BLACK HISTORY NEWS & NOTES
NOVEMBER 2001 NUMBER 86 “Probably a Thousand Cats Are Using Their Thumbs”: A Brief Biographical Sketch of Wes Montgomery Andrew M. Mills Jazz historian Ted Gioia observed legacy. Often forgotten in all of these that modem jazz artists “developed accolades, however, is the story of their own unique style, brash and un- Wes Montgomery’s stmggles during apologetic, in backrooms and after his early years in Indianapolis. For hours clubs, at jam sessions and on tunately, some sense of those days can the road with traveling bands.” The be regained through examination of earliest performers of this brand of existing interviews; the most impor music “were, at best, cult figures from tant, perhaps, in Jazz Monthly in May beyond the fringe, not household 1965. names.”1 According to Gioia, a few Bom in Indianapolis on 6 March of these fringe musicians would pass 1923, the musician was originally on to musical greatness, their work named John Leslie Montgomery. He Wes Montgomery. Indianapolis coming to define a particular brand adopted the name Wes later in life. Recorder Collection, IHS C8806 of music for generations to come. Montgomery never received any for discovering “that was more trouble Perhaps no other modem artist fits mal musical training. He could not than I’d ever had in my life! I didn’t Gioia’s description more accurately read notation or chord symbols want to face that. It let me know than jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. throughout his entire life. At twelve where I really was. It was disappoint A humble man, Montgomery once his brother bought him a tenor guitar ing.” Fortunately, the future India observed of his unique thumb-play that had four strings. At nineteen a napolis jazz great discovered the ing style, “Probably a thousand cats life altering experience occurred. By process was eventually inspiring as are using their thumbs-only they’re chance, Montgomery happened to well. He recalled, “With a little drive not in Indianapolis.”2 The Hoosier na hear jazz guitarist Charlie Christian’s within myself, I stayed on the inspir tive labored for many years in rela Solo Flight. Later in an interview he ing side. Because there’s been so tive obscurity, achieving popular explained, “When I heard Charlie many cats that buy a guitar, pluck notoriety before his sudden death in Christian, I didn’t know what to think, around for a week, and then it’s hang 1968 at age forty-five. because I hadn’t heard anything like ing up. He’ll never touch it no more. Despite Montgomery’s short life, that. I hadn’t even heard Reinhardt It only means that it crosses your his accomplishments place him in the yet. Christian got me all messed up.”4 mind first - as a thought. When you range of musical genius. Indeed, of Up until this point, Wes Montgom come to producing - this is another the handful of musicians who define ery had seldom played the guitar, but side altogether. But this is the sincere the art of modem jazz guitar, three he liked Charlie Christian’s sound so side of it. Either you will or you names, Django Reinhardt, Charlie well that he went out and bought a won’t.”5 Christian, and Wes Montgomery, brand new guitar and amplifier. He Kindled by Christian’s musical typically recur.3 Montgomery won soon discovered that learning to play style, the guitarist purchased not only such honors as the prestigious Down- required a powerful commitment. a guitar, but a new amplifier as well. beat Critic’s and Reader’s Poll two In the beginning, Montgomery na Ironically, his decision to play his years running and a Grammy Award ively envisioned that all he had to do new amplified guitar would lead to in 1966. But perhaps the greatest “was to get an instrument, put your the development of his unorthodox homage to Wes Montgomery is the hands on it, and it would come right playing technique. He refused to play reverence in which he is held by other out. I didn’t know about any of the unamplified, and was soon sitting in jazz musicians today and in the con fundamentals or nothing.” When he his house, plucking out notes, con tinued popularity of his recorded tried to play notes, he remembered tent with the process. But what wa,s
BHNN_2001-11_NO86 budding music to him came across as had spent on the amp and guitar, Wes til 5:00 a.m. Montgomery highly val obnoxious noise to the neighbors. practiced diligently. He mainly tried ued the work he did at an Indianapo Montgomery recollected this tense to recreate the Charlie Christian so lis factory. His attitude toward his episode. “I’m sitting in my house los he had heard on recordings. Soon work skills also indicated a holistic playing, you know - happy, but when the talents of Wes and the other Mont sense of art. “I had a good job as a I used my brand new amplifier I guess gomery brothers leaked out to the In welder....Really welding was my I didn’t think about the neighbors. dianapolis music scene. At first, Wes talent...but [music made me] switch Soon they started complaining pretty did not take his abilities seriously and it aside.”9At any rate, the long grind heavy.” It did not help Montgomery’s certainly didn’t consider himself a ing hours gravely affected his health, plight when his wife requested of the professional. Again fate interceded. and Montgomery suffered from would-be guitarist that he “kindly turn A club owner came down the street blackouts. that ‘thing’ off.” What happened next one day and chanced to hear Mont Jazz pianist Don Wilhite, a long changed the sound of jazz guitar for gomery playing. Dumbfounded by the time performer in the Indianapolis ever. “So I laid my pick down on the cool sound, he immediately inquired area, recalled one particular involve amplifier,” Montgomery remem about the humble looking man behind ment with Wes Montgomery and his bered, “and just fiddled around with the guitar. Years later Montgomery brothers during those trying years. the thumb. I said is that better? Oh remembered the incident. “He didn’t When Wilhite got out of the army in yes, she says, that’s better. So I said believe it and I didn’t believe he was the late 1950s, he and another friend I’ll play like this till I get ready to play a club owner, either! - But we got to started a musical advertising business. out, and then I’ll get me a pick. Well, gether and he offered me a job in his One night they went down to the Turf that wasn’t easy either because I club.” Wes was surprised and over Bar just to hear one of many groups found out that I had developed the joyed, recounting, “Wow! Me work that they were scouting for the possi thumb for playing so that when I got ing? And I’d only been playing a bility of using as their staff orchestra. ready to work my first job I picked couple of months.” But there was an It was there Wilhite and his friend up a pick and I think I must have lost other surprise in store. “So I go to the heard this unbelievable band of Wes about fifteen of them!” Now a won club and I find that I’m featured. I’d Montgomery and his brothers. The derful fate intervened. Wes noted, “ I come on and play just Charlie Chris well-trained Wilhite knew a good just didn’t realize that I had to develop tian solos from the records because sound and quickly approached the my pick technique, too. So I said at that time it was all I could play. Of group about playing jingles in the ‘later’ for the pick. I was just playing course the other musicians knew this, staff band. The Montgomery broth for my own amusement so it was but one day I got a hand so big they ers simply could not believe that they great. See, I couldn’t hear the differ wouldn’t let me off the stage. But I were going to be paid thirty dollars ence in the sound as it is today, so I couldn’t play nothing else! It was so an hour. Yet, as Wilhite explained to figured OK, I’ll just use my thumb.”6 embarrassing, so I said I’ve got to go them, the rate was a standard from an Wes Montgomery was not alone back and start practicing.”8 agreement with the Performance in his musical endeavors. He and his Hired to play his unique and ap Trust Fund. brothers, Buddy and Monk, started pealing solos in the 440 Club in In There is a sad part to this story, one jamming to suit themselves around dianapolis, Montgomery was on that Don Wilhite did not learn about the end of World War II. These ses national tour by 1948 with Lionel until fifteen years later. He recalled, sions took place at Montgomery’s Hampton’s band. While representing “Wes’s agent had been booking him, mother’s house every Sunday. Earl national exposure, this gig did little I believe, for sixty-five dollars a week. Grandee, an Indianapolis native, also to further his career or fame. The trav He had kids at the time, and probably frequented these occasions. In an in eling was especially difficult on a man needed the money. Often, his sidemen terview Wes remembered these first who was very committed to his fam made even less. Can you imagine him playful, yet historical sessions. ily. Also, he had a fear of flying that working all day in an Indianapolis “Around 1945-46 we used to have limited Montgomery to driving long factory, then going out and playing jam sessions up to my mother’s in hours to his shows. Soon Montgom four or five hours a night and six days Indianapolis every Sunday. [Grandee] ery returned to Indianapolis where he a week for such low wages? I espe knew all about the piano, all about the played a few consistent gigs to earn cially remember they wanted to make chords and everything, and soon my money. His lifestyle now became ex sure we were pleased with their work, brothers got tired of watching and traordinarily rigorous. In order to sup and all this just for treating them Monk went out and got him a bass port a family he worked from 7:00 fairly.”10 and soon got to playing. Buddy a.m. to 3:00 p.m., then played a gig Once Wes and his brothers started started playing the piano and soon it at a bar from 9:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. playing jingles, Don Wilhite discov got to a regular thing.”7 Afterwards, he played a club called ered an amazing feature; the In order to justify the money he the Missile Room from 2:30 a.m. un (Continued on page 8) Black History News and Notes is a quarterly publication of the Indiana Historical Society Library. Intended in part to highlight the activities of the library’s Black History Program, it is issued during the months of February, May, August, and November. Correspondence concerning Black History News and Notes should be addressed to Wilma L. Gibbs, Editor ([email protected]).
2 “Independence Day?” Fletcher re Sheltering a Famous Fugitive Slave ports abstention by blacks in India Thomas A. Hendrickson napolis on 4 July 1850. Many Part II northern blacks preferred to celebrate “The boldest slaves struck the hardest blow an individual could against 1 August. This was the anniversary the regime; they escaped to freedom. ” — Eugene D. Genovese in Roll, date of emancipation in the British Jordan, Roll - The World the Slaves Made West Indies.8 There were numerous examples of Editor’s Note: This is the second part to the north, six miles west of the town antebellum racism in Indianapolis. A o f a two-part article. The first part of of Westfield.4 young white woman, with approval this article (August 2001) described Why did Overall select Calvin of her widowed mother, married Af Jermain Wesley Loguen ’s flight from Fletcher for help when he was at rican-American John N. Wilson in a slavery through Indiana. Part I pro tacked? Fletcher was strongly against ceremony near Indianapolis in Feb vides information on Loguen’s India slavery but there is no evidence he ruary 1840. When the public heard of napolis protectors, James and Amy personally harbored fugitive slaves the marriage Wilson was run out of Overall, and suggests his possible while on their way north. Like town by a mob. The Indiana General shelterers in Corydon, Salem, Abraham Lincoln, Fletcher until 1862 Assembly dissolved the marriage. Pendleton, and Logansport. Correc considered that race relations were The vote was 61 to 22 in the House tion: In Part I, page 5, the reference hopeless. He believed colonization to and 20 to 14 in the Senate.9 to James Overall’s will is incorrect. African lands was the best avenue for Fugitive slave Louis Talbert would The word estate should be substituted. blacks, free or enslaved. Subscribing have agreed that Indianapolis was a Overall died without a will. to the “compelling fantasy” of colo dangerous place. Talbert was head Thomas A. Hendrickson is a nization, however, was not entirely ing to the South from Canada to re member o f the American Historical inconsistent with being a believer in trieve relatives when he was caught Association and was president of the Underground Railroad, especially at the new train station in Indianapo the Indianapolis/Marion County if one saw Canada as a foreign coun lis and taken back South by his mas Historical Society. The author try.5 ter. Unlike Jerry McHenry in the invites your comments. Please send Fletcher said in his Diary that he “Jerry Rescue” in Syracuse, New comments to 7979 Lantern Rd., helped Indianapolis blacks get their Indianapolis, IN 46256, or E-mail: York, Louis Talbert was not rescued friends or relatives from slave states [email protected]. in Indianapolis. After being taken to into Indiana after Article 13 of the the South he again fled to Canada. In addition to Indianapolis, acts of 1851 Indiana Constitution forbidding Talbert was an expert at what fugi racial violence occurred in several black immigration was enacted but tive slaves termed “self emancipa other northern cities during the ante before it was ratified by the voters. tion.”10 bellum period. Mob actions against This help may have been through the The antebellum-era biography of blacks took place in St. Louis in April purchase of freedom rather than pro fugitive slave John Brown describes 1836; in Washington, D.C., in August viding shelter. Shortly after passage his crossing of the middle of Indiana 1835; in Philadelphia in July and of the 1850 federal fugitive slave leg from west to east in 1847. Brown said August 1834; and in Detroit in June islation Fletcher chronicled that he he bypassed Indianapolis because an 1833. William Lloyd Garrison, the provided money to “travellers” on African-American stranger had most prominent figure in the crusade their way to Canada. Fletcher was warned him of the dangers there.11 against slavery, was mobbed and al what Levi Coffin termed a “stock For some fugitive slaves, Indiana most killed in Boston on 21 October holder” in the Underground Railroad, was safe enough but seen as racist. 1835.1 meaning that he was someone who fi Gilbert Dickey came to Indiana in Where the James Overall family nancially supported the cause.6 1846 and “did well” for nine years lived during the two years after his African-American John Tucker before moving to Canada. A Boston 1836 attack in Indianapolis is uncer was stoned and beaten to death by abolitionist interviewed Dickey in tain. Perhaps it was on the “open drinking and celebrating white men Canada. In reference to Indiana, ground” farther south across from in the presence of a mob in central Dickey stated, “I liked it there, all but Military Park, as cited by the 1870 Indianapolis on 4 July 1845. Tucker, one thing - slavery was there, as it is and 1884 Indianapolis histories.2 In who purchased his freedom in Ken all over the United States. One or two May 1838 Overall bought the west tucky, had lived in Indianapolis for days in the year they acknowledge a two-thirds of Lot 3 in Square 69, many years. Edward Davis, accused colored person to be a man; that is, southwest across Washington Street of throwing the fatal stone, was tried when he works on the road, and pays from the State Capitol and east of the and acquitted. Nicholas Wood, who his tax: all the rest of his time he is a Central Canal construction. [Andrew] continued to beat Tucker with a heavy brute.”12 Jackson Overall, the older son, be spoke after Tucker fell to the ground, Indiana was a discouraging place came owner of this property by 20 was sentenced to three years in the for blacks in the 1850s. The federal December 1845, about the time of penitentiary.7 fugitive slave law of 1850 was Overall’s death.3 In October 1838 Could a factor to Tucker’s beating tougher than the 1793, law and the Overall bought acreage twenty miles have been that he visibly celebrated resident fugitive slave had little 3 choice but flee the country. The 1850 his lawyers successfully proved that dred Conventions.” The so-called law was frightening for the fugitive businessman Freeman was not a fu “conventions” were speaking engage slaves residing in the North because gitive slave. The expenses of the case ments announced by broadsides in it placed summary extradition author impoverished Freeman and because areas where a few white sponsors ity in a United States commissioner, of his fear of a southern victory, he could be found. The two speaking obviating the utility of state habeas moved to Canada in 1862 after the teams reached Indiana in September corpus proceedings or jury trials to first Union defeat during the Civil 1843. A black speaker and one or two release arrested fugitive slaves. It se War.16 white speakers would go to one ham verely punished United States mar One of the most intriguing facets let while another black speaker and shals if fugitives escaped and it of Loguen’s narrative is his statement one or two other white speakers disqualified testimony of the fugitive. that Overall “received and befriended would go to another village. The statute led to a contest between the fugitives, as was his custom with Charles Lenox Remond, a free federal and state courts - a battle that all others who came to him. ” No other black, was on one team. A gifted Af the federal courts generally won. evidence has been found identifying rican American, discovered by Gar Rescuer penalties under the stat any such “custom” or “others,” but rison in 1841, was on the other team. utes were largely ineffective. For ex there is a tantalizing possibility that In the early part of his fabled antisla ample, Benjamin B. Waterhouse was Overall or other blacks in the com very career, traveling westward after convicted of harboring, with a fine of munity protected one of the William attending the Buffalo convention, he $50 and imprisonment of one hour, Sewall slaves. While Sewall was was Frederick Bailey, still a fugitive, in the United States Court in India passing through Indianapolis with passing under his adopted name of napolis in December 1854. The maxi slaves in 1829, ostensibly on the way Frederick Douglass. With Douglass mum jail term for a rescuer under the to Missouri, a slave state, his slaves were white speakers William A. 1793 law was one year and under the absconded. Sewall was able to re White and George Bradbum. The 1850 law six months; the maximum cover and sell several of his slaves, white speakers with the Remond team fine under the 1793 law was $500 and but there is an implication in his di were Sidney Howard Gay, later man under the 1850 law $1,000, and a ary that one of the slaves remained aging editor of several New York City $ 1,000 civil penalty was added. Com unrecovered in Indianapolis.17 newspapers, and James Monroe, who mon law damage recovery by the The national cmsade for immedi became a United States diplomat and slave owner was a less ineffective ate and uncompensated abolition of an Ohio congressman. Edwin Fussell, remedy. A slaveholder recovered slavery had its birth in the insurrec a Pendleton physician, accompanied $2,856 damages in the U. S. Court tionist appeal published by African- the Remond team to Indianapolis. in Indianapolis following loss of American David Walker in Boston in As the Hundred Conventions slaves spirited away in Michigan 1829, William Lloyd Garrison’s call teams moved westward, the white and and South Bend.13 for immediate emancipation in the black speakers contended with their Conditions were little better for the 1 January 1831 inaugural issue of The agendas and priorities, as well as with free black than for the fugitive slave. Liberator, and in reaction to suppres mobs. John A. Collins, who was There were few jobs, especially after sion of the Nat Turner Insurrection in white, sought to advocate for commu the 1857 recession. The Indiana Con spring 1831. There was a surge in nal property and abolition at Syra stitutional Convention debated activity of the crusade during 1843. cuse, New York, in July. George whether free blacks should be newly Early in 1843 a minority group of Bradburn became irritated at deprived of the right to own prop abolitionist Quakers including Levi Douglass when the latter left the tour erty.14 Article 13 of the 1851 Indiana Coffin split off from their orthodox to attend the Negro Convention in Constitution prevented immigration brethren. In May 1843 the New Buffalo in August. At the meeting of of free blacks. Article 13 was subject School Presbyterian Church required the Indiana State Anti-Slavery Soci to referendum separate from the rest its ministers to speak out against sla ety at Jonesboro on 21-23 September of the Constitution and was approved very. After some procrastination, 1843, Douglass and Remond became by 85% of the voters. Interstate move Henry Ward Beecher preached a angry when they believed that ment was sorely restricted. For in moderate antislavery sermon in India Bradbum’s priority was not the issue stance, if the freedom of a Kentucky napolis, possibly the first ever in that of slavery. Parenthetically, Loguen relative were purchased, the relative location. In August 1843 a National believed in accommodating the mul had to leave Kentucky,15 while Indi Convention of Colored Citizens was tiple objectives of white reformers. ana law prevented the relative from held in Buffalo, New York, and del He also felt women had a part in the coming into Indiana. Census figures egate Jermain Loguen and Indianapo crusade. He said “All true temper show that during the 1850s the slaves lis activist John G. Britton, in ance men are also abolitionists and in the South increased about 25%. In company with Frederick Douglass abolitionists are all temperance men the same period Indiana black popu and other prominent black crusaders and women.”19 lation remained flat at about 11,000. heard the insurrectionist speech of While Douglass was attacked and The John Freeman case is an ex Henry Highland Garnet.18 his hand permanently injured at ample of the dilemma faced by free In 1843 the antislavery societies in Pendleton, these tours were influen blacks in Indianapolis during the Massachusetts and New York tial in the crusade against slavery. 1850s. In a celebrated case in 1853 launched a crusade entitled the “Hun Such an injury and mob suppression 4 of free speech discredited slavery ing only about five women. Even if Otherwise the code was in effect and sympathizers. Public letters to Bos one allows for some exaggeration by persisted after slavery ended. The ton and New York City antislavery Fussell, these were not inconsiderable only ppst-slavery book specifically newspapers from speakers Gay, numbers for what was probably a naming more than a few fugitives as White, Bradbum, and Fussell vividly workday. Historian Jacob Piatt Dunn, sisted is the 1872 book by black Phila described the tours. The Douglass Jr. guessed that the Indianapolis popu delphian William Still.22 Still served team turned south and east after his lation three years later was only the Philadelphia underground com mobbing in Pendleton, and the 4,000. Fussell was pleasantly sur mittee. In an antebellum journal, he Remond team went on west about fif prised by the good policing of the lis listed several hundred fugitives, in teen miles to Noblesville, where a teners, preventing the speakers being cluding many he sent on to Loguen’s mob drove Remond and his col pelted with eggs and other “provi station in Syracuse. Levi Coffin, op leagues from the courthouse.20 sions,” but he sensed there was a erating in Indiana from the late 1820s The Remond-Monroe-Gay-Fussell “coldness” in the crowd. He reported and early 1830s and from Cincinnati team spent the night in the Quaker that Gay “made a strong speech on in 1847, wrote a landmark book also, stronghold of Westfield, six miles the political bearings of the [slavery] but seldom mentioned any fugitives west of Noblesville and about eigh question.” Likely the phrase “politi by name. Coffin says a black under teen miles north of Indianapolis. The cal bearings” was Fussell’s way of ground existed before he helped in next stops scheduled were Indianapo saying that Gay leveled shame on all these locations but said that he and lis and ten miles farther south at the political parties over slavery. The his Quaker colleagues helped orga Greenwood on 29 and 30 September, audiences were “shaken with laugh nize it better.23 respectively, but because of a report ter” by Monroe, whose wit and satire The Emancipation Proclamation of two hundred men on horseback had already been reported on the tour. and the evident value of Union black training to mob them, the team Fussell took courage from the “unex troops brought respectability in the changed their plans. They left pected success of the convention.” North to the Underground Railroad, Remond in Westfield to speak further, “This was the great pro-slavery cita and by 1864 claims of having been while Gay and Monroe spoke at In del of this State; and we ‘shout, shout an abolitionist began to be “as plenty dianapolis and Greenwood, at each aloud’ that a breach has been made as roses in June.” In an euphoric state location a day or two earlier than in its walls.” over the success of their efforts and scheduled. While they probably knew about in the mistaken belief that Recon Gay reported “it was thought not the lectures, there is no evidence that struction and racial harmony would safe for Remond to go with us, or even Fletcher and his law partner Ovid continue and improve under the 13 th, safe, that we should enter the city until Butler attended the event. Perhaps 14th, and 15th amendments of the men had been sent forward to ascer they did not want to hear the stridency United States constitution, most ar tain the state of affairs. We spoke both of the Garrisonian speakers advocat dent white abolitionists still living had in the morning and the afternoon in ing immediate emancipation even at generally left the black freedom cru the State House yard, and though the price of northern disunion, nor sade in smug satisfaction by 1870. there were some hints of a mob, and about the United States Constitution Unlike most other prominent aboli some indications of one, no distur being a proslavery document, nor tionists, Frederick Douglass contin bance occurred. It was the first anti why voting and politics should be ued the fight for rights. slavery meeting that ever was held shunned. Years later Monroe con From 1890 to 1950 Professor in that town.” The Indiana State cluded, perhaps debatably, that these Wilbur H. Siebert and his Ohio State Sentinel of Indianapolis, quoting Garrisonian features were a detriment University students conducted re news from the Richmond Jeffersonian in their antislavery crusade. Douglass search nationally. Initially he sent out [n.d.], panned the racial mixing and abandoned these extra Garrisonian questionnaires on the Underground praised the egging that had occurred precepts by the end of the 1840s. The Railroad. They were sent to states that at the contemporaneous lecture at features lent opprobrium to being an had made up the North. Siebert’s Richmond by Douglass. In regard to abolitionist. As Henry Ward Beecher 1898 book24 and research materials the Gay-Monroe speeches the news said years later, at this time a “man collected in this sixty-year period are paper reported only “A meeting was that was known to be an abolitionist at the Ohio Historical Society. Other held here, a few days since, in the had better be known to have the than William Still’s book, it is the State House square.... It was very plague.”21 most exhaustive resource about the small and passed off without distur Except for a few places like Syra Underground Railroad. Siebert’s bance.” cuse, New York, the Underground 1898 book lists 240 Underground Gay and Monroe spoke in the state- Railroad operated under a code of Railroad operatives in Indiana, but house yard because they could not secrecy. The exceptional Under none for Indianapolis or Westfield. obtain a building, presumably even ground Railroad operations of There is no mention of James Over the statehouse building. Fussell esti Loguen, Levi Coffin, and a few oth all. Siebert tried to get two sources mated the morning crowd at about ers were so well known, and yet well before placing a name on this list. He one hundred fifty and the afternoon enough protected in their communi sought to identify both black and attendance at about three hundred ties, that their activities were flaunted white operators, though in some cases fifty of the “elite of the town,” includ for antislavery publicity purposes. the black conductors were 5 misidentified as being white.25 Before for his lectures, writings, and ser the demise of a movement for black resettle his death in 1961 he wrote many mons. The experience gained him ment, principally to Africa, known from books and articles updating the 1898 faith in the goodness of the people 1817 as “colonization.” Whites thought information for some northern states, who had helped along the way and in blacks inferior. Cruel and chimerical colo but not for Indiana. people generally, regardless of their nization schemes regained strength in the North during the Civil War. Colonization race or creed. He concluded, and it Except for William Still most was seen as a panacea assuaging prevalent shelterers protected ordinary fugitives can be presumed that Douglass northern racism and the fear of a flood of from identification after slavery was agreed, that the Underground Rail black refugees. Lincoln and other politicians abolished. Frederick Douglass main road had not really yet formed when publicly looked at such proposals even tained an Underground Railroad sta Loguen escaped from slavery in 1835. while the pragmatic preliminary Emancipa tion in Rochester, New York, from Loguen’s faith was that his finding tion Proclamation hung in the balance until the late 1840s. He deplored anyone freedom was more heaven-sent than 22 September 1862. On 17 September 1862 connected with the Underground man-made.30 bloody Antietam had revealed to Lincoln Railroad revealing escape details, but that the South needed to be deprived of its ENDNOTES slaves as a war resource and that in due in an 1873 address he revealed the Note: Locations cited are in Indiana unless manner of his escape, including the course black soldiers, principally from the otherwise referenced. South, needed to be brought to bear for the names of the people who had helped 1 Jacob P. Dunn, Jr., Greater Indianapolis North. V. Jacque Voegeli, Free but Not him in Baltimore flee Maryland, as (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, Equal (Chicago: University of Chicago well as his helpers in the North. He 1910), Vol.I, 116, 240 (hereafter cited as Press, 1967), 43-45. Col. James W. had dressed as a sailor, carried a bor Dunn)', Leonard P. Curry, The Free Black Cockrum’s farm was an Underground Rail rowed sailor’s pass, and took a train in Urban America, 1800-1850 (Chicago: road station in southwest Indiana in the from Baltimore to Philadelphia. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1981), 97-98, 106; 1850s. Simultaneously, he cared for free Douglass was loath to identify any of Silas Farmer, The History of Detroit and blacks awaiting transport to Liberia under the perhaps four hundred slaves who Michigan (Detroit: Silas Farmer & Co., Indiana’s colonization program. William M. 1884), 345-46; Paul Goodman, O f One Cockrum, History of the Underground Rail passed through his Underground Rail Blood: Abolitionism and the Origins of Ra road station in Rochester, New York. road as It Was Conducted by the Anti-Sla cial Equality (Berkeley: Univ. of Calif. very League (Oakland City, Indiana: J. W. He felt that the stories of these anony Press, 1998), 97; Wendell Phillips, “The Cockrum Printing Co., 1915) and A Pio mous fugitives belonged to them Boston Mob” (speech), 21 October 1855, neer History o f Indiana (Oakland City, In alone, a position supportable in eth in Speeches, Lectures, and Letters (Boston: diana: Press of Oakland City Journal, 1907); ics and common law.26 Lee and Shepard, 1884), 213-27. and Winthrop D. Jordan, The White M an’s Why did Loguen give Overall’s 2 William R. Holloway, Indianapolis: A Burden: Historical Origins o f Racism in the name, whereas the 1859 narrative did Historical and Statistical Sketch of the Rail United States (New York: Oxford Univ. not identify his other helpers in Indi road City (Indianapolis: Indianapolis Jour Press, 1974), 213. ana? Overall’s death in 184527 does nal Print, 1870), 53; Berry R. Sulgrove, 6 Calvin Fletcher’s account books, which History o f Indianapolis and Marion County, not fully explain why Loguen deter might disclose money contributed to the Indiana (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., antislavery effort, apparently were not pre mined he could in 1859, while faith 1884), iii, 90. Lockerbie reported as of 15 ful to the code, laud Overall as served. Fletcher hired free blacks to work April 1835 that Overall had an assessed in on his farms and in his household and know Loguen’s 1835 protector. Loguen’s terest in unimproved Lots 10, 11, and 12 in ingly employed a runaway slave in 1849. revelations still could have endan Square 30 on West Street, located across He also gave “charity to two travelers go gered the shelterers who succeeded West Street from the northeast comer of ing to Canada” shortly after the passage of Overall in Indianapolis and could Military Park. Overall gave up this interest the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. Gayle have posed a hazard for retaining In before 25 November 1835. Eliza G. Brown Thombrough, et al., eds., The Dairy o f dianapolis as a way station for fugi ing, Lockerbie Assessment List of India Calvin Fletcher, Volume IV, 1848-1852 (In tive slaves. The mystery leads to napolis, 1835, Indiana Historical Society dianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, various possible conjectures, such as Publications, vol. 4, no. 7 (Indianapolis: In 1972), 157, 248 (hereafter cited as diana Historical Society, 1909), 421; Fletcher)-, Levi Coffin, Reminiscences of that by 1859 Indianapolis might no Marion County Deed Records G:42. longer have been such a way station, Levi Coffin (Cincinnati: The Robert Clark 3 Marion County Deed Records J: 193; Company, 1876), 326-27. or that there were brand new India Mortgage Record R: 128. An Overall home 1 Indianapolis Sentinel, 9 August 1845, 2, napolis station keepers, possibly is shown sketched at this site in Indianapo c. 3; Anti-Slavery Bugle (New Lisbon, white, who would not be implicated lis Remembered: Christian Schrader’s Ohio), 22 August 1845, 1, c. 3; Dunn, 1, by publication of the Overall name.28 Sketches o f Early Indianapolis (Indiana Li 241-42; Emma Lou Thombrough, The Ne Siebert and later scholars have brary and Historical Department Occasional gro in Indiana before 1900: A Study o f a pondered about when the Under Publication Number 3, Indianapolis: Indi Minority (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical ground Railroad commenced as a ana Historical Bureau, 1987), 112. Bureau, 1957), 129-30. loose network. The phrase “under 4 164.97 acres, NWI/4 S31 T19 R3E (north 8 August 1st was still celebrated in 1880 in west quarter of Section 31, Township 19, ground railroad” arose sometime in the United States and 1894 in Canada. Range 3 East), 17 October 1838. Marion Fletcher, IV, 192; Earline Rae Ferguson, the mid 1830s, but Siebert suggested County Deed Records G:234, Hamilton “In Pursuit of Full Enjoyment of Liberty that the operation itself began several County; Deed Records K:144, Marion and Happiness: Blacks in Antebellum In decades earlier.29 Loguen gloried in County. dianapolis, 1820-1860,” in Wilma L. Gibbs, his 1835 escape from slavery and fre 5 Modem exceptions (e. g., Marcus Garvey) ed., Indiana's African-American Heritage, quently drew object lessons from it to the rule that the end of slavery marked Essays from Black History News & Notes 6 (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, Canada from 1862 to as late as 1866. quoting from a Beecher discourse on 1993), 121, 133; John R. McKivigan and Fletcher, Vol. IX, 1865-1866, 217. See Wendell Phillips, 10 February 1884. Jason H. Silverman, “Monarchial Liberty Emma Lou Thombrough, “Indiana and Fu 22 William Still, The Underground Railroad and Republican Slavery: West Indies, gitive Slave Legislation,” Indiana Maga (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872; re Emancipation Celebrations in Upstate New zine o f History, Vol. 50, No. 3 (September print; Salem, NH: Ayer, 1992). York and Canada West,” Afro-Americans 1954), 201,224. 23 Coffin was aided by his diaries in pre in New York Life and History, Vol. 10, No. 17 Fletcher, Vol. I, 167 and 84n; Indiana paring his book. Coffin, i, 107, 297-98. I (January 1986, 7). Frederick Douglass Journal, 30 December 1829; Dunn, I, 239. 24 Lydia Maria Child to William Lloyd Gar Autobiographies (New York: Library of Federal Judge Benjamin Parke in Salem re rison, Liberator, 19 February 1864; The America, 1994), 925 (in the 1881-1882 and versed the Indianapolis court decision free Underground Railroad from Slavery to 1893 Life and Times of Frederick ing the slaves. John Goodell, ed., Diary o f Freedom; Coffin, 711 (reporting his “res Douglass); Roger Riendeau and the Ontario William Sewall, 1797-1846 (Lincoln, 111.: ignation” in 1870 after ratification of the Ministry of Citizenship and Culture, An En Gordon and Feldman, Inc., 1930), 126-28. 15th Amendment); Henry Mayer, All on during Heritage: Black Contributions to 18 Coffin, 232; Jane Shaffer Elsmere, Henry Fire (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998), Early Ontario (Toronto: Dundum Press Ward Beecher, The Indiana Years, 1837- 598, 613. Garrison closed the Liberator at Limited, 1984), covers. 1847 (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical So year’s end in 1865, and Wendell Phillips 9 In 1871 the Indiana Supreme Court up ciety, 1973), 174-81, 261; Thombrough, closed down the American Anti-Slavery held additional 1842 and 1843 legislation Indiana in the Civil War Era, 21-22; Society in 1870. nullifying and criminalizing interracial mar Fletcher, III, 259; Howard Holman Bell, 25 Ibid, 15. The list is “Appendix E” therein, riages. Dunn, I, 240. ed., Minutes of the Proceedings of the Na 403-38 (in The Underground Railroadfrom 10 Gwendolyn J. Crenshaw, ‘Bury Me in a tional Negro Conventions, 1830-1864 (re Slavery to Freedom). Free Land’: The Abolitionist Movement in print; New York: Amo Press, 1969). See 26 Still, supra; The New York Times, 11 Indiana (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Merton L. Dillon, Slavery Attacked (Baton March 1973; reply of Frederick Douglass Bureau, 3d printing, 1993), 7, 24, 43; N. Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, to W. H. Siebert, 27 March 1893. New York Huff, “Unnamed Anti-Slavery Heroes of 1990), 208-10; James Brewer Stewart, Holy Microfilm Reel 2 (Monroe Countyj in the Old Newport,” Indiana Magazine o f His Warriors: The Abolitionists and American Siebert Collection at the Ohio Historical So tory, Vol. Ill, No. 3 (September 1907), 133, Slavery (New York: Hill and Wang, 1976), ciety; “copyright,” in The Columbia Ency 137; E. Tucker, History of Randolph County 50-73. clopedia, 5th ed. (New York: Columbia Indiana (Chicago: A. L. Klingman, 1882), 19 Letter of Douglass to Maria Chapman, 10 Univ. Press, 1975), 652. 196; Julia S. Conklin, “The Underground September 1843, "Anti-Slavery Collec 27 “Administrators’ Notice” and “Adminis Railroad in Indiana,” Indiana Magazine o f tion, "Boston Public Library; Black Aboli trators’ Sale” notices Indiana State Jour History, Vol. VI, No. 2 (June 1910), 64, tionist Papers, III, 423-24,13n; William S. nal, 31 December 1845, 4, c. 8. 69-70. McFeely, Frederick Douglass (New York: 28 Another shelterer of fugitive slaves near II Louis Alexis Chamerovzow, ed., Slave Touchstone, 1991), 108, 112; Liberator, 29 Indianapolis may have been white Hiram Life in Georgia: A Narrative o f the Life, September and 20 October 1943; Frederick Bacon, who was said to have hid fugitive Sufferings, and Escape o f John Brown, a Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick slaves in his bam and then conveyed them Fugitive Slave (London: British and For Douglass (New rev. ed. Boston: DeWolfe, to the Quaker settlement farther north at eign Anti-Slavery Society, 1855), 129. Fisk, & Co.), 226-31; letter from Loguen, Westfield. Dunn gives as his 1910-era 12 Benjamin Drew, The Refugee: A North 12 August 1853, Frederick Douglass Papers. source that Bacon’s “daughter, Mrs. George Side View of Slavery (Boston: JohnP. Jewett 20 Letter of Charles Lenox Remond to Isaac W. Sloan, informs me that these trips were & Co., 1856), 251-54. and Amy Post, 27 September 1843, in Black always made in the night, and the secret of 13 Wilbur Siebert, The Underground Rail Abolitionist Papers, III, 416; The Libera his connection with the system was very road from Slavery to Freedom (New York: tor, 13 October 1843 (White letter) and 20 carefully guarded.” Another oral tradition Macmillan Co., 1898), 359-66 [federal fu October 1843 (Gay letter) and 10, 19, 26 has the 1858 Hannah House, on Madison gitive slave laws of 1793 and 1850]; Chi January 1844 (all Gay letters); National Avenue on the far south side of Indianapo cago Tribune, December 1854, in Anti-Slavery Standard, 19 October 1843 lis, as a station on the Underground Rail Anti-Slavery Tracts No. 15. New Series; (Bradbury and Gay letters), 2 November road. Such traditions may be all we have Samuel May, The Fugitive Slave Law and 1843 (Fussell letter). concerning a particular site or event and Its Victims (Rev. and enl. ed. New York: 21 Letter of Charles Lenox Remond to Isaac should not be dismissed without thorough American Anti-Slavery Society, 1861), 43; and Amy Post, 27 September 1843, in Black investigation, even though they may fall Norris v. Newton et al. (Circuit Court, Dis Abolitionist Papers, III, 416; The Libera short of the “separate witnesses” method trict of Indiana, 1850), 18 Federal Cases tor, 20 October 1843 (Gay letter); Indiana employed by Siebert. Skeptics have dispar 322, No. 10,307; [Edward Bryant Crocker], State Sentinel, 26 September 1843; Dunn, aged oral traditions because the stories tend The South Bend Fugitive Slave Case (New I, 100; National Anti-Slavery Standard, 9 to bypass ongoing racial problems, may be York: Anti-Slavery Office, 1851). See September 1843,2 November 1843 (lecture influenced by filial piety, are “bound to be Stanley W. Campbell, The Slave Catchers: schedule and Fussell letter); “Letter from full of inaccuracies,” and the supposed hid Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, William A. White,” as quoted in Thomas den rooms and tunnels of the stations are 1850-1860 (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North D. Hamm, God’s Government Begun: The frequently absent on modern inspection. Carolina Press, 1970). Society for Universal Inquiry and Re Dunn, I, 248-50; The Underground Rail 14 Emma Lou Thombrough, Indiana in the form,1842-1846 (Bloomington: Indiana roadfrom Slavery to Freedom, 15; conver Civil War Era, 1850-1880 (Indianapolis: Univ. Press, 1995), 95; Fletcher, Vol. II, sation with Dona Stokes-Lucas of the Indiana Historical Bureau & Indiana His 1838-1843, pp.534-35; James Monroe, Indiana African-American Genealogy torical Society, 1965), 15. Oberlin Thursday Lectures (Oberlin, Ohio: Group on 19 May 2001; David W. Blight, 15 Ivan E. McDougle, Slavery in Kentucky E. J. Goodrich, 1897), 17-25; Newell Race and Reunion: The Civil War in Ameri (Lancaster, Pennsylvania: New Era Print Dwight Hillis, ed., Lectures and Orations can Memory (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard ing Company; 1918), 115-16. by Henry Ward Beecher (New York: Univ. Press, 2001), 231-37; Larry Gara, The 16 Dunn, I, 244-49. The Freemans were in Fleming H. Revell Company, 1913), 216, Liberty Line: The Legend o f the Under 7 ground Railroad (Lexington: Univ. of Ken pleasure to work with.” Together, the as to suggest that Montgomery is still tucky Press, 1961), 174; Byron D. Fruehling team of Wilhite and the Montgomery the defining point of reference for and Robert H. Smith, “Subterranean Hide brothers produced over a dozen pieces jazz guitarists today.14 Of his own aways of the Underground Railroad in of music. Wilhite lamented, “It was amazing style, Montgomery once Ohio: An Architectural, Archaeological and just too unfortunate that they weren’t humbly noted, “A lot of things that Historical Critique of Local Traditions,” getting nearly what they were worth I’m doing, I have no answer for. Ohio History, Vol. 102 (1993), 98-117. early in their careers.”11 Maybe somebody else can explain it 29 Gail Buckley, American Patriots: The better than I can, so I’ll leave it like Story of Blacks in the Military from the Wes Montgomery’s big break Revolution to Desert Storm (New York: came when jazz saxophonist Cannon that.”15 An Indianapolis original, Random House, 2001), 63. Buckley be ball Adderly heard him perform in an Wes Montgomery achieved his lieves the Underground Railroad was “for Indianapolis nightclub in September unique style through a strange com mally organized in 1838.” 1959. A witness at this momentous bination of fate and Hoosier neigh 30 Letter to Douglass, 8 May 1856, Loguen, event, Duncan Schiedt, reported that borliness. He just didn’t want to 338-41,392. before the first number was halfway disturb the neighbors with his loud through, Cannonball Adderly moved amplifier. Certainly the jazz scene Wes Montgomery to a table directly in front of Mont would not have been the same without gomery. “The next memory I have is Wes’s gentlemanly consideration. (Continued from page 2) that Cannonball leaned way back in ENDNOTES Montgomerys could not read music. his chair, kind of slumped, and rolled 1 Ted Gioia, The History o f Jazz (New This posed no problem as the broth his eyes to the ceiling as if ‘knocked York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 201. ers played back what they heard with out’-which he evidently was. He 2 Valerie Wilmer, “Interview with Wes perfect accuracy. Wilhite recalled stayed rooted to his table the whole Montgomery,” Jazz Monthly, May 1965. how he would go out to the Mont time I was there.”12 Adderly’s inter 3 Charles Alexander, ed., Masters o f the gomery house and play “the parts I est enabled Montgomery to eventu Jazz Guitar: The Story of the Players and Their Music (New York: Backbeat had written out for the jingles, and ally record his first album as the Books,1999). then they would play them back by primary performer: A Dynamic 4 “Interview with Wes Montgomery.” memory. They could do this like a Sound, The Wes Montgomery Trio. 5 Ibid. walk in the park. I would play a By the mid-1960s Montgomery was 6 Ibid. flashy run, perhaps two times, and beginning to earn the acclaim he so 7 Ibid. they would play it back with perfec richly deserved. Unfortunately, Wes 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid. tion and remember it when they came Montgomery died suddenly of a heart 10 Author interview with Don Wilhite, July into the studio in a brand new con attack in 1968. His legacy, however, 2001. text, and with everyone there! It was lives on. Russell Malone in Down 11 Ibid. really amazing. The irony is, they Beat magazine observed as recently 12 Duncan P. Schiedt interview. This inter sounded just like they were reading as July 1999, “Wes was an original view appears on the Mike Sorrenti web site. the music.” Wilhite considered it an and you never got the feeling that he 13 Russell Malone, “The Montgomery Style,” Down Beat, July 1999. honor to work with the Montgomery was trying to confound anyone. I 14 Gioia, The History o f Jazz, 373. brothers and fondly remembered sev liked the fact that Wes played the 15 Jack Duarte, et al., “Wes,” Crescendo eral personal characteristics of Wes whole guitar; beautiful single note Magazine, July 1965. Montgomery. “Wes always had this lines as well as chord melodies. I love Andrew M. Mills, a senior at Jasper High twinkle in his eye, and always a that warm, round sound that he got.”13 School, plans to study creative writing at smile. He was a real gentleman,, a Jazz historian Ted Gioia goes so far Indiana University.
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