| Notes |
- Oral History: Andrew McEver supposely went to Augusta, GA and purchased two slaves. One of
the slaves was Leethy, Joseph McEver, son of Andrew McEver, took for his wife. Since it was .
illegal in those days for a black and white to marry, he purchased her from his father for 99 years.
That was his way of marrying her. The following story appeared in the last issue of "THE GOOD LIFE",
A small local paper publilshed in August of 2008. Article written by CHARLOTTE COLLINS BOND.
When I entered the house I was greeted by grieving family and friends. I quickly scanned the room,
and then I saw it. In the corner of the room was the empty chair. In my mind's eye, I could see him sitting there with a big smile on his face and his arms outstretched, beckoning me to take his hands. That's the way it had ben for years. And then, the non-stop conversation began. He had so much to tell me, and I was thirsty to hear every word. That sharp mind of his could fill volumes of history books, and he loved telling the stories.....and I loved asking all the questions. My goal was to find the "rest of the story" that had been related to me many years before. All I had been told were bits and pieces which I had recorded, but the core of the story was still missing, I just knew the Mr. Calvin had the answer I was searching for....and he did.
I first met Mr. Calvin McWhorter, a black man, when my mail route had been expanded to take in his community. One day he met me at his mail box and he asked me who I was. I told him my parents were George and Ruth Collins, and he immediately asked me it I knew Charlie Collins and his daddy, Old man Nelse [Nelson] Collins. Oh, how he laughed when I told him they were my grandfather and great-frandfather. He started telling me how his mother used to carry him to their house when he was a small boy and how Mr. Charlie's two oldest girls gor Old Man Nelse's peg leg and chased him with it. Nelson had lost his leg in an accident and wore a prosthesis to church and business affairs, but usually at home, he wore his wooden peg leg.
My car was about to run hot, and I had just begun my mail route, so I had to draw that conversation to a close. But I knew I had found a gold mine and a welth of oral history, and I had a million questions for him.
The years flew by so quickly that I never satisfied my curiosity completely, but each time I visited with him I always learned new things; some about his family, same about my family, and some about our family. It was a long journey to the truth, but the trip was well worth the time.
One of the first things I asked Mr. Calvin was if he ever knew a man named Green McEver. "Why shore I did! He raised my daddy." Then he explained that his father's parents died when he was around four years old of a fever that was raging in the area, and he thought his grandmother's name was Mary, and she married a McWhorter. "But why did Green raise your father?", I asked. He thought about it a while and then said "I think Green was my grandma's brother.
I ran home and pulled out my McEver records and located my fifth great-grandfather's inventory records dated October 7, 1863. And there it was! The slaves listed were; Negro woman Leethy, boy Green; woman Lucy and Mary. When I checked the census records, Green, Lucy, and Mary were listed as mulatto...mixed color.
I was curious about the name Green McEver because I heard it repeatedly during my childhood at family reunions. When I asked about the curious name, I was hushed up, and the talking stopped. I was told later that that there was a McEver cemetery across the highway where whites and black familes were buried together; slaves and slave owners. But I was never told that Andrew McEver was my grandmother's great grandfather.
Some of the things the lady from Atlanta told me were that "Grandpa" had a son that took one of his slaves and raised chldren by her. During the Civil War, Grandpa sent one of his slaves to stay with EklmiraLater, as an adult, when I went to family reunions, I carried a legal pad and pen and sat down with any and all of the older relatives I could. I picked their brains about their memories of growing up here in Madison county. It paid off in many ways, bus one, especially. A lady from "Atlanta told me of visiting her grandmother (who, by the way, was my grandmother's mother) when she was just a child, and a little black lady was there visiting. She remembered some of their conversation, and I recorded the bits and pieces of stories and the names that were mentioned. This was the start of my serious genealogy searches. It was over 40 years of futility until I met Mr. Calvin.
Some of the things the lady from Atlanta told me were that "Grandpa" had a son that took one of his slaves and raised children by her. During the Civil War, Grandpa sent one of his slaves to stay with Elmira [Fortson-Beard (my great-grandmother)] to help her with the birth of her baby, to help protect her, and to hide the cattle in the woods when the yankees came through". As it turns out, the slave was Leethy McEver, "Wife" of Joseph, son of Andrew McEver. Elmira was the daughter-in-law of Margaret McEver Beard, sister of Joseph. Did I lose you there? It was Leethy, the slave, the "aunt" of Elmira Beard, who was sitting on the front porch of Elmira's youngest son, Ben Beard, reminiscing with each other about the old days during the Civil War. It took many years to pull all the pieces together to get to that truth. I was hesitant to mention these things to Mr. Calvin. I didn's know how he would react to the things I was turning up. One day, at the end of one of our "Sessions" under the car port, I looked up at him and said, "Mr. Calvin, it looks pretty much like we're going to be cousins." He looked up at me and leaned over and whispered, "Well now missie, you done been the one asking. " And then he let out a roar of laughter....and so ddi I.
There were still a lot of pieces missing to prove my suppositions to be accurate, I was in the Madison courthouse one day looking through the deeds of another family when in the index I waw the name McEver. I quickly turned to the page, excited that I had found more information on my familyu. Well, it wasn't e4xactly my family. It was a deed from Mary McWhorter to her brother, Green McEver, giving him 51 acfes of land amd much, much more with the promise that her brother pay all her debts and raise her four-year-old son, Walt amcWhorter to the age of 231, It was recorded February 6, 1889. Mr. Calvin was right, Mary MNcEver was his grandmother.
While I was in the court house, I went a step further, I looked at the marriage books. Mary McEver married Alex McWhorter on September 19, 1880. What was interesting was there was no "C" by their names to indicate that thay were colored.
Next, I looked for Lucy, Mary's sister's records. She married David Clements October 14, 1889. There was a "C" beside their names. Then I looked for Green's records. He married Melinda Bragg October 16, 1881. There was no "C" by their names.
I asked Calvin for the names of all his ancestors he could remember, and I promised I would look for their records. There were more surprises to be found. I won't go into detail, but two more generations back, were also listed as white. I felt sufficiently satisfied that I had completed my quest, and I wrote it up and carried it over to him. He asked me to read it to him, and I did. When it came to the union of Joseph and Leethy, I thought it prudent to say that we knew they weren't married. He just took advantage of the young slave girl, and she bore him children. To my surprise, Mr. Calvin corrected me. He told me I had stirred up memories in his mind that he would have never thought of again hed it not been for all my questioning. "Now, I'm going to tell you what they told me." I was stunned! He said, "You know that it was against the law for a white man to marry a black woman. Well, they did lover each other and he made up a way for them to be able to live together as man and wife. He gave her a document hiring her for 99 years to live in his home and keep house for him. That was their way of getting married.
Lessons I have learned? One, not to make assumptions; two, not to make judgments; three, never give up, and go to any length to seek the truth. You may disagree and that's fine, but I believer God meant for me to find all these truths. Look how many generations kept the secret. If the truth had come out back then, I'm sure lives would have been in danger. The way I look at ii is, had I not been a seeker, I would have never found Mr. Calvin, and what a loss that would have been for me. He taught me so much. Color doesn't make a person. Love does.
Speaking of love, it was Calvin's love for his wife that held him in that chair for so many years. She lay in a hospital bed in the living foom for years in a comatose state, which required that she have constrant care. Their children, Lanita, Hilda, and Henry shared the responsibilithy of seeing after their parents. They did it with such love, I could actually feel the presence of God in the room when I visited.
Through the years I continued to visit with Mr. Calvin and the family. He liked to read my Good Life stories, so I delivered them each month along with enough to be carried to 'Tabor's Chapel, their church. On his 98th birthday, I gave him $100. I told him it was a dollar for each year ofl his life, and now he owed me two more years of his stories. He looked at me and laughed as he said he would try, but that it was up to God.
One day, Lanita and Hilda brought Mr. Calvin to my house to visit. They said he just wanted to see how much the house had changed since he was a boy. The girls came in, but he said he would just sit in the car. I took them upstairs and the minute they saw the log cabin rooms, they said we have to go get Dad and help him up here. They helped him climb the stairs, and the expression on his face is forever etched in my mind. His mouth fell open in astonishment. You could tell the years rolled away as he was looking at the old things that were familiar to him as a child. I reminded him that our common ancestor, Andrew McEver, was the man who built the cabin around 1808. He seemed to just drink in the history of the house as if it had been a part of his own life.
His health was already starting to fail so it wasn't surprising when Lanita came by soon after that to let me know her Dad was in the hospital in Royston. I quickly dressed and drove to the hospital. He held his hands out to me and I took them and then handed him some candy I had grabbed as I was leaving out the door.
From that time on, he really started going down hill, and each time I would visit he would say "I'm still trying to hang on for you; I still owe you a dollar," and we would laugh. The last two times I visited him he did't want to turn my hands loose, and when he looked up at me the tears were falling. He told me he didn't think he would make it to 100. He will celebrate that birthday in heaven this year with his Lord and his family that preceded him. I can just hear him, still telling; his stories, I will forever miss him and am thankful to God that He led me to him and to the conclusion of our family history. No one will ever be able to fill that empty chair the way he did. I will forever miss, Mr. Calvin, Shiloh misses you too!
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1810 - 1905 (95 years)
