Frederick Hefner - 1920 census

1920 census
date: January 27, 1920
location: Caddo, Bryan County, Oklahoma

Year: 1920; Census Place: Caddo, Bryan, Oklahoma; Roll: T625_1454; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 35; Image: 825.

Frederick Hefner - 1900 census

1900 census
location: Chickasaw, Indian Territory
date: July 7, 1900

Frederick Hefner  head  white  male  July 1876  23  married - 1 year  Texas
Thomas L Hefner  wife  white  female  Feb 1879  21  married - 1 year  1, 1  Texas

Year: 1900; Census Place: Township 5, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory; Roll: 1847; Enumeration District: 0127; FHL microfilm: 1241847

James Milton Cates - 1940 census

1940 census
location: Spearman, Hansford County, Texas
date: April 6, 1940

James M Cates  head  male  white  63  married  Missouri
Flora Cates  wife  female  white  53  married  Iowa

Year: 1940; Census Place: Spearman, Hansford, Texas; Roll: T627_4051; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 98-1

Robert Cates - 1870 census

1870 census
location: Giles County, Tennessee
date: August 8, 1870

Roberts Cates  45  male  white  farmer  $675  Georgia
Elizabeth Cates  42  female  white  keeps house  Georgia
John Cates  21  male  white  farm hand  Alabama
Charles Cates  17  male  white  Alabama
James Cates  15  male  white  Alabama
Robert Cates  12  male  white  Alabama
Olden Cates  9  male  white  Alabama

"United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MD8B-PGN : accessed 28 April 2016), John Cates in household of Robert Cates, Tennessee, United States; citing p. 16, family 125, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 553,028.

Robert Cates - 1850 census

1850 census
location: Talladega County, Alabama
date: November 11, 1850

Robert Cates  21  male  Georgia
Elizabeth Cates  22  female  Georgia
John T Cates  1  male  Alabama
Samuel Maxwell  17  male  labor  Georgia

"United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH54-LMJ : accessed 28 April 2016), John T Cates in household of Robert Cates, Talladega county, Talladega, Alabama, United States; citing family 961, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

John Wesley Davidson - 1850 census

1850 census
location:
date: November 5, 1850

John W Davidson  29  male  farmer  Georgia
Emmeline Davidson  24  female  Georgia
John Davidson  7  male  Florida
Littleton Davidson  4  male  Florida
Leston Davidson  3  male  Florida

"United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFH6-SF5 : accessed 22 April 2016), John W Davidson, Gadsden county, Gadsden, Florida, United States; citing family 228, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

Clark's Regiment recruiting letter

April 16, 1863, Tyler Reporter

Head Quarters Clark‘s Regiment, }
 Camp Near Pine Bluff, Ark., Feb. 23, ’63. }

To the people of Texas:
You have always been noted for the readiness with which you give aid to
your country when she needs assistance. You have liberally and nobly contributed in the prosecution of the present war. You are still willing to do so, I know, if further contributions are necessary. Though the present indications are somewhat propitious, we should depend alone upon ourselves for peace. Other nations may help us when it suits their interest to do so, and our enemy is not worthy of trust in any case. There may yet be much hard fighting to do to end the war, and the commands now in the field having been depleted by death and other causes, need replenishing. It devolves upon you to fill them up, and I therefore invite your attention to the following extract from a circular of the Adjutant and Inspector General, of date the 18th January, 1863:
“Such persons as are liable to conscription will be allowed to join any particular company and regiment, requiring recruits, in which the officers “(enrolling or recruiting)” may be serving. In like manner such persons as are within conscript ages, and who may come forward and offer themselves for service, will be allowed to volunteer, and will receive all the benefits which are secured by law to volunteers. Recruits thus obtained, however, must, in all cases, enter companies already in the service, and cannot be organized into new companies or regiments.”
By the above extract you perceive that you still have the opportunity of volunteering. Forced service is distasteful to you. It would be an anomaly in the history of Texas. I desire to replenish my regiment, and invite you to join me. I would be pleased to receive you, and think you would find as pleasant service in my command and the Brigade to which it is attached, as any other. Capt. L. B. Wood, Company “K,” of Polk county, and Lt. J. D. G. Adrian, Company “C,” of Smith county, are on their way to Texas, and are authorized to recruit for their respective companies. Other recruiting officers will be dispatched to Texas and notice given.
Edward Clark.
 Col. Clark’s Tex. Regt. 

Building Suburbia and Crabgrass Frontier

Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000, by Dolores Hayden

Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States, by Kenneth T. Jackson

A foreign visitor to the United States might be intrigued by the different looks of the American landscape as compared to those of Europe, Asia, or South America. With their works, Kenneth T. Jackson and Dolores Hayden both shed clarity on the look of American tracts, malls, and highways with Crabgrass Frontier and Building Suburbia, respectively.

Kenneth T. Jackson writes Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States to answer the question: Why are American suburbs different from those in other countries? He investigates the dynamics of land use, process of city growth through history, and the ways in which Americans living in suburban areas have arranged their activities. Jackson attempts to discover the true meaning of ‘American Havens.’

Jackson looks at the adaptation of American suburbs from a place where low-income families lived, to the places where affluent Americans could afford a more luxurious lifestyle. Jackson most strongly argues that the trolley “had a greater impact on the American city between the Civil War and World War I” than any other invention. Stemming outward from the crowded business districts, trolley tracks opened up a vast suburban ring. Trolleys connected “an area triple the territory of the older walking city.” Along with the trolley, Jackson points to affordable housing as another reason for urbanization in American cities. With a quick trolley ride to urban housing areas, cheaper land than in cities, and the balloon-frame home construction method, American suburbs offered city dwellers a “safe and sanitary environment” that was preferable over city life.

After the trolley, Jackson points out that automobiles, along with higher quality roads and more abundant fuel, gave many city dwellers better access to suburban areas. “The automobile made it infinitely easier to commute in directions perpendicular to the trolley tracks.” In short, cities began to “come apart” from the center because of the better transportation offered by automobiles. Automobiles freed their owners to travel routes of their own choosing, to come and go wherever they pleased, all for a fraction of the cost of the trolley. 

An important aspect in the suburbanization of the United States is the American government’s policies used to socially control ethnic and racial minorities. One such control measure was the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Along with lowering interest rates, lowering the amount of down payment, extending the repayment period for guaranteed mortgages, and establishing minimum standards for home construction, the FHA made home buying cheaper than renting. The consequence of this governmental action “was the fact that FHA programs hastened the decay of inner-city neighborhoods by stripping them” of their middle-class constituency. This led to what Jackson terms “ghettoization” of public housing in the United States.

As Crabgrass Frontier comes to a close, Jackson argues that the process of suburbanization “will slow over the next two decades and that a new kind of spatial equilibrium will result early in the next century” due to several constraints. The rising cost and availability of fluid fuels will make it harder for urban citizens to live in urban environments. Also, Jackson asserts that the cost of land will constrain “the continued proliferation of suburbia.” A third factor inhibiting deconcentration involves the cost of money. “It is not likely that Americans will ever again have access to home loans at below market rates.” Fourth, building technology has not kept up with the demand for housing construction. “The median price paid for a new home in the United States tripled between 1970 and 1982.” Finally, Jackson points to the changing structure of the American family as the last constraint to strangle the future of suburban growth.

As an American urban landscape historian and architect, Dolores Hayden wrote Building Suburbia to document the suburban history of the United States since 1820. Similarly to Jackson, Hayden’s aim is to explain why American tracts, malls, and highways look the way they do. Hayden argues that there is great conflict between those who seek home, nature, and community, and entrepreneurs who search for profits through the development of rural tracts. In addition, she traces the long trajectory of suburban expansion, and considers future building and planning in the United States.

Hayden elaborates on the conflict between urban dwellers and profit-making entrepreneurs by examining the seven changing patterns of suburbanization. Here, she first introduces the history of “borderlands.” In the beginning of suburbanization, farms were converted to houses. However, as a true borderland, Hayden posits that they existed more in literature than in reality. She also describes that “the most desirable attribute of the borderland, closeness to nature, was also its greatest vulnerability because of the pressure to develop land.” Borderlands were a constantly shifting line of demarcation that lay at the heart of suburbanization. Next, Hayden expounds upon the wealthy picturesque enclaves. Of particular interest is Hayden’s attention to Llewellyn Park, New Jersey. Llewellyn Park is a typical picturesque enclave, lacking straight lines and 90-degree turns, containing a series of distinct landscape experiences, and featuring world-class architecture. Clearly, picturesque enclaves were not meant to suburbanize the working-class man. Third, Hayden covers streetcar buildouts in the history of American urbanization. Streetcar buildouts “began as linear real estate developments along expanding transit lines.” Houses in streetcar buildouts “were usually on a modest scale.” Residents lived together in close proximity, grouped together with paid and unpaid workers, kin, and boarders. Following streetcar buildouts, Hayden moves on to mail-order and self-built suburbs. “After 1910, entrepreneurs encouraged people with automobiles to reside in even more remote areas than those transit had touched.” Alongside an increase in the size of urban regions, options for selling and constructing houses began to change. Sears, Roebuck and Co. pioneered the mail-order catalogue, and then moved on to the mail-order house. As other companies followed suit, mail-order houses were meant to appeal to do-it-yourself homeowners. Comparing the growing suburbs of the post-World War II era to sitcoms like Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best, Hayden reflects on the fifth pattern of suburban history:  “model houses on suburban streets.” These sitcom suburbs held families of similar age, race, and income and notoriously lacked public space and public services. Next Hayden moves on to edge nodes. In this type of suburban area jobs outnumber bedrooms. Edge nodes are known for their malls and office spaces. These types of suburbs evolve “from automotive building types rather than from the residential building types connected to picturesque enclaves,” and sitcom suburbs. Finally, the rural fringes of edge nodes have seen expansion that covers more square miles than previously categorized suburban areas. Hayden points out that this type of suburban development has led to the loss of farmland and timberland. Wildlife has been reduced and waste runoff has damaged rural lakes and streams. Along and within edge nodes pollution has proliferated. 

Ultimately, Hayden urges the United States to preserve its older suburbs rather than reinvent suburban architecture and housing development. “Suburbia is the hinge, the connection between past and future, between old inequalities and new possibilities.” In order to conserve land, water, and air, the United States must support environmentally sustainable development. Federal, local, and state governments should offset entrepreneurial actions involved in suburbanization. As the United States continues to grow exponentially, it is up to her citizens to learn from the lessons of suburbanization.

Both Crabgrass Frontier and Building Suburbia focus on the history of suburbanization. Jackson’s Crabgrass Frontier sets the stage for suburban history with a general detailing of suburban history, and Hayden’s Building Suburbia stands as an important foundational text in the history of American suburbanization.

Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco

Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco by Judy Yung

In Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco, Judy Yung narrates the story of the immigration of Chinese American women in San Francisco, their struggles to maintain their homes and raise their children, their ability to acculturate into a foreign way of life, and how these women were ultimately able to prosper in the United States. Unbound Feet is a multi-layered book, with Yung using her own family history as the starting place for her interest and research into the immigration of Chinese American women. Moreover, the title is a play on the Chinese practice of foot binding which “involved tightly wrapping the feet of young girls with bandages until the arches were broken, the toes permanently bent under toward the heel, and the whole foot compressed to a few inches in length.” The cultural practice of foot binding reinforced Chinese women’s secluded lives by making it difficult for them to walk, thus living a “bound life.” 

Yung takes foot binding and the bound lives it created from China to San Francisco by explaining how these women continued to live oppressed lives in America.  The first generation of immigrants lived especially bound lives because of the “patriarchal control in Chinatown and racism outside.” Chinese American women were wholly subordinate to Chinese men. Chinese women were never able to choose their own spouse, no right to divorce, and no right to remarry under any circumstance. If passage to America were made possible by marriage, the women were expected to stay home, manage the household, and raise the children. “As in China, Chinese women stayed close to home and appeared as little as possible in public.”  

The first generation of immigrants initially met racial and sexual discrimination upon entry and detainment at Angel Island. Pending investigations into their right to land, women like Mai Zhouyi were confined sometimes as long as forty days or more with poor food, no access to family outside Angel Island, and the constant threat of the separation of their families. Despite the hardships faced in Angel Island, Chinese American women who were allowed embarkation did not find streets made of gold. “Although women were still confined to the domestic sphere within the border of Chinatown, their contributions as homemakers, wage earners, and culture bearers made them indispensable partners to their husbands in their struggle for economic survival.” Many women were given opportunities to reshape gender roles at home and in their communities. Some Chinese American women began working outside the home, while it remained common for women to bring in income by sewing at home during the day. 

Yung also argues that the effects of the Great Depression were not felt as harshly on Chinese Americans as it was on other ethnic groups. Chinese women in San Francisco were accustomed to discrimination based on race, gender, and class. Their low position in the labor market allowed them to keep their jobs, even as Chinese men lost theirs. As usual, Chinese American women continued to take care of their homes and children, while many also financially assisted their husbands. It was not uncommon for Chinese American women to become the breadwinners during the Great Depression years. 

Yung maintains that throughout the World War II period Chinese women continued to face socioeconomic challenges, but also assisted in the war effort like many other American women. Rice Bowl parties were thrown across the United States to raise money and spread “propaganda for war relief in China.” Chinese American women were also known to hold receptions for Chinese dignitaries and war heroes as they travelled through San Francisco. Less than fifty years after Chinese women began immigrating to the United States, Chinese American women served their country in the military. Yung points out that for China and the United States, defeating their common enemy in World War II took the efforts of all Americans, and Chinese American women stood steadfast in their commitment to help.

Filled with images of Chinese women and their families, Unbound Feet brings these Chinese grandmothers to life. Their stories and testimonies endear them to today’s generation as women who struggled and conquered in the face of great hardship and trials. Unbound Feet is an outstanding contribution to the history of Chinese American women and their social experiences in the United. States. 

Rebels Rising and The Park and the People

Rebels Rising and The Park and the People

In Rebels Rising: Cities and the American Revolution, Benjamin L. Carp argues that city dwellers coalesced into civic communities, defined boundaries of their communities, and contended with the challenges inherent in social and political change to bring about a revolution. Their revolution would bring America into the Revolutionary War with Great Britain. Revolutionary mobilization contained new challenges to local authority and broader, also perhaps more significantly, challenges to imperial authority. Carp explains that this urban mobilization helped make the Revolution possible. The Park and the People: A History of Central Park by Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar demonstrates the mobilization of a different sort: the mobilization to build one of the world’s most famous parks, Central Park in New York City. As America’s most important naturally landscaped park, Central Park is an urban space. With a comprehensive history of not only the park, but the people behind the park, Rosenzweig and Blackmar indicate the urban mobilization needed to begin construction of the park, and the mobilization still needed to maintain Central Park’s “democratic character.”

Carp’s main theme in Rebels Rising is that cities were crucial for successful mobilization. He examines a diverse sampling of cities throughout the thirteen colonies, detailing the mobilization of urban citizens in the five cities having a population of more than nine thousand: Boston, Newport, Charleston, New York City, and Philadelphia. Carp looks at each city individually as a case study on urban mobilization, but connects each together because of the political mobilization required to break ties with Britain.

Beginning with Boston, Carp explains the significance of the mobilization that took place there, especially because of Boston’s waterfront (harbor, wharves, and docks). Carp points to 1740 as a “decade of change,” and the beginning of citizen’s mobilization again Britain. The Sugar At altered restrictions and duties on rum and molasses and mandated more rigorous procedures for customs services. The Currency Act prohibited colonial issuance of money. The Stamp Act levied taxes on court documents, ship clearances, college degrees, and a variety of other legal documents. Combined into what Carp terms “The Stamp Act crisis,” urban Americans were particularly affected by these British interventions into American society. Next, the Townshend Acts extended the long arm of British control, levying duties on paper, lead, glass, and tea. Boston experienced numerous clashes over quartering of British troops and use of provincial funds. Finally, the Tea Act of 1773 brought Americans face-to-face in conflicts with the over-arching imperial policy. The Tea Act reaffirmed a tax on tea and gave significant advantages to the East India Company. The price of tea was lowered as a threat to force Americans into paying duties on imported goods. Boston patriots mobilized to protest the Tea Act by dumping tea into Boston’s harbor; this mobilization is now known as The Boston Tea Party.

Carp next examines the taverns of New York City to demonstrate another way urban citizens mobilized again imperial policy. As the center of political life in New York City, taverns and alcohol “inspired a disorderly disregard for hierarchy threatening civilized society.” What began as the use of taverns and sociability for political ends, morphed into tavern protests. Taverns became the perfect place for city dwellers to air grievances again Britain. Carp explains that tavern meetings in New York City were copied all along the eastern sideboard to rebel against Great Britain.

Carp delves into the religious environment of Newport, Rhode Island and attempts to show how Americans mobilized against Britain. While the wharves of Boston and the taverns of New York City were easier to politicize than houses of worship, residents might have used their beliefs to inspire political action. However, the argument never comes together for Carp. This section of the book is more interesting for the architectural history of Newport’s churches than the mobilization of citizens towards a Revolutionary end. Probably due in part to the plurality of religions and beliefs, citizens in Newport were chiefly concerned with the town’s commerce.

Charleston, South Carolina provides the perspective of city households in the wake of political mobilization against imperial authority. Using the household of Henry Laurens, Carp explains how elite gentlemen used a “sufficient exercise of power and a judicious management of political mobilization” to contribute to independence from Great Britain, but continue to hold the same political and social power as held before. Carp points out that Charleston women were at the heart of consumer mobilization. Their boycotts and spinning contests mobilized a section of society that is not usually given credit.

Finally, Carp wraps up his demonstration of revolutionary mobilization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphian mobilization took place “out of doors,” or outside the normal legislative sessions. Their use of the State House and State House Yards were perfect locations for assemblies and protests to be held outdoors. Philadelphians “out of doors” displays of protests show how mobilization took place in the everyday lives of city dwellers. 

The Park and the People is not simply a history of Central Park; it is instead a history of the urban mobilization needed to construct the 843-acre park, the story of the people who built the park, and how the park relates to the city. New Yorkers mobilized not for a Revolutionary cause, but for a city park. 

The Park and the People begins with an assessment of the origins of the park. The authors spend a bit of time delving into the identity of the “gentleman” from Europe who first posited the idea of a great park in New York City. Rosenzweig and Blackmar credit the wealthy merchant Robert Minturn as being the anonymous gentleman, as he had recently returned from a tour of Europe. Urged on by his wife, Minturn called together a committee to lobby for a great public park.

For Rosenzweig and Blackmar, the creation of the park by co-designer Frederick Law Olmsted is a crucial piece of the Central Park puzzle. However, the authors also closely  focus on co-designer Calvert Vaux and the dynamic relationship between the two designers. While Olmsted is generally the recognized name in association with the vision of Central Park, Rosenzweig and Blackmar give a seeming biased account of Vaux’s contributions. 

An interesting aspect of The Park and the People is the author’s investigation of the meaning of “public park.” Beginning with the actual labor force who completed the grunt work of Central Park, Rosenzweig and Blackmar examine these laborers, their family make-up, and their use of the park upon completion. When the park was completed, it was abundantly evident that the majority of park-goers were members of the elite social class. From the parades and parade grounds to the carriage drives inside the park, the authors explain how elite New Yorkers were the most frequent users of Central Park.

Another important person examined in The Park and the People is that of Andrew Green. Head of the Central Park commission during parts of the 1860s, he later became city comptroller in the 1870s. Green was present for much of the beginnings of Central Park, from wrangling with Olmsted and Vaux for position as superintendent, to his guidance through the park’s downfall through the 1870s. 

While Rosenzweig and Blackmar spend an enormous amount of space on the creation and construction of the park, and on nineteenth-century Central Park issues, a relatively small amount of space is devoted to twentieth-century Central Park matters. 

Taken together, Rebels Rising and The Park and The People both show how urban citizens were able to mobilize toward a common cause. In the case of Rebels Rising, citizens mobilized again imperial restrictions toward independence. In The Park and the People, New Yorkers mobilized to create the greatest urban park in the world. Both books point out how urban citizens join together for a common urban cause. 

M J Davis - 1900 census

1900 census
location: Scurry County, Texas
date: June 14, 1900

M J Davis  head  white  female  Feb 1842  58  widowed  10, 8  Texas
Edna Fairley  daughter  whie  female  June 1883  16  married - 0 years  0, 0  Texas
C E Fairley  son-in-law  white  male  Oct 1879  21  married - 0 years  Texas  farm laborer

"United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M354-8WZ : accessed 20 April 2016), C E Fairley in household of M J Davis, Justice Precincts 3-5, Scurry, Texas, United States; citing sheet 10A, family 159, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,241,668.

J A M Davis - 1860 census

1860 census
location: Lowndes County, Alabama
date: September 19, 1860

J A M Davis  26  male  $1,100  $680  Alabama
M J Davis  17  female  Alabama
J V Davis  1  male  Alabama

"United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHD8-CKB : accessed 20 April 2016), J A M Davis, 1860.

J A M Davis and Malissa Jan Castellaw marriage

"Alabama, County Marriages, 1809-1950", database with images,FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKWM-8LJS : accessed 20 April 2016), James A. M. Davis and Malissa Jane Castillow, 1858.

Malissa Jane Castellaw Davis - death

Ancestry.com. Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.                    

George H Wells - 1920 census

1920 census
location: Cottle County, Texas
date: February 21-24, 1920

George H Wells  head  male  white  64  married  Tennessee
Cara Wells  wife  female  white  46  married  Texas
_______ Davis  mother-in-law  female  white  78  widowed  Mississippi

Year: 1920; Census Place: Justice Precinct 2, Cottle, Texas; Roll: T625_1788; Page: 24A; Enumeration District: 37; Image: 530

Benjamin F Castello - 1850 census

1850 census
location: Rocky Mount, Lowndes County, Alabama
date: October 17, 1850

B F Castello  39  married  farmer  $350  Georgia
Mary L Castello  32  female  Georgia
James M Castello  12  male  Georgia
Sarah A Castello  10  female  Georgia
Malinda J Castello  8  female  Georgia
Mary F Castello  5  female  Georgia
Martha E Castello  3  female  Georgia
Jonas Castello  1  male  Georgia

Year: 1850; Census Place: Rocky Mount, Lowndes, Alabama; Roll: M432_8; Page: 188B; Image: 594

Lucy Carrie Davis Wells

birth: March 4, 1874
location: Texas
death: September 6, 1931
location: Wichita County, Texas

father: James Anderson Munroe Davis
mother: Malissa Jane Castellaw 

spouse: George H Wells

1880 census

1900 census

1910 census

1920 census

1930 census

death

burial

George H Wells - 1910 census

1910 census
location: Midland County, Texas
date: April 23-25, 1910

George H Wells  head  male  white  54  married - 2nd time  17 years  Virginia  farmer
Carrie Wells  wife  female  white  36  married - 1st time  17 years  0,0  Texas
Clarence Wells  son  male  white  27  married - 5 years  Tennessee
Glor Wells  daughter  female  white  24  married - 5 years  1, 1  Texas
Ida Robins  boarder  female  white  20  single  Missouri
Ines Wells  granddaughter  female  white  1 3/12  Texas

"United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M2QW-H2Y : accessed 18 April 2016), Carrie Wells in household of George H Wells, Justice Precinct 1, Midland, Texas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 163, sheet 5B, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,375,589.

Carrie Wells - 1930 census

1930 census
location: Wichita Falls State Hospital, Wichita
date: April 14, 1930

Carrie Wells  patient  female  white  58  married  Texas

"United States Census, 1930", database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HLVX-CZM : accessed 18 April 2016), Carrie Wells, 1930.

Carry Lucy Davis Wells - death

"Texas Deaths, 1890-1976," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K7D6-CPB : accessed 18 April 2016), Carrie Wells, 06 Sep 1931; citing certificate number 45109, State Registrar Office, Austin; FHL microfilm 2,135,697.

Jonathan Ford - 1920 census

1920 census
location: Scurry County, Texas
date: January 20, 1920

John J Ford  head  male  white  72  married  North Carolina  farmer
Mary Ford  wife  female  white  42  married  Texas

"United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHTJ-242 : accessed 18 April 2016), John J Ford, Justice Precinct 3, Scurry, Texas, United States; citing sheet 3B, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,821,845.

Jonathan Ford - 1900 census

1900 census
location:
date: June 23, 1900

Johnathan Ford  head  white  male  Jan 1848  52  married - 9 years  North Carolina  farmer
Mary Ford  wife  white  female  Oct 1871  28  married - 9 years  1, 1  Texas
Jewell Ford  daughter  white  female  Nov 1893  6  single  Texas

"United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M354-GR7 : accessed 18 April 2016), Jonathan Ford, Justice Precincts 3-5, Scurry, Texas, United States; citing sheet 16A, family 277, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,241,668.

John J Ford - 1930 census

1930 census
location: Dunn, Scurry County, Texas
date: April 16, 1930

John J Ford  head  male  white  83  married  age @ 1st marriage - 25  North Carolina
Mary Ford  wife  female  white  58  married  age @ 1st marriage - 20  Texas

"United States Census, 1930", database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HV9T-4T2 : accessed 18 April 2016), John J Ford, 1930.

The Origins of the Urban Crisis, Saving the Neighboorhood, and From Rural South to Metropolitan Sunbelt

The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit by Thomas J. Surgrue

Saving the Neighborhood: Racially Restrictive Covenants, Law, and Social Norms, by Richard R. W. Brooks & Carol M. Rose

“From Rural South to Metropolitan Sunbelt: Creating a Cowboy Identity in the Shadow of Houston,” by Andrew C. Baker

In cities across America race has been a crucial line of demarcation. The Origins of the Urban Crisis and Saving the Neighborhood show how race transformed American cities, towns, and neighborhoods. “From Rural South to Metropolitan Sunbelt” demonstrates how racial prejudices lingered in Montgomery County, Texas, even after racial residential segregation and racially restrictive covenants were proscribed. 

The Origins of the Urban Crisis by Thomas J. Sugrue examines the deindustrialization of Detroit, Michigan as a result of commercial decline, disinvestment, property devaluation, job loss, and depopulation. As a perfect and detailed case study, Sugrue uses Detroit to explain the transformation of American cities as a result of three factors: flight of jobs, workplace discrimination, and racial residential segregation. Sugrue boldly argues that the origins of the urban crisis lay much earlier than social scientists have recognized and previously reported.

Deviating from established opinion, Sugrue provides evidence for his theory that the origins of the urban crisis, or the “Rusting of the Rust Belt,” began in the 1950s, not after the oil crisis of the 1970s or stagflation. Post-World War II Detroit experienced the widespread loss of entry-level manufacturing jobs, reduced workforces, new overtime requirements, and the relocation of American industrial plants.

Workplace discrimination hit African Americans particularly hard in Detroit. Glass ceilings existed in every industry for blacks and the existence of good-paying jobs for blacks were scarce, leaving many blacks to earn low wages. Blacks became trapped in Detroit’s worst housing, and in strictly segregated sections of the city. Through the use of racially restrictive covenants, Detroit’s white citizens, mortgage companies, banks, real estate brokers, and real estate agents played crucial roles in maintaining racial barriers that would perpetuate the marginalization of Detroit’s blacks. 

Sugrue maintains that deindustrialization occurred because of a systematic restructuring of the local economy, from which the city was never able to recover from. Experiencing recessions, demand for automobiles, small shifts in interest rates, and plant closures or relocations, Detroit also withstood “long-term and steady decline in manufacturing employment.” At the same time the population of Detroit increased.

This double-whammy of population increase and loss of manufacturing jobs resulted in some action from the city government. However, racial conflicts were downplayed and discussions of class structure were censored. City government solutions were never able to correct the underlying causes of Detroit’s economic woes. Racially restrictive covenants led to a shifting of Detroit’s racial borderlands. For elite and steadily-employed blacks, housing options were opened up, if the housing was located in still-segregated neighborhoods.

Detroit’s white citizens banded together to form grassroots groups to keep their neighborhoods racially segregated. Sugrue argues that violence practiced by whites was organized, widespread, and the largest grassroots movement in Detroit’s history. The effects of racial violence in Detroit were far-reaching and included: hardened definitions of white and black identities; limited housing opportunities for blacks, persistent housing segregation that stigmatized blacks; racial divisions; and a reinforcement of unequal race relations.

While Sugrue focused on an entire city and its economy, Brooks and Rose take a look at racially restrictive covenants in neighborhoods in the second book, Saving the Neighborhood. The authors also aim to examine the ways legal and social norms reinforce one another. 

White citizens began to experience uneasiness with the movement of blacks into their cities and neighborhoods. To combat this movement, white neighborhoods and communities developed restrictive covenants to restrict ownership or residency according to one’s race. “Racial covenants were a legal substitute for the more vigorous and potentially vicious informal means used” to restrict residential segregation. Despite the ruling in 1948 by Shelley v. Kraemer that outlawed racially restrictive covenants, white flight became the new means of segregation.

To provide a legal route to enforce residential segregation, whites resorted to racially restrictive covenants agreed upon by property owners themselves. These agreements were designed to “run with the land,” thus binding future purchasers into racial restrictions. Whites were able to avoid legal obstacles, even in the form of the Supreme Court of the United States, and continue to legally enforce racial covenants.

Brooks and Rose go on to detail the “ways that a white homeowner or prospective homeowner might have assessed the various options if she wished to live in a segregated residential community.” One method a white person could have used to limit and prohibit blacks from racial integration in neighborhoods was harassment. However, large-scale harassment was difficult for whites to accomplish without long-term neighborhood solidarity that was hard to come by. Nuisance laws and zoning restrictions were also available methods to control the racial make-up of neighborhoods. These two methods, however, proved to be impractical on a large scale.

White homeowners were then left with racial covenants to restrict the racial makeup of neighborhoods and cities. The people Brooks and Rose credit with the spread of racially restrictive covenants are norm entrepreneurs. Developers, brokers, and the FHA, instituted covenants as standard practice. Paradoxically, these norm entrepreneurs were faced against norm breakers who attempted to ameliorate the practice and effects of racial covenants. Norm breakers, including blacks thinking of integrating into white neighborhoods, civil rights lawyers, and political groups such as the NAACP, began to challenge racially restrictive covenants. 

While illegal in today’s world, racially restrictive covenants do still exist in many deeds, covenants, conditions and restrictions. Homeowners are still left with few options in handling their restrictive covenants. “The amendment process nonetheless can be arduous, often requiring some kind of supermajority along with legally acknowledged signatures of the participating members.” Seemingly the only way to deal with these lingering housing restrictions is to ignore them.

If The Origins of the Urban Crisis and Saving the Neighborhood define the history of an American crisis and racially restrictive covenants, “From Rural South to Metropolitan Sunbelt” demonstrates that no matter what laws have been passed or how many years have gone by, the effects of deindustrialization and racially restrictive covenants have had a lingering effect on American cities. 

Just as Detroit, Michigan experienced depopulation, deindustrialization, and white flight, Houston, Texas encountered a similar economic condition. Citizens fled to outlying Montgomery County not only to live an idealized Southern lifestyle, but also to avoid urban violence and integrated public space. Montgomery County, Texas is known for its annual “Go Texan” celebration. In the 1960s and 1970s, this celebration included a shootout and a reenactment of a lynching. Originally intended to exhibit the rural flair of Montgomery County as compared to metropolitan Houston, Texas, the Go Texan festival gave citizens an opportunity to display their Southern heritage. 

In a line that could have been directly copied from Sugrue’s, The Origin of the Urban Crisis, Baker writes, “In an era charged with social tension, when the city of Houston was rocked with racial conflict and perceived lawlessness and urban whites fled to the safety of the countryside, this small-town performance (Go Texan celebration) reinforced the belief that, at least on the city’s metropolitan fringe, law and order persisted.” The since-excluded lynching scene reinforced Southern racism and racial segregation. 

Unlike Detroit, Montgomery County has experienced continued economic growth and a steady stream of middle-class citizens looking for an escape from metropolitan life. Baker argues that even today, Montgomery County citizens are continuously attracted to “the county’s rural landscapes to those unwilling to live in a racially and culturally diverse global metropolis.”

Jonathan Jefferson Ford - 1900 census

location: Scurry County, Texas
date: June 23, 1900

Johnathan Ford  head  white  male  Jan 1848  52  married - 9 years  North Carolina  farmer
Mary Ford  wife  white  female  Oct 1871  28  married - 9 years  1, 1  Texas
Jewell Ford  daughter  white  female  Nov 1893  6  single  Texas

"United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M354-GRW : accessed 8 April 2016), Mary Ford in household of Jonathan Ford, Justice Precincts 3-5, Scurry, Texas, United States; citing sheet 16A, family 277, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,241,668.

Mary Lou Davis Ford - death

"Texas Deaths, 1890-1976," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K3CJ-WSN : accessed 8 April 2016), Mary L Ford, 09 Jan 1951; citing certificate number 9239, State Registrar Office, Austin; FHL microfilm 2,074,653.

Malissa Jane Castellaw Davis

birth: February 3, 1842
location: Lowndes County, Alabama
death: December 22, 1935
location: Scurry County, Texas

father: Benjamin Franklin Castellaw
mother: Mary Louisa Jordan

spouse: James Anderson Munroe Davis

1850 census

marriage to James Anderson Munroe Davis

1860 census

moved to Texas - 1867

1870 census

1880 census

1900 census

1910 census

1920 census

death

burial

children with James Anderson Munroe Davis:

John Victor Davis - 1859

Eliza Victoria Davis - 1866
Mary Lou Davis - 1869

Julia Pearl Davis - 1871
Lucy Carrie Davis - 1873
Margaret Amanda Davis - 1875
Felix Monroe Davis - 1878
Edna Davis - 1883