"THE WARDS OF OAK VALE"

We Wards hail from the great state of Mississippi, the Magnolia state, whose capitol city is Jackson. Before becoming a state, in 1817, Mississippi was inhabited by the mighty Choctaw and Chickassee Native American Nations. They occupied most of what is known as Mississippi today. The American government, in its efforts to drive the Indians further and further West, effected a series of land cessions from them. After the first of two cessions between the U.S. and the Choctaws, completed by 1805, in what was known as "The Treaty of Mount Dexter', the Choctaws were forced to relinquish millions of acres of their land. As this news spread to the eastern states, thousands upon thousands of able bodied, ambitious and far-sighted pioneers fueled by the idea of free land for the taking, gathered up their belongings and families and began the trek toward Mississippi. These land seekers were mostly from the Carolinas and Virginias and Georgia. They began flooding a venue then known as The St. Stephen’s Road, which stretched all the way from Washington, D.C. to Natchez on the West coast of Mississippi. It was the much traveled road over which early settlers began to pour into southern Mississippi. They loaded it on their way to claim land -- fresh, green, wonderful land, filled with trees and wildlife! The St. Stephen’s Road passed through Lawrence County and near Oak Vale, close to where our first Wards settled.

Oak Vale, itself, is in the south-central part of Mississippi known as the Piney Woods Section. It was originally located in Lawrence County, midway between Jackson, MS, the state capitol, and the Louisiana border. Today, Oak Vale is located in Jefferson Davis County, which was carved out of Lawrence County in 1905. Grandfather Wiley and all my uncles and aunts were born when Oakvale was in Lawrence County, whereas, my brothers, sisters and I were all born in Jeff Davis County. Today, courthouse records on our family can be found in both of those county courthouses.

Oak Vale is about 90 miles from Jackson, the state capitol and about the same from New Orleans, LA. Traveling to Oak Vale today one would: Leaving from Jackson, MS, take Hwy 55 south to Hwy 49; take Hwy 49 south to Hwy 13, which is the Mendenhall exit; Follow Hwy 13 into Prentiss and on through it to Hwy 43; Making a right on Hwy 43 will carry you by Oak Vale and on out to the church and cemetery at a place called New Zion. We lived about two miles further out from New Zion. Oak Vale is approximately 14 miles from Prentiss. Coming from New Orleans, LA, one would take Hwy 10 east across Lake Pontchartrain and on in to Hwy 59 north; Take 59 North to Lumberton; Then, out of Lumberton, take Hwy 13, through Columbia on up to Hwy 43. Make a left on Hwy. 43 Hwy 43 will take you on by New Zion on into Oak Vale.

As far as it has been determined at this time, Newitt Ward, Sr, is our first known Ward ancestor. He was a Caucasian and, for the record, he appeared in South Carolina in about 1735. The exact town and county are not known. Whether he was born there or migrated there from one of the other colonies, or whether he came directly there from Europe has not been established either. When he was born and where he died are also not known. However, his son Newitt Ward, Jr., born in 1765, also in South Carolina, was one of those land-seekers who was making his way along the St. Stephens Road from S. Carolina to the new land. Traveling the route from South Carolina, with a brief stop in Georgia and on into Mississippi, he and his family decided to stake out and establish their homestead in the fertile Pearl River valley in Lawrence County, near Oak Vale.

Newitt, Jr. had married a lady named Unity in 1793 in South Carolina. Their children were: Frederick, born in 1794; Frances, born in 1796; Jesse, in 1811; Newitt Hobbs, in 1814 and Elizabeth, in 1816. All were born in South Carolina, according to Latter Day Saints Family History Records. The family appears in the 1820 U.S. Federal Census which was the first census taken in the new state of Mississippi.

Our Caucasian Wards chose a site in Lawrence County that was located near a small stream called Silver Creek by the Indians. Newitt, Jr. staked his land claim and there the family built and made their home. Those early Wards were hard working farmers. They tilled the soil, expanded their land holdings and prospered. Comparatively speaking, our white Ward predecessors never owned great numbers of slaves. For 1820, I have been unable to determine the number held. In 1830 Newitt, Jr. owned 8 and his son Frederick, 3. In 1840 I have been unable to determine the number. According to the 1850 slave census, Newitt Jr. owned 12, son Jesse owned 4. In the 1860 slave census Jesse owned 12, two of whom I am certain were grandfather Wiley and great-grandmother Rhoda, and his brother, Newitt Hobbs, owned 13.

Newitt, Jr's. wife, Unity, died in 1830. Newitt, Jr. died in 1859. They are buried on Ward land in Lawrence County. To this very day many descendants of the family are located in the very same area designated as Ward Valley which is constituted mostly of Ward and Ward related families. They have their own Ward Church and other family institutions in the community.

Frederick was the eldest son of Newitt, Jr. and Mrs.Unity. He married Mary Hayman in Lawrence County in 1823. They had ten children: Una, Elizabeth, Ruhany, Jesse, Chery, John, Frances, Delaney, William and Hiram. At one time, Frederick moved his family to neighboring Copiah County, but eventually moved back to Lawrence. At present I am in contact with a great-great-granddaughter of Frederick’s, who lives in Conroy, Iowa.

Newitt Hobbs, the youngest son of Newitt, Jr. and Unity, married Anna Boxerton in Lawrence County in 1838. They also had ten children: Thomas Amanda, Tincey, John, Levise, Lucious, Missouri, Caty, Tesscey, and Luvina. I have been able to learn what I have about our Caucasian Ward family because of records I found at the Church Of The Latter Day Saints, in Chicago Heights, IL. Someone in Newitt Hobbs’s family submitted the information to the church Family History Library.

Frances, the oldest daughter, married a Mr. Pitman in Lawrence County and later, a Mr. Hedgepeth. Elizabeth, the youngest child of Newitt, Jr and Mrs. Unity, married William Riley Askew. Mr Askew was a Lawrence County official.

Jesse was the middle child of Newitt, Jr. and Mrs.Unity. Jesse married Delana Daniels in Lawrence County in 1836. They also had ten children by their marriage: Elizabeth, Mary, Mellissa, William, Robert, Willis, James, Martha, Newitt lll, and Jesse, Jr. Around 1835, records at the Lawrence County courthouse show that Jesse began to acquire considerable amounts of land together with his brother Newitt Hobbs. The courthouse at Monticello contains countless entries through the years 1836-1860 of land transactions and other transactions, involving Jesse and Newitt Hobbs. They were buying and selling land, raising, primarily, cotton, corn and beans which were among the major crops in the area at the time. As the 1860 census shows Jesse and his bropther Newitt Hobbs, were wealthy men in terms of land ownership, personal property and cash.

I made an attempt to connect Jesse Ward with our Black Ward family after freedom came in 1865 but I made no headway. I was hoping to discover, on some courthouse document, that he had deeded grandpa Wiley some of the five hundred acres of land that I was told he had accumulated by 1900. The revelation of land owned was provided by my cousins Jabus and D.L. Oatis, Aunt Rhoda’s sons, both of whom I met at the beginning of my search. They told me that Grandpa Wiley had owned lots of land. Hearing this, I immediately surmised it must have come from his father, who, I’d heard my sister Lydia say, was a white man. Surely no ‘colored’ man down south owned that much land -- at least not in our family. I’d heard my sister say on occasion that Grandpa looked like a white man so that when I learned that, indeed, he did have a white father, I surmised that perhaps he was given the land. I found an indenture involving Jesse Ward and my grandfather’s uncle, Wiley Daniels, effected in 1874 involving 40 acres of land. But I found nothing more in the courthouses at Lawrence and Jeff Davis Counties to tie my grandfather, Wiley, and my great grandfather, Jesse, to any land transactions.

I lost track of Jesse in the Mississippi census of 1880. He and his family, I later found, had left Oak Vale for places unknown to me a that time in my search. My attention was not drawn to Jesse again until years later (1993), when I decided to look for some of his descendants, hoping that they might be able to help in some way with my search for great grandma Rhoda who had once been a house slave for Jesse’s wife Delana. It was then I discovered that Jesse had relocated his family to Navarro County, Texas, in the late 1870s. Jesse and his wife Delana both died and are buried there. He died July 24, 1887 in Blooming Grove, Navarro County, TX. She died July 21, 1881 in Blooming Grove, Navarro County, TX.

The actual beginning of our Black Ward family occurred on August 25th of 1841. On that day, in that year, Jesse Ward and his wife bought a fifteen year old slave girl named Rhoda from their neighboring plantation owner, William Daniels, Sr. William Daniels was the brother of Jesse's wife, Delana. The five dollars they paid for Rhoda, according to the document, I must assume, was only a formality. Surely that price, noted as paid to William, was probably only a token gesture that was necessary in filing the document. Since slaves were considered property, all transfers or sales involving them had to be recorded in official county court records. On April 15 1850, Rhoda gave birth to a child, fathered by Jesse Ward, named Wiley Ward, who is our grandfather.

Wiley, and all of our grandparents, grew up as slaves, bought, sold, and owned like livestock. They possessed nothing but the clothing on their backs. Husbands, wives, children -- all could be bought or sold at will. There has been no one to pass on their real stories for us to know. However, after the Civil War, we can assume that our ancestors landed with their feet pretty firmly planted in the area of Oak Vale where they, at one time, had been slaves, and that, amid the chaos and uncertainty that was the aftermath of being freed, our Ward and Daniels families found their way without too much difficulty right there in Oak Vale. Again, that, I can only assume. I also assume that it was with the help of their former owners who, from what their descendants whom I have met and become acquainted with have given me to believe, were compassionate slave owners.

History tells us that most of the Freedmen, with their new freedom, knew not what to do or where to go. Many wandered; many chose to remain with their former owners; many changed their names and fled the South. Many followed and depended on the victorious Northern Armies for work, subsistence and shelter. Others were dependent and relied heavily on the newly created Freedmen's Bureau for effecting labor contracts which forced plantation owners to give them compensation for their work. Some became share-croppers. The Freedmen’s Bureau supplied transportation for reuniting families, clothing, food, shelter, and the many other essentials of legitimacy prior to freedom. It also promised ‘40 acres and a mule’, a promise that was never delivered. After freedom was a period of uncertainty, disorientation and despair for so many of the newly freed slaves, but our Wards and Daniels families settled right there in Oak Vale and began their new lives as freedmen and women.

From what I have observed from my mother and father, from the spoken word of others who knew them, and based on results of my lengthy personal investigations of where they lived and grew up long ago, I feel that I can safely say that our predecessors were a sturdy, determined, hard working, proud, lot. They were reluctant to talk about the trials and tribulations that were a part of the slavery experience, or about their experiences in the south on up through the time we left the South, for that matter. After searching and viewing their records in courthouses, and just being there in the vicinity of where they lived their lives, I have a strong feeling that, at some point, they were probably beneficiaries of guidance and directions from their former slave owners, Jesse Ward and William Daniels, Sr. Our folks were honorable, devout Christian people, with a strong belief in God; and a strong belief that one day they would be totally free: Free of the pain, the suffering and the lives they were forced to live, with no recourse. Ours were people of great strength and intestinal fortitude, with a deep resolve that would not waver; A people whose bodies may have become weary and worn but whose spirits never faltered. This says a lot about the quality of African stock from which we have been privileged to come. It buoyed and helped our ancestors bear the burden of slavery and its after-math. It helped them survive. And it has been passed on down to us, their beneficiaries. We have inherited their character traits and strong qualities. In spite of what they had to go through before being freed and even afterwards, they were determined not to let it deter them from making a living and a life for their families that was in keeping with standards they set for themselves -- standards that we as a family still live by. The baton has been passed on to us, through them. We today bear many of those same attributes: hardworking, industrious, persistent, goal-oriented. We have not let the difficulties of today stand in the way of our purposefully seeking our goals and aims, just as our ancestors did not let the circumstance of their once being slaves stand in their way of seeking goals and establishing themselves when their freedom came. This is is so very obvious to me now, and keeps me pumped up as I observe our various Ward families of today. We are so blessed. Thanks to those whose memory we cherish and honor, always: Those Wards of Oak Vale.

At the time that our ancestors were freed in 1865, Oak Vale was a busy little farm town. The area's rich red/orange colored soil was particularly suited for raising, chiefly, cotton, corn, beans, sweet potatoes and sugar cane. The town itself consisted of a saw mill, cotton gin, a general store, a blacksmith shop, plus a post office. Oak Vale was also on a rail line providing passenger and freight service between Jackson, MS and Columbia, MS. The train stopped there each day on the way to Columbia in the morning and again on the way back to Jackson in the afternoon providing Oak Vale residents transportation and mail service between those two big cities.

It was amazing to me the amount of records that were available at the courthouse at Prentiss and Monticello concerning our families, particulaly Wiley Ward and Eli Ward. I must admit that trying to imagine my father, Eli, transacting the kinds of business he was involved in would never have occurred to me in a hundred years!! I never had a clue until 1980. He had been dead 17 years by then.

I discovered, while rummaging the courthouse in Monticello, that there was a local school census taken in Lawrence County and also in Jefferson Davis County. It showed family groupings indicating children who were considered "of educable age". That usually meant up until about 18 years old. The first school census I found was for 1892 in Lawrence County. For Jeff Davis County, it was 1905. These censuses were very positive tools in my search. They were even better, in a way, than the Federal census because they were taken every two years. They listed heads of households and all the children that were not married. In this way, I was able to keep up with our families and their children until they were grown. Seeing my father and his brothers and sisters as young students and also my older brother and sisters in those censuses was a joyous feeling. Many families that the Federal Census failed to show for one reason or another, showed up in these records. I also found that the school year for Blacks was from late October, after the harvest to early March, when it was time for planting.

Even though it was through the Oak Vale post office that our families received their mail, our complex of Ward homes were at least five miles out from Oak Vale. They were located in a remote rural area near a site known as New Zion. That was where where our families came from near by farms to gather for Sunday worship, "big meetings", weddings and other celebrations, social activities and group purposes. The church and schoolhouse were the centers for almost all community activities. The schoolhouse at New Zion that my older brothers and sisters once attended, built with funds petitioned from The Rosenwald Foundation by Eli Ward, still stands. In the woods, down a little winding road, not far from the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, was the cemetery. It is in this cemetery that most of our family ancestors lie buried -- Wards, Aultmans, Daniels, Haynes, McClellans, Bournes, Fords. Seeing all the Ward grave markers gave me a sense of being connected and strong motivation to find out who they were.

Monticello was and still is the largest town in Lawrence County, and is the county seat. It is about fourteen miles west of Oak Vale. Prentiss is the the largest town and the county seat in Jefferson Davis County and is about fourteen miles east of Oak Vale. The little hamlet of Oak Vale was once in Lawrence County, but, since 1905, lies just inside the boundary line of Jeff Davis County. Monticello, Prentiss, and Oak Vale were the three main locations where our ancestors transacted their business, secured supplies, etc, as they went about their daily lives. Today, Oak Vale is like a ghost town. Nothing remains of the once bustling little town. The only business operating there now is a small store that serves also as post office; No more rail line, no more cotton gin, no more saw mill. Farming has ceased to be the chief industry of the area. The town of Monticello is about the same as it was fifty years ago, and the same is true of Prentiss. The biggest improvements in those locations has been in the area of education. Public schools have been consolidated. Children are now bused to modern schools that are, in most cases, integrated. The little school house at New Zion, where my older siblings attended at one time, still stands as a monument to what it was like at one time for Black folk. Not one of the houses of our ancestors is still standing. At last count, of all the land that our families once owned, only forty acres is in the possession of family members at present.

Wiley Ward was born April 15, 1850 in Lawrence County, MS, the offspring of a slave mother, and a slave owner father. He was named after his mother’s brother, Wiley, who was a slave on the Daniels' plantation. Wiley grew up laboring on his father’s plantation until freedom came in 1865. He was then 15. Earlier in my search, I had to presume where grandfather Wiley was growing up, not knowing whether he and grandmother Rhoda were at the Jesse Ward plantation or the William Daniels plantation. (The two plantations were in close proximity to each other). However, recent discoveries have made it possible to ascertain his exact whereabouts as well as those of his mother, Rhoda. When freedom came, Wiley Ward agreed to work for the remainder of the summer for his father, Jesse, under the stipulations of a Freedmens Bureau Labor Contract he and Jesse had signed.

One of the very first documents I came across at the beginning of my search was the death certificate of Grandfather Wiley. In addition to noting the name of his wife, Lavina, the date and cause of his death, it also revealed exactly what I needed to know very badly at the time: The identities of his mother, Rhoda Daniels and his father, Jesse Ward. This information was obtained from the Mississippi Dept. of Vital Statistics, at Jackson, MS. I was ecstatic with the find. I had never heard either of those names mentioned before in my entire sixty years -- not by my mother, my father, or any other family member. They were my great-grandparents, and only two generations away from me. I had heard my grandparents, Wiley and Lavina Ward, mentioned on rare occasions -- when my three sisters would get together and start reminiscing. They would talk about those people among themselves I can recall sister Lydia saying on many occasions that she would ask our father about our past family and relatives. According to her, "Papa would always frown saying it wasn’t worth talking about and walk away". For his own reasons (that I can understand better now), he did not think it important that we know of our ancestry. He did not want us to know that he was connected with slavery the way that he was, being the grandson of the white slave owner. Of course, that is only my assumption. Whether he knew the real story of his father and his father's parents, Rhoda and Jesse, is something we shall never know. I do know that Eli never spoke of his folks to us.

When I first looked at Grandpa Wiley's death certificate, there was not an inkling in my mind that great-grandfather Jesse was a slave owner and great-grandmother Rhoda as a slave. This document was a most unusual find. In most cases where slave owners were involved with a slave female person having their child, which was a common occurrence, they were usually not officially connected with the slave mother or child. But here was grandfather Wiley's death certificate clearly showing Jesse Ward as his father and Rhoda Daniels as his mother. It was when I found the legal family of Jesse Ward in the 1870 census that I got the clear picture of what I was dealing with. I had assumed that Jesse was fooling around the Daniels' slave quarters at night, etc. That, I figured, was the case up until the time the indenture was discovered indicating the sale of great-grandma Rhoda to Jesse’s wife. It was secured with the help of one of the Daniel's slave-owner descendants whom I uncovered during my family search. It explained how Jesse, indeed, had access to Rhoda right in his own house where she served as his wife's house slave. Then, a later find, the Freedmen’s Bureau Labor Contract, identified where Wiley no doubt, spent his growing up years until his freedom came in June of 1865. Examining the labor contrtact, we can see that at least ten other slaves were there in 1865 who agreed to work out the summer for Jesse Ward, also. One of them, Amos Haynes, was alleged to be Grandfather Wiley’s half-brother.

From the end of ‘the summer of freedom’ in 1865 until 1869, I have no account of where Grandpa Wiley was or of what he was doing. However, from the 1870 census, which showed him and Lavina Harvey with their one-year-old son, Ransome, it can be assumed that he had met and united with Lavina and had established a homestead on land which was later officially awarded to him. The land was located in the same general vicinity where he and members of his Daniels family had been held as slaves, near Whitesand Creek.

After the war had ceased, our folks were still living in a South that subjected them to the same kinds of humiliations and indignities as they experienced when they were slaves. What with "The White Caps", "The Ku Klux Klan" and other terrorist groups operating through-out the South, Black people were in constant fear for themselves and their young ones. Mississippi, along with most other Southern states, passed legislation known as "The Black Codes". These were rules and regulations aimed at severely limiting and restricting movement and rights of the newly freed Blacks. In short, a climate almost as bad as slavery itself existed as our grandparents were beginning and raising their families. Blacks were not only at the mercy of terrorist groups, but also of the just-as-bold, dangerous "red-necks" (a name for poor Whites). For, now, these people’s jobs and livelihoods were being threatened by the newly freed Black people. Black people's access to travel, etc. was so restricted that many were forced to return to their former owners; or to be share croppers, or be jailed for vagrancy for not having jobs.

Those are samples of the kinds of conditions our grandparents and parents had to live with and raise their families in following the Civil War. Those conditions lasted on up until the Civil Rights movements of the 50s and 60s: The non-respect, intimidation, being denied the right to vote, lynchings, strict segregation and discrimination. However, despite all that, our Ward families in the old south survived, thrived and prospered in and around Oak Vale. I can only assume that the word was possibly out to keep hands off Wiley Ward and his families because they had belonged to Jesse Ward and William Daniels. The longer I search, the more information I find, the more people I meet, (like Carl Ward, a descendant of Jesse Ward, and Donnie Daniels, a descendant of Robert Daniels), the more I do believe that that might have been the case, to some degree.

According to the census of 1870, Wiley Ward was operating his farm, valued at $150, and beginning his family. It indicated that his wife, Lavina, was born in Louisiana.and that, besides their son Ransome, their were three other people living in their household. Undoubtedly, they were relatives of grandmother because their last names were Harvey: L. Harvey, 18, Harriet, 1 and Dred, 10.

In 1872 grandfather Wiley traveled to the Land Office in Jackson to file for a Federal land grant. This indicated that he had staked out and was living on and cultivating the land for which he sought the grant. He had to supply, as character witnesses, his uncle, Wiley Daniels and another Daniels, whose name I do not recognize. The land, 159 acres in Lawrence County, was officially granted to grandfather Wiley in 1881 by President James Garfield. This is where he built his first home, and where the seed for our family was planted.

Grandfather Wiley could be called an entrepreneur. With his large land acreage, he raised cotton for marketing, as well as corn, sugar cane, sweet poataoes and other crops. His land holdings included extensive acres of prime tall pine trees of the long leaf variety. He leased this acreage to various companies tapping for turpentine, cutting for lumber, cutting to make paper, and for other products. Those contracts garnered him handsome profits. My big sisters would occasionally talk about how well our family had it down south. I never paid them any attention until I saw with my own eyes records of what Grandfather was doing, in the courthouse record books. Grandfather was also a skilled blacksmith. I assume that he learned the trade as a slave on his father's plantation. He shod horses and did whatever blacksmith work was necessary for his neighbors in their New Zion community. Grandfather made baskets, furniture and also caskets. Caroline and Alfretta simply rave about his fruit orchard the bounty of which he shared with relatives and neighbors. In addition, grandfather loved to hunt and fish. He loved hunting the small game that was found in abundance in the woods nearby, and fishing in the streams that also abounded with a variety of fish. According to Alfretta, Grandpa still had time to sit them on his knees and play games with them when he was home in the evenings. She talks about how he would let her, Caroline and Manygood comb his long curly hair, and would tell them stories. She also says, "grandpa kept us in story books to read". Boggety to boogety, mention.

1. Caroline Elizabeth, born June 24, 1908. Caroline married Kaysee Fortenberry, Sr. November, 15, 1928 in Chicago, IL. Caroline died August 29, 1996 in Maywood, IL. She is buried along side husband Kaysee, who preceded her in death, at Burr Oak Cemetery. They had 7 children:

1. Lottie, born April 6, 1929. Lottie died February 2, 1965.
2. Audrey Fortenberry, born June 11, 1930, married Carl Jarrett June 25, 1955 in Chicago, IL They went to live and raise their family in Kansas City, Kansas, where Carl is from. Their children: Carl, Jr. born in 1958; Janice, born in 1960, and David , born in 1963.
3. Charles Edward, born September 12, 1931 married Laura Burch, September 28, 1957 in Chicago, IL. They have three children, all born in Chicago: Edward, born in September, 1959; Adrienne (Lisa), born in December, 1961, and Otis, born in December, 1962. Lisa married Reggie Young in 1984. They have two children: Drew, born in September, 1989, and Sydney, born in March, 1992. Otis married Candace Wegner in 2001.
4. Kaysee Jr. (Kitty) born June 16, 1934 in Chicago, IL, married Bernice Baskin December 13, 1956 in Chicago, IL. They have five children; Kaysee Maurice III, born 1954; Karen, born 1956; Kalvin Bruce, born 1958; Kathy, born 1961; and Kerry, born 1967, all born in Chicago, IL. Kaysee Jr. also has a daughter, Lydia.
5. Lawrence Eli was born May 29, 1937. He married Imogene Williams. They are the parents of two: Lawrence, Jr., born in 1967 and Monique, born 1970.
6. Gerald, born July 28, 1939 in Chicago, IL. He married Alice Wells, February 10, 1966. They have two children; Kelli, born in 1970 and Brandon, born 1974. Gerald also has child, Audrey.
7. Carol, Caroline's youngest, born April 3, 1941 in Chicago, IL. She married Eddie Thompkins July 14, 1973. They have two children by Eddie’s previous marriage, Eddie, Jr.and Cheryl, and Denise, whom they adopted.

2. Alfretta Cavanaugh Ward, born February 15, 1910. She married James William Simmons June 27, 1936 in Chicago, IL. They were the parents of four daughters, all born in Chicago:

1. Gail, born August 14, 1946; Gail married Eugene Canty. They had a son, Eugene Canty, Jr. Gail also married Fred Brady, and they had child, Kelly McClellan.
2. Phyllis Marie, born September 20, 1947. She married Lawrence Jones. They had no children. After her divorce, Phyllis adopted two children, Eric and Angela.
3. Malinda, born January 6, 1949. She married Ralph Morgan July 15, 1971 in Chicago, IL. They are parents of two sons, Derek and Jason.
4. Denise, born December 28, 1950. Denise had one child, Brian Simmons.

3. Lydia Eugenia, born January 29, 1912, was married three times: To Gordon Williams, circa 1931, to Richard Gamble, who died of a heart attack, 1937 to 1951, and to Edward Coleman, from 1953 until her death July 22, 1984, in Battle Creek, Mich. Lydia bore no children. She is buried at Glenwood Cemetery in Hickory Hills, IL.
4. Brutus Charles, born May 27, 1914, married Geneva Reese July 3, 1936. They were the parents of 3 children: Marion, born April 11, 1937, who died January 29, 1966, at Elgin, IL; Brutus Charles, Jr, born December 30, 1942, and Beatrice, born June 11, 1943. Brutus died December 22, 1955 the victim of a hit and run accident at 98th and Western Ave. in Chicago. Charles is buried at Burr Oak Cemetery, Worth, IL.
5. Theresa, born January 16, 1916. Theresa died at age 6 as a result of a case of acute appendicitis, September 22, 1922 in Jackson Mississippi. She is buried in New Zion Cemetery.
6. Leonard Jerome was born December, 22, 1916. He married Mildred Ferguson April 21, 1936 in Chicago, IL. They had three children, all born in Chicago, IL:

1. Patricia Ann, born June 26, 1938, married Kenneth Williams October 19, 1958 in Chicago. They have three children, all born in California, where they make their home: Rhonda, born in 1959; Kim, born in 1960; Tammy, born 1965.
2. Norma Jean, born October 8, 1940, married Robert Cunningham, March 18, 1961, in Chicago, IL. They are the parents of Karl Vance, born in 1964 and Robin, born in 1970.
3. Milton Jerome, born April 8, 1943, married Gloria Dean August 15, 1967 in New York, NY. They had one child, Monica, born 1966. Milton, "Billy", died August 10, 1979 in Chicago, IL. Leonard "Len J.", died July 21, 1968 in Kingman, Arizona. He is buried at Lincoln Cemetery.

7. Enoch Thomas, born February 15, 1919, married Inez Richardson April 14, 1944 in Chicago, IL. They are parents of:

1. Jeanette "Cookie", born June 12, 1944, Married Monroe Broughton. They had a son, Monroe Jr. She also married Herman Reggams and had a son, Derek Murdock.
2. Enoch Thomas, Jr, born October 10, 1947, married Barbara Simmons June 1, 1969 in Chicago. They had a son, Enoch III, born in 1970 and a daughter, Sonya, born in 1980; Enoch III married Sandra Jones. They have a son, Elisha, Jair, born 1992.
3. Stanley Eli, born November 14, 1950, never married.
4. Ronald, born July 10, 1956, married Bridgett Davis. They have two children: Fayesha, born in 1986 and Justyn, born in 1991. All were born in Chicago, IL.

8. Robichaux Anderson, born April 1, 1921, married Lula Cochran May 15, 1948 in Atlanta, Ga. They are parents of two children, both born in Chicago, IL:

1. Michael, November 15, 1950. Michael never married.
2. Joyce Diane, born February 15, 1953 married Gregory Dabbs, Sr, November, 19, 1977. They are parents of Christina, born in 1976, Gregory, Jr., born in 1979, and Joy, born 1981. Gregory Sr. died June 15, 1990.

Robichaux and Lula were divorced. Robichaux married Ella Barr, who has two children by a previous marriage, Richard and Debra.

3. Irving Milton, born May 2, 1923, married Thelma Farnandis August 15, 1947 in Chicago, IL. They had three children:

1. Ann Elizabeth, born June 6, 1949, has one child, Benjamin Chase, born August 31, 1986
2. Susan Elaine married Gregory Amos June 18, 1983 in Chicago, IL. They had one child, Imani Nicole born February 15, 1988
3. Irving Jr., married Winsome Henry July 27, 1985 in Mandeville, Jamaica. Their 1st two two children died at birth: Irving Milton III in 1990 and Lillian Francis, 1991. Then, on April 5, 1999 a son Matthew Eli, was born to them.

Irving, Sr's first wife, Thelma, died May 2, 1964 in Chicago. Irving Sr. married Bettyann Buckovsky, December 15, 1973, in Chicago, IL.

4. Roscoe Alexander, born March 19, 1927 in Chicago, IL. Roscoe was married on three occasions, first, to Grace Robinson; second, to Barbara Anderson; third, to Mary Davis, but had no children from any of the marriages.

Eli Ward had two sons out of wedlock. They are Steve and Massillion Bourne. Both were born in Oak Vale, MS. There is no information on Massillion. Steve was born in 1916. He and his wife, Doris Jean, had 6 children: Beverly, Ann, Mary Ann, Speedie, Marie and Andy Bourne. Steve, by his 2nd wife Lily Mae is father of Etha Mae, Dortha Mae and Steve Bourne, Jr.

Eli Ward died November 23, 1963, in Chicago, IL. He is buried in Lincoln Cemetery along side his wife, Indiana, who died July 16, 1933 in Chicago, IL.

Wiley and Lavina’s 8th child, Uncle Luther, was born February 10, 1885. He married Ruth Isham. They had two children: Jesse, born about 1914 and Harold, born about 1918. Uncle Luther received land from Grandfather to begin his farm, as did his older brothers. It is unknown what happened to Luther's wife Ruth. He did marry again, to a lady named Hattie. Uncle Luther was the last of Wiley's sons to leave Oak Vale, sometime after Grandmother Viney died in 1925. He and wife Hattie stayed with Grandma Viney at the 'Wiley Ward Place' before leaving Oak Vale. He then moved his family to Shelby, Mississippi, where he died. The date of Uncle Luther's death is unknown as are the whereabouts of his sons Jesse and Harold.

Their 9^th child, Aunt Elizabeth, was born November 4, 1888. She died May 5, 1890

The 10^th and youngest child of Lavina and Wiley Ward, Uncle Sampson Ward, was born May 15, 1898. He died May 22, 1898 at only 7 days old.

Grandfather Wiley had a child out of wed-lock, Ruth Buckley, who was born August 11, 1900 in Oak Vale, Mississippi. She married Ernest Robinson in 1918 at Monticello, MS. Aunt Ruth died in Palo Alto, California January 25, 1995. It was through my sister, Caroline, that I discovered Aunt Ruth, our father's half-sister. When I recognized who she was in relation to our family, it gave me a huge boost to my hopes of getting some real inside, first-hand information on our folks, especially on Wiley Ward and our Daniels family. In fact, I remember actually panting with apprehension, hardly able to contain myself. I hoped and prayed that she that would be able to tell me soemthing about grandfather Wiley. However, it was not to be. Auntie was raised with her mother's family and knew hardly anything at all about our Ward and Daniels families. Caroline and Alfretta mentioned having seen her around 'the Wiley Ward Place' on many occasions, but having no idea who she really was. Aunt Ruth told me before she died that grandfather Wiley would ask her over or bring her over to the ‘Old Wiley Ward Place’ to give her gifts, etc, at different times.

Ruth and her half-brother, Eli, stayed in close touch throughout the years up until his death in 1963. They had both agreed to protect the secret of their true relationship, he from his family and she from hers. It is only through, what I have deemed, one of the several true 'miracles' of my search that Aunt Ruth was revealed to us. I am certain that she is but one of many more secrets that are waiting to be revealed about our families of the past.

The children of Aunt Ruth’s marriage to Ernest Robinson are:

1. Laverne, who is the father of three children: Tommy, Shirley and Roy.
2. Rutherford, whose children are Cookie and Roy Robinson.
3. James
4. Terry
5. Betty
6. Louis and wife Rosa, whose children are: Tina, Marsha, and Faye Robinson.
7. Carolyn, whose daughter is Moneem Robinson.
8. Howard and wife Anna are parents of two children, Brenda and Howard, Jr. Howard, Sr. was born July 7, 1922 in Monticello, MS. He married Anna Reaves September 2, 1964.
9. Odessie born October 10, 1928 in Monticello, MS, married James Wolfe. Their daughter is Sharon Williams.
10. Bobbie, born June 25, 1931 in Brookhaven, MS, married Donald McGuire and William Sutton. Bobbie and Donald had four children, Jacqueline, Barbara, Diane and Olivia. Bobbie and husband William had one child, William Sutton, Jr.

THE MOVE NORTH

After Eli and Indiana were married in September of 1907 they settled in and began having and raising their family; farming the 40 acres of land Eli had purchased from his father. The children began coming in 1908 and continued until 1923 when I was born, the last born in Mississippi. For several years all seemed to be going well with Eli and his ever growing brood. But then he became discontented with his lot in Oak Vale. He eventually decided to leave the south primarily because of a disappointing experience and subsequent events surrounding a government job he had applied for and was denied. It had to do with driving the mail buggy at the Oak Vale post office. He had passed the written examination. But, as I understand it, from my sister Caroline, there was some controversy with local white ‘powers to be’ over the possibility of a ‘colored’ person delivering the mail. That left a bad taste in Eli’s mouth. This was in 1919. It was then he began making plans to take leave of Oak Vale.

Eli envisioned more for himself and more importantly, more for his children too, than just continuing to exist in the kind of South where he was born and where he grew into manhood being held back, denied, segregated and disrespected. He began looking North to where other of his friends had moved. Our family numbered 7 at that time, (Robi, Ros and I had not yet been born). He pondered moving his family to a place where they would have more of an opportunity to grow and reach their potential unrestricted by the kinds of limitations imposed on blacks where they now lived in Oak Vale.. As he pondered, he began to act.

From 1919 thru 1924 he made several trips to Chicago finding out what it was like, getting the lay of the land. Though 1919 had seen violence and rioting there among Blacks and Whites, Eli liked what he saw. He planned. He worked hard. And he prayed. He would move his family to this new environment, this new social climate even in the face of doubting relatives and friends who warned him we would starve and freeze to death up North. He strongly felt leaving the South be more conducive for his children developing into other than simply farmers and farmers' wives, which is about all they had to look forward to in Oak Vale. It took Eli all of 6 years to get things in place.. His business affairs in Oak Vale, (his home and 150 acres of land were primary). Plus finding a suitable place for his family to live in Chicago. Come 1925 he was ready to make the move. We numbered 8 by then.. Robichaux was born in 1921 and I was born in 1923.

When Eli Ward finally left Mississippi with his family for Chicago in May of 1925, it was for good! The move to Chicago completely severed whatever bonds there were between the relatives we left behind in the south, and our family in the north.. Ours was never a situation where family members were commuting back and forth to Mississippi at given times, such as on holidays, vacations, etc.. From what I can discern, from Caro- line's way of telling it, "It was Papa's intent to divorce himself and us, completely, from Mississippi and the South, period!" In doing so it rendered us youngsters null and void as far as being familiar with grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins that were left behind there. I am sure that was not my father's intent, but that's the way it turned out to be. For instance, I never knew Uncle Luther or Yncle George, Papa’s brothers, even though they were both alive in my lifetime and were in Chicago at one time or another. Uncle Luther visited around 1934. Uncle George moved his family to Chicago in the early forties. I never recall seeing either We never knew that Papa's father, was not only a slave, but he was also the son of the slave owner.. We did not know that Papa was the grandson of a slave owner.. That papa's mother, Lavina "Viney" Harvey, was a slave; and her mother and father, Matilda and Baccus Harvey, slaves also.

Other than my brother, Roscoe and me, none of my other brothers and sisters ever set foot on southern soil again after coming to Chicago. My older brothers and sisters were no doubt familiar with many of the relatives we left there. However, they only knew that such and such a person was called so and so, very often having not the slightest idea of the actual connection or relationship of that person to us. Mama and Papa never mentioned or described their families in meaningful ways that would have served to better acquaint us with them. Again, for his own reasons, Papa did not think it was important that we know our ancestry. So, therefore our larger extended family in the south passed away with us having no real knowledge of them.

Our first home up North was in a neighborhood recently annexed to Chicago called Morgan Park. It boasted plenty of open spaces and modest individual family homes. We occupied the first floor of a brick two story building at 1153 W. 110th Pl., complete with indoor toilets and running water. There was plenty of vacant land everywhere. And I am almost certain my father chose the location mainly for that reason. Just one block away he converted an acre or two of it into a farm. Under his expert direction he had us boys dig it up and plant it. Papa was no longer down south but, nevertheless, he was still a farmer. He knew how to make things grow and that he proceeded to do. It wasn’t long before all our neighbors in Morgan Park knew about Mr. Ward's garden..the greens, tomatoes, beans, corn, you name it.. He shared the fruits of his labor with friends and neighbors. Some of our cousins, who lived on the south side, (down town we called it) would be out every week-end with their bags to carry back to the city ‘goodies’ from Papa's garden. Every year he would grow his garden. Even up until the year before he died, at 80 years old, he had a small garden that he tended.

Again, I am almost certain that my father chose Morgan Park for us to live because of the opportunity for him to practice what he knew and loved best, farming! It was a like hobby for him and also a way to supply food to feed his family. Mama would have the shelves in our kitchen from the floor to the ceiling, lined with green beans, peas, tomatoes and all kinds of things from our garden that she would can for us to feed on during the long winter months. And during winter months Papa would turn to another one of his hobbies, which was hunting. He, Rev. Brown, James Simmons and later on my brother, Leonard, would go early in the morning and come back late in the evening with their hunting jackets bulging with game they had bagged. That supplied meat on our table to go with the vegetables Papa had raised and Mama had canned. That along with plenty of basics like; pig feet, pig ears, pig snouts, lights, hearts, ham hocks, spare ribs, salt pork, etc.. Through-out the depression time our bellies were never lacking for food. There was always plenty on our table!.

Clothing us was another thing of concern for our Papa. Mama had a system that isn't used too much today. It was called 'hand me downs' and ‘patch and wear’. ("Patched", is the way clothes are made to look for children today) If a garment wasn't worn out, as it grew too small for one of us, the next one in line got it. Mama was a genius at sewing and patching on her only modern appliance..a manually operated Singer Sewing Machine..the kind that you peddled with your foot. When our socks developed holes she darned them; when our shirt collars became frayed, she turned them and made them look like new; when we got holes in the knees of our pants from shooting marbles, etc., she patched them; when Papa wore holes in the seat of his pants she darned them; when the heels of our shoes were worn over we took them to the shoemaker who put on a new heel for a quarter. When the soles of our shoes got holes in them first we applied folded newspaper or cardboard and when that failed to keep our feet dry, the next step was the shoemaker again who would half sole shoes for fifty cents. Mama knew how to make quilts and throw rugs with the scraps from our old disposable clothing.. Rocking and humming softly she made magic with those scraps. Believe me, our folks from Oak Vale knew how to make do.

One of the first orders of business after getting settled into our new home in Chicago for Papa was to make sure his children were registered to go to school. Here they would be attending classes ten months a year rather than just five in Mississippi. Caroline, Alfretta and Lydia were in entered Esmond Elementary School. Brutus, Leonard and Enoch were entered at Shoop School at 112th and Laflin. Robichaux and I were not old enough for school yet and Roscoe was yet to be born.. It was now 1926.. Papa and Mama were very pleased..

The girls graduated from Esmond and attended Morgan Park H. S.. Shoop School was officially opened, Kindergarten through eighth grade, in 1927. My older brothers as well as Robichaux, Roscoe and I graduated from there and went on to Morgan Park High School. Although all my brothers and sisters did not graduate from high school, my father was very satisfied that they had an opportunity to go as far as they wished, individually. Times then were very hard and when there was an opportunity for one of the older boys or girls to get a job he allowed it. I was fortunate enough to be the first one to graduate from high school. Roscoe also graduated.

My sisters were referred to jobs by a friend of our family named Mrs. Cyrus. The jobs were making lamp shades. This they assumed while still attending school. By working day shifts making lamp shades it allowed them to attend Fenger High School at night. My three older brothers acquired paper routes in the morning up in Beverly Hills, that they were able to complete in time to come home, freshen up, and get to school on time at Morgan Park High.

The jobs my sisters and brothers were holding didn’t pay much money. However, they served the purpose of supplying them a sense of self-sufficiency while at the same time establishing an all important work ethic. They did not expect to be given everything they wanted by our parents. They were all able and willing to go out, work and get things for themselves. When they got their pay checks they brought them home to Mama and shared with her first. With times being the way they were, in the late 20’s through the late 30’s, it was necessary for them to earn income if they wanted the things they desired for themselves that our parents could not afford to give them.

Our church home in Chicago had a distinctive Southern flavor. One of Papa's friends from Mississippi, Reverend Thomas Emerson Brown, was pastor of Progressive Baptist Church. It was located at 37th and LaSalle. Each Sunday morning we children made the trip down to Progressive on "big red", our nick-name for the street car, or trolley.. It was an exciting adventure that we all looked forward to each week. I liked riding in the front standing by the motorman. Sometimes we’d almost come to blows to see who got that ‘choice’position. Or, maybe I would choose the window in the back where the fare collector was. Sometimes it would be just me, Robi, Mama and Enoch going together, with the others coming later on. We had to be there to attend Sunday School which was from 9:30 until 11:00 A.M. Church services were from 11 A.M. until Reverend Brown got through preaching, usually between 3 and 4 in the afternoon. B.Y.P.U. began at 6 P.M. Sometimes there wasn't enough carfare available for us all to go to Progressive. In those instances Beth Eden, on 112th St. at Loomis, in Morgan Park, was the alternative. Everyone attended church on Sunday! Everyone! No dancing, no card playing, no ball playing, not even any working in the garden!..Not on Sunday. It was the one day of the week that everyone sat together around the dinner table. (If we did not have company. In that case we little guys like Enoch, Robi, me and Ros would have to eat in the kitchen). It was the one day of the week when we got all 'dressed up' in our Sunday best and behaved our best..sometimes..

The ‘good times’ in the South that my three sisters spent so much time talking about when they would get together, are not too difficult for me to believe anymore after what my search has revealed about Wiley Ward and about Eli Ward. They liked remembering about "the good old times", their play friends and about how well they lived, etc.. Listening to them talk I never for a moment thought it to be true what they were saying. However, there is no doubt in my mind now that there was a lot of truth in what they spoke. I suppose they did have it about as good as Blacks in the South, in their time, could have it. And even though they were subjected to segregation and all the other indignities that Blacks, living in southern states, accepted as a matter of fact, as long as they stayed in their places and deferred to whites, they existed very well.. .

The exodus began in 1928. Caroline married Kaysee Fortenberry, Sr., who’s family was from Monticello, MS, which is very near Oak Vale. They had attended night classes together at Fenger High School. He took her to live with his family on 108th St. in Morgan Park. In 1930 Lydia married Gordon "Lord Chesterfield" Williams. They lived on 112th and Ashland in Morgan Park. Then in July of 1933 Mama passed away after a brief illness. She was only 43 years old. Her passing left a terrible void in the life of our family. She had taken ill in spring of 1933, eight years after coming to Chicago. Caroline has said often that she thinks, "Mama died more of a broken heart than anything else. She didn’t want to come to Chicago and never became acclimated to her new surroundings." Cause of death was listed as tuberculosis. Her passing left Alfretta alone at home to care for all of us boys and Papa. Then later in 1933 Brutus decided he wanted to enlist for a four-year stint in the U.S. Navy. Papa gave his approval because Brut convinced him that it would insure him of an opportunity to learn a trade that would be his life’s work. But of course it did not work out that way. Brut joined the Navy and saw the world. But he also saw his dream of learning a trade in the Navy come crumbling down around his feet on finding that trade schools in the Navy were only for whites..And he was "trapped in the galley" for four years of servitude. Meanwhile, after school was out for the summer in 1935, Papa decided to send Roscoe and me to stay with Grandmother Cornelia (Mama’s mother) in Oak Vale. I was 12 and Ros 8. Of course we were not consulted or informed in any way of what was happening to us, not that it would have mattered. We were just put on a train, with a "shoe box", and sent on our way, not knowing when or if we would ever come back. We stayed there for little over a year, returning to Chicago in 1936. In the meantime, in April of 1936, Leonard had married Mildred Ferguson and in June of the same year Alfretta married James Simmons. So that left Papa, Enoch, Robi, me and Roscoe at home. Papa moved us from 110th Pl. to a house on the north-east corner of 110th St. and Throop owned by a Mr. Nelson. He enlisted one of our cousins from down south, Evie Haynes, to come to Chicago to stay with us and keep house. She stayed with us until we moved in to the infamous "Big House" at 1317 W. 108th Pl. James and Alfretta already were living there. It was a REAL BIG HOUSE! Eight rooms with four bedrooms and a basement; and a wonderful yard filled with all kinds of fruit trees, plus a grape arbor in the back. The years that we lived in the "big house" were some of the best years of my life and in the life of our family. At one time or another all the family lived there with the exception of Lillian. She was too busy living all over the "south-side’ of Chicago. In front of the "big house", on either side of the front steps, were two large mock-orange blossom bushes. When in full bloom, their fragrance permeated the whole street. Just to the right of the front driveway was a tree that grew golden delicious aples. In back of the house was a grape arbor that spanned the entire width of the lot providing tasty purple grapes. Papa and Jim Simmons made wine from them each year. The front porch was screened in so that we could sit out in the evenings without being devoured by mosquitos.

In summer of 1939 Papa married a lady named Ruby January. Roscoe and I had a step-mother! She seemed to hate our guts! She immediately proceeded to break up the family. Leonard and Mildred moved out, down the street a few doors, with their new-born, Patricia Ann. Brutus and Geneva found a place on the same block a little further down. James and Alfretta then took off for Philadelphia to visit relatives of James’. Enoch went along with them. They ended up remaining in ‘Philly’ until 1944. Then, in 1941, Robichaux, after working for several years for a local grocer on 111th St., in Morgan Park, took off from home, too. He was enroute on the Pacific Ocean, from San Francisco, headed for Hawaii at the exact time the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor in 1941. He was going there to work in a defense plant. His leaving left just Roscoe and me at home with Papa and our new mother, Ruby. Ruby had no maternal instincts what-so-ever even with her own child, named Mae, who eventually came to stay with us. She made no bones about not caring much for Ros, me or Mae.

At this point in 1941, all of Eli’s children were positioned elsewhere except Roscoe and me. We were still at home and in school. Then in February, 1942, I graduated from High School with a scholarship that gave me four years at Xavier University in New Orleans, La. When I left for college in the fall, it left Roscoe home alone. He eventually went to stay with Len and Mildred. After attending Xavier for less than a full year, I was drafted into the Armed Services where I served for 31 months. On my discharge in 1945 and return home I found no home, as such. Papa and Ruby had separated and both moved out of the Big House. Papa was staying with Mildred and Leonard. What I found was a new batch of family members..little nephews and nieces. Caroline and Kaysee’s family had grown the most. They now numbered 7. Charles and Geneva had 3; Leonard and Mildred now had 3 and Enoch and Inez had 2. On August 15, 1947 I married my high school sweetheart, Thelma Farnandis. We parented 3 children, Ann Elizabeth, Susan Elaine and Irving, Jr. In August of 1947 Alfretta and James began their family which ultimately grew to 4. Robichaux married Lula Cochoran and they had 2 children.

Now it was August, 1949. I have taken the liberty of assuming that my father, Eli, must have, at this juncture in the life of our family, been feeling pretty satisfied with himself at the results of his momentous decision to bring us out of the south to Chicago, and raising us, particularly the boys, practically alone.. He had chanced that we would take advantage of the opportunity we had to get better schooling and have access to decent jobs that would help prepare us for being ‘bread-winners’, raising and caring for our own families. Indeed, we all did avail ourselves of those aspects, though only modestly.. No college graduates, or professional people among my brothers and sisters yet, but all were comfortably situated. We were all back in Morgan Park except Lydia who perennially stayed on the "south-side". So it was that in August of 1949. The word went out from Papa that all the family should gather in the yard of Leonard and Mildred at the corner of 109th Place and Loomis, at 3:30 P.M. on a Saturday afternoon. We had to come dressed..ladies in dresses and men in shirts, ties and suits. It was to be an afternoon and evening to remember. Eli, undoubtedly feeling that the fruit from the seed he had planted had taken and grown into full bloom, planned this occasion for us to celebrate the crop together with him. I can never before recall seeing my father so animated and involved with everybody as he was that day. He was dressed as all the men were in his blue serge suit and highly polished, high topped, shoes that laced up. He had never smiled so much, his gold teeth showing.. He seemed to be just reveling in his accomplishment and in ours; and we all shared in the beauty and the wonder that was that afternoon and evening. There was food, drinks and everything one could imagine to dine on. Papa had enjoined the services of a professional photographer to take our pictures. In these pictures, taken in August of 1949, were the entire Eli Ward Family. Today it would probably take the Chicago Stadium to hold all our family. Again, I feel that my father was saying to us all that he was pleased with us..how we had turned out, how we were applyng ourselves to raising our families and how we were passing on to our young ones what he and Mama had passed to us; and what their mothers and fathers had passed on to the two of them.. And it was good.

ACCESSION . . .MIRACLE TIMES

There are some happenings of the past few years that bear mentioning. Happenings that have aided my family search efforts immensely. While far from providing answers to all I need to know, they have been heaven sent sources of inspiration; and most importantly, they have firmed up my belief that there is much more out there to be revealed about our families of yore. They have renewed my hope that someday I just may have it all in place... They definitely have infused needed energy into me and my efforts.. I have put these happenings in the realm of "miracles". Allow me to briefly share a few of them with you.

After completing and distributing "For Heaven’s Sake, Don’t Drop The Baton", I was mentally and physically exhausted from effort put forth in years of searching, compiling, analyzing, and attempting to put the information together in a manner that could be understood by the reader. But I was worn mostly from trying to be an author and a publisher, which I know, and we all know, I am not! However, after a few months of rest the "genealogy bug" began to get to me again and once more I found myself back in the hunt.

This time I decided to go another route in attempting to trace our families. In previous attempts to find information on our ancestors things came to a screeching halt at 1870. Beyond that time, back in to slavery times, there was zero I had to show. So now my efforts would be directed towards plantation owners who had owned our people. Namely, Robert Daniels, Sr. and his son, William Daniels and Jesse Ward. My plan was to seek and search whatever probate, wills, land deeds, family Bibles, or records of any kind that might reveal something, knowing full well that I’d have to be extremely lucky to come up with anything. Failing there, I would seek out descendants of those 3 slave owners, hoping through them to reveal something from the old days that might help establish where our folks were procured by their folks.. Perhaps, finding what happened to our people after freedom came.. Anything that might help put more pieces of the puzzle in place. Primary objectives: finding a link connecting great-grandmother Rhoda Daniels with her parents and/or her brother, Wiley Daniels.. Finding what happened to her after slavery.. Finding how she and her brother Wiley Daniels got to Lawrence County at the Daniels’ plantation. What it would take to accomplish those tasks I never even bothered to entertain. Just where to begin or how to proceed had not occurred to me. Certainly, it would necessitate taking time off to review and reflect on the information that I already had in my possession.

In about six months things began happening that were not my doings at all.. Happenings that, to me, were truly in the realm of miracles!! They were miracles to me...

Miracle #1. On one of my many sojourns "back home" I sought out a lady I’d been previously introduced to named Mrs. Anita Clinton. Mrs. Clinton was the head of Lawrence County Genealogical Society. I explained to her my mission. Her group had no information on Blacks and she knew of no such Black genealogy group in Lawrence County. We exchanged addresses and phone numbers promising to stay in touch. That was in 1982. You can imagine my large surprise at receiving a brochure from Mrs. Clinton, early in 1990, inviting me to attend "The Lawrence County Pilgrimage". This, I learned, was a ‘gala’, staged periodically, consisting of tours and other events reliving the life styles of olden days in the county. It was being sponsored by the Lawrence County Historical Society, and held at Monticello, MS in April of 1990. And of course, along with the brochure, I received a personal invitation to attend. At first I did not recognize the significance of this invitation and the latent possibilities it held for my new search. After mulling it over several days something, I cannot identify exactly what, helped me decide to go. In retrospect, I could not have asked for a more suitable manner in which to begin my new search. And it had come out of the clear blue without my having to do a thing! It provided the absolute perfect venue for me to begin with. I’d be rubbing elbows with the whites in the area, and hopefully something good would rub off on to me...Yes, yes! I made my way to Monticello and to the "The Pioneer Pilgrimage"!

As fate would have it, on the afternoon of the very first day I had the good fortune to be chatting with a local mailman about why I, a Black man, was attending this function. We were sitting next to each other riding a school bus to view one of the exhibits. (Cousin Mattie was with me too). When I mentioned to him my purpose and some of the names I was searching for he referred me immediately to Mrs. Pauline Chance. "She was on his mail route. Her maiden name had been a Pauline Daniels and she still lived out where the Daniels’ property was located." He was certain she was a member of the Daniels family I sought... This was incredible, indeed! I calmly jotted down the address and directions he gave me. I could hardly wait for the last stop to leave the Pilgrimage and seek out the place called Hepzibah. "It is where the Daniels’ clan still holds forth. They have their own church and family cemetery. In olden days they had hired tutors to teach their children." I found Hepzibah... and there I also found Mrs. Pauline Daniels Chance.

To me this early revelation of Pauline Daniels Chance was surely an event that had miracle written all over it, if it were true. Her house was simple, plain, ordinary, nothing fancy. Answering my hesitant, anxious knock she cordially invited me in. She was a small well rounded lady whose appearance indicated to me that she wasn’t too well. I stated my name and that of my father and grandfather, Wiley. She did not seem to recognize either. I continued, "In slavery times your family owned my family." I asked if we could talk about it for a few minutes to which she agreed. She seemed a little flustered but invited me to sit in her very comfortable front room. She settled across from me and we talked for about 45 minutes. She was, truly, the great grand-daughter of Wm. Daniels, Jr., the former owner of the plantation where Grandma Rhoda was a slave, along with her brother Wiley Daniels. She was, truly, the great grand-daughter of Wm. Daniels, Jr., the former owner of the plantation where Grandma Rhoda was a slave, along with her brother Wiley Daniels. She talked for a while about her father and grandfather both of whom had long since died. She could recall hardly anything told to her, by either of them, about slavery times. She was the same age as my brother Enoch My discovery and experience with Mrs. Chance is a story in itself that is told in a Journal I am writing at the present time. It is noted that after making initial contact with her it took all of three years for her to remember the name of a person in her family that had done some Daniel’s family research and who might could provide me with the information I sought. She was unable to supply any real information of consequence. But in April of 1993 she gave me a name she suddenly thought of, a cousin, Dr. Donnie Daniels, Jr.. "Donnie is head of the Business School at Southern Mississippi University at Hattiesburg." she said. Donnie is also the great grandson of William Daniels, Sr. and the great great grandson of Robert Daniels, Sr. Meeting and getting to know Donnie was fantastic! Very personable energetic and co-operative. He is a wonderful individual.. Donnie gave my search the real boost it needed. Certainly, the revealing of him and of Mrs. Pauline Chance was, indeed, a miracle!!

Miracle #2 was a direct result of miracle #1.. Mr. Donnie Daniels proceeded to open new doors for my search right away! It was during one of my periodic calls to her that Mrs. Chance gave his name to me. During the entire three year interval from our first meeting she complained of deteriorating health. So, I thought it best that I check out right away if, for true, a Dr. Donnie Daniel did in fact exist. As soon as I was off the phone with her I proceeded to call the U of Southern Mississippi at Hattiesburg, just checking.. Before I could hang up the phone he was on the other end giving his name. There was no hanging up, so even though I wasn’t prepared at the moment, I muttered out who I was and what I was about, as he listened. Now, years later, we often recall that moment and get big laughs about it when we get together. He thought I was a little off my rocker, but agreed to call me back later after he got home. That’s when I found out he had indeed done a little research. The very first item he made mention of to me was Rhoda Daniel! From that stunning moment on I knew we were on the same page. He wanted to know if I had any connection with her. He had in his possession an indenture that you will view among other documents, describing her sale from his great grandfather William to Jesse Ward and his wife Delana. Our conversation lasted for at least an hour. Before hanging up he extended an invitation for me to come to Hattiesburg and meet with him in person. That, needless to say, I promptly arranged to do. In the mean time I could not wait, so I asked him to send me a copy of the indenture describing our 15 year old ancestor’s sale, to Jesse Ward and his wife, Delana, for 5 dollars, a slave for life, dated April 14, 1841. After I received it, it took a while for me to stop staring at that single paged, almost illegible hand scribbled document...A slave for life...and all those born of her...slaves for life.. It was the first time, the only time, I had even seen her name other than on grandfather Wiley’s death certificate. There are no words that could ever describe the feelings in the pit of my stomach as I held that paper in my hands. . .

Donnie also included a several page history of his family going as far back as the 1600’s in England. As a result of our initial meeting at Hattiesburg in April of 1993 came the biggest discovery and the most monumental find of my entire search, now into its thirteenth year.

Miracle #3.. Donnie was only beginning with me. He eventually pointed my search in a totally new direction, toward Louisiana. There, he said, his great-great-grandfather, Robert Daniels, Sr., had moved in about 1841. My cousin, and a chief informant, Moses Aultman, had mentioned Louisiana several times during our many talks. On more than one occasion he mentioned that his great-grandmother, Minerva Daniels Aultman, and that all her brothers and sisters, were at one time slaves down at a place near Varnado, Louisiana.. He said the very first thing that her father did, when his freedom came, was to go down to Varnado to get his family at the Daniels’ plantation there. Minerva’s father, Wiley Daniels, was a slave at the William Daniels’ plantation in Lawrence County, MS. I didn’t look in to what Moses was saying because I had nothing to connect to it At that point in my search I had not associated Robert Daniel, Sr. with our family...only William Daniel, who I later found was Robert’s son... Donnie assured me I’d find information on my Black Daniels family in the courthouse at Washington Parish.

I went to Washington Parish Courthouse even though I was told by learned people, who were supposed to know, that no records existed there dating back past 1900.. Franklinton, LA., where the courthouse is located was only about fifty to sixty miles from Oak Vale. There, unbelievably, incredibly, I discovered two estate settlements concerning the estates of Robert Daniels, Sr. and his wife Sarah. These two documents, one dated 1849, when Robert died; the other dated 1861, when his wife Sarah died are real, rare treasures, genealogical and historical! The documents each described in detail the disbursement of Robert and his wife’s estates, on their deaths, to their heirs. Of course, included in their estates were our Daniels slave ancestors. Wiley Daniels, wife Martha (Minnie) and their nine children are included on both documents. The most remarkable things about these documents is that they have listed by given names, age and worth, in dollars and cents, our Daniels' family members. Noted historian E. Russ Williams has called these two documents, "finds of historic proportions!" He has listed them as such in his book, "A History of Washington Parish".! Dr. Williams was one of those who assured me I’d find nothing at the courthouse in Washington Parish, Franklinton, LA... They are, indeed, miraculous finds!

Miracle #4: A search I made, at Newberry Library in Chicago, of Record Group 105, which is specifically, The Abandoned Lands and Freedmen’s Bureau Records, led me to the discovery of a Freedmen's Bureau Labor Contract, dated 1 June 1865. This document again connected slave owner, great grandfather Jesse Ward, with his son out of wed-lock, grandfather Wiley Ward. It was from a different angle. This document also assured me that Grandpa Wiley was on the Ward plantation during slavery, which further cleared up any doubts as to which plantation he was at, Daniels or Ward, during his enslavement.. The librarian in charge of this data on the Freedmens Bureau had recently received it from The National Archives in Washington D.C and had just begun organizing it by counties. Unbelievably, the only county he had completed in Mississippi was Lawrence! Within five minutes I had the document in my quivering hands! A Labor Contract, dated June 1, 1865 and signed by both Wiley Ward and Jesse Ward. A Miracle? You bet!! Labor Contracts were documents entered into with the idea of protecting the newly freed slave from being taken advantage of by their former masters, or, from whomever they chose to work for after freedom came. They were required by the newly created Freedmens Bureau. In this instance, the language of the document indicates grandfather Wiley chose to work for his father, Jesse, for the remainder of 1865 for what is stipulated in the contract. The contract guaranteed that Wiley would receive clothing, shelter, food, medical treatment and other compensation for his labor.

The labor contract has served to connect Jesse, Rhoda and Wiley, as has the death certificate and the deed of sale for Rhoda. However, on the other hand, clues connecting Rhoda are ended right there. She is now one of the focal points of my search for the Wards of Oak Vale. She and her brother, Wiley Daniels are the links to the past, on the Black side of our family, that must connect in hopes of going further back with our lineage. The indenture, of 1841, showing the sale of Rhoda to Jesse and Delana Ward; and the death certificate of grandfather Wiley proves she did exist...

Miracle # 5: This miracle involved actually doing again what I had designated as one of my main objectives in this phase of my family search. That was locating, identifying and communicating with slave owner descendants in an effort to learn more about our family. I had miraculously been successful in locating a Daniel slave descendant with fruitful results. This time, in February of 1994 I was successful in identifying, locating and communicating with a slave owner descendant on the Ward side. He is a direct descendant of great grandfather Jesse Ward, Sr. named, Carl Franklin Ward. He is our blood relative! His grandfather, Jesse Jackson Ward, Jr. and my grandfather Wiley are 1/2 brothers. Carl and I are 2nd cousins. Carl’s revelation was the result of a study of Latter Day Family History Library records. I found a listing recorded by Clyde Ward, of Brookhaven, MS. He was noted as being the son of Frederick Ward, the elder brother of Jesse Ward, Sr.. Being in Mississippi at the time of Aunt Ruth’s funeral I seized the opportunity to talk with Clyde who then referred me to a cousin in Silver Creek, MS. named Mrs. Celeste Ward Celeste and I had met on a couple of previous occasions. Once at the Pioneer Pilgrimage in 1990 and initially through Mrs. Clinton of the Lawrence County Genealogy Society in1982. Her maiden name is Fortenberry and she is a Ward by marriage. She put cousin Carl and me in touch with one another.. Carl readily acknowledged that indeed he and I were blood relatives.. As we became better acquainted he began sending information to me on his side of the family, past and present and I did the same for him.. Included were pictures of his family, his father and mother and even a picture of great grandfather Jesse, himself. I sent grandfather Wiley’s picture and others of his Black relatives, to him.. After a year of corresponding through the mail and talking on the phone, Carl Franklin Ward and I agreed to meet. That historic meeting took place at Tongonoxie, Kansas in May of 1995. We purposefully limited the meeting to just us and our spouses. That afternoon together was an experience like none before, one I can never forget. In retrospect, I guess it was what it was supposed be, family coming together with family. Two years later, in September of 1997, Carl and his wife Donna came to visit with our family in Chicago. On that occasion he had an opportunity to meet several of his Black family members including nieces, nephews, my children and my grandchildren. Carl and Donna are down to earth people, true Wards. Another miracle? You bet!!

Having made contact and established continuous, positive communications with the aforementioned descendants of our former slave owners was really quite an accomplishment for this Black genealogist. Not many achieve as much simply because getting positive responses and co-operation from former slave owner descendants is not a very common experience. Usually searchers get denials. Donnie and Carl have contributed tremendously to my effort in so many ways. They have both taken me inside of slavery with their families and my family. We’ve had nothing but positive discussions as far as establishing one of the things I seek most. And that is, information on where Grandma Rhoda and her brother Wiley were procured by the Daniels’. And, what happened to her after slavery? Was she released when freedom came in 1865. Where were she and her brother born? (According to the 1870 census Uncle Wiley, wife Martha and all their children were listed as born in Louisiana. I assume that grandmother Rhoda was born there also...Neither Donnie Daniels or Carl Ward have been able to shed any light in my quest to discover any of those things. Other than that they were slaves on their ancestor’s plantations, nothing further has been revealed, yet.. However, I am still very optimistic. still entertaining hopes (faint though I must admit) that through Donnie or Carl, will emerge the appearance of some document, bill of sale, Bible notation, etc.. Something will be uncovered that will reveal information of importance on Grandma Rhoda or her brother Wiley Daniels.. I believe in miracles. They do happen.. They have happened! To me, it was a miracle to have found either Pauline Daniels Chance, Donnie Daniels or Carl Ward and have them readily acknowledge that they were the slave owner descendants for whom I searched. It was a miracle, I feel, that they all have been so cooperative and eager to aid in my quest...and have supplied me, voluntarily, invaluable information on our Black Daniels and Ward families and their Daniels and Ward families that I would not, could not, have found or otherwise had access to except through them. My relationships with Donnie and Carl are on-going. They are both in this search with me now, vigilant and rummaging their families to see if something might be brought to light that may have been over-looked on Rhoda and Wiley Daniels. As mentioned before, they are the two links that may connect me with the next generation back in our family.. Again, hopefully there are other miracles in store for my family search like those that have led me to Pauline Daniels Chance, Donnie Daniel and Carl Ward....

Miracle #6: After the many successes and finds of my "Miracle Times" of 1993, I felt that my family history search was ready to be carried on at the next level. The next level being The National Archives in Washington, D.C., after making such finds as: the indenture involving and describing great grandmother Rhoda’s sale to Jesse Ward; the Freedmens Bureau Labor Contract involving grandfathers Jesse and Wiley; the discoveries of Estate Settlements involving Robert Daniels, Sr. in 1849 and that of his wife, Sarah, in 1861, describing the disposition of their properties which included our Daniels’ family members, including Wiley Daniels, his wife Martha, and all their children and the finding of Mrs. Pauline Daniel Chance, great granddaughter of William Daniel who introduced me to Dr. Donnie Daniel. Then, Donnie supplying me the story of his family, and aiding in finding our Daniels’ family in Louisiana and supplying me with the indenture describing the sale of Great-grandmother Rhoda.

Finding plantation journals or other comparable records now appears very remote and unlikely at this juncture. My introduction to The Bureau Of Refugees and Freedmen and Abandoned Lands had been most intriguing. Through it I was able to find the labor contract signed by grandpa Wiley and grandfather Jesse. On further review I also found there were other records available in that area known as Record Group #105 from which Elaine Everly compiled what is known as Preliminary Inventory Record #174. This inventory covers every facet of activity entered into by the Army during and after the Civil War. Her inventory describes documents to be found there-in that were the kinds that could not fail to give me the information needed to fill in the blanks of my search. I studied the inventory for weeks, jotting down all the things I was sure would get me to where I wished to be. Gaining access to the records in the Inventory would necessitate my travelling to Washington D.C. where they are kept in The National Archives Building.

But there was still one event and one other person instrumental in making the year 1993 one of unbelievable success for my search efforts. That person was Sidney Holdrege of Oak Park, IL, a very knowledgeable genealogist whom I met accidentally at Newberry Library in Chicago. She happened to be researching one of the names I was searching for; and, also searching in the same state, Louisiana. I refer to her as my "angel" because her appearance, and contribution to my efforts, on top of all else that had happened for me in such a short period of time, was truly heaven sent! Sidney was responsible for my being introduced to Dr. E. Russ William, authority and author of several books on the history of Washington Parish, Louisiana. It was Dr. Williams who introduced me to The Southern Claims Commission files, which led to miracle #6.

The Southern Claims Commission files listed the names of all those persons in Southern States filing claims for compensation for losses suffered during the Civil War due to Northern armies taking or using their property, cattle, hogs, etc.. Using those files I was able to obtain from the National Archives in Washington the actual files of Robert Daniels, Jr. and Abram Ard Harvey, both of whom had filed claims. These two former slave owners used some of their former slaves, who were our relatives, to testify for them as to their character and to the accuracy of their claimed losses... I could not identify any of our family among the several slaves that Robert Daniel, Jr. had to testify for him. But gaining access to the file of Abram Ard Harvey, the very first thing I saw on the faded, worn, outer cover of his file was the name of Wiley Daniel. (My great uncle and grandfather.) I was in a state of semi-shock, unable at first to believe what I was seeing. Seeing grandfather’s name in print, connected to Abram Harvey, gave me more reason than ever to believe that, not only he but grandfather Wiley and grandmother Lavina, and her family were at one time slaves on the Harvey plantation in Washington Parish. The Harvey plantation was in close proximity to Robert Daniels'. They were neighbors. And, as we already know, Wiley Daniels and his family were slaves at the Daniels plantation.

The revealing of that tattered, folded piece of paper with Great-grandfather Wiley Daniels’ name scrawled clearly in the middle and showing words of his testimony is certainly miraculous to me. That it exists at all is almost unbelievable and what it indicates is pregnant with possibilities. It says to me that our people were being used as their slave owners saw fit. They were shuttled back and forth between Washington Parish and Lawrence County by Robert Daniels and his son William; and probably back and forth between the Daniels and Harveys in Washington Parish. Each clue helps make the picture clearer. It is only that the clues are so woefully few...

EPILOGUE

What has been noted here concerns only some of the "roots" of the Wards of Oak Vale... Some one else will have to pick up, fill in the gaps and carry on from where I have left off.... Ours is an amazing story as it has unfolded to me. I am certain that my father Eli, with all his foresight and wisdom, even in his wildest imaginings could not possibly have imagined the breadth and magnitude of what has happened to his children, his grandchildren and their children, and their children, since he departed this life. It is a story that ever continues to unfold, with each succeeding generation of his descendants breaching new horizons and achieving successes at such high levels, in areas of endeavor that were unthinkable for blacks to surmount in his time. It is a story that continues in the treasured tradition of those who have come before and paved the way.. It is a story that does our ancestors proud knowing that their effort on our behalf has, truly, not been in vain. Nothing! Nothing appears to be out of reach for our young Ward descendants of today in their pursuit of self-realization and excellence. And it all has come to be because of those strong, proud men and women from Oak Vale who have infused and ingrained into our beings the qualities born of their struggles and hardships. Qualities born in the crucible of slavery and the segregation and degradation they endured for even one-hundred years after slavery....To The Wards of Oak Vale...We of today gratefully honor your memory.

Our family has truly been blessed.. And as we in our own way go about benefiting from the gifts of life and lore that our ancestors from Oak Vale have provided us with, again, let us pause ever so often to reflect, giving thanks to them for having passed on to us such a rich legacy. And I say to those of you who are striving to achieve your goals, and to those who have reached and are living out your potential today, always remember you honoring them with every effort. They have made it possible. Making the best of ourselves helps justify their suffering and sacrifices on our behalf. We can all be proud of their efforts. Let them be proud of ours...knowing that we have been the best we can be and that we are "Passing The Baton"!...

These years of what I often refer to as "my journey into family" have been some of the most rewarding, fulfilling, exciting, awe-inspiring years of my entire life. They have been years chock full of learning about from whence we have come and the wonderful heritage we enjoy. Years of discovering and learning about families of ours never known before. Most of all I have come to understand that ours, just as other families, are a part of the history of this country and we are proud of our contributions.

Through the years of my journey I have developed an appreciation, a deep respect and pride, that I had never known or felt before for my family; and for those who came before us and had to suffer the indignities, the humiliation, of slavery. Pride in the knowledge that my very being is hewn from the same fabric as theirs and that they live on through us and ours. We can all stand tall and be proud of who we are and our inheritance.

Wherever you are today: what ever you are doing, whatever station in life you enjoy, whatever success you have achieved, whatever honors you have won, what ever pride you feel in your children or pride in your family or yourself...no matter where you may travel or go...do remember, and never, never, forget, that it all began in Oak Vale, Mississippi. It began there with our people who were at one time slaves, considered less than human, bought and sold at auction. Their families separated at will.. Their women folk used by plantation owners and their offspring. Their men folk humiliated, disrespected, mistreated. But, through it all, they persevered, they prevailed.. Our folks from Oak Vale..

It has been my privilege to share with you our family beginnings. My hope and prayer is that each of us will continue to be accountable for our leg of the family journey.. And that we carry the baton with pride, passing it on to the generation that follows...

finis:

Black families like ours, by the millions, have come to realize that the part they have played in the history of this country has not been adequately told by those who have written our history books; nor by those of us who have actually lived it. The stories of how our people were forcibly brought to this country and allowed to be enslaved by ‘the government of the people’ for hundreds of years. Stories of how at New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah and Charleston, our ancestors were bought and sold like livestock at auction blocks to the highest bidder. Stories of how our ancestors were disconnected from their land of origin, their culture, their families, wives and children. The stories of how our people were used, abused, considered less than human, yet, trusted to suckle and nurse the master’s children. Stories of how the legislators of both North and South, together, came to an agreement using our people as pawns in a game they played in the halls of Congress. They compromised that Blacks would be considered 3/5 of a person in order to allow the South representation that would equal the North’s in the Congress of the United States. Stories of how our men were emasculated and our women folk raped by slave owners and their off-spring. Stories of how Black free labor laid and built the foundations of this country. And stories of how, in spite of it all, we have persevered and survived with our pride and dignity in tact. They are stories that need to be told so that all people, Black, White and Red alike can have a better understanding of and better deal with race issues that so deeply affect our society today. These are stories that need to be told so that our children and their children can know who they are and the proud heritage from whence they have come, before slavery, through slavery, and now! They need to know the true story from historians and from us. And although we may never know the tribe or country we come from in Africa, it is still our responsibility to tell and share with them what we do know. In time those who write the United States history books will, we pray, tell the true story of Black people, fully, and also that of the Native American. Hopefully, it will be told in the real context of the history of our country, so that all Americans can know the truth about our government’s complicity in the whole matter.. It must be taught in all schools, throughout the land, beginning no later than third grade elementary, on through college and made mandatory!!

My mindset was that of most Blacks who do not know about their past. As a young man, to me, southern Blacks were for the most part, share-croppers, day laborers, servants. They owned hardly anything but what they had on their backs, and were segregated, discriminated, subject to be lynched at any time. Growing up in Chicago the word ‘South’ in itself held sinister meanings for me, and a place to be from, far from! And with no explanation I did not really know why. The U.S. History I studied in high school mentioned Native Americans only as savages, and Blacks not at all!

Our old Wards of Oak Vale were a very resourceful lot. They didn’t have a lot of book learning but they had boatloads of ‘moxie’ and mother-wit. Denied an opportunity to read and write, they used their imaginations and natural born instincts to create and produce for themselves whatever was needed to meet occurring emergencies, and to deal with, as best they could, whatever a particular occasion called for. They carried their survival kits in their heads. That and a strong faith and trust in The Creator.

None of the houses of our old folk from Oak Vale are still standing today.. Not the Wiley Daniels house, or the "old Wiley Ward" place; nor the Frank and Mary Turnbough home, nor that of Eli Ward, nor George Ward’s, nor John Turnbough’s, nor Grandma Cornelia Turnbough McClellan’s house. The three Turnbough homes were all within 300 to 400 yards distance of each other in Oak Vale.. The Wards and Daniels were located a few miles out near the church and school at a place called New Zion.. Over the years their descendants moved away with their families; and the homes, left deserted, fell into disrepair and ended up burning down, etc., for whatever reasons.

Even as my generation was being raised here in Chicago, in the late 1920’s to late 30’s, modern conveniences such as ‘fridges’ gas/electric stoves, electric irons, plastics, drip dry clothes, frozen foods, clothes dryers, instant foods and many of the things that are now considered necessities, such ‘frivolities’ were not found in our homes. Sometimes now I have to pinch myself, coming from those times The advances made in science and technology over the past 75 years would surely blow away their minds. I am fortunate enough to be living in present times but, again, I wonder sometimes, too, if I’m dreaming.. Television, VCRs, compact discs, walky-talkies, portable telephones, car telephones, telephones that tell you who is calling, personal computers, ‘the pill’, e-mail, space ships putting men on the moon!

Health care was another matter that our ancestors and old folk had to face with instinct and guile alone. Not even a country doctor, much less a public health clinic, was at their disposal. It seems they knew the kind of tree bark, or variety of leaves, or the right roots to gather; and they new how to prepare them to be used in whatever ways necessary in order to cure ill. In situations like that of sister, Theresa, who died because of a ruptured appendix, her welfare was left totally in the hands of our Creator. I look at the death certificates of Uncle Franklin, (died at age 2), Aunt Elizabeth, (died at age 2), Uncle Sampson, who lived only 7 days. They were Papa’s brothers and sister. No doubt their lives probably could have been extended with proper health care as is available today.

Travelling, for the old Wards of Oak Vale, was by foot, horse, mule and horse and buggy. "Grandpa Wiley had a fine buggy with a surrey on top drawn by two horses that he used on Sundays and on other special occasions", according to sister Alfretta. When darkness descended on the part of the country where our folk lived the only light visible was from the stars and the moon. Inside light was from the fireplace in winter and of course, coal-oil burning lamps. On nights when there was no moon or stars, it would be so dark outside until one could not see one’s hands held in front of one’s face. Where Cousin Jabus’ house is located, near New Zion, it is so, even until today... As can well be imagined, outdoor activity at night was very limited.

I never really knew who grandfather Wiley was. And very little of Mississippi having left there as a 2 year old. However, from the very moment I turned onto that narrow, orange dirt/gravel, road riding beside my cousin D.L. (February 23, 1980), and began the approach up to where grandfather’s house had once stood, unusual things began happening.. Feelings came and took control over me that were unlike anything I had ever experienced before, and can never, never forget! The closer we came to the house the stronger the feelings. I began imagining things...like seeing veiled people with gray-hooded capes falling away to the ground around them. They were lining both sides of the dusty little roadway, silently extending greetings to me and nodding their approval as D.L. and I drew closer and closer to the house looming ahead of us. I was totally outside myself, riding in my own "astro-vehicle". It was unbelievable! On that early Saturday afternoon, standing with my two cousins in the bright mid-day sun, on grounds hallowed by our ancestors, I think I was anointed or better still, appointed, to look into our family. Whatever. .

Something very strange happened to me that day. Something that has greatly enriched and given new meaning and direction to my life. Something that has engendered within me the energy, sufficient resources and most importantly, the inclination and the time. Time to pursue and become familiar with our families of the past as well as those of the present, Black and White. And, thanks be to God, the time to share all of it with you.