Minutes of the Friends of the Geer Cemetery 07/11/2005

In attendance were: Mr. R.K Bryant, Jr. (Chair), Mrs. Carrie McNair (Research Chair) and Jessica Eustice (Secretary)

5:00 This July meeting in the Durham County Library was opened by Chairman Bryant.

Fayetteville Area Neighborhood Master Plan:
Mr. R. K. Bryant, Jr. informed the group that he had received an email from Denise Hester. She informs him that the merchants and residents of the Fayetteville Street area have embarked on creating a neighborhood master plan. She has invited him to attend their meetings. They meet every Monday at 5pm which is good for a lot of the neighborhood business people. One of the sections of the master plan concerns the history of the land development of the area.

This group has invited Mr. Bryant to their meetings.
They are also compiling a companion piece called The Community Album which will detail histories of specific families in each neighborhood around Fayetteville Street as it was first being developed.

She says:

"Give me a call at 682-3622 and let me know if you can attend one of our Monday meetings. And thanks for the urban renewal info -- it was right on time for the master plan we're working on.

Thanks,

Denise Hester"

Grants:
There is a website for Government Grants – will we be able to find a grant to help us? Maybe the City would help us to obtain a grant … to pay for the grid and the setting up of stones … or perhaps the city has matching grant money … The weeds are growing up again … The TROSA group says that they have done their work. Mr Bryant will check on the status of the TROSA contract and the letter from FOGC by Frank Hyman.

Bricks for the Geer Cemetery Sign:
TROSA has offered to donate bricks for a permanent Geer Cemetery Sign. We need a design so we know how many bricks to request. Mr. McLaughlin is willing to do the masonry work … RKB spoke to William Turner who taught brickwork at Hillside

Sign Design:
Does the cemetery need a gate? Would there be a wall split into two parts with a gate? Maybe at the lane which empties out onto Camden Street. If the sign follows the curve of the street a pillar could go on the other side and maybe the sign could go on the pillar.

We need to meet with John McLaughlin at the Cemetery …RKB will call him and set up a visit to the cemetery with the secretary and Carrie McNair. Mrs. McNair will try to measure the height of the NCCU sign … count the bricks and measure the capping so that we can determine cement and brick needed for the foundation too … Who did the walkway at White Rock? The parking exits have been changed so that now you can go out the back of the parking lot at WRBC to Timothy Street.

Frank Hyman’s Letter to the City:
Was it sent? Yes, it was sent as an attachment to City Council and forwarded to the City Manager. A ‘Hard Copy’ should be hand delivered to the City and to RKB. Jessica will get it to RKB.

The FOGC:
The FOGC is not a political group … we do not get into political alliances. If we receive funds they will be held and managed for us by the Historic Preservation Society of Durham … RKB will write a thank you note to George Love of Chapel Hill who made a donation of $10.00 to the FOGC.

Publicity:
We need publicity. Our committee will be asked to let the public have a progress report on our work.

The Geer Reservation:
Mr. William R. Erwin, Jr. has provided the FOGC with a copy of a map of Brodie Duke’s property relative to the town of Durham which shows “F.C. Geer’s Reservation” as a small section area in the middle of Brodie Duke’s property on a road to Bragtown running along the Durham Corporate line. The Belt Line railroad crosses this property which is located East of the then Roxboro Road. (I don’t know if Roxboro Road has been moved, but I do know that a 1925 map shows a Roxboro Road and a Roxboro Street at approximately the locations of the present Roxboro Road, and Avondale Avenue.)

Mr. William R. Erwin, Jr.:
Put Jessica in touch with an Alabama lady named Mary Jones who is involved in saving the Greene Cemetery there… We will hear more about this later.

Other Maps:
RKB said that maps made by the Department of the Interior prior to 1940 show land that might have been developed for a boy scout camp. It had been used as a recreation area for blacks. There was a lake and a picnic ground for blacks from Durham and Hillsborough which was operated in the 1920’s … the map was found by RKB and others in 1949 … the banks of the lake were still there … it was closed because the streams did not produce enough water to maintain a lake for swimming. It was near wher Hwy 70 and 85 cross.

Rivers and History in NC are connected:

The Tar River south of Oxford goes through Rocky Mount to Tarboro and Princeville (a black town) to Greenville and on to the Pamlico Sound. It was so marshy there in Princeville [that no white people wanted that land?] so they [the freed-men] drained the place and built it up [like parts of Holland] . Princeville and area was devastated in hurricane Floyd. Much restoration has been completed in the Princeville area.

NC Mutual Calendar and Whetstone Magazines:
RKB and Carrie McNair’s husband [Elwood McNair] are depicted in the Whetstone Magazines published by N.C. Mutual. Mrs. McNair has A NC Mutual calendar taht has a photo of an old man and a woman sitting at a table counting their money. The title of the picture is “A penny short”. The missing penny is shown tucked under the corner of the table cloth.

In this year’s Mutual Calendar there is an error … there is no August 20th on the calendar. However, September starts on the correct date. C.M. Palmer's name was mentioned, he was an insurance agent.

Jessica: Do the Whetstones come out anymore?

RKB speaks: Mr. Goodloe was RKB’s boss … W.D. Hill directors in Mutual Savings and Loan program … RKB was going to leave Durham … but the Mutual didn’t want him to leave. In 1944 they employed him to set up the dividend program for the N.C. Mutual for two years ... after that, Aaron Day, Jr. was made an officer under whom he worked until 1961 when he was made an officer in 1961 and he retired in 1981.

Carrie McNair said: "[In those days] people walked all over Durham … the Redevelopment commission [took our homes] – you could walk everywhere – [you could stay within the local community {of Hayti} because there was everything you needed] born in Lincoln … go to school and College … go to the library … all in the same community and within walking distance …you never had to leave … Mr. Spaulding walked from Hayti – he would stop by the Biltmore Drug Store to pick up a newspaper and talk to everyone as he walked through the section called "Mexico" . He said “Hi” to everybody…[His route was] from Pettigrew Street to Main Street to Mangum Street to the N.C. Mutual. Women and men all walked, no one minded walking. We parked on Pettigrew and walked to work. The kids could walk from Dowd Street. The Ladies would come… To ride a bus then was $.10 and you could buy tokens …

When Mr. Spaulding died they allowed us to come through the house to see him laid out in the bed…We were shocked at the news of his death because we didn’t know he was that sick.

I walked my children through the Mutual building …they liked to go up there on Saturdays … some officers worked on Saturdays … my husband would have to work on the elevator … Mr. Spaulding would give him a dime or a nickel to put in the baby’s bank … C.C. Spaulding had a saying: “A bald headed barber could not sell me a hair tonic.” Mr. Bill Leathers was a messenger and he would tell a joke to everyone -- he said: “The Bible says that money is the root of all evil, but [I am not worried about roots] I am worried about the green tops. [Carrie McNair has her own version of this]: It’s the lack of money that is the root of all evil… Barry Saunders has a smooth way of getting a joke in.

There is a lot of history around. Mrs. Pepper Fluke has a folder of newspaper clippings at a meeting recently and passed some articles of interesting events to Barbara Lau … she had all these articles about Hayti … There are a lot of people who have historical information stored in their basements. ... [People have saved documents and mementos from the Black Wall Street and the heyday of Hayti].

At the DOGS [Durham/Orange Genealogical Society] meeting to celebrate the beginnings of society… Latta Moore Collection … Art Van … photos of my children playing in the sand in the yard … there is a 1945 film called "Durham Marches On" [someone has it.] There is a photo book Hayti Remembered [that was done by?] Beverly Washington Jones.

General Discussion and more Oral History:
There was a Bessie Alberta Johnson Whitted …[and a] Mitt Dixie – [she lived in] Fowler Avenue alley just before you get to Glenn St. [She was known for her] cussing [but] the leaders of Durham would go to Mitt’s house and sit around the table and talk. She poured shots for them, she had a rapport with them.

RKB Reports from DOST Meeting:
Fish Dam Road … American Indians built the road – the road worked its way along the Eno and connected to the trading path. Some say it follows Cheek Road…Students from the NC School of Science and Math they created a map of the route of Fish Dam Road and is on diaply at the school.

People and Events:
Charles Tillman and Eric Tillman married… [In the 1920's] Dr. Shirley Tillman had an office in a green house on Lawson and [1802] Fayetteville. There was a man that lived in that house [named Joseph Cassidy] who worked as a fireman on Southern Railroad … when the train came to Durham near Duke [at Trinity College] he would play a song on the whistle “Oh Happy Day” [He died in 1926. His wife was named Luia and his dayghter was named Ida] ... RKB’s cousin [Kelly W. Bryant] married his daughter… Dr. Tillman was a member at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church (Mrs. McNair’s church…the one with the window donated by Duncan…) Mrs. Tillman was a soloist – she could sing.

• We need reports from the City of Durham regarding maintenance of the Geer Cemetery.
  
• RKB needs a hard copy of the letter from Frank Hyman to the City Council.
  
• We need to meet with Nathaniel McLaughlin at the Geer Cemetery.
  
• We need to ask Barbara Lau about photos and if and how she would like to be involved in the project.