Ghost Jamboree Honors Your Ancestors

 

 Ghost Jamboree Honors Your Ancestors 

The Stories That Connect Us!

Adrian Foushee Honors His Paternal Grandfather  

Jeff Foushee

His occupations included farmer, mine worker, sawmill laborer, mechanic, restauranteur and policeman. Born April 1, 1888, near  Glendon, Moore County, North Carolina, Jeff Foushee farmed  throughout his life, vegetables, chickens and hogs, for subsistence and also commercially. In 1909, he married, Mattie Dorsett, his uncle’s niece. Together for 23 years, they had ten children. Miner  was listed as the 1920 census occupation. Coal and industrial minerals had been profitably mined, but it was waning by this time. By 1930, the family had moved across the northern county line into Chatham County. In 1933, Mattie died  in Gulf Township, Chatham County due to a pulmonary event.  By 1935, Jeff  relocated the family farther north to Orange County, North Carolina. 

 Living in Carrboro, next to the college town of Chapel Hill, there were more opportunities. It’s not clear which job came first, car mechanic at the Strowd Motor Company Garage or laboring in the   local lumber yards (something he would be followed into by three sons). On October 8, 1938, Jeff remarried, to Mary (Gunn) Barnett (her second marriage also), however, on the 28 of November, she passed due to apoplexy (a stroke). Also, it’s not clear if Jeff opened his café before or after Mary’s death, but he and his children would manage it into the 1960s. Jeff remained single for over 20 years, marrying one more time, to Ella Mae Hartman, who being 24 years younger, survived him. 

Jeff’s most notable occupation would be policeman. Standing over six feet and weighing over 225 pounds, in 1949, at the age of 61, Jeff Foushee and Nathaniel “Bud” Hopkins became the first African-American officers of Orange County. They were hired as part-time patrolmen only, on duty from 7:30 to 11pm, to “handle the tough, unpredictable Negro section of Carrboro where even the bravest men fear to tread”. Both were temporarily deputized in prior unrests. After the race-riot of August 1937, a report included a recommendation for the hiring of Negro police. And, although the county hired one additional officer within one year, it was 12 years before the Board of Alderman approved the hire of Negroes. It was said Foushee and Hopkins were respected men in both the Negro and White communities. Even so, they were only to patrol the Negro communities and could only detain a person if they were also Negro. It’s said that the area was so segregated that when a motorist stopped for directions, the officers could not assist, as they were not familiar with the White neighborhoods. 

My grandfather died on September 20, 1966, two days after my second birthday. I have no personal memories of him, but I have stories about him, not just from family but those from family friends and neighbors speaking of his resolution, strength, and kindness.

Adrian Foushee

August 23, 2020

Helen Yeo Honors Her Maternal Great Aunt  

Emma Scholl 

Emma Scholl 12/7/1875 – 1/3/1955 

I am an only child whose parents were both raised by single mothers during the 1930’s  Depression, so family history was seldom discussed. We lived in Los Angeles, and when I was about 3 years old, an older lady came to stay with us and shared my bedroom. She had fluffy white hair, wore dresses that looked like   sweaters, and she arrived with lots of stuff. My Dad, Mom, and Mom’s only sibling all called her Aunt Emma. She and I ate oatmeal and a poached egg many mornings for breakfast, but she would never eat dessert after dinner. She would do puzzles with me or play jacks and card games. She eventually moved to a room in a big old house near   Alvarado and Hoover Streets – the first v-shaped corner I had ever seen. My Mom and I  went to see Aunt Emma once a week, and she  always gave me a dime and a cookie. We  continued our visits after she moved into a nursing home where she died, shortly after my  eighth birthday. 

Through the years I learned that Aunt Emma  was born in Charleston, Indiana; she was the older sister and only sibling of my maternal  grandfather. She liked music, never married, but had a career in New York as the secretary for the executive officer of the Shrine Organization. The brass bell I rang to call my Mom when I was homesick was originally purchased by Aunt Emma for the Shriner to summon her services. I learned to type on the 1917, Underwood typewriter which was left from Aunt Emma’s career. The ‘good’ dishes and silverware that we used for holidays, as well as the Queen’s Chair, were also part of Aunt Emma’s stuff that she brought to our house. Aunt Emma had been a slender, active, insulin dependent diabetic; so when I had my first job as a counselor at a camp for diabetic children, I learned much about her former eating habits. Eventually, I had a career in Dietetics and Health Education stemming from these early beginnings. Lastly, Aunt Emma kept the Scholl family history, as recorded in the family Bible. She was the only ‘Scholl’ I ever met. However, now I have the Scholl Family Bible, with tattered cover, broken bindings and faded entries of many ancestors. 

Addendum - Any recommendations for a new home for the Bible are gladly accepted. 

Thank you for inviting me to share my story. 

Helen Yeo

Picture: Emma Scholl with Anna Jean Scholl

Barbara Chamberlain Honors Her Father

Walter Mayer

Walter Mayer was proud to be an American.  He was born on May 16, 1927 in Esslingen, Germany.  At the age of 8, his father died, leaving his mother with 5 children to care for.     At the age of 16, he was drafted into the army.  After one week on duty, his unit was over run and captured by the Americans.   With some luck he was sent to Paris and spent the remainder of the war there.  He had completed training as a tool and die maker.  He was assigned to work repairing and servicing American vehicles such as tanks, trucks, etc.  When the war came to an end, he was eventually sent back home.  Once he arrived, his mother, who didn’t believe he would survive the war,  told him she had given away all his clothes and personal items.  Life was hard, but most members of his family had survived.  In 1952 he decided to immigrate to America.  An uncle lived in Hollywood and sponsored him to come.  He came by himself not speaking a word of English.   When he arrived in Hollywood, he spent a week with his uncle and aunt.  On the first day he went and enrolled at Hollywood High School to learn English.   On his second day he looked for a job as a tool and die maker, and found a camera company that was looking for help.  He was hired on the spot,  and as luck would have it, the owners were German.   He then found a room to rent for $10.00 a month.  So he was set and started his new life in America.  A year later he brought his wife and 2 children to America.  5 years after his arrival, he became a citizen! In the early sixties he joined Rocketdyne, as a manufacturing engineer.  He worked on the Apollo and Space Shuttle rockets.  He found his calling.  He absolutely loved his job, even though there were always deadlines and long hours.  He was rewarded with many awards and recognition.  He never got to see a launch in person, but there were not too many launches that he missed seeing on TV.  Today you can find his name on the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s Wall of Honor located in Virginia.  This is dedicated to those who contributed to the nation’s  aviation and space exploration.  I know he would have been humbled by this honor and would not have wanted all this recognition, but I believed he was so deserving.

 

Southern California Genealogical Society 

Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 

www.genealogyjamboree.com 

Socialmedia@scgsgenealogy.com