Author: Olivia Dorsey Peacock

New Hope Cemetery: Alma Chavis (1929-1933)

This series of blog posts entitled “New Hope Cemetery” highlights the individuals who are buried in the Franklin, North Carolina cemetery. After visiting the cemetery for the first time, I became interested in learning more about the people who are buried there. Since then, I’ve started scouring records to uncover more about their lives. To learn more about New Hope Cemetery, check out this page and this post.

Below in italics, you’ll find a short fictional piece that imagines a specific moment from that person’s life. After that, I present summary of my initial research findings. While I recognize that it may be impossible to completely piece their lives back together, I hope that these posts will humanize each individual, celebrate their legacy, and emphasize the importance of this cemetery.

She was just the tiniest thing, Miss Alma Chavis. You couldn’t tell by how she carried on though. She might’ve been the baby girl in a home full of boys, but she kept up with each of her brothers, even Charles, the oldest.

But on one particular Saturday afternoon, she pulled her self away from rough-housing with them and followed an enticing scent from the kitchen. Her mother had just pulled something out of the oven. Alma, peeked her head in the doorway, inching forward for a closer look. Cinnamon and sweet potato wafted through the air. A pie! She just had to get a taste.

“Whatcha doin’, baby?” — Betty peered behind her. She set the pie down with a soft thud. “You can’t have none of this til supper, now. Go on.” She shooed her away with a gloved hand.

But Alma just couldn’t resist. As soon as her mother’s back was turned, she made her move. Deftly, she made for a stool, climbed each rung with dexterity, and dipped a small finger right in the center of the piece. Just as immediately, she squealed– pies are much hotter than they first appear to be. Her mother whipped around with surprise as little Alma shoved the finger in her mouth, tears of joy trailing down her face.

At four years old, Alma Chavis is one of the youngest people buried in New Hope Cemetery. She was the daughter of Charlie Chavis and Betty Harshaw (both of whom are located in the center of the photo below).

She lived in Franklin with her parents and her brothers, Charles, George, and Earnest. Their family lived in a rented home next to the Stewart, Gillespie, and Grant families. Her father, Charlie, worked many an odd job around town. Both of her parents could read and write.

During the Summer of 1933, Alma fell ill with “Lobar Pneumonia.” Although she was attended by a doctor, she sadly passed away a few days later. Her family held a small home funeral and buried her at New Hope on June 26, 1933.

Martha, Lizzie, and the Words They Use for Us

While searching for information on the history of New Hope Methodist Church from the 1940s and earlier, I stumbled upon an unexpected find.

I had accumulated a very short list of previous ministers at the church by searching newspapers on Newspapers.com. While searching, I used combinations of words like “New Hope Church,” “New Hope Methodist,” and the ministers’ names to learn more.

Partly out of frustration and partly out of genuine curiosity, I started searching for the word “colored.” Why not use a term their oppressors used to describe them? Franklin was a very small town back then, with a population of 835 in 1903 and an even smaller Black population.¹ Maybe if I searched for that disparaging word, it might refer to one of the Black folks who lived there. And one of them was bound to have a connection to the church.

And what do you know? I did find a couple of incredible articles on the church (I’ll share more on that another time). But what I didn’t expect to find was a death notice for not one, but two ancestors.

A small, unassuming paragraph in a December 1903 issue of The Franklin Press says the following:

Martha Smith, colored, died Friday evening last of pneumonia fever, aged 61 years. In the same room on last Thursday night, Lizzie McDonnell, colored, died of pneumonia. Her age was about 20 years.

Okay, let’s break down what this paragraph tells us.

We have a couple of people (Martha Smith, Lizzie McDonnell), confirmation of their race (“colored”), their ages (61 and 20, respectively), what they died of (pneumonia), and when (“Friday evening last” and “last Thursday night”).

There’s a “Martha Smith” in my family. She was my 4x-great grandmother (Carrie‘s grandmother). She was born in November 1843. ²

There’s also a “Lizzie McDonnell” in my family. She was my 2x-great aunt (Carrie’s sister). Lizzie was born in May 1883. ³

So, how do I know these are my ancestors? Let’s dig a little deeper.

1. Martha is 61 years old at the time of her death. This lines up with my Martha Smith’s estimated birth year: 1843. ^{5 6}
   
2. The article states that Lizzie McDonnell was 20 years old at the time of her death. She was born in May 1883– this would put her at 20 years old in December 1903.
   
3. Martha died in the same room as Lizzie. ⁷ This means that the Martha in this article either knows or is being treated by the same person who is treating Lizzie McDonnell. It’s also possible she knows Lizzie. The Lizzie McDonnell in my family was my Martha Smith’s granddaughter.
   
4. Both Martha and Lizzie are living in the same home in 1900. Other members of the household include Martha’s daughter (Luvenia), son-in-law (James), and grandchildren (Emma, Lizzie, Maggie, Aline, Harris, Frank, and Leona).
   
5. I have not found records for Lizzie or Martha after 1900. Both of them disappeared from the home in the 1910 Census. ⁸
   
6. Carrie Stewart said that her grandmother “died on Christmas Day.”⁹ According to the newspaper article, Martha died “Friday evening.” Working backwards from the date the newspaper issue was published, Friday would have been Christmas night. This means Lizzie died on the night of Christmas Eve.
   
   Dec 30, 1903 – Wed
   Dec 29, 1903  – Tues
   Dec 28, 1903 – Mon
   Dec 27, 1903 – Sun
   Dec 26, 1903 – Sat
   Dec 25, 1903 – Fri (Martha’s death)
   Dec 24, 1903 – Thurs (Lizzie’s death)
   
7. Finally, both individuals are noted as “colored.” In all records where I have found Martha and Lizzie, they are noted as “Black” or “Mulatto.”

Isn’t it ironic? The words that were meant to subjugate our people and the methods used to segregate them can often times do what their oppressors never expected: help their descendants recover their stories.