The Sons of Jasper and Josephine Richardson Harrell

The offsprings of Jasper and Josephine R. Harrell
Photo Courtesy: Monteral Harrell

My first cousin Monteral Harrell shared her father's photographs with me to preserve his collection.   One of the pictures in his collection was the sons of Jasper and Josephine. The images had March  25, 1968; written on the back of it. 

This photograph was taken at their mother's funeral. All of them had on black suits. The only one missing is Uncle Jasper, although it looks like that could be him on the left end. 

From left to right; Frank Harrell, Sr., Roosevelt Harrell, Sr., Henry Harrell, Raymond Harrell, Sr. Herbert Harrell, and Oliver Jackson. Uncle Herbert's son Rodney looks so much like his father in his father's younger days. After looking at the photograph over and over, I think that the image on the right end is uncle Jasper. 

My grandparents legal adopted their nephew Oliver Jackson after his mother passed away. Jasper and Josephine had seven sons and one adopted son and three daughters. Oliver's mother Ethel was the sister of Josephine. 

St. Helena Historic Preservation Property-Warren Napoleon Sims

Warren Napoleon Sims

At the end of the nineteenth century, square (or Bill) Cry built the barn also know as the D.D.Day Barn and the Warner Napoleon Sim Barn. Cry is said to have lived in the right two cribs before he sold the land to D.D. Day, who built another house in 1922, Day sold the place to Sims. Cry and Sims were Negroes; Day was white. Sims (96) still owns it, although he has on account of  his age let it rundown.

The older part is the divided, 12 by 19 ft. crib ( 17 logs to the plate). It had been used as two says. It has two plank doors; both with carved, wooden latches (sliding bar). A 12-ft, runway separates the two main parts of the barn. The left crib is slightly narrower and is of larger logs (14 to the plate); its one door is a plank door made with square naisl. These two parts are of saddle-notched, round logs. A huge, gable roof covers the two cribs and,  in the rear, has three stalls, plus some other space devoted to animals. The front shed holds an excellent old house drawn hay rake.

This barn is remarkable in its black-white succession and in its hardware (wrought iron and carved wood).

Save Our Graves Foundation Founder Myrtis Johnson

Save Our Graves Foundation, Founder Myrtis Johnson

The La. Weekly interviewed her at a hidden cemetery in a heavily wooded area of St. Helena. “I started in 2002 with the cemeteries doing the genealogy on my father’s side and I saw how their cemetery looked and it was really, really bad. So I said I’m going to try to find some help. She ran into the warden at the Greensburg jail who assigned some inmates to go and clean it out. “He also gave me some information about a slave cemetery off of Hwy 38. We ended up identifying 82 slave burial sites. We marked them with stones donated from the Gemstone Company in Baton Rouge.” It was then that Johnson started the Save Our Graves Foundation. Asked why saving graves is important, Johnson answered, “It has a lot of value. I want to preserve this history for our descendants. I’m finding out that more and more African Americans want to know more about where they came from and they are doing their genealogy.”According to Johnson cemeteries are critical to genealogical research, “One of the first places the genealogist will tell you to go is to the cemeteries because there is a lot of information on the headstones.

Start with when they were born then you can proceed to do other research. I found that Louisiana had the largest importation of slaves in America and that St. Helena was next to New Orleans in slave importation. There are many, many slave cemeteries that can still be located and preserved. It’s a matter of going out there and looking and by talking to people. By letting people know what I’m doing, I’m getting a lot of feedback from a lot of people. In fact most of the people that I speak to can point me to an abandoned cemetery. One story leads to another.”Johnson has a lot of work to do on this site.

“It’s known as the Wright Cemetery and also as

the Henderson Cemetery, for the families buried there. My plan is to locate, restore, clean, preserve, map and record the information that I find and to find and to place that information in the library in Greensburg."

The condition of the cemetery had a visible impact on Johnson, “It breaks my heart, to know that our ancestors are almost out of sight and out of mind. It’s a terrible thing that makes me more determined to restore these sites. I am also hopeful that by them being slave cemeteries and the time period dates on here put me on a timeline where they can be put on the National Historic Register.”

Genealogist Antoinette Harrell has been working with Johnson, providing technical assistance and tips. She also was concerned about cemetery. “I feel sadness. I’m thankful to Ms. Johnson for taking the initiative to reclaim parts of our story. One headstone said that the person was born in 1866 and they died. It’s almost as if they are forgotten and if we forget them we forget their contribution to our history.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6F72ogKmLU

Source: The Louisiana Weekly/By J. Kojo Livington, Contributing Writer

The Hart Family of St. Helena, Louisiana

Eliza Hart Randle
the daughter of Green Hart

My maternal 3rd great grandmother was named Rosa Hart Vining. She was the daughter of  George and  Celia Hart. Rosa was born in 1869 in St. Helena Parish. Her siblings were;  Mary, Emma, George, Margaret, Leonard, Green, Della and Oscar

According to the U.S. 1880 Census, Rosa was eleven years old and was attending school. Rosa met and married Allen Vining and too their union one child was born, Emma Vining. Rosa died while giving birth to Emma. Her husband Allen later married a woman named Pheoby Self.

No one in the family has a picture of Emma Vining or her mother Rosa Hart. Not much is known about grandma Rosa. I met offsprings of her siblings who lives in Arizona on Facebook.

Eliza Hart Randle would be the niece of my grandmother Rosa. Eliza's father was Green Hart. What history I have on the Hart family has been given to me by El Hutchinson.

Ocie Randle Smith

The Wheat's Where Our Neighbors

Antoinette Harrell researching at the
Louisiana State Archives

Growing up in Amite, Louisiana at Rte Box 306, the Wheat's lived at Rte Box 303. Henry Wheat married my great uncle's Palmer Harrell's daughter Doris Harrell. Henry Wheat was a farmer, I remember him mostly in the field planting vegetables or picking and pulling them. He was a very quite man and enjoyed working on his farm. He was very kind and nice to our family. I remember him sharing vegetables from his garden with my family. Sometimes he would let the cows out in the pasture for grazing. I guess you can say we had a live lawn mower.

Henry was one of many children born to Saul and his wife Corrine;  Booker, Rosa, Beatrice, Melisa, Bernice, Mytrle, Bertha, Monore, Hattie, Mattie, Roy and Bertha. Saul was born in 1875 and died on Sept 5, 1954,  his wife Corrine was born in 1880 and died in on Sept 19, 1944. My mother use to say that cousin Henry was a good neighbor to have. He lived next door to his brother Roy Wheat and his son Bobby Ray Wheat and his family.

 My brothers and I spent long hot summer days playing with his youngest son Bruce. One of my childhood memories playing with Bruce is the time he, my brother and I busted watermelons in the field to see which one were the sweeties. When cousin Henry came out to the field and saw what we had done. He never raised his voice nor did we get a good whipping. I can't say my mother didn't want to give us a good whipping. Cousin Henry told her not to whip us because we were just being children. Not only having the Wheat's as neighbors but they were kind relatives as well.

His sister Melissa Wheat married my maternal grandmother's brother Alexander Richardson. My great uncle Theodore Harrell married Carrie Wheat. If you wasn't related directly, "perhaps one of your family members married into the many families in Amite." The Wheat still live in the same community up until this day. One of my cousin Ernest Wheat, Sr., still plant and grow food just like his father Henry Wheat and grandfather Palmer Harrell.

His wife Doris Harrell Wheat passed away before him. Henry was born on June 9, 1919 and died in April of 1992 in Tangipahoa Parish at the age of seventy-three.

Registration Card
Saul Wheat

Note: Saul Wheat couldn't read and he made his mark