Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts and Archives Department

"REMEMBERING THE PAST: ORAL AND PICTORIAL HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN GRANT COUNTY, INDIANA"

Collection #
BV 3165

Table of Contents

Collection Information
Historical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Cataloging Information

Processed by
Wilma L. Gibbs
26 September 1996

COLLECTION INFORMATION

HISTORICAL SKETCH

The Grant County Black History Council, Incorporated applied for and received an Indiana Heritage Research Grant (IHRG) for $2500 from the Indiana Humanities Council and the Indiana Historical Society. The purpose of the grant was to do an oral history of African-Americans in Grant County. Photographs and artifacts were collected for the Indiana Room of the Marion Public Library.

Source: Materials in the collection

SCOPE AND CONTENT

"Remembering the Past: An Oral and Pictorial History of African Americans in Grant County, Indiana" (Grant #94-3014) was completed in compliance with a $2500 Indiana Heritage Research Grant awarded to the Grant County Black History Council, Inc. in 1994. The volume contains a list of project participants; acknowledgments; and histories of African-Americans in Indiana, as well as Grant County (including specific information about Weaver Settlement); photocopies of newspaper articles; and brief histories of some fraternal organizations. There are eight transcriptions of oral history interviews, as well as one short narrative by Fred Douglas Stevenson. Interviewees discuss various subjects including Weaver Settlement, an African-American rural community founded in Grant County during the 1840s; family names and histories; employment; social events; schools; churches; social organizations; and the 1930 lynchings at the Marion Courthouse Square.

The transcribed interviews contain photocopied photographs of Weaver and D. A. Payne schoolchildren in Grant County; Sarah Weaver Pate, the oldest living descendent of Weaver Settlement; and members of the TTYOB Bridge Club. There are also visuals of some of the interviewees and their relatives. Many of them are from families surnamed Becks, Bellamy, Burden, Pettiford, Stewart, Ward, and Weaver. Family relationships are mentioned throughout the interviews and there are references to nearby cities and towns including Marion, Kokomo, Knightstown, and Carthage. Much of the information discussed in the interviews predates 1950; the youngest interviewee was born in 1930. Interviewees were Otha Delores Betts, Dr. Joseph Fremont Casey, Charlotte (Cox) Fenstermaker, Georgia B. Jones, Nevada Pate, Rev. William Perkins, Buris V. (Jones) Stevenson, and Verlie Stewart.

The interviews have no pagination. They are contained in the volume in the following order (with year interviewed, interviewee, and interviewer):

1981, Georgia Jones, Robert M. McDonough
1994, Charlotte Fenstermaker, Barbara J. Stevenson
1994, Nevada Pate, Barbara J. Stevenson
1994, Rev. William Perkins, Barbara J. Stevenson
n.d.*, Short narrative of Fred Douglas Stevenson
n.d.*, Buris V. Stevenson, Barbara J. Stevenson
1980, Dr. Joseph Fremont Casey, Robert M. McDonough
1981, Verlie Stewart, Robert M. McDonough
1984, Otha Delores Betts, Barbara J. Stevenson
* no date

CATALOGING INFORMATION

For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:

1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog
2. Click on the "Local Catalog" icon.
3. Search for the collection by its call number, using the letter or letters designation and four digits (e.g., M 0715, SC 2234).
4. When you find the collection, go to the "Holdings" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.

END