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Black Diamonds Gathered in the Darkey Homes of the South

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Black Diamonds Gathered in the Darkey Homes of the South --a. B • .• - :::::- - The Old-Time "Darkie," And What Made Him Different That piece in the " 'Round About Maryland" section of this co1umn last Wednesday about John-The-Baptist Hemsley, the 93-year-old "darkie'" of Charles county who had recently died, spoke of the respect in which he was held by white people and gave him credit for being "polite, honest and upright." That was why he was re­ spected. Many of the oldtime "darkies" in all -parts of Maryland were. Don't I remember old "Aunt Millie" at Elk­ . ton; and ''Ned'' Thomas, and "Will" Boulden and all the rest of ..t. them­ "darkies" who were born mote·1o i ~{' the purple than in the black and · who l acted al:ways in their place, with . cou:t1eous allegiance to the whi~ ....- - - -~--~­ up-startish, presumptuous CO!lj and the old ones so devoted, sol so lova'ble in their traits of serv the ,families they considered th~ longed .to! It was a great era f ~ colore·d~ folk-the best and ha! they ever had known or will kn -- --~ ~-- J RaJte.. Book. j I l I l I Wervvn rlf. dterne J!,;b rarv C(Jniversitv o/ 8/Jabama in 2'3irmingkam of the- co1!ege or-arts ana sciences ' fr0m 1907 to 1918, he later served I as ·professor of sociology, devoting his talents to problems of the Ne- . gro race. Since· his retirement in 1934 Prof. Miller ,had spent much of his time developing the university's library section dealing with the Negro race · and writing for newspapers and pe­ . riodicals. Native of South Carolina. i' Born in Winnsborr·, s. C., July 18, 1 : 1863, Prof. Miller .ras the son of ~ Kelly and Elizabe• 1 Miller. His I father was a freed slave. He evi­ denced an unusual precocity while 11 attending school in his home State, and showed such an aptitude for mathematics that his family sent him to Washington to attend How­ ard Preparatory School. He was graduated from the uni­ versity in 1886 with a B. A. degree, attended the gloaduate school of Johns Hopkins University for two · years, and returned to Howard to receive his master's degree in 1901. · For several months thereafter he taught in the newly-founded Wash­ ington high school. l Kelly Miller Dies; Prof. Miller began teaching at Howard while still studying for his master's degree, was made a regular I member of the faculty in the earlv 1 Former Howard U. 90s, and supervised a committee ap._ pointed at that time to revamp the ArJs ·College Dean curriculum of the school. ' I Began Writing. -~ During his term as dean of the Associated With School college of arts and _ sciences, he taught and headed the department Almost 50 Years as 1 of mathematics. He later trans- Student and Teacher 1 ferred to the department of sociol- 1 ogy, and became distinguished as a logician and thinker and began ·the Kelly Miller, former dean of the writings which made him famous. college of arts and sciences and re- I Among his works were "Race Ad­ tired professor of sociology at How­ justment," published in 1908 and t 1 ard University, whose mathematical "~ut of. the House of Bondage," proficiency and writings made him prmted ln 1914, both later being , one of the outstanding Negro edu­ use~ ~s sociology texts in many uni- J cators qf the day, died yesterday at vers1tles. Among his many pam- ~ his home, 2225 Fourth street N .W ., phlets was one entitled "The Dis­ after a week's illness following a grace of Democracy," an open letter heart attack. He"was 76 years ago. I to President Wil.s.on, which ran to · Associated with Heward as stu- I more than 250,000 copies and was dent and teacher for almost 50 printed in the Congressional years, Prof. Miller was instrumental Record. I in bringing the school to its present Subsequently, Prof. Miller wasi made a. member of the American. 1 position of prominence among Ne­ gro instit~tions _of learni!_lg. Dean Academy of ·~ Political and Social S~i~n_£~. _the American SociQlog_i~ Society, the American AS.socfation , for the Advancement . of Science, the National Educational Associa­ tion, the American Negro Academy .and the Walt Whitman Interna­ ltional Fellowship. Most Distinguished Alumnus. _ 'I He was regarded as Howard University's most distinguished ' alumnus. Informed of pis death yesterday, Mordecai Johnson, president of Howard Universi4ir. said, "Prof. Miller will be gre¥.riY missed, par­ ticularly by Howard University, where he ran the gamut of edu­ cation from the school's infancy to its present status." He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Annie May Miller; two sons, Dr. Kelly Miller, jr., of New York City and Paul Butler Miller of Washing­ ton; two daughters, Mrs. Irene M. Reid and Miss May Miller, both of this city, and a brother, Robert G. Miller of Winnsboro. •. Funeral services will be heldrat 1 p.m. Tuesday in Andre\Y Rankin Memorial Chapel at Howard Uni­ versity, with burial in Lincoln Me­ morial Cemetery. AN EX-SLAVE PASSES AWAY "Unci~ Henry" Thomas Henry Butler, a fonner slave, owned by the late Dominic Mudd, of near White Plains, Charles County, Md., died at the residence of Mr. and Mrs: Harry A. Sweeney, near Ac-cokeek, Md. on Monday, Oct. 23rd. He was nine years old when set free by ·the Proclamation-having been born Oct. 5, 1852, near- White Plains. He was the ·son of the late Harry and Rebecca Butler. Soon af­ ter the slaves were set free he went to Washington where he stayed until he became of age. Forty-seven years ago he went to work for the late Thomas M. Underwood, where he re­ mained until 1919 when Mr. Under­ wood retired. "Uncle Henry," as he was familiar­ ly known, then went to live in a small bungalow on the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Sweeney, and here he stayed 21 years -working on the farm until a few years ago. He was a type of the colored race that is fast passing away. He knew his place and was well thought of by j many prominent people. "The whites are better to me than the colored" was a familiar expression with him. He was honest and God-fearing and lived up to his faith, that of a Roman Catholic, and received his last com-! munion a very short while before t passing away. He was married twice and the father of 16 children-both I wives and 13 children predeceasing him. · His funeral was held Wednesday I at St. Mary's Chul'!ch, Piscataway, with Rev. John Horstcamp officiating. Uncle Henry was devoted to his· young mistress, "Miss Sally" as he I called Mrs. Sweeney. She adminis- 1 tered to his wants t'hrough a colored man, and personally" gave him his medicine. 1 DEATH :OF. JOH·~ WELDON. ~s-a7es~llt of~hfs1ndusfry and ·; ~ thriftJ he accumulated a modest com- John Wel~Qn,. pne· · ~f · th~ .· mo~t petenc}) sufficient to support himseif widely and fayotably liU:ow·n 'men of: and his wife after his productive his clas_s. aud:·i:ace- in .Ptin."c~' _9eorge's . \ days. ~-ere over. His example should County, Maryl-and; ctfed .,. at five I have ' been au inspiration to ·the o'clock. last Friday mor.ning, June colored people generally in our 19, 1925, in the cottag~ · wh,ich ab'out county, who, however, 11ave not al­ three years'· ago he -diad~~- . himself wayS' appreciated, and . more rarely buu·. in "·which to pfi'sS: _his reniaining have followed,the good advicewhich1 years with his wif ~- -§~ .~~ / he so frankly gave) th?ugh ~e wasf John was born a s~ave on the a leader among them. :·. ".Maple Shade Farm,':·. ~13qwie _ Dis"- / John was preeminently a sturdy trict, _ on the 25th of--. Apr1t· .18 53, , product of the "Old. · ~ _outh." He was , ~s master having been.' '" RO:bert I of a sin~· ularly kindly disposition, Bowie, Esquire, who ~as the ~:soii of scrupulously honest · ;fair and re­ Mr. and Mrs. Walter w..:;• W'_.. Bowie liable in' all of his· dealings, gener­ Fifty ·years ago he mari~{ed - ~~~fi:;ty'; ous, ~haritable, and neighboi·ly to '~"ackson, · who, with ~Jen .:o): ~ tlleir a fault. His polite and affable man­ t ·elve children, surviv~s :' ilim .....He ners always . retained for him the wa ~ orphaned at teU: . Y~a~· ~ ~f age universal respect of his white neigh-: and from that tiri1e ··· un . ill~,.., th re~ bors, to whom he ever remained year ago, when he _< b,¥ pe.:; d_!_s~ bled \ lo:al, and away fro~ who~n he never to wo ·k regularly, )}is H(e ~n:.s one g1 ew. The . esteem m which he was of un ·easing toil. Possess{ng· a !held also by members of his own natur~ll · brigh~ - ~n,~~ll~t" al~d.- an in- /race was attested by thei.r unusually dustnons ·bent, . IIJ :.' r_?n " the ga·mut ,lar?e attendance at l11.1s funeral •. from stab ~ boy, c.arriage driver, jwhich was conducted by the Knights general far '1 ha_ng, farm ... tenant, iof St. John .283, of whic~ he was a. and finally p 'l'Chasfng a sma ll farm rmember, there being JctlSO present a near ~ his bir · h '··· place. se;enteen I large representation from Knig htsj years ago he so i his farm . but not of St. John 109 and the Women ' s ·~ seeking office a ·SO many 0 ~ . his Auxiliary ~f Washington, D.
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