Delta Photo Road Show: Discovering the Unknown Photos of the Mississippi Delta

2005·1.2 MB·English

by  Text by John Martin

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DELTA PHOTO ROAD SHOW
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DISCOVERING THE UNKNOWN PHOTOS OFTHE MISSISSIPPI DELTA
TheDeltaCenterforCulture&LearningandtheDSUArchivesDepartmentaregratefultotheHistoryChannelforfundingthisSaveOurHistoiyproject. BolivarCountyresi-
dentswhosubmittedphotographsfortheprojectincludeDavidWalt,MilburnCrowe,WillandNancyTierce,Mrs.W. FrankWoods,ClayRayner,InezStacySherwood,
JiankingZheng,CameronDakin,AlanLaMasutus, LauraFleeman,TamekaRachelleEllis,andJackFletcher. D.M. SmithMiddleSchoolstudentswhoconductedoralhistory
interviewsandcreatedthegalleryexhibitforthisprojectincludeTierraBrown,TeresaColeman,CandaceEdwards, DanyalJackson, KanyalJackson,TiashaJones,Alicia
McGee, EricMcKnight,TayhanaMcKnight,VentinaMiller,AimeeMiller, KyraMoore, BiancaNolden, GabrielNolden,DeniseProctor,LaToyaSmiley,RobertStewart,
FranklinTownsend, andleshaUpshaw.
A SAVE OUR HISTORY PROJECT
The Mississippi Delta has a rich heritage composed ofdiverse sto-
ries. Fortunately, there is still photographic evidence of manyofthese
stories, but unfortunately, many ofthese photographs have never
been made public. In an attempt to preserve and publicize historic
photos from the Delta, the "Delta Photo Roadshow" was held on
April 2, 2005. The eventwas organized byThe Delta State
University Delta Center for Culture and Learning, as partofthe
Lighthouse Arts & Heritage Program presented through the Cleveland
D. M. Smith Middle School. Modeled after the popular PBS program
Antiques Roadshow, the project paired the studentswith professional
documentary photographers and scholarswho helped them discover
stories related to the photographs. The most compelling images were
scanned into digital format and matched with oral history interviews
thatthe Lighthouse students conducted onsite with the owners ofthe
original photographs. In all, 12 participants submitted more than
1000 photographs, over 200 ofwhichwere preserved digitally. They
range insubjects from turn-of-the-century loggingoperations to
DELTA PHOTO ROAD SHOW contents
TheWalt Family 3
The Crowe Family 4
The Armstrong/Buckels Family 5
Lost and Found 6
Isola during the Flood of27 7
Logging/Cotton/Rice 8
Transportation 9
Formal Portraits 11
Learning/Education 13
Recreation 14
DISCOVERINGTHE UNKNOWN PHOTOS OFTHE MISSISSIPPI DELTA
1930s fishing drives to sharecroppingcotton. A fraction ofthese mote the history and culture of the Delta and its significance to the
photographs have beenincluded in this exhibit, tellingseveral her- rest of theworld, and the after-school program is one way the
itage stories about the land and people ofthe Mississippi Delta. Center accomplishes that mission. The program is also designed to
After these imageswere collected, the D.M. Smith students, increase community involvement among Delta State students.
under the guidance ofLighthouse art instructor Catherine Koehler, College students in service-learningcourses at Delta State volunteer
spentseveral weeks colorizing photocopies of them with colored as tutors and art interns in the program and also participate in some
pencils and watercolors. The colorized images were then cut out and of Ltie heritage workshops. The Lighthouse Program is funded
placed in collages accordingto seven different themes: Education, through an ongoinggrant from Learn & Serve America. Arts instruc-
Recreation, Portraits, the Delta as Frontier, Transportation, Industry tion is provided by Communities in Schools of Greenwood-Leflore.
and Agriculture, and Delta Life. An exhibit of this artworkwas pre- The partners in this projectwould like to thank the photogra-
sented atthe Charles Capps,Jr. Archive and Museum in May of phers and scholarswho served as jurors: BarbaraAndrews, Director
2005. ofCuratorial Services ofthe National Civil Rights Museum; David
This projectwas funded by a grant of $10,000 from The History Darnell, Chief Photographer at the Memphis Commericial Appeal;
Charmel toThe Delta Center for Culture & Learning, in collaboration Lynn Linnemeier, anAtlanta artist and graduate ofthe Center for
with the Capps Archives. As an initiative ofthe Delta Center, the the Study ofSouthern Culture; Greenville photographer RalphJones;
Lighthouse Program uses Mississippi Delta heritage and the arts to Brooke White, DSU art professor in digital photography; andJaman
engage Bolivar Countyyouth. The Delta Center's mission is to pro- Matthews, a graduate studentin folklore at UNC-Chapel Hill.
THE WALT FAMILY
The overwhelming majority of the photographs collected dur- collections. One tells the story of NancyTierce's family, the
ing the Delta Photo Roadshow come from three family collections. Armstrongs, who settled near Tunica and Gunnison around the
Dr. David Walt ofCleveland contributed images ofhis family ties turn ofthe century. The other contains awealth ofunidentified
to the steamboat business in Rosedale and the early days of the photographs that Will Tierce found years ago. The lives document-
railroad in Cleveland. Milburn Crowe's photographs actually draw ed in these images representfor the most part a more affluent side
from three diff—erent Mound of Delta life in the early 20th century. Photography, though not a
Bayou families the Cooper fami- rarity, was a tremendous expense especially duringthe Great
ly, th—e White family, and his Depression of the 1930s and was limited to people of means.
own and offer a glimpse ofthe The photographs submitted by these participants appear
upper- and middle-class lifestyle again and again in each section. Many more, however, remain
that residents there enjoyed in the unpublished because oflack ofspace. All of thesevaluable images
town's heyday. Will and Nancy have been preserved in digital format in the Delta State University
Tierce of Cleveland submitted two Archives.
David Walt'sfamilystoryis deeplyconnectedwith
thevarious modes oftransportation that made the Delta
accessibleforsettlers. Hisgreat-great-grandfather, Martin
Walt, moved intothe regionwith thesteamboatbusiness
in the 1860s as the ownerofacompanybased in
Memphis and Higginsport, Kentucky, thatran mail boats
to and fromtheWhite River, across the Mississippi from
Rosedale. The familyalso has roots inShaw, where David
Walt'sgreat-grandfather, Rufus PutnamWalt, Sr., worked
atthe railroad depot until his promotion to stationmaster
in Cleveland. The patriarchal lineage oftheWaltfamilyis
shown inthefar rightphotograph ofthetwo men, Martin
Walt and Rufus PutnamWalt, Sr., holdingbabyRufus
Putnam Walt,Jr., whowas David Walt'sgrandfather.
Manyofthe Waltphotographstellstoriesnotonlyof
the developmentofinfrastructure in the earlyDeltabut
also the social life and leisure thatbusiness afforded. There
were tea partiesand buggyrides for the children, dancingforthe adults, and the teenagersoften
appeargoofingaround. Manyofthese images remain in theiroriginal photo album that, brittle and
tattered asthe pages are, still carry handwritten captions thatmatch the charmoftheirsubjects. The
image atright, one ofWalt's favorites, shows children at a "WaltTackyParty" and is dated October 5,
1900. "October 5was mygrandfather's birthday and none ofthe other childrenwere born atthat
time',' Waltexplains. "The strange thingaboutthe historyofitis mysistercame up to give atalkon
antiques onOctober5, 2000, andwe pulled thatpictureoutanditwas 100yearsold thatday!'
Inthe other largegroup photograph above, Rufus PutnamWaltis posingin frontofa pony. The
womenstandingin the back, from leftto right, are his aunts and his mother, who moved from
Winona to Cleveland underspecial circumstances after her motherdied, accordingto David Walt.
"Her motherdied and therewereeightchildren, so theirfather putthem in awagon and startedwest.
Hedropped three offin CarroUton, dropped some offin Greenwood, dropped some offhere, and then
wentnorthtoMempfiis. He had to leave them withthe familybecausehecouldn'tcare fortheml'
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THE DELTA PHOTO ROAD SHOW DISCOVERINGTHE UNKNOWN PHOTOS OFTHE MISSISSIPPI DELTA
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THE CROWE FAMILY
Around the same time inMound to visit relativeswho had moved there dur-
Bayou, tlie Crowes, like most ofthe ing the GreatMigration. Like Walt's family,
African-American town's other families, Milburn Crowe'swas involved in the rail-
enjoyed the good life. Many of the photo- road business inMound Bayou and owned
graphs submitted byMilburn Crowe show land around town. These were two worlds,
residents relaxing on the front porches of within the same county, with striking paral-
well-builthomes. At the bottom ofthis lels and onlyrace to set them apart.
page, Crowe and his sisters are playingon Mostofthe photographs in the Crowe
their family farm. The people ofMound collectionwere taken byMilburn Crowe's
Bayou traveled regularly, often to Chicago aunt Mattie Thompson, who was better
unv
frv">b" known as "Aunt Goldie!' As Crowe
explains, "One ofher hobbieswas to take
pictures, and she had the habitofwriting
on the face ofher photographs, which has
helped me identify many ofthem. She
would sign themonthe side 'snapped by
Goldie"'
Aunt Goldie's handwritingexplains
whatshe and her sister are doingin the
photograph below: "Wateringplants on
Grandmother's gravel' But the image recalls
an even starker storyfor Crowe. "This is at
their grandmother's grave in Chicago in the
Lincoln cemetery. Their grandmotherwas
born into slavery. And when she was a
baby, she was found nursingon her moth-
er, who was found dead on a pallet one
morningafter
being beaten in the
field the day
before. So this
lady in the grave
as a babywas
found nursingas
her motherlay
dead'.'
THE DELTA PHOTO ROAD SHO\A
ARMSTRONG/BUCKELS FAMILY
The two sides ofNancyArmstrong
Tierce'sfamilymetin the Delta in the
1930s. The Buckels had been involved
w^ith the timber business in the region
as early as the 1890s, and the
Armstrongs left the boot heel of
Missouri for Melvina, Mississippi, in
the late 1920s. In the photograph at
the far right, Tierce's paternal grand-
parents Fount Ray and Martha
Armstrongpose in front ofthe car that
carried them into the Delta. On the
other side ofthe family, Tierce's moth-
er Carolyn Buckels is shown at right in
the arms ofher nurse, Betty, in Benoit,
Mississippi, 1939. vd
A
The image at left is ofMartin
Douglas Buckels,Jr., Nancy
ArmstrongTierce's grandfather on
the boardwalk in Tunica, circa 1915.
Buckels grew up around Benoit,
Mississippi, where his father, Martin
Douglas Buckels, Sr., worked as a
banker. The elder Buckels founded
Cleveland Commercial Bank and is
buried in the cemetery ofthe Burrus
House, where the movieversion of
Tennessee Williams' play Babydoll
was filmed.
Will IfNancy T.ms^^^M
At right, Martin Douglas Buckels, Sr.
is holdingMartin Douglas Buckels,Jr., 10
months old in Benoit, 1910. Theyare the
great-grandfather and grandfather of
NancyArmstrongTierce.
Atfar right, Martin Douglas
Buckels,Jr. is pictured in his horseback
ridingclothes in Benoit, 1920.
s
SAVE OUR HISTORY PROJECT
PROVIDED BY Will(fNancy Tierce
LOST AND FOUND
Most of the subjects of
these photographs are
unknown, except for the
ones of Kathryn, Bill, and
Claire Waldrop. In the
image below, Bill Waldrop
is shown holding daughter
Claire.
These forgotten photographswere collecting dust in the attic ofaMerigold
home in the early 1980swhenWillTierce, then a student at Delta State,
moved in and found them there. Tierce adopted them and has taken them with
himwherever he has moved since. Over theyears, he and hiswife, Nancy,
have been able to piece together enough information from noteswritten in the
margins, letters included in the collection, and conversa-
tions around Merigold to sketch outthe strange and
unsettling narrative thread that runs through these
images.
The central figure in them is Kathryn Henderson,
who appears in the earlier photographs as a little girl
growing up in Areola, moveswith her family to Shelby,
and goes to college atMississippi State College for
Women (MUW) in the late 1920s. The portrait at top,
taken when she was Kathryn Henderson, is from her col-
lege days. Accordingto the notes on the back, she submitted itto George From a poem Kathryn Henderson sketched on scrap
Butler to be included in an Ole Miss annual. Based on later photographs, paperwhen she was living at the Mississippi State
Henderson married Bill Waldrop. The couple honeymooned in Miami and set- Insane Hospital atWhitfield:
tled down in Merigold, where they had a daughter, Claire. From there, the
story takes a dark turn. Atsome point, Kathryn's husband. Bill, admitted herto "By road and river, countryside and town,
whatwas then called the Mississippi State Insane Hospital at Whitfield for rea- 1 roam foreverwith my fiddle brown,
sons of insanity. "From the letterswe gotthat she wrote to her mother, she creeping under barns so gladly
seems to thinkthat he liked anotherwoman, that he just got tired ofher, and when outside the winter I was playing sadly,
back then duringthis time period when husbands got tired oftheirwives, if playing madly, wakingup the rats and owls.
they had enough money, they could pay the doctor to say that she was craz/,' Ah itwas gay, night and day, fair and cloudyweather,
NancyTierce explains. Still, the Tierces don'tknowwhat impelled Bill Waldrop fiddle and 1 wanderingby over the world together.
to admit his wife to Whitfield or what became ofher. Yet they keep these pho- Down bythe willows summer nights I lie,
tographs as if theywere their own, storingthem in albums and plastic contain- flowers for my pillow, for roofthe sky,
ers. "We feel like she's a part ofour family,' NancyTierce said. playing, oh my heart remembers,
old, old songsfromfar away,
goldenJunes and bleak Decembers
Will&Nancy Tierce writhe about me as 1 play,
on and on forever till the journey ends.
^ Who shall dissever us two trustyfriends?
Who can bring the past before me
and make it future.Jollyglow,
lift the clouds thatdarken over me
V like my trustyfiddle bow^'
\ts. <>^
ISOLA DURING THE FLOOD OF '27
"...ourfirst job was to get people out of trees and off
ofroofs, wliich, in addition to goodwill and heroism, W%
ofwhich we had plenty, required motor boats, of
which we had none. We were desperate, but the Lord PROVIDED BY Melissa Townsend
overlookingour lack of faith, performed one ofHis
wittywhimsical miracles: out ofthe White River / / ' ' All of the images of Isola,
—
poured a daringfleet of motor boats the bootleggers! MS, during the 1927 Flood
,A" vS
Theyshotthe rapids ofthe break and scattered into were submitted by Melissa
the interior. No one had sent for them, no one was Townsend of Belzoni, who
—
paying them, no one had a good word for them but has inherited the collection
they came. Competent, devil-may-care pariahs, they of photographs her family
scoured the back areas, the forgotten places, across took ofthe event.
fences, over railroad embankments, through woods
and brush, and never rested until there was no one
left clingingto a roofor a raft or the crotch of a tree!'
-WilliamAlexanderPercyofGreenville, Mississippi.
Excerpted from Lanternson theLevee
PROVIDED BY Melissa Townsend
PROVIDED BV Melissa Townsend
HF" IH*^
-> M»4
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On the morningofApril 23, 1927, after denlysurrounded by itswaters. The images
months and months of heavy rainfall and were provided byBradley's great-great-grand-
highwater, a portion of the levee at Mounds daughterMelissaTovmsend ofBelzoni.
Landing near Scott collapsed, unleashing the "Wefoundthesealongwithabunchoffam-
swollen currents ofthe Mississippi River onto ilyphotosinMemphisacoupleofyearsago
the Delta. The waters poured forth, flooding whenwewerecleaningoutahouse','Townsend
the southen half of the Delta. said.The imagescormectedwithatleastone
The tinytown ofIsolawas atthe eastern familystoryshe hadheardthroughtheyears
reach ofthe flood. The railroad played a major aboutthosetimes. Thestorygoes: "Mygreat-
role in the reliefeffort there, providinghigher grandfatherand some menwentovertothe
ground alongthe tracks and refugee housing in levee atFriarsPointliterallylookingfor
boxcars. E.S. Bradley, whowas the Isola depot farmhandsforlabor.Thesteamshipwascoming
agentforthe Illinois Center Railroad atthe downriverand alotofpeoplewerecomingupto
time, captured on film the devastation and the see it. Ataboutthattime, theysawamaddog
local response to it. His photographs, some comingdownthelevee.The menwerestanding
taken from the vantage ofthe town'swater around tryingto protectthewomenandchil-
tower, showrescue boats motoringinto town dren. Thedogactuallybitmygreat-grandfather,
to reach residents stranded on their rooftops; and hedied acoupleofweekslaterfrom rabies.
"life in box cars',' as the handwritten caption on Thiswasbeforetheflood actuallycame. His
one photo reads; and the struggles ofa hamlet widowhad totakecareoffourchildrenbyher-
miles awayfrom the Mississippi River butsud- selfduringtheflood'.'
DELTA PHOTO ROAD SHOW DISCOVERINGTHE UNKNOWN PHOTOS OFTHE MISSISSIPPI DELTA
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Before settlers could take advantage oftlie Mississippi
Delta's rich bottomland soil, they had to clear the large
swathes ofcypress, sweet gum, and oaks that had
grown out of it for centuries. Loggingwas the first big
agricultural business in the region. These photographs
of a loggingoperation were taken at Concordia
Landing near Gunnison, Mississippi, around the turn
ofthe 20th century. The businesswas owned by
ancestors of NancyArmstrongTierce, who submitted
the photographs alongwith her husband, Will Tierce
ofCleveland, Mississippi.
F'RnVI Eri BV Inez Stacy Sherwood
Cotton was next. Planters
found the Delta soil ideal for grow-
ingthe cash crop and built an
empire and a social hierarchy on
KingCotton. Land, and in some cases
equipment, was rented to small farmers
in exchange for a portion of the crop and its
proceeds come harvest time. This arrangement was
called sharecropping, and itwas often a systemweighted
in the landowner's favor, with the hard physical labor of
farming left up to the sharecropper.
Inez Stacy Sherwood grewup in asharecropping fami-
ly on theJoe Smith plantation outside Shaw, Mississippi,
where the cotton patch photographwas taken. Now a resi-
dent of Cleveland, she remembers those days well:
"Everybodyworked then. Ifyou had cot—ton to pick, and
your kinfolks, your neighbors, whoever if their crop was-
n't ready, they'd come help you pick. Nobody does that
now. When itgotcold, iftherewas any cotton left in the
field, you wore socks on your hand and you picked that
cotton. Eight dollars a month furnish, that'swhat we got
to live on, and I had two kids, butwe had milk and we
had eggs and we had vegetables. You made your own corn
meal. You drove a plowand then you went along and
planted the cotton. They planted cotton by hand then. Rice is much newer to the Delta soil
Then they got the little thingsyou push that had a hole in than cotton. One of the first people to
bottom and that put the seeds out. And then when it get into the rice business was R.M.
came up, you had to chop it to gettheweeds out. Then Dakin. In 1954, Dakin built one of only
you'd justwait. We called that lay-by InJuly itwould be three sack rice dryers located in the
lay-by until you started picking it. We fished in the off- Mississippi Delta. The Dakin Rice Drier
time. In thewinter, you didn'tdo awhole lot. We read. I was operated by brotherJoe Dakin until
loved to read, 1 still like to read. We didn't have TVs. We early 1960s. One barrel of riceweighing
gMoyt oduarddfiyrspturtadiitoo,uatnodnetvheeryfbroondtypwooruclhd—gIatghueerssr,osuondthiet. f1o6r2fopuorunhodusrsw,asanddutmhpeendtuirntnoedeaocvhers.acHko,tlaaiirdhoevaetrehdobleyspirnopthaeneflgoaosr
neighbors could come and listen to the Grand 01' Opry on blewup through the sacks, drying the rice from 19% moisture to the
the radio. And there would be maybe 20 people listening 13% required for storage.
to that radio!'
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willCfNancy Tierce
Several different collections submitted during the Delta Photo Roadshow
feature horses, as a means of getting around, as farming implements, and
as a source of diversion. The image to the leftis of David Walt's ancestors,
possibly in Rosedale, catching a ride from their horse. From the Tierce col-
lection, Martin Douglas Buckels,Jr. (above), poses in his riding clothes
near Benoit in 1920. The other photograph is from the Henderson-
Waldrop collection, submitted by the Tierces; the time, people, and places
in them are unknown.
The U.S. R.R Walt, owned and operated by David Walt'sgreat-great-
grandfatherMartinWalt, shipped mail betweenMemphis and Rosedale.
In 1893, duringitsregularrun, the steamboatsankin an icystorm out-
side the portofMemphis. "The onlythingsavedwas the china, which
was custom-made for the boat',' DavidWaltsays. "Over a period oftime
itwasdispersed amongthe family. I have eight pieces ofit!'
The rise of the railroad industrywas crucial to Bayou depot during the 1920s and '30s. He is
settling the Delta and emerged as a major pictured here with hiswife, Elila. "They got
theme in the images collected in married in '22 and honeymooned at
the Delta Photo Roadshow. Niagra Falls" Crowe recalls. "This
Tracks laid on the high is a picture of those years!'
ground allowed settlers to Jones' expertise exceeded the
enter the once impenetra- railroad business to the lay
ble bottomland wilderness ofthe land and even classi-
that thrived in the alluvial cal literature, according to
soil and swampy heat. Crowe. "RichardJoneswas
Soon, towns such as notorious because he knew like
Cleveland, Boyle, Shaw, and every square inch ofMound
Mound Bayou were built up around Bayou. People would come to him to
the Illinois Central Railroad, which owned much survey their land, their property. For some rea-
of the land in the Delta, and families made their son, the folks ofMound Bayou would joke and
livingoperating and managing the trains. say. 'Richard, whenyou die, we're gonna have to
Rufus Putnam Walt served at different times come knocking atyour grave! Richard was really
as depot agent in Shawand stationmaster for the an authority. He surveyed the land for some of
Cleveland depot, where he is pictured beside a the farmers. Hewas city clerk and alderman. He
locomotive in one photograph (right) and holding was a gin manager in Mound Bayou. But he grad-
his son, Rufus Putnam Walt,Jr., on the tracks in uated from Fisk, and hewould love to talk and
another (left). tell these stories ofAgamemnon and people
Just to the north, RichardJones, Milburn enjoyed him running off his mouth with his
Crowe's uncle, was stationmaster for the Mound cigar. He was quite a character!'