Happy Birthday Dee Ele.

Dee Elle is the granddaughter of James & Myrtle (Montgomery) Williams,

and daughter of Carl & Terry.

Sisters: Mildred and Dorothy Cabell.

On the 1940 census Mildred Cabell, age 21, is living with her younger sister Dorothy (Cabell) Pope, age 17, at 416 E. 18th Street. Both have been orphaned since the death of their father in 1935. They live about a half mile from their older sister, Hazel (Cabell) Caston (1852 Peck Street). Mildred had only worked ten weeks in the previous year, earning only $50 in 1939, Hazel had worked 30 weeks, earning $150 dollars for the year. Dorothy was unemployed.

Hazel and Dorothy’s husbands are missing from the household on the census. I have no idea at this point if they are separated, deceased, or just not recorded.

Mildred and Dorothy’s situation look precarious in 1940. What remains of their family is dispersed across Indianapolis. Their elderly step-mother is raising their youngest sister and we know little of their situation.

Mildred and Dorothy will persevere.

Mildred will marry Monroe T. Grady the next year. Monroe is the son of a tenant farmer from southern Indiana who makes his way to Indianapolis between 1930 and 1940. By 1943 they have obtained an apartment in Lockfield Garden Apartments (Bldg. 649, Apartment 380) near her first cousin Myrtle (Montgomery) Williams who is also living in Lockfield Gardens. Monroe is a driver for a surgical supply company, and he and Mildred have started a business, a record store on Indiana Avenue: Lockfield Record Shop, also known as Grady's Record Center.

We don’t know what became of the suspicious marriage of Dorothy to Orville (Arville) Pope, but she eventually marries Leslie Radford, together they will start  "Telecom Inc. of Indiana". When she died in 1980 they were still co-owners of the company.

We don’t know if it was the fortune of marriage or the example of perseverance of their father, Henry Cabell, which was the basis for their progress.    

(Picture: Indianapolis Recorder, October 16, 1954)

 

 

 

 

(Obit: Indianapolis Recorder, January 12, 1980)

 

 

 

 

 

Mildred (Cabell) Grady:1917-1994
Washington Park North Cemetery, Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, Plot: St Luke: Maintained by: William Taber, Record added: Nov 25, 2013. Find A Grave Memorial# 120801160

for more on the Cabell family see: Tuberculosis hits the Montgomery family:

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Who’s who in this article.

• Henry Cabell was Myrtle (Montgomery) Williams’ uncle. His wife Lelia Montgomery was the daughter of Sarah E. (Miller) and Logan Russell Montgomery.
• Dorothy, Mildred, and Hazel were Myrtle Montgomery’s first cousins.
• Myrtle (Montgomery) Williams and James Francis Williams are the focal point of the Montgomery-Williams Project.

Cemetery Search, Sunday: March 19, 2017

If any one is interested, weather permitting, I am going to be visiting 4 cemeteries on Sunday looking for family tombstone/gravesites to photograph and record for the family history book. I haven’t set a start and end time… I’ll let anyone whose interested decide what time, just contact me and tell me what time works for you. You don’t have to visit every cemetery, you can leave anytime. Pick one or more cemetery. This will involve walking, but at your pace.

Here are the cemeteries I will be visiting and some of the specific graves we will be looking for:

New Crown Hill Cemetery  (south eastside, near Bethel Park)

• Donovan Williams Hawthorne
  24 Jan 1992 -/- 03 Oct 1992
  New Crown Hill Cemetery
• Myrtle Ethel Genevieve Montgomery
  18 Mar 1915 -/- 26 Dec 1963
  New Crown Hill Cemetery. Section 20, Row 7, Grave 58
• Viola Gertrude Bell
  18 Aug 1890 -/-19 Feb 1964
  New Crown Hill Cemetery. Section 20, Row 11, Grave 64
• James Francis Williams
  27 Sep 1914 -/-27 Oct 1999
  New Crown Hill Cemetery. Section 41, Row 3, Grave 13

Floral Park:   (west side)

• Nannie Belle Brown
  1887 -/- 29 Oct 1958
  Floral Park Cemetery. Section H, Lot 475, Grave
• Logan Russell Montgomery
  03 Mar 1853 -/- 13 Sep 1931
  Floral Park Cemetery. Section K-4, Lot 15, Grave 47
• Joseph Frank Montgomery
  01 Jan 1882 -/- 07 Sep 1943
  Floral Park Cemetery. Section K-7, Lot 7, Grave 24
• Ethel Cabel
  20 Jun 1901 -/- 10 Jun 1921
  Floral Park Cemetery
• Lelia Montgomery
  Abt. 1879 -/- 26 Mar 1930
  Floral Park Cemetery
• Harold Montgomery
  7-4-1900 –/- 1-31-1926
  Floral Park Cemetery

Washington Park North:   (northwest side, Kessler Blvd.)

• Donald Robert Montgomery
  24 May 1933 -/- 24 Mar 2000
  Washington Park North Cemetery. Section: Garden of St. Mark Cemetery:
• Pauline Frances Montgomery
  19 Feb 1916 -/- 25 Apr 1993
  Washington Park North Cemetery: Section: Garden of St. Mark ???

Tuberculosis hits the Montgomery family:

The early 1900's saw many epidemic level health problems emerge, most of which impacted the African-American communities greatly, particularly urbanized African-American communities. Logan and Sarah's family were no different. Two of their children Harold & Lelia, as well as two, if not four, of Lelia’s children died from the terrible disease.

"…By 1918, medical and public health reports had documented that African Americans suffered higher morbidity and mortality rates than white people for several diseases. The Atlanta Board of Health, for example, reported in 1900 that the black death rate exceeded that of the white death rate by 69%. In an analysis of the 1900 census, W.E.B. Du Bois, the influential sociologist and civil rights activist, found that African American death rates were two to three times higher than for white people for several diseases including tuberculosis, pneumonia, and diarrheal disease."
           From <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2862340/>

Pulmonary Tuberculosis: The bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes TB, a contagious, airborne infection that destroys body tissue, when M. tuberculosis primarily attacks the lungs. However, it can spread from there to other organs. TB was not curable by medication for decades to come. The only known treatment was migration to more 'rural' climates, and this treatment wasn't always effective.

Harold Montgomery died in the Sunnyside Sanitarium on the northwest outskirts of Indianapolis in the Marion County town of Oaklandon. He had suffered from TB for about 10 years and died January 31, 1926 at the age of 26. He was single and to our knowledge had no children. He was buried in Floral Park. Lelia, Ethel, and Robert, died from TB at their home on the west-side of Marion County in the little town of Bridgeport.

Sunnyside Sanitarium (circa 1994) 6201 Sunnyside Road.

Lelia Montgomery was born about 1879 in Columbia, Adair, Kentucky, probably in the White Oak sub-division. She married Henry Cabell about 1900 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana. He was born in Henderson County, Kentucky.

Henry Cabell and Lelia Montgomery had the following children:

1. ETHEL CABEL was born on 20 Jun 1901 in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana. She died on 10 Jun 1921 in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, from Bronchial Catarrh Phthisis (TB). Buried: Floral Park Cemetery
2. EARL CABEL was born about 1903 in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana.
3. ROBERT CABEL was born on 18 Sep 1906 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He died on 16 Nov 1926 in Indianapolis, Indiana, from Pulmonary Tuberculosis, tuberculosis of the Bowels. Bridgeport RR#2, Indianapolis. Unmarried and buried in Floral Park.
4. Unknown child: born before 1909 and died after September of 1909, but before the 1910 census.
5. HAZEL CABEL was born on 11 Sep 1909 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
6. ALONZO CABELL was born about 1916 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
7. MILDRED CABELL was born about 1918 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
8. DOROTHY CABELL was born about 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
9. VIRGINIA ADELAIDE CABELL was born on 25 Oct 1923 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
10. Unknown Child: both unknown children are based on the Birth Certificates of Hazel and Virginia Adelaide Cabell.

Family Timeline:

• The 1909 Birth certificate of Hazel says she is the 5th born and that all are still living.
• 1910 census living with Lelia(35) & Henry(38) are Russell(60) & Sarah(58) Montgomery, and sons Elmer(14) and Harold(12), and 4 of Lelia's children: Ethel(8), Earl(7), Robert(3), Hazel(1). Living on 940 Fayette Street (was also there in 1901).
• 1920 Census living at 1339 Pershing Ave with Lelia(46) & Henry(38) are Sarah(57), Elmer(24), and Harold(19), and 6 of Lelia's children: Ethel (18), Earl (17), Robert (12), Hazel (10), Alonzo (4), Mildred (2).
• The 1923 Birth Certificate of Virginia Adelaide says: she was born at 3am when the family was living in the small Marion County town of Bridgeport. (R.R.A. Box 25). , father is a cook, The BC says Lelia has had 10 children, 7 still living. Dead: Ethel (1921), Robert (1926), and one unknown child born before Hazel in 1909 and died between Hazel's birth and the 1910 census.
• Lelia died 3-26-1930 from Pulmonary Tuberculosis(TB), she had been diagnosed 9 months earlier? She lived on the west side in Bridgeport, Marion County. Her husband Henry was the informant on the DC. She was buried in Floral Park.
• 1930 Census Henry (52) widower, living on Hardin Road, RR, no street numbers. Lelia's children still living with Henry: Alonzo (14), Mildred (12) , Dorothy (8), Virginia Adelaide (6). Of the 13 houses on this section of Hardin Road two are white families; the Redmond family and the Philipps family. The other 11 families are all African-American families.
• Henry Cabell died after 1930. (check Floral Park for his grave)

We don't know what became of Henry, Alonzo, Mildred, Dorothy, or Virginia Adelaide after the 1930 Census.

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Who’s who in this article.

• Lelia (Montgomery) Cabell and Harold Montgomery were aunt and uncle to Myrtle (Montgomery) Williams. They were two of Sarah E. (Miller) and Logan Russell Montgomery’s children.
• Myrtle (Montgomery) Williams and James Francis Williams are the focal point of the Montgomery-Williams Project.