The Help: Lady Bird's Zephyr

Not my Zepher but it sure got me to thinking about the movie The Help:

I could have been considered a part of The Help for about one week-end in my lifetime. I had been looking and looking for a job to no avail. I was desperate to find anything.
I answered an ad in the paper and interviewed for a domestic helper and got the job. I worked that Saturday morning cleaning up this lady's house when it dawned on me to listen to my inner thoughts.

I never went back.

Not that I was too proud to do that type of work but this lady's daughter who was about my age or a year or two older dropped something on the floor that she did not make an attempt to pick up and I was NOT about to go down that road.
To this day I can't remember if I got my couple dollars pay.

Zephyr Wright was born in Marshall Texas, the same place as my mother Zepher. My mother's grandfather is Joseph Taylor and Zephyr Wright worked for Claudia Taylor Johnson who also was born in Marshall Texas.

Same name those Z's but spelled differently.

They even have another common given name. Her grandmother is Maria/Mariah and my mothers great- grandmother is Maria/Mariah. (Don't think I haven't checked this Mariah out lol)
Oral history has my Taylor's tied to the above Taylor's but that is another story at another time.

I see all of these little similarities so I decided to find out more about Ms Zephyr Wright doing a little research.

Here's Lady Bird's Zephyr:

Zephyr Wright was born in Marshall but was raised by her grandparents Tom and Maria/Mariah McKenzie until she was around twelve years old. This 1920 census puts her in the grandparents home listed as grand-daughter last name Blackmon or Blackman.

This is the bottom two lines of the 1920 census that shows the grandparents:

The 2nd page is continued here: Click on image to get a better look

I still have not determined who Zephyr's mother is but this is the family in the 1910 census.

While a student at Wiley College in Marshall Texas, Zephyr was given the opportunity to work as a housekeeper and cook for Lady Bird Johnson.
Dr. Dogan the president of Wiley recommended her after Claudia let it be known that she was looking for someone to work for her.
Ms Wright knew of the Taylor's plus her aunt worked for Thomas Jefferson Taylor Claudia's father.

I am not totally sure when Ms Wright went from Housekeeper to the lone family cook but she must have been a wonderful one. Her recipe's for the White House menu's have been in various newspapers and magazines. The Johnson's did however leave the fancy cooking to a White House Chef they attained for all those State Dinner affairs.

The Johnson girls threw a surprise birthday party for Zephyr. Growing up with a person through-out one's life is cause for deep affection.

Perhaps Zephyr knew Susan Bass Clardy when they both attended the wedding of Lynda Bird Johnson and Captain Charles Robb.

Ms Clardy is one of the links to Ms Angela Walton Raji.
see: http://myancestorsname.blogspot.com/ as Angela tells her story of those in her family who was The Help.

Ms Wright had much influence on Lyndon Baines Johnson. So much so that he used her knowledge when making a point to leaders of great distinction. (Rockford Register) 1966

Excerpts from Leonard H. Marks, director of the U.S. Information Agency during the Johnson administration.
He tells this story about how she may have influenced his work on civil rights reform.


"Many say that Lyndon, because he came from the South, didn't believe in civil rights. Lady Bird had two people as hired help, Zephyr and Sammy Wright. Zephyr was the maid and cook, and Sammy was the chauffeur.

At one of the luncheons I attended before Johnson became president, Zephyr was serving when Lyndon told her that she and Sammy should get ready to drive to Austin. The family would join them later.
She said, "Senator, I'm not going to do it." There was silence.

She said, "When Sammy and I drive to Texas and I have to go to the bathroom, like Lady Bird or the girls, I am not allowed to go to the bathroom. I have to find a bush and squat.
When it comes time to eat, we can't go into restaurants. We have to eat out of a brown bag.
And at night, Sammy sleeps in the front of the car with the steering wheel around his neck, while I sleep in the back. We are not going to do it again."

LBJ put down his napkin and walked out of the room.

Later, when Johnson became president and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law Zephyr was there. Johnson motioned to her, gave her the pen that he used to sign the bill.
He said, "You deserve this more than anybody else."

Ms Wright passed away April 25th 1988 in Washington DC.
According to the Washington Post April 28th article Her husband, Sammie Wright, died in 1969. The post listed survivors that included two half brothers, James and Willie Black, both of Fort WorthTexas and two half sisters, Mary Yancy of Houston and Virginia Clemons of Dallas.

RIP Ms Zephyr Wright, You were more than just the HELP, you were a friend to those you helped and loved.

Mariah and Me Present: My First Presentation

Presentation! What did they mean presentation? I don't know nothing bout birth'n no presentation!!!


A presentation at the Arizona Black Family Genealogy and Historical Society Meeting, you must be kidding me!

Later though I gave in and made a promise to Leafshaker my genealogy bud that I would do my best to comply. I didn't want to flub when one of Arizona's premier researchers was watching me.


The topic had to do with blogging and highlighted with the research technique I used to find and document a Clark family in Logan County Oklahoma.


I swear ggg- grandmother Mariah it had nothing to do with you.

My friend Angela sent me some information to guide me on my way and get started on the blogging side. I stayed up half the day and night trying to put the information in my own vernacular.


But noooo Mariah, you would not let me save it to my computer.

Every time I hit the save button, and went back all my changes I made did not take. After about 5 hours continuously I finally got it saved it to Power Point.

Now I can finally put my presentation on a CD. Smiling, I looked to my left and realized that the drawer/doors to the CD copier was broken.

This one I am not blaming on you Mariah because Tyler your 5th great grand-son had one of his CD's break off inside and we could not get it out.

We neglected to have the drawer replaced and now I really need it. I should have remembered and followed that saying "never put off tomorrow what you can do today."

My next trip was to go and buy a memory stick. I got one on sale at Fry's for nine dollars, bought it home and the durn thing would not even load up down or around.


Not to be undone, I went to Staples and got another brand that I was more familar with. I put it in the USB port and a dog-gone message came up saying "try again later." Heck it was already late!

I know it had to be you Mariah. I have felt you late at night in my presence before, and I know for a fact that you don't want to be found yet.


Time for me to take a break so I headed to the kitchen looking in every cabinet for that bottle of wine from five Christmases ago. You had been in that cabinet hadn't you? I am not getting smart with you, but its awful funny that I could not find that bottle that had your surname Taylor on it. Mighty Strange I must say.


Time was ticking: I started to type and my thumb on my right hand froze up like I had just been in the World Thumb Wrestling Championship and lost.


It was time for me to call a back-up now. I hurried up and got on the phone and called my friend Lil Leaf and asked if I could send my PP presentation to her and put it on a CD.

Yes, she said and with a sigh of relief I hit the send button.

Why thirty minutes later did she call me and say that she could not open it?

It was now around 9:30 at night and I was scheduled for the next day. Our only solution was to send her the slides one by one through the email.

I got my other unwelcomed call around 10 P.M.

As the old folks used to say after almost pulling out my hair, I took to my bed!


Armed with nothing on Saturday I went to the meeting with good intentions. My only solution was to go to my Mariah's Zepher site and read from my last Blog.

Mariah had to follow me there because the computer crashed just as I was getting ready to start.

With bated breathe I started to cold talk about my last blog entry, no power point, no slides, just those twelve pair of eyes looking my way.

Then the computer came back up. Whew!! Finally Mariah, you let me finish.
It was not what I planned but the presentation turned out okay. Thank you God.

Thank you too Mariah.

I also want to apologize for calling you by your first name. I was not raised like that and I kind of look around to the right and left to see if anyone saw me typing.

Oh one those memory sticks I bought that did not work. Well Taylor my grand-daughter came home that evening, put it in the port and the blankety- blank blank things worked on the first try.

Now quit playing with me granny number three and show yourself. (pretty please!)

Love ya!

A Little Girl's Bravery: Logan County Ok 1893

Last month,a young lady by the name of Ruby came to The Black Family Genealogy and Historical meeting wanting to learn more about her family and wanted to learn more about the process of searching.

One of the comments she shared with me was oral history related to her ancestrial family who lived in Oklahoma. That family was frank and Meldia McGlory.

Ruby then mentioned that her grandmother Meldia's family had come to a horrible end but that the oral history was rather sketchy. She stated that there had been a robbery and her great grandmother's parents were killed.
Ruby in turn did not know the name of her grandmothers parents. She had also heard that her great grandmother was raised by family friends by the name of Sellers and later met and married Frank McGlory.

Here I go, nosey me again, loaded with the name of her family friend and the first name of the grandmother. I took to the 1900 census in Logan County Okla and after careful searching,there they were, Wilson Sellers and his wife Mary. In the household was Meldia Clark. (be sure and click on images for better viewing)


Another jewel was the state that this family came from. Since Tennessee was the state of birth, and the grandmother was born in 1879 I went to the 1880 census and found several Clark's. One of these families could have been Meldia's parents or other family members.


I decided to look for clues in the census by searching Meldie with her husband Peter McGlory. Perhaps then I could be able to help Ruby tie in the loose ends of the actual names of Meldia's parents.
I found Peter and Meldia in the 1920 census in Logan County Oklahoma and listed also were their children Lee and Gabriel.


The next step was to see if there may be a clue from a newspaper that was active in Oklahoma and had mentioned a family that had been murdered in Logan County or a surrounding county.

With tired eyes, I decided to continue my search the next day and shut down my computer for the night.


Just as I was about to get off I decided to look in the Guthrie Daily Leader an Oklahoma paper.

A heading caught my eye. "Negro Milligan Meets His Creator" I thought to myself hmmm this may be something to blog about in the future.


Reading on I realized this guy was the culprit in Ruby's Families massacre! Oh My Gosh!!!


The Milligan Hanging was the first legal hanging in Oklahoma. Oh, there had been plenty of hangings before then but Oklahoma was now a Territory and has been put in the books as such.

Dead,Dead Sheriff DeFord said as he pronounced his sentence on Milligan and asked if he had any last words.


Some of the other names mentioned I assume were friends who witnessed the hanging or were people involved in a church because there was numerous Reverends in attendance.


This is the story of what happened to the Clarks and Milligan's brutal role.

Clark had only been in the Deep Fork Settlement for a few weeks when his wife and child were bought to Oklahoma along with Milligan a youngster from their home town in Tennessee. Mr Clark had just built a log cabin for them to stay in.

Sometime after the ghastly deed happened a young girl came to collect money owed for her father and saw what had happened.



All for one hundred and seventy five dollars for a thief in the night.


After reading the story and finding the name Gabe and Hannah Clark, I went back to that 1880 census. Gabe could very well be Chester with wife Hannah. (that can be filed again for later.)I also went back to the 1920 census and saw that Meldia and Frank named one of her sons Gabe.

It is sad to read that a family was taken off the face of the earth because of greed
especially when they have tried to help you have a better life than what you had.

The one good thing that came out of the story was that the little girl Meldia lived to tell the story of what happened that day.

The little girl Meldia lived to grow up and have a loving husband and children.

The little girl grew up to have a great-grand daughter by the name of Ruby who wants to know her heritage and spread that heritage to others in her family.

The little girl had to endure those visions for the rest of her life but she was a brave little girl,one her ancestors must be very proud of.

Gently On The Tree: Zepher's and Zephyr's

The Texas Zephyr was a train that ran the Denver to Ft Worth Route. (Museum of the American Railroad in Dallas Texas)


The Lincoln Zepher was a beauty of a car built back in the early 30's


I was talking with an AfriGeneas chatter friend Seventies Soulchild who is travelling to Mississippi for a reunion and to do some research. My thoughts went back to the day I found anotherZepher to add to my tree.


One summer in the late seventies, I went to Dallas Texas to visit my brother Richard. I had the chance to get in touch with my uncle Harry who came to the house, picked me up and took me back to his house to spend the day.

I loved talking to Uncle Harry because he always filled me in on family goings on. I did not grow up around my paternal family but always had the thirst for knowledge about the who, what, when where and whys.

Uncle Harry had this booklet that someone had given him that detailed the story of a celebration at the Fanthrop Inn. The name of the booklet was Fanthrop Days. I wish I had made a copy to take home with me. Years later after Uncle Harry passed away I inquired but no one seemed to know where it was or had ever recalled seeing it.
Henry Fanthrop was the proprietor of the Inn which was also a stagecoach stop for weary travellers and is now an historical site in Grimes County Texas.


Uncle Harry believed that Fanthrop should have been the name that we may have carried because of the association with the Inn. After all he said, it was in the days of slavery. He told me that his great grandfather used to take care of and doctor on the horses.
I automatically thought he was talking about James "Jake" Daviss because he ended up becoming a doctor after attending Meharry in 1891.

Many years later did it hit home who he was referring to.

While Uncle Harry was talking he told me that there another child who was sold off in Mississippi and that after freedom his great grandfather had a chance to go get her and bring her home to Grimes County. Uncle Harry mentioned also that this daughter had fell for this man from Mississippi, married and went back with him to his home state, but eventually came back to Grimes County Texas with their children.
Here I go with my assuming self that we were still talking the Daviss line so I looked and looked and looked for this estranged Daviss sister to no avail.

One night while I was searching the Texas Death Records one by one for Grimes County I ran across this name. I smiled rather melancholy because it was my mothers first name. My mother was named Zepher and she was just that,a cool gentle breeze and My heart of hearts.

As I clicked on the link and started to read,the name that caught my eye was
J.P. Daviss, Navasota Texas, my grandfather!! He was the informant on this death certificate.

My first thought was that since he was a minister he was perhaps helping someone with the heartbreaking chore of filling out the form.

Reading further was the name Lydia Zepher, daughter of Louis Cooper!!!.

Uncle Harry was right, there was another daughter. This daughter was not a Daviss but a Cooper. Louis Cooper was the father of Sallie White Cooper Conway my Uncle Harry's grandmother and his great great grandfather.

This is a picture of Sallie Conway and her husband James Conway in Navasota. I always chuckle when I see this picture because those yard birds look like they don't have a care in the world or either they figure there was no use in running when someone came near them.


Her birth date was 1851 according to the Death Certificate. So Uncle Harry was right again about her being born in slavery.

Lydia was buried in Millican Texas in Brazos County so I went searching for her and her Mississippi Husband.

Bingo there was Isham and Liddy in the 1900 census. They were married March 24,1892 in Bryan Texas.
(To get a bigger view and browse the entire page click on census)
Here they are again still living in Brazos County in 1910

This 1930 census tells me that hubby Isham is still alive when the enumerator came around but on her Death Certificate she is a widow. I am looking desperately for his record.


I am not sure if her nephew, my grandfather, went and got her to live out her days with him and my grandmother Gertrude Sims Daviss. The address on the certificate said near Piedmont and that was where my grandparents lived. I do know now that the puzzle was solved about the oral history that was told to me.

The only puzzle now was why the death certificate had a blank for the mother. My next chore was to find Lydia.link her to Mary White Cooper, Louis's Cooper's wife and my 2nd great grandmother.

I have only been able to find Mary Cooper in the 1880 census so I went back to study it over again.

Several doors down is a Lydia age 27 married to a Parham. I found an index where Robert and Liddy Cooper were married on August 30,1875. (I also found an indication that Robert had also married again after several years so it was not through death.) so I am sure this Lydia is the same person who is on the death certificate and also the same person who married Isham Zepher.

You never know how oral history plays in your plans and what route it will have you go. Its a good thing I eventually went down the right road after playing the assumption game in my head. I don't want to say that Uncle Harry wasn't clear because he could have told me the right great grand in the first place. From now on I need to carry a good pen,listen with a good ear and ask the right questions.

Civil War 150 Yr Anniversary:Honoring Bowser and Slaughter

Mr William Bowser:



A native of Rye Neck Maryland, Mr Bowser was born on January 23,1842. He served in the 29th United States Troop Company A and fought in Peters burg Virginia and North Carolina. He was mustered out in 1865 after two years of service

According to the Newport Journal and Guide on their June 23 1939 newspaper addition Mr Bowser was 97 years old and expected to spend many more yrs living quietly in Philadelphia.

Mr Ephram Slaughter:


As a young boy Mr Slaughter ran away from home in North Carolina where he joined the 37th Regiment of the United States Colored Troops. He later moved to Dauphin Co Pennsylvania where he and his first wife Carrie resided for over 39 years. He later married Georgianne and celebrated his 90th birthday in 1936.

This Field Order issued by President Abraham Lincoln was in regard to maltreatment of troops regardless of color even though as we know it was not followed.



These two soldiers survived the war living too ripe old ages that the Lord had blessed them with. I am sure their stories of the war was told by them but we must make sure that their sacrifices are still being told.


Thank you Mr Bowser and Mr Slaughter for your service, for if it had not have been for you and others like you who fought for our freedom, I shudder to think where we may be today.

Milton Holland: 5th United States Colored Infantry Congressional Medal Of Honor Winner

Another true hero in the battle for freedom is Milton Holland. For his bravery at the battle of Chapin's Farm in Virginia he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on April 6, 1865.
Milton took over command of the 5th United States Colored Infantry troops after all of the officers had been killed. Even though wounded he led his troops to victory

Milton Holland was an 18 year old when he registered to serve. He was born in Austin Texas around 1845. He states in this record that he was freed before 1861. Milton was formerly owned by Spearman Holland of the Holland Plantation. Milton enlisted in Athens Ohio on June 22nd 1863
****Milton is also one of three sons born to Bird Holland a confederate soldier and the half brother to Spearman.)****

Here he was listed as a First Sgt and served in that capacity for eleven months. His commanders were so impressed with his ability he was promoted.

On August 31st Holland was promoted to Sgt Major and in September 1864 was transferred out of Company C

Milton Holland was listed on the Muster-Out Roll in Carolina City North Carolina on September 20th 1865.


This is faint but it basically reads according to my eyes: Written on August 2 1865 Holland is requesting a hearing on the injustice of the case implying that he had been absent from roll call. Holland stated that he has commanded the entire time for the last last five months.

Adjutant General Report listing rundown of promotion and then demotion. Holland was promoted in the field but since the army did not recognize African Americans as officers Holland was stripped of his promotion.

After moving from Washington DC where Milton worked for the government he and his wife Virginia took residence in Maryland as evidence of this 1910 census.(click to enlarge)

Holland later in life. Milton left this earth on May 15th 1910 in Silver Springs Maryland and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Thank God for Men like these who fought for our freedom. Now our task is to get the word out about these men so that our children and children's children will know of the sacrifices that our ancestors made. I know that as a kid growing up, we were not privy to this information in school.