Connecting to History at the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center

Robin Foster

On a recent trip to uncover my family history and connections to AME Church history, I decided to explore the National Afro-American Museum  and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio.  They have great exhibits and programs which share African American history, and the museum is located in the immediate vicinity of Wilberforce University, Central State University, and Payne Theological Seminary.  I was not disappointed. 

The current main exhibit is Conscience of the Human Spirit: The Life of Nelson Mandela which runs to October 9, 2016. It features 59 quilts that depict the life of Mandela.

The exhibits that coincided the most with my interests were:

• Wilberforce University
• Daniel Alexander Payne (1811-1893)
• Central State University
• Colonel Charles Young

The NAAMCC exhibits have helped me to understand the significance of education and the influence of the AME Church in this area where my mother and her family migrated to from South Carolina in the mid 1950's.

The importance of learning and the high moral principles which carried over into my upbringing are the foundation for the character that I possess today. I never saw the strict values that we lived by as a damper on my freedom of expression. 

Our way of life extends back into the generations where my ancestors were held captive physically. I know for certain that no limit could hinder their faith nor their progression. My habits were schooled from my childhood, and inspiration flows into my life each day as a reward for obedience. No matter my earthly trials or shortcomings, my lifestyle has led to pure joy, discovery, and true freedom.

My aim is to research so completely that I am able to fully comprehend the grit, sacrifice, and wisdom exhibited by my people and those who acted favorably toward them to the extent that I am able to retell their stories for future generations. Certain voices today disturb me in that they do not take into account the full history of my people and their progress while facing great challenges. I want my children to consider their family history within the context of African American history.

Daniel Alexander Payne (1811-1893) By Not visible
(Recollections of Seventy Years. [1])
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

One great ancestor was Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance (1861-1952). He was a contemporary of Daniel Payne (1811-1893) who I began researching a few years ago in Charleston.  The more I learn about Daniel Payne, the more I glean about the ambition of Lafayette. All trials and tribulations suffered by my ancestors down to myself have worked to turn us into the best people we could possibly be.  Ease could never do that for us, and opposition does not crush our spirits.

Daniel Payne's father purchased his own freedom for $1,000.00. Daniel was born of free parents in Charleston, SC in 1811, but he was orphaned by the age of nine. He was taken in by the Minor's Moralist Society run by free men of color which supported the poor and orphaned children.  

"I was put into this Society's school for two years, when I was about eight years old; after which I was instructed by Mr. Thomas S. Bonneau, the most popular school-master in the city, for about three years. There I learned to spell, read, and write, and "cipher" as far as the "Rule of Three." The chief books used for reading were monographs of the histories of Greece, Rome, and England; while the "Columbian Orator" was the book used for training in the art of speaking. When about twelve years of age I was hired out to a shoe-merchant, with whom I did not stay long. When nearly thirteen years old I was put to the carpenter's trade with my brother-in-law, James Holloway, the eldest son of Mr. Richard Holloway. I spent four and a half years with him. I then spent nine months at the tailor's trade."  See Recollections of Seventy Years.

Through the many resources I have discovered which document the life of Daniel Payne, I have been led to historical documentation on my great grandfather, Lafayette. I am finding so many parralells in their determination and principles. Payne established his own school in Charleston, but he was forced to close it when South Carolina enacted a law in 1835 preventing the education of blacks. Payne left South Carolina. Imagine my joy when I discovered that the AME Church purchased Wilberforce University in 1863, my mother's alma mater. They chose Daniel Payne as the first president. I always knew I needed to journey there to reconnect to my family history and the history of the AME Church.

I will share more specifics about our visit to the museum and what I learned in the next post.

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Discovery leads to a sense of duty

I know that I do not live independent of the expectations my great grandfather has of me.  In fact, if I could hear him speak to me he would be urging me to push a little faster and do a little more. He is one person that I am researching that I am have really come to love.  If I never discovered anything about him,  I would still be wondering who I am most like.

I knew when I found this biography that I had inherited my sense of community from my great grandfather, Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance (1861-1952).  I am sure that if he were in my place today, community would include family, neighborhood, city, country, state, and the world.

I am also of mixed ancestry, and I wonder if he too felt a kinship to all three (African American, Caucasian, Native American) and how people accepted him for that. I wonder if he felt as I do:  You cannot hate any one without hating yourself.  I hope that I am living in such a way that I might be true to his memory and his legacy as described in the first paragraph:

Caldwell, A. B. 1919. History of the American Negro and his institutions. Atlanta, Ga: A.B. Caldwell Pub. Co. 

http://books.google.com/books?id=8jkTAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22lafayette+F+Vance%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s 

I am equally as sure that he would be working among the people he could physically visit each day and using the new tools we have embraced to reach people around the globe.  I am humbled by the amount of information that I am discovering about him that I did not know before I began researching. I am reminded that he accomplished so much, and I have so much more by comparison.  I am without excuse. I must do more.  

From Centennial Encyclopedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Volume 1 (below) I discovered he was was given the stewardship to purchase Sterling College and appointed a trustee in the early 1900's.  I need to research Sterling College which would have been situated in Greenville, South Carolina.

This history also helps me to know which church districts in South Carolina that would have been under his stewardship in the early 1900's.  I can more easily pinpoint which churches he may have preached at or visited.
The more I discover, the more my sense of duty.

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Six of my most favorite people on 1940 US Census

I knew my emotions would be running high when I would finally be able to gaze upon my mother's name on the 1940 US Census. She was only one then.  I am sitting right now not too far away from Manning Avenue where this census was taken.  The house has been torn down, but I drive down the street every now and then trying to imagine what it may have looked like in the empty space.

I am so glad that I made the decision to move here so that I could walk the same streets and take in the history firsthand. With tears streaming, I am going to try to make it through the rest of this post.  I feel so totally connected to the past. One principle that I was reminded of recently is that we can obtain closer relationships with family members who have passed away.  

My mom is the only member of  the family listed below who is still living.  This week she is visiting her brother in Virginia who was born a few years after this census was taken.  It is wonderful to see that after all these years, my family is still close.  

There were really rough times from slavery and well past the 1940's, but extended family took care of each other.  When one got educated and established, they reached back for other family members.  They had no one else, and they did pretty well with each other's help.  They gave to the community and the community gave back.  

As I look at the 1940 US Census, I remember the stories.  I remember how my grandparents met and eloped and how my grandmother left Buffalo.  My great grandfather, Lafayette, had already become established in Columbia.  Opportunities were greater here, and there was a strong community base for African Americans (church, education, employment). 

                  Columbia, Richland, South Carolina, ED 40-40, Image 10, 1940census.archives.gov

Living on Marshall Street, Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance and his third wife, Martha, affectionately called, "Grandma Martha."  They were living near Lafayette's son, Emory W. Vance and family on Manning Ave.

Emory Wallace Vance, downtown Columbia

My grandfather, Emory, invited  my grandmother Otis' relatives to come live with them in Columbia where they attended either Benedict or Allen University.  I love my grandfather, Emory, with all my heart.  I was able to spend a great deal of time with him in my early years.  My parents worked in Illinois, and did not want to leave their children alone with babysitters, so we stayed with our grandparents after they had migrated to Ohio.  

I learned to be curious about my ancestors when I saw a hymn book dedicated to my grandfather's mother, Lula.  I had never known her.  I realized how important she must have been to my grandfather to have that hymn book dedicated to her.  I began asking questions before I was old enough to go to school.

My grandparents spent time with us taking us to church and to the state fair.  My grandfather had me choose what flavor Jello I wanted everyday.  I followed him into the garden where I learned his planting secrets.  I followed him to the yard for his daily nap where I knew his mouth would fall open, and I would stand on guard keeping the flies out. I felt a sense of dedication.  It was the one thing I felt charged to do then to show it.  I still fill the same, but I think he is on guard helping me now...for I can feel him.

My great Aunt Catherine or Cat as my grandmother affectionately called her, graduated from Booker T. Washington High School and then Benedict College.  She told me that she graduated Magna Cum Laude. I was able to find her school records at Benedict.  My Aunt Cat and other cousins and sisters of my grandmother were the most sweetest charitable ladies I have ever known.

Columbia, Richland, South Carolina, ED 40-40, Image 9, 1940census.archives.gov 

My grandfather, Emory Wallace Vance; grandmother Otis; mother, Edna, and Otis' sister, my Aunt Cat.   

The men were no less serviceable.  Still today, I hear older cousins and friends recount how my grandfather brought vegetables out to them from the farm he eventually owned.  He had so many nieces and nephews and cousins and siblings come out to stay on that farm in the summers.  I love to hear them recount the stories.

I love to see the evidence of the stories they told in these records. I love the legacy that was forged for me, and I am bound to live up to it.  I know I will have much to share about my family in the coming weeks.

I did not quite know that looking at them on the 1940 Census would stir so much within me.  I am glad I was finally able to get pages to load and then download.

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Sometimes the Trail Does Not Run Cold

I continue to discover clues here and there on the trail to learning more about my great grandfather, Lafayette Franklin Vance.  I am so amazed that after so many years, I am still finding information.  Even when I am only researching the holdings at a library or working on a completely different family line, I run across documentation on Lafayette.

As these clues fall into my lap, it seems as if he is right there helping me to uncover leads, directing me to a landmark, or inspiring someone to share information about him with me. I thought I had exhausted city directories in my search to document family members between census years.  I used Columbia City Directories to locate him in the 1920's after he migrated from Greenwood County.  I found him in the 1910 Census in Clinton (Laurens County), but only last week I discovered him in the 1917 Clinton City Directory.

Rev. Lafayette Vance (Lula), pastor Friendship AME Ch, r 132 W Carolina Ave.

He is listed with my great grandmother, Lula, and the directory revealed he was pastoring at Friendship AME Church in Clinton. I could not wait to locate this church.  I even have other Vance families listed in the area to check out.

Very excited, I had just enough time to snap a few photos of the building.  I did not see a cemetery.  As I walked toward the building, a nice lady across the street  asked if I needed help.  She came over to talk to me, and I told her about finding the reference to my great grandfather.  Before I knew it she had unlocked the building and presented me with the history of the church in a wonderful booklet.

                                                                "Friendship AME Founded in 1880"

I did manage to keep the tears back as we browsed the booklet, and she explained that there is another church in the area, Mount Pleasant AME which was considered my family's church. Another lead!  Friendship AME has been around since 1880, and the church cemetery, located on the original site nearby, is where members who were former slaves are buried.

I cannot say enough about staying on the trail of your ancestor and conducting exhaustive research.

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19. Follow Friday: FamilySearch, a tribute to an old standby

The following is an excerpt from my book,  "Brought Home by a Story:  How family history changed my life"  which illustrates how FamilySearch resources have helped me to link to generations past: 

"After I had put so much together on my mother's parents, it occurred to me that I did not know much about her grandparents. I knew if I wanted to be able to trace them, I needed to start gathering what oral history I could.  I just started by asking my mother to tell me about her grandparents.


     The only one she really knew well as Lafayette Franklin Vance (1861-1952), the father of Emory Wallace Vance.  Most of what she could recall about him occurred between the years 1943 and 1951 during the time they lived on the farm in Gadsden, South Carolina.  I began to see similarities in his life that were interwoven in the lives of his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.


     We are all hard workers.  Most of us live by high moral standards and have become very involved in the churches with which we are affiliated.  We have strong family values and are actively serving in our communities.  Lafayette helped and served in many communities throughout South Carolina.  He overcame the obstacles which were faced by African Americans from the time of Reconstruction on through segregation.  Like their forefathers, his descendants believe in the power of education.


     I was so fueled by the legacy he left behind, I wanted next to know who his parents were. Unfortunately at the time, no one could help me.  The only online resource that I knew of at the time was familysearch.org.  The 1880 US Census was free, and I figured that since Lafayette was born in 1861, I had a pretty good chance of finding him.


    All that was available where I lived was the dreaded dial up, but that did not matter. The page loaded like a curtain on open night.  I was not expecting what I saw when the screen came into view.  As it loaded ever so slowly, my eyes which were fixed on the center of the monitor, fell upon the name of Lafayette Franklin Vance.


     I had little doubt that I could find him.  What came as a great surprise to me was the fact that his entire family was so large that it practically filled the length of my screen.  I was speechless.  Tears just started streaming down my cheeks as I raised my eyes to the first two names at the head of the family group.

     My mom was waiting to see as well, and for the first time ever, the descendants of Emory Wallace Vance looked upon the names of Lafayette's parents, Beverly and Matilda Vance."

I am truly grateful the folks at FamilySearch for making genealogical resources available to the world for so many years.  This service has been a great benefit to me and to my family.  I am able to identify and preserve records for future generations. The new resources that you are rolling out are making wizards of even the most ordinary family historians.  Thank you!

More Links:

  

South Carolina GenResources 101: 10 ways past your brick wall

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