The Unknown History of Slavery in My Family

When white people talk about how slavery wasn’t their family’s fault, I believed I was among them. It wasn’t until a year or two before my mom died that she asked me if I wanted her to send me a booklet about our family. I didn’t know what it was, but since I do genealogy I was happy to get anything about our family. About 5 or 10 years before that I had learned that my ancestors were slave owners, but this booklet…Wooo boy. I wasn’t ready. It was created for a family reunion around the same time that a some of those Confederate monuments were going up. The pamphlet not only contains pictures of my ancestors (as recent as my great-grandmother and great-grandfather), but also contains rose-colored musings on life at the Big House in Kentucky and the little enslaved girl, Mariah, who was sent as gift when one of the children of my 5th great-grandfather, Henry Bruce, was born. She was aged 4 and her first task was to rock the baby to sleep. Just imagine owning another human to do this and not feeling at all bad that she was only a child herself. She later became the Mammy and was responsible for the cooking, childcare, and who knows what all else. People in the 20th century told fond tales of Mariah, but I’m not ever sure what that means given that she couldn’t leave and had to be nice to her masters on pain of whipping, death, or estrangement from her children. In the family photo archive I also have unnamed photos of black people separate from the pamphlet. Few other people in our family would have ever had enough money to have black servants in maids uniforms (and they retained wealth for a few generations after the Civil War ended), but I could be wrong about the prevalence of hired help in my family.  Are these photos of Mariah’s descendants? Were her children the master’s or her husband’s? We don’t have the answers to these questions.

What is shocking to me, someone who grew up not knowing my family’s history of slave ownership, is how grand the pamphlet-writers made it sound to be an enslaved person. To paraphrase Trevor Noah on the subject: if being a slave was so good then white people would have been trying to get hired as slaves themselves. Descriptions given by my ancestors of the plantation are racist, using a slave blaccent to describe so-called simpler times when farm life was remembered as being fun for absolutely everyone.

I was going to write about this years ago, but the poor reception of racially charged material among some people I know, combined with a slew of heavy life events, prevented me. I think now is the time. While I never personally saw any material wealth from my ancestors and we grew up poor enough that I do know what it’s like to feel truly hungry and not have any food to eat, my great-uncle only died less than a decade ago and the inheritance money was distributed to various of his relatives nearer his age. I was not a recipient and never knew him, but there is no question that the wealth earned by stealing the labor of black people ran through my family for generations.  To say that we didn’t benefit from slavery isn’t really true. My ancestors not only owned slaves and engaged in chattel slavery, they fought to later romanticize the past and keep black people in their place at a time when the descendants of enslaved people needed social services, land, good jobs, freedom, voting rights, and any number of things white people took (take?) for granted.

The entire pamphlet, Across America with the Bruce and Morgan Families, is available on my Flickr at the link below. You can also read more about the Bruce-Morgan families and the plantation in the book, The Life of Henry Bruce (also linked below).  Both give insights into how extensive the plantation operations were, with my ancestors creating their own silk, linen, and a thriving pork farm all made possible from slave labor.

P.S. Just wanted to add that even being able to look up your genealogy is white privilege. It's one of the many reasons why I have a lot of respect for Henry Louis Gates, Jr. since he kind of brought this issue to national attention in the show Finding Your Roots, which I am a big fan of. Enslaved people lost all their connections to the Old World when they were sold/stolen and so their family trees only date back to the era of slavery, a time during which they were not allowed to write anything down and didn't have the normal birth and death registries that whites had.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/66584632@N04/albums/72157702811898802/with/33011938378/

https://archive.org/details/lifeofhenrybruce00morg

William Bruce Morgan and Ruth Stemm at the 1925 Morgan Reunion

My maternal great grandparents are Ruth Stemm and William Bruce Morgan. The only picture I have of them together is from this family reunion image. I obtained this image from Bessie who runs Ancestral Ties. William and Ruth are labeled here.

You can also see here in the front row my great great grandfather, Woodson Morgan. On either side of him are two of his brothers. Row 1 has a Lura Morgan listed and I've always wondered if that was the namesake of my grandmother, Mary Lura Morgan. Also, you will note the name Henry Bruce Morgan. Henry Bruce was his grandfather, a rags to riches man who secured the marriage of several Bruces to several Morgans. The tradition of naming descendants to reflect this union of families continued until my mother's generation (i.e. my uncle Bruce Weill) and on both sides of the family. 

Woodson and his siblings and parents are listed here in this country register. 

Lucinda Morgan married the Reverend W.T. Green. Note her middle name of Bruce. Their images and a little bit about how they came to do missionary work in Mexico can be found in this book. 

More on Gerard Morgan and Henry Bruce to come. 

Earnest A. Weill III World War II Photos

I may have  shared a few of these in the past, but here are some more photos that my grandfather, Ernest A. Weill, took during his time stationed in Europe during WWII. I find them utterly captivating.

And this one is my personal favorite. I feel like this one belongs in a museum!

Ernest A. Weill II Marriage License

So, I just found this gem in my genealogy files. Ernest A. Weill II, my great grandfather, was married to Jessie Glenn. He remarried to Chessie Compton. Yes, the brides' first names are very similar. This is their marriage license and you can see she has had to correct her name, from Jessie to Chessie. Just a weird piece of history.

Bonus pic of Ernest with his buddies, "riding" an alligator. I love this pic more than words can express.

Mary Heichelbech

Mary William "Bill" Heichelbech (née) Knott, aka Dot. Seen here at the St. Meinrad Abbey in Indiana in 1923. She was my grandmother and I had never seen her at this age before. I love her outfit and her smile. 

My Whirligig Fair Book

I wanted to share with you some pictures of a book my great grandmother, Ruth Stemm wrote and illustrated, published in 1929. She was a very talented artist, though little of her work survives with identification. I say that because she supplied Virginia Snow Studios and other art and ad agencies with artwork for advertising and may not have always been credited. This colorful, delightful book has such sweet images. She dedicated it to my grandmother, Marylu (aka Mary Lura aka Mother Mary) and Billy (aka William Bruce aka Uncle Bruce). These photos were generously sent to me by my uncle Larry. I love to see our family's artwork!

Amanda Smoker and William Wesley Stemm

It's been so long since I last posted they've gone and changed the format of Blogger. Whoops. Upwards and onwards.

Here we have Ruth Stemm's parents, my g-g-grandparents, Amanda Smoker and William Wesley Stemm. Hand-written caption by Uncle Bruce Morgan (my grandmother's brother). Date this was taken is unknown, but I would guess 1890s or later. Her parents were Jacob Zook Smoker and Mary Anne Smoker (nee Smiley). I read somewhere that the Elkhart Smokers got their name from the Mennonite Smucker, which lines up with family lore that Amanda's parents did not want her out a-courtin' because they were very strict, devout, and modest. It seems strange to think about 'regular' people marrying a Mennonite today, but back then the differences would have been fewer considering that most people were poor, modest, and working the land.

I have no info about his parents. Seems like I heard they were farmers as well, but I have no source info now on that.

I do have the census from 1900 showing these two, my grandmother Ruth and her sister Winifred. I've never heard anything about Winifred. I read somewhere that she married a Williams. Not sure if that's correct. The fact that both have parents born in Pennsylvania adds a little anecdotal evidence to
the Mennonite theory.

I found Amanda's grave here. And found some info on William through findagrave. From the Thursday, December 5, 1935 Rochester Sentinal:

Friends in this city have received word of the death of William W. STEMM, aged 76, which occurred at his home in Goshen Tuesday after an operation. Mr. Stemm for over fifty years was a traveling salesman for an Indianapolis paint house and Rochester was in his territory. The deceased was one of nine children. He was born near Silver Lake. He was a brother of the late Ira STEMM of this city. The widow, two daughters and two sisters, survive. Funeral services were held in Goshen Thursday afternoon.

Memorial for Bruce Weill

Firstly, I would like apologize for my loooong absence here. Moving across the country is rough, time-consuming, draining, and generally a thing that one needs time to recover from. I do not recommend it for those who are easily taxed. On this Memorial Day, I just wanted to share a link that my mother posted to my Uncle Bruce's Memorial page. Thank you to all who served.

The family photos made it across the country with me. I left behind my old scanner/printer only to find a new one on the street recently (that works!). So, scanning of documents will continue, but at a fairly slow pace perhaps.

Below is a scan of Bruce's (my uncle) letter home that Ana (my mother) describes in her memorial post. He also mentions my father's mother, Mary Heichelbech, in his letter.

It's been a while

Sorry, I've been away so long. I wanted to let you all know that I have added some more scans of old photos in the "genealogy items' set on flickr.

Margaret (Glenn) Emory, being given away by her brother Duke, on her marriage to Ken Emory

WWII Photos from Ernest A. Weill III

My grandfather, Ernest Alfonso Weill III, took many photos while stationed in Europe during WWII. I have put them in the "Genealogy" section of my flickr account for you guys to see. This is where I will be putting all future genealogy-related pics, as it is easier than hosting them on my personal website.

destruction in WWII

Mom's house featured in the homes section of the paper

Not related to genealogy, but Mom's house was recently featured in the local paper. I've created a flickr account and scans of it can be found there.

 

 

 

 

 

My flickr is here

Henrietta (Neicam) Weill and EAWI

Henrietta (Neicam) Weill was born in/near Alsace-Lorraine  in 1854. She was married to Ernest A. Weill I (also born in/near Alsace-Lorraine around 1860) and they emigrated to the U.S. together.  I do not have a picture of EAW that I know of, but I do have one of Henrietta.

Henrietta (Neicam) Weill, 1870s- on the back of the pic the photographer boasts awards at the 1873 Industrial Exhibition

Henrietta is the mother of Ernest A. Weill II, Anna (Weill) Johnston, Lawrence Weill, and Joseph Weill. She also had a little boy Henry who died in childhood. She passed away in 1938. Ernest died in 1900 visiting back in Alsace-Lorraine.  I have no parent info for EAWI. EDIT: According to my Uncle Larry, EAWI father was named August. Will have to do more research on that one!

Grave of Henrietta Weill with notation of Anna (Weill) Johnston, Rosehill Elmwood Cemetery, Owensboro KY

Henrietta's parents are John Neicam (1827-1904) and Ann Elizabeth "Lisettie" (Ruprecht) Neicam (1829-1890), born in Germany/Bavaria.

John and Lisettie Neicam's gravestone in Rosehill Elmwood Cemetery, Owensboro KY

Both of the headstone pics and some of the accompanying info was found on findagrave.com which has really a lot of our family catalogued there.

Also, I'm wondering if a flickr account isn't in order since I have SO many documents and pictures to share with you all.  Your thoughts on the matter, please?