Dr. DeWayne Moore is an Assistant Professor of U.S. and Public History at PVAMU. He holds a master’s degree in museum and archival administration from Middle Tennessee State University, where he worked as a digital media strategist at the Center for Popular Music, the Albert Gore Sr. Archives, and the James Walker Library. DeWayne also earned his Ph.D. in African American history at the University of Mississippi, where he worked as an archival research specialist for the Blues Archive and the Burns Belfry African American History Museum. He has published peer-reviewed articles in the Association for Recorded Sound Collections Journal, The Public Historian, and UNC-Chapel Hill’s Southern Cultures journal, and he has directed master’s theses of graduate students, organized undergraduate and community-engaged research projects, and curated digital exhibitions in Wordpress, ContentDM, and Omeka. DeWayne hopes to make digital humanities the cornerstone of a new public history program—one that is grounded in ethical and responsible practices and aims squarely at diversifying the field.
In 2020, PVAMU President Ruth Simmons and Simmons Center for Race & Justice Director Melanye Price asked PVAMU History Professor Dr. Marco Robinson to begin conducting research into the early history of Prairie View A&M University. He asked a group of scholars in the Division of Social Sciences to conduct their own personal investigations and incorporate research projects into their American History survey courses. With no funding at his disposal, Dr. Robinson also worked with a newly-hired public historian, Dr. T. DeWayne Moore, and the PVAMU archivists–Phyllis Earles and Lisa Stafford–to write a series of grant proposals.
One of the most startling discoveries in the initial months was the fact that we did not know the name of a single person who had been enslaved on the plantation that later became PVAMU. Thus, we had no way to track down the descendants of the formerly enslaved people who lived at Alta Vista.
This blog post reveals the first name we discovered in 2021.
What’s in a Name?
For African Americans, the genealogical research process is painful. It reflects the blunt historical truth about hereditary chattel slavery. Historical researchers do not look for evidence about the existence of people. Instead, we need to trace the way property changed hands. Consider the documents associated with buying a house or vehicle in 2023. Slaves were considered property in the nineteenth century, and we can find records associated with slaves. But those records are in the owner’s name.
The 1850 and 1860 censuses included “slave schedules,” and the census enumerators asked slaveowners to list the ages and genders of the enslaved people they held in bondage. The slave schedules, however, do not include their names. This fact has made it difficult to track down the descendants of the people enslaved at Alta Vista.
Jared Ellison Kirby
Slaveowner, Planter, and Confederate Soldier
One of the first steps in the research process was examining the life of Jared Ellison Kirby, the slaveowner and planter who owned the land on which the university sits before the Civil War. An excellent place to learn more about the lives of Americans in the nineteenth century is Ancestry.com, the world’s largest collection of online family history records and government documents.
The slave schedules in the 1860 United States Census reveal that J. E. Kirby owned 159 slaves–more than any other slave owner in Austin County at that time.
Besides census records and slave schedules, we located the manifest of the ship named Galveston, which transported slaves from New Orleans, Louisiana to Galveston, Texas in May 1858 for a domestic slave trading company, Fellows & Co.
Though an 1807 law banned the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the United States as of 1 January 1808, slaves could still be bought and sold (and transported) within the country. The same law that banned the foreign slave trade also regulated the internal transportation of slaves, requiring masters of vessels carrying slaves in coastal waters to provide a manifest detailing their slave cargo when leaving (“outward”) or entering (“inward”) a port.
The ship manifest contains the name of one person who likely lived at Kirby’s enslaved labor plantation, Alta Vista, in then-Austin County, Texas.
Source: The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; Slave Manifests of Coastwise Vessels Filed at New Orleans, Louisiana, 1807-1860; Microfilm Serial: M1895; Microfilm Roll: 30.
Slave Ship Galveston
In May 1858, Captain Rathburn transported a fifteen year-old woman, who was five feet, one inch tall, on the Galveston.
Her name was Lucinda.
No consolidated database of slave ship manifests exists, but Ancestry.com is an important online resource that brings some of these records together in searchable database. Other primary sources–such as wills, estate inventories, deeds, and probates–can also reveal how human property changed hands in the antebellum period, but these records are often difficult to read, and most of them are not digitized or indexed for easy searching. Yet, a couple of genealogists who work with the Waller County Historical Commission have been working hard to digitize the records in the basement of the Waller County courthouse in Hempstead. Since Waller County did not exist until 1873, however, this effort will not provide much insight into antebellum slavery.
Indeed, it will be very difficult to track down the descendants of people enslaved at Alta Vista, but the increased interest in university history and digital preservation has positively changed the prospects for institutional historians at PVAMU. If we try harder to make the archival collections at PVAMU available—and visible and searchable—online, and if white researchers who find evidence of slaveholding in their families will make family documents public, for Black researchers to access and use, we can discover the names of more enslaved people in Waller County.
Our mission at the Digital PV Panther Project is to eliminate historical silences through digital storytelling and prevent the erasure of African American history through historic preservation at PVAMU.
We still have other collections to process and digitize, more skills to learn, and more research to publish, but the Digital PV Panther Project has established a strong foundation for the future of public history at PVAMU. This is a short list of our accomplishments in digital exhibition format for your viewing pleasure!
Archival Processing
We have rehoused over 60 linear feet of archival media in the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, which had been stored in old, deteriorating boxes since the late 2000s. We have also rehoused and processed the manuscript collections of former 31 former PVAMU professors and administrators. Click HERE to view the finding aids.
We have established a social media presence on Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. We have gained almost 200 followers on Twitter, and some of our Tweets have received over 100 likes and 20 shares. We have created and published over 20 videos on TikTok, some of which have received in upwards of 1,000 views. Moreover, we have curated 148 posts on Instagram and organically acquired 300 followers!
Logo Design
The archival assistants working on the Digital PV Panther Project have also designed an official logo for the project.
We digitized 211 analog audio tapes of historic lectures and events at PVAMU, and we have also transcribed 70 of the digital recordings as of Dec 10, 2022.
December 10, 2022
December 6, 2022
Digital Exhibition Software
We also purchased a subscription to Pass It Down software to create amazing digital storytelling experiences, engage visitors, and inspire research
86" & 66" Touchscreen Displays
We purchased a Newline 860IP 86″ 4K Ultra-HD LED (Capacitive Touch) display & two Newline 650IP 65″ 4K Ultra-HD LED (Capacitive Touch) displays to allow stakeholders to view digital archival media in John B. Coleman Library
December 1, 2022
November 19, 2022
i2S CopiBook OS A2 Book Scanner
We acquired a $35,000 i2S CopiBook OS A2 Book Scanner to digitize manuscript collections.
Epson 12000XL
We acquired two Epson 12000XL flatbed scanners with backlights
October 1, 2022
October 1, 2022
Epson V850s
We acquired two Epson V850 flatbed scanners with backlights
CZUR Book Scanner
We acquired a CZUR Book Scanner to digitize manuscript collections
This map of Prairie View Memorial Park Cemetery was provided by Texas Cemetery Restoration, LLC.
We appreciate Dr. Jessica Ward, Assistant Professor of the Practice in the School of Architecture at PVAMU for sharing her research with the Digital PV Panther Project.
This article was originally written by Erika K. Myers and published as “Hidden Treasures: Amistad II, one of the few African – American businesses in Prairie View,” in the student newspaper, The Prairie View (TX) Panther, 80:3 September 18, 2002. Click HERE to read the original article in the Digital Commons.
I almost passed by Amistad II when seeking information for this article. I was used to just rolling right by it as do most of us in Prairie View.
For those of you who do not know, Amistad II is a bookstore that is located next door to PV Grocery. It was an honor and a pleasure of mine to interview Mrs. Ernestine Carreathers once I arrived at Amistad II.
Raymond and Ernestine Carreathers are originally from Denison, Texas, but they have called Prairie View home since 1967. Raymond Carreathers is a proud alumnus of PVAMU, where he joined Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He attended East Texas State to receive his doctorate in commerce. Dr. Carreathers taught educational administration at Prairie View A&M University, and he retired in 1987 as the Vice President of Student Affairs.
Ernestine Carreathers graduated cum laude with English as her major and French as her minor at Wiley College. She is a golden member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, which she joined in 1945. She attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant to receive her master’s degree.
The Carreathers are proud to say that each of their three children earned a master’s degree at Prairie View A&M University. Their daughter, Denise Carreathers, teaches English at Waller High School. Kevin Carreathers, their son, worked at Texas A&M University for fifteen years as Director of Multicultural Services, and he worked at the University of Memphis for six years in a similar position. The Carreathers are also proud to have a grandson who is a scout for the Houston Texans.
Presently, Mrs. Carreathers works in Amistad II and also as a supervisor for an alternative teacher certification program. Once the interview was complete, I had the opportunity to browse the store. The store is very quaint but has a comfortable and warm feeling. Amistad II offers graduate textbooks as well as administration and counseling textbooks Unfortunately they do not offer undergraduate textbooks. They do, however, offer various novels and autobiographies written about and by African American authors They offer books written by such talents as E. Lynn Harris and Carl Webber. I was pleasantly surprised to see books by E. Lynn Harris since I am trying to read the entire collection. If you are a fan, then you understand. Amistad II offers Prairie View and Greek paraphernalia. They also offer African American greeting cards.
I encourage everyone to show your support to Amistad II as well as to the many African American talents that they showcase in the store. We all need to stick together and support one another. Mrs. Carreathers informed me that their business has been sort of slow since they opened the bookstore. You do not have to go to shop for yourself. Cards and books have always been excellent gift ideas for any occasion. I am sure you all show your support to the various eateries in the area to satisfy your stomachs.
Why not support a place where you can satisfy your mind?
Indeed, Erika Myers believed that the bookstore was a historic site in the city in 2002. It might be a good idea to recognize the historical significance of this business in the annals of city history. It might be a good idea to write a historical marker nomination for the Texas Historical Commission. It might be a good idea to write nominations for numerous historic sites in Waller County. After all, the county is sorely lacking for historic markers recognizing the contributions of African Americans to the development of the county. The impact might be nothing short of revolutionary.
This is the time of the year when college students throughout the United States prepare for Homecoming. I would like to remind you that as you prepare to enter cars, floats, etc. in the parade and have your best suit cleaned, and buy corsages that this is not all that goes into making Homecoming what it should and ought to be.
Stop and ask yourself the question. What is the major event that is to take place during the Homecoming activities? I am sure as you think about it without a doubt you will say the football game. Will the beautifully decorated cars help the team win? Will the lovely corsages and warm winter suits help the team win? No. The only thing that is going to help the team and give us that Homecoming feeling is that…good old P. V. spirit.
How do we get this spirit–by going to the bon fire, pep rallies and boosting our team. There is an old saying that love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage…well that good old P. V. spirit and our team go together like a car and a garage. Now you take a new car and let it stay out in the weather and never build a garage to protect it; by the time you get ready to use it it is all run down. That is the same way it is with the team. Now you take a good team and put them on a football field to play ball and give them no support; by the time that the last quarter comes around and you feel like supporting them, the team is either tired, disgusted because you did not support them, or maybe they could be like the new car…run down.
Do we want to win?
Yes, we want to win and in order to win we must support our team!
Band, strike up the music; cheerleaders, start your cheers; and, students, get that good old P. V. spirit because we are not going to let our team play our Homecoming game without our support.
SOURCE:
Clearance Lee Turner, editorial, “That Old PV Spirit,” The Prairie View (TX) Panther 36:3 (November 11, 1961), p.4. Click HERE to read the original article.
The Student Hourly Assistant, under general supervision, will process and digitize collections, curate social media content, transcribe oral histories, conduct archival research, create video and audio recordings, compose blog entries about their work, and serve as public ambassadors for the Digital PV Panther Project. We are seeking students with respectful dispositions who are mature, punctual, self-starter, teachable, honest, and can work either independently or as part of a team. Each student must have an eye for detail and be respectful of archival media
Hourly Rate of Pay: $13.00
Job Posting Close Date: 10/05/2022
Our Team, Our Work
Application Information
Responsibilities:
1. Compose regular blog entries about their work
2. Curate social media posts for Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Tiktok
3. Process archival collections and digitize archival media
4. Transcribe interviews and oral histories
5. Conduct archival research
6. Operate video and audio recording equipment
7. Edit videos and photographs
Required Education and Experience:
Presently enrolled at Prairie View A&M University for at least nine (9) graduate or six (6) undergraduate semester credit hours during the term in which the work is to be done
Must be in good academic standing (SAP) as demonstrated through your college; minimum 2.0 GPA
No prior experience necessary
For work eligibility during a summer term, a student must be enrolled for at least three (3) graduate or undergraduate semester credit hours during the term in which the work is to be done or preregistered at least six (6) undergraduate semester hours or nine (9) graduate semester hours for the upcoming fall term
Preferred Education and Experience:
Must be in good academic standing (SAP) as demonstrated through your college; minimum 2.5 GPA
Preferred Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
Experience with Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Video-editing software
Experience in journalism and social media promotions
Experience conducting historical research
Required Attachments:
Cover Letter (Optional)
Resume
Detailed Class Schedule
Application Submission Guidelines:
The required documents must be attached to the application prior to the job closing date indicated to ensure full consideration for the application submitted. Please contact the Office of Human Resource on or before the closing date indicated above at 936-261-1793 or [email protected] should you need assistance with the online application process.
The day would come when Mrs. Kirby would refer to the years of trouble after the war as a “Monument of Sorrow”…Then came the storms of murder and death; and more insidious, but no less voracious, the debt that systematically ate up the plantations and farms. Freedom was to take away the capital labor of slaves….
“It is feasible to believe that what is now known as Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery was in the beginning simply the burial place for the Kirby slaves and other black people of the community.”
Interview with George Ruble Woolfolk, 1989.
In the summer of 1989, Dr. Mildred W. Abshier and a research team consisting of Bessie Thomas, Frank Jackson, and Carrie B. Coss visited the cemetery with 82 year-old descendant Ida Lou Wells Owens Pierce, a longtime resident of the Wyatt Chapel community. Using the field research, local scholarship, and the information gleaned from several interviews, Dr. Abshier prepared the following report to accompany the historical marker application submitted to the Texas Historical Commission. Their efforts resulted in the dedication of a historical marker near the cemetery behind Prairie View A&M University in 1992. We located this report while preparing the grant proposal to the Summerlee Foundation in 2021, and we decided to publish it below in advance of the ground penetrating radar survey in September 2022.
Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery, an abandoned all-black burial ground, is located on the north side of Prairie View A & M University campus, the Jesse Clary Survey, Abstract 111, Waller County Texas.1 Exact location of the cemetery with reference to the enclosed map and the Prairie View A & M Campus was attested by tax office personnel of Waller Independent School District, Waller, Texas, in which district the cemetery and the university are located.2
The burial site is a portion of the Jared E. Kirby plantation which the state of Texas purchased in 1876 from Mrs. Helen Marr Swearingen Kirby, widow of Jared E. Kirby, for the purpose of establishing the “Agricultural and Mechanical College for Colored Youth.”3 Size of the burial place is not definitely known, but is believed by various residents of the Prairie View area to consist of about five acres, more or less.4
The burial place is bounded on the west by old Farm Road 1098 by which a north entry is made to the campus, on the south by Flukinger Road, and on the northeast by Pond Creek, with Farm Road 1488 paralleling the creek, in general at a distance of some one-eighth mile.
Just when the cemetery began to be used is not known. However, the Kirby mansion at Alta Vista is believed to have been built at some time between 1858 and 1861, and Kirby is reported to have owned some four hundred slaves.5 Since the beginning date of the cemetery is lost in the haze of time and the lack of records, Dr. George Woolfolk, Chairman of the History Department at Prairie View A&M University, Emeritus, said, “It is feasible to believe that what is now known as Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery was in the beginning simply the burial place for the Kirby slaves and other black people of the community.”6
Worthy of noting is the fact that when Waller County Historical Commission surveyed the County to obtain information for publishing a county cemetery directory (Published in 1977), Mrs. Carrie B. Coss, of Prairie View, gathered the needed information for black cemeteries.7 She was advised by several elderly persons of the Prairie View area that slaves from nearby Liendo plantation were buried in the cemetery in question. Interestingly, Jared E. Kirby, owner of [enslaved labor camp] Alta Vista, which was to become Prairie View A&M University campus, and Leonard Waller Groce, owner of Liendo plantation, were cousins and their plantations were in close proximity. The present owner of Liendo has indicated that he did not know where the Liendo slaves were buried.8 No one, other than those whom Mrs. Coss interviewed (Coss note), was able to point to a spot where the Liendo slaves were interred.
On June 22, 1989 researchers (Mrs. Bessie Thomas, Mr. Frank Jackson, Mrs. Carrie Coss, and Dr. Mildred W. Abshier) visited the abandoned burial site. Mrs. Ida Lou Wells Owens Pierce, age eighty-two, a Wyatt descendant and long time resident of the Wyatt Chapel/Prairie View area, accompanied the researchers.
Abandoned since the early 1950s (The latest death date available from head stones was 1953.),the cemetery was quite overgrown, covered with dense growth of underbrush and shrubs. A few large trees stood among the under growth and this would seem to indicate that once the place had been kept cleared of all but a few trees. Professor Howard Jones, History Department of Prairie View A&M University, with students from the University, had cut a pathway through the underbrush to a portion of the burial ground where markers – generally slab-type head-stones, some of which were broken and/or overgrown with lichens – were yet standing, however some were broken and lying on the ground. Researchers were able to record names and dates on those visible markers (See list below). On every side there were numerous depressions in the soil which indicated the presence of unmarked graves. Of these, Mrs. Pierce said that they were indeed old grave sites. She further said that Caroline (See list) was her grandmother and that she had been a slave. She believed that many slaves, or those formerly held in slavery, were buried at the site. She pointed to a grave within a wire enclosure and noted that was the grave of her mother, Mrs. Mattie Wyatt Wells. Although not attested by markers, Mrs. Pierce indicated that numerous members of the Wyatt and Owens families, as well as other black persons, were buried at the site. She also said that an uncle of hers who was a minister had established the Wyatt Chapel Church which is a mile, or more, from the cemetery.
The consensus of opinion of the elderly ones who live in the area is that the Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery was abandoned when a more easily accessible burial place became available in the nearby Hempstead area. From dates on stones observed and recorded the site appears to have been abandoned in the early 1950s, as the latest death date found was 1953.
In conclusion, it appears most likely that the cemetery was originally the burial place of Kirby slaves, probably also slaves from nearby Liendo Plantation. After Emancipation it continued as a burial place for black persons of the area until the 1950s.
Headstone Recordings in Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery
James Duckworth Nov. 19, 1909 Died Sept. 3, 1949
Milo Wilson, Jr. Tex. Pvt. U.S. Army WWI July 22, 1892-Nov. 8, 1953
Albert Collings Died July 5, 1922 Gone but not forgotten OLD PAP
Mrs. Mattie Wyatt Died 8-17-82
Luther B. Felder Tex. Pvt. 24th QM Group, WWII May 9, 1926 – Apr. 24, 1948
Theodore Anderson JUNETH 5 (handmade marker)
Elsie Bailey Texas Pvt. QM Corps, WWI March 31, 1892 – May 19, 1948
Memory of Caroline Wife of (stone broken) Died June 24, 1898
End Notes
1. “Map of Cemetery Area” from the District Tax Appraisal Office, Katy, Texas.
2. Stanley Holt, Assistant Superintendent for Finance, the Tax Office, Waller Independent School District, Waller, TX, November 6, 1989.
3. A History of Waller County, Texas (Hempstead, TX: Waller County Historical Survey Committee, 1973), 263.
4. Notes by Bessie Thomas, Prairie View, TX.
5. George R. Woolfolk, “Alta Vista: A Monument of Sorrow,” One Hundred One Heritage Homes of Waller County, Texas (Hempstead, TX: Waller County Historical Society, 1976), 257.
6. Interview with Dr. George R. Woolfolk, Prairie View, TX, August 1, 1989.
7. Notes by Mrs. Carrie B. Coss, September 18, 1989 – “While surveying Waller County to determine the location of the black cemeteries in this area several old citizens in the Prairie View community, all of whom are now deceased, were contacted by me I was told by these people that the cemetery on the back road from Prairie View (now referred to as the Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery) was the burial place of slaves from Liendo Plantation.”
8. Interview with Carl Detering, of Houston, at Liendo, October, 1989.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give
What We Care
Child Education
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