Maxwell House: The Choice Is Yours

I went to my mentor Valencia King Nelson’s house before the AAHGS Conference in Atlanta Georgia started on October 12, 2016.

AAHGS is a genealogy based organization and hosts genealogy conferences in different states.

I had a wonderful time with MS V, Angela Walton RaJi, and B.J. Smothers.

            MS V, Angela Walton RaJi,  David Patterson 

But let me tell you when I was there,  I made an epic fail.

 I love my coffee and when at home in Phoenix I can pour a cup, put in a spoon of creamer and drink until my heart’s content.

Now there was coffee all right, but for the first time in my life I saw coffee in a small package. 

 I tore off the top and poured the coffee in the cup of hot steaming water. Put in the creamer and stirred and stirred and stirred.

After about ten mins I said, “what the heck is wrong with this coffee?” 

Good Grief, "I have been stirring this for a good ten minutes and the crystals will not melt . Look at All these little black coffee grinds swirling around"

Mentor: Did you use hot water

Me:         Yes

Mentor: Where’s the little bag

Me:         What bag?

Mentor: The bag that you use to put in the cup to steep the coffee

BJ, David, Angela and Mentor:  giggling!

Mentor:   Here, let me show you

   

Who ever heard of coffee disguised as a tea bag?

Maxwell House did and I have to admit it was good. In fact it was  good to the last drop.

That is without the coffee crystals ….LOL

When the conference was over and I arrived back in Phoenix I went straight to the kitchen to make a cup. 

What awaited me was coffee that looked like it was in an Acorn bag!

Where oh where is my Percolater?

What happened to my can of ground coffee?

LATISHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

Not to be confused with another Maxwell the R&B singer who brews out the soulful song Pretty Wings.

Speaking of House, let me introduce you to Wannel House, an awesome lady who gives of herself  with  loads and loads of information she posts on Find A Grave with Harrison County Texas roots.

 I have never met her in person but contacted her about  twenty years or more when I saw something that she had put online. We have been in contact ever since. 

Wanell has an ancestor by the name of Peter Choyce who was prominent in Harrison County.

Mr Choyce was born around 1823 in Jasper County Georgia, married  Ms Sarah Gilstrap and had several children.

Here is an 1880 census where the family is found in Harrison County

Source Citation

Year: 1880; Census Place: Precinct 2, Harrison, Texas; Roll: 1310; Family History Film: 1255310; Page: 467B; Enumeration District: 048

We are in the season now of voting for a President. We have to make a choice.

Peter Choyce has a voter story all his own in 1880 Harrison County Texas. 

Source Information

Ancestry.com. Texas, Voter Registration Lists, 1867-1869 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data:

1867 Voter Registration Lists. Microfilm, 12 rolls. Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, Texas.

  

Mr. Choyce on his way to deliver the boxes that held the names of the voters in 1880 was accosted by two men who wanted the ballot boxes.

Fortunately for him his horse took off thus saving his life.

Here is a snippet of the case mentioned in the Congressional Record  that can be found as a free e book 

Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress, Volume 12

on page 360 online at link listed below

http://tinyurl.com/zsm8s3g

Peter Choyce passed away in Jonesville Texas. 

Rest in Perfect Peace Mr. Choyce. Your footsteps told a wonderful story in Harrison County Texas.

 Then along came DNA…Who did I see matching my children?... Wanell

And then her mother tested...Who did I see?... My grandkids!

We have no idea how they match but they  sure as heck do. If the link is Peter Choice I would be delighted.

To  further this good news, a cousin of Wanell on her mother’s Hubbard line is in my genealogy group.

Now to get  Khameelah Shabazz  to test !

Lucky Me, Lucky You, Lucky As Can Be!

I attended an event sponsored by the PBS Station in Arizona along with the Arizona Informant and others that showcased African Americans:  Many Rivers to Cross soon to be released in a six part series October 22 2013. 

I was fortunate to win in a raffle the two discs set by the same name, and as soon as it is ready I will receive it in the mail.

I posted on Face book what a good time I had. One of the comments I got was from Selma, a genealogy friend of mine via AfriGeneas, the mother of all the African American Genealogy sites.   She said,” Lucky you Vicky." !

I do agree with Selma, mainly because the luck I have been having lately is making it to the little room down the hall in time and my past track feats kicked in at an older age.  I am blessed though that I am getting up each and every morning. Thanks to God that I am wide eyed the entire day.  

Selma got me to thinking about " Lucky You"; I don’t know any You’s or Youse’s  but I sure know some Lucky’s, Luckey’s and Luckie’s.

In Phoenix I knew Charles Luckie, Gloria Lucky, and David Luckey

I went to school and also worked with David at Western Electric. 

All three of these people may have known each other and all three surnames were spelled different from each other.

I even have some lucky numbers; 123….635….524 and on and on and on. I just wish they would get lucky one of these days on the Pick 3

I am lucky to have forged long time friendships, some sight unseen, like Selma who unselfishly gives her genealogy wisdom to others and to Valencia King Nelson who is the rock of AfriGeneas.  Not to mention Arthur Thomas and Angela Walton Raji who I have met, and did not run in the other direction when they saw me grinning.

For the jazz enthusiast back in the swing era days, Lucky and his Mills Blue Rhythm Band entertained all over Georgia, Alabama and Texas. He was the toast of clubs like The Cotton Club and the Savoy. Joining up with the likes of Ella the great Fitzgerald , Bill Doggett and Dizzy Gillespie and others.

He later moved towards what they called Rhythm and Blues.  A couple of his songs were Shorty's Got to Go, Sweet Slumber and Waiting Just for you.

Oh,  did I mention he was born in Anniston, Alabama in 1910 as Luscious Leroy Millander. 

Luscious and Lucky!  Now how lucky is that combination. Judging by his picture he was quite a good looking man. 

My thought triggered by Selma:

In my research I came across a Lucky Singleton who was from Marshall Texas and lived not that far from my Ancestors. Lucky had a son Major Singleton who lived here in Phoenix and who also had a son he surely named after his father.                                                                                                           Unfortunately Major’s son passed away at the age of 15.

Then there was a Lucky Singleton Jr who married a Roberta Choyce from Marshall Texas. 

                 here is the excerpt of  Lucky Jr and Roberta Singleton  

Lucky, the senior’s un - lucky trip:

Lucky, the Senior, wife  and a few of his family members and neighbors  heard about a plan to go to Liberia for a fee of ten dollars down for each person and the rest within six months after arriving.

 According to the Sunday Edition on February 8^th 1880, The New York Daily Tribune had an article stating that a group of twenty one people arrived in New York.

 Among this group was lucky, his wife and two children, Augustus Singleton, Willie Daniels, Lemuel Manyweather, his wife and child, Lawson Silas, his wife and two children, and Thomas Larkins along with his wife and six children. 

Thomas Larkins actually got the idea of going to Liberia from his brother in law, a chap by the name of Mathews.  He had been in Liberia over two years and sent glowing reports home and suggested that they take the trip as well.  They were surprised when they got to New York that the person who was to have engineered the way from there was nowhere to be found. 

They ended up asking for assistance from the Charities of  Commissioners and Charities who sent them to the King County Alms House as paupers of the state.

They were very poorly nourished and without funds to take care of themselves.

 What terrible luck they were having:   

                                                                                                                       Larkins daughter was left in New Jersey because she had given birth and needed care. Larkins wife died of Pneumonia after they reached the Alms house. 

They were described as from the south, truthful but unsophisticated 

Harrison County Texas must have been a hot bed for emigrating to Liberia. Mathews has another brother who is very instrumental in recruiting people from there. Another group of thirty was supposed to leave from Marshall at   the end of February 1880 and another contingent in March of the same year.

Even though they told the reporter that they had no complaints from bad treatment from whites or lack of work, I find that hard to believe, especially in 1880.

They stated that Liberia was the Promised Land for them and others and wished for a new life in a new home.

After much ado and facts as the folks at the Alms House had given them, the party with much hesitation decided to return back to Marshall. The article does not say when lucky and his family returned to Marshall but they all were assured help getting back home instead of help to Liberia.

Lucky and his family made it back home to Texas where he and his family were seen listed in the 1900 census.

I can imagine for those who research and can’t find their families around this time, chances are, they may have been some of those who actually made it to what they called their promise land.

   

I would hope that Lucky, Mr Larkins and family found their true niche in Marshall Texas and perhaps they even knew my family.