Genealogy Discussions with Antoinette Harrell and Karran Harper Royal

Early Photograph of Amite No 1 Church of God in Christ

Amite No. I Church of God in Christ
Photo Courtesy:  Rev. Raymond Foster, Sr. 

Over the past couple of months, I've set in the homes of many people whose family ties are deeply connected in St. Helena and Tangipahoa Parishes, Louisiana.  Years ago Delores Zanders Levy passed away and her mother archival collection was passed down to Rev. Raymond Foster, Sr., and when I say that he was the right person to inherit the rich collection, I mean it with everything inside of me. Too often we hear that someone threw away all the pictures, documents, and other records that can help tell the story and history of African-American people of the two Louisiana Florida Parishes.

About two years before Delores passed away I visited her home to talk with her about the family history and photographs. My maternal great-grandmother Emma Mead Harrell was the aunt of her mother Colitidle Zanders." Mrs. Clotilde kept everything," said Rev. Foster. She did throw away anything.  In her own right, she was an archivist.

There are other women in the community that kept the history of churches, schools, civic and social organizations and well as their own family history and photographs. Rev. Foster is quite an oral history keeper himself. I learned more about the Foster Family history from him on this visit. Women such as; Grace Belvin Walker Perry,  Alma Harrison Vernon, Gertrude Love, Zemora "Hilda" Vining and I know there are others.

There was this one statement he made about the history of a small community in Tangipahoa Parish called Shiloh. He told Glyniss Vernon and me if we look at one of the old Plat Maps, we'll find that Shiloh was called "Congo Square" I can't wait to do more research on this subject.  It will be posted it right here on Nurturing Our Roots Blog Site.

This photo is the Amite NO.1 Church of God in Christ. From left to right; James Sheridan, Irma Della ?., Celestine Foster, Annie Edwards, Edna Buckley, Christine Alle, Algia Mae Spears, Irene Benton, Leola Buckhalter, Lolly Edwards, Mrs. Freddie Cage and husband Eld. Freddie Cage, Second Row: Left to Right; Celie Love, Mildred Warner, Tina Jackson. 

The Obituary of Sgt. Charles Edward Wells

Sgt. Charles Edward Wells

Sgt. Charles Edward Wells was born on August 19, 1931 in Amite County, Mississippi and died in Vietnam on October 22, 1969.

He was the son of Mr. Louis Wells and Mrs. Pearlie Mae Marcelus Wells, the husband of Mrs. Ivia Lee Wells. He joined the U.S. Army at the age of 17, and served continuously for 21 years.

He united with the Little Bethel Baptist Church at an early age during the pastorate of Rev. James Vernon. He leaves to mourn his passing his wife, nine children, mother, father, one sister, grandmother, and a host of other relatives and friends.

Notes:

Sgt. Charles Edward Wells funeral was held on Saturday, November 1, 1969 at Little Bethel Baptist Church in Amite, Louisiana. The services was officiated by Rev. Vernon, Pastor.

Unknown Vintage Photographs of African American People from Livingston Parish

Photograph: Unknown

Bernice Alexander Bennett, host and producer of "Research at the National Archives and Beyond Blog Talk Radio Show" called me this past week to informed about a collection of African American photographs that Jeff Boyd, co-editor of the Livingston Parish Historical Society purchased at a antique shop in Walker, Louisiana.

Bernice emailed me the beautiful collection of photographs and asked me if I want to post them to my blog site. I told her by all means I would like to post them to Nurturing Our Roots Blog site.

These unknown vintage photographs are a vital part of our history. Photographs hold memories of the people, the time and era in which the photograph was taken. Nurturing Our Roots would like to help reunite the vintage photographs with their families.

Many people who are researching their family history would like to to find a photograph of their family members. There are many unknown old African American photographs to be identified by family members and family historian.  We hope that someone can identify the people in the photographs. Often times when someone pass away and a family member is left to clean out their deceased love one home; photographs like these can end up in the trash or in antique shops. If you recognize anyone in these photographs, please email me their names so we can place a name to the image.

 Photograph: Unknown

Photograph: Unknown

 Photograph: Unknown

Photograph: Unknown

Lena Mae Wood Deamer of Roseland, Louisiana

Lena Mae at the age of two

Lena Mae was the second child born to Alma Irving Wood and Walter Wood, Sr., She was born  in Roseland, Louisiana  on September 26, 1926 in Roseland, Louisiana on the homestead of Lemuel (Lem) Irving, Sr.  and Susie McKnight Irving. Lena was delivered by her Aunt Lucy Irving Collier, a midwife.  Alma and Walter, Sr. had lived in Chicago, but separated before she was born. Lena never saw her father until she was around 50 years old.

Alma later married leaving Lena Mae and her brother Walter to be raised at the homestead by Lem, Susie, and Aunt Ethel Irving. Lem grew lots of vegetables on the farm and raised livestock. Lena helped in the fields and with product sales by figuring out his bills and receipts. Lem could not read or write and signed deeds with an "X" for the many acres of land he purchased. Although he was not formally educated, he would always say, "There's nothing like common sense."

Lena Mae Wood Deamer

At an early age, Lena became a member of Big Zion A.M.E. Zion Church in Roseland where family members attended. She was an active member in the church and sang in the choir. She graduated from O. W. Dillon High School in Kentwood, Louisiana and later attended one semester at Southern University.

Lena Mae married Leroy Deamer, an auto mechanic. To their union was born two children, Ethel Lorraine and Alvin Gilbert Deamer. She enjoyed being a homemaker, attended the children's church and school functions, and assisted with their homework. Lena and Leroy moved from the homestead around 1961 and built their family an all-brick house in Arcola and was among the first African-American families in the area to accomplish that achievement.

Leroy was killed in 1987 at his auto mechanic shop in Amite, Louisiana. Lena never remarried. She enjoyed helping with the grandchildren and loved watching sports. Her favorites was watching Tiger Woods play golf and Michael Jordan play basketball. And of course her favorite football team was the New Orleans Saints. When she moved to the Belle Maison Nursing Home, her favorite pass time was playing bingo and attending religious services as well as the many parties and social hours at the facility.

During her lifetime, Lena was able to witness transportation going from horse and buggy to automobiles, and to man landing on the moon. Most importantly she was able to see the election of the first African American President, Barack Obama, which she said she thought she would never see in her lifetime.

Lena Mae Wood Deamer

Lena Mae's daughter Lorraine is the author of "Authentic Southern Cooking with Chuck and Miss Lorraine," Her presentation of Southern style cooking is based on the New Orleans flavors of Cajun, Creole and African American cuisine. Lorraine included some of the recipes her mother had sent her over a 40 year period. Some were on the back of envelopes, while others were on tattered paper. Lena was famous for her potato salad, and the recipe is included in the cookbook. 

Her brother Walter Wood, Jr., married a woman named Leah Mae. Leah had a half brother by the name of Thomas Alvin Perry. Grandchildren -Lisa and Charles Lizana, Jr.; Alvin Roderick, Brian Christopher, and Brandi Nicole Deamer. Great grandchildren - Skylar and Mya Deamer; Daelyn and Alexander Short. Lena's sunset was July 15, 2012 at the age of 85. 

Historical Rosenwald School in St.Helena Parish, Louisiana

St. Helena Parish Colored School
Photo Courtesy of Dewayne Cook

My associate Leonard Smith III, sent me an email that got my attention about the historical Rosenwald School in Louisiana. 

Julius Rosenwald -(1862-1932) became interested in the welfare of Negroes established the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which had to be spent within 25 years of his death to better condition for Negroes through education. 

More than 5,000 schools for Negroes in 15 southern states( including Louisiana and especially St. Helena Parish). 


He became known as the father  of the Negro Parish Training School, a school for Negroes, located in a Negro community, usually a mile or two from a town.

Historic Name	Harrell Industrial
Current Name
Building Plan	Two-teacher type
Building Type	School
Budget Year	1928-29
Current Address
Land (Acreage)	3.00
County	St. Helena Parish
State	Louisiana
Application #	30-H
Total Cost	$2400.00
Notes
Additional Comments
Funding Sources
» Negroes	$850.00
» Whites	$260.00
» Public	$790.00
» Rosenwald Source: Fisk University Rosensald Fund Cart Database.

Ponchatoula, Louisiana First Black Mayor

Rev. Arthur Tasker, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Jan. 2006
Special thanks to Jim Perrin for donating it to the archives.


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Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
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REV. ARTHUR TASKER

PONCHATOULA'S FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN MAYOR

BY JIM PERRIN, Local Historian

Four years of bitter fighting during the War Between the States ended in 1865 with the defeat of the southern Confederacy and the subsequent emancipation of former slaves now called "Freedmen."  The years following the end of the war were difficult ones for Southerners.  A new relationship between the Freedman and the 
more numerous white population had to be established during a period of economic 
distress, military occupation, and turbulent political upheavals.

Fortunately for Ponchatoula men of good judgment and character came forward to make 
this period of transition less traumatic than in many other areas of the Deep South. 
The most prominent of Ponchatoula's Freedmen during the Reconstruction period was 
Rev. Arthur Tasker.

Arthur Tasker was born ca. 1829-1835 in Virginia or Maryland.  Prior to the War 
Between the States, he was a slave of the Widow McCarroll and lived about three 
miles from Ponchatoula.  As a slave he was hired out and worked for different 
people including frequently working for William Akers, who lived at the edge of the 
new town of Ponchatoula.  With the defeat of the Confederacy, Tasker and the other 
slaves were now freemen, although they entered their new life of freedom with 
little or no education and possessed of no property to call their own.

Freedom also meant freedom of religion, and Tasker began to preach the Gospel to 
the freedmen in and around Ponchatoula.  Under his leadership like minded 
Christians held services and organized a church on 12 October 1867.  Tasker's 
congregation was part of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Zion.

As Rev. Tasker's church family slowly grew in size so did his personal family.  He 
had married Sarah ________ (b. ca. 1840 in Virginia) perhaps during the war as 
their oldest child Mary was born about 1863.  The 1870 lists their other children 
as David, age 5, Clinton, age 2, and little Harriet, who was born in Jan. 1870.  By 
1880, Arthur and Sarah Tasker had been blessed with the addition of three more 
girls.

Sometime after the war Rev. Tasker and his congregation built a small church, that 
was also used as a school on the public square that is now called Kiwanis Park.  
The church was already in existence there in August 1873, when Rev. Tasker and his 
church members petitioned for and received permission from the town leaders to 
purchase half the public square for $25.  A Ponchatoula council meeting two months 
later in Oct. 1873 confirmed that the town had some years previously donated the 
square for the use of the church; and a church building, school, and cemetery were 
then present.  The papers donating the square were said to be lost by Oct. 1873 so 
the exact date of the donation of the square to the church is uncertain.

In September 1873, Rev. Tasker became mayor of Ponchatoula succeeding Eldred J. 
White, Sr.  He served as mayor for the rest of 1873 and through the spring of 1874, 
and probably even longer.  There is a gap of about three years in the town's minute 
books from May 1874 until June 1877, so it is not known who was mayor during this 
period.  Reconstruction formally ended in Louisiana in the spring of 1877 as 
Federal troops were withdrawn from the state.  William Akers was the mayor of 
Ponchatoula in June 1877 when the extant town records resumed and Rev. Tasker was 
serving on the town council.  Rev. Tasker resigned from the council at the 
beginning of 1878.

When the census was conducted in 1880, Rev. Tasker, Sarah, and the family were 
living in Ponchatoula.  Parish land records indicate that Rev. Tasker's family 
lived just north of Pine Street near Duncan's Branch which is west of the present 
Gabriel's store site.  Included on the 1880 census report with the family was their 
son William Clinton Tasker, and daughters Levina, Amma, Lois, and Augusta.  William 
Clinton Tasker continued in his father's footsteps, serving on the Ponchatoula town 
council in 1888, and also being a leader of his church.  Clinton was one of nine 
trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Zion, in Ponchatoula who 
negotiated the purchase of a square block of land in town for the establishment of 
a new and enlarged church in 1895.  Clinton Tasker married about 1888 to Martha 
______, and started his own family.  They moved to New Orleans by 1900, and among 
their four children at that time was their first born son, appropriately named 
Arthur Tasker.

It is not known if Rev. Arthur Tasker lived to see the birth of his grandson and 
namesake in April 1889.  Rev. Tasker was alive in August 1887 when he assisted his 
wife in the sale of some property in Ponchatoula, but his exact death date is not 
known to this writer.  At his death, Rev. Tasker was buried in the cemetery next to 
the church he had founded in the square. 

Rev. Arthur Tasker, a man whose faith led his congregation through difficult times, 
and advanced the goal of having a united Ponchatoula, is today memorized by a 
marker near his grave site in the park, the naming of a playground for him, and 
most importantly a living memorial in the Tasker Chapel Memorial Church which 
carries forth his good works.

Anyone with comments, questions, or additional information about Ponchatoula's 
rich heritage may call Jim Perrin at 386-4476.