Ancient faces

 

Unknown girls - from Lily Price collection

I received this picture from third cousin Lily Price a few years ago.  There was no writing on it and neither of us could identify the girls. I had completely forgotten about it until I was reorganizing the genealogy files on my computer. I imagine I can see family features in both girls. The one on the left looks very "Stinnett" to me while the other looks very "Coker". Their clothing looks turn-of-the 20th-century to me. The house looks more Missouri/Kansas/Oklahoma rather than what I have seen of the Arkansas habitats (reminder to self - get pictures from Cousin Karen). They appear to be fairly well-dressed and that doll doesn't look cheap so I'm also guessing that this picture was taken before the Depression. My family tended to have hunting dogs - springers and hounds - and I'm curious about that little furry critter too. I realize I'm making up a story in my head that is very subjective so I will leave you to wonder instead.

Dick Stinnett

Dick Stinnett -
courtesy Bill Stinnett

Richard Stinnett has been one of the most elusive of the Stinnett siblings. Even this picture taken in Salina, Kansas some time in the 1950s conceals his face from me (though something about his stance and the tilt of his head remind me of my Uncle Red). His obituary in the Salina Journal says he was born March 2, 1865 in Yellville, Arkansas.

I have yet to find Dick in any census records or city directories between his birth and his life in Salina where he first appears in a 1931 directory. He is living at 708 Hancock. The household includes his brother John and sister-in-law Lizzie as well as nephews Tex and George (and his wife Christina).

708 Hancock, Salina

Dick's death certificate says he was widowed (nephew Art Stinnett was informant). I found three marriage records that I believe to be associated with Dick. The first is dated September 19, 1896. The bride's name is difficult to read. She is indexed as Hettie McCormic at FamilySearch but when I look at the document her first name could be Hettie or Nettie and her last name looks more like McCurrin to me. I'm biased toward McCurrin because I know of other family ties to McCurrin/McCurran/McCurn families in that area. Regardless of her name I haven't found any other record of her with the various permutations. Dick and Abe Roland, who secured the marriage bond, were both from Yellville. Dick's 16-year-old bride (he was 26) was from Mountain Home in Baxter County.

1896 Marriage record

A Salina Journal article about Dick's 91st birthday led me to the Crawford County Genealogial Library in Pittsburg, Kansas when I was at Homecoming in Parsons in 2011. The article said Dick had worked as a miner in Pittsburg before moving to Salina 25 years earlier. I had also seen two birth records at FamilySearch that listed Richard/Dick Stinett and Ethel Jackson as the parents of a daughter born Jun 10, 1906 in Pittsburg and a son born July 8, 1907 in Radley (also in Crawford County).

The librarian was very helpful. She not only located the record of Dick's marriage to Ethel Jackson on December 16, 1905, she also found another marriage to a Mrs. Elizabeth McInally on January 1, 1913. Further searching turned up Dick and Ethel's divorce file dated September 19, 1908. Ethel asked for and was awarded custody of their son, Forest; the daughter was not mentioned in the suit. The Crawford County Register of Births list Dick's occupation as miner on both birth records. His nationality on the daughter's record says he is Mexican, born in Mexico City; the son's record lists him as an American born in Arkansas. I am still looking for further information on Dick's wives and children. They are as elusive as he.

Dick died at the Soldan Rest Home in Salina on October 24, 1957.  He is buried in Gypsum Hill Cemetery.

UPDATE MARCH 5, 2017
After the divorce, Ethel Maude [Jackson] Stinnett married Charles E. Montee May 28, 1909 in Columbus, Kansas. He was 20 years older than her. Ethel's 2-year-old son is later recorded as Foster Montee rather than Forest Stinnett. I wonder if there was a transcription error of his first name in the divorce hearing proceedings. I just have a hunch this is Dick's son who has taken the Montee surname. Sadly Foster died October 7 1909 of croup and is buried in West Union Cemetery, Chicopee, Kansas. Ethel and Charles had children of their own. She lived in Crawford County until she died in 1960.

Thursday's child has far to go

Nancy Lee Thursday -
courtesy Bill Stinnett

I first heard about my great-great-grandmother Nancy Lee Thursday from my cousin Bill. She was his great-grandmother and he shared this picture of her. One of his sister's bore her name.

Neither Bill nor I were able to find much information about Nancy Lee. In fact the only documentation he had was her name on his grandfather's death certificate which gave her maiden name and Texas as her birthplace. Her son William's census records most consistently concur with Texas, the others' varying between Texas, Arkansas and a generic United States.

I haven't found enough information on the Thursday surname in the United States to even speculate about Nancy Lee's family. My great grandmother once said that her mother was a half-breed Indian and that her father was white. I have searched census records, Dawes Rolls, death certificates, newspaper archives, everything I can find to no avail. I have no oral history that might give more clues. Nancy Lee Thursday's great-great-grandchild indeed has very far to go[1].

[1] Title is a line from a nursery rhyme

William and Fannie Stinnett

Marriage license for William Stinnett and Fannie Kirkham

William Stinnett was the oldest known Stinnett sibling in my family. He married Fannie Kirkham in Harrison, Boone County, Arkansas in September 1881. According to the license William was a resident of Yellville, Marion County at the time and Fannie was a resident of Harrison. Unlike the marriage documents for his brothers Tom and John, there was no signed security bond; perhaps the laws were different in these neighboring counties.

1900 census

The license is the earliest record I have found for both William and Fannie and it is the only reference  I have seen that places William in Yellville. By 1900 William is a farmer living with his family in Harrison. He and Fannie have four children - Effie, Carrie, Sherman and Nettie. They moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma sometime before the 1910 census.

Their youngest daughter Geneva was born in Harrison in 1903 and their oldest daughter Effie was married to James Sturgeon in Muskogee in 1907. By 1910 only the two youngest daughters are in the household.

That's What Friends - and Family - Are For

This isn't a genealogical research post per se but it does offer an opportunity to perhaps find some clues.

Every three years the Voguette Club of Parsons, Kansas sponsors a Homecoming reunion. This year's theme is That's What Friends Are For and events are scheduled July 2-6, 2014.

The Voguettes have hosted this event for over three decades during the week of the 4th of July. Former Parsonians young and old flock home from wherever they've settled to reconnect with family and friends.

I like to talk to the town elders who may have known my grandparents or great-grandparents. I try to sort out the who's who of cousins. I visit the cemeteries, the library and the county courthouse 10 miles away in Oswego. A day trip to Joplin to visit the library, more cemeteries and more cousins is always in the mix. This year I want to plan a day in Muskogee, OK.

The Voguette Homecoming offers a variety of events for all ages including a gospel jamboree, a weiner roast, talent show (all are welcome to show what they've got), a fashion show, teen and adult dances, a community church service and more. Many times other individuals will arrange golf or basketball tournaments or 5K runs for interested attendees.

For more information contact:
Doris Staten
P.O. Box 543
Parsons, KS 67357




Related content:
2014 Black Homecoming
2011 Homecoming Schedule
2008 Letter to Editor of Parsons Sun
2008 Talent Show

The Race Card

Arthur Stinnett: 1900 census - black, 1910 - mulatto, 1920 - mulatto, WWI draft card - colored,
1921 marriage license - white, 1930 census - white, 1935 Social Security application - white
1940 census - white, Death certificate - white

"In the United States both scholars and the general public have been conditioned to viewing human races as natural and separate divisions within the human species based on visible physical differences. With the vast expansion of scientific knowledge in this century, however, it has become clear that human populations are not unambiguous, clearly demarcated, biologically distinct groups.
...
Today scholars in many fields argue that "race" as it is understood in the United States of America was a social mechanism invented during the 18th century to refer to those populations brought together in colonial America: the English and other European settlers, the conquered Indian peoples, and those peoples of Africa brought in to provide slave labor." American Anthropological Association Statement on "Race" (May 17, 1998)

I have been conditioned as much as many of my fellow Americans to wrap a significant part of my life within the social construct of race. I am affected even in my research and in writing this blog. I've spent years searching for long lost cousins. When I find descendants whose ancestors lived like Arthur Stinnett I have to ponder how I will be received should I approach them as family. Some will be surprised at our common history but will acknowledge truth and put the race thing aside. Others, not having a clue - though anyone who has been researching my direct lines can't have helped but notice the "race" discrepancies through the years - and having lived their lives in white skins and the privilege it invokes in the United States, may not exactly be delighted to see the rainbow of hues in their family. I would hope in this day and age that most people have moved beyond that outdated, unscientific, manmade division but I'm never sure.

War Eagle

Tex's Kansas driver's license (courtesy of grand-niece Lily Price)

Richard Charles Stinnett was born April 19, 1909 and was the youngest son of John and Lizzie Stinnett. He first appears in the 1910 Federal Census which gives his birthplace as Arkansas though the family had moved to Joplin by that time. He attended the Lincoln School in Joplin from 1916 to 1918. He is listed with the family in Webb City in the 1920 census. Richard appears to have gone to school in Wichita, Kansas for a while where his mother and sister Walsie visited him in May 1921.

The Springfield Connection

Excerpt from Application for Letters of Administration of the estate of Bryant Coker Jr.

The family of Shadrack Coker and his descendants had lived in Springfield, Missouri since at least the mid-1860s.  The document above is from the probate record of Shadrack's grandson Bryant Coker Jr. Thanks to Traci Wilson-Kleekamp of Tracilizz's Genealogy Blog for providing me with many helpful Springfield Coker records.

Bryant Coker preceded his mother Shulia Upton Coker in death. When Shulia died Bryant's wife Bertha filed for administration of the estate; part of the process being to locate possible heirs. All of the people listed in the record are my relatives.

Charley Stinnett

1900 Census, Union Township (Yellville), Arkansas

When I first started researching my Stinnett cousins I found two families of them in living near my grandfather's family in Yellville, Arkansas. Charley was recorded in the 1900 Federal Census as the oldest son of Thomas and Lettie [Coker] Stinnett.

Though I'd had pretty good luck tracking other individuals in this family through the years I wasn't able to find anything on Charley until I happened across this article about race riots in Harrison, Arkansas during an internet search. I found Charley, though not in the way I had hoped. I think I also may have found the reason that five families I was researching left the area between 1900 and 1910.

Cross-dressing Granny

An August 9, 1922 Joplin Globe article left me wondering about the lives of my great-grandparents, George and Anna Coker. The headline read Spying on Husband Leads to Her Arrest. Anna was detained after residents reported that a man was wandering around the neighborhood. The arresting officer did not realize she was a woman until they spoke as he was escorting her to the police station.

Lizzie's Girls

1900 Census, Yellville, AR

The 1900 census for Union Township (Yellville), Arkansas shows the family of John and Lizzie Stinnett. In addition to John and Lizzie there are four Crawford children (Dolph, Willie, Bessie and Freddie) recorded as John's step-children, and three Stinnett children (Jesse, Arthur and Walsie).

Coker Siblings and Their Stinnett Spouses

George Coker and Anna Stinnett (my great-grandparents) are the larger pictures. Lettie Coker (upper left) married Tom Stinnett (bottom center) in Yellville, Arkansas on July 29, 1893. Lizzie Coker (top center) married John Stinnett a few days later in Yellville on August 4, 1893. George signed the marriage bond for both couples.

Hiding in Plain Sight - Part 3

I could go on and on about my search for and discovery of the John Stinnett family but I find myself waylaid by the question of the significance of racial identity. I suppose it can't be helped considering I was raised in a country where those lines are drawn daily.

 I get annoyed when people ask me about my ethnicity. I am a woman of African descent whose bloodline includes
 indigenous Americans and European immigrants. I have been called a nigger in America and a tubab (white person) in Africa.

Black or white, my people were poor. Aunt Ginny's husband used to tease her by saying her family looked like they were straight out of The Grapes of Wrath.

Related posts: Hiding in Plain Sight - Part 1, Hiding in Plain Sight - Part 2

Hiding in Plain Sight - Part 2

"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line" - W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, 1903

Color was a problem for my Coker-Stinnett family. They lived in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas and Missouri. They had a mixed ethnic heritage. Though they were related to the pioneering families of northwest Arkansas, they were undoubtedly known to have that "one drop" that defined Blackness in America.

Two young men, a Coker and a Stinnett, were lynched within three years of each other for assaulting white women. Both cases made the national news in the early 1900s. Fred Coker, Horace Duncan and Will Allen were lynched on Easter Sunday 1906 in Springfield, Missouri. The National Guard was called to restore order. Technically the 1909 case of Charley Stinnett was not a lynching because he made it to trial, was convicted and legally executed in Harrison, Arkansas. There was no Guard called to stop the mob  that  ran Black people out of Marion and Boone counties. My families scattered.

I suspect these events contributed to John and Lizzie Stinnett's decision to leave their place on the color spectrum behind them. After all their  family probably could pass for Native American and/or European at first glance. But they wouldn't be able to do that around people who knew them or their relatives. I'll never know who was the first to step across the line. Did brother Dick Stinnett come visit and say "Hey, I've been living in Pittsburg, Kansas and everybody thinks I'm white. Come on over!"

Would the notion of race have mattered to them at all  had they been on equal social and economic footing with even the lowest White person? And what about the family members left behind? Was there already a disconnection that facilitated further separation? They obviously stayed in touch with some folks because my grandfather visited them. He may have been the last family member to do so.

John Stinnett and Lizzie Coker Stinnett:

Related posts: Hiding in Plain Sight - Part 1, Hiding in Plain Sight - Part 3

Hiding in Plain Sight - Part 1

I held the phone and listened to my Aunt Ginny tell me a story about her father taking her to visit some relatives in Salina, Kansas. While she told me about “the aunt in the bonnet” and the “uncle in the overalls and big farmer hat” I wondered if she really remembered a road trip with her father when she couldn’t have been more than five or six years old. She was eight when my grandfather died; my father was thirteen months.

She said they drove. Where did they get a car in Depression era Kansas? She didn’t know. What were the names of this aunt and uncle? She didn’t remember. She just remembered that my grandfather had taken her, my grandmother Pearl, and my Uncle Red to visit some of his relatives in Salina. This was before my father was born in 1932.  She remembered there were some kids around too but not how many nor their names or genders.  Just some kids.  And some neighbors who spoke Spanish.

I asked my father if he remembered any talk about relatives in Salina and relayed the story Aunt Ginny had told me. He poo-pooed her tale saying that I really shouldn't rely much on stories from her about things that happened decades ago. In this case he was wrong.

My main paternal family lines, Coker and Stinnett, were from Arkansas and had settled in Missouri and Oklahoma. The families lived in Marion County, Arkansas at the turn of the twentieth century. Coker siblings married Stinnett siblings producing a line of double cousins (first cousins who share both sets of grandparents in common). My great-grandfather George W. Coker married Anna Stinnett. His sister Elizabeth (Lizzie) married Anna's brother John, and his sister Lettie married Anna's brother Tom. There were also three other Stinnett brothers: William (m. Fannie Kirkham), Marion (m. Sada Duncan) and Richard (who seems to have had three wives).

The three Coker-Stinnett families appear in the 1900 census for Marion County, Arkansas. By 1910 George and Anna, and John and Lizzie are in Jasper County, Missouri. Tom and Lettie are living in Muskogee, Oklahoma but move to Joplin in the 1920s. I lost track of John and Lizzie and most of their children after 1920. Their son Jesse has married a Mary Morford and lives with her and two children, Anzwilla Sue and Jack Herman in Galena, Kansas. Where is the rest of the family?

Guess who I found in Salina in the 1930 census? John and Lizzie Stinnett living with their daughter Walsie and her husband Harvey Fickes. Their son Arthur, also married, is there too.  Their son George isn't in the census but a 1929 South Dakota marriage record lists his residence as Salina. Son Richard, now calling himself Tex,  is not in the 1930 census either but Salina city directories show him with a wife named Charlotte. But wait ... they're WHITE. Except for Jesse. Well, George's marriage record says he is Indian and French ...

In 1900 John and Lizzie and their children are Black and living in Union Township, Marion County, Arkansas. The household also includes four Crawford children (Dolph, Freddie, Willie and Bessie) listed as John's stepchildren. In 1910 they are living in Jasper, Missouri (without the Crawford kids - Dolph and Wille are in Batesville, Arkansas and Bessie is in Springfield, Missouri) and everyone is Mulatto; same race in 1920 but they are living in Webb City. Jess and Arthur's WWI draft registration cards list them as Black. Jess is Negro in 1930 but everyone else is White. By 1940, John, Jess and Tex are dead. Jess's family is still Black. The 1940 surprise is that George's family is recorded as Negro and he is designated as the person who provided the information to the enumerator!

How do you keep a secret like this? How do you decide - as a family - to cross over racial lines in America? John and Lizzie's youngest son was a preteen when they moved from Missouri to Kansas. They appear to have spent some time in Wichita before settling in Salina. Were they Black in Wichita?  All of the children attended Lincoln School in Joplin which was the "colored" school. I saw their names in the class listings in the digitized Black Families of the Ozarks at the Springfield-Greene County Library. So they knew that they were once Black.

Arthur married Virgie Mae Foote in Wichita in 1921. Walsie married Harvey Fickes in Oklahoma in 1922. George married Christina Wolf in 1929. Tex and Charlotte were probably married before the birth of their twins in 1933. To the best of my knowledge all of the spouses, with the exception of Jess's wife (Mary Frances Morford), were of White, European descent.  Were they aware of the racial metamorphosis? If so, I would call them courageous for their time and place. I suspect that the Stinnetts admitted to some Native American ancestry. In fact my great-grandmother Anna (John Stinnett's sister) was quoted in a 1922 newspaper article as saying her father was a White man and her mother was a half-breed Indian.

Aunt Ginny's memories put me on a path that led to living descendants of John and Lizzie Stinnett. My cousins are out there. They are White and I am not.


Stinnett family 1900:

John and Lizzie 1930:

Related stories: Hiding in Plain Sight - Part 2, Hiding in Plain Sight - Part 3