March 29, 1987
Colored people in Chariton years ago -
We didn’t say blacks, because that term was not used then. No colored person ever worked in the mines here or at Melcher. I have never been able to find any reason. It just seemed to be the case. In the mines near Albia, Oskaloosa, Centerville and Ottumwa there were many. As we go through the families, I will mention what the families did for a living.
When I attended Columbus School there were perhaps twelve in all grades. The seventh and eighth grades had seven or eight. We didn’t think a thing about it unless it was mentioned to us. I firmly believe if we had started integration in the primary grades, and let it work up, we would have had lots less trouble.
Let’s talk of the Richmond family first. Mr. Richmond was sexton of the cemetery and the family moved to town. There were seven children and none ever married. Scott worked and lived in Peoria. Maceo, one of the greatest athletes of Chariton High, was in World War I, and worked away from here. He came back in later years and lived here as a recluse. Tom and Henry were mechanics in garages here. Lilly and Florence did housework. Booker, the youngest, was a graduate of the University of Iowa Law School. He worked at this until his early death. The mother was a chef at the Railroad Café for years. She told my brother Dayton, who was a chef, that when she retired he could have her recipes. That time came, and he was greatly disappointed because nothing was written. She reached into this sack and that box, etc. Nothing was measured, it seems. She knew how much to use.
Now the Carter family. They lived where Bumbarger’s Sign Shop is now. There was a big family. Wilson was the oldest and then two girls. This part of the family moved to Detroit before my time. The ones I knew were Mary, Oscar, Roland and Paul. Oscar was killed out West in a railroad accident and the others just left and never cane back.
There were three Speers families. Joe had a large family and lived in east Chariton. He was a junk dealer. When the mother and father died, the seven children left these parts. Claude Speers worked for the Penick families, taking care of horses and driving the folks here and there. Also did yard work. No children. Nathaniel Speers worked at the Depot Hotel as a janitor. I remember many times seeing him carrying wood upstairs to the sixteen stoves in as many rooms.
The Henry Kanimers lived on West Court Avenue. They had a beautiful daughter, Georgia. She stopped in the store to visit me last summer. Her mother was white so she was not real dark.
Fred Wilson lived on Linden Avenue and worked for Tom Hooper Produce Company. Steve Johnson lived on 11th Street and also worked for Hooper Produce. Paris Green was a porter at the Bates House. John Quatron was porter at the Stant Cooper Barber Shop. John Cinco was porter at the “Shot” Knox Saloon, which was where the travel agency is now. Nearly every day at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. these three men, Cinco, Quatron and Green, would gather at the Stant Cooper Barber Shop and play their guitars and sing. It lasted about ten minutes, and all work stopped. It was very good.
The Louis Jackson family ran the eating place just off the southwest corner of the square. They had one son, Lorenzo.
The George Newman family lived in east Chariton. He ran a dray. He was one of the colored people who was really black and had a crop of snow-white hair. Mrs. Newman did housework. She delighted in shocking people by smoking a cob pipe and chewing Granger Twist tobacco.
Dick Kelley ran an eating place just off the southeast corner of the square. They had three boys and one girl. The girl was brilliant and somehow just burned herself out while working in Washington, D.C. and died at an early age.
The King family lived and worked on the John Bonnett farm west of town. Elijah Wright, with his brother Garfield, lived on a farm southwest of White Breast Church. The brothers were religious. Somehow there were some family mix-ups and Elijah ordered everyone away but Garfield.
Buster Gibson of Southgate and his mother came from this household. Buster’s Aunt Mary Martin came from here. Jim Brown who lives in Des Moines came from here, too. There may be others, but these are the ones I knew.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church stood where the Hy-Vee Maintenance Shop is now on West Court. They didn’t have a regular minister, but took turns preaching. The one preacher I remember who came now and then was Lester Metcalf of Albia.
When I wrote about old-time theaters sometime ago, I forgot to mention that ever-present piano player down in the pit night after night playing music accompanying the movie for the picture.
Our ride -
Charles Prior, George Dunshee and myself left Chariton in my car. We drove around to Lacona, then west to Highway 69, then south to Osceola through old Liberty. We drove all over Osceola, then Woodburn and Lucas. The nine flocks of robins we saw were almost unbelievable, hundreds of them everywhere. Saw flickers, cardinals, kingfishers, horned larks, killdeer and others. Saw lots of coots and Canada geese. Saw deer at Red Haw. Signs of spring were few since the cold weather came in. Arrived back at 6 p.m.
I received a letter from a lady in Butte, Montana, wanting to know if I knew where Miners’ Row was in Chariton. She said her grandmother spoke of living in the Miners’ Row. I remember when this row of houses was built. They are on the three hundred block of North 7th, on the east side. These five houses were all alike and built to house the officials of Mine No. 1, owned by Central Iowa Fuel Company. Over the years the houses have been altered, but were originally all alike.
Now for a word about Chariton’s greatest tunnel. It was made during the big snow of 1919. This snow came early and stayed on. The tunnel was half a block long and really was a five-foot-deep grader ditch hollowed out with a two-foot snow covering on the top. It was on Ashland Avenue, across from our home. We took wood for our woodpile and made a framed entrance just like a walk-in coal mine. It could easily have been destroyed by our enemies, but we bought them off with cookies. The winter air was cold, but inside the tunnel it was fairly warm. We had stump seats and many a picnic-type meal was eaten here. I remember a crude sign over the entrance that said “NO GIRLS ALLOWED.” This was a mistake, as it give the McCoy twins the desire to enter. As the two of them could whip any two of us, we broke the rules and let them in. There were many boy-hours expended in constructing this and the Lord ended it all with a sudden half-day thaw.
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