Joseph Warren Healy and Straight University

A few years ago I had come across a family history source that stated my great-great-great-great Uncle Joseph Warren Healy had moved to New Orleans specifically to establish a University[1] for educating former slaves emancipated by the Civil War. I had not been able to confirm him and his family anywhere in the 1870 US census in the country including Louisiana where I expected to see them if they were in New Orleans.  Joseph Warren Healy was a Congregational minister and also a former professor who had taught at Topsfield Academy in Massachusetts before the Civil War.  A lot of my information about him came from a Topsfield retrospective discussing what had happened to past faculty over the decades since that time.  I thought that information was very interesting, but anyone can claim to have done something.  Since that book was published after his death and seemed to rely on other’s memories of him, I wanted to find more solid  information if I could.  He was the brother of my great-great-great Grand-mother, Rosina (Healy) Richardson.  Once the Civil War was over Joseph W. Healy who was very involved with the American Missionary Association knew that former slaves who had not been allowed to be educated at all or who has very minimal skills would need the opportunity to pursue higher education and advanced degrees  in order to not only become skilled laborers but also to become professionals with the means to move into the American middle class or to gain whatever social strata to which they aspired.  

You can imagine then how delighted I was to discover this year (while sheltering in place – Thank you Covid-19) on the internet a doctoral dissertation completed in 2013 by Dana C. Hart at Louisiana State University[2]. This dissertation specifically documents the passion J.W. Healy had for education for all, and describes his personal efforts to help create a University for former slaves.  J. W.  Healy’s name shows up consistently throughout the first 200 pages of this dissertation. After that the dissertation moves beyond the time of J.W. Healy’s involvement.  However, this report shows conclusively that Joseph Warren Healy was personally involved in the establishment of the University.  His correspondence with the renowned abolitionist George Whipple[3] formerly a professor at Oberlin College in Ohio and who had moved in 1846 to New York to found the American Missionary Association were documented.  Before and during the Civil War the AMA worked for the abolition of slavery and when that was achieved and the war was over, they continued working to provide educational opportunities to educate those recently freed.  Rev. J.W. Healy came to New Orleans as the Southwest Regional agent of the AMA and also came as pastor to the First Congregational Church of New Orleans in order to support his family.  Technically the school began on June 12, 1868 at the Congregational Church.  But there was a long way to go to get a University up and running.  The AMA was generally funded by donations from lessor wealthy Americans (with exceptions) so it was challenging to raise funds. Also there were colleges needed all over the country so donations had to stretch.  Healy realized that assistance beyond the AMA was needed. Seymour Straight was a wealthy cheese manufacturer from Hudson, Ohio. Dana notes that “Healy began a campaign to secure funding and support for a university in New Orleans and he urged Seymour Straight to lend him time, advice and money to advance the cause of education.”[4]  Hart’s dissertation also documents the discussions that Joseph Warren Healy had with Mr. Seymour Straight[5] to identify and negotiate for the lands and buildings that were purchased.  Healy wrote the Acts of Incorporation for the University as well. 

Joseph Warren Healy

Jane  Hibbard (Clark) Healy

 In addition to working with George Whipple and Seymour  Straight, Joseph Warren Healy also  worked directly with local politicians and other constituency groups and stakeholders including the Afro-Creoles of New Orleans: “the poets, journalists, doctors, lawyers, philanthropists, faculty and civil right activists. “  Having previously established relationships with local afro-Creole leaders, when he set up the Board for the University he made sure that that the Board included professionals, both white and of color.  He was noted to spend time with them all as both professionals and as friends. Hart also notes that rather than imposing his view on the local community, Joseph Warren  Healy “proved so vital and effective in cultivating relationships with the local black communities and the newly formed Freedman’s Bureau that the AMA lent its support to him in establishing a college for African Americans.”  It would seem that while the AMA had limited funds, JW Healy gave them confidence that his goals matched that of the organization.  

Seymour Straight served as the first president of the Board of Trustees. Joseph Warren Healy was the first President of the University. The board designed the school to be integrated right from the start, with both white and black students from around the country – “without distinction of race, color, or previous condition.”  And although the Missionary organization (AMA) that established the college was Protestant, most of the students in Louisiana were Roman Catholic, and Catholic students were welcomed to practice their faith on school grounds.    

When the University was established the AMA and the Freedmen’s Bureau and the free people of color held a ceremony to celebrate the new University and to transfer the ownership directly to the Board.  Reverend Healy accepted the transfer of the property saying “I accept it with the sincere and profound conviction that the educational design of the Government, in the erection and transfer will be faithfully and sacredly carried out.”  Thus in February of 1870 Hart writes that “Straight University officially be began its life as an integrated higher education institution in Reconstruction New Orleans. “

Hart also reports that during the 1870-1871 academic year Straight University had an enrollment of 1054 students of which 656 were males and 398 were female. Joseph Warren Healy was quoted in the AMA Archives of having said that “The purposes of the Corporation are the education and training of young men and women, irrespective of color or race and to that end the Trustees shall have the right to prescribe a course of study, and the power to confer all such degrees and honors as are conferred by Universities in the United States of America.”[6]

From the beginning curriculum was to include Geography (ancient and modern) Arithmetic, English, Latin and Greek, Grammar, Caesar’s commentaries, Cicero’s Select Orations; Homer’s Iliad or other equivalent authors. And just in case someone harbored racist views on the intellectual abilities of the students, the AMA report noted that the tests that the students’ took “vindicate the ability of the colored people to become scholars.”

At the same time, in addition to his responsibilities as President,  Healy also served in the Theology Department as a professor.  He recruited Reverend Charles H Thompson, a black minister and Oberlin College graduate, to help in the teaching duties and to take over leadership of the Theology Department. Once the University was set up the author of this 2013 dissertation goes on to talk about later history of the University.  Joseph Warren Healy fades away from the story.  However, in July of 1872 Joseph Warren Healy surfaces in our family history while visitingSwitzerland where he was vacationing and writing a letter to his sister Rosina Healy Richardson, not knowing that she had passed away almost two months before.  Healy was either raising funds directly for Straight University or directly for the American Missionary Association.  His work was based in London and had arrived in January of that year (1872) where he had worked for the first five months of the year. 

Another source  on the history of Straight University confirms the above but notes that “classes were first held in a congregational church but with the financial support from the Freedman’s Bureau, a governmental agency, that a main school building was erected on Esplanade Avenue and North Derbigny Street (1621 Esplanade). In the same year Straight opened a faculty and student boarding house and dining hall at 315 Claiborne Avenue (now 1423 N. Claiborne).”  This source notes that students  from all over the south moved to New Orleans to attend Straight’s esteemed law and medical schools for just $1 a month.”[7] The Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling changed everything and helped in the demise of Reconstruction, but not of the college.  In the late 1870's – as the Union troops were leaving -- an arson fire destroyed most of the buildings and the College moved to Canal Street.  In the early 1900’s the school merged with another school to become what today is known as Dillard University.  

 Please note that this writer is attempting to summarize the information in this dissertation with emphasis on our family member.  Any inaccuracies or misinterpretations are my own and are not the responsibility of Dana C Hart, the author of this doctoral dissertation.

AN ASIDE FOR THESE 2020 CHALLENGING DAYS --  During these times of racial tension in this summer of 2020 it is good to be reminded that there have always been people of various races, cultures and circumstances who have worked hard to bring about positive change in the lives of other individuals and to our society as a whole. Joseph Warren Healy knew 150 years ago that slavery was indefensible and worked his small part to eradicate it.  Many hundred thousand Americans had fought for the end of slavery during the Civil War and later many worked to try to help provide a means for those freed to obtain the education and resources they needed to provide for themselves and to build a life in true freedom.  There have been many obstacles but Healy’s life illustrates that there are always people throughout our history who have tried to build bridges in society and to hear the concerns of others.  May we continue to work towards an America with “Liberty and Justice for All.”

  

FOR THOSE INTERETED IN MORE EXTENDED FAMILY HISTORY

Joseph Warren Healy was born in 1827 to Nathaniel Healy and Jane (Tabor) Healy.  His father, Nathaniel Healy, was a teacher and came from a family of educators and pastors.  He was apparently an excellent teacher as there were many pastors and educators in his and Jane’s large flock of children.  My great, great, great grandmother Rosina M Healy (born in 1808) was the eldest child.  Joseph Warren was the next to the last child and was born on April 11, 1827.   The daughters in the family were educated just like the sons. The Healy family loved to write letters and writing poetry appears to have been a family hobby. 

 

Nathaniel’s parents (John Healy and Mary (Wight) Healy were originally from Dedham, Massachusetts and Jane’s parents, Church Tabor and Elizabeth (Steel) Tabor were from Rhode Island and Amherst, New Hampshire.  Both of these families participated in the settlement of Washington, New Hampshire where Nathaniel and Jane were raised, met and married.  After marriage in 1807 they moved to South Hero, VT and later settled in Topsham, VT where they lived their remaining years.  Nathaniel died in 1841 and Jane in 1870. Joseph Warren Healy was born while they lived in South Hero, Vermont.  He married Jane Hibbard Clark in 1848.  She also had degrees and taught alongside her husband in Massachusetts. Jane Hibbard (Clark) Healy passed away unexpectedly when she was visiting family in Corinth, VT in 1880.   They were a devoted couple and JW Healy was said to be “prostrated” at her loss.  Shortly thereafter he moved to California and was instrumental in establishing Sierra Madre College.  He then married a widow, Ellen (Young) White, in 1884.  Joseph Warren Healy died and was buried in San Diego on April 26, 1887. 

---

[1] By Original photographer not credited. - Photo c. 1900 via [1]., Public Domain,  -TOP photo on page  https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4201042 -- do not know whether photo is before or after (most likely) fire which burned many original buildings.

 [2] “Toward an Ideal of Moral and Democratic Education: Afro-Creoles and Straight University in Reconstruction New Orleans, 1862-1896”  by Dana C. Hart; Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, 2013  https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3103/

[3] https://www.whipple.org/george/whipplehistory/revgeorge.html

[4] Hart, p 177

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_University

[6] Hart, p 188

[7] https://prcno.org/timeline-straight-university/

 

My Dear Aunt Shirley

My dear aunt, born Shirley Ann Tangen in February of 1945, passed away on March 28, 2020.  Because of all the Covid-19 restrictions, her immediate family was not able to have a service with extended family and friends. I decided that I would share a few memories and photos that I have to celebrate her life. The family may have some these photos but there was a housefire sometime after they moved to Oregon and how many of those were lost or who they went to, I do not know.  My mother, Bernadine, was Shirley's oldest sister and was already married.  In fact, when my parents were getting married in June of 1944, Shirley was a little "bun in the oven" and the parents hadn't told anyone of their suspicions yet. They were waiting until after the wedding! I think a lot of these photos were taken by my parents on their annual visits.  Since Mom was already gone from home, she didn't grow up with Shirley who was twenty two years younger. Shirley was more like an older cousin to me than an aunt.

Shirley Ann Tangen, 6 years old.

Shirley's father, Ole O Tangen, was son of Ole K Tangen and Ella Mae Dokken, who were Norwegian immigrants and came to this country in 1868.  (Ole K's parents were Knut Olsen Tollefsrud  and Guri Johnsdtr Aavestrud who remained in Norway.)  Ole O is the young man on the far left in the photo below.

Ole K and Ella Mae had nine children. Most of their children grew up and many became homesteaders in the Dakotas and many of their descendants are still there.  Ole O (the O doesn't stand for anything other than to differentiate him from his father Ole K) had a homestead there for awhile in Sioux County, North Dakota (1915 census). Ella Mae's parents were Nels Olson Dokken and Kristina (Christine) Trustem.  They had immigrated to the US in 1867.  They settled in Iowa near Hanlontown.

Nels Olsen Dokken and Kristina Trustem.

My mother, Shirley's oldest sibling, said she thought that this is a photo of Ole O while he was in the Dakotas.  She wasn't sure if it was Wisconsin or Dakotas but it does look like Dakotas to me!  Sometime after he began homesteading in the Dakotas, Ole O enlisted in the army in WWI and worked with the military police.  Family lore is that he was part of the security at the signing of the treaty at Versailles but we have found no way to confirm that.  He enlisted in the Army on March 29, 1918  and was discharged on July 11, 1919.

After the war, he returned to North Dakota.  He fell in love with Kathryn, daughter of Charles Vandervort and Mary McCauley.  Kathryn was only a few months old when her mother died of typhoid fever and she was raised by step-mother Ida.  Charles worked for the railroad as a machinist. Charles parents were James Baker Vandervort and Anna Mary McIntyre.  Charles' family could trace linneage back to 1624 in New Amsterdam, now Manhattan.  Mary Ann's parents were Peter McCauley and Annie Lauless, who both immigrated separately from Ireland in the mid-1800's.

VANDERVORT HOME IN TOMAH, WISCONSIN.  Charles Vandervort is in the middle of the photo and  Kathryn, his daughter and Shirley's mother, is the little girl second from the left. Ida (step-mother) is between them.

Ole Tangen

Kathryn Vandervort

Ole and Kathryn were married in 1922 the same year that Ole K passed away.  They left the homestead and came back to Iowa to try to help keep the family farm running. They did what they could to help but were not able to turn it around in time and they lost the farm for taxes.  After that Ole and Kathryn moved to Wisconsin where they would rent farms and work to support their family.  His mother, Ella Mae, lived with them until she passed away in 1942. My mother loved that their grandmother lived with them and was very sad when she passed away.

This was one of the last family photos that were taken right before they moved across the US  to Oregon. No hint of Shirley yet at the time of this photo.  This next photo is of Ella Mae with her son Ole and grandchildren, Bernadine, Marjorie and Bruce.

Shirley was not yet born while the family lived in Wisconsin.  In 1943 or thereabouts the Ole O Tangen Family, two parents and five kids, drove across the country from Wisconsin to Oregon.  Ole was apparently planning on farming but  what he had arranged before they moved fell through..  I believe he ended up at some point working at the Alcoa aluminum plant.  If I find any relatives with more information I will be happy to edit this along the way.

The Tangen family moved to Oregon in 1943 and moved into a house on Division Street in Gresham sometime within the first year or so.  Here is a birdseye view of their property.  I don't know what year this was taken but looks very much like what I remember.  

  

The large building in the center of the photo was a tire company business.  Just above that you can see a long and skinny driveway with a house and garage near the back of the property.  The house sits almost dead center in the photo a quarter of the way down from the top. My parents (my dad was in the Air Force) tried to make sure that we would get back to see family as much as possible. I have lots of fond memories of the time spent there.

 This is sister L along with Shirley at six months old.    

These two  may be the earliest photos of Shirley.  Photo says this is with sister Marjorie and that Shirley is 6 months old.

Shirley's dad Ole was a kind and loving man!!

And this is one of the earlier ones with just Shirley and her parents.  

Easter would have been on April 21st in 1946 so Shirley here could be about 14 months old. Kathryn must have been taking the photograph!

 Shirley and her mom in 1946

Shirley hanging onto the dining room chair.  The table, chairs and buffet came from Ole and Kathryn and my mother said they were a wedding present from Charles and Ida (stepmom) Vandervort.  I think they were to go to someone else after Grandma Kathryn passed away, but after 10 years of the dining room set sitting in my parent's basement unclaimed, I took them and we've lived happily ever after!!  I figured if they ever got claimed I could give them back but no one has asked in 30 years.

 Looking good!!

 Things weren't apparently going very well this fine evening!  

 At some point in time there was a fire in the house.  I don't know if this is some of the debris left over or what this was.  I don't have personal memories of it!

Bernadine with Shirley, along with sister M.

I love this photo of Shirley and her parents.

 Looks like this is birthday #6!

This is the way that I remember the grandparents home.  This is the same house from a different vantage point.  We spent hours playing croquet in this yard.  There was a hammock in the backyard along with an Italian prune tree.  Yum! I can't be sure but based on age I think it is likely that it could be Shirley in the photo or myself on a visit. Most likely Shirley.  This home is where all of my direct memories of Aunt Shirley begin.  

Sister L and M with Shirley in the center! 

 Shirley in 1951 at six years of age.

Around 6 years of age! Center of the photo!

 Shirley at 6 years of age.

This photo says the date is 1954 so Shirley - 4th person from the left - would have been about nine years old.

This photo also says 1954 on it.

 Teenage Shirley with  parents and sister L.

I remember one time we visited and grandma always made huge molasses cookies  - with icing on them - mmmm!.  Shirly is on the left side of this photo and at about that age she "predicted our future" with a needle and thread.  She held the thread and the needle would act like a pendulum.  However times it crossed your wrist and in which directions was the objective of knowledge.  I was supposed to have five children - a boy, three girls, and a boy.  Oh well, so much for that!!  I also remember little bowls of vanilla ice cream with LOTS of Hershey's Syrup.  If Shirley was to rein in the cousins she wasn't very effective.  She had the room that looked out over the garage and she would climb out and sit on the roof.  We thought she was so clever and grown up!  My memories are only for the various trips that we made.

 Same visit with all the sibling.   This was likely taken not too long before Ole passed away from Leukemia.  

 This is a photo of the siblings in 1975 -- oldest to youngest - Bernadine, Marjorie, Bruce, M, L and Shirley.

Shirley was married twice.  With her second husband Alan she had their son who shared his first birthday with them in 1981.

In 1986 this is photo of Shirley at her oldest son's wedding.

Around 1990 Shirley and her husband took a trip to Hawaii

This photo was taken about 1997 at a 50th wedding anniversary party.  Shirley is second from the right.   

(I do not identify names of living people in my blog other than with an initial or just by relationship)

It is sad that Shirley had the misfortune to pass away during this Covid-19 pandemic (of other causes) which has impacted our lives in so many ways.  I am sure she was welcomed into heaven by a large group of extended family and friends but we were unable to give her an appropriate send off. I would have loved to have been there to remember so many things with others who love her. I know that the Lord knows our length of days from beginning to end and was not caught by surprise. I hope that these early photos and memories are a blessing and a virtual contribution celebrating her life. Go with Jesus, Aunt Shirley. He loves you and we love  you as well. You are not forgotten.

The Daunting Task of Finding Generations of Grandparents

This blog has covered a lot of topics over the years so I'll just remind those interested (or that just happen by), that I segued my Lighthouse blog into mostly family history because of inheriting at least a couple of thousand letters.  Most of the letters span from 1880-1930 to and from my great grandmother and her mother and grandmother as well as a variety of their other extended family members and friends. I also spent the last couple of years adding all my Great Uncle George's WWI letters (a separate blog linked here)  from "Somewhere in France."

My husband has been very supportive of this amazing history project and we have made several trips to New England to find relatives.  We started our search at Topsham, VT, then later went back another generation to Washington, NH and then an even further generation back to family in Dedham, MA.  After piecing together a lot of scattered information over the past couple of years and tracking down marriage and death certificates, I was able to document being a direct descendant of Francis Cooke who came to Plymouth, New England, on the Mayflower along with his son John in December 1620.  We have had a lot of fun tracking down and "visiting dead relatives" around New England over the last decade.  They are all really quite cooperative being "at home" when we drop in although they are not much for conversation.

Before 2006 I knew none of this. Our success with this endeavor is much due to the excellent record keeping of the Topsham, Vermont Town Hall which is where we began.  If we had started elsewhere we might have given up long ago.   Several years ago we documented the life and death of Rosina Healy Richardson and her husband Robert Richardson.  Their daughter Rosina Jane Richardson Stevens had lamented in a thin journal of the unexpected loss of her mother in June of 1872.  In the second entry of her journal she talked of having visited "the grave of my mother" and noted that a "stream ran by it."  When we visited the same spot year 146 years later the stream (Tabor branch of the Waits River) was still alongside, chiming over the stones in the river bed on its way to join the Connecticut River as tho no time at all had passed.

It seems like we are making progress as we hunt down relatives and documentation, but as we fill in blanks here and there, at the same time new paths keep opening up to us and what we haven't researched keeps expanding.  Every generation we add doubles the number of parents and so the more we know the more questions come up that need to be answered. The number of direct grandparents keeps expanding exponentially.  Here's how it works.

First generation 1 - just me
Second generation (my parents) -  2
Third generation (grand parents) -  4
Fourth generation (great grandparents) -  8
Fifth generation (g-g grandparents - 16
Sixth generation (g-g-g grandparents (In my case includes Rosina Healy Richardson, the lamented mother and her husband noted  above) - 32
Seventh generation - 64
Eighth generation  - 128 (we are starting to get a lot of grandparents)
Ninth generation - 256
Tenth generation - 512
Eleventh generation - 1024
Twelfth generation - 2048
Thirteenth generation - 4096
Fourteenth generation - 8192  (This is where Mayflower and Francis Cooke come in.)
Fifteenth generation - 16,384
Sixteenth generation - 32,768
Seventeenth generation - 65,536
Eighteenth generation - 131,072
Nineteenth generation - 262,144
Twentieth generation - 524,288
And look what happens at the Twenty First generation - 1,048,576

(To my surprise a distant cousin posted this exact mathematical information on Facebook since I had completed the math on this draft - altho hers was written so it looked like a conifer "tree."  Hers was much more artistic and creative in style, but the info is the same.

Not many of us family history addicts get past thirteen or fourteen generations no matter how far and wide we search (unless one discovers direct royal ancestry and that is usually well documented -- that hasn't happened to me so far), but there is no shortage of little branches that we can explore while looking for yet another elusive grandparent or a flock of grandparents, aunts and uncles.

This last October 2019 we went looking for details for another branch of the family.  Rosina Healy Richardson (the lamented mother referenced above) had passed away in June of 1872.  Rosina was married to Robert A. Richardson, the man whose face is featured in the photo above --taken on  his 80th birthday in 1885.  Robert's father was Robert Fletcher Richardson.  Robert Fletcher R was the son of Zechariah Richardson and Sarah Barnes.  We have not adequately confirmed the identity of  Zechariah's Richardson parents but we were able to establish the connection to Sarah's parents while visiting our living family in Merrimack, New Hampshire.  Sarah's parents were Captain Thomas Barnes and Rachel (Barrett) Barnes of Merrimack, NH.  Rachel lived about 4 years after her daughter's wedding and passed away in 1777 in Merrimack, NH. Rachel and her husband Capt. Thomas were land owners in Merrimack and there is a photo in the Merrimack History Book of their original home. It was later dismantled with plans to rebuild it elsewhere in town but that never happened.  Surprisingly, my brother and his family live only about two or three miles from the site of the original Town Hall of Merrimack and the cemetery where we found our great-great-great-great-great Grandmother Rachel (Barrett) Barnes.

After young Zechariah and his wife Sarah moved to Francistown NH they had several children, one of whom was Robert Fletcher Richardson born on October 17, 1778.  Robert Fletcher Richardson married Dorcas Hardy of Bath, New Hampshire.  Their son Robert A was also born in Bath, NH and later they moved to Topsham as well.  When we first visited Topsham Town Hall we hadn't know the maiden names for either Sarah or Dorcas so it has been fun matching records in these various locations.  Zechariah and Sarah, son Robert F and Dorcas and grandson Robert A and his wife Rosina all began elsewhere but all ended up buried in Topsham, VT.

Captain Thomas  Barnes, when widowed of Rachel Barret Barnes, later moved to Vermont and married again.  He is buried in Pomfret, Vermont.  Rachel is buried in the old Turkey  Hill Cemetery seen below.  Ancestry.com information indicates that there was a smallpox epidemic in Merrimack in  1777 so that might have been her cause of death. They must have been very interested and involved in the Revolutionary War that was underway at this time!  Following are pictures taken of our adventure in Merrimack.   Last photo is of the only Merrimack casualty in the Revolutionary War.

Original Cemetery in Merrimack ,New Hampshire

Original meeting house which was used until 1872 when a new building was built.  Fire destroyed the original building in 1896.

Here is an overview of the cemetery with Rachel's headstone being the closes on the right side of the photo.

Lichen loves to grow on this slate but other than that, these stones are very hard and have withstood almost 250 years of weathering.  Much better than other options! 

My husband knew our goal was to have a legible photo of the stone and so he had brought the little brush from my brother's home and off he went to work on it.  

Momento Mori

Erected in memory of Mrs. Rachel  Barns the wife of Captain Thomas Barns who departed this life April 26, 1777 AD, 53 years 2 months and 9 days.

(A Momento mori is a reminder that death comes to all and to live well the time allotted to you.)

Here is information above and below about meeting house and cemetery that is available at this location.

Merrimack only lost one soldier in the Revolutionary War.  Reuben Cumings, honored here, joined the military when 14 and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill.  He was later promoted to drummer.  He died and was buried near Fort Ticonderoga.