Eli Hilson, Jr.: A Family Civil Rights Martyr - Part Three

 

A Family Interrupted - 1880 to Present

A Brief Synopsis:

1880 Federal Census - Hannah Kelly Hilson is born in 1865 to Richard and Mariah Kelly. Both parents were born into Mississippi slavery in 1850. Hannah and three siblings are listed on this census: Grant, Tamar, and Napoleon** (Napoleon would grow up to marry Lou Ada Buie. He is our Aunt Carrie Kees' grandfather).

 

1900 – Hannah 38 yrs. old is married to Eli Hilson, Jr.  They have ten children: Abe, 19 yrs; Luna, 18 yrs; Luella 15 yrs; Julia 14 yrs; Willie 12 yrs; Harvey 10 yrs; Lewis 8 yrs; Arbella 6 yrs; Letha 4 yrs; Minerva 3 yrs.

 

1903 – Hannah is widowed after the murder of her husband, Eli, Jr. by the K.K.K.  She had just delivered her 11^th child. She lost the family's 74 acres of land through foreclosure and was eventually forced off the land.  How she was able to make a living after Eli's death begins a mystery. 

The older children, Abe, Luna, and Luella young adults at the time probably supported  Hannah and the younger siblings for awhile but soon married. They eventually were scattered assumingly among existing family and friends.

Searching For Eli and Hannah's Children

Family lore says that Hannah and the infant baby died shortly after Eli’s death.  One story was that she and possibly the youngest child was found frozen to death sometime between 1903-1910.  We may never know her exact cause of death as Mississippi by law was not required to record births and deaths until November 1912.  Few counties kept records and those that did were sporadic and incomplete. 

 

Eli and Hannah with their children were last seen on the 1900 Federal census. I could find no records for ABE,  LUNA (Lena?), JULIA*, ARBELLA, or LEWIS.*  Census records were found for the following: 

 

LUELLA

1910  –In Lincoln County married to Thomas Rucks with four daughters: Lillian, Florence, Eunice, Lela.  Luella’s sister Zena Hilson  a.k.a. Julia was also listed. She was 12 years old.

 

1920 - Luella and Tom still in Lincoln County with children: Lillie, Florence, Eunice; Lela, Jack, Fibbie (Phoebe); Rosa, and James.  Zena age 22 yrs now. is not listed. 

1930 – Luella and Tom with children: Johnnie (Jack); Lucretia, a.k.a Fibbie/Phoebe; Rosa, James, Eli,  and Lucy

1941 –Luella and Tom are listed on marriage certificates for two of their children Eli and Florence married in the same year. They are now living in Amite County, MS.

1947 –– Luella dies in Champaign, IL  November 26th.  Have no death date for Tom.

  

WILLIE (William) - Derived from abbreviated info (Ancestry.com) 

 Unknown year - Married to  Charlotte Byrd in Mississippi. They have five children: John Henry (1916-1976); Izena (1920-1995); Elizabeth (1922-1994); Stillborn daughter (1925); Willie Jr.  (1927-2005). The oldest three children were born in Shaw Sunflower County, Mississippi. Willie was residing in Bolivar County, MS between 1917-1918  according to his WW1 draft registration form. Willie left Mississippi and ended up in Gary, Indiana. He was in Gary when he was drafted in 1942.  He passed away in Gary Indiana, date unknown. 

                                    

HARVEY: Believed to have died in Lincoln or Pike County according to a Lincoln County newspaper obituary -article not available – date unknown

 

JULIA, a.k.a. ZENA)  as previously stated was found in the 1910 census at the age of 12 in the household of her sister, Luella.  I could find her listed nowhere else but her brother, William named one of his daughter’s Izena possibly to honor her.

 

LETHA & MANERVA

1910 - Both sisters are living in the home of Emmanuel and Annie Williams, Washington County, MS.  Letha is 10 yrs and Minerva is 6 yrs. The couple are aged  (76 yrs and 60 yrs respectively). The girls are listed as orphans. (This is the last mention of Letha).

 

MANERVA:

1920 –Divorced and living in the home of Emmanuel and Annie Williams as a boarder.  She has three children (Mary, Charlie, and Daniel). Also listed is 100 year old Mariah Kelly, mother-in-law to Emmanuel.  This makes Annie, Hannah's sister. 

1930 –Living in the home of John and Mary Williams, possibly son of Emmanuel and Annie (Sunflower, MS) as a boarder and farm laborer. No children are mentioned.

1940 –Still living in the home of John and Mary Williams as a lodger in Sunflower, MS

1990- Dies in Chicago. Children: Mary Lee Burns, Daniel Williams also died in the Chicago area.

 

LEWIS a.k.a. Hilson Lowry/Buster Lowry:

What's In A Name?

The life story of Lewis already sad by many accounts (father murdered, mother possibly frozen to death, siblings scattered and unaccounted for most of his life), grows sadder.  In 2014 , his daughter, Fanny reads, Linda Rudd’s blog post and discovers that something she has written about the murder of Eli Hilson sounds familiar to her own family story.  She reaches out to Linda, who starts unwinding this riveting tale of human suffering and endurance. 

 

Our cousin, Franklin Carter Smith, the genealogist is also a Hilson family descendant.  He uses his expertise to do some research and was able to put to rest some of the questions Fanny’s now deceased father, Buster would never answer. On rare occasions when he would talk about his childhood it sounded like a far-fetched tale.   Here’s what Fanny was told: 

After the death of Buster's parents in Lincoln County, he was taken by an older sister to Jackson, Mississippi where at the age of five he lived in the governor’s house.  Fanny didn’t know the name of the sister.  Apparently, she worked for the governor for a number of years and at some point left her brother there.  The story goes that her father was adopted by the governor and changed his name to Buster Lowry.  Her father kept that name until he enlisted in the army, completed his service and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.  It was there he met and married her mother, Mary Smith Crum.  They had eleven children and at the time of Fanny’s inquiry she was one of three still living. 

I heard Henry Louis Gates say on the PBS show, Finding Your Roots, that family stories are a bit like the game, Telephone.  By the time it gets to you very little is true.  Fortunately for Fanny, enough of this story was factual to make research possible.  Franklin and I compared  notes and came up with the following:

Buster Hilson we believe is the son, Lewis shown on the 1900 Federal census.  He was not born in 1896, the date he used all his life but in 1894. Remember, Mississippi did not keep records of births and deaths until 1912.  If information was not recorded in a family bible or the county clerk’s office, you had to rely on a mid-wife’s or older family member’s best guess! 

 

[In some of Daddy A.J. Harris’s papers, I found a letter dated in the 1940s.  It was from a relative in Mississippi asking him to send, her age!  By that she meant look in the family bible and see what was written as her date of birth.  She needed proof to apply for old age pension.  Mississippi is not known for good record keeping and especially for black people it is hard to verify vital statistics.] 

A 1910 census search found a 14 year old black teen living in the home of Webster Buie, a wealthy white family in Jackson, Mississippi.  His name is Hilson Lowry and he is listed as a servant of the household doing primarily yard work.  The governor of Mississippi at the time was Edmond Neal (1908-1912).  Coincidently, former governor, Robert Lowry died in Jackson the very same year.  

Gov. Robert Lowry (1882-1890)

Hilson Lowry may have been named for the previous governor, a good friend.  Interestingly, one of Fanny’s brothers was named Robert Lowry.  Fanny’s father did not live in the governor’s mansion as she was told but with a prominent white family, the Webster Buies of Jackson. The Buies lived at 628 N. State Street.  Webster Buie was a capitalist and financier who inherited the home from his uncle, Civil War Major Reuben Webster Millsaps.  The major amassed a fortune after the Civil War. 

The Millsaps Buie House- Jackson, MS

 Major Millsaps was a lawyer, businessman and well-known philanthropist that ironically started his cotton-buying and transporting business in Brookhaven.  He and his wife had no children, so at his death he left his mansion and other assets to Buie and another adopted niece. The bulk of his estate however went to the founding of a school, Millsaps College located in Jackson.  Before his death he spent the remainder of his life to the expansion and running of the college. He is buried in a mausoleum on the school's campus.

 Seven years later, Hilson Lowry, now called Buster Lowry, signs his WWI draft registration card on June 5, 1917 from Memphis, Tennessee. He apparently stayed with the Buie family until the time he decided to join the army.  He is single and gives Brookhaven as his birth place. The next document we find is a marriage certificate to Mary Crum in Cincinnati. After service he moves north working blue class jobs and this is where he establishes a home for his wife and children. The next time he is required to fill out a draft card it was for WWII.  He is 45 years old. I thought this unusual but the draft age was between 21 and 45 years.  I do not believe he served in this second war.  After working hard to care for his family he died January 14, 1971.

This ends my research to date of Eli and Hannah's children. The Hilson Family is very large and their members host a Family Reunion every couple of years.  They have a very intricate family website that I've visited a few times and although I'm invited to each reunion have not yet made the trip.  Fannie has attended two of them. Some of you may recall another Hilson relative, the mother of Oma Kay Presley who was born deaf and was quite a character. He and his mother lived in Memphis. I met his mother, Cousin Tennie Mae Hilson Presley in the late 1980s and found her to be delightful. Fanny and I recently connected a couple of years ago.  We talk regularly She is nearly 80 and a retired school teacher but still very feisty. Together we talk about our family, faith, and how proud we are to come from such resilient family stock!   

Meet Cousin Fanny Lowry Early

Buster's Daughter

Cousin Fanny Early and myself June  2019

Love to All,

Your Family Griot, Carolyn Harris Betts

  

Eli Hilson Jr.:A Family Civil Rights Martyr - Part Two

 

What Happened to Hannah and Her Children?

Picture of a Black American family in the 1900s 

Photo credit: History.com

 Eli Hilson, Jr. was murdered December 19,  1903 after ignoring warnings to leave his land in November.  White cappers (KKK) shot up his house with his pregnant wife and children inside.  But he still refused to leave.  A few weeks later they caught him traveling alone in his wagon and shot him in the head.  His body was thrown in the back and the horse carried it home. He was 39 years old and Hannah sick in bed had just delivered their eleventh child.

The tragedy of racial injustice is that its consequences affect more than its intended victim.  It often permeated the victim's home and community leaving an aftermath of disgrace and financial devastation. This was the beginning of America's era of lynchings in the south.  Up and coming black families were forced into ruin, and any hope of achieving the American Dream described generally as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was cut short.  

Hannah's fate is very sketchy and still under research.  However, Eli Hilson Sr., her father in-law's obituary shows that the family was able to retain a good reputation in Lincoln County, Mississippi and the travesty of his namesake's murder was still being felt a couple of years later. 

A WELL KNOWN NEGRO PASSES AWAY

Transcript: Eli Hilson, Sr's Obituary,  Brookhaven Leader, January 4, 1905, Page 4

 

Eli Hilson, Sr., who had lived in Lincoln County for over 40 years and was a familiar figure to a great many of The Leader's readers, died at the home of his son in McComb City on Dec. 20th, at the advanced age of 92. Before the war Eli belonged to the Weathersbys, of Amite county, and was a faithful and trusted servant of his old master and his family. He raised five sons and five daughters in this county, all of whom survive him except Eli, Jr., who was murdered in Dec 1903. He was thrifty and industrious and up to a few years ago when he became enfeebled by age, always made a good living for himself and family and enjoyed the confidence and respect of his white neighbors. For the last four years, he lived with his children. The body was brought from McComb to Brookhaven and buried in the church yard at Mt Olive, near which the old man lived for so many years.

    

 From the previous post we know that Hannah lost the land through a mortgage foreclosure in 1905.  The 74 acres were sold for less than $500.00.  In 2001 the property was valued at $61,642.  [To learn more about how property ownership made blacks targets in the 1900s click on the link below] 

Torn From the Land

Hannah became a widow at the age of 38 years old.  Her children were: Abe 19 yrs; Luna 18 yrs; Luella 15yrs; Julia 14 yrs; Willie 12 yrs; Harvey 10 yrs; Lewis 8 yrs; Arbella 6 yrs; Letha 4 yrs; Manerva 3 yrs and new born infant (?). 

Franklin Carter Smith, genealogist and co-author of the book, A Genealogist Guide to Discovering Your African American Ancestors is a distant cousin on the Smith side of the family.  He is currently researching where those children ended.  We have both met Eli and Hannah's granddaughter,  Fanny Early who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.  If the story she shared with us is any indication, of how the other children survived, the stories will be fascinating. 

In the fall of 2018 free lance writer, Kim Henderson contacted Linda Rudd regarding research for an article she was writing.  She had just visited the National Memorial for Peace and Justice Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.  She came across Eli Hilson's name engraved on a panel [See photo below] and wanted to get the back story.  I put her in touch with Fanny and excerpts from the following article ensued.  

Memorial Corridor, National Memorial for

Peace and Justice, Montgomery, Alabama

photo credit: Soniakapadia CC BY-SA 4.0 used in

 article by Dr. Renee Alta, Khan Academy

The Daily Leader, Brookhaven, MS.  - October 30, 2018

SPECIAL REPORT: A Different Kind of Memorial, Part 2

Kim Henderson

Last week I told you about my visit to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Since its opening in April, some have deemed the open-air facility a “lynching museum.” That’s because it’s the first national memorial dedicated to people terrorized by lynching. One of the memorial’s main thrusts is public acknowledgment. Organizers 

believe that confronting the truth about our history is the first step towards recovery and reconciliation. That history includes more than 4,000 racially-motivated lynchings.

A few weeks ago, I set out to discover the stories behind the names etched on the Lincoln County monument. I came up with a zero on most, but the fifth on the list was a hit. Through newspaper articles and interviews with relatives, I was able to learn about Eli Hilson, a black man who died 8 miles outside of Brookhaven on December 20, 1903.

Hilson’s lynching story isn’t typical, though. A bullet, not a noose, ended his life, and his murderer was eventually convicted. Even so, mob justice and intimidation – core elements of lynchings – played a prominent role in Hilson’s death. Here’s a portion of what Brookhaven’s The Leader wrote three days after the incident.

“Last winter Hilson, who lived on a farm of his own and was prosperous, was warned by the whitecaps to leave . . . About three or four weeks ago his home was visited in the night by whitecaps and several volleys fired into it. His wife was sick in bed at the time, with an infant only a few hours old. . .  Saturday, he brought a young daughter to town in his buggy to spend Christmas holidays with his brother . . . and as he was returning home between sunset and dark was assassinated. Hilson is the second negro murdered by whitecaps in that portion of Lincoln County within the last month.”

Public outcry ensued, but for the wrong reason. The Leader provides the details.

“An old farmer who lives several miles below where this murder occurred stated that about all the negroes had been frightened out of his neighborhood, and that all white farmers who had more lands than they could work themselves were left without labor and that these lands will have to lie out, uncultivated.”

Whitecappers, by the way, were Klansmen. And while Judge Wilkinson certainly made his point, the real widow in this story was Hannah Hilson. In the months following Eli’s death, she lost the family farm to foreclosure. Her 74 acres were eventually sold for $439 to S. P. Oliver, a county supervisor.  Franklin Smith devoted a chapter of his book, “A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your African American Ancestors,” to Eli Hilson. As a Hilson descendant, Smith was especially interested in what became of the couple’s passel of children. 

   

“That’s the most tragic part of the story,” he told me by phone. “They were dispersed across the state.”  Smith learned that 5-year-old Leroy went to live with a former governor of Mississippi, Robert Lowry. “It was an unlikely turn of events, but his sister was working for the Lowry family and the governor took him in, changing the child’s name to Hilson Lowery, with a nickname of Buster.” I was able to connect with Buster’s daughter Fanny Early, a Cincinnati resident. At 75, Early has never set foot in Mississippi.

“My dad didn’t talk about what happened to his parents,” she said. “The first time I really understood the story was when I read about it on the internet.” Early just happened to mention that her mother (the daughter-in-law Eli never met) was from Montgomery. I couldn’t help but think of the connection — the new monument, the one with the details of Eli Hilson’s lynching — swinging high on a hill overlooking her hometown. I encouraged Early to go see it.   “I want to do that,” she said. “Yes. I think I will.”

 

End of transcript

Next Blog:  The Descendants of Eli and Hannah Hilson

Love to All,

Your Family Griot - Carolyn Harris Betts

 

Eli Hilson, Jr.: A Family Civil Rights Martyr - Part One

Hello Family,

Reflecting on recent events regarding political and racial unrest, I decided to start 2021 off with a series that hits very close to our own home.  January blog posts will feature Eli Hilson, Jr. the brother of Laura Matilda Hilson Harris (paternal grandfather Jacob Harris' mother).  Most of what you will read below was collected by Linda Rudd, a distant cousin and appeared several years ago in her blog: Between The Gate Posts. [June and July 2013].  Linda  has been a constant source of inspiration and help to me in my research of family roots in Mississippi.  I am a frequent visitor to her blog  and recommend it highly for a deeper study of black life in Lincoln County, Mississippi.  

 White Capping: A Short Explanation 

White capping is the crime of threatening a person with violence. Ordinarily, members of the minority groups are the victims of whitecapping. Persons are threatened in order to stop or move them away from engaging in certain businesses or occupations.

In the South, White Cap societies were generally made up of poor white farmers, frequently sharecroppers and small landowners, who intended to control black laborers and prevent merchants from acquiring more land. These societies in the South made it their task to attempt to force a person to abandon his home or property. This racial character of whitecapping in the South is thought to have been ignited by the agricultural depression in the 1890s that occurred around the same time. 

With all of the attention centered on producing cotton, the South’s economy became very unbalanced. Many farmers went into debt and lost their lands to merchants through mortgage foreclosures. The merchants and their black laborers and sometimes new white tenants became quick targets for the dispossessed, who seemed to be losing everything. Racism contributed to the problem as well, prosperous black men in the South frequently faced resentment that could be expressed violently. (From Wikipedia)

Eli's Death 

 Made Local and National News

Picture credit: Courtesy of Library of Congress 

The Leader Newspaper
Brookhaven, MS
Dec 23, 1903

Eli Hilson, a negro living about eight miles from Brookhaven was assassinated within about a quarter of a mile of his home Saturday evening, while on his way home from town alone in his buggy. The bullet which killed him entered the side of his head near the ear and came out at the mouth. Death seems to have been instantaneous. The horse went on home, and his owner was found dead in the buggy on his arrival.

Coroner Geo. Lambright, Jr., visited the scene of the murder Monday, impaneled a jury and held an inquest, the verdict being that the deceased came to his death by a gunshot wound at the hands of parties unknown.

Last Winter Hilson, who lived on a farm of his own and was prosperous, was warned by the whitecaps to leave, which warning he disregarded. About three or four weeks ago his home was visited in the night by whitecaps and several volleys fired into it. His wife was sick in bed at the time, with an infant only a few hours old. He still disregarded the warning, and remained on his place. Saturday, he brought a young daughter to town in his buggy to spend Christmas holidays with his brother G. N. W. Hilson, of this city, and as he was returning home between sunset and dark was assassinated. Hilson is the second negro murdered by whitecaps in that portion of Lincoln county within the last month.

From all The Leader can gather of the facts and circumstances, it is a disgraceful state of affairs and calls loudly for determined action and corrective measures by law abiding citizens and all law officers of the county. An old farmer who lives several miles below where this murder occurred stated while in The Leader office Monday, that about all the negroes had been frightened out of his neighborhood, and that all white farmers who had more lands than they could work themselves were left without labor and that these lands will have to lie out, uncultivated.

The Leader is informed that it is the intentions of the British and American Mortgage Company which has been an extensive loaner of money on farm lands in this county, to stop all further loans and instruct its agents and trustees to foreclose all mortgages that are not promptly satisfied before the situation grows worse and the lands become less valuable.

Our local banks share this same feeling of distrust and uneasiness and will either be forced to refuse loans in localities where this disturbance of negro labor prevails, or else demand greater security and a higher rate of interest on such loans as are advanced.

The situation is indeed a serious one to the farmers and the financial interests of the entire county, to say nothing of considerations of humanity and our boasted Christian civilization; and these dastardly whitecaps outrages ought to be suppressed and those who commit them hunted down and brought to justice.

A Rare Conviction in the Segregated South 

Picture credit: Lincoln County Court House, Brookhaven, Ms.

Three murders, beatings, terrorist acts were committed upon African Americans by the Whitecaps in Lincoln County, MS.  Over a thousand people were near or on the Lincoln County courthouse grounds when Judge James Wilkinson announced the sentences of the men convicted of murder in the Whitecaps cases. As each man was sentenced, the crowd shuddered. Oscar Franklin plead guilty to the murder of Eli Hilson, and was sentenced to life in prison in December 1904, about a year after the murder.

Eli's wife Hannah struggle to raise their ten children and maintain the farm. She lost the property through a mortgage foreclosure in 1905. The 74 acres were sold to S. P. Oliver for $439. Oliver was a county supervisor.

Sources:
The Evening News, San Jose, California, December 21, 1904


Next Blog:  What Happened to Hannah and Her Children?

Love to All,

Your Family Griot - Carolyn Harris Betts