Tag Archive for History

“All History is Personal:” August 1961

July 24, 2011 Craig Family History, Genealogy
US Tank at Ckpt Charlie

The year 1961 was eventful for several reasons.  It marked the centennial of the Civil War, the first manned space flights, the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, and the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, among other events.

In August, 1961, my father, then a captain in the United States Army, was sent on temporary duty from his post in Karlsruhe, Germany, to Berlin. The purpose of his travel remains unknown to me and likely was secret at the time (he was, among other things, a trusted agent who took classified information between NATO capitals). To comprehend the personal and global significance of being in Berlin in August, 1961, one must understand the events between the end of World War II and the spring and summer of 1961.

The so-called Cold War commenced almost immediately upon the end of World War II in Europe in April, 1945.  The army of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had captured Berlin, then the capital of Germany.  The Western allies, led by the United States of America, soon completed their sweep through western Germany and met up with Soviet forces at the Elbe river.

The Allied Powers (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the USSR) each took control of separate sectors of Germany; the largest sector being the Soviet-controlled sector.  Berlin, the once and future capital of Germany, was deep in the Soviet sector.  Nonetheless, all four Allies controlled Berlin, which was also divided into sectors.  The US, UK and French sectors comprised West Berlin and the Soviet sector was East Berlin.

In the spring of 1948, the Soviets imposed a blockade on land transportation routes into West Berlin.  The Soviets later cut off land-based utilities and communications to West Berlin. The Western powers responded with a ’round-the-clock airlift of supplies to the city via Tempelhof Airport which was located in the US sector.  The successful eleven-month airlift, known as “Operation Vittles,” became one of the most historic events in military aviation.

In 1949, the Western powers created the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) from the three western sectors of the country, but not including the sectors of Berlin.  The Soviets likewise proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Germany (Deutschen Demokratischen Republik or DDR) in East Germany.  East Berlin was made the capital of the DDR; a rather small city, Bonn, in the British sector near Cologne (Koln) was made the “provisional” capital of the Bundesrepublik.

Not surprisingly, relations between East and West were tense in Berlin. From 1949 to 1961, millions of people living in the DDR escaped to the West via Berlin.  The Soviets and their puppet governors in East Germany made dire threats to the Western powers about supporting and encouraging such “unlawful” emigration.

My father had arrived in Berlin on Sunday, August 13, 1961. On Monday morning, August 14, 1961, my mother and I woke up to the following on page 1 of the Stars & Stripes, the US military newspaper in Europe from which we got most of our news:

Reds Block East Germans from Entering West Berlin

Allies, West Germans Can Cross

BERLIN (AP)–The Communist regime Sunday barred East Germans from entering West Berlin in a bid to dam the flow of refugees to the West.

Hundreds of armed police and steel-helmeted troops closed the border between East and West Berlin completely for about two hours.

About 4 a.m. (Berlin time) traffic was resumed again, except that no East Berliner or East German was allowed to enter the West sectors.

. . .  . . .  . . .

The measure was directed against the flow of refugees. They have been fleeing Red rule at record speed.

We were able to ascertain that Dad was safe. But he was concerned for us, and rightly so. The whole family, Dad included, was supposed to leave Germany in a couple of weeks for his new assignment at Sandia Base, the semi-secret nuclear weapons base near Albuquerque, New Mexico. This matter in Berlin soon took on all the features of a major political and military crisis that had the potential to keep Dad in Germany, if not in Berlin, for another year.

By Wednesday, August 16, 1961, the Navy had announced that personnel scheduled to leave the service in the remainder of 1961 would be indefinitely “frozen.” President Kennedy had announced that the Air Force would increase its strength by 28,000 airmen.  This would be accomplished in part by calling to active duty some 18 Air National Guard squadrons.

On Sunday, August 20, 1961, the President ordered 1500 Army troops to augment the 11,000 man garrison in Berlin. The troops arrived on Monday, August 21, 1961, met by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, just a few yards away from the Soviet sector.

What would we do if Dad had to stay in Germany for another year? Many of our belongings were already packed. And school was about to start in Albuquerque. School, of course, was one of the main reasons that Dad had worked hard to get the assignment to Sandia Base.

Where would we go if the Soviet and American tanks facing off with each other in Berlin began shooting? (The U.S. Seventh Army, which was U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR)  had a plan called  “NEO,” to be executed in the event of a shooting crisis. The acronym stood for “noncombatant evacuation operations,” i.e., “Get the women and children out of here!”).

On August 25, 1961, the Stars & Stripes reported:

U.S. ARMOR LINES UP ALONG BERLIN BORDER
Patton Tanks Put on Alert

BERLIN (AP)–American Patton tanks drew up and faced Communist forces across the border with East Berlin Wednesday.

U.S. military authorities refused to say how many vehicles were lined up along the line that divides the American sector from the Soviet sector.  At least 25 tanks of Company F, 40th Armor, have been seen here on parade.

. . .     . . .    . . .

Meanwhile, the British sent a company of about 120 infantrymen  with mortars and anti-tank guns to the Barndenburg Gate. The French deployed light units in patrols along their border.

The East Germans trundled up several squadrons of armored cars with light artillery pieces. They were at the Bradenburg Gate and behind some buildings on the east side of Friedrichstrasse.

“]US Tank at Ckpt CharlieI pause to consider how different life would have been for the world and for me individually if we had had to leave Germany in a hurry because of a deepening of the crisis. Playing out the possibilities for the world is just about unbearable to contemplate. But if the crisis had gotten much more serious, then our family most likely would have gone to Kansas City, Missouri, where my mother grew up and where her mother and several siblings still lived.  And my life would have  been completely different. (Of course, every life on Earth would have been different, too, if the crisis went to its ultimate conclusion).

By that last week in August, the U.S. military was giving serious thought to implementing NEO immediately. But one woman had another idea, according to the Stars & Stripes:

Leghorn, Italy (UPI) — An American woman, wife of an Army engineer and mother of five, proposed that U.S. families in Europe “volunteer to be hostages for peace” during the Berlin crisis.

Mrs. Mary C. Wolz, wife of an Army civilian engineer stationed here, said U.S. and NATO families in Europe should stick it out rather  than be sent home or flee home.

“We should stay here to convince Europe that we will risk everything it does,” she said in an open letter to the English language Daily American in Rome.

“If the situation becomes so serious that we must be sent home–and it would be bad timing to order evacuation while pressing for a solution to the crisis–then home is no haven,” she said.

To be continued

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Some Reflections on Veterans’ Day

November 10, 2010 Craig Family History

Why is Veterans’ Day so important to Americans?  Some think the answer is because we have an inherently militaristic society, ready to celebrate war at the drop at a hat.  Or because the military-industrial complex benefits from the political fires that can be stoked by the emotional appeal of the day.

But none of that is true.  In fact, it is the exact opposite which is true. In America, we do not have a “military class,” as many societies, present and past, have had.  Our military is drawn from American communities, some average, some extraordinary, which to one extent or another represent American values.  We don’t have a militaristic society in America, we have an American society in America’s military.

We do not sequester our future soldiers at infancy, to be raised as warriors.  Rather, our warriors were raised as Americans, then called to a duty to protect American values.  So our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen, grew up as the kid down the street, the girl in glee club, the guy who was a whiz at math, the kid who couldn’t stand school, and the kid who loved it.  They are the sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, of ordinary people. That is why we find veterans of all ethnic groups, religions, and political opinions in our society today.

While it’s not correct to say that America is a militaristic society, it is correct to say that America is a “militia” society.  What does that mean?  It means that we are a society that frankly abhors a narrow monopoly of a military.  This is evident in American history and law. Historically, our colonies did not have large standing armies.  Defense was an obligation shared by all.  And as the colonies federated into the United States of America, nearly every state had or has a statute defining the militia, usually words to this effect:

The militia of the State consists of all able-bodied male
citizens and all other able-bodied males who have declared their
intention to become citizens of the United States, who are between
the ages of eighteen and forty-five, and who are residents of the
State, and of such other persons as may upon their own application be
enlisted or commissioned [this clause includes women].

Calif. Military &  Veterans Code, section 122.

Federal law  is virtually identical:

The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.

Title 10, United States Code, section 311(a).

State Governors and the President of the United States may call their respective militias as specified in law.  This is the manifestation of defense as civic community duty in a democratic society.  So if we have a special military caste in America, we’re all in it.

Even in America’s major wars, the notion of citizen as solider has held fast.  That this notion has often been effectuated by “conscription” is of no moment at all.  The draft is merely a method by which the state decides which members of militia will be assigned duties and in which order.

“But,” one may protest, “the militia society concept is at sharp odds with the large standing military establishment the United States maintained in the Cold War.”  I say, “Not so.”

In the first three decades of the Cold War, the defense establishment of the nation was sustained by the selection of members of the militia to serve short tours of active duty.  Some of these members were chosen by “conscription” and some were volunteers.  In  1973, the United States stopped its active draft and created an “all volunteer force.”  Many predicted at the time that this was a move which endangered democracy by enhancing the potential to segregate the military from mainstream American values.  At the time, I was one who held this view. (Full disclosure: I joined the soon-to-be “all volunteer force” in 1972 and was an active participant for the next thirty-four years in one form or an other.)  Now having observed the “all volunteer force” for four decades, I am convinced that the military is not estranged from American society, that we have not created an elite warrior class to lord it over the rest of us and the rest of the world.  We continue have a a force made up ordinary people called upon, from a variety of motives, to participated in the “organized” militia or the “active” militia which makes up our defense.  [I use these terms to include the standing active duty forces as well as the reserve components, the latter having been the original historical militia].

The point is that military veterans are at their core, a reflection of the families and communities from whence they come.  The celebration of veterans is a celebration of the best of what we are collectively.  The greatest threats to our liberty will come from a failure to recognize and embrace the manifestation and triumph of our shared values, values so transcendent, that millions of our fellows have been willing to risk their very lives in their defense.

And that’s why Veterans Day is a big deal to Americans.

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GeneaBlogie Grand Genealogy Journey – Day 1: Sacramento

June 30, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy, Sacramento

Downtown Sacramento near the river

Sacramento has often been overlooked by visitors to Northern California; the same visitors are frequently mesmerized by the city some 90 miles away called San Francisco. Dissing Sacramento used to be a favorite pastime of the cognoscenti.   “It’s too hot!”  “It’s too dry!”  “It’s too flat!”  “It’s got no culture!” Even the California Supreme Court refuses to have its main office in Sacramento, which is after all, the capital of California.  The Court long ago chose San Francisco as its seat.

In fact, there would be little of anything that one likes about San Francisco had it not been for Sacramento.

On the site of present -day Sacramento, a settlement called Sutter’s Fort was founded in 1840 by Johann Augustus Sutter,  a former Swiss army officer with something of a history of bad business judgment.   In addition to the fort on the eastern bank of the Sacramento river, Sutter established a sawmill in the eastern foothills.  In January of 1848, one of Sutter’s business associates, John Marshall, found gold at the mill located in Coloma, California.  Despite Marshall’s and Sutter’s efforts let word out, news of the gold discovery spread rapidly.    Soon, several hundred thousand people were on their way to California.  Sacramento became the commercial outpost for the Gold Rush.

Originally known as New Helvetia, the city was planned and named by Sutter’s son.

John Sutter

Johann Augustus Sutter (1803-1880) called himself "John" after he came to America.

With the influx of immigrants from around the world, Sacramento was a booming center of commerce in the 1850s.  The Legislature decided in 1854 to make Sacramento the capital. [The Legislature had sat in Monterey, San Jose, and Benicia.  The apocryphal story is told that Sacramento civic boosters planned a party aboard a river boat for legislators in Benicia.  The boat was stocked with fine liquor and many prostitutes.  As the lawmakers got drunker, the boat moved upriver through the night to Sacramento.  When daylight came, the disgraced legislators were too embarrassed to return to Benicia and decided to stay in Sacramento!]

Sacramento played an important role in  changing the history of America.  A Connecticut engineer named Theodore Judah had come to California and built the Sacramento Valley railroad.  This  was the first railroad west of the Mississippi.  It ran from Sacramento’s Embarcadero to Folsom, a mining town on the western edge of the gold fields.  But Judah had bigger plans: he wanted to build a trans-continental railroad.  To finance his big plan, Judah sought venture capital in and around San Francisco.   There were no takers.  Judah then returned to Sacramento and found four local men, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, Collis Huntington, and Mark Hopkins, who were willing to take a risk on Judah’s plans.  The “Big Four” as they were known formed the Central Pacific Railroad Company to build Judah’s railroad over the Sierra–a plan thought foolhardy by more than just a few.

Theodore Judah

Theodore Judah (1826-1863) died before the Transcontinental railroad was completed.

The grand plan was that the Central Pacific Railroad would be built from the west and link to the Union Pacific Railroad being built from Omaha.  Two Acts of Congress and generous grants of government land helped the project along.  And as every schoolchild knows (or at least used to know), six years of work, much of it through the Civil War, culminated in March 1869 with the driving of the last spike to unite the lines at Promontory Summit, Utah.

The greatest technological feat of the nineteenth century wouldn’t have happened as it did but for the four Sacramento businessmen who believed in the project. The railroad changed American commerce forever.

Before the railroad was completed, Sacramento was the western terminus of the Pony Express.

5Mark Hopkins, Jr. Collis Huntington
Leland Stanford Charles Crocker

The “Big Four”: Mark Hopkins, Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker.  Stanford went on to serve as Governor and United States Senator from California, and founded Leland Stanford, Jr., University. Crocker later founded a bank which became Crocker Bank (later acquired by Wells Fargo).  It was a Crocker Bank branch in the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael (home of the GeneaBlogie  Bloggcast Center) in 1975 raided by Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army, resulting in the killing of customer Myrna Opsahl.

Sacramento today is at the heart of a metropolitan area of about 2 million people.  Agriculture remains important in this region, but a slew of high-tech and service industry business has moved in to supplement state government employment.   Situated at the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers, Sacramento is nicknamed “River City,” and is sometimes called The City of Trees because of its lush foliage.

So today we’re at the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento where it all began. The Museum occupies the space on the Embarcadero where the Sacramento Valley line had begun.  It’s regarded as the most popular rail museum in North America.  Stay awhile; have a look around.

California Railroad Museum

California State Railroad Museum

Sacramento is not a town to forget its origins. Today, not far from the railroad museum, you can visit the renowned Crocker Art Museum, endowed by Judge Edwin B. Crocker and his wife Margaret.   Edwin Crocker was the older brother of Charles Crocker and was legal counsel to the Central Pacific Railroad.  “The Crocker” currently is undergoing a multi-million dollar arenovation that will triple the size of its exhibit space. The expanded museum is expected to open in October 2010.  The Crocker is at 216 O Street.

A few blocks from The Crocker is the Stanford Mansion, 800 N Street, a National Historic Landmark known officially as  Leland Stanford State Historic  Park.  Gov. Leland and Jane Stanford resided here.  Take a look around this place!Stanford Mansion

Although Gov. Stanford and two other  succeeding Governors lived here in the late 1800s, California now has no official Governor’s Mansion.  The Stanford house is California’s official reception center for visiting dignitaries.

When you’re finished there, you can go across the street to the California State Library, located at 900 N Street. The Library’s California History Room has many genealogical and family history research resources,

California State Library

including the 1852 California State census, a statewide index to the 1890, great register of voters (a very useful substitute for the 1890 census), city and county directories, going back as far as 1850, historical newspapers, and telephone directories dating from 1899.

A block away from the state library is California’s State Capitol.  Just inside the entrance of the capital, is the state Capitol Museum. This museum has replicas of the offices in the capitol building at the time it was completed in 1874 (after 14 years of construction and 2000% overbudget!).   The museum also has an extensive art collection and an architectural history collection.  And, of course, it has collections relevant to the legislative process in California.

California State Capitol Museum

The California State Archives, a division of the office of the secretary of state of California, is located a short walk away from the Capitol grounds at 1020 O Street.  The archives houses, among other things, County records from 1850 to 1987, including probate court files, wills, naturalizations, deeds, homesteads and vital records for 28 counties. You’ll also find here prison records from 1850-1979, military records from 1850-1942, and state mental hospital records from 1856-1934.

California State Archives

California State Archives at 1020 O Street

The California Secretary of State also operates the California Museum for History, Women and Arts, at the same location as the archives.  This museum known simply as The California Museum, has taken on a more diverse set of exhibits under the patronage of First Lady Maria Shriver.

Here at the California Museum, we’re about 10 blocks away from the Embarcadero.  We’ll head back north on 10th Street to I Street, and turn north.  At 8th and I Streets, is the Central Library, the largest location of the 27-branch  Sacramento Public Library. On the second floor of the library is the Sacramento Room, often described as the “Jewel in the Crown” of the Library. The Sacramento Room houses more than 21,000 artifacts of local history in a climate controlled environment.

sacramento room

The Central Library's Sacramento Room

Elsewhere in the library, you’ll find Ancestry Library Edition and the New England Ancestors database. The Central Library also has a collection of Sacramento city directories, a fair selection of genealogical books, and publications from hundreds of genealogical organizations around the country.

I’ll also point out that Sacramento has its LDS Regional Family History Center in the suburb of Arden-Arcade, and in other Family History Center in the suburb of Elk Grove.

So now it’s time to head for the train station.  Fortunately, from the Central Library, it’s just three blocks to the Amtrak Sacramento Valley station. We’ll be catching the California Zephyr to Salt Lake City.  See you on board!  Don’t be late!

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Georgia Digital Library Now Provides Access to Atlanta Historical Newspapers

April 10, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy

The following information was provided by the Digital Library of Georgia last week:

A new digital database providing online access to 14 newspaper titles published in Atlanta from 1847 to 1922 is now available through the Digital Library of Georgia, housed at The University of Georgia Libraries.

The Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive (http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/atlnewspapers) consists of more than 67,000 newspaper pages and provides historical images that are both full-text searchable and can be browsed by date.

“This site will provide users with a record of Atlanta’s history from its origins as a railroad terminus, through the devastation of the Civil War, to its eventual growth into one of the nation’s largest cities,” said Toby Graham, director of the Digital Library of Georgia and deputy university librarian. “Of great interest to anyone curious about Atlanta history, it promises to be invaluable to researchers on any number of topics.”

The archive includes the following Atlanta newspaper titles: Atlanta Daily Examiner (1857), Atlanta Daily Herald (1873-1876), Atlanta Georgian (1906-1911), Atlanta Intelligencer (1851, 1854-1871), Atlantian (1911-1922), Daily/Georgia Weekly Opinion (1867-1868), Gate-City Guardian (1861), Georgia Literary and Temperance Crusader (1860-1861), New Era (1869-1872), Southern Confederacy (1861-1864), Southern Miscellany, and Upper Georgia Whig (1847), Southern World (1882-1885), Sunny South (1875-1907), Weekly Constitution (1869-1882).

The Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia as part of the Georgia HomePLACE initiative. The project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

Other newspaper archives available through the Digital Library of Georgia include the Macon Telegraph Archive (1826-1908), the Columbus Enquirer Archive (1828-1890), the Milledgeville Historic Newspaper Archive (1808-1920), the Southern Israelite Archive (1929-1958, 1984-1986), and the Red and Black Archive (1893-2006). These archives can be accessed at: http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/MediaTypes/Newspapers.html

Comment: I love old newspapers, and I do Georgia research. This collection covers very important times in Georgia and US history. I’m quite eager to dig into this collection and see what’s there.  Of course we’ll report back.  For more information about the Atlanta historical newspapers contact Toby Graham, tgraham@uga.edu, 706.542.7123, at the Digital Library of Georgia.

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“Restore My Name:” The First Edition of the Carnival of African-American Genealogy

March 18, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy, Uncategorized

Luckie Daniels, proprietor of Our Georgia Roots, a tenacious researcher and tech expert, has taken on the hosting of the first edition of the Carnival of African-American Genealogy.   The theme for the first edition concerns slave research.   Participants are asked to answer one or more of the following questions:

  • What responsibilities are involved on the part of the researcher when locating names of slaves in a record?
  • Does it matter if the record(s) are related to your ancestral lines or not?
  • As a descendant of slave owners, have you ever been pressured by family not to discuss or post about records containing slave names?
  • As a descendant of slaves, have you been able to work with or even meet other researchers who are descendants of slave owners?
  • Have you ever performed a Random Act of Genealogical Kindness involving slave ownership records? Or were you on the receiving end of such kindness?

Although I am the descendant of slaves and slave owners, I’ve never ben privileged to receive salve ownership records from any slaving-owning descendant.  That is one area about which I have been disappointed in my research.    I’ve come close, though.

One family in my paternal line is the Sanfords of Milam County, Texas. William “Billie” Sanford was born  a slave in about 1809 in Virginia.  He is my 2d great-grandfather.  He was owned by a member of the extended Sanford families who lived in Virginia at that time; most probably James Sanford (1769-1849).  When James Sanford moved his family to Tennessee inm the 1820s, they apparently took William with them.  James Sanford died in  1849 in Williamson County, Tennessee.  His son Reuben Sanford, had died three years earlier, also in Williamson County, Tennessee. Upon James’ death, it appears that his daughter-in-law, Mary (“Polly”) Wood Sanford, took charge of the family property, including the slaves.

In about 1854, Mary Wood Sanford relocated the family to Milam County, Texas, taking the slave William with them.  (A cousin of mine told me  recently that the story is that William walked from Tennessee to Texas pushing a wheelbarrow in which sat some of the Sanford children.)

In Milam County, Texas, William was the property of Rueben Henry Sanford, the sixth child of Mary and Reuben.

I’ve been in contact with several members of the white Sanfords, but none were direct descendants of Rueben and Mary.  They have all been very cooperative and we have helped each other solve problems in our respective research.   I’m glad to have found them.  However, I would love to find direct descendants of Reuben and Mary Sanford, who may have ownership documents or who may have heard stories about William.

Reuben Henry Sanford died on 30 Jun 1910.   His former slave, William Sanford, lived until 20 November 1916, when he died at age 106.  He was described by one source as “the oldest colored person ever to die in Milam County.”  His death certificate states in no fewer than three places that his cause of death was “old age.”

A family member described William to me as having been nearly seven feet tall and weighing more than 300 pounds.

Recently, I was in brief contact with a woman whose ancestors held part of my wife’s family as slaves.  I asked if she had  heard the story of the slaves’ daring escape during a Civil War battle.  She said she had not heard the story, but that she was veyr sorry for the things that those particular slaves had endured.  She seemed regretful but not surprised that her ancestors owned slaves.  I let the matter drop, but now wish I could engage with her a bit more.

I haven’t been fortunate enough to locate any other descendants of slaveownwers relevant to my research. (I do know, for example, that Reese Witherspoon is a collateral descendant of Boykin Witherspoon who held some of my ancestors in bondage.)

I think this budding dialogue between descendants of slaves and descendants of slave owners is a mightily important step for American genealogy and history. It’s time the whole story be told, in all its sorrow, cruelty, complexity, and ambiguity.  That’s the only way we’ll all understand ourselves as Americans who value openness and truth.

I’ve been inspired by the example of Luckie and others to reach out myself to the descendants of those who held my ancestors in bondage.

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Womens History Month: Womens Airforce Service Pilots

March 17, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy

Adapted and updated from “Memorial Day 2009″ which first appeared simultaneously at GeneaBlogie and The Peripatetic Graveyard Rabbit on May 25, 2009.

If you haven’t been to Arlington, Virginia in the last several years, you may not recognize the two memorials shown above.  The top one is the “Women in Military Service for America” memorial and it stands near the gate of Arlington National Cemetery. The next one is the Air Force Memorial, a short distance away on the grounds of Fort Myer.

The women’s memorial is intended to recall all women who gave their lives in military service.  And the Air Force Memorial is to commemorate “the service and sacrifices of the men and women of the United States Air Force and its predecessor organizations.”  But there’s one group of servicewomen who were nearly forgotten by the Government with respect to recognition.  That group is the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (“WASPs”) of World War II.   These were the first women pilots employed by the United States  military.

The government first used women to fly military airplanes in 1942.  The Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) was formed in September of that year under the command of Nancy Harkness Love at New Castle Army Air Base, Delaware.  This unit ferried aircraft from factories to airfields, freeing the male pilots for combat duty.

Nancy Love, commander, Womens Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, with squadron member Betty Gilles, 1942. Love and Gilles were the first women to fly the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber.

In 1943, the Army activated the 319th Women’s Flying Training Detachment at Ellington Army Air  Field,  near Houston, Texas.  The commander was renowned aviator Jacqueline Cochran.  Later, the two women’s flying units were combined under the name “Women’s Airforce Service Pilots.”   Cochran was given overall command, and training was moved to Avenger Field near Sweetwater, Texas.

The women pilots flew almost every military aircraft in the U.S. inventory.  In addition to ferrying duty, the WASPs towed targets for live-fire antiaircraft exercises, trained male pilots in some of the advanced aircraft, flew simulated bomb and strafing runs for training combat troops, and performed other flying duties when and where necessary to relieve male pilots.

On March 3, 1943, Margaret Sanford Oldenberg of Contra Costa County, California, became the first WASP to die in the line of duty when her plane crashed five miles from the airfield.  Overall, thirty-eight women were killed in the line of duty.

In 1944, General  Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, commanding general of the U.S.  Army Air Forces, declared the WASP mission to be over.  On December 7, 1944, Arnold appeared at Avenger Field and said the WASPs had helped move the country “toward the final moment of victory” and that the sacrifices of the thirty-eight who died would be “long remember[ed].”  It would be nearly four decades before women flew U.S. military aircraft again.

The Government did not consider the WASPs to be service veterans.  They were therefore entitled to no medals, and no funeral honors.  That began to change in 1977 when Congress passed a law permitting the Secretary of Defense to recognize the WASPs as having performed military duty.  In 1984, the WASPs were indiviudally awarded the World War II Victory Medal and the American Campaign Medal.

Despite these changes for the WASPs, the Army, which operates Arlington National Cemetery, refused to allow WASP members to be buried there until 2002.

Jacqueline Cochran (center), commander, 319th Women's Flying Training Detachment, surrounded by new trainees, 1942.

In 2002, former WASP Irene Kinne Englund died at age 84.  Her family attempted to have her buried at Arlington based on her WASP service.  They were told that she eligible, but only because her husband was a World War II veteran, not because of her own service.   Her daughter, Judith Englund, took up the cause for her mother and all WASPs. Several months later, the Army changed its mind.

One June 15, 2002, WASP Irene Kinne Englund became the first of her sisters of the air to have a full military funeral at Arlington.

By this year (2010), there are fewer than 300 of the more than 1100 WASPs still alive.   Last week, a number of those living aviation icons laid a wreath at the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Virginia and then were present in the U.S. Capitol to accept the Congressional Gold Medal, a final and fitting tribute to America’s female military aviation pioneers.

Carol Brinton Selfridge, 92 and a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots Class 44-5, and her grandaughter, Lt. Col. Christy Kayser-Cook, share a moment during the reception to honor women pilots who flew with the Women Airforce Service Pilots at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial March 9, 2010, at Arlington National Cemetery, Va. (U.S. Air Force Photo)

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Black Confederates: Inconvenient Truth or Racist-inspired Revisionism?

March 10, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy

A Long-Sought Photograph, Discovered, Stirs the Pot

The photograph of my second great-grandfather was in a book titled Black Confederates (Pelican Publishing 2001), which its editors and publisher  tout as a compilation of historical accounts, photographs and documents relating to blacks who served with rebel forces in the Civil War.  Lewis LeJay (1835-1921) is described in the book through an account given by Francis Chandler Furman, a Missouri geologist, who says he heard the story in 1970 from his father Greene Chandler Furman, who in turn heard it from his father, Francis Scrimzeuor Furman, who is the white man in military uniform standing next to Lewis LeJay in the photo.

According to the Furmans, Lewis had been born a slave on the plantation of Henry Marshall (1805-1864) in De Soto Parish, Louisiana. Marshall was perhaps the largest landowner in De Soto parish. His major holding was Land’s End plantation.  Marshall was a state senator and signed the Confederate Constitution as well as the Louisiana Ordinance of Secession. In 1858, Marshall’s daughter Mary was wed to Scrimzeour C. Furman, M.D., who was an officer in the first De Soto unit to enter the Civil War.  When Mary died, Dr. Furman married her younger sister, Mattie.  They had three children, a daughter and two sons, one of whom was Francis (“Frank”) Scrimzeour Furman. Frank became a physician like his father.

In 1917, the now-Capt Frank Furman was preparing to go to Camp Beauregard, LA, to become the chief of gas defense.  At Land’s End Plantation, Furman visited with the black servant he knew as “Daddy Lewis.”  Lewis gave the captain some advice about how to handle himself in combat.  Lewis’ knowledge in this area was derived form his experiences in the Civil War as a wagoneer with the Confederate artillery. He was supposedly shot in the shoulder and carried the bullet the rest of his life.  After having been shot and thought to be dead, he drove a wagon laden with gunpowder through Federal lines to supply a rebel company.

So Lewis LeJay was a black Confederate~or was he?  Were there black Confederate fighters or this a revisionist racist idea that’s right up there with Holocaust denial?

A researcher at a Finnish university says that “the role of African-Americans who fought for the Confederacy during  the American Civil War . . . [is] [p]erhaps one of the most silenced topics today in American history, and politically among the most delicate . . . .”  Indeed.

On the one side of the debate are those who categorically reject the notion that any black man fought willingly for the Confederacy.  These individuals generally acknowledge that there were some blacks with Confederate forces, but they contend that these were merely slaves dragged along by their masters.  Those on this side of the debate excoriate  as ignorant, racist, and dishonest anyone who dares to suggest that blacks may have been consensual actors on behalf of the Confederate  states. This group can brook no possibility other than the coercion of slavery as the reason for military action by southern blacks.

On the other side of the debate are those who claim thousands of blacks voluntarily served with Confederate forces; many motivated by affection for their masters and for the South itself.  Many in this camp also point to evidence of “happy slaves” who believed themselves better off with slavery than without it.

So were  there or were there not consensual black actors with Confederate forces? Is it racist to say “yes.”?

Let’s have a look at the evidence.  We will discover first that studies of the topic are sparse.  Some say that’s because there is no evidence worthy of academic study; others say that politics has squelched attempts to get at the truth of this matter.

Most historians agree that the Confederate states from the outset had no intention of recruiting black troops. In this respect, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were in apparent agreement.  Many  historians also agree that a number of enslaved blacks were present in battle zones often as “body servants” to their white masters who had joined the rebel forces.  But things get murky when the matters of black Confederate “volunteers” or formally organized black Confederate units are considered.

The book in which the picture of Lewis LeJay was found was edited by Charles Kelly Barrow, J.H. Segars, and R.B. Rosenburg. Barrow in particular has sought to “set straight” historical accounts of the Civil War and has authored or edited several works about supposed black fighters with the Confederate Army.  In 2002, the Southern Poverty Law Center, regarded as a near-iconic institution among a certain segment of civil rights activists, identified Barrow as holding several positions in the Sons of Confederate Veterans.  SPLC claims that SCV is run by individuals who are members of  “hate groups.”  In Barrow’s case, SPLC cites his membership in an organization called “League of the South.”

But the June 2005 Statement on Racism adopted by  the League of the South states:

We believe that Christianity and social order require that all people, regardless of race, must be equal before the law. We do not believe that the law should be used to persecute, oppress, or favour any race or class.
We believe that the only harmony possible between the races, as between all natural differences among human
beings, begins in submitting to Jesus Christ’s commandment to “love our neighbours as ourselves.” That is the
world we envision and work for.

We believe that the politics of race — baiting whites against blacks and blacks against white has been profitable for
politicians but catastrophic for the South and Southerners.

We believe that all Southerners – black and white – want and need the same things: a safe country for their families,
liberty, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let’s suppose for a minute that SPLC is “correct” and that Barrow is a racist. Does  that impeach his research on the Civil War?   In other words, can one be simultaneously a serious scholar and a “racist”?  My answer is, “It depends.” One thing it does not depend upon is the content of the view taken by the supposed scholar. Are Palestinian or Israeli academics disqualifed from membership in the community of serious scholars because of their points of view?

But back to the main issue.  In the May 10, 1862 number of Harper’s Weekly, it is reported:

The correspondent of the New York Herald, in one of its late numbers, reports that the rebels had a regiment of mounted negroes, armed with sabres, at Manassas, and that some five hundred Union prisoners taken at Bull Run were escorted to their filthy prison by a regiment of black men.

The image below appeared in Harper’s on January 10, 1863, captioned “Rebel Negro Pickets Seen through a Field Glass.”

Negro Confederate pickets

A number of African-Americans actively promote the notion there were black Confederate soldiers who have gone unrecognized.  Prominent among them are Ervin L. Jordan, Jr., and Nelson Winbush.  Jordan is an archivist and scholar at the University of Virginia.  He’s written a book called Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia (University Press of Virginia, 1995), which Publishers Weekly called an “exhaustively researched treatise.” Winbush is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Florida.  His grandfather, Louis Napolean Nelson, is said to have served with Company M, 7th Tennessee Cavalry, rising from cook to rifleman to chaplain.

Both Jordan and Winbush are outspoken about the need to tell the whole story about black Confederate troops.  Professor Jordan has been quoted as saying:

“Numerous Afro-Virginians, free blacks and slaves, were genuine Southern loyalists, not as a consequence of white pressure but due to their preferences. They are the Civil War’s forgotten people, yet their existence was more widespread than American history has recorded. Their bones rest in unhonored glory in Southern soil, shrouded by falsehoods, indifference and historians’ censorship.”

University of Virginia Professor Ervin L. Jordan, Jr.

Estimates of blacks who served in Confederate ranks range up to 80,000, although 65,000 seems to be a widely accepted number.

What would motivate a black man to serve the Confederate cause if he were not coerced into doing so?  Perhaps he might think he had a greater chance of survival if the agrarian South survived.  A Northern victory would mean uncertainty, ambiguity, more discomfort.  Or perhaps he might believe that there were rewards for himself and his family to be had from grateful Southern authorities if the Confederacy prevailed. present Or perhaps black Confederates represent an early manifestation of that psychology now described as “Stockholm Syndrome.”

I think there is little historical doubt that blacks served the Confederacy and that such service in many cases extended beyond that of personal valet.  I think there were a variety of motivations.  But two things should be clear: (1) the fact that the world may not have been as tidy as we now would wish it to have been is not an excuse for the exclusion, revision, or distortion of history; and (2) the fact that blacks may have served the Confederacy adds nothing to the emptiness of its moral and constitutional accounts.

What do you think?

Photograph of Prof. Jordan by LuAnn Williams from Spring 2004 Newsletter of the Carter Woodson Institute;

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The Book I’ve Been Waiting For

January 31, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy

It was raining as it had almost everyday about the time the mail came.  There was the usual detritus of our not-yet-paperless society and a package that looked like it had been around the world a couple of times.

“Hmm,” I thought, “this may be the book I’ve been waiting for.”  And indeed it was.  Seems I had given the sender a Zip Code that was one digit off my actual zip code.  And naturally, nobody actually reads the address except the Zip Code, so the book had been off to places exotic and mundane, but none close to the actual destination.

When I opened the battered package, I found the book had survived with nary a scratch.   It may well have been an allegorical allusion to the solid work I would find inside.

The book is called Wanted! subtitled US Criminal Records–Sources & Research Methodology. It’s the latest effort from Ron Arons (The Jews of Sing Sing).

In the Introduction,   Arons says “Whether you have a criminal ancestor in your family or are interested in learning more about a famous gangster or lesser known felon, you’ve come to the right place.”  Yes, indeed.

Arons gives several pages of practical advice on finding criminal records, but the meat of the book is its 365 page state-by-state finding aid for criminal records (he points out that most of such records are not  digitized and available directly on the Internet). In each state section one finds the name, web address, physical location and telephone number for repositories of criminal records.  For each repository, there is a table listing record types, location or call numbers, the author of the records, and of course a title and description.    Each state section also lists the federal records from that state held by the National  Archives, together with the location and contact information for the NARA facility with records from that state.

Some states are broken down to the county level.

The author has also included for every state a Web address by which to locate inmates or access a list of executions or both in that state. (The book covers all fifty states and the District of Columbia; it does not include the territories).

The records that  Arons  catalogs are prison  records, court records, parole and pardon records, and even some investigative and police reports.  He leavens the raw information with occasional photographs or documents that he has come across in his research, some of which relate to famous and notorious outlaws.  Some of these documents relate to Arons’ great-grandfather, Isaac Spier, the New York bigamist, the discovery of whose misdeeds led ultimately to the writing of The Jews of Sing Sing.

I found the book easy to use and accurate with respect to the websites and the state archives that I have had  experience with.  I have frequent need for criminal and court records and frankly, I’m waaay tired with websites that purport to give  directions to such information but are just a compilation of broken links.  Here, Arons has created a truly useful finding aid valuable to veteran researchers, librarians, archivists, law enforcement and legal historians, and biographers as well as the  occasional user.

Most people won’t stay up all night looking at this book cover-to-cover as I nearly did.   But most historical researchers sooner or later will need a finding aid to criminal records  As a lawyer and former judge, I’m glad to have this  “one-stop reference” as Arons calls it.  It really is the book I’ve been waiting for!

Wanted!  (Oakland, Calif.: Criminal Research Press 2009),

Copyright 2009, Ron Arons

Go to Ron Arons’ website, www.ronarons.com, for ordering information.

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Footnote.com Opens Their WWII Collection Free To The Public During December

December 6, 2009 Craig Family History, Genealogy

I’ve been a fan of Footnote.com since they opened.  I was very pleased to learn about their “interactive USS Arizona Memorial.” And that along with the rest of their World War II collection will be free for the rest of the month of December.

Here’s the press release:

Lindon, UT – December 7, 2009 – In honor of Pearl Harbor Day, Footnote.com announced today that they will make the largest interactive WWII collection on the web including the Interactive USS Arizona Memorial free to the public during December. Featuring over 10 million records, documents and photos from the National Archives, this collection helps family members and historians better understand the people and events of WWII.

Included in this exclusive collection is the Interactive USS Arizona Memorial. This online version allows people to view the actual wall of names and search for those they know. An interactive box for each name on the wall features additional information about each veteran and includes a place where anyone can contribute photos and stories. View the Captain of the USS Arizona, Franklin Van Valkenburgh, on the interactive wall.

It’s estimated that a little over 2 million WWII veterans are still alive in the United States today. However, thousands of veterans are passing away every month taking with them many of the stories from WWII. Footnote.com is making an effort to help preserve these stories by digitizing documents from the National Archives and providing interactive tools to help people connect with each other.

Christina Knoedler from Pennsylvania used the Missing Air Crew Reports on Footnote.com to discover information about her father-in-law, who is a WWII veteran. “The other night, I showed him what I had found,” explains Christina. “He couldn’t believe that these papers existed. They had not only his name but also his buddies’ names. He started to reminisce and it was quite an evening. This will allow me to go back and document many more events in our family’s history for the generations to come.”

The Missing Air Crew Reports are just one of the record collections found on Footnote.com. Other WWII collections on Footnote.com include:

*
Pearl Harbor Muster Rolls
*
U.S. Air Force Photos
*
Submarine Patrol Reports
*
Japanese Air Target Analysis
*
Army JAG Case Files
*
Navy JAG Case Files
*
Naval Press Clippings
*
Allied Military Conferences
*
Holocaust Records

“People are making fascinating discoveries in these records,” says Russell Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. “Reading some of the first-hand accounts helps you develop a different view and appreciation of our WWII heroes and what they went through.”

To experience the Interactive USS Arizona Memorial and the World War II visit http://www.footnote.com/wwii/.

About Footnote, Inc.
Footnote.com is a subscription website that features original historical documents, providing visitors with an unaltered view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com, all are invited to come share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit http://www.footnote.com.

Footnote.com Contact:
Justin Schroepfer
Marketing Director
(801) 494-6517
Justin@footnote.com

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Good Schools A Staple of Ancestors’ Lives

September 10, 2009 Craig Family History, Genealogy

This was produced for the 17th edition of “Smile for the Camera”

I really don’t have much in the way of  photographs on my ancestors’ school days.   I have in the past posted school census records from the very early twentieth century in Milam County, Texas, where my gg-grandmother and her descendants lived.  But I know virtually nothing about my Louisiana ancestors’ school experiences.

I have got somewhere a decent set of pictures of my siblings as they went through school, but I can’t find them right now!  So in the absence of that, I present some pictures and information about my parents’ high schools, both of which played significant roles not only in their local communities, but in the African-American community nationwide.

My mother attended Crispus Attucks Elementary School in the 1930′s and the historic Lincoln High School and Junior College (as it was then called) in Kansas City in the 1940′s [not to be confused with Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, which my mother also attended].  The school is now known as Lincoln College Preparatory Academy.  For African-Americans at  the end of the the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, Lincoln was one of the premier black schools in the whole country that attracted top faculty–many of whom held doctorates in their disciplines. The Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri observed in 1908:

One of the most noteworthy features of the public schools of Kansas City is the excellency of the high schools. At present there are four regular high schools equipped in all their appointments according to the most approved modern methods. . . . The Lincoln High School was established in 1887 for the education of the negro boys and girls of the city, and in which they not only pursue the branches of study common to most high schools, but they have in addition to Latin and Greek, French and German. Kansas City was the leader in taking the position that negroes only should teach her negro children in the negro schools [this position being considered very progressive at the time].

The Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, Howard L. Conrad, ed., Vol. 5,  p. 509 (The Southern History Co.: 1901) [Google Books link (accesses 9 Sept 2009)]

Here is a photograph of the way Lincoln High School looked in the 1920′s and 1930′s.

Historic Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri

Historic Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri

Crispus Attucks

Crispus Attucks

Crispus Attucks, of African and native American descent was the first casualty of the Revolutionary War; shot dead by British troops on Boston Common, March 5, 1770. Among my mother’s classmates at the elementary school named for him was Roger Wilkins, lawyer, professor, and civil rights leader.

My father attended the equally acclaimed Phillis Wheatley High School in Houston’s Fifth Ward.

The "New" Phillis Wheatley High School

The "New Phillis Wheatley High School

This school was named for the great African-American poet, Phillis Wheatley.

Originally located on Lyons Avenue, the school was remodeled for the first time in the 1940′s as my father’s class attended.  By the time they graduated in 1951, Wheatley was said by the Houston Chronicle to be “the finest negro high school in the South.”   At a reported cost of $2.5 million, it was the most expensive in Texas history to that point in time.

The annual Thanksgiving Football Classic between the Wheatley Wildcats and the Lions of the Third Ward’s Jack Yates High School was an event as important as any in black Houston. The demise of that great rivalry is considered to be one of the unintended consequence of the integration of Texas high school athletics in the 1960′s.

My father attended the ceremonies for the school’s 80th anniversary in 2007.  A year behind my dad at Wheatley was the late Barbara Jordan (1936-1996), who became a lawyer and later, an influential member of Congress.

Rep._Barbara_Jordan

Congresswoman Jordan (Phillis Wheatley class of 1952) was known for her great intellect and soaring oratory.

Anyone who arrived in Kansas City or Houston in the 1960′s or 1970′s would think I’m either crazy or lying about the prominence of these schools.  These schools by then had suffered tremendous decline caused in part, ironically, by the Brown vs. Board of Education case, which outlawed segregation in public education.   An unintended consequence was that African-Americans who could “get out,” did get out.  And the competition for faculty talent attracted some of the best and brightest teachers elsewhere, frequently to formerly “white” high schools.

After much litigation and agitation, it’s fair to say that the 1990′s set these schools  back on their original pathways.   Lincoln still serves a largely black population, while Wheatley’s student body is more likely to speak Spanish.

Now, just for grins, here are some pictures from my own school experience:

craig_manson

image

VB!_edited

VBJHS Cheer

MHS Ltr

From left to right:

1.  My senior class portrait, Monterey High School,  Monterey, California, 1972

2.  Can we all agree that there’s nothing geekier than winning the school letter in science ? Van Buren Junior High School, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1969.   See this post for a story about a Van Buren Junior High School science class.

3.   The afore-mentioned school letter, now a musty forty years later.

4.  The Vanguard Cheerleaders, Van Buren Junior High School, 1969:  Debbie Williams, Debbie Padilla, Kathleen Gregory; (standing) Marta Hoge, and Harriet Whitener. Where are they now? [BTW, over on Facebook, I’m hosting the 40th VBJHS Class of 1969 Reunion.  Classmates are invited to come!

5.  One of two school letters I won more or less legitimately as a member of the league champion Monterey High wrestling team. This is the JV one.  The varsity one is still on the jacket.

Photo Credits:
1. Lincoln High School: The Black Archives of Mid-America, Kansas City, Missouri, http://www.blackarchives.org/node/788 (accessed 10 September 2009).  Photographer unknown, exact date unknown.
2. Crispus Attucks (Artist’s conception): Wikipedia Commons, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crispus_Attucks.jpg (accessed 9 September 2009).  Artist, photographer unknown.  Believed to be in public domain.
3. The “New Wheatley High School,” Wikipedia Commons, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WheatleyHighSchoolHoustonTX.JPG (accessed 9 Sep  2009).  Photographer:  WhispertoMe. Date: 18 July 2009. Public Domain (released by photographer–see Wikipedia linked cited above).
4.  Barbara Jordan: Library of Congress. 1973. Available at Black Americans in Congress, Office of the Clerk, United States House of Representatives, http://baic.house.gov/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=67 (accessed 10 Sept 2009).  Public Domain (work of the United States Government).
5.  Craig Manson, Senior Class Portrait: Photographer unknown.  Date: 1971. Originally published in El Sussurro 1972 (Monterey High School Yearbook). Copyright 1972, Trustees of the Monterey PeninsulaUnified  School District, Monterey, California.
6.  Van Buren Junior High School Letter Award: Image scanned by Craig Manson, 9 Sept 2009. Original document in the possession of Craig Manson, Cramichael, California.
7. Van Buren Sweater Letter: Image scanned by Craig Manson, 9 Sept 2009. Original artifact (1969) in possession of Craig Manson, Carmichael, California.
8. Van Buren Junior High School Cheerleaders: Copyright 1968, FarWestPhotography, Denver, Colorado.  Originally published in The Albuquerque Tribune, p. B-7, January 30, 1969.
9.  Monterey High School “Block M” Award: Image scanned by Craig Manson, 9 Sept 2009. Original artifact (1971) in possession of Craig Manson, Carmichael, California.
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