Dennis & Mary Oliver (Marion, AL)

Source: 1920 Census, Marion, Perry County Alabama

Name: Donnis (Dennis) Oliver
DOB: 1855
Race: Black
Occupation:Farm Laborer
Homestead: Rent

Spouse: Mary
DOB: 1878
Race: Black

Children:

Hattie b. 1902
Bertha b. 1903

Note: This is the family of my grandmother, Ora Dee Perry Ford.

Please post any information you have on the Olivers.

Who’ll Bid? – Slave Narrative

Tracing my lineage through blood and spirit, within a slave narrative.

Awhile back, I visited the site of the slave auction block in Cahaba. It is a grassy area, an otherwise unassuming square.

In truth, the auction block was a place of horror, of cruelty–and the stage for countless African-American families to be formed or broken. Shackled together, new families formed as they trod on dusty feet into uncertain fate. Families were torn asunder as mothers grabbed and screamed for lost children. Many begged or bargained for mercy, in a desperate attempt to save something–their loved ones, their pride, their lives. The lash struck against naked skin, cutting through until blood and pus spilled on the soil like so many tears.

The crumbled auction blocks lie in ruins, unseen amongst long grass and faded memory. Let us not forgot. The labor of every slave is the foundation for our very lives, and the hope for our children. It is my hope that my ancestors will be proud of how I received the hard fought inheritance of freedom, of dignity.
Lynn Mari, 2008

A slave narrative that struck a cord…

State: Alabama

Interviewee: Fitzpatrick, Reuben

“One time I was taken to the slave market and I was screwed on the block and Mr. Martin bought me and my Mamma. The man who was selling us would holler, “Who’ll bid? Who’ll bid?” We was supposed to be spry and fidgety as to make the men bid. My furst Marster was Wash Jones. He wan’t no good to us. He would hit us wid his cane jes’ as if it had been a switch. Be like the way Marse Wash treated us niggers. He bought us for his son.”

Source: Ancestry Library Edition

For More Information:

The Slavery and Civil War Museum (1410 Water Ave., Selma, AL)
http://www.theslaveryandcivilwarmuseum.org/

Wickipedia: Cahaba, Alabama
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahawba,_Alabama

In Memory of Bernice “Bern” Morton

Bernice Morton, 82 of Selma, Alabama passed away on May 26, 2008. Funeral Services will be held on Thursday May 29, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. at Calvary Missionary Baptist Church with the Rev. Dr. Charles A. Lett officiating. Visitation will be held prior to the service from 10:00 a.m.-10:45 a.m. Interment will be at Pineview Memory Gardens under the direction of Lewis Brothers Funeral Home.

Mrs. Morton was preceded in death by her parents Mr. and Mrs. Earnest King, husband, Mr. Ennis Morton and son Ernest Sigmon Sr. Survivors include daughters: Dr. Janice Hunte (Eyston), Marcia Bailey (Marshall), Jenorice Haynes (Japp Sr.), son Ennis Morton Jr. (Carol), grandchildren: Rochelle Ramano (Thomas), Emerson Hunte, Dane Dougherty, Ernesto Sigmon, Erica Peck-Love (Shon), Sheila Smitherman (Juan), Marshanda Bailey, Erin Sigmon, Jasmine Hoffman (Justin), David Hunte (Valerie), Katherine Hunte, Japp Haynes IV, Eyslyn Hunte, great grandchildren: Jasmine Lacey, Solomon Sigmon, Seth Sigmon, Lily Moon Quintero, Brooklin Blu Peck Love, Thomas Ramano, Brock Tristan Smitherman, Brooke Nicole Smitherman, Brianna Simone Smitherman, sister-in-law: Queenie Ferguson, cousins Annie, Bessies, and Mildred Baker, special loved ones:

Hernice Mutuku, Rev. and Mrs. Reese , Fannie and Lester Bailey, Lois McGee, Wanda Tyler (God Daughter), Beloved Friend and Physician, Dr. Glenton Davis and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, special family and friends too numerous to mention.

Born on November 6, 1925 in Selma Alabama, she served the Lord in her community through her work at Selma University and her long time membership at Calvary Missionary Baptist Church.

Mrs. Morton was well known for her work during the civil rights movement and was often mentioned on CNN for her role in preparing meals for thousands of freedom fighters including Dr. Martin Luther King, Rev Ralph Abernathy, Joseph Lowery, Andrew Young, and Rev. Jesse Jackson in the 1960’s. Her life and story was recounted in the book entitled “The Selma Campaign 1963-1965.” She also received numerous awards for her leadership and dedication including the prestigious Drum Major for Justice Award and The Faithful Servant Award presented by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta in 1989.

She received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humanities from Selma University in May 1989 for her outstanding contributions in the field of Education. She loved people. In 1995, she was again honored for her contributions toward equality and fair treatment for everyone and received the Invisible Giant Recognition and Award during the 30th Anniversary March for Voting Rights. She has also been featured in the Selma Voting Rights Museum and has been the focus of several documentaries detailing the civil rights movement and the events leading up to Bloody Sunday. She is one of Selma’s famed “Foot Soldiers.”

She was loved by many and will be dearly missed. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, Selma.

http://www.selmatimesjournal.com/articles/2008/05/30/news/obituaries/obit%2018.txt

~*~*~*~*

In loving memory of Auntie Bern. I will always remember your kindness, warmth and gracious heart. When I first attended the family reunion, your smile beckoned to me from across the room. You are a woman of strength and pride. You made sure to tell me of the struggle of the Freedom Fighters, that the quiet streets I walk were once slippery with blood and tears. You instilled in me a sense of purpose; to not only remember my family’s history but to fight for our place in history itself. Not as slaves or dejected citizens but as people of faith, people of great diversity and most of all–as people worthy not only be remembered but honored. I wish I lived closer, so I could have known you better. But I can say, Auntie Bern, that you will remain in my thoughts and prayers, and your memory will be celebrated in the stories passed down to my children. God bless and keep you <3

Your Niece, Lynn and Family

“At last you have departed and gone to the Unseen.
What marvelous route did you take from this world?

Beating your wings and feathers,
you broke free from this cage.
Rising up to the sky
you attained the world of the soul.
You were a prized falcon trapped by an Old Woman.
Then you heard the drummer’s call
and flew beyond space and time.”
Gone to the Unseen, Jelaluddin Rumi

1910: Stokes and Lucy Morton

Source: 1910 Census
Name: MORTON
Place: Mulberry Precinct, Autauga, Alabama

Stokes/ Stephen Morton
b. 1853
Mulatto
Farm Laborer

wife
Lucy Morton
b. 1855
Black

son
Enice
b. 1875
Black
Farm Laborer
Married

Grandson
Percy Morton (son of Enice Morton)
b. 1899
Black

Granddaughter (daughter of Percy Morton)
Edith Morton
b. 1902
Black

Family of Enis & Margarett Morton (Autauga County, AL)

1900 Census: Mulberry (Autauga County), Alabama

Enis Morton b. July 1875, Black, Farm Laborer

wife

Margarett Morton b. July 1875, Black

son

Percy Morton b October 1899

nephew

Willie Word b. May 1891

NEXT TO

Stokes (Stephen) Morton b. June 1852, Mulatto, Farm Laborer
wife: Lucy J. Morton b. July 1854, Black
Parents of Enis (Enice) Morton

Note: This is a line I am still researching. Percy Morton married my great-grandmother, Mary Martin Morton. Percy Morton later moved to Texas.

For Local and Genealogical Information on Autauga County Visit:

Autauga County Alabama Genealogy: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alautaug/#Queries

City of Prattville, Alabama:
http://www.prattville.com/

Henry Coleman: Burnsville, Ala * 1917

Source: Form 1 990 Registration Card No. #53, WWI Draft Registration Card
Name: Henry Coleman
Age: 21
Home: Burnsville, Alabama
Date of Birth: August 10, 1895
Natural Born
Where Born: Safford, Ala USA
Occupation: Saw Mill Laborer
Employed: (A bit unclear) Geoff Blessed Lgr Co.
Where Employed: Burnsville, Alabama
Dependants: None
Marital Status: Single
Race: African
No Prior Military Service, Sign with his mark

Registrar’s Report

Tall, Medium Build, Black Eyes, Black Hair (Not Bald)
No Disability

Signed By: WJ Taylor
Precinct 22
County, Dallas
State, Alabama
June 5, 1917

Also:

Coleman’s Are Listed in: 1866 Alabama State Census Colored Population Dallas County, AL Thank-you BJ Smothers!
http://www.prairiebluff.com/census/1866Dallas.htm

1900 Census * Violet Radford

Source: 1900 Census, Columbiana (Shelby County).

Violet Radford, b. 1840, B
Sallie Radford, b. 1880, B, Daughter
Carrie Radford, b. 1885, B, Daughter
Willie Radford, b. 1893, B, Grandson

Additional Sources:

AL Gen Web:Shelby County, Alabama- http://www.rootsweb.com/~alshelby/shelby1.html
City of Columbiana, Alabama- http://www.cityofcolumbiana.com/
Tracking Your Roots: Shelby County, Alabama- http://www.trackingyourroots.com/shelby.htm

1870: Alexander & Violet Radford Family

Source: 1870 Census, Perry County: Alabama.
Place: Township 18, Range 9
Date: July 8, 1870
Surname: Radford

Alexander Radford (head), b. 1835, B, Farm Laborer
Violet Radford (spouse), b. 1840, B, Farm Laborer
children:
Jessie, b. 1858, B, Farm Laborer
Martin, b. 1860, B
Sherman, b. 1865, B
Harriet, b. 1863, B
Jane (This may be “Paul”?? Or Jame? Was listed as male on the census), b. 1867, B
Silas, b. 1867. B
Amy, 6 mos, B

1880 Census: Dallas Co., AL with NC Origins

It’s interesting to look at the origins of your ancestors. Many of the pioneer Martins who migrated to Dallas County, Alabama came from North Carolina. They were primarily planters, their farms became the hamlets for generations of African-American families, who worked the farms as slaves. Of those families are my own kin, the Martins.

I am interested in further documentation on this topic, here are a few facts I found online:

“Extensive white settlement of Alabama followed the War of 1812 and the defeat of the Creek Nation. Most of the settlers came from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, pushed by land exhausted through the over-cultivation of cotton and drawn by the rich soil of the Tennessee Valley and the Black Belt. They brought with them slave labor and the plantation system, which were readily transplanted in Alabama. Steady demand for cotton made this product the nation’s leading export during the first half of the nineteenth century and solidified the planter elite’s sense of self-importance.”
A SHORT HISTORY OF ALABAMA AGRICULTURE, 1820-1945
by Dr. Dwayne Cox, University Archivist
http://www.lib.auburn.edu/archive/aghy/alag.htm

“In the Cotton belt, most slaves lived on plantations with less than 50 slaves. They worked in gangs, pressed on by an overseer, for the grueling year-long cycle of cultivation, which culminated in ginning and pressing the crop in January and February. The slave population almost tripled in size between 1790 and 1830. Most slave women had many children, beginning at age 19. Since children were most likely to be sold, this tragedy touched nearly every black family.” Africans in America, PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/map3.html

“The conditions in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia were favorable to an immediate expansion of cotton culture. There was a large, well-organized and mobile slave population which could promptly be transferred to new fields….
Many factors operated in favoring a rapid expansion of cotton culture. While cotton culture did not so rapidly exhaust a soil as did tobacco, the prevalent one crop culture without any crop rotation proved exhausting to the soils of the Coastal Plain and, to a less degree, of the Piedmont. Prices of cotton, on the whole, were falling and prices of slaves were rising.* Slavery, with its low economic efficiency, was therefore becoming unprofitable or less profitable in the older regions. The cheap and fertile lands to the westward were a strong inducement to the planter and especially his sons, who, as they set up in business, were lured westward. The Western Cotton Belt was the theater of the greatest expansion of slavery.” GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN AMERICAN SLAVERY BY F. V. EMERSON, University of Missouri
http://www.dinsdoc.com/emerson-1-2.htm

___________________________________

1880 Census: Summerfield, AL (Dallas County)

Emanuel Martin (b. 1835). farmer
Father’s birthplace: North Carolina
Mother’s birthplace: Virginia

Spouse: Laura (1852)
children: Henry (12), Mary (9), George Ann (7), Mack (6), Nannie (4), Robert Lee (2)

Jordan Martin (b. 1835)
Father’s birthplace: North Carolina
Mother’s birthplace: Virginia

Spouse: Jane “Judge” (b. 1850)
Children: Willie (12), Sarah Jane (9), James (7), Agnes (5)

NOTE: Jordan and Judge Martin are my kin. Their daughter, Sarah Jane, is the mother to my great-grandmother. I am wondering if Emanuel Martin is a relative to Jordan Martin. Any information would be much appreciated on the family or lineage of Emanuel Martin

Rachel Martin (b. 1835)
Father’s birthplace: North Carolina
Mother’s birthplace: North Carolina

Spouse: Bob Martin (b. 1825, Virginia, both parents from there). Farmer.
Children: Archie(18), Mary (14), Jimmie (11) , Bella (6)

PLEASANT HILL

Moses Martin (b. 1837, North Carolina). Farmer.
Father’s birthplace: North Carolina
Mother’s birthplace: North Carolina

Spouse: Eliza (b. 1855, Alabama)
Children: Nimby (7), Frank (4), Samuel (2), Lucy (1)

Solomon Martin (b. 1810, North Carolina). Farmer.
Father’s birthplace: North Carolina
Mother’s birthplace: Virginia

Spouse: Katie (b. 1835, South Carolina)
Children: Wilson (14)
Step-Children: William Moody (15), Susan Moody (13), Thomas Woody (11), Frank Woody (9), Loundes Woody (7), Eliza Woody (3 mos)

CAHABA

John Martin (1830, North Carolina). Farmer.
Father’s birthplace: North Carolina
Mother’s birthplace: North Carolina

Spouse: Ann (b. 1840)
Father’s birthplace: North Carolina
Mother’s birthplace: North Carolina

Eliza Martin (1842, North Carolina)
Father’s birthplace: North Carolina
Mother’s birthplace: North Carolina

Spouse: Widowed, also from North Carolina
Children: Kattarrine Martin (14)

BURNSVILLE

Cherry Martin (b. 1780, North Carolina)
Spouse: Widowed
Occupation: Decrepit
Resides with: Alex (both parents from Georgia) and Violet (mother from AL) RADFORD
and children: Harriet (18), Martin (15), Sherman (14), Paul (10), Silas (10), Amy (8), Martha (6), Hettie (7), Sam (5), Julius (4), Sallie (3), Multum (3 mos)

PENCES

Richard Martin (b. 1827, North Carolina). Laborer.

Father’s birthplace: North Carolina
Mother’s birthplace: North Carolinna

Resides with: Charles Brown (born in Virginia, both parents from there) and Julia (both parents from Virginia)
and children: Stephen (13), Willie (11), Ella (9), Charles (7), Fannie (5)
and a William Petts (22), both parents from Alabama
Note: Henry Martin (b. 1797), a Summerfield farmer, is from North Carolina

BROWNS

John Martin (b. 1832, North Carolina). Farmer.
Father’s birthplace: North Carolina
Mother’s birthplace: North Carolina

Spouse: Charlotte (b. 1830 in Virginia, both parents from there)
Children: Thaddeus (14), Dink (12), Jacob (10)

_______________________
PRINCETON

Robert Martin (b. 1819, North Carolina). White. Both parents from North Carolina.
Spouse: Mary A.C. (b. 1826, North Carolina, both parents from there)
Children: John W. (22), Smith C. (18), Richard H. (15)
Something Other than a Direct Relationship: Robert A. Martin (9). Born in TN. Mother born in North Carolina, father born in Alabama.
Servant: Alfred Ransan (15). Alfred was born in Arkansas, both parents are from North Carolina.

SUMMERFIELD
Henry Martin (b. 1797, North Carolina). White. Both parents from North Carolina.
Spouse: Amanda (b. 1832, Kentucky, both parents from there)
Something Other Than A Direct Relationship: Prudence Morrow (47), Widowed. Born in North Carolina, both parents from there.

MARTINS
Atlas J. “AJ” Martin (b. 1821, North Carolina. White. Both parents from North Carolina.
Spouse: Harriet E. (b. 1825, Alabama)
Children: E. Bryant (26), Mary B. (17)

MCILWAIN: Valley Creek Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Dallas, Alabama

source:

http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/al/dallas/cemetery/valleycreek.txt

This file was contributed and copyrighted by:

Kay Pomeroy & Jean Pickering

====================================================================
June 2003

Valley Creek Presbyterian Church Cemetery
Dallas County, Alabama

On Valley Creek Church Road, off State Hwy 22 North.
When you come out of Selma on State Hwy 22 Noorth right outside the city
limits to the left is Valley Creek Church Road. Turn left on that
road and go about four miles, The cemetery is on the right on a hill and you
really have to watch for it or you will pass it.

Surveyed and recorded by Kay Pomeroy & Jean Pickering

With thanks
________________

ROW 9

In memory of of Hugh Marshall son of J.H. & M.R. McIlwain born June 23,
2866 died June 16, 1867

Rosa C. Waugh wife of Jno H. McIlwaine died Oct. 20th 1861 aged 1861
aged 23 years 7 months. Rosa C Waugh McIlwaine

John Houston McIlwaine October 28 1835 June 2, 1903

ROW 10

In memory of Margaret N. wife of S.P. McIlwaine and daughter of John K.
and N Callen who was born July 18, 1835 and departed this life March 10,
1862.She leaves a husband, child and many friends to morn her loss. Her
life was that of an exemplary Christian, yet not so long as we would
have desired it. Her death was glorious It was that of the righteous.
in the same grave sleeps our infant. Marharet N. McIlwaine

In memory of James Hugh son of P & M N McIlwaine who was born Sept.
11, 1860 and died March 24 1862

In memory of Hugh McIlwaine who was born in Antrim Co. Irland and died
June 13th, 1880 in the 84th year of his age.He that believeth on Me
shall
have everlasting life.

In memory of Mary Pinckney Russell wife of Hugh McIlwaine who was born
June 24, 1814 and died July 28, 1875. Blessed are they that keep His
testimonies and that that seek Him with the whole heart. Mary Pinkney
Russell McIlwaine

Samuel Pinekney McIlwaine born July 4, 1880 died May 1, 1900 Resr