remote back up service that makes keeping your files backed up totally mindless – because it does the hard work for you. Get unlimited backup for only $4.95/month! And if you use the coupon code January you’ll save 10% and get up to 3 months free! (Offer valid until 31 Jan 2011). I use Mozy and I absolutely love it! It is so easy to use and automatically backs up my data.

This may be my BEST FIND of 20111

Oklahoma African-native American Source doc

Angela Y Walton-Raji
In 1997 I launched the African-Native American Web site. The page had developed out of my research and work with the records that document the Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes. This enormous record set became the basis of my work with “Black Indian” records and eventually formed the basis of my book, Black Genealogy Research. African American Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes.


In the past 12 years, my research has expanded to include the history and documentation of blended African & Native American families in more states. As a genealogist, the focus remains on providing the evidence and properly citing the sources in order to tell the family story. As I have become more familiar with resources for documentation of African American families that were associated with people from multiple Native American communities, I have expanded the focus of my research to include genealogical resources for families beyond Indian Territory.

The focus will remain on relying upon standard genealogical methodology that will lead to the proper documentation of one’s family history. The page will discuss and include record sets that are essential to construct one’s family history.