"Secrets of the U. S. Federal Census - How Did Enumeration Really Work?"

 

“Secrets of the U. S. Federal Census – How Did Enumeration Really Work?”

Wellington – Because of the COVID-19 virus, the Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society will be hosting their October program online with Zoom.

Thomas MacEntee, internationally known speaker and genealogy professional will host the Zoom presentation “Secrets of the U. S. Federal Census – How Did Enumeration Really Work?” on Monday, October 19th at 6:30 p.m., Central Daylight time.

Please register in advance for this meeting at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0oduutqjkiEtOeVdufUrmXeFVSYvZC-z4m

Thomas MacEntee, a “tech guy” with a love of history and genealogy, was laid off during the 2008 recession after a 25-year career in the information technology field. 

So, Thomas used his information technology experience to become an internationally known tech-savvy genealogy professional blogger, educator, and author.

You can learn more about Thomas and his genealogy-related business called High Definition Genealogy at GenealogyBargains.com where he shares many of his articles and videos for free.

Thomas will share with participants the procedures and quirks of the U. S. Census, teach us how to tell who the “informant” was in the 1930 or 1940 US Censuses, access the instructions given to enumerators for each census year, and give us tips and tricks for deciphering the data and what all the different “codes” mean. He will also share ways to access the census data beyond Ancestry and Family Search.

Thomas rates this presentation as: Beginner Level and will share a four-page downloadable outline for registered participants.

For more information, contact the SCHGS at schgs@sutv.com, call Jane at: 620-447-3266 or Sherry at 316-833-6161, or check out the website at http://ks-schgs.blogspot.com/p/programs.html for more information.

Monday, September 21st - 6:30 p.m.

"From Slave to Soldier"

Presented by Members of the Alexander/Madison Buffalo Soldiers

of Kansas City, MO: J. R. Bruce, George Pettigrew, & Donna Madison

On Monday, September 21st at 6:30 p.m. at the Raymond Frye Complex, 320 N. Jefferson, the Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society in Wellington will host the presentation “From Slave to Soldier” presented by members of the Alexander/Madison Chapter of Kansas City Missouri, National Buffalo Soldiers 9^th and 10^th (Horse) Cavalry Association: J. R. Bruce, Donna Madison, and George Pettigrew.

Everyone is welcome to attend the free program.

We ask that you please wear masks and practice social distancing.

For more information, contact the SCHGS at schgs@sutv.com, call Jane at: 620-447-3266 or Sherry at 316-833-6161.

This special program, “From Slave to Soldier,” is funded by a grant from Humanities Kansas, and is part of the Wellington Pioneer Cemetery project.

J. R. Bruce, President of the Alexander/Madison Chapter of Kansas City Missouri, National Buffalo Soldiers 9^th and 10^th (Horse) Cavalry Association, (BuffaloSoldiersKC.org), stated that the group will show a short film, and share three presentations.

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Bruce had two relatives, John Bell, Sr., and Junior Randall, who served with the 10^th Cavalry in World War II, and he will portray a Sergeant Major from the 10^th Cavalry in the Spanish-American War up to the Korean War.  

George Pettigrew, whose great-grandfather was an original Buffalo Soldier, will speak about his grandfather’s service and the early service of the Buffalo Soldiers. And Donna Madison will portray the only known female Buffalo Soldier, Cathay Williams.

The National Buffalo Soldiers 9^th and 10^th (Horse) Cavalry Association was began in 1966 on the one-hundred-year anniversary of the founding of the black regiments that were created in 1866.

According to History.com, after Congress passed the Army Organization Act in 1866, six all-Black cavalry and infantry regiments were created. They protected settlers from Native Americans, caught cattle rustlers and thieves, and guarded wagon trains, stagecoaches, and the workmen building the railroads.

On May 6^th, 1867, former slave Isaac Johnson joined the 38^th Infantry, Company K, as a private.  Johnson was Pettigrew’s great-grandfather. Pettigrew’s mother was a family historian and genealogist, and had discovered during her research that her grandfather had served as a Buffalo Soldier following the Civil War. Her research was recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives.

“He was born in 1846 in North Carolina, but he came out of Montgomery, Alabama,” Pettigrew said, “He is the one who went from slave to soldier.”

For nearly twenty years, since the early 2000’s, Donna Madison has portrayed Cathay Williams, former slave and female buffalo soldier.

“My dad showed me an article about Cathay Williams at the 9^th and 10^th Horse Cavalry Reunion at Ft. Leavenworth in 1992,” said Donna Madison, adding that she began to research Williams and decided to commemorate her memory and service.

“Cathay Williams was born a slave sometime between September and November of 1842 in Independence, Missouri,” Madison said, “in 1860, her master moved from Independence, Missouri to Jefferson City, Missouri.”

According to Madison, Williams was just a tall, skinny teen-ager when she was taken off of her master’s farm by Union Troops. Later, she enlisted as William Cathay and served with the 38^th for five years. 

She was able to hide her identity until she contracted smallpox and was hospitalized several times, and when her identity was discovered she was given an honorable discharge.

Private Cathay Williams  was the first African American woman to enlist and the only documented woman to serve in the United States Army while disguised as a man during the Indian Wars, and was the only woman to serve in the US Army as a Buffalo Soldier.

Private Cathay Williams died in Trinidad, Colorado circa 1893.

 

January 20th - 6:30 p.m.

My Loved & Hated Grandfather,

Choctaw Chief Greenwood LeFlore

Wellington – On Monday, January 20th at 6:30 p.m. at the Raymond Frye Complex, 320 N. Jefferson, the Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society in Wellington will host the presentation “My Loved and Hated Grandfather, the Choctaw Chief Greenwood LeFlore” presented by Wes LeFlore, sixth great-grandson of Chief LeFlore.

Members of the community are invited to attend the free program. Contact the SCHGS at schgs@sutv.com, or check out the website at http://ks-schgs.blogspot.com/p/programs.html for more information.

From the time he was very small, Wes LeFlore’s grandfather told him the history of his ancestor, Greenwood LeFlore, and his part in Choctaw history.

“Basically, I always knew,” said Wes LeFlore, minister of the Wellington Church of Christ.

“I was proud of it. It was always a neat thing,” said Wes, “the county that I lived in was LeFlore County, Oklahoma, and folks would ask me if I was connected to the county and it gave me the opportunity to tell them the story of Greenwood LeFlore.”

Wes stated that his ancestor, Greenwood LeFlore was only half Choctaw, and sometime during Greenwood’s lifetime, the spelling of their name was changed from LeFleur, which means “the flower” to LeFlore.

Wes said that his ancestor was a controversial figure in Choctaw history

“He was hated for the same reason that he was loved,” Wes said, “in 1830, he signed the first Indian Removal Act in the United States, the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek”

“Some said he never should have signed, and hated him for signing, and some understood that the only way to save the Choctaws from annihilation was to sign that treaty,” Wes said, “it has been a very mixed reaction.”

Wes said that at one time, he believed that the Choctaws had owned nearly one-third o the state of Mississippi. After the treaty was signed, they moved to a smaller reservation in the Indian Territory, which is now in the eastern part of Oklahoma.

“LeFlore County in Oklahoma is a big county,” Wes said, “but it is small compared to what it was in Mississippi.”

Wes said that his family moved to Oklahoma in 1831, but Greenwood stayed in Mississippi.

“Geographically, the lands are straight across the map from one another,” Wes said, “They walked straight across the state of Arkansas to get to LeFlore County Oklahoma.

“It was hard walking,” Wes said, “they were basically blazing a trail.”

According to Wikipedia, Greenwood LeFlore was born on June 3rd, 1800 at LeFleur’s Bluffs, Mississippi. Greenwood’s mother was Rebecca Cravatt, niece of the chief Pushmataha and his father was Louis LeFleur, an explorer and French fur trader.

At age twelve, Greenwood’s father sent him to Nashville to become educated in American schools; when he was 22, he became chief of the western district of the Choctaw Nation when it was still in Mississippi, and on March 15, 1830, he became the head chief of the entire nation.

With the election of President Andrew Jackson, in 1828, many in the Choctaw tribe realized that they would face removal from their lands or they would face annihilation.

The treaty written by Greenwood provided for the Choctaw who chose to stay in Mississippi to become United States citizens and receive land, but the government did not honor this provision, and Greenwood faced death threats. Even after his death, his body was removed from his grave and buried face down in an unknown location.

Greenwood stayed in Mississippi, settled in Carroll County and accepted United States citizenship. In the 1840’s he was elected to the state government as a legislator and senator in the 1840s. During the Civil War, he sided with the Union, even though he owned many slaves.

When he was twelve years old, Wes’s grandfather took him and the family to Mississippi to explore the Native homeland of the Choctaw’s.

“My grandpa just told me that it’s important to know where you came and to be proud of where you came from,” Wes said, “those were the two big things he tried to instill in me.”

“The Choctaw Nation, was very good about making everyone feel proud to be a descendant of a Choctaw,” Wes said.

Wes said that he was “too young” to realize the weight or the gravity of being in his family’s homeland, but they were able to see the remains of Greenwood’s mansion, “Malmaison,” and went to several museums, and burial grounds.

“The thing that made the biggest impression,” Wes said, “was when I would talk to Choctaws in the museums and on the guided tours, it seemed like all of this history, well over a hundred years ago, they still talked about it like it was yesterday.”

“It was criminal what the Nation did,” Wes said, “forcing all of the Native American tribes to leave their lands so the colonizers could come in and take it.”

“The biggest impression that I took,” Wes said, “is that when history is full of atrocities against human beings, people don’t forget easily.