As I came into the Library, I walked into room 111 and greeted my co-worker, Lindsay Boknight, and Dr. Moore. We talked about how we might need more space for the Digital PV Panther Project in the future, and we might need to expand our digital and historic preservation efforts. Dr. Moore explained that the E.B Evans Animal Industries Building, which has been vacant since 2009, might be a good candidate for a historic preservation grant, and we decided to investigate the structure a bit closer. We walked over to the building, and we managed to find a door open in front. Though we wanted to examine the inside of the building, we decided not to step inside the abandoned structure due to the potential hazards, but it was a fascinating sight nonetheless.
I clocked out early at 3:30 pm, and I rushed to my car. I had important plans with my best friend for my birthday. We planned to meet at a place about an hour away that offered horseback riding–an activity that coincidentally fit with my earlier tour of the Animal Industries Building. As I drove an hour to my destination, I was so excited to meet up that I had forgotten to lock the door to my apartment, but my friend called me an explained that she had locked it before she left, which was a relief. She also explained that she’d gotten lost due to the GPS trying to route her through a toll road. I calmly told her about the route I took to avoid the toll, and–after 10 minutes–she pulled up to the secluded area of the horseback riding place. Since she was running late, I had checked us both in at the counter and geared up with a fanny pack and helmet for safety. We took time to get acquainted with our 4-year-old female horse, Dancer, and we gathered with other riders so that our guides could explain the rules of riding.
STAY at least 2 feet behind other horses and riders
KICK the side of the horse gently to move forward
PULL BACK to stop the horse
PULL LEFT to move the horse left
PULL RIGHT to move the horse right
PULL BACK to stop the horse from eating during the ride
SAY “POTTY BREAK” when your horse needs to urinate
Extra Information: Horses can defecate and walk at the same time, but they cannot urinate while carrying a rider (i.e. sitting on the animal’s kidney.) If you stand up and release tension off the kidney, however, horses can urinate.
HAVE FUN
As we finished the tour, we had the pleasure of feeding horses carrots before we left, but the fun did not stop there. Since neither of us had eaten all day, we stopped by SONIC to get drinks and food before we moved on to our last activity of the day. We decided to visit Range USA in Cypress, because we both wanted to shoot our first gun. The gun range attendant was named Cragie, and he informed us that we had to be at least 21 to shoot their handguns. We were bummed out, but he also explained that we only had to be 18 to shoot their assault rifles. So we picked up an M&P15-22 Sport and 50 rounds of ammunition. Cragie provided us with ear muffs and goggles, and he also showed us how to hold and use the rifle properly.
When we walked into the gun range, it was EXTREMELY noisy. We chose a cubical with a range poster, and we loaded the clip with 15 to 20 bullets. I carefully put the gun on my shoulder, spread my legs shoulder width, turned off the safety, and put my hand on the trigger. I shot 20 times into the orange man. It was a scary and exciting experience! I looked over my shoulder at Cragie was holding a double thumbs up. With the remaining ten bullets, we split them and shot five each to end off the day. We emptied the gun, removed the clip and put the gun on safety, and packed the gun. We went to Cragie to turn in the gun, and he congratulated us on shooting the gun and invited us back on Tuesday for ladies’ night for $17.
We drove home, and I tried opening the door to my apartment, but I could not get inside. My best friend had locked the bottom lock from the inside, and I was completely locked out. Thank God I had accidentally left the window to my room unlocked. I managed to remove the screen, carefully push the window open, and climb inside my room. I ran to the front door and opened it for my best friend, who was relieved to say the least. To end the night, we took our dogs out, cooked pasta with pork chops, and watched The Man From Toronto on Netflix.
The Abner A. Davis Memorial has existed in one form or another on “The Hill” in front of the George Ruble Woolfolk Building at Prairie View A&M University since his death in December 1927. As a student at PVAMU, I have taken many walks across campus to get from my room in University Village Phase 3 to my morning classes. Since I lived at the back of campus, I had to pass Mr. Davis and the fountain quite often. Though I passed his memorial on numerous occasions, I never really took the time to learn about the history of the memorial or the man. This blog post intends to shine a light on a “gentleman, clean sport, athlete and ideal student,” as one former teammate referred to him, as well as the history of historic preservation and memorialization at PVAMU.
Abner A. Davis was a member of the varsity football team at Prairie View A&M University in 1927. The Panthers were especially good that year. In an October 15, 1927 issue of the student newspaper, one writer exclaimed: “Never before in all footballdom at the college did the Prairie View Panthers show better form and finer spirits than have been shown this season. Vigorous, springy, and full of grit and fighting determination, the Panthers will be greatly disappointing to everybody if they do not smash and stop every gridiron machine that confronts them.” To view the entire article, please click HERE
In a game against Texas College the following month, Davis went to make a tackle on the opposing team and was severely injured during the play. He was hit in his neck by the offensive player’s knee, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. Since his injury came in the middle of an away game, the Panthers finished playing the game and carried Davis back to campus. It’s unclear whether or not the team was victorious.
The doctor that treated Davis from November 24 through December 5 stated that he suffered from “paralysis” stemming from the “fracture or displacement of the 3[rd] & 4th cervical vertebrae.” While the doctor confirmed his diagnosis with an X-ray, Davis underwent no surgery prior to his demise on December 5. According to his death certificate, Hempstead undertaker E.L. Watson removed his remains for burial in Eagle Lake, TX on December 8.
The location of his grave, however, remains the subject of debate. In a March 12, 2012 article in the Beaumont Times titled, “Where’s Abner?” David Lisenby reported that the librarian at the Alma M. Carpenter Public Library in Sour Lake, Texas, who was on a mission to find the descendants of Davis, believed that he was buried somewhere in the town of Sour Lake. Yet, Lisenby never reveals the source of this information, and it directly contradicts the information on his death certificate.
Even though no one has ever located the headstone of Abner Davis, his classmates at PVAMU made sure to memorialize his legacy in numerous ways over the years. In a 1933 issue of the Prairie View Panther, one author wrote a poem about the gridiron hero. To view the original poem, please click HERE
IN MEMORY OF ABNER DAVIS (P. U. Hero)
Sleep, 0 brave one, in glory’s field, Time to your name shall honor yield; The summer shall their blooms impart. To fade above each mold’ring heart And fading, mix their lustrous charms With dust that bore heroic arms.
In a January 1934 issue of the Prairie View Standard, one of his teammates L.C. Mosley penned a memoriam to Abner Davis, and he reveals that the first physical memorial to Davis came in the form of light. “The light in the center of the campus proper,” he explained, “is more than just a light to illuminate the path to the library. It represents the life of a gentleman, clean sport, athlete and ideal student, Abner Davis, who was fatally injured in a Thanksgiving Day football game against Texas College in Tyler, 1927. The classes of ’29 and ’30 made it possible for this light to shine in its way as the living light of this football warrior had shone. The entire Alumni mourn with Henry Staton, A. J. Banks, M. C. Bates, S. Prince, L. C. Mosley, O. Mason, Jap Turner, G. Turner, J. J. Mark and Pop Singleton who started and finished the game that Abner started and could not finish.”
The demolition of Kirby Hall as well as “all wooden structures in the immediate campus area” in April 1934 (news about the razing of the slave mansion can be found in a newsletter HERE) provided an opportunity to install a new monument on “The Hill.” The teammates and classmates of Davis decided the replace the monument to slavery with a new symbol in the late 1930s.
A drinking fountain and memorial in honor of Abner A. Davis soon adorned the top of “The Hill,” and student organizations used the fountain as the site of many activities for the next four decades. In 1957, the Student Welfare Committee affirmed the need to beautify campus and spearheaded a “College Clean-Up Campaign involving both faculty and students in an effort to make Pantherland ideal.” Making the first step in this direction, the committee polished the Abner Davis Fountain and “put signs on the lawn asking students to use the sidewalks, thus avoiding making trails through the campus.” [For the entire article, please click HERE]
In 1961, PVAMU student Lois Moore noted that the center of “campus is designated with a water fountain known as the Abner Davis water fountain. Many clubs and organizations meet periodically around this fountain…but many students on the campus do not know why these clubs meet here.” Moore also noted, “Although the fountain no longer exists as a water fountain, it is still the cultural center of the campus.” [For the entire article, please click HERE]
In March 1963, the LES BEAUX ARTS Cultural Club renovated the Abner Davis Memorial. The fountain that once was stained and weather worn has now been conditioned for a new year. “This improvement has certainly played a great role in making the ‘center’ of the campus, all the more attractive, for our yearly high school visitors.” For more information, click HERE
On January 16, 1984, PVAMU observed the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. and organized a special program in the quadrangle area of the campus at the Abner Davis Fountain. For more information, click HERE
In July 1984, the Class of 1930 renovated the Abner A. Davis Monument and added the Texas Sunset Granite. For more information, click HERE
The mystery about the location of Davis’ remains gives rise to many questions about the impact of racial segregation on his life and legacy. Being that his death occurred in the Jim Crow South, he would not have had access to quality medical care, and his death might very well have been prevented.
One day while walking across campus, I watched as landscapers blew freshly cut grass off the concrete walkway. It created a clean path for students. It was at this moment that I noticed the bust on top of the Abner A. Davis Memorial was covered with spiderwebs, leaves, and dirt, and I started to question why no one around campus had taken the time to clean the statue. The grass is always freshly mowed and looks pristine. Indeed, the lawn on campus is cut and trimmed almost daily, and I rarely see any accumulation of trash on the ground.
So I asked myself, “Why is the Davis memorial not well kept?”
The unsightly appearance of the Abner Davis Memorial was on my mind when I walked into work the next day for the Digital PV Panther Project, and I shared my concerns with Dr. Moore. I let him know about the condition of the memorial and how it was not well-kept, and we agreed that we should take matters into our own hands and clean it up.
At the time, we did not know that we were following in the footsteps of many other students and faculty at PVAMU, who had been dissatisfied with existing preservation practices and made it a point to beautify the campus. Thus, we gathered some cleaning materials and headed for the memorial. We began by dusting off the spider webs, which had certainly built up for several years. Once we removed the spider webs, we sprayed the bust clean with water, and we cleaned it with D2 biological solution, an organic cleaning solution that removes fungi and provides a protective coating for the memorial. We also wiped the memorial clean from top to bottom with a soft bristle brush. When we finished cleaning I felt very accomplished and proud to have played a role in keeping the campus beautiful.
This job has given me a new perspective on what it means to study at PVAMU. Many students, faculty, staff, and administrators have paved the way for us, and I believe that other students need to recognize that fact. If we are not careful, we will discount the sacrifices of the past. We must appreciate our history as an HBCU, and I will make strenuous efforts to share insights with my peers so that our heroes, such as Abner Davis, will never be forgotten.
“The culture you can’t find anywhere else. Not to put anyone down who…chose not to go to an HBCU, but, you definitely missed the experience.”
– Lindsay Boknight 2022
What does an HBCU mean to you?
“It’s like a big neighborhood,” explained architecture major Zynitra Durham, “You can always find your friends/family here. The welcoming, home-like feeling, you can’t get that anywhere else.” HBCUs are historic black colleges and universities of higher education located across the United States, primarily in the South. Many HBCUs were established after the Civil War during Reconstruction, but others were founded in the 1890s as a result of land grants. There are over 100 HBCUs in the United States, and the state of Texas is home to nine of them–Huston-Tillotson University, Jarvis Christian College, Paul Quinn College, Southwestern Christian College, Texas College, Wiley College, Texas Southern University, and Prairie View A&M University. (PVAMU).
Welcome to “The Hill.”
“The #1 HBCU in Texas!”
PVAMU is the largest HBCU in Texas, and it ranks number four in Texas for best value of universities. Founded on August 14, 1876 during the Reconstruction era as “Alta Vista Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas for Colored Youth,” PVAMU is also the second oldest public college in the state of Texas. PVAMU would not experience much success, however, until March 11, 1878, when it opened its doors to eight, eager, young African American students. The state legislature established the original core curriculum in 1879, and it was designed to train teachers. The curriculum eventually expanded to include arts, sciences, home economics, agriculture, mechanical arts, and nursing.
“Prairie View Produces Productive People.”
Although PVAMU is known for their education, nursing, and engineering programs, the university now offers over seventy degree seeking programs; including undergraduate and graduate studies. PVAMU is now home to 9,000 brilliant students. It truly lives up to its saying, “Prairie View Produces Productive People.” There are hundreds of notable alumni of PVAMU include, Loni Love, Emanuel Cleaver, Kirk Randle (Kirko Bangz), and Maya Rockeymoore to name a few.
So Many Names.
The Fifteenth Legislature of 1876 initiated the name “Alta Vista Agriculture & Mechanical College of Texas for Colored Youth.” In addition to, the Sixteenth Legislature of 1879 changed “Alta Vista” into the “Prairie View Normal School” for Training of Colored Teachers in Waller County. Moreover, the Twentieth Legislature of 1887 added the “Agriculture & Mechanical department to Prairie View Normal School. The next Legislature of 1899 altered the name to “Prairie View State Normal & Industrial College.” Moving into the year 1945, the Forty-ninth Legislature changed the schools name to. “Prairie View University.” In 1973, the Fiftieth Legislature renamed the school to “Prairie View Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas.” Lastly, in 1973 the Sixty-third Legislature renamed our school to the great name that it holds today; “Prairie View A&M University” also known as “PVAMU,” OR “PV.”
Values & Traditions
PVAMU has changed its name several times, but it’s values, traditions, and mission have remained the same. We continue to strive for “excellence and relevance in teaching, research, and service,” and we adhere to five key values: Access and quality, Diversity, Leadership, Relevance, and Social Responsibility. We also have many traditions, which many students experience as a rite of passage. At Panther Camp, we have the class shuffles, and we also have the celebratory pointing to “The Hill,” which is a sign of respect.
Yet, as mentioned previously, PVAMU is not the only HBCU in Texas. The entire campus of Huston-Tillotson University was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places, the official listing of the nation’s places most worthy of preservation. Huston-Tillotson is Austin’s oldest institution of higher learning, only Historically Black College and University, and has been a nexus of African American higher education since 1877. The 19.8-acre district is located in Central Austin, Travis County and includes 20 resources, 13 of which contribute to Huston-Tillotson University’s historical and architectural significance.
Although PVAMU is the oldest publicly-funded HBCU in the state of Texas, the entire campus is currently NOT listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Several buildings on campus are listed in the NRHP, but not the entire campus, which contains more than 20 buildings on 1,502 acres of land. If the entire campus of PVAMU were to be added to the NRHP, it would allow us to preserve older structures, such as the E.B. Evans Animal Industries Building, which has been vacant since 2009. There is nothing like the mission of an HBCU, and we need to preserve the historical spaces where our students live, learn, and grow and where our faculty and staff do their phenomenal and purpose-driven work.
We need students, staff, and historic preservationists to come together and prepare a nomination for the NRHP! Surely, many great things are yet to come for PVAMU, which is, after all, the place to be!
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….
Within my first week as an archival assistant working on the Digital PV Panther Project, I learned a great deal about the rich history of Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU). My first task was to sort out tape recordings from different events that took place on and around campus. Many of the events took place around the early 1960s to the late 1980s. Events included, summer and spring convocations, dance recitals, ministry conventions, homecoming parades, sports banquets, and athletic games just to name a few. Each tape recording contained the speeches of Former PVAMU President Dr. A.I. Thomas, PVAMU professors, and special guests and speakers, such as Jesse Jackson and Rosa Parks. If you’re wondering, yes the tapes are still in good condition and are playable.
My journey into the archival collections at PVAMU continued at Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery on the back side of campus. For those who may not know, PVAMU was built on top of Jared Ellison Kirby’s former enslaved labor camp, Alta Vista, and he set aside a small plot of land for a burial site for the enslaved. The cemetery behind dormitories “Phase 3 & 6.” The burial ground contains six headstones of the deceased, while the rest of the cemetery holds the unmarked graves of our ancestors. In the upcoming fall 2022 semester, PVAMU Assistant Professor of History Dr. DeWayne Moore and Special Collections Librarian Lisa Stafford will hire an archaeological firm to conduct a ground penetrating radar study of the cemetery. You can read more about the study HERE. The ground penetrating radar will scan the burial ground to determine the location of grave shafts. Using this technology, we will finally be able to determine the burial locations of our ancestors and other internments in the cemetery.
After exploring Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery, I visited the fourth floor of the library and learned more about the history of Wilhelmina R. Delco. Born in Chicago, Illinois on July 1, 1929, Ms. Delco was an active student. She served as student body president and member of the National Honor Society. She obtained her Bachelors of Art degree from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. She majored in Sociology and minored in Economics and Business Administration. Moreover, Ms. Delco served in the Texas House of Representatives. She began her career in 1974, when she was elected the first black, female, African American official from Travis County. She was sworn into office January 1975 and she began serving her very first term during the 64th legislative session.
She worked with the community and state on numerous social, educational, and political issues. Her most notable work was done in the area of Education. In 1979, Ms. Delco was appointed Chair of the House Higher Education Committee, on which she served until her next appointment as Speaker Pro Tempore in 1991. In January 1995, she retired from her tenth term and twentieth year in the Texas House of Representatives.
Ms. Delco received many awards, honors, and recognitions throughout her career–two of them being here at PVAMU. The Wilhelmina R. Delco building is home to the Whitlowe R. Green College of Education. Along with an unprocessed manuscript collection of papers, which sits in the PVAMU Archives, the John B. Coleman Library curated an exhibit about her life and career on the 4th floor. It contains an enclosed display of personal pictures, letters, documents, and other media that Ms. Delco used during her time as a representative. These items are up for display, open to staff, students, and the public.
Between the work of Wilhelmina Delco and the acknowledgment of the Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery, I have became deeply involved in historic preservation at my HBCU. There is a lot of history that has yet to be uncovered. I cannot wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for the Digital PV Panther Project. And remember, PVAMU is the place to be!
Over the course of my first few weeks of being an assistant in the archives and making my way through the various collections, I have learned a lot more about the history of my HBCU. My first job on campus in 2020 was in the Cooperative Agricultural Research Center (CARC), but it was not until last week while going through the manuscript collection of a female extension agent who worked at PVAMU and TAMU named Myrtle Garrett that I learned the history of the CARC. It began as the agriculture department and was segregated by gender, Home Economics for women and Farming/Agriculture for men. In the 1960s, Myrtle Garrett spent her time as a Home Demonstration Agent as well as serving as the Program Specialist for the Limited Income program of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service at A&M. She helped over four thousand families in Texas during her time as the Program Specialist.
Garrett spent her entire career being of service to the people around her while simultaneously spearheading a program that helped thousands more all across Texas. By the end of her archival collection, I learned how Myrtle had become an extremely well-respected and beloved figure in her community. Myrtle worked over 30 years as a federal employee for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For 20 years, she was a charter member of the alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta at PVAMU.
Her collection features a farewell binder filled with adoring letters from the women of all races whom she had taught or worked alongside throughout her career. Her collection not only inspired me to be a more involved member of my Prairie View community but to also learn more about the people that were crucial to the making of the Prairie View I have come to know and love.
My experience working on the Digital PV Panther Project started off on a high note. In my first week, I uncovered some long-lost elements of university history that stretch back almost two centuries on a field trip to the Austin County Courthouse archives in the town of Bellville, TX. I also tried the chicken tenders at Dairy Queen for the first time! Most importantly, however, I sparked an intense curiosity within myself about the rich history and campus geography at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU).1
I started the week conducting research on several professors who made marvelous strides in building the prestige of our university. I searched the Digital Commons using bepress, our digital content management system, for past issues of the student newspaper, The Prairie View Panther, and I compiled scores of article excerpts into a single document to help prepare biographies for the new finding aids being created with funding from the Texas State Library & Archives Commission.
One of the professors I researched was Raymond Carreathers, who served as a guidance counselor in the College of Arts and Sciences. In the 1970s, he also served as head of resident and student life in Alexander Hall, a male freshman dorm. He was also a member of the ETA GAMMA chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Moreover, he served as an advising officer to the Pan-Hellenic Council as well as the Vice-President of the Southwest Region of Alpha chapters.
The second professor on my list was Carrie B. Coss, a professor of education who joined the faculty in 1946. Formerly at Langston University, she earned bachelor’s degrees from Howard University and Cincinnati University, and she received her master’s degree from Columbia University in New York. Coss also served as a committee chairperson for the Alpha Mu Gamma Honors Society. Not only was she a professor of education at PVAMU, but she was also local historian who uncovered hidden histories on campus. In 1989, Coss worked with the Waller County Historical Society to document African American cemeteries, and she also served on the historical marker committee for Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery, which sits RIGHT BEHIND campus, about a 3-minute walk from Phases 3 & 6. For more information on this committee, please see a previous blog post (Click HERE)
I also compiled lists of articles about Colquitt Dubois Yancy, Florida Yeldell, and Mrs. John C. Winfree–just to name a few, but you will have to wait until a later post or for us to finish the new finding aids in August 2022.
I also learned a great deal of new information about the history of PVAMU. Not only was the information new to me, but some of it is also a completely new discovery for everyone. The original name of the enslaved labor camp on which PVAMU now sits was called Alta Vista, and it was once owned by Colonel Jared Ellison Kirby. Born in Georgia in 1809, he moved to Texas and amassed a large estate, which he sought to protect through service to the Confederacy. He was shot and killed in October 1865 by a Union supporter in Galveston, Texas. His wife, Helen, acquired Alta Vista upon his death, and she sold it to the State of Texas in the mid-1870s to establish the Alta Vista Agricultural & Mechanical College for Colored Youths, which later became what we know today as PVAMU.
Everyone reading this blog post most likely knows that the state legislature decided to establish PVAMU in Waller county in 1876. You probably did not know, however, that the state legislature passed the act that established Waller County in 1873. Kirby’s enslaved labor camp at Alta Vista, therefore, was located in another county prior to 1873. If I wanted to know anything about Alta Vista prior to the Civil War, I had to visit the county seat of Austin County and find documents related to Kirby and his kin. I wanted to find out what happened on our campus before it was “our” campus. So my boss, Dr. DeWayne Moore, took me to the Bellville Texas Justice Center, which had records about Kirby and many other families.
I had never been to Bellville, but it was a very interesting little town, and I posted some pictures from our visit to the city.
Once we got to the justice center on North Chesley Street, we found our way to the records room–a massive archive full of deed, marriage, and probate records in heavy, leather-bound books that recorded the history of Austin County all the way back to the time of the Texas Revolution. In one of those books, we located the probate record of Jared Ellison Kirby, the planter who owned the enslaved labor camp, Alta Vista, at the time of the Civil War. As I mentioned earlier, Kirby died only a few months after emancipation in October 1865, and his probate contains information about all the property he owned at the time of his death. We hope his probate will contain information about his involvement in slavery, but it will take more time to transcribe its almost 200 pages.
Please do not step on the grass!
The central purpose of our trip to Bellville was to discover our lineage. What existed on campus before it was PVAMU? Who lived on this ground before students? And what is the story of our campus before it was sold to the state to become a university? One tradition at PVAMU, which many students know before they ever set foot on campus, is never stepping on the grass. To pay respects to our enslaved ancestors who lie buried in unmarked graves, we do not step on the grass. We keep off the grass to honor our ancestors who might be buried in any plot of this hallowed ground.
We do not know the exact location of their graves, and we do not know the names of our ancestors, because slave owners did not bother to record the names of the enslaved in the US Census–only their age and gender.
In Bellville, we made one of the most significant historical discoveries in the history of PVAMU. We discovered the names of 58 individuals who once were enslaved at Alta Visa.
Due to the fact that the probate is written in old 1800s English cursive handwriting, you may not be able to read this, but I can list a few names for you.
“Willis 17 years old worth 1000 dollars, Levi 15 years old worth 1000 dollars, Sarah 35 years old 800 dollars and Almedia 12 years old 600 dollars.”
While not in this picture, the youngest enslaved person that I’ve seen was a 2-year-old girl named Ellen, who was “worth” 300 dollars. This sight, honestly, was very surreal.
It is one thing to watch Hollywood movies about the Civil War, and it is one thing to learn about slavery in college history courses, but it is quite another to see the names of human property written down in a way that you would write a receipt or account balance sheet. It’s quite surreal to see the listed names of Black people–BLACK CHILDREN–and how old they were and their monetary value, like a material item, we might buy or sell today.
In 1860, 40-year old Jared Ellison Kirby owned 285,000 in real estate and $175,000 in his personal estate, and he lived at Alta Vista with his 23-year old wife, Helen, his two children, 12 year old Lucy and 7 year old Jared Jr. The 73-year-old mother of Jared Kirby was named Sarah, and she owned $32,000 in real estate and $32,000 in personal property. She also lived at Alta Vista.1
The 1860 Slaves Schedules reveal that Jared Kirby owned 30 slave cabins on his property. According to an article in the Prairie View Panther, the slave cabins at Alta Vista were located where the Hobart Taylor building now sits.2 His mother owned 10 slave cabins, in which lived the 19 slaves she owned in 1860.
Jared owned 5 forty-two year old male slaves, 30 thirty-year old male slaves, 21 fifteen year old male slaves, and 15 five year old male slaves. He also owned 4 forty two year old female slaves, 17 twenty five year old female slaves, 22 fifteen year old female slaves, and 25 six year old female slaves.3
71 men, and 68 women. Total of 139 listed under Jared’s name. If you add the 19 people listed under Sarah’s name, that means 158 enslaved men and women lived at Alta Vista in 1860.
In total, we managed to find almost 60 names of our enslaved ancestors in the probates of Jared Kirby’s family members. We were also able to find a map of the enslaved labor camp, Alta Vista, (see above image) which is only part of the campus we know today. We look forward to revealing more information from the probate records in future posts for the Digital PV Panther Project.’
Sincerely,
Kalayah Jammer
END NOTES
1860 USCensus, Hempstead, Austin, Texas; Roll: M653_1287; Page: 175; Family History Library Film: 805287
Gregory Bevels, “Gone but not Forgotten ~ Reflections on Wyatt Chapel Cemetery,” Prairie View (TX) Panther, October 21, 1994.
The National Archives in Washington DC; Washington DC, USA; Eighth Census of the United States 1860; Series Number: M653; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29
By Alison T. Henning, Ginger Burns, Richard Hoffman, and Brian Jacoby in the Journal of History and Culture 1:2 (2009): 53-66.
Abstract
Wyatt Chapel Cemetery is an abandoned cemetery located in Prairie View, Texas. Oral histories from local residents suggest that the cemetery originated as a slave burial ground in the mid-nineteenth century. The local community is interested in examining the cemetery in order to document the history of the area. In July 2007 and February 2008, participants in a graduate course at Rice University acquired global positioning system and ground-penetrating radar data at the cemetery. The soil at the field site is ideally suited for radar work and the subsurface image quality was excellent. Numerous anomalies were identified that are consistent with unmarked burials. Two of these anomalies were excavated and confirmed as burials. The stratigraphy consists of 3-6 feet of sand overlying a hard clay, and the boundary produces a very bright reflector. In the main clearing of the cemetery site, the sand-clay boundary deepens abruptly from 3 feet to approximately 5 feet. This anomaly was initially considered a possible man-made excavation, perhaps a mass burial site. While the stratigraphy does contain abrupt terminations, most depth changes occur gradually, suggesting formation by natural processes.
In December 2021, we searched Ancestry.com for information about Jared Ellison Kirby, and we located the name of another person who lived at Kirby’s enslaved labor camp, Alta Vista. According to the manifest of the ship Galveston, Kirby had a 15 year-old girl named Lucinda transported from New Orleans to Galveston in May 1858.
We believe that Lucinda shows up as either Lucinda Edwards or Williams in the 1870 Census.
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.
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. Ports of departure or intended arrival stretched from Baltimore, Maryland, to Texas on the Gulf of Mexico. Those required slave manifests, provided by ships entering or leaving from the port at New Orleans, make up the records in this database.