“FROM MANDINGO TO WELDONS…
THE EVOLUTION OF ONE
AMERICAN FAMILY”
By Aubrey W.A. Weldon, J.D.
©2003,
Aubre’ Publishing Company
ADDENDUM 2003 – The Final Chapter (650) 291-8576
Aubre11@aol.com
“CYRUS WELDON
1843 TO 1958 - THE MANDINGO SLAVE”
Slavery is an awesome human tragedy that is similar to a
nuclear explosion causing the psychological, emotional, and physical
destruction of a generation, and crippling the future generations for several
lifetimes. Slavery existed in America for over 300 years. It’s going to take
another 300 years to return these crippled generations to the status of human.
Now, let us take a journey back to over 160 years ago.
My journey back in time to find Cyrus Weldon in the fall of 2003 was exciting and adventuresome. Though by this time I had traveled on every continent on the earth this final journey to find Cyrus, my great Grandfather on my father’s side of the family would be decisive and rewarding.
Prior to leaving during the Thanksgiving week, I had
spent numerous hours on the Internet researching ancestry records and locations
to stay while in Oklahoma. The last time I was in Oklahoma was when I was 10
years old. I didn’t remember much about the place except for the wide-open
ranges and small rolling hills. The thick groves of trees and weeds spotted the
landscape.
The weather channel on the Internet said to expect
temperatures in the 20’s and sunshine. It was easy to prepare what clothing I
would take because of my experience in traveling to Antarctica in January a few
years ago. The long flannel underwear, the down jacket and gloves would be
perfect. Though while there I had to wear five layers of clothes, I thought
that one layer would be adequate for Oklahoma.
The Sunday flight from Oakland to Oklahoma made two
stops. First we stopped in Ontario, California then to Phoenix, Arizona and on
to Oklahoma City. After I landed at the airport in Oklahoma City, I rented a
car and headed for a place called Shawnee, Oklahoma that was about forty miles
east from the airport. I didn’t have any problems with navigation because of my
early experiences as bus driver in California. I learned how to find my way
around with little difficulty. With a good map and a good sense of direction,
you can find anything. My experiences in the Marine Corp probably helped here
as well.
I decided to stay at the Days Inn in Shawnee. That would
be my base of operation for the next eight days. Shawnee is an Indian tribe and
this area was the land given to them by the federal government. Also, it was
the location of the famous Shawnee Trail that was used by cattleman in Texas to
drive their cattle to market in Kansas City during the 1800’s.
What do you need to take an African and
turn him or her into a slave?
“First of all we need a black nigger man,
a pregnant nigger woman and her baby nigger boy. Second, we will use the same
basic principle that we use in breaking a horse, combined with some more
sustaining factors. We reduce them from their natural state in nature; whereas
nature provides them with the natural capacity to take care of their needs and
the needs of their offspring, we break that natural string of independence from
them and thereby create a dependency state so that we maybe able to get from
them useful production for our business and pleasure.
CARDINAL PRINCIPLE FOR MAKING A NEGRO For
fear that our future generations may not understand the principle of breaking
both horses and men, we lay down the art. For, if we are to sustain our basic
economy we must break both of the beasts together, the nigger and the horse. We
understand that short range planning in economics results in periodic economic
chaos, so that, to avoid turmoil in the economy, it requires us to have breadth
and depth in long range comprehensive planning, articulating both skill and
sharp perception. We lay down the following principles for long range comprehensive
economic planning: Both horse and niggers are no good to the economy in the
wild or natural state.
We hold the above five cardinals as
truths to be self-evident, based upon following discourse concerning the
economics of breaking and tying the horse and nigger together...all inclusive
of the six principles laid down above.
NOTE: Neither principles alone will suffice for good economics.
All principles must be employed for the orderly good of the nation.
Accordingly, both a wild horse and a wild or natural nigger is dangerous even
if captured, for they will have the tendency to seek their customary freedom,
and, in doing so, might kill you in your sleep. You cannot rest. They sleep
while you are awake and are awake while you are asleep. They are dangerous near
the family house and it requires too much labor to watch them away from the
house. Above all you cannot get them to work in this natural state. Hence, both
the horse and the nigger must be broken, that is break them from one form of
mental life to another, keep the body and take the mind. In other words, break
the will to resist.
Now the breaking process in the same for
the horse and the nigger, only slightly varying in degrees. But as we said
before, you must keep your eye focused on the female and the offspring of the
horse and the nigger.
A brief discourse in offspring
development will shed light on the key to sound economic principle. Pay little
attention to the generation of original breaking but concentrate on future
generations. Therefore, if you break the female, she will break the offspring
in its early years of development and, when the offspring is old enough to
work, she will deliver it up to you. For her normal female protective
tendencies will have been lost in the original breaking process. For example,
take the case of the wild stud horse, a female horse and an already infant
horse and compare the breaking process with two captured nigger males in their
natural state, a pregnant nigger woman with her infant offspring. Take the stud
horse, break him for limited containment. Completely break the female horse
until she becomes very gentle whereas you or anybody can ride her in comfort.
Breed the mare until you have the desired offspring. Then you can turn the stud
to freedom until you need him again. Train the female horse whereby she will
eat out of your hand, and she will train the infant horse to eat of your hand
also.
When it comes to breaking the uncivilized
nigger, use the same process, but vary the degree and step up the pressure so
as to do a complete reversal of the mind. Take the meanest and most restless
nigger, strip him of his clothes in front of the remaining niggers, the female,
and the nigger infant, tar and feather him, tie each leg to a different horse
faced in opposite directions, set him a fire and beat both horses to pull him
apart in front of the remaining niggers. The nest step is to take a bullwhip
and beat the remaining nigger male to the point of death in front of the female
and the infant. Don't kill him. But put the fear of God in him, for he can be
useful for future breeding.
THE BREAKING PROCESS OF THE AFRICAN WOMAN
Take the female and run a series of tests on her to see if she will submit to
you desires willingly. Test her in every way, because she is the most important
factor for good economic.
If she shows any signs of resistance in submitting completely to
your will, do not hesitate to use the bullwhip on her to extract that last bit
of bitch out of her. Take care not to kill her, for in doing so, you spoil good
economics. When in complete submission, she will train her offspring in the
early years to submit to labor when they become of age. Understanding is the
best thing.
Therefore, we shall go deeper into this
area of the subject matter concerning what we have produced here in this
breaking of the female nigger. We have reversed the relationship. In her
natural uncivilized state she would have a strong dependency on the uncivilized
nigger male, and she would have a limited protective dependency toward her
independent male offspring and would raise female offspring to be dependent
like her. Nature had provided for this type of balance.
We reversed nature by making him dependent like her. Nature had
provided for this type of balance. We reversed nature by burning and pulling
one civilized nigger apart and bull whipping the other to the point of death--all
in her presence. By her being left alone, unprotected, with male image
destroyed, the ordeal cased her to move from her psychological dependent state
to a frozen independent state. In this frozen psychological state of
independence she will raise her male and female offspring in reversed roles.
For fear of the young male's life she will psychologically train him to be
mentally weak and dependent but physically strong. Because she has become
psychologically independent, she will train her female offspring to be
psychological independent as well. What have you got? You've got the nigger
woman out front and the nigger man behind and scared. This is perfect situation
for sound sleep and economics. Before the breaking process, we had to be alert
and on guard at all times. Now we can sleep soundly, for out of frozen fear,
his woman stand guard for us. He cannot get past her early infant slave molding
process. He is good tool, now ready to be tied to the horse at a tender age. By
the time a nigger boy reaches the age of sixteen, he is soundly broken in and
ready for a long life of sound and efficient work and the reproduction of a
unit of good labor force.
Continually, through the breaking of
uncivilized savage niggers, by throwing the nigger female savage into a frozen
psychological state of independency, by killing the protective male image, and
by creating a submissive dependent mind of the nigger male slave, we have
created an orbiting cycle that turns on its own axis forever, unless a
phenomenon occurs and re shifts the positions of the male and female savages.
We show what we mean by example. We breed two nigger males with two nigger
females. Then we take the nigger males away from them and keep them moving and
working.
Say the nigger female bear a nigger
female and the other bears a nigger male. both nigger females, being without
influence of the nigger male image, frozen with an independent psychology, will
raise him to be mentally dependent and weak, but physically strong...in other
words, body over mind. We will mate and breed them and continue the cycle. That
is good, sound, and long range comprehensive planning.
WARNING: POSSIBLE INTERLOPING NEGATIVES
Earlier, we talked about the non-economic good of the horse and the nigger in
their wild or natural state; we talked out the principle of breaking and tying
them together for orderly production, furthermore, we talked about paying
particular attention to the female savage and her offspring for orderly future
planning; then more recently we stated that, by reversing the positions of the male
and female savages we had created an orbiting cycle that turns on its own axis
forever, unless phenomenon occurred, and re shifted the positions of the male
and female savages.
Our experts warned us about the
possibility of this phenomenon occurring, for they say that the mind has a
strong drive to correct and re correct itself over a period of time if it can
touch some substantial original historical base; and they advised us that the
best way to deal with phenomenon is to shave off the brute's mental history and
create a multiplicity of phenomenon or illusions so that each illusion will
twirl in its own orbit, something akin to floating balls in a vacuum. This
creation of a multiplicity of phenomenon or illusions entails the principles of
crossbreeding the nigger and the horse as we stated above, the purpose of which
is to create a diversified division of labor. The result of which is severance
of the points of original beginning's for each spherical illusion. Since we
fell that the subject matter may get more complicated as we proceed in laying
down our economic plan concerning the purpose, reason, and effect of
cross-breeding horses and niggers, we shall lay down the following definitional
terms for future generations.
What this means is this: Put the niggers
and the horse in the breeding or, mix some asses and some good white blood and
what do you get? You got a multiplicity of colors of ass backwards, unusual
niggers, running, tied to backwards ass long headed mules, the one productive
of itself, the other sterile. (The one constant, the other dying. We keep
nigger constant for we may replace the mule for another tool) both mule and
nigger tied to each other, neither knowing where the other came from and
neither productive for itself, nor without each other.
CONTROLLED LANGUAGE Cross-breeding
completed, for further severance from their original beginning, we must
completely annihilate the mother tongue of both the nigger and the new mule and
institute a new language that involves the new life's work of both. You know,
language is a peculiar institution. It leads to the heart of people. the more a
foreigner knows about the language of another country the more he is able to
move through all levels of that society.
Therefore, if the foreigner is an enemy
of the country, to the extent that he knows the body of the language, to that
extent is the country vulnerable to attack or invasion of a foreign culture.
For example, you take the slave, if you teach him all about your language, he
will know all your secrets, and he is then no more a slave, for you can't fool
him any longer and having a fool is one of the basic ingredients of and
incidents to the making of the slavery system.”
**By The Black Arcade Liberation Library;
1970 (recompiled and reedited by Kenneth T. Spann
In my search for the Weldon’s roots in
America, I could not began to comprehend the awesome and permanent effect the
slave making process has had on Africans living in America. Great Grandfather
Cyrus Weldon lived under these conditions and survived to produce a family that
is still expanding in the American interior.
To take a human being and make him
completely dependant on a master from birth to death is a despicable and
monstrous crime against humanity.
On Monday morning I headed for a place called Okemah that
was about forty miles from Shawnee. I wanted to check the records there to see
if I could get a copy of Cyrus’s death certificate. Okemah is the County seat
for Boley and is named for the Creek chief Okemah meaning “Big Chief.” Two of Okemah’s most noted residents were
Leon Chase Phillips, 11th governor of Oklahoma, and noted American
songwriter Woody Guthrie. Guthrie Oklahoma played a major role in our family.
It was the place where the Church of God, the Evening Light Saints, was
located. Our grandparents and mother were members of that particular religious
sect.
The Okemah County Courthouse is where the records were
kept for recent history but they had no records dating back to the 1800’s. They
gave me the telephone number for the Vital Statistics and Record Office in
Oklahoma City. I would have to go there to find any information on Cyrus
Weldon. I did not see one black face in this little three-story building. There
were a number of old white women who looked at me strangely but they were
courteous.
Okemah is located at the junction of highway 40, 56, and
62. I had looked up several graveyard locations in the area on the Internet and
so I decided to check out one that was nearby. I was looking for the Sand Creek
Cemetery and mistakenly though the one I found there was it. However, it was
called Highland Cemetery. I spent about an hour walking through Highland. There
were a few Weldons buried there but no (Sy) Weldon. At that time, I didn’t know
that Sy Weldon was really Cyrus Weldon.
After I left Okemah, I headed for a cemetery called St.
Emanuel South that was about 3 miles south of Boley. It was a new cemetery
adjacent to the St. Emanuel Baptist Church. I would later find out that there
were two other older cemeteries that were further down the road from the
church. On Thanksgiving Day, our cousin Pam Ramsey and her brother, Amos
Stevenson, helped me search those two. They were really old. I had to trap
through tall grass and weeds. The stick bushes were scattered throughout the
field. They provided a nasty sting when you got too close.
On that same day, Monday, I continue on to Boley to look
for Cyrus’s grave. I was told that he was buried somewhere near Boley by my
grandfather’s nieces who lives in Bakersfield, California. She thought it would
be either at St. Emanuel North near Boley or Sand Creek that was near highway
40 and 56.
I drove through Boley. It’s now a historical landmark.
Some of the old buildings are still standing. The main street through town is
called Pecan Street. It’s a paved street that eventually turns into a gravel
the further you go inland. The majority of the streets in Boley are gravel. I
passed by the school and the church my father attended. There appeared to be
some drug dealing happening on the main street. I got out of the car to take a
look at a historical marker near the community center, and a poorly dressed
black woman in her late thirties approached me and ask for five dollars. She
appeared to be on drugs or alcohol. Some of my relative told me later that
drugs were a big issue for Boley.
One of the young residents pointed me to the direction of
the cemetery that was north of town. The first one I stopped at was the
Evergreen Cemetery that was located about a half mile off the main highway 62.
It was well maintained. There was no Sy Weldon buried there. I traveled further
down the road and stopped a white man in a pickup to ask about the cemetery. He
directed me to another cemetery that was further down the road. It was called
Rusk Cemetery. It was covered with weeds and dead grass. You could see some of
the older tombstones from the road. If you were driving too fast on the gravel
road, you could easily miss this one.
My father, Isiah Weldon was born in Boley
in 1913. Boley was located in Okfuskee County. The Creek Nation owned and
governed the area until near statehood. The land was allotted to individual
Creek Nation citizens, including the freeman. The capital of the Creek Nation
was Okmulgee until Oklahoma became a State.
My mother, Zeypher Weldon was born in Okmulgee in 1916, which was
the capital of Okmulgee County. Her
mother, Lucy Battle was born in Paris, Texas in 1889 and her father was born in
Texas. Lucy’s father was born in Alabama and her mother, Mary Kennedy, was born
in Texas. Mary Kennedy’s father was born in Arkansas and her mother was born in
Alabama. All of them listed their occupation has farmers. Mary Kennedy was born
in 1865 while her mother and father were born in slavery.
Finally, after walking through the Rusk Cemetery, I
decided to call my cousin by the name of Cadwell. Our cousin Gwen gave his name
and number to me. He is her nephew. I called him and he told me that he was
only five minutes away from me and that he would come immediately. He was
related to me on my father’s mother side of the family. Birdie King Spear
Weldon was Gwen’s Aunt. Her father, Boley Spears was my grandmother’s
half-brother.
Cadwell arrived within a few minutes. His mother was Anna
Spears, Gwen’s sister who lived about a mile from where I was located. Cadwell
had me follow him to the North St. Emanuel Cemetery that was about 1000 yards
north of the Evergreen Cemetery. It was the Boley cemetery. The weeds, dead
grass, old trees, and stick bushes were everywhere. Weeds covered up the
majority of the gravestones. About 20% of the graves were unmarked. On some of
them was just a stone with initials carved in them. I spent the rest of the
afternoon and evening searching for Sy Weldon. The gravesites I found there
that were related in someway to the Weldon have were the Spears, Toles and
Stevenson. Jake Spears Sr. and Anna Spears, my great Grandparents on my
father’s side of the family are buried next to each other.
Jake Spears Sr. was in fact our step great grandfather
because when he married Anna she already had two daughters, Birdie and Mittie
King. Jake raised them as his own.
Mittie King Spears became a Toles and then a Jackson. She is buried near
her mother, Anner. The other Spears buried there in Boley were Aunt Ora, Uncle
Manley and his wife, Tollie, Kytus and Dudley D. Spears.
Cadwell came back later to tell me that his mother, Anna,
wanted me to stop and see her before I left. I agreed. I finished exploring the
rest of the cemetery till almost sunset. Anna Spears Thompson place was about
three minutes away. I stopped and talked with her and her husband for about an
hour before heading back to Shawnee. She looked exactly like Gwen. The
resemblance was overwhelming.
I traveled back to Shawnee by taking highway 62 north
through Paden and Prague to highway 99 south back to highway 40 west to
Shawnee. I was exhausted and hungry so I stopped at the Hotrod Bar and Grill.
They had a sign on the building saying that Karaoke was
there on Friday and Saturday night. That interested me because I am a committed
fan of Karaoke. This place was a real Okie Bar and the owner was nice toward
me. One of the waitresses told me about a good Chinese restaurant down the
street. Being a vegetarian for years, this was the place for me. After dinner,
I caught the last part of Monday night football, read for a while and then went
to bed.
Tuesday morning I decided to go into Oklahoma City to
search for Sy’s death certificate at the Vital and Statistics and Records
office. I arrived just before 11 am. It was packed with people looking for
birth certificates. There were black, whites, Indians, and a mixture of all
three setting in that room. My number was 44. After about thirty minutes my
number was called. I paid the $10.00 and gave the clerk the form with the
information on Sy Weldon. I had them search the records of deaths in Boley between
1900 to 1958. They had no record. The clerk told me to go to the Oklahoma
Historical Society near the State capital. I would find a lot of old records
there that might be helpful. I had one free search left for my $10.00. If found
better information on the dates of Sy’s death, I could come back and have
another search.
The Oklahoma Historical Society is a private membership
organization and state agency dedicated to the preservation and interpretation
of Oklahoma history. It was full of exhibits on Oklahoma history. There was a
large exhibit on black towns, the civil war, the confederacy and the Indian
Territories. In 1934 the federal government transferred the historical records
of Oklahoma’s Indian tribes to the Oklahoma Historical Society. That world-famous
collection is now preserved as the heart of the Archives Division. In addition
to these Indian materials, the Archives preserve a wide variety of records,
from special collections of pioneer missionaries to oral history tapes. All are
carefully stored with the most modern archival methods.
I was directed by the lobby receptionist to the first
floor research library. It was filled with old records and books. They had four
computers to use for Internet research. The staff was extremely nice and
helpful. After looking on the web for information and looking through several
books, I went to the counter to ask for help. The clerk asked me for the name
of the person I was looking for and in what city and county. I told her that I
was looking for a Sy Weldon in Boley Oklahoma in Okfuskee County. She was using
a database called Heritage Quest on her computer.
She was scanning the screen when she said to me, “I don’t
see a Sy Weldon in Boley Oklahoma but I do have a Cyrus Weldon on the 1910
census for Boley Oklahoma.”
My heart dropped to my feet. I was close to tears. I was
overwhelmed with emotion because I had found the name Cyrus Weldon in the
Probate Records of Rusk County Texas. It listed him as a property owner of 160
acres in 1912.
The light in my head went on! Sy Weldon was Cyrus Weldon.
The census of 1910 showed that he was in Boley with his wife, Jayne, and a
stepson, Theo. He was 67 years old, she was 59, and Theo was 39. It showed that
he was born in Alabama and that his father was born in Alabama. His wife was
from Mississippi and her father was from Missouri. Theo was born in Texas and
his father was from Alabama and is mother was from Missouri. They listed their
occupation as farmers.
Cyrus Weldon was born into slavery in
1843 in the State of Alabama. His father was born in Alabama as well. At some
point in his life, he was taken to the State of Texas as slave labor in Rusk
County. His specialty was raising horses and general farming. He met and
married a Choctaw Indian woman named Jayne sometime after the end of the Civil
War. Jayne was born in Mississippi, the original home of the Choctaw Indians.
Her father was born in Missouri.
Our grandfather, Webster Weldon, was
their first child. He was born in Henderson Texas in 1882 or 188l, depending on
which source you use to verify it. He married Birdie King Spear who was born in
1884. Birdie was born in McKinney Texas. Her mother was Anner King prior to
marrying Jake Spear in Texas. Jake Spear, raised Birdie and her sister Mittie
as his own daughters after he married Anner.
The probate records in Rusk County listed
a Cyrus Weldon as the owners of 160 acres of land in 1912. Some of the slaves
were given 160 acres of land at the end of the Civil War. No one seems to know
what happen to Cyrus’ land in Texas. That’s a mystery still under
investigation. Some of our relatives have indicated that the land may have been
stolen from him by some of the white settlers by the use of death threats and
arson.
Notwithstanding that story, Cyrus Weldon,
Jayne, and a stepson name Theo, ended up in Boley, Oklahoma during the 1910
Census. Cyrus was 67, Jayne was 59 and
Theo was 39. Boley was one of the largest black towns of over thirty (30) that
were established in the Indian Territory after the end of slavery.
I had her look up Webster Weldon on the 1910 Census. There he was with
Birdie King and this three sons, Roosevelt, Cornelius, and Jacob. Webster Weldon and his wife, Birdie King Weldon was
living in Boley in 1910 as well. According to the Census, Webster, Birdie,
Roosevelt, Cornelius, and Jacob were living together. Webster was 28, Birdie
was 26, Roosevelt was 5, Cornelius was 3, and Jake was 1 year old. I had
her make copies of both documents for .50 each. My search was over!
I headed for downtown Oklahoma to get something to eat
and absorbed the findings for the day. I had an early dinner at an Italian
restaurant and hung out at Bricktown for a while.
I decided to drive back to Shawnee and see a movie. I was
curious about the new Halley Berry movie called “Gothica.” It was not well
scripted and it never explained what the title was about. It was a poorly told
ghost story. I rated it a 6 out of 10.
On Wednesday morning, it was off to Okmulgee County to
see the birthplace of my mother. I found the Sand Creek graveyard off at
highway 40 on north 56. It was located in Seminole County on Seminole-Okfuskee
County Line. The direction off the Internet was north on 56 from 40 for 0.5
mile, then 1 mile East. The cemetery was on the southwest corner of the
intersection, in the northwest corner of section 34T11n RSE. I used the car
odometer to count the 0.5 miles and turned on the first road that headed east.
I drove for 1 mile, and bingo, there it was, on the right side of the street at
the corner. It was a well-kept cemetery. I spent about an hour there looking
for Cyrus Weldon. No luck! On to Okmulgee. I decided to take 56 north through
Okemah and into Okmulgee.
It was an uneventful drive through wide-open ranges with
plenty of farmland for horses and cattle. Webster Weldon use to tell me stories
about his father when I visited him. Cyrus Weldon was a cowboy. He raised
horses and herded cattle. From Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma the surrounding
environment was always farming.
Upon arrival in Okmulgee I notice a beautiful lake
surrounded by trees. I stopped to take a picture of it. There appeared to be
more small hills in Okmulgee. The buildings in the town were really old. They
had one streetlight hanging in the middle of each intersection. I stopped and
had lunch at a Subway shop before heading for the section of town where most of
the black people lived. It looked a lot like Boley but cleaner. The homes were
old and the streets were paved. I made a stop at the Creek Council House Museum
in the center of town. The Creek Council House represents one of our nation’s
important historic sites. Listed on the National Register of Historic Sites,
the structure was designated as a National Landmark in 1961.
Though the members of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation were
divided during the Civil Was, the tribe made a surprisingly rapid economic and
social recovery. In October 1867, the Muscogee Nation unanimously adopted a new
constitution and code of laws aimed at healing internal divisions through
governmental changes. The Council House was built at the edge of the thick
timber that fringed the Deep Fork. While members suggested several names for
the surrounding town, the Nation’s two legislative bodies, the House of Warrior
and the House of Kings, adopted the name “OKMULGEE.” My mother was born in this
town in 1916. Her parents migrated to this area from Texas.
In 1803, Thomas Jefferson purchased
France’s claim to the uncharted land known as the Louisiana Territory. Included
in this vast region was the land that became Oklahoma. Before it became a
State, the five “civilized” tribes who had been pushed off their lands by the
exploding and expanding white population occupied the land. The tribes were the
Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and the Seminole.
The forced migration of the Indians to
land was so terrible the route became known as the “Trail of Tears.” By 1890,
67 different tribal groups resided in Oklahoma. President Theodore Roosevelt
signed a proclamation that granted statehood to Oklahoma on November 16, 1907.
On September 22, 1903, Boley was formally
established in the Creek Indian lands. It was 80 acres that was donated by a
Creek freedman. Railroad officials, Lake Moore and J.B. Boley, a white man,
contended that Black people could govern themselves, and that a black town should
be established along the Fort Smith and Western Railroad. The town was
incorporated in 1905. Our uncle Boley Spears was the first child born in Boley
in 1905 so he was named after the town. He went on to become the sheriff of the
town.
I decided to head back to Shawnee in the evening. Highway
75 is the main route through Okmulgee. It runs down the state into Texas. A lot
of salves used this route toward the end of slavery to get into the Indian
Territories. It was the slaves on “Trail of Tears” to freedom. A lot of them
died of hunger on the way.
I stopped at two different museums on the way back. One
was a small western museum off of highway 40 near 56. It was filled with 1800
western equipment used by the cowboys on the ranches. The other museum was in
Seminole County. The city was Wewoka Oklahoma. The Seminole Museum was filled
with examples of Seminole life in the 1800. The Seminole Indians were moved to
this area by the federal government during the “Trail of Tears” redistribution
of Indians off the east coast and the southern states area. A lot of Seminole
were blacks mixed with Indian blood. During slavery, a lot of the slaves
escaped into Florida and lived with the Indians.
Back in Shawnee, I had dinner at Denny’s and went to see
another movie. The movie was called “Timeline.” It was about a group of people
being transported back to the 14th century to rescue a family
member. I gave it a 6 out of 10. The fact that I had traveled back in time to
find by great Grandfather made the movie more poignant. Time was different in
Oklahoma. It seems that everything moved at a much slower pace. It could be
compared with the same pace it takes for a plant to grow. The people were
really friendly and never appeared to be in a hurry. Shawnee is located on the
Sac and Fox Indian Reservation lands. It was rare to see or feel any hostility
from anyone. All of the Indian counties had this same feeling, Seminole,
Ofkuskee, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw. It was a comfortable feeling. The
Indians were extremely polite and kind. The tempo really picks up when you get
into Oklahoma County and Oklahoma City. The people are nice but you could feel
more of an edge and the police were more abundant. Compared to Northern
California though, Oklahoma City was serene.
Thanksgiving Day was special. This was day I was to meet
relatives that I didn’t know I had. I was invited to dinner at the home of a
relative’s husband at a place called Castle Oklahoma. It was about three miles
east of Boley. The family was Pam Ramsey’s husband, Floyd, family. Pam and her
son and a friend of her son met me the intersection of highway 48 and 62. I
followed them to Floyd’s sister’s house. It was a very nice home surrounded by
farmland. One of the older ladies there was related to my aunt Ora Spears who
was married to my grandmother’s stepbrother, Boley Spears. There were about
twelve of us and some children. We had a great meal and took some picture. Pam
Ramsey used to be Pam Stevenson. Her grandmother was my grandmother’s
stepsister, Etha Spears Tomlin. Tollie Tomlin Stevenson was the daughter of
Etha Spears Tomlin. She had seven children. Pam was one of the daughters. She
had me follow her to her brother’s house near Boley. His name was Amos
Stevenson, Jr. While visiting him, Amos Tomlin stopped by. He was the brother
of Tollie Tomlin Stevenson. He used by cell phone to talk with June and Mack
Weldon.
It was a wonderful day! As mentioned earlier, Pam and her
brother, Amos, took me to see a couple of graveyards near St. Emanuel South
that I missed. They helped me look for Cyrus Weldon’s gravesite. No luck! Later
that night, I drove back to Shawnee, picked up a Burger King cheese sandwich
and headed for my room. I noted that there was going be a 9:45 showing of “Tupac –the Resurrection” that night at the
local theater. The name of the theater is Jones’ Theater. The movie was a
documentary that was awesome. I gave it an 8 out of 10. If you never heard of
Topac, this is the movie to see.
On Friday, November 28, I went on a tour of the Shawnee
area. The downtown area was really old. It looked like a town in the late 18th
century. Some parts of the area were country clubs with nice big modern homes.
There was a small section called Dunbar that appeared to have a sizable number
of blacks living in the area. It’s not a big town but it’s vibrant with a lot
of small business. One thing it was full of was a church on almost every other
block. The term “bible belt” comes to mind. If Tennessee is the capital of
Christian churches, then Shawnee is running a close second or third. This
entire area explains a lot about our religious heritage.
Later that night, I picked up dinner at a Subway sandwich
shop. I went to Hotrods for Karaoke. It was full of country folks. The music
was mostly country and some hip-hop. It was a young crowed. I sang three or four songs and they were
quite receptive. Of course, I sang country music. That was a first in my life;
to be in a country bar and restaurant singing country music. I felt totally at
ease and comfortable. They were real rowdy but nice people. It was indeed a
strange yet enjoyable experience. I don’t know if that could be duplicated in
California. I have my doubts.
Saturday morning, after breakfast at Ihop, I traveled to
Oklahoma City to see the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. This
220,000- square foot facility has assumed a new national presence as a living
memorial to the indomitable spirit of the West.
This is truly an extraordinary collection of “cowboy”
history in America. It has a permanent art collection, special exhibitions, a
life size old west town, American Cowboy and American Rodeo galleries, The Joe
Grandee Museum of the Frontier West, The Weitzenhoffer Gallery of Fine American
Firearms, artifacts, gardens, heroic-size sculptures, an interactive children’s
corral and Museum Store. It takes more than a half of day to view everything. I
was overwhelmed! It gave me a much better idea of what my great Grandfather
lived through in slavery and after. The admission fee was $8.00.
The next stop was the Oklahoma City National Memorial to honor those
killed and injured in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on
April 19, 1995. At 9:02 a.m. that morning, 168 people lost their lives
including 19 children because of a terrorist bomb. The Museum has displays,
sound effect of the bomb going off, written experiences of those who survived.
The Museum is comprised of three distinct components. The Outdoor Symbolic
Memorial was dedicated on April 19, 2000, the fifth anniversary of the attack.
The Memorial Center Museum was dedicated the following year on February 19,
2001. The Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism was a concept
founded by families and survivors during the writing of the Mission Statement
in 1995. Mission Statement: “Welcome here to remember those who were killed,
those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the
impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and
serenity.
This was truly a moving display of mans inhumanity to man
and the end result. As Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “Violence and hatred
are the attributes of a sick society.” The admission fee was $7.00.
Later that evening I had dinner and prepared to attend a
Rodeo. However, my instruction to find it were not clear and I had no phone
number to reach anyone who would know where it was located. One of our cousins
was riding a bull in it. That was a disappointment. I returned to Shawnee and
went Karaoke singing at Hot Rods. It was another great night of hanging with
the good old boys and girls. It was fun.
On Sunday, I had my pictures developed, went to see a
movie. The “Bad Santa” was raunchy in humor and low life in its setting. It was
funny in places but not cohesive enough. The language was ghetto and dirty. It
was not what I expected. I gave in a 5 out of 10. Later, I had some special
pictures made and purchased some food. I went back to the motel and started to
pack. The journey was almost over!
On Monday morning, I returned to the Vital and Statistics
Records Office for another shot at finding my great Grandfather’s death
certificate. Even with his correct name they still could not find his death
certificate. Later that afternoon I met with Pam and her sister for lunch in
Edmond, Oklahoma. After lunch I followed Pam to Hiram Spears home. He is my
grandmother’s step nephew. He is 81 years old. As a retired railroad employee
he is able to live pretty will on the outskirts of Edmond. I enjoyed talking to
him and learning more about my family.
From Edmond, I headed for the Will Rogers Airport for my
flight home. The flight left on time from Oklahoma to Phoenix but the
connecting flight in Ontario was an hour late causing me not to arrive in
Oakland until almost 1 a.m. I was glad to see my friend Marie waiting for me. I
know transportation to Daly City, the other side of the Bay, but for Marie
picking me up, I would have had to stay over night in Oakland or pay $85.00 for
a thirty minute ride. That notwithstanding, it was great to be home!
Conclusion
Cyrus Weldon is the root of the Weldon
family. He endured slave labor, racial prejudice and bigotry to sustain his
life and to produce a family. We owe our lives to him and Jayne. They were
strong, honest, and industrious. The work ethic was instilled in his son,
Webster, and he instilled it in our fathers, uncles, and aunts. Though our
family did not escape the terrible emotional and psychological damage produced
by slavery, if we know truth about what happened to our ancestors, we can
continue the struggle to correct it and live the American dream. We must stop
the nightmare affects of slavery. Every Weldon should be proud of this family
legacy. They passed the test of hardship, tragedy and inferior treatment. The
future generation of Weldon’ must carry on the legacy. Be the best that you can
be. Do not let their legacy drift in the wind. Never settle for second best!