The Dickey Clinic and Pearl Lee Punchard, Daughter of Eunice Lincecum (Beyond the Bloodline)

Pearl Lee Punchard was born 12 July 1884 in Texas to Eunice Lincecum and Paul Punchard. She died 7 March 1950 at the Dickey Clinic in Taylor, Williamson County, Texas. Burial was a few days later in St. Mary's Cemetery of Lee County, Texas.

According to Pearl's death certificate, she was divorced at the time of her death. Her gravestone at St. Mary's Cemetery indicates she was a mother.

The cause of Pearl's death was "Peritonitis (due to) intestinal strangulation." A little less than six weeks before her death, Pearl underwent an operation in which a significant finding was "twisted intestines -- gangrene."

As mentioned at the top, Pearl passed away at the Dickey Clinic in Taylor, Texas. It was run by Dr. James Lee Dickey (1893-1959), one of the only practicing Black physicians in Williamson County, Texas, in the 20th century. He settled in Taylor after graduating from medical school in 1921. The following is from a blog post by Preservation Scholar Jae'la Solomon, hosted by the Friends of the Texas Historical Commission:

"One of Dickey’s goals was to combat the disparate rates of disease amongst Black Americans in Taylor. Ailments like tuberculosis, typhoid, and infant diarrhea all plagued the rural Black community in the area. Dickey acted and showed results. For instance, in 1933, rates of typhoid fever, a potentially fatal bacterial infection, rapidly increased in rural Taylor. Many African Americans worked as sharecroppers and were unable to afford the cost for clean city water, so they borrowed from a local ranch. This water, unsafe for consumption, spread the sickness and many were left without proper treatment. Dr. Dickey noticed a spike in typhoid and talked with city officials, explaining to them the link between typhoid and the ranch water. His advocacy made a great difference, and officials authorized the opening of fire hydrants. Families came out with buckets, filled them with water from the hydrants, and took them home. Dickey also began to treat willing patients of the infection, making house calls and walking through the mud to get to those in need.

Eventually Dickey realized that he needed a space to treat more patients, so he bought an empty rooming house at 401 Bland Street and renovated the space into what would become the Dickey Clinic. Dr. Dickey did remarkable work at the clinic. He and a staff of predominantly Black nurses offered critical care to the Black folks of Williamson County. Dickey treated patients with venereal diseases, offered free prenatal care, and helped to nearly eliminate tuberculosis and cases of infant diarrhea amongst African Americans in Taylor. In 1952, his service to the community granted him Taylor’s Citizen of the Year, a very rare feat for a Black man in the Jim Crow South."

 

Photograph of the Dickey Clinic at 401 Bland Street, Taylor. The clinic opened in 1936; this
picture was taken in 1955. Dr. Dickey was the African American doctor in Taylor who worked
with city leaders to stop a typhoid epidemic in Taylor's poor districts.
- The Portal to Texas History

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Andrew Lincecum, Free Born

Andrew Lincecum was born 1853-1860, likely in Louisiana.  This 3rd cousin of mine was a son of Rezin Bowie Lincecum and Annise (Annis, Annisa) Bowie.

I have seen Andrew's surname spelled many ways:  Lincecum, Linceycum, Lynscum, Lincecom, and Linscomb.  And though I've seen him referred to as Andrew most often, Andy and André are also noted.

My family and family history (so far as I know) is very caucasian white.  So it was a mild surprise to see R. Lincecum, a white planter, married to Annise, noted as Black in the 1860 Catahoula Parish, Louisiana Federal census.  These were the parents of Andrew, so his "color" was given as mulatto.  A notation was added to the census for the children of this union:  Free Borne --

What might that mean? Per Wikipedia:

The term free people of color…in the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, at first specifically referred to persons of mixed African and European descent who were not enslaved.  The term was especially used in the French colonies, including La Louisiane…  In these territories and major cities, particularly New Orleans, and those cities held by the Spanish, a substantial…class of primarily mixed-race, free people developed.  These colonial societies classified mixed-race people in a variety of ways, generally related to visible features and to the proportion of African ancestry…

In the Thirteen Colonies, settled by the British, and later in the United States, the term free negro was often used to cover the same class of people – those who were legally free and visibly of ethnic African descent.  It included persons of mixed race…

On the flip side, Christophe Landry of Louisiana Historic & Cultural Vistas, notes the following:

From 1699 to 1868, mixed color marriages were expressly forbidden.

So I wonder, were Rezin and Annise "officially" married? I just don't know the answer to that yet.

Returning to Andrew, specifically, his race was noted in a fairly consistent way across the census records taken throughout his life:  1880 – mulatto; 1900 – black; 1910 – black; 1920 – mulatto; and 1930 – negro.

Andrew was occupied as a farmer for the majority, if not all, of his adult life.  About 1887-1889, he married Minerva Maxwell, possibly a daughter of Jackson and Mary Jane M(c?)axwell.  Census takers considered her to be black, Indian, mulatto, and negro.  The couple had five children:  Wallace, Mary Ann (Anise), Roley, Otta (Ida), and Edward.

An interesting note might be that Andrew's son Roley (Rollo, Raleigh, Rolle, Rawlins) lived to be 100 years old.

By the time the 1940 Rapides Parish, Louisiana Federal census was taken, Minerva was a widow.  She later died on 22 September 1956.

The Dixie Overland Highway (An American History Tidbit)

When I'm down in the minutiae of researching someone's life, it's easy to miss the bigger picture. The history around them, even though it most definitely shaped them to some degree. I have to make a conscious effort to widen the lens -- work to put meat on the bones, so to speak.

Other times, little things just jump right out. Hop in the car with me. 🚗 

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In May of 1930, Oscar Lee Pike, son of Alma Rosalie Lincecum Pike, was living just two doors down from his future sister-in-law, Ella Mae McGuire. Both families were in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, and both families were residing along the Dixie Overland Highway.

The Dixie Overland Highway was conceived in 1914 by the Automobile Club of Savannah, Georgia, with the goal of charting a path through the southern States "for the purpose of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific."

Following from the March 1917 Better Roads and Streets magazine:

An association was formed, officers elected, and a plan of operation agreed upon. The object of the association being to promote the construction and use of a highway through the States of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

...It was then developed that the Dixie Overland Highway when constructed will be the shortest, straightest, and only year round, ocean to ocean highway, in the United States. All highways east of the Mississippi and the most of those west of the river, are laid out for north and south travel. The Dixie Overland connects them all, is a trunk line through the heart of the 'black belt,' crossing the rivers at the head of navigation, and forming what the promoters believe to be the most useful and important highway in the South.

[Source]

In 1926, the American Association of State Highway Officials designated and unveiled the official description of U.S. Route 80, which largely followed the Dixie Overland Highway. The entire route was 2,726 miles, with the following being the portion through Louisiana:

Beginning at the Mississippi-Louisiana State line at Delta via Tallulah, Royville, Monroe, Ruston, Arcadia, Minden, Shreveport to the Louisiana-Texas State line east of Waskom.

Here is a present-day map of the Dixie Overland Highway / U.S. 80 through Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, where Oscar Lee Pike and Ella Mae McGuire resided in 1930.

It didn't take long for tourism to be promoted along these auto trails and highway routes. Even today, Louisiana's Historic US 80 Byway is said to be where "drivers...can drink in vistas of verdant farms and forested landscapes."

From Missouri to California: a Trio of Roberts Men Go West for Work in Oil (Beyond the Bloodline)

 "Foreign immigration is a hot topic these days, but the movement of people from one state to another can have an even bigger influence on the United States' economy, politics and culture. Americans have already seen this with the Western expansion, the movement of Southern blacks to Northern cities and the migration from the Rust Belt." -- New York Times article Where We Came From and Where We Went, State by State dated 19 August 2014.

One by one, three of the eldest sons born to Justus Roberts and Martha Barks went west to California from their native Missouri. Did they make a pact and all go together? I'm not sure, but with the records I can access, here is when they each arrived in the Golden State:

• William Eppie Roberts was born 1884 in Bollinger County, Missouri. According to an obituary, he was a Coalinga, Fresno County, California resident by 1910.
• Milas Sylvestor Roberts was born 1886 in Bollinger County, Missouri. He married Mary Wood (d. 1974) on Christmas Eve 1910 in Fresno County, California.
• Linus H. Roberts was born 1890 in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri. According to an obituary, he was a Fresno County, California resident by 1916.

A job opportunity in the oil industry may have lured these young men west. William was an oil well pumper. Milas held the occupations of driller, rotary helper, and gauger. And Linus was an oil field teamster and general "oil worker." William spent several years with the Union Oil Company. And on each of their 1942 World War II draft registrations, both Milas and Linus list "Standard Oil Co." as their employer.

"The 19th century was a period of great change and rapid industrialization. The iron and steel industry spawned new construction material, the railroads connected the country and the discovery of oil provided a new source of fuel. The discovery of the Spindletop geyser in 1901 drove huge growth in the oil industry. Within a year, more than 1,500 oil companies had been chartered, and oil became the dominant fuel of the 20th century and an integral part of the American economy.

...When Standard [Oil Company] entered California in 1900, seven integrated oil companies already flourished there. The Union Oil Company was the most important of these." [Source]

In 1903, according to Wikipedia, "California became the leading oil-producing state in the US, and traded the number one position back-and-forth with Oklahoma through the year 1930."

"The Golden State got its nickname from the Sierra Nevada gold that lured so many miners and settlers to the West, but California has earned much more wealth from so-called 'black gold' than from metallic gold. The San Joaquin Valley has been the principal source for most of the petroleum produced in the State during the past 145 years." -- A Brief History of Oil and Gas Exploration in the Southern San Joaquin Valley of California

Image by Wikipedia user Antandrus. License for use: CC BY-SA 3.0

The Coalinga Oil Field is located in western Fresno County, California, surrounding the town of Coalinga. It was discovered in the late 19th century and became active around 1890. Each of the Roberts brothers named above spent at least some time residing in Fresno County, part of the San Joaquin Valley, and even specifically the town of Coalinga. Saying they worked at the Coalinga Oil Field at some point in their lives seems hardly a stretch.

Per Wikipedia, "A dramatic oil gusher erupted in Sept. 1909 at the 'Silver Tip' well [in Coalinga], producing 20,000 barrels a day, the biggest gusher in California until then. This was an event of such excitement that [the] Los Angeles Stock Exchange closed down for a day so that its members could come by train to view it." Given the timing, I wonder if that gusher guided the Roberts brothers to the San Joaquin Valley, Fresno County, and Coalinga.

Via Wikipedia. Digitization of unique historic image.
Author unknown.

Other places on the map above where the Roberts brothers lived include the cities of Fresno and Atascadero. Additionally, upon their deaths, Linus was buried in Fresno's Mountain View Cemetery and William was buried in Atascadero Pine Mountain Cemetery. 🪦

The fact that all three brothers stayed in California for the rest of their days hopefully means they deemed their moves worthy and successful.

[These three brothers were part of a family of eleven children. To learn more about the additional eight siblings, go here.]

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