Black Confederates]]> This book examines African Americans and the Confederate war effort. ]]> 2001]]> According to Florence historian Lee Freeman, "The Freedmen’s Public School, seems to have succeeded a series of earlier schools, such as that taught in 1865 by native African-American and former Wesleyan College bootblack "Prof." George Poole (1830-aft. 1900) and also a school under the auspices of the Freedmen's Bureau in early 1866 taught by EM Mears and his wife (apparently supported by a Presbyterian Aid Society). In mid-1869 the Mears appear to have opened up a private academy in Florence which had 22 students.



The Freedmen's Public School opened on October 29, 1866 at Church Springs Methodist Episcopal (ME) Church (now Greater St. Paul AME Church), which was located on the NE corner of Court and Bluff Streets, and was founded by the Pittsburgh Freedmen’s Aid Commission. There was no tuition and the principal was noted black educator Oscar M. Waring (1837-1911), a graduate of Oberlin College. Waring was assisted by locals William S. Robinson and (Celeste?) Allen. Starting with 40 students, by July of 1867 the enrollment was reported as 204 "and so successful was Mr. Waring that a number came from neighboring places to board in Florence and to go to school." The result was that "From the testimony of a number of the most prominent white citizens, including Gov. [RM] Patton, the local press, and our Superintendent, this has been one of the most successful Freedmen's schools in the Southwest." Besides the ordinary curriculum, the Freedmen’s Public school also had a Normal Department "in which the more advanced pupils [will] be placed and instructed with a view to preparing them for teachers."




On January 24, 1867, white educator Dr. David R. Lindsay (1821-1898), brother of Alabama Governor Robert B. Lindsay and uncle of Maud Lindsay, editor of the Florence Journal reported that “The school in Florence is apparently in a flourishing condition, and the character of its teacher in his outward conduct is entirely blameless, and creditable to him as a stranger in our community.”



The school, founded to educate the children of Florence’s freed slaves, apparently eventually morphed into the Florence Colored Grammar School, which by October of 1869 was being conducted by noted black educator educator Jacob Reed Ballard (1845-1902). There is some confusion regarding these early schools and their principals and teachers. For example, in September of 1869 a "Miss Graham" of Albany, New York was said to be superintendent of a freedmen's school in Florence, Alabama. Graham was reportedly harassed into leaving town by a group of Klansmen. So far I can't find any other references anywhere to this Miss Graham or her run-in with the Klan. Prof. Oscar Waring seems to have remained in Florence until sometime in early 1869, at which time he relocated to Winchester, Virginia where he worked as a teacher for the Presbyterian Committee on Missions until 1872; he earned his law degree and taught mathematics at Alcorn College before serving a principal at a school in Louisville, Kentucky. By 1879 Waring and his wife (whom he married while in Louisville) moved to St. Louis, Missouri where Prof. Waring served as principal of the Charles Sumner High School until his retirement in 1908; he died in St. Louis in 1911 and the City of St. Louis named the Oscar M. Waring Elementary School in his honor in 1940."]]>
(1 and 2) Letter from Capt C.A. Tenge, Freedmen's Bureau Agent of Florence to Col. John B. Callis, reporting on the condition of the school in Florence. Historian Lee Freeman notes, "Tenge reports 110 students with an average attendance of 86 and also the number of students using various readers. Then he mentions the "alphabet class" taught by EM Mears and wife under the supervision of what appears to have been a Presbyterian aid society. Tenge also references several "minor schools" in the surrounding area taught by freedmen. Prof. George Poole's school had apparently been one such school taught in Florence in 1865. Tenge also noted that "the former aversion of the whites [to black schools] is fastly [sic] diminishing."]]> (3 and 4) Letter from F.M. Mears, a teacher in the Florence Freedmen's Public School, to Col. John B. Callis. Florence historian Lee Freeman notes that Mears is notifying Callis, "of the fact that there were two freedmen teaching in schools near Florence who couldn't read well enough in McGuffey's Third Reader to be teaching other freedmen and asks Col. Callis to empower Capt. Tenge, the Freedmen's Bureau Agent of Florence with the authority to examine teachers in the freedmen's schools to ensure their qualifications to teach."]]> Report by Oscar M. Waring, principal of the Florence Freedmen's Public School, to bureau agent C.A. Tenge concerning the progress of the school. Florence historian Lee Freeman notes: "Waring notes that the school had 40 pupils enrolled with an average daily attendance of 37 and 1 teacher (Waring) but that he anticipates a school of 125 or 150 students soon."]]> Letter from C.A. Tenge to Col. John B. Callis about the success of the Freedmen's Public School in Florence. Historian Lee Freeman notes: "Tenge also references two or three other freedmen's schools in Lauderdale County who aren't sending reports to him, one of them named "Garner," whom Tenge calls "an adventurer." Tenge also mentions the recent fire in Florence which destroyed his saddlery, harness-making and upholstery business and the Freedmen's Bureau Office which was upstairs over his business. Tenge informs Callis that the cause of the fire was arson, and it was set in order to destroy the Bureau Office and burn out several Unionist families in Florence, however Tenge was able to save "all my books and papers.""]]> 1866-02-08 (1 and 2)]]> 1866-05-15 (3 and 4)]]> 1866-11-02 (5)]]> 1866-11-06 (6)]]> Feb_1866_p_2.jpg (2)]]> May_15_1866_p_2.jpg (4)]]>
Part of the Thursday, June 7, 1900 "Rhodesville Items" column in the Florence Herald by the correspondent "Abraham," noting that respected Rhodesville African-American resident. "Uncle" Henry Beckwith was mentally ill, believing he was a prisoner of the government.

Rhodesville was a community near Gravelly Springs in West Lauderdale County.]]>
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An excerpt from "Oakland Notes" by the correspondent "Oakland" writing the news and gossip of that community in SW Lauderdale County to the Florence Herald of July 6, 1899, and pitting local African-American, weather prognosticator and "long distance guesser" Henry Barnett against the "slow prophet in Florence."]]> 1899-07-06]]> These are articles relating to the grammar school for African Americans in Florence in 1869. Florence historian Lee Freeman notes, "I'm not sure but I think the Freedmen's Public School by 1869 had become the Florence Colored Grammar School. By 1869 it was being taught by noted black educator JR Ballard (1845-1902)."]]> (3,4,5) "A Teacher's Monthly Report" by Professor Jacob Reed Ballard. Florence historian Lee Freeman notes: "In his report for the month of October, 1869, Ballard, a noted black educator, notes that in this Presbyterian Missionary school he has 13 teachers instructing 205 enrolled students, with 107 students in the month of October, 47 males and 60 females, with an average attendance of 60, and 55 students who are "always present." 21 of his pupils were over 16 years, 40 could spell and read, while 10 were still on their alphabet. 14 students were studying geography and 29 were working on arithmetic, and 97 were writing."]]> 1869 (1)
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"Negro Blankets"
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(1)This is a newspaper advertisement for "negro shoes," of which the merchant Alexander had many extra pair. They were advertised as "double soled," and "very cheap, for cash or credit."]]> (2) This is a newspaper ad for "Negro shoes" from W.C. Phillips & Co.]]> (3) This is a newspaper ad for "Negro blankets." by R.B. Alexander.]]> (2) W.C. Phillips & Co.]]> 1846-10-09]]>
This is a collection of articles about the Know-Nothing Party in Lauderdale County and editor Charles Wheeler of the American Democrat. ]]> According to Florence historian Lee Freeman, “Know-Nothing” was the nickname given to the Native American Party, which was comprised of native-born white Protestant Americans who feared America was being overrun by immigrants, esp. German and Irish Roman Catholic immigrants. Founded in 1843 and especially active between 1854-1856, it got the nickname “Know-Nothing” due to the secrecy of its beliefs—when asked members refused to talk about the party’s real aims, claiming to “know nothing.” In the 1840s and early-mid 1850s “Know-Nothingism” was the hot topic of discussion in all the newspapers. The extremity of its views, coupled with the party's secrecy caused it to be mistrusted by many however the fact that many Know-Nothings were also abolitionists made them even more despised politically, esp. in the South. As the party grew in numbers and importance in the 1850s it shed its clandestine character and adopted the name "American Party." With the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 the American Party won additional adherents from the ranks of conservatives who could support neither the proslavery Democrats nor antislavery Republicans. When Congress assembled on December 3, 1855, 43 representatives were avowed members of the Know-Nothing party. That was the peak of Know-Nothing power as, the next year, at the American Party convention in Philadelphia the party split along sectional lines over the pro-slavery platform of the Southern delegates. Swept up in the sectional strife, the American Party fizzled out after 1856, as anti-slavery members flocked to the newly-founded abolitionist Republican Party and pro-slavery members defected to the pro-slavery Democratic Party. By 1859 the Know-Nothings were confined mainly to the border states and in 1860 the remnants of the American Party joined forces with the old-line Whigs to form the Constitutional Union Party, which nominated John Bell of Tennessee for president (who of course lost to Abraham Lincoln), coming in fourth in the election.

By the 1850s if not earlier, the Know-Nothing Party had supporters in Lauderdale County. Because our extant newspapers are so scarce for this period we know little of what the Know-Nothing Party in Lauderdale actually did. We do know it had its own newspaper, the *American Democrat* published in Florence, of which we have two extant issues from September of 1856. We know that Centre Star in east Lauderdale County had a large contingent of Know-Nothings because the Tuscumbia (then in Franklin County) *Enquirer* reported on Wednesday, June 27, 1855 that “the know nothing order at Center [sic] Star, in Lauderdale county, has busted asunder from all its oaths, and forty of 125 of that council came out in a card in the Florence Gazette, denouncing the know nothing order.”]]>
Also according to Freeman, "As for the *American Democrat,* it was founded in July of 1855. by "Messrs. Peters and [Charles L.] Wheler" with the intent of supporting the "American Platform, as adopted in Philadelphia," with Wheler as editor.

I have been researching Charles L. Wheler for ten years and unfortunately don’t know much more about him now than I did when I started. Attempts to locate other records about him have proven extremely difficult. He was supposedly born and raised in Concord, New Hampshire, working as a printer and having “been engaged in several literary enterprises here which fell through” (in 1851 he published a volume of poems), one of which was the “abolition sheet” the *Concord Tribune,* which endorsed the abolitionist Whig candidate Gen. Winfield Scott for president over the pro-slavery Franklin Pierce, and which published from September to November of 1852. By July of 1853, leaving his bulls unpaid, Wheeler had clandestinely relocated to Lewisburg, in Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia) where he edited the *Western Era* newspaper ("a rabid Know-Nothing paper") which had apparently folded up by September of 1854. That month Wheeler was one of several secretaries listed in connection with a railroad convection held at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia. According to the *Tuscumbia Enquirer* Wheler was in Franklin County, Alabama for a couple of months before the Know-Nothing Party of Lauderdale County helped him establish the *American Democrat* in Florence in July.


Wheler was "outed" by the *Athens Herald* as a free-soiler and abolitionist and, on October 4, 1855, fled to parts unknown, apparently leaving his bills unpaid. In late September, 1855 Wheler had created a stir by questioning in the pages of the *Democrat* the legality of Lauderdale County Sheriff Robert McClanahan's stint as sheriff based on a legal technicality involving the deadline for newly-elected sheriffs to post their bond.

What became of Wheler is a total mystery. Maury County, Tennessee editor John E. Hatcher (1828-1879) replaced Charles L. Wheler as editor of the *Democrat.* By November 24 of 1856 the *American Democrat* had ceased publication and John Hatcher took the job as editor of the *Columbia Mirror,* in Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee."]]>
(2) McClanahan, Robert.
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(1) This is a newspaper advertisement for the sale of "50 or 60 negroes" from the estate of James C. Kennerly in Tuscumbia.]]> (2) This is a newspaper advertisement for "8 or 10 likely negroes" to be offered for sale in Courtland, Lawrence, Co., AL by the estate of James. C. Kennerly. ]]> (1) 1848-04-28]]> (2) 1848-05-12]]> This is a collection of advertisements for public slave sales that took place in front of the Lauderdale County Courthouse in downtown Florence. ]]> (1) Negroes to Hire At Public Auction. This is an advertisement for a public auction to hire out the following slaves: Rose, Bob, Pink, Dick, Josephine, Alexander, and Isbell. The slaves were owned by William Koger, who passed away in 1858, and were being hired out by his son Jesse Westmoreland Koger.]]> (2) Trustee's Sale of Nine Valuable Negroes!! This is an advertisement for the sale of nine slaves: Sylvester, 40; Abram 40; Nancy, 35; Matilda, 33; Lizzy, 10; Little Ann, 9; Ed, 8; Amanda, 6; Cynthia, 4. They were offered for sale in front of the Lauderdale County Courthouse door by Allen W. Howell, who was executing the will of Neander H. Rice. ]]> (3) This is an ad for the sale of a slave named Phil, made by the sheriff of Lauderdale County and held in front of the courthouse]]> (4) This is an ad seeking the services of a domestic slave]]> (5) Administrator's sale. This is an ad for a public sale of "personal property" that had belonged to Hugh Simpson, deceased. In front of the Lauderdale County Courthouse door a slave named Anthony, about 30, a boot and shoemaker by trade, was sold to the highest bidder, along with one iron safe and a bay horse.]]> (1, 2) 1861-01-02]]> (3) 1861-02-06]]> (4) 1861-01-30]]> (5) 1861-02-20]]> These are a series of articles about James R. Crowe, a founding member of the Ku Klux Klan. According to Florence historian Lee Freeman: "A native of Pulaski, in Giles County, TN, James R. Crowe (1839-1911) relocated to Marion, AL in 1861 where he entered the law offices of his cousin, Charles C. Crowe. During the Civil War James Crowe served in the 4th AL Inf and 53 TN Inf, CSA, eventually achieving the rank of major before serving as purchasing agent for the Confederate government. On February 18, 1869 Maj. Crowe married Belle Towson of Nashville and the couple had six children, five still living by 1903. After the war Crowe returned to his native Pulaski before relocating to the new town of Sheffield, in Colbert County, Alabama, in 1886, where he engaged in the real estate business and assisted in the formation of the Tennessee River Masonic Lodge. He was a presiding elder and Sunday-school superintendent in the Presbyterian Church as well as serving as President of the Sheffield Board of Education for four years. Active in local politics, he was a Democrat. Crowe was also the author of several war songs, many of which he wrote for United Confederate Veterans reunions. Maj. Crowe died Friday, July 14, 1911 after a lingering illness of several weeks.

Christmas Eve, 1865, James R. Crowe, and five other bored ex-Confederates--J. Calvin Jones, John B. Kennedy, John C. Lester, Frank McCord, and Richard R. Reed--met at Judge Thomas Jones' law office in Pulaski, Tennessee and after discussing ways to relieve their boredom, decided to found their own fraternal order similar to the Masons or Odd Fellows, as John Lester later insisted, "solely for amusement and diversion" (one author described their early meetings as more for "partying" than anything else). One of the men suggested the name "the Merry Six" however they eventually settled on the Greek word *kuklos,* which means "circle." Noting the alliteration of the words "kuklos clan" the name soon became Ku Klux Klan. As with most fraternal orders the men then developed secret rituals, many of them ridiculous and silly, and distinctive outfits to wear at meetings. This garb consisted of a tall, pointy hat with eye-slits, to increase the wearer's apparent height, and a floor-length gown or robe, which were originally multi-colored: the white robes and hoods came later, with the Klan's rebirth in the early 20th century.

Frank McCord was appointed the Klan's first Grand Cyclops, while James Crowe was appointed the order's first "Grand Turk." According to author James Solomon, the Klan got permission to use the cellar of a house destroyed in a tornado as its first lodge hall. As there were no other houses near and the old mansion was in ruins, surrounded by a grove of trees also ripped apart by the tornado, the location developed a reputation as being rather mysterious and spooky. According to Solomon, members soon noticed that as they galloped through the streets of Pulaski at night in their Klan regalia, local freedmen were intimidated, or just downright scared, thinking they were ghosts, a view which the Klan soon began to encourage, at first for fun, but later in order to intimidate them.

The order quickly gained members and spread to other towns and states, so that by 1867 the Klan extended from Virginia to Texas but though tied to Pulaski, each chapter was autonomous. Soon the Klan began viewing itself as a citizens' vigilante group, charged with opposing the Republican Reconstruction government of the South and keeping the freedmen in line. Both Tennessee Governor Bronlow (1865-1869), a Republican, and Pulaski's mayor John Ezell, attempted to shut down the Klan, with the Tennessee State Legislature even enacting anti-Klan legislation and curfews, but all to no avail, as the Klan was just too popular. Stories of Klan harassment and terrorizing of both "carpetbaggers" from the North, as well as local freedmen abounded. In early 1869, Grand Wizard and former Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) officially called for the Klan to be disbanded. Unfortunately the February, 1915 release of the DW Griffith film *Birth of a Nation,* which espoused a romanticized view of the Klan and white supremacy sparked a resurgence of the Klan in the early 20th century.

In response to several erroneous newspaper reports on the history of the Klan in July of 1905 founding member James R. Crowe wrote his own account to the editor of the *Nashville American.* Crowe closed his account by saying that "So long as the original, genuine K. K. K. existed I never knew of an act committed by them that I am now ashamed to own." Regardless, Pulaski, Tennessee has had to live down its reputation as the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan, in recent decades disassociating itself from and repudiating the Klan. It is doubtful that many residents of Sheffield are even aware that one of the Klan's founders died there in 1911."


Sources:

James R. Crowe's Sheffiield Reaper article of July 13, 1905, in which he refers to himself as one of the founders.

Times of Giles County, (c) 1976 by James Solomon, pp. 101-108.]]>
(1) Picture of James R. Crowe]]> (2) The Origin and Purposes of the famous Ku Klux Klan article]]> (3) Death Notice of Maj. Crowe]]> (4) Obituary for Maj. Crowe]]> (2) 1905-07-13]]> (3) 1911-07-14]]> (4) 1911-07-20]]>