Richard Jacobs Tombstone with Mosaic Templars of America (MTA) Symbol at top
Richard Jacobs was my great-grand uncle. He was born enslaved on 6 March 1841 (not 1874 as it says on his tombstone), in Barbour County, Alabama. He died 19 July 1923, in Sanford, Seminole County, Florida. He was the older brother of my great grandmother, Sallie Jacobs Farnell. There were five siblings: Richard; my great grandmother Sallie; her twin, Harriet Jacobs Lightfoot; their brother Green Jacobs; and the youngest, Joseph. Though born in Alabama, after the War was over, they were all found living in Florida. They were the children of William and Charlotte Jacobs, both of whom had been born in Virginia.
When my great uncle’s tombstone and information came up as a memory for this date in Ancestry. I decided to look at his Findagrave page because I knew that many of the tombstones in Page Jackson Cemetery, where he is buried have been cleaned, and I hoped to get a better, clean picture of the stone. Indeed, an updated picture of the cleaned headstone was on his page. I noted that at the top of his stone there was a symbol that seemed to be some sort of crest. I noticed that the inscription at the bottom had been highlighted: “Celery City Chamber 4149, Sanford, Fla.” I was unfamiliar with symbols, so a google lens search was in order. The results said that it was the insignia of the Mosaic Templars of America (MTA).
Mosaic Templars of America “MTA” symbol at top of the tombstone
According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the MTA was an African American fraternal and mutual aid society. It was established in 1881, in Arkansas, by formerly enslaved John Edward Bush and Chester W. Keats. The name was intended to link the oppressive realities of the end of Reconstruction with the Exodus story of Moses leading the Israelites to freedom. At its peak in the 1920s, there were over 100,000 members across 26 states, the Caribbean, Central and South America. They provided burial and illness insurance, as well as custom-made, Vermont marble, tombstones with their distinctive insignia. They had a national building and loan association, a state hospital and nursing school in Arkansas, and a newspaper called first the American Guide, then the Mosaic Guide. Although the MTA in the US did not survive past the Second World War, there are MTA organizations that survived into the 20th century, and at least one in Barbados is still functioning in the 21st century.
Many years ago, when I first started my research in Randolph County, North Carolina of my mother’s family and the community they came from, I was discussing Islay Walden and his origins with one of the librarians in the Randolph Room at the Randolph County Regional Library. She told me family members believed his father was William D. Walden, a free person of color, whose family also lived in the southern part of Randolph County. She opined that since Islay had been enslaved before emancipation to Gar[d]ners (and Smithermans), it would make sense that after emancipation he would take the surname of his birth father, Walden. Seemed logical.
The family member who had supplied this information was Evie Ruth (Hill) Grady (1925-1998), who descended from Islay’s sister, Sarah (Callicut) Hill. Evie lived in Cincinnati where her great grandparents had moved after they left Randolph County, North Carolina, in the 1890s. I really didn’t research the story in those days (1980s-90s) because I was researching more direct ancestors of my own. Around 2012-13, I began researching Islay Walden and the church and school he began in my ancestors’ community, known today as Strieby Congregational United Church of Christ.
Strieby Congregational United Church of Christ, Asheboro, North Carolina. Photo by Wesley Frennell, 2022
References were found in the American Missionary Magazine, a journal of the American Missionary Association, which was the missionary organization associated with the Congregational Church. It chronicled a number of activities of Islay Walden. However, what caught my attention was his death notice in February 1884. It named his parents as, “Ruth and Branson (Garner) Walden.”[1] Well, Garner was the name of his enslaver when he was born. We knew his mother was Ruth, but who was Branson?
I found two more records that provided additional clues. Neither pointed to William D. William as Islay’s father. The first was a marriage license for a marriage to a Amelia Frances Harriss in Raleigh, NC, that no one had referenced anywhere that I knew. His known wife was Eleanora/Elinora (Farmer) Walden, whom he had met when he was attending the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey. So, who was Amelia Frances? Well, that’s a story for another day, but the names of his parents as recorded on his marriage license were Branson and Rutha Walden.[2] Once again, not William.
Marriage License of Alred I(slay) Walden and Amelia Frances Harriss, 17 October 1867, Raleigh, NC
The second was a newspaper interview that appeared in the New York Evening Post the day after he was ordained. The interviewer had asked about his father. He did not name his father but said that his father, who was enslaved, had run away to the Midwest, using false papers.[3] William was still living in Randolph County. A landowner, William had no reason to “run away.” He died in Chatham County, NC, about 1869 and is said to be buried in the William D. Walden Cemetery, in Randolph County, North Carolina.[4]
An Interesting Ordination, Evening Post, 2 July 1879
That Islay was a Walden was not in dispute. After his death, his “cousin,” Henry Ruffin Walden, took over the teaching duties of the school at Strieby. Henry’s father was named Anderson Walden. Their family lived in neighboring Chatham and Moore County. Anderson had died there,[5] but his widow, Julia, and some of their children, including Henry Ruffin had moved to Strieby in the early 1880s. Some stayed in Strieby and were buried in the cemetery there, while others moved up to the town of Asheboro, about 13 miles away.
Henry Ruffin Walden Sr., aon of Anderson and Julia Walden
I had speculated on the exact relationship of Henry and Islay’s fathers in other writings. I reasoned that the William being referenced was not William D, who was contemporary to Anderson and very likely Branson, but an older William, who was not Islay’s father, but Branson’s father. That’s where things stood when I published a biography of Islay Walden in 2021, that included a suggested genealogy in the Appendix.[6]
Recently, Family Search has released a beta program that allows one to do full text searches of unindexed records. I searched on the various names, Islay Walden, Branson Walden, and then Anderson Walden. Bingo. A record popped up of an application to the Eastern Cherokee Claims Commission by Henry Ruffin Walden’s sister. It is irrelevant whether her claim was granted or not, because from a genealogical perspective what matters is the application. Applicants have to give genealogical information in order to try to prove their claim.
Henry’s sister, Margaret (Walden) Lilly, applied in 1906. She was required to name her family: her parents, her siblings, her spouse, her children, and her grandparents and all their children. Predictably, she named her parents as Anderson and Julia Walden (although she listed a different maiden name than the one everyone in her current family members believed). She named all her siblings, her spouse (James Lilly), and her children. Then she named her grandparents. She said her grandfather’s name was John Walden, not William, and her grandmother’s name was Rhoda Garner. [7]
From Margaret Walden Lilly’s 1906 Application to the Eastern Cherokee Claims Commission in the U. S. Court of Claims.
While there is still research needed to confirm which “John” she is referencing (yes there’s more than one candidate), this document went on to answer the question about how Islay, his sister, and Henry, Margaret, and their siblings were related. Margaret stated that John and Rhoda’s children were Anderson, Branson, and Tima who married Brantly Strickland (I had speculated that she was their sister in my own analysis).[8] Thus, Margaret’s information confirmed that she, Henry, their siblings, and Islay, and his sister Sarah, were indeed first cousins.
[1] National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States (National Council). (1885). The Congregational Year-book (Boston: MA: The Congregational Publishing Society), Volume 7, 37. Retrieved from: 1885 Congregational Year-book
[2] Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Alfred I. Walden and Amelia Frances Harriss, 17 October 18867, Raleigh, North Carolina. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Retrieved from: Ancestry.com
[3] An Interesting Ordination. (2 July 1879). Evening Post (New York), n. p.(See also: Margo Lee Williams, From Hill Town to Strieby: Education and the American Missionary Association in the Uwharrie “Back Country” of Randolph County, North Carolina, Crofton, KY: Backintyme Publishing, 2016, 73-74).
[4] Find A Grave Memorial 142492481. William D. “Billy” Walden. Williams D. Walden Cemetery, Cheeks, Randolph County, North Carolina. Retrieved from Findagrave.
[5] National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Non-population Census Schedules for North Carolina, 1850-1880: Mortality and Manufacturing; Archive Collection: M1805; Archive Roll Number: 3; Census Year: 1869; Census Place: Ritters, Moore, North Carolina; Anderson Walden, October 1869, Page: 496. Retrieved from: Ancestry.com.
[6] Margo Lee Williams. (2021). Born Missionary: The Islay Walden Story (Silver Spring, MD: Margo Lee Williams & Personal Prologue). Appendix.
Frank Sylvester is standing in the rear. L-R in front: Lute Odette Williams (my aunt), Herbert Randell Williams (my father), and Lela Virginia Farnell Williams (my grandmother). Original in the Lela Farnell Williams Collection at the Meek-Eaton Black Archives Research Center and Museum at Florida A & M University
Frank Sylvester, Harlem Hell Fighter with the 369th Infantry in World War I, wasn’t a member of my family but a school friend of my uncle Jimmy, who was informally adopted into my paternal family.
According to my father’s sister, Aunt Lutie, Frank was a student at Brick School (later Brick Junior College), in Enfield, North Carolina. He and my uncle, “Jimmy,” Aunt Lutie’s younger brother (but my father’s older brother), were friends there. I’m not clear if either graduated, but both had moved home with my grandmother, Lela Farnell Williams, and her children, my father Herbie, Aunt Lutie, and Uncle Jimmy. The picture above, including Frank in the rear, was taken between 1912 and 1914 when my grandmother died. They were living on Van Horn St. in Jersey City, New Jersey, at the time. My grandmother had included Frank’s birthday in her bible, 28 December 1894.[1] As it happens, my birthday is 28 December, a fact that has always made me feel a special affinity for Frank, even though I never met him.
Frank was not from Jersey City. He was from Springfield, Massachusetts, although it seems he was born in Boston.[2] According to that record, he was the son of Frank Sylvester Sr. and his wife Mary. Frank’s birth record says he and his family were white, but it was undoubtedly a mistake by whoever made the record. The records show the birth and sadly death of an older child name Joseph, wherein the family is marked as Mulatto.[3] No records located to date show Frank living with his family.
In 1910, Frank is found living as a young servant in the home of a Morris Green, a Black Congregational Minister from Virginia.[4] This may be how Frank came to attend Brick School, which was an American Missionary Association (AMA) school. The AMA was the missionary arm of the Congregational Church.
Post Card: Ingraham Chapel, Joseph Keasby Brick School, Enfield (Bricks), North Carolina. Purchased by the author, 31 December 2024
Joseph Keasbey Brick Agricultural, Industrial and Normal School was founded in 1895 by the American Missionary Association. Money for the land and buildings was given by Julia Brick, his widow, who named the school for her husband. The Principal, Thomas S. Inborden, opened the school on 1 October 1895, with 54 students. The school closed in 1933.[5] Sometime between the 1910 census record and the above picture, Frank was reportedly a student at Brick.
My grandmother died 28 March 1914,[6] and the family was upended. My aunt, Uncle Jimmy, and my father continued to live together in Jersey City for at least a while, but by 1915, Frank had moved to my great grandmother’s (Ellen Williams) home in New York City. The 1915 Census shows that he was a “Porter” at a store.[7]
On 30 April 1917, he married Oneida Elam, in New York,[8] and by 5 June he had been inducted into Company B of the 15th Regiment Infantry unit of the NY Army National Guard.[9] On 12 December 1918, he sailed with his Regiment from Hoboken, New Jersey, on the Pocahontas. He named Robert Sinkler, Uncle Jimmy’s brother in-law, as a friend and his contact in the States, rather than his wife.[10] On 13 December 1918, while aboard ship, the 15th Regiment was federalized, becoming the 369th Infantry. Frank was assigned to Company D of the 369th Infantry of the US Army. On 10 January 1919, he was transferred to Company E of the 369th. [11]
The 369th Infantry were the famed Harlem Hell-Fighters, fighting alongside the French at the Battles of Champagne-Marne and Meuse Argonne, because the US forces were segregated and didn’t want to fight with them. During the War, they saw 191 days of front-line trench warfare, among the longest of any unit. They were also the first Allied unit to cross the Rhine into Germany.[12]
Military Service Record of Frank Sylvester
Frank served overseas from 13 December 1918 until 3 February 1919, when he sailed for the States from Brest, France, on the Regina de Italia, arriving in New York on 12 February.[13] He was discharged on 24 February 1919. The record indicates he was 0% disabled, “in view of occupation.”[14] The comment is poignant considering what we know today about those in combat and how they suffer with what we now call “Combat-related PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder),” a recognized service-connected disability.
In 1920, Frank and his wife, Oneida, were living on West 143rd St. They were living with Oneida’s sister and her two children, and another couple was also lodging with them. Frank was a bellman at a hotel. Oneida was not working.[15]
Frank has not been located so far in the 1930 census. However, in the 1925 New York State Census, Frank and Oneida were living at the same place, on W. 143rd St. with Oneida’s sister’s children, and a man of age to be the sister’s husband and the “Sr.” father of his namesake and the other son. This time, Oneida is recorded as a “Hair Dresser.”[16]
In 1940, although Frank said he was married, he was not living with Oneida. He reported being a “houseman” at a “Boarding House.”[17] By 1950, he reported that he was “separated,” perhaps indicating strains brought on by the effects of “shell shock,” as PTSD was called in WWI. He’ was still renting from the same person, Harriet French, who was ten years older and Canadian born. Neither Frank nor Harriet was working, however. The words “Disabled Veteran” were crossed out next to Frank’s name.[18]
Frank Sylvester in the 1850 census, living with Harriet French.
Although I can continue to follow Oneida in the City Directories until 1959, I have found no death record for her. By contrast, I have found no additional records for Frank until his death was reported by the VA[19] and Social Security.[20] According to these, he died on 22 March 1980; however, I have not identified where he was buried. His death certificate, which would no doubt record the location, is too recent and, in New York, is therefore not available to the public.
[1] Family Bible of Lela Farnell Williams, in possession of family.
