The Massie Common School House: Thinking About the Gold Mine in the Closet

Sugar’s mother went to Pape School, and Sugar’s mother’s mother taught French at Pape.

Here’s a photo of Sugar’s mother’s class in 1925. If you’ve read the blog, you might have seen this, and other photos, before.

Sugar’s mother is on the back row, all the way on the left. On the front row, all the way on the right, is Clermont Lee. Yes, Clermont is a girl. Next to Clermont is Walter Hartridge.

Pape School was named for Nina Pape. Sugar and I went there before to check it out. Miss Pape began her teaching career at Massie School.

So let’s go to Massie.

*****

If you stand in the middle of Calhoun Square, you can see several things.

This sign faces north on the north side of the square. Imagine that you are standing here, and the house on Taylor Street in behind you to your right and further down a bit.

 

 

Stand in the middle of the square and turn to the right and look past the northwest corner.

There’s Sugar’s grandmother’s house at 122 East Taylor Street.

We parked right in front of her house because we are bold like that. Also, because there was a parking place.

We wonder at what point the people that live here will call the authorities to question us as to why we keep driving by their house. Because we are paranoid like that.

Turn now, and look across the northeast corner. There’s where Walter Hartridge lived.

 

 

 

And because we are snoopish, I get a closer-up shot of the house. It was built for William Rogers in 1859.

 

Now back to the center of the square. If you turn and look past the south east corner of the square, you see the Massie School.

We are facing the school.

MASSIE COMMON SCHOOL HOUSE

Savannah’s Cradle of Public Education

*****

Massie School is the only remaining building of Georgia’s oldest

chartered public school system. Constructed in 1855-56 and opened

for classes on October 15, 1856, the Greek Revival building is

listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Peter Massie, a Scottish planter in Glynn County, Georgia, in 1841

bequeathed $5,000 “for the education of the poor children of Savannah.”

This donation was invested “until a large enough sum could be accumu-

lated to build a school.”

In 1855, the City retained John S. Norris to design and build Massie

School. The center portion, costing $9,000 is the original structure.

The west wing was built in 1872 from plans by John B. Hogg, and

in 1886 the east wing was erected.

The building was used briefly as a hospital by federal troops after

Sherman’s occupation of Savannah in December, 1864. Beginning May 1,

1865, it was operated for a few months as a school for the Freedmen,

with teachers from the American Missionary Association.

Massie School became a unit of the Savannah-Chatham County Board

of Public Education when that body was established in 1866. It was

closed to regular classes in June, 1974, having educated Savannahians

for 118 years.

BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR THE CITY OF SAVANNAH AND THE COUNTY OF CHATHAM

 

We’re facing the square.

 

 

It’s a Heritage Center now. We didn’t pay to go inside. If y’all need photos of the inside, I suppose we could go back. But you know I’ll take photos through the windows.

That’s a staircase! In front of a window!

 

 

And because I can’t stop taking photos of things, I take a few of the building next to the Massie School, even though Sugar is saying, “That’s not part of Massie School. That’s not part of Massie.” Well, I know that, but when am I are we going to be walking by this building again. That’s right, NOT EVER.

 

I wonder what this man was thinking, building his house next to a school. I’ll probably have to internet stalk him now, in the nicest way possible.

Built for John M. Guerrard. 1872. Historic Savannah Foundation.

 

 

That’s Massie Common School!

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

FlowerFest 2014: Poinsettias for Bonaventure and Laurel Grove

It started very simply.

Sugar wanted to continue a tradition whereby his mother would take flowers to her family’s gravesite at Christmas and Easter.

We started in 2009. That’s when we took poinsettias to his mother in Bonaventure and his cousin in Laurel Grove.

Then over time, we found more of Sugar’s relatives buried in both places. He bought more and more flowers every year.

This Christmas we were up to eight poinsettias, which represented not individual people, but individual plots with multiple relatives.

We asked a SugarCousin if she wanted to join us on our crazy train, and she did.

*****

We three stop first at Bonaventure at the Corbin plot. Here’s a mystery: why is Dr. Francis Bland Tucker buried in the Corbin plot?

Albert Sidney Lawton, who knew Miz Florrie in Garnett, South Carolina, married Elizabeth Tayloe Corbin, a Savannah girl. Miz Florrie’s father, Walter Gant, worked for Albert Sidney Lawton, and when Albert Sidney moved to the Jacksonville area, Walter moved, too.

 

Leaving the Corbin plot, we drive further along the lane, and circle back on another lane so that Sugar can inspect some headstones. He thinks he knows these Lee people from when he was growing up.

 

We notice that Clermont Huger Lee has the same name as the girl that was in Sugar’s mother’s class at Pape School in 1925.

Clermont Lee is on the front row, all the way on the right.

 

And just to the right, we find this stone, slightly hidden by the foliage. Perhaps we should add her to our floral list. No husband, no children.

 

Then on to the Basinger plot. I’ve written about this family a lot.

Back: Garnett, Mag, Will.
Front: Leslie, Major Basinger, Walter, Mrs. Basinger, and Tom.

We see that some little animals, chipmunks perhaps, have enjoyed a pre-Christmas acorn meal at the entrance to the plot.

 

This is James “Garnett” Basinger who married Nannie Screven. They had one daughter.

We step across the lane to the Starr plot. Sugar places the poinsettia in a permanent flower holder in front of his great-great-grandmother’s gravesite. She’s Jane Susan Starr Basinger.

Mary “Leslie”, Tom, Elizabeth “Georgia”, Jane Susan Starr Basinger, Walter, Margaret Roane Garnett Basinger, Major William Starr Basinger, Maggie, and Ate’ the dog in Dahlonega, Georgia.

The Family Bible of Thomas and Jane Susan Starr Basinger.

 

A little further along, we stop to visit Corinne Elliott Lawton.

 

Corinne Elliott Lawton

 

Having finished at Bonaventure, we head across town to Laurel Grove.

 

 

 

The crape myrtles look like they could be cut back yet again.

 

Mrs. Dr. William Seabrook Lawton, in the late 1800’s.

 

SugarCousin brought poinsettias for her parents and her aunt Mary.

 

 

We’re not done. The Batesons need some poinsettias, too, especially when you stop to consider that this family has been in unmarked graves since 1855. Sugar had their marker made and installed this year after we learned that they were his cousins from Lancashire, England.

 

A few lanes over is the Densler mausoleum. Mrs. Mary Densler was Aunt Polly to Sugar’s g-g-grandmother Jane Susan Starr Basinger. This family died out. No one to bring flowers, except us.

So we do.

 

We got these flowers almost a full week before we could put them out. Sugar went back and bought a bonus one just in case we needed it. What to do?

 

Close by is the Alexander family. Sarah Alexander married Alexander Robert Lawton, and they were Corinne’s parents. These Alexanders were Sarah’s family. There are other collateral folks here: Gilmer, Porter, Houston, Read, Cumming, Van Yeveren…

 

On the way home, we swing by for one last look at the Jones-Lawton mausoleum. The rain has been misting on and off for a bit, but it’s on the way in earnest now.

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Ruthrawls's Blog

To the two people who made this blog possible – Merry Christmas, Mom and Pop!!

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The Gold Mine in the Closet: An Unidentified House, Part 2

Here’s the photo of an unidentified house from Sugar’s gold mine in the closet…

We drove by where we thought the house should be, only we were looking on the wrong side of the street.

We didn’t know it at the time. If only we had looked left.

*****

When in doubt, I have a method wherein I take an informal survey. I talk to everyone who will give me the time of day. To the outsider looking in? They go nuts, because I don’t follow the advice of the crowd. I don’t understand why people go nuts. It’s my game. It’s my rules. I’m just interested in what other people have to say. I doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to follow their advice. I’m just looking for opinions and input.

I went the easy route. I asked Sugar’s cousin by way of FaceBook.

She didn’t know the house, either, but she knew people who might know.

Sure enough, SugarCousin has an answer. The house’s address is 601 Whitaker Street, not Huntingdon at all. It’s on the southwest corner of Whitaker and Huntingdon, not across the street at the northwest corner where the vet clinic is.

This modern-day photo is from the website of the Whitaker-Huntingdon Inn. But you know at some point we’ll go by there.

 

So how’d we get the address wrong? It looks like there’s a side door fronting onto Huntingdon, which must be 101 Huntingdon, West. We thought we were looking for the front of a house, not an apartment entryway or a side door.

Take a look at their website. It’s quite lovely. According to the history on the page:

The third owner was Dr. Lloyd Taylor who lived with his family in the home 42 years. In 1923, Dr. Taylor added the one story addition on the rear of the structure as his medical office. Two additional rooms were also added by Dr. Taylor in a two story addition in the rear of the house. During W.W.I, the Taylor’s also converted the second story into an apartment.

Apparently Dr. Taylor also added an apartment at some point that Sugar’s grandmother rented for a brief period.

Anyone want to go on a field trip?

The Gold Mine in the Closet: An Unidentified House

We wondered about this house.

 

Perhaps it was the house that Mary “Leslie” Basinger Lawton lived in when the Savannah City Directory showed her living at 101 Huntingdon Street, West.

Regardless, Sugar doesn’t recognize the house.

I did a google map search, and it looks like the house faces Huntingdon next to the building that houses the Georgia Historical Society, which faces Whitaker but has a Gaston address. It doesn’t show up on the google map, and it should be on the north side of the street because it is an odd number.

We drove by, and there was a veterinary clinic on the house on the corner. We stared at it as we made the turn as we went south on Whitaker and right on Huntingdon.

Our mistake.

The Gold Mine in the Closet: In Which We Look for Edith, Part 5

We drove by where Edith’s house used to be.

And after we went home, we kept thinking about the Edith that we are looking for.

We realize that we need to go back to the Library and look at a series of the Savannah City Directories.

So we do.  But it takes us a while. The blogging doesn’t show that we’ve been working on this project for over a month, probably closer to two. We are a bit obsessed with giving our Edith a last name, and finding out more about her.

We think her last name is Barnes.

So we look for Edith Barnes.

We start with 1940 because that’s when we find her on the U.S. Federal Census.

She’s not in the 1940 Savannah City Directory. So let’s guess that means that she wasn’t living there in 1939 when the information was gathered for publication in 1940. But when the 1940 census was taken actually in 1940, she was living there. Make sense?

We do find Leslie Basinger Lawton in 1940 living at 101 Huntingdon, West. We don’t know anything about her living on Huntingdon, so we’ll need to check that out.

Here’s Edith in 1941 at 547 East Charlton Lane. She’s a maid for L. E. Orvin.

 

Here’s Leslie Basinger Lawton in 1941.

In 1942, Edith is still at 547 East Charlton Lane, and is still a maid for L. E. Orvin.

 

 

By 1942, Leslie Basinger Lawton is at 122 East Taylor Street.

 

In 1942, Louis E. Orvin is at 213 East Gaston Street.

 

Let’s jump to 1948. We’ve established that Edith Barnes is at 547 East Charlton Lane for years. We’ve learned that Leslie Basinger Lawton went from East Gaston to West Huntingdon to 122 East Taylor Street.

In 1948, Edith is at the same address.

 

And so is Leslie Basinger Lawton.

 

Let’s make a bold leap and jump into 1970, where we find Edith Barnes still at 547 East Charlton Lane. The times they are a’changing, and the city directory is not divided into a “white” section and a “colored” section any more.

We can’t find Edith in 1975.

When I get home, I check ancestry.com one.more.time. And I find a death record for Edith Barnes on November 27, 1969. I also find a death record for Edith Barnes in January 1969.

Is this a mistake? A typo? A glitch in the system?

Someone? Anyone?

The Gold Mine in the Closet: In Which We Look for Edith, Part 4

It feels like we’re getting close.

 

This is Edith who worked for Sugar’s grandmother at the house at 122 East Taylor Street, Savannah, Georgia.

 

We’re looking for more information about Edith. Sugar doesn’t even know her last name, but he knows that once his family drove her home, and it wasn’t far from his grandmother’s house. He has a vague, shadowy memory that it was east of his grandmother’s, perhaps between Price and East Broad, on an east/west street.

I found an entry on ancestry.com for Edith Barnes who lived at 547 East Charlton Lane, and that address fits exactly with his memory.

I can’t find a death record for Edith Barnes in Savannah, so perhaps she was buried back in South Carolina where she was born. Truly, I can’t find a death record anywhere, but this is not an obstacle, only a challenge.

East Charlton Lane doesn’t exist any more. We drove aroundaroundaround and couldn’t find it. If only we had a good map.

*****

I remembered that there are the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Georgia, and, glory hallelujah, they are online. They are not user-friendly, so it involves a lot of panning left/right/up/down and zooming in to read the street names. And some cursage on my part.

I discovered that I can save the image to my computer for your viewing pleasure here on the blog.

Because I found East Charlton Lane on the map. The most recent one was for 1916, and there’s 547 East Charlton Lane.

 

A little zoomage showing East Charlton Street. East Charlton Lane is just south.

If the Edith that we want is truly the Edith that lived at 547 East Charlton Lane, we know that she most likely didn’t live here in 1916. She was born approximately in 1908 in South Carolina. It’s POSSIBLE that she moved here with her family.

And you know what, even if she’s not our Edith, she was SOMEBODY. She was a person that lived and died even if we can’t find her death record.

 

So it’s time to go by Edith’s house.

We find where East Charlton Lane should be, but it’s an alley now.

Right about where Edith’s house should be, there’s nothing.

Except a sunbeam through the afternoon trees to say hello.

 

Don’t give up, Edith. We’re still looking for you.

The Gold Mine in the Closet: In Which We Look for Edith, Part 3

Here’s Edith.

She worked for Sugar’s grandmother until she was old enough to retire.

Sugar remembers that she was a great cook. He doesn’t remember her last name, or even if he ever knew her last name.

We think that we have found her as Edith Barnes by looking through the 1940 Federal Census on ancestry.com. She’s listed as living at 547 Charlton Lane, but we can’t find Charlton Lane. It doesn’t seem to exist any more.

I can scroll through all the pages of the Savannah City Directory by using ancestry.com, which is tedious, time-consuming work. We decide to go to the Library on Bull Street instead, and look at the directories in person.

There’s a genealogy/history room there. You don’t even have to sign in, unless you want to use the computers. I can take photos of the city directory pages using the digital camera.

We decide to randomly start with the 1957 volume. Sugar would have been old enough to remember Edith, and would remember that they drove her home once to an area east of his grandmother’s that would be close enough for her to walk.

And she’s still at 547 East Charlton Lane, which matches the 1940 census. There are two Edith Barnes, just like the 1940 census, but the second Edith Barnes lives at Fellwood Homes, and we don’t know where that is, so we’re still going with the first Edith Barnes as being our Edith.

While photographing the pages, I wrote the year, name, and address on a plain piece of paper and inserted it into the book, as a way to help me identify the photos during the editing process.

I also used a handy little library pencil to help me locate the entry.

Then I cropped the photo for easier readability.

His grandmother is still at 122 East Taylor Street, which is the only place Sugar remembers her living at.

In the 1965 City Directory, both women are living at the same addresses as in 1957.

 

Do you see how Leslie B. Lawton is listed at the Widow of Edward P. Lawton and residing at 122 East Taylor Street? Edward never even lived at this address. He died in 1929 when they were living at East Gaston Street.

Right about now we’re flagging, from the researching and the driving around. (We had a list of places that we went to that I haven’t shared with you yet, but it was a long list, and our heads are full.)

So what happened to 547 Charlton Lane? If only we had an old map.

Then I remembered the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps…

The Gold Mine in the Closet: In Which We Look for Edith, Part 2

We’re looking for Edith.

That’s all we’ve got. Her name.

Sugar has a few memories. When his family would go to Savannah to visit his grandmother, Edith would give the boys a snack, a special snack. She would present them with a wax-paper-wrapped treat.  She had taken a wedge of cornbread, sliced it open, and slathered it with butter and jelly, then closed the little sandwich, and wrapped it in wax paper. He said they couldn’t wait to unwrap it, for they were always hungry.

Edith made their Thanksgiving meal. The family went to his grandmother’s on Taylor Street, where Edith had prepared a feast. Those town houses had tiny, simple kitchens, and a good cook was the queen of her kitchen. By the time Sugar was old enough to remember Edith, he thought perhaps she was in her fifties.

Once, he remembers, they drove Edith home.  When I pressed him for more details, he thought perhaps it was east-west between Price and East Broad, which ran north and south, along a tiny lane, and that she got out of the car on the right side, so he believed that her house was on the right, so it would have been on the south side of the lane. It was a small house, very modest, in a black neighborhood. His best guess is this was about the early 1950s.

I decided to find Edith.

I asked Sugar what her last name was.

He didn’t know. He didn’t think he’d ever known.

Was she married? He didn’t know.

I suggested that I do a search on ancestry.com for “Edith” in “1940” in “Savannah, Chatham, Georgia”.

He thought there might be a thousand hits for these terms. Which sounded ridiculously high to me. So when I searched, I got 3,129,389 returns.

Perhaps I needed to modify my search.

I added “Female” and “Black”, and narrowed the search to 2,995,190. Helpful, yet not.

I narrowed yet again to “1940 Census”, and received 742,210. Oh, this was going to be a piece of cake. Heavy sigh.

Oh, hello, let’s try “1940 United States Federal Census”, and here comes 425,461.

Well, by gosh and by golly, let’s do this. The list is alphabetical, and I can scan along the list, and rule out a few as I go, too old, too young, not in Savannah in 1940, etc. The promising ones I clicked on.

The first promising candidate was Edith Anderson. The 1940 census gives the street address. Edith Anderson lived at 405 62nd Street West. Our Edith lived in the eastern part of the city, so she’s not Edith Anderson.

Name:	Edith Anderson
Respondent:	Yes
Age:	34
Estimated Birth Year:	abt 1906
Gender:	Female
Race:	White
Birthplace:	Georgia
Marital Status:	Married
Relation to Head of House:	Wife
Home in 1940:	Savannah, Chatham, Georgia
Map of Home in 1940:	View Map
Street:	62nd St W
House Number:	405
Inferred Residence in 1935:	Savannah, Chatham, Georgia
Residence in 1935:	Same Place

And somehow this Edith Anderson is white, yet has not been filtered out by my search. This might take a while.

Next is Edith Barns.

Name:	Edith Barns
Respondent:	Yes
Age:	31
Estimated Birth Year:	abt 1909
Gender:	Female
Race:	Negro (Black)
Birthplace:	South Carolina
Marital Status:	Single
Relation to Head of House:	Head
Home in 1940:	Savannah, Chatham, Georgia
Map of Home in 1940:	View Map
Street:	Charlton Lane
House Number:	547
Farm:	No
Inferred Residence in 1935:	Savannah, Chatham, Georgia
Residence in 1935:	Same Place
Sheet Number:	62A
Number of Household in Order of Visitation:	460
Occupation:	Housework

The whole time I’m doing this searching, I’m talking to Sugar on the phone. When I said that Edith Barns lived on Charlton Lane, he said that this was his Edith. I scoffed, and said we had to keep going.

The next choice was Edith Barnes. Another Edith Barnes.

Name:	Edith Barnes
Respondent:	Yes
Age:	26
Estimated Birth Year:	abt 1914
Gender:	Female
Race:	Negro (Black)
Birthplace:	Georgia
Marital Status:	Married
Relation to Head of House:	Wife
Home in 1940:	Savannah, Chatham, Georgia
Map of Home in 1940:	View Map
Street:	Henry Street Laue
House Number:	643
Inferred Residence in 1935:	Rural, Bryan, Georgia
Residence in 1935:	Rural, Bryan, Georgia
Resident on farm in 1935:	No
Sheet Number:	6A
Attended School or College:	No
Highest Grade Completed:	Elementary school, 6th grade
Weeks Worked in 1939:	0
Income:	0

But this Edith wasn’t working in 1940.  He wasn’t even sure where Henry Street Lane was, so I found it on a Google map, and he seemed convinced she wasn’t our Edith. Perhaps she was our Edith, but Henry Street Lane was too far south from where Sugar remembered that they dropped Edith off.

We went through 15 pages with 20 choices per page until we got to the end with Edith Young. Then the choices started over with people who were living in another state in 1940, but were in Savannah in 1935, or they were listed as white, or there was some other variant.

Edith Barns was looking like our choice.

I searched for her address on Google. There was no Charlton Lane, just Charlton Street, which was not right at all, but close, very close.

This means that we have to go to Savannah.

*****

Charlton Street between Price and East Broad does not have the kind of little row houses that Sugar remembers. He insisted that it was a tiny lane, like an alley, almost, and that the houses were close together and right on the street. The street itself was perhaps wide enough for two cars.

We circled around, and he saw a little lane that fit the bill. The name was wrong, and the area has been gentrified, but the houses seemed right, and they were on the right side of the street.

 

There it is! There’s 547! But did the name of the street change? Who does that?

Well, Savannah does that sometimes. Like West Broad was changed to Martin Luther King, Jr.  But that’s a big street that was changed to honor a person. Why would Charlton Lane be changed to Macon Lane?

Something is just not right…