GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 975 and Mary Eliza (Arthur) Turner have been born five children, namely : Arthur, who married Susan Harris and is now engaged in the government employ, an agent of the agricultural department in the University of Florida at. Tallahassee; Cyrus, who married Mildred Burnett, of Canada, and is living on a farm in Xenia township, this county ; Mayme, who is now teaching at Lewisburg, West Virginia; Pattie Norine, wife of H. L. Allston, a landowner and lawyer at Asheville, North Carolina, and Caroline, who supplemented the schooling she received at Wilberforce by attendance at the University of Michigan, from which latter institution she was graduated in music, and is now taking special post-graduate work at Fiske University. All of these children were graduated from Wilberforce University. Arthur Turner attended Berea College. In 1902 he completed a commercial course at Wilberforce University and entered the dairy and live-stock business with his father. Feeling a need of a scientific knowledge of the business, he took a special dairy course at Ohio State University at Columbus. The Turners are members of Zion Baptist church at Xenia. PROF. BRUCE H. GREEN. Prof. Bruce H. Green, chair of chemistry and physics at Wilberforce University and a well qualified young Negro educator, has been connected wtih the work of the university since 1902. He was born in the city of Charleston, South Carolina, June 8, 1879, son of Nelson J. and Anna (Dart) Green, both of whom were born in that same state, in slavery days, and who were the parents of two children, the subject of this sketch having a sister, Bessie; who is a teacher in the .state college at Orangeburg, South Carolina. Nelson J. Green was for years employed as an inspector in the customs house . at Charleston. He died in .1902 and his widow is still living at Charleston. Upon completing the course in the public schools of his home city, Bruce H. Green entered Exeter Academy, in New Hampshire, and was there prepared for college, receiving there a scholarship as a reward for diligence and for the high grade he attained in his studies. He then entered Brown University at Providence, Rhode Island, and was graduated from that institution in 1902 with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. Later he took' summer courses of study in the graduate school of Chicago University and is still working for his Doctor degree. During his attendance ,at Brown,' Professor Green was a member of the 'varsity track team and possesses some silver cups won at the broad jump and in other forms of athletics. He is a member of the Kappa Alpha Xi college fraternity. In September, 1902, following his graduation at Brown University, Professor Green was employed as. a teacher at Wilberforce University and has 976 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO been connected with that institution ever since. In 1909 he was given the chair of chemistry and physics and still occupies that position. In 1916, the year of his marriage, Professor Green built a. house on the Columbus pike in the vicinity of the university and he and his wife are residing there. On September 6, 1916, Prof. Bruce H. Green was united in marriage to Suni P. Steele, who was born at Georgetown, Kentucky, and who was graduated from Wilberforce University in 1908. The Professor, and his wife are members of the African Methodist Episcopal church. SUPT. WILLIAM A. JOINER. The following brief paragraph of official data presents in a nutshell the essential details in the career of William A. Joiner, superintendent and financial officer of the Combined Normal and Industrial Department of Wilberforce University and long recognized as' one of the most forceful and energetic figures in Negro educational circles in the United States : "S. B., Wilberforce University, 1888 ; LL. B., Howard University, 1892; LL. M., ibid, 1893 ; graduate Teachers College, ibid, 1896;, S. M., Wilberforce University, 1909; graduate student, University of Chicago ; instructor in Latin, high school, Washington, D. C., 1898-1904; director, Teachers Training School, Teachers College, Howard University, 1904-10 ; present position since 1910." But there is much that ought to be told to make complete the above meager biographical details. When Superintendent Joiner entered upon the exacting duties of his present important position as superintendent of the Combined Normal and Industrial Department at Wilberforce University in August, 1910, he found there a most deplorable condition. That department had been created by legislative. enactment in 1877, the Legislature appropriating six thousand dollars annually for the maintenance of the same. In 1896 a new law made the department an entity under the general jurisdiction of the university, but under control of the state acting through a board of trustees the majority of whom are appointed 'by the governor and confirmed by the senate. Under this system the department struggled along with a fluctuating fund for maintenance; the annual appropriations depending upon the ,varying decisions of each successive Legislature, the average yearly appropriation for maintenance ranging around thirty thousand dollars in consequence of which the department had confessedly not been keeping up with the expectations of those in charge. When Superintendent Joiner was put in charge of the department in 1910 as superintendent and financial officer of the same he discovered this condition and at once set about to repair it. Appropriations had gradually become lower and the standards of the department had deteriorated accord- GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 977 ingly, so that when Superintendent Joiner took charge he found neither adequate books nor a clerk that could give him a proper insight into the previous operation of the department. On coming in touch with the state auditor's office he found not only that there were no funds with which to carry on the department but that there was a deficit charged against it. Dr. W. A. Galloway, of Xenia, at that time was president of the board of trustees and Superintendent Joiner and Doctor Galloway, upon their own credit, arranged a loan of twenty-five hundred dollars with which temporarily to take care of the deficit and to permit the new superintendent to inaugurate the system he had in mind and under the operation of which there has never since been a deficit. Superintendent Joiner also found the physical condition of his plant much run down, due to long continued lack of funds, the dormitories and school buildings out of repair and the equipment wholly insufficient. Because of the unfortunate physical conditions the school government also was in bad shape. Here was enough to stimulate the energies of an even less energetic man than Superintendent Joiner. The latter, however, had his plans well in hand and he proceeded along the lines he had outlined until presently he began to see order growing out of chaos and in due time he had his department well on the way to its present successful state of operation, a matter of pride on the part of the university and a distinct credit to its superintendent and financial officer, whose success has won for him not only a state-wide but a nation-wide reputation as a school administrator. When the legislative visitation committee reached Wilberforce on its first trip after Superintendent Joiner had been placed in charge of the normal and industrial department, the superintendent had his budget all ready for them, showing in comprehensive detail just exactly what was necessary for the proper maintenance of the department, each item of prospective expense 'being brought down to the penny. This was something new for the contemplation of the committee, previous demands having been made in lump sums, and careful inquiry was made into the merits of budget, the superintendent being called on to explain explicitly each item. This he did so satisfactorily that the sub-committee reported to the committee on visitation with a recommendation that every penny asked for should be provided. The committee rejected this report and sent another sub-committee of eight to investigate. This latter committee concurred in the report of its predecessor, but the main committee was even then unconvinced and sent for Superintendent Joiner to appear personally before it and explain on what grounds he based what the committee was pleased to regard as a "ridiculous" increase in the appropriation for his department. The superintendent previously had placed in the hands of each member of the committee a printed statement of his grounds and when he appeared in person to explain the items therein his address was so business-like (61) 978 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO and so convincing in its tone that the hearing ended by the committee adopting the previous reports of its sub-committees and securing an appropriation of one hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars for the succeeding biennial period, this being the first time in the history of the state of Ohio that a state institution received exactly the amount asked for in its appropriation bill ; and not only that, but Superintendent Joiner's effective method of itemizing his budget was so highly commended by the committee that afterward by legislative enactment his method was made compulsory upon all state institutions in making up their respective budgets for legislative appropriations. During the seven years in which Superintendent Joiner has been in charge of the normal and industrial department of the university that department has received from the state more than hundred thousand dollars and. the wise and judicious use of this fund has raised that once badly depleted department to a plane where it has come to be recognized as one of the most efficient departments of the kind in any of the colored institutions of learning in the country and has thus done much to add to the fame of Wilberforce. During the period of Superintendent Joiner's administration of the affairs of the normal and industrial department the entrance standard has been raised so as now to include only high school graduates and those of the graduates asking for license to teach are placed on the standard of the state accredited list. The courses also have been reconstructed so as to give students who go from that department to other schools full credit. for the work done in the former, and the courses also have been so amplified that the student who goes out from the institution may be reasonably assured of success in teaching or in the several departments of vocational training there conducted, such as printing, carpentering, blacksmithing, shoemaking, mechanics and the like. Superintendent, Joiner also has established a series of teachers' conferences in the department, the object of the same being a free and full discussion of the needs of the several branches, and by this means has created in his staff an esprit de corps that has been wonderfully effective in securing that unity of effort that has done so much to elevate the general standards of that useful department, all the branches thus working together for the common end of giving the student the best possible. preparation for the prospective work of teaching. The superintendent also issues a series of bulletins setting forth the progress being made in the school and by -this means keeps the alumni and other schools in touch with the work being done there. Since taking charge he also has kept complete and permanent scholarship record of each pupil and has had marked success with the movement he early inaugurated for the purpose of Creating a more genial relation between the school and student body and the community at large. It was he who inaugurated the present well-defined GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 979 system of physical training in the school as well as the system of medical inspection of students preparatory to their acceptance in the school, and he also established the local. hospital in connection with the school, the same having a resident nurse permanently attached. As another health measure he also secured the establishment of the present modern waterworks system at the school and also installed a preceptress in charge of the Woman's department, with a special charge to teach ethics, etiquette, deportment and the like. For the benefit of the student teachers he has created actual working conditions under which they may secure real' experience as teachers of the under classes and has also arranged matters so, that the students from different departments may have actual experience in practical work ; for example, the printing classes do all the printing required by the university, such as printing catalogs: bulletins and the like, and the classes in the various building and mechanical trades do similar practical work, the boys in those classes having actually built several of the new buildings on the campus, five of which have been erected under the administration of Superintendent Joiner, besides a number of cottages for the teachers. As a fitting final commentary on the work done at Wilberforce by Superintendent Joiner, it is notable that the enrollment in his department has more than doubled under his administration. He recently has inaugurated an extension department for co-operating with the government in food conservation by having agricultural co-operation with farmers in this county in seed testing and other aids to good crops. William A. Joiner was born at Alton, Illinois, son of the Rev. Edward C and Frances (Badgett) Joiner, the former of whom was born in that same state and the latter in the state of Iowa. The Rev. Edward C. Joiner, a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal church, died in 1888, he then being forty-six years of age. His widow survived him for many years, her death occurring in 1916, she then being sixty-eight years of age. Due to his father's ministerial itinerary, young Joiner received his early schooling in the schools of such towns as the family was called to reside in and was graduated from the high school at Springfield, Illinois, in 1886. Thus qualified, he entered Wilberforce University with an advanced standing in that same year and was graduated from that institution in 1888 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He then returned- to Illinois and for two years and a half was engaged as a teacher in the public schools at Jerseyville, that state, resigning that position to accept an appointment in the war department at Washington, D. C. He continued thus engaged in the government service for four years, at the end of which time he opened a confectionery store at the national capital. In the meantime he had also been rendering service from time to time as a teacher in the capital and during the period 1898-1904 was engaged as the teacher of Latin and English in the M street high school. In 1904 he was ap- (62) 980 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO pointed director of the training school of the Teachers College at Howard University, Washington, D. C., and was there thus occupied until he resigned in the summer of 1910 to accept the position of superintendent and financial officer of the normal and industrial department of 'Wilberforce University’, which position he since has occupied, with the very gratifying results above set out. Superintendent Joiner has continued actively engaged in continued research work since taking up his administrative labors at. Wilberforce and has added to the degrees he brought with him to that school .the accredited degree of Bachelor of Philosophy earned by four summers of work at Chicago University. In 1893 he had graduated from the law department of Howard University (valedictorian of his class), with the degree of Master of Laws and in 1902 was graduated from the pedagogical department of that same institution with the degree of Bachelor of Pedagogy, and in 1909 was given his degree of Master of Science by Wilberforce. During his high school {lays Superintendent Joiner was catcher on the school baseball team and also worked on the Springfield (Illinois) Daily Monitor, which paper he afterward represented as Washington correspondent upon his 'removal to the capital. He published the "Ohio Book" for the Lincoln Jubilee, commemorative of the fiftieth anniversary of Negro emancipation, and has also published a pamphlet, "History of Negro Education in the District of Columbia." On October 19; 1917, Superintendent Joiner was united in marriage to Ada A. Rountree, of Xenia. He and his wife are members of the African Methodist Episcopal church and he has a Sunday school class of fifty-one members, his work in connection with that class being one of the chief pleasures of his life. REV. HORACE TALBERT, M. A., D. D. With the recent passing of the Rev. Dr. Horace Talbert, long and more familiarly known as Secretary Talbert, Wilberforce University lost a factor that had for years been exerted in behalf of the "interests of that institution and of the extension of its sphere of influence. Doctor Talbert was a product of Wilberforce and in his life and works ever honored the institution to which he felt he owed so much. After years of successful gospel ministry following his graduation and ordination he returned to his beloved alma mater in 1892 to accept there the chair of languages, but his executive ability soon convinced the trustees of the school that he was a man who could accomplish splendid things for the university if placed in a larger sphere of usefulness, and, in 1896, he was elected secretary of the institution, a position he occupied for nearly twenty years, or until his resignation in October,. 1915, ill health necessitating the reluctant 'relinquishment 'of an obligation of GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 981 service that he had held as sacred in its binding force ; for to Doctor Talbert the service he had so long rendered in behalf of Wilberforce was regarded as special work for the Kingdom of God, and to that work he gave the best that there was in him. He did not long survive the relinquishment of his official duties and his death occurred at his home at Wilberforce on November 12, 1917, he then being in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Horace Talbert was born in slavery in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, September 21, 1853, son of William and Jane Ellen (Dory) Talbert, and was the fifth in order of birth of the seven children born to that parentage. Though shut out by their servitude from all knowledge of books, William Talbert and his wife by natural endowment possessed the elements that go to the making of noble natures and strong characters. Of his mother Doctor Talbert long afterward wrote : "She planted the seeds of ̊piety and truth in my heart," and her prayers in his behalf were the most tenderly cherished recollections of his early days. From the interesting narrative of his own recollections left by Doctor Talbert it is learned that before he was eleven years of age, one evening in October, 1864., he had dropped into old Asbury Chapel, in Louisville, where an evangelist was conducting services, and that the exhortations of the evangelist, based upon St. Paul's importunate plea, "0, wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death," sank so deeply into his. boyish heart that after several clays of seeking he became convinced of his conversion. Even before his conversion the boy Horace had felt an ardent longing to become "some day" a minister of the gospel and after that the endeavors of his youth were directed toward the acquisition of an education that would fit him for the call to which in his boyhood he had responded with his whole heart. "Here am I," was his response to that call and he wanted to be ready when the time for service came. Horace Talbert's first schooling was received in the school of the Rev. Basil L. Brooks, in Asbury Chapel, and later in the school of Prof. William H. Gibson at Quinn Chapel. When necessity presently compelled him to go to work, in the tobacco warehouses or on the river, he became enrolled in a night school and continued his studies, such of his wages as could be saved being laid by to defray the expenses of the college course to which he continually looked forward. As a communicant at Asbury Chapel the lad came under the notice of the pastor who became convinced that young Talbert possessed no ordinary mind and, together with other influential friends, urged him to enter Berea College ; but about this time the Rev. Robert G. Mortimer, who then was conducting a high school in the basement of his church in Louisville, was asked to take charge of the language department of. Wilberforce University. A number of. his pupils decided to go with him 982 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO and Horace, then in his eighteenth year, was invited to join the party of students. He accepted and by the middle of September, 1870, was enrolled as a student at Wilberforce, this being his. introduction to the institution in the affairs of which he was destined later to take so influential a part. The young man's desire for the service of the church remained undiminished. and in October, 1871, he was licensed to exhort. Four years later he received local preacher's orders and was taken into the Ohio conference, presently being appointed assistant to the pastor on the Springboro circuit. In two years more he had completed his studies in_ the English, and classical departments of the university and on the day of his graduation, June 17, 1877, was assigned by Bishop Wayman to the pastorate of the African Methodist Episcopal church at Cynthiana, Kentucky. In the following September he was ordained to the diaconate at Midway, Kentucky, and in that same month returned to Wilberforce for a further season of study in the theological department, with a view to preparation for entrance in, the theological seminary of Princeton. University, and in April, 1878, went East with Bishop Payne, but the journey was extended to Boston, where he was placed in charge of the church of his communion at Cambridge and was thus given opportunity to take the course he sought in. Greek, Hebrew- and philosophy at the University of Boston. Ordination to the eldership came in June, 1878, and his next charge was at Lynn, Massachusetts, from which city he presently was sent by Bishop Brown to Bridgeport, Connecticut. About that time he married and was transferred to the New Jersey conference, being installed as pastor of the church at Bordentown. While thus engaged he was appointed recording secretary of the Sabbath School Union of the African Methodist Episcopal church and not long afterward was transferred to the New York conference and stationed at Albany, capital of the state, going thence to Elmira, New York, other pastorates following, in the course of his itinerary, at Oswego, Jamaica and East New York, during this latter pastorate being made the, presiding elder of the Brooklyn district. While there he also founded the New York conference high school and assumed the editorship and management of The African Watchman. He next was sent to Buffalo, New York, and it was while serving in that city that he was called to the chair of languages at Wilberforce University, which meanwhile had not lost sight of his services in behalf of his church and his race and had conferred upon him his Master of Arts degree and his later degree of Doctor of Divinity. As noted above, it was in 1892 that Doctor Talbert returned to Wilberforce. Not long afterward he was elected secretary of the institution and it was in this capacity that he traveled extensively East and West in the interests of the school and won hundreds of new friends for the institution, it being said of him that he collected more money for Wilberforce than any GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 983 agent ever connected with the school., It was through his personal interview with Andrew Carnegie that the latter contributed the money for the erection of the library building that now graces the campus and for its furnishings, and numerous other liberal contributions for the extension of the university's' usefulness were secured by the manner in which he presented the aims and needs of the institution. The home life of Doctor Talbert was an exceedingly happy one. His house, facing the Columbus pike, in the immediate vicinity of the university, was planned by Mrs. Talbert and was built, for the Most part, by the two elder sons, Eugene and Henry, who had their training in the carpentry department of the university. There Mrs. Talbert is still living with her children. She was born, S. Frankie Black, at Baltimore, Maryland, November 6, 1859, daughter of William Henry and Anna M. (Gazaway) Black, both of whom also were born in Maryland (free born); the latter the daughter of an Indian mother who lived to be one hundred and twelve years of age. William Henry Black, who died at his home in Washington,: D. C., in 1888, had early learned the trade of wheelwright and. as a young man worked at that trade, later moving to the city. of Baltimore, where he became engaged in the hotel and restaurant business. :While there he formed some influential acquaintances who secured for him in 1869 an appointment in the United States postoffice department at Washington. When the postoffice money-order department later was created he was 'made a clerk in that department and continued serving in that 'capacity until his 'death. His widow survived him 'for many years, her death occurring on May 6, 1917, she then being eighty-one years of age. William H. ,Black and his wife were the parents of, five children, of whom Mrs. Talbert was the fourth in order of birth. She supplemented the course of schooling received in. the public schools of Washington by a course at Wilberforce University and it was while 'attending the 'university that she became acquainted with Doctor- Talbert, to whom she was married at her home .in Washington on September 4, 1879. To the Rev. Dr. Horace and S. Frankie (Black) Talbert were born fourteen children, namely : Anna Augusta, who died at the age of three years; Eugene Hunter, born on December 12, 1881, a graduate of Wilberforce University, who, married Tennie Montgomery and is now living in Chicago; where he is in charge of an automobile distributing 'agency ; Horace, Jr., April 26, 1.883, . who 'died at the age of nineteen months; Henry Payne, March 1-3, 1884, a graduate of Wilberforce. (1905), who married Dora Russell and is still living at Wilberforce, connected with the university ; Wendell Phillips, January 8, 1886, a musician connected with the lyceum stage, who married Florence Cole and makes his home at Detroit, Michigan; William Ellsworth, September 14, 1887; who married Melissa Richardson and, is now living at. Seattle, Washington, where he is employed in the postoffice; 984 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO Benjamin Blain, April 1, 1889, born at Jamaica, New York, and who died there on January 19, 1890; Ulysses Grant, October 29, 1890, who died at the age of fifteen years; Dumas Shorter, May 29, 1892, who died at the age of three months; Virgil and Hamer (twins), October 28, 1893, the former of whom is now a student of the veterinary department of Ohio State University, and the latter of whom married Nettie Russell and is now living at Wyoming, in Hamilton county, this state ;Ruby, May 23, 1895, who is now engaged as a teacher of mathematics in the normal school at Florence, Alabama; Elizabeth Rebecca, November 16, 1900, now a student at Wilberforce, and Helen Jane, January 1, 1902, also a student in the university. In addition to the labors performed by Doctor Talbert and which have been referred to in the foregoing account of his life, it is but proper to state that in 1906 he published a book, "Sons of Allen," a volume of biography carrying sketches and intimate sidelights relating to many of the more prominent figures in the African Methodist Episcopal church, which. attracted considerable attention and which is highly valued in the church and in Negro educational circles. HALLIE QUINN BROWN. Among the many personal forces that have operated 'through the. years since its establishment to bring to Wilberforce University worldwide recognition as a center of Negro education few, if any, have been exercised more widely and with greater force of direction than that so long exercised by Miss Hallie Quinn Brown, the famous Afro-American elocutionist, whose "Homewood Cottage" at Wilberforce has for years been an acknowledged center from which has radiated an influence of inestimable value to the race in whose behalf Miss Brown has been unselfishly laboring ever since the day when she was graduated from Wilberforce and started out' on her mission of education and enlightenment, a mission whose successful accomplishment has made her name well known in educational circles on two continents. "Who's Who In Lyceum" makes note of Miss Brown that she was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; educated Wilberforce Univ. (B. S. 1873 ;. M. S. 1890) ; C. L. S. C. grad. of 1886; dean of 'Allen Univ., S. C., 1885-7; of Tuskegee Inst., Tuskegee, Ala., 1892-3; prof. of elocution Wilberforce Univ. 1900-3; taught on Sonora Plantation, Miss., Yazoo City, Miss., and Dayton, Ohio (4 yrs.) ; Member and lecturer of British Woman's Temperance Ass'n.; member W. C. T. U. of America; member Royal Geog. Soc., Edinburgh, Scotland, and of International Woman's Congress, London, Eng., 1899; pres. Ohio State Federation of Woman's Clubs. Author of : 'Bits and Odds,' 1880. Lecturer : 'The Progress of Negro Education and Advance- GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 985 ment in America Since Emancipation,' The Status of the .Afro-American Woman Before and Since the War,' Songs and Sorrows of the Negro Race,' `The Life Work of Frederick Douglas, Slave, Freeman, Orator, ;Editor, Emancipator,' Negro Folklore and Folksong,' 'My Visit to Oueen Victoria,' and `Windsor Castle.' Reciter : 1894-1900 lectured in Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, France, appearing before Queen Victoria 1899 ; entertainer at the Princess of Wales' dinner to the London poor children, 1897; was one of the seven members to form first British Chautauqua, Pwllheli, N. Wales, 1895 ; lectured at the Grindelwald conf., Switzerland, 1895." Miss Brown also was a speaker at the third biennial convention of the world's Woman's Christian Temperance Union held in London, June 14-23, 1895, Lady Henry Somerset presiding, and in June, 1899, was one of the representatives from the United States to the International Congress of Women held in London. On July 7 of this latter year Miss Brown was received by Queen Victoria, tea being served in St. George's Hall, the hall of the garter, Windsor Castle. During the time of the celebration of the queen's jubilee she was the guest of the lord mayor of London and his wife and later, of the mayor of Corydon and wife, journeying with the latter in a private car to London, where special seats were reserved for the party near Westminster Abbey from which to view the procession and ceremonies. Miss Brown also was in attendance at the services in Westminster Abbey incident to the funeral of William E. Gladstone, her ticket of admission having been furnished to her by a member of parliament. On November 23, 1899, Miss Brown sang "Listen to the Angels" at the meeting of the National British Woman's Temperance Association at Victoria Hall, Hanley, Staffordshire, and on other occasions during her period of activity in Europe during the '90s was accorded recognition of a high character. In 1912 she made a second trip to Europe, going as the representative of the Women's Missionary Societies of the African Methodist Episcopal church in the United States to the World's. Missionary Conference held in that year at Edinburgh and was on the other side for seven months. While there she so greatly interested Miss E. J. Emery, a wealthy London philanthropist, in the work being done on behalf of the Negro race at Wilberforce University that Miss Emery gave to her fifteen thousand dollars with which to erect a new girls' dormitory at the university. The building thus so generously provided for was erected in 19T3 and was called the Keziah Emery Hall and dedicated to the memory of Keziah Emery, mother of the donor. As a reader and public entertainer Miss Brown has gained an international reputation. From the days of her girlhood her exceptional vocal and elocutionary talent has been recognized, but it was not until some years after her graduation from Wilberforce that she began to gain fame as a public 986 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO entertainer. Worn out by the strain of the educational work she had been doing after leaving the university in 1873, she sought relaxation from the strain thus imposed and started out on a lecture tour in behalf of the university. Later she became connected with the Wilberforce Grand Concert 'Company and for several years traveled with that organization, giving benefits in behalf of the university, and in that connection lectured and read throughout the breadth and length of this land, being everywhere favorably and enthusiastically received ; later pursuing a similar course in Europe, where she did much to bring to the. favorable attention of those who might be interested, the work being done at Wilberforce. Miss Brown continues her public appearances by appointment, making her home at "Homewood Cottage," Wilberforce, which has been her established home for years. Her lecture repertoire has been indicated above. She also has a very large and varied recital repertoire, some ninety pieces being available for her programs, and the press tributes paid to her performance in many of the leading cities in this country and in Great Britain are evidences of the entertaining character of those performances. As an interpreter of the poems of the late Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Miss Brown is particularly effective and her readings of that poet's works have gained for her the unstinted praise of discriminating critics. Miss Brown was born in the city of Pittsburgh, but her girlhood was spent on a farm in the vicinity of Chatham, Ontario, Canada, to which her parents had moved upon leaving the city. It was there that her exceptional, talents in the elocutionary way were discovered, but these were not systematically developed until later when her parents returned to the United States and located at Wilberforce, .where she entered the university and was graduated, as noted above, in 1873, among her classmates having been Mrs. Mary F. Lee, wife of Bishop B. F. Lee, and Samuel T. Mitchell, who later became president of the university. Miss Brown's father died at Wilberforce in' 1882, he then being .eighty years of age. His widow survived him for many 'years, her death occurring at "Homewood. Cottage" on April 16, 1914, she then being one day past ninety-five years of age. Miss Brown was the last-born of the six children born to her parents, the others being Jere A. Brown, formerly and for years a resident of Cleveland, this state, who served his district as a member of the Ohio state Legislature and later became connected with the government service at Washington; Mrs. Belle Newman, deceased; Mrs. Anna E. Weaver, of Farmland, Indiana; Mary Frances, deceased; and John G.', also deceased, who was a graduate of Wilberforce University and who was developing his excellent native powers as a lecturer and speaker when his promising career was brought to a close by death. GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 987 PROF.. CHARLES HENRY JOHNSON. Prof. Charles Henry Johnson, head of the art department of Wilberforce University, is a. product of Wilberforce, a member of the class of 1893, and has ever since his graduation devoted his life to teaching. In 1900 he was elected to take charge of the Normal Art Department of that institution and has ever since been at the head of the same. During the Jamestown Exposition Professor Johnson., under government appointment, had charge of the Negro building at that exposition, collected much of the exhibit made in the same and had charge of the installation of the same. His special work in the university is the preparation of teachers for art work in public schools and his department has taken thirty-three prizes in contests Mostly promoted by the School Arts Guild, in 1915 the Wilberforce art exhibit taking first place. Preparatory to these exhibitions all of Professor Johnson's advanced pupils submit their best efforts in the way of art production and from the collection thus submitted five pieces are chosen and this selective exhibit of five is then sent to the national exhibit. During the Lincoln Jubilee held at Chicago commemorative of the fiftieth anniversary of Negro emancipation Professor Johnson was appointed by the. Ohio state commission to have charge of Ohio's exhibition at that jubilee demonstration, the state having appropriated the sum of ten thousand dollars to provide for adequate representation there. The Professor is an ardent temperance advocate and has delivered' lectures on temperance all over the state. He also is an influential figure in the councils of the African Methodist Episcopal church and at the general conference of that church held at Kansas City, in 1912 was elected general secretary of the laymen's missionary movement of that communion, a position he still occupies and in which connection he has traveled all over the United States promoting that cause and lecturing in its behalf. He was for six years president of the Ohio state organization of the Allen Endeavor League of his church and is still the president of the local society of the same. Professor Johnson was born at Van Wert, Ohio, on September 27, 1873, son of Thomas W. and Margaret (Tooney) Johnson, both of whom were born in slavery, the former in Virginia and the latter- in Tennessee, who were married in Ohio and the latter of whom is -still living, now a resident of Nashville, Tennessee. Thomas Johnson made his way from Virginia to Ohio during the progress of the Civil War and enlisted his services in behalf of the Union cause, going to the front with an Ohio regiment and serving until the close of the war, for which service his widow is now, drawing a pension from the government. After the war he married in Columbus. He later became a landowner and farmer in Van Wert county and there died in r906, he then being sixty-nine years of age. He was a deacon in the Baptist 988 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO church and his constant recognition of the necessity under which his race was bound with respect to education and educational influences prompted him to stimulate in the breasts of his children that desire for learning which eventually resulted in all acquiring the benefits of excellent schooling. There were six of these children, of whom the subject of this biographical sketch was the second in order of birth, the others being the following : George, deceased; John, who is engaged in business in the city of Chicago; Mrs. Lucia Ross, a teacher in Turner College at Nashville, Tennessee ; Fred, a civil engineer, now living at Alberta, Canada, and Blanche, who was graduated from Knoxville College and was engaged in teaching for a while before her marriage to Doctor Love, of Texas. Reared on the home farm in Van Wert county, Charles Henry Johnson received his early schooling in the neighborhood district school and supple, mented the same by attendance for a while at the Van Wert schools, after which he entered the Normal Department of Wilberforce University, from which he was graduated in 1893. Upon receiving his diploma he accepted an invitation to join the faculty of one of the state colleges in Alabama and for a year thereafter was engaged in teaching music and mathematics in that institution. He then transferred. his services to Kittrell College in North Carolina and was there, engaged in teaching science and art for four years, at the end of which time he went to Chicago for the purpose of furthering his study in art and in 1900 completed the course in teachers and academic art at the Chicago Art Institute. Thus equipped he returned to his alma mater in 1900. Professor Johnson teaches general art, with particular' reference to free-hand drawing, oil painting, both landscape and portrait, pastel work and clay modeling. He is a member of the Western Drawing Teachers Association and is a frequent contributor to art magazines. By political preference, he is a Republican. In 1917 Professor Johnson built a house on the Columbus pike, in the immediate vicinity of the university his house is of tiled exterior and the Professor's taste in such matters is revealed in every line of the place. On the walls of this home are hanging many of the best products of his brush. On August 16, 1904, Professor Johnson was united in Marriage to Cast Vivien Carr, who was born at Aberdeen, this state, a daughter of the Rev. George and Amanda (Reese) Carr, the latter of whom died in 1900 and the former of whom, a retired minister of the gospel, is now living at Lexington, Kentucky. Mrs. Johnson completed her studies in the state colleges in Alabama and in 'Kentucky, in which institutions her elder sister served as female principal, she having made her home with this elder sister after her mother's death and was a teacher in Kentucky at the time of her marriage to Professor Johnson. GREENE COUNTY - 989 PROF. JOSEPH DELL MOORE RUSSELL. Prof. Joseph Dell Moore Russell, postmaster at Wilberforce, a teacher in the academic department of Wilberforce University, formerly and for years superintendent of the colored high school at Richmond, Kentucky, and for some years past a resident of Greene county and owner of a farm in the immediate vicinity of Wilberforce, is a native of Kentucky, born in Logan county, that state, May 16, 1872, son of the Rev. Greene and Frances (Page) Russell, both of whom were born in slavery in that same county and who were married before the days of the Civil War. The Rev. Greene Russell,, a minister of the African Baptist church in the state of Kentucky, for years had charge of a church in his home county, but in those days did not preach for money, regarding his service as a labor of love. His work was largely evangelistic in character and during his long service of more than fifty-one years in the pulpit helped to establish no fewer than fifty churches of his faith in that section extending from Hopkinsville to Bowling Green in Kentucky and as far south as Nashville, Tennessee. He also had farming interests in Logan county, acquired after the war. He died in 1913 at the age of eighty-two years. His first wife and the mother of his children died in March, 1894, at the age of fifty-five years, and he later married Annie Bibb, after whose death he married again and his third wife,. Amanda, also is now dead. The Rev. Greene Russell was the father of ten children, the subject of this sketch, the only one of these living in Greene county, having had seven brothers and two sisters. One of these brothers, Dr. Greene P. Russell, is president of the Kentucky State College for Colored People at Frankfort ; another, the Rev. D. B. Russell, is pastor of a Baptist church at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; another, Prof. Richard Russell, is principal of the colored high school at Nicholasville, Kentucky, and another, Isaac Russell, is a machinist now residing at Springfield, this state. Only one of the sisters is now living, Mrs. Olive Lewis Woods, of Russellville, Kentucky. Joseph D. M. Russell was given careful training by his father in the days of his youth and later completed a course of instruction at Berea College, after which he entered Wilberforce University, from which institution he was graduated With the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1898. In that same year he was made superintendent of the colored high school at Richmond, Kentucky, and for seventeen years held that position, or until his removal to Wilberforce in 1915. In the meantime Professor Russell had taken a special course in pedagogy A Howard University, Washington, D. C., and since taking up his residence at Wilberforce has been engaged in teaching special courses in pedagogy in the academic department of the university. Upon moving to Wilberforce Professor Russell bought the old Kendall farm 990 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO of one hundred and twenty-three acres on the Columbus pike and there established his home, the management of the farm being in the hands of his son, Greene P. Russell. The Professor is a Democrat and in May, 1917, was appointed postmaster at Wilberforce, which position he now occupies. He has written quite extensively for school journals and also was for some time an assistant editor on the staff of the Common School Journal, published at Lexington, Kentucky. Fraternally, he is a member of the order of colored Masons and of the Good Samaritans. He was reared in the Baptist faith and has ever adhered to the same. On December 26, 1893, Prof. Joseph D. M. Russell was united in marriage to Carrie Turner, who was .born in Madison county, Kentucky, laughter of Cyrus and Esther (Haines) Turner, who were born in slavery in that same county and further reference to whom is made in a biographical sketch relating to Mrs. Russell's. brother, John Jackson Turner; a stockman at Wilberforce, presented elsewhere in this volume. Professor and Mrs. Russell have four sons, Greene P., who married Mollie Corbin, of Xenia, and who, as noted above, is managing his father's farm, and John D., Cyrus and Joseph D. HENLEY CALVIN PETERS. Henley. Calvin Peter's, colored, head of the firms of H. C. Peters & Sons, dry-cleaners and dyers, at Xenia, is a native of Virginia, but has been a resident of Ohio since he was ten years 'of age, the greater part of that time having been spent .in Greene county. He was born in Rockbridge county; Virginia, December 19, 1860, son of Henry and Lucy Jane (Clark) Peters, and was ten years of age when his parents came to Ohio in 1870, the family driving through. . There were three families in the party that thus came over here from Virginia, Henry Peters and his family being accompanied by the families of James Clark and Wesley .Cooper. Upon their arrival in Greene county, the Peters family remained a month at Stringtown. and then located at Cedarville, but *two years later moved down into Clinton county and settled on a farm south of. Wilmington, where Henry Peters spent his last days. His widow survived him for some years, her death occurring at Dayton,. Ohio, about 1891. Henry Peters and his 'wife were the parents of seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fourth in order of birth, the others being the following : Virginia, wife of Louis B. Brown, of Chicago; Susan, of. Chicago, Illinois; Anna, unmarried, who is now living at Alto, Virginia; Sarah, deceased; Stewart, who was accidentally drowned in childhood, and Dr. John H. Peters, a physician at Danville, Kentucky. As noted above, H. C. Peters was but ten years of age when he came GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 991 to Ohio with his ,parents and he Was reared in Greene county and in Clinton :county. .In Greene county he learned the carpenter trade under the direction of James Collins, who afterward became his father-in-law. He married at Xenia, where he continued working at his trade, presently becoming a building contractor on his own account, and was thus engaged for twenty years, or until compelled to retire from that form of labor by reason of failing health. In 1911 he became associated with his sons, James H. and Howard A. Peters, in the dry-cleaning and dyeing business at Xenia, under the firm name of H. C. Peters & Sons, and has since been thus engaged, with office at 29 Greene street and cleaning and dyeing plant at 529 East Main street. H. C. Peters is a member of the local lodge of the colored Knights of Pythias and he and his family are affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal church. On December 24, 1883, H. C. Peters was united in marriage to Hattie Collins, who was born in the vicinity of Wilberforce, in this county, daughter of James and Nancy‘ Collins, both now deceased, the former of whom was a carpenter who .had served as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War. James Collins and his wife were the parents of six children, Of whom Mrs. Peters was the last-born, the others being Mrs. Sarah Matthews,, who lives at Defiance, this state; the Rev. George Collins, now deceased, who was .a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal. church ;. Charles, a carpenter, now living at Dayton; Elizabeth, who married Jordan Robb and is now deceased, and Josephine, now living at Xenia, widow of James Kelly. To. H. C. Peters and wife two sons have been born, James H., born on November 13, 1884, and Howard A., October 15, 1886, the latter of whom married Myrtle Merritt and has one child, a daughter, Martha. Howard A, Peters is a graduate of the Xenia high school and is treasurer of the local lodge of the colored Masons. James H. Peters was born at Xenia and there received his schooling. He became .employed in the undertaking establishment of Johnson & Dean at Xenia and was thus 'engaged for eighteen months, at the end of which time he took employment in Hutchinson. & Gibney's dry-goods store: and was there employed for three years. He then went to Indianapolis and for more than two years thereafter was employed in the drapery department of the Taylor Carpet Company in that city, later going to St. Louis, where he became employed as a window decorator in the department store of Scruggs & Vanderwort, continuing thus engaged at that place for ten months, at the end of 'which time he returned to his home in Xenia: On February 28, 1910, he became. engaged in the dry-cleaning business.: at .Xenia, in :partnership with Charles H. Tate, of Richmond, Indiana, an association which continued for a year or more, or until the time in 1911 when his father and brother bought 992 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO Tate's interest in the business, which since then has been conducted under the firm name of H. C. Peters & Sans, James H. Peters being in charge of the office and Howard A. Peters in charge of the cleaning and dyeing establishment. REV. THOMAS PERKINS. The Rev. Thomas Perkins, of Wilberforce, a retired minister of the African Methodist Episcopal church and the owner of a large plantation in the state of Mississippi, is a striking living example of the amazing accomplishments of the Negro race since the days of emancipation. Born a slave, he was eighteen years of age when by that divinely-directed stroke of the immortal Lincoln's pen he became a freeman. Slavish servitude, however, had not crushed within him That strong native sense of industry that later was to bring him so large a measure of success, nor had his instinctive aspirations for something beyond such servitude been stifled thereby. Exercising a sense of proportion and a keenness of judgment that can not be commended too highly, he remained on the plantation on which he was born, a rich Mississippi cotton plantation of nearly one thousand acres; saved the greater part of such wages as came to him after he became "his own man," improved such opportunities as he could seize in the way of education and mental development, applied his native common sense to the task in hand and in time became the owner of the plantation on which he had labored as a slave. In the meantime, in the pursuit of the material things of life, he had not been neglecting the cultivation of the spiritual side of his nature, and after a powerful conversion turned his attention to the spread of the gospel message, in due time was ordained a minister of his church and became the presiding elder of his district. Upon his retirement from his plantation he came North, joined the Wilberforce settlement, erected there a comfortable residence and has since been living there, very properly possessed of a sense of accomplishment that might profitably to the race be set out in a much more ample tale than the limitations of this brief biographical sketch will permit. Thomas Perkins was born on a plantation in Leflore county, Mississippi, November 15, 1845, son of Rufus and Isabella Perkins, who were slaves on adjoining plantations in that county and who continued to make their home there after emancipation. Rufus Perkins lived to be seventy years of age. His widow survived him until 1902, she being eighty years of age at the time of her death. She was the mother of eight children, seven sons and one daughter, of whom but two are now living, the Rev. Thomas Perkins, haying a half-brother, John Robinson, who is stillliving GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 993 in Leflore county, Mississippi. When Lincoln's emancipation proclamation freed the slaves Thomas Perkins was a husky young slave boy on the plantation on which his mother was held. He had had practically no opportunity to acquire a knowledge of letters, such lessons as he had received along those lines having been but occasional Sunday lessons delivered to the youngsters on the plantation by one of the kind-hearted women in the "big house," but from the, days of his early youth he had felt, a longing for that form of learning that comes out of books and after emancipation he and some of the other young folks of his race in the neighborhood formed a group, employed a teacher and set up an "independent" school in which he was able to advance somewhat farther than the knowledge of the mere rudiments of learning and his mind was thus opened to the possibilities of self-study which he later improved to the great advantage of himself as well as to the advantage of those .with whom he came in close personal touch. Upon his release from bondage he received for his labor the sum of fifty cents a day, paid by the owner of a nine-hundred-acre cotton plantation, but so simple were his needs that he was able to save the greater part of even this meager ,wage. He married when twenty-one years of age and after that his wife helped him save. It was his custom to have his employer reserve his wages until the end of the year, when he would receive the pay for his year of toil in a lump sum. Before his marriage he made an old tool chest his bank, there being no bank within sixty miles Of the place, but after his marriage he found his wife's "bustle" a safe and ample receptacle for his accumulating wealth. After a while he branched out on his own account and sub-rented a portion of the plantation on which he had been employed. His industry and excellent methods of farming produced their rewards and as he prospered he extended his operations, still successfully, until in 1892 he was enabled to buy the whole of the plantation of nine hundred acres on which he had so long labored, and six hundred acres of which he still owns, having sold three hundred acres of his place upon his removal to Wilberforce. In 1885 he was converted at a revival meeting being held in the African Methodist Episcopal church in the neighborhood of his home and felt a powerful call to turn his talents in the direction of the ministry of his church. He presently was admitted to the conference and for two years served as an itinerant preacher, this service proving so acceptable to the conference that he was ordained and not long afterward was made presiding elder of his district, in the meantime, however, continuing to carry on his farming operations. After a ,,while his health began to fail and he was advised to come North. In 1897 he arranged his affairs in Mississippi so that he could leave his big farm in the charge of a responsible tenant and moved to Wilberforce, the fame 994 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO of which active center of race education had long been dear to him, and there has ever since made his home. In 1899 he erected there the twelve-room house in which he and his family reside. He owns a tract of seven acres surrounding the house and there enjoys comforts and advantages that he hardly could have even dreamed of in the days of his boyhood when a slave down on a Mississippi cotton plantation. Though long retired from the active ministry he continues to take an interest in church work and is a member of the board of stewards of Holy Trinity church at Wilberforce. Politically, he is a Republican. The Rev. Thomas Perkins has been twice married. In 1866 he was married to Lulu Fisher, who was born in a county adjoining that in which he was born in Mississippi, and to that union were born eleven children, those living being Alice, wife of L. Baker, superintendent of construction of. United. States government buildings, first colored man to have that place, now stationed at Detroit, .Michigan; Lizzie, wife of Dr. John Fehrs, a physician of South Bend, Indiana; Charlotte, wife of Fred McGinnis, instructor in printing in Wilberforce University; Eliza, wife of Gilbert Allen, of Wilberforce, the two making their home with Mrs. Allen's father, and Bryan, who is married and lives at Centralia, Illinois, where he is engaged in the railroad shops. The mother of these children died in 1897, and on March 2, 1909, Reverend. Perkins married Ella Irvin, who was born in Kentucky. CLARENCE A. LINDSAY, M. D. Dr. Clarence A. Lindsay, a young colored physician at Xenia, was born in that city on. June 11, 1891, son and only child of Dr. Frank T. and Florence A. (Kirk) Lindsay, the former of whom died in the summer of 1910 and the latter of whom is still living, now performing the office of matron of the girls department of Wilberforce University. Dr. Frank T. Lindsay, who for years was a physician at Xenia, was born south of the Mason and Dixon line and as a young man came North. After a course in Oberlin College he entered Howard Medical School and upon his graduation from the same, in 1875, located at Xenia, where he spent the rest of his life engaged in the practice of his profession, his death occurring there on June 2, 191o, he then being at the age of fifty-eight years. His wife was born at Van Wert. this state. Reared at Xenia, Clarence A. Lindsay received his early, schooling in the schools of that city and was graduated from the high school there in 1909. He then entered Wilberforce ;University and .was graduated from GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 995 that institution in 1911, after which he entered the Ohio State Medical School at Columbus and was graduated from that institution in 1916. Upon receiving his diploma Doctor Lindsay returned to Xenia and entered upon the practice of his profession there, occupying the residence and office of his late father at 537 East Main street. On July 20, 1916, Dr. Clarence A. Lindsay was united in marriage to Margaret V. Smith, who also was born in Xenia. The Doctor and his wife are members of St. John's African Methodist Episcopal church at Xenia. PROF. LUTRELLE F. PALMER. Prof. Lutrelle F. Palmer, former principal of the academic department of Wilberforce University and present librarian of the university, is a native of Alabama, born at Snow Hill, that state, September 25, 1888. His parents, Aaron and Anna ( Johnson) Palmer, also were born in Alabama and the latter died there in 1904, she then being forty-nine years of age. Aaron Palmer is a carpenter and is following that vocation at Birmingham, Alabama, where he has made his home for years. He is a member of the African Methodist Episcopal church and has for years been a class leader in the sane. To him and his wife were born five children, of whom Professor Palmer was the fourth in order of birth, the others being the following : D. G., who is a railroad fireman, living at Montgomery, Alabama ; Alexander, a machinist, also living at Montgomery; Ella, widow of Charles Hamilton, now keeping house for her father at Birmingham, and Mrs. Lola Huston formerly of Birmingham, deceased. Lutrelle F. Palmer was but a lad when his parents moved from Snow Hill to Selma, Alabama, and in the public schools of the latter place he received his first schooling. In 1905 he entered the academic department of Wilberforce University, he then being seventeen years of age, and he continued his studies through the academy and then through the university until he was graduated from the latter in 1911 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then entered the senior class of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and in 1912 received his Bachelor degree from that institution. He then accepted a call to the chair of ancient languages in Paul Quinn College at Waco, Texas, and was there thus engaged for years, or until 1914., when he was called back to Wilberforce to take the "position of assistant professor of Latin in the university. A year later he was made professor of history and two years later was made the principal of the academic department, a position he occupied for a year, at the end of which time, in June, 1917, he resigned in 996 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO order to accept the position of librarian of the newly completed Carnegie library at the university, which position he now holds. On June 30, 1915, Prof. Lutrelle F. Palmer was united in marriage to Myrtle Hathcock, who was born at Bellefontaine, this state, and who was graduated from the commercial department of Wilberforce University in 1912, and to this union one child has been born, a son, Edward Nelson, born on January 30, 1917. Professor Palmer is a member of the African Methodist Episcopal church and is the present superintendent of the Sunday school. He is a member of the college fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha.