February Musings

Both my children took their first breaths in February. They likely roll their eyes when I get all sentimental remembering those days and those times but mostly they humor me and hear, once more, pieces of the story of the beginning of our lives together. 

Now they're both parents - making their own histories and telling their own stories. And that's the way it is with our collective history - it begins with the personal, adding more stories, more people telling them and before long the stories work their magic. The telling of the stories - and the listening too - brings us to a  different place.

The stories from another time -  the stories told during Black History Month - another February observance. 

Where do we hear the stories of local black history?

Are the teachers telling  of  Asylum Peters - or Peter Asylum from some sources - buried on Ayers Hill. In 1810 census, the population of Potter County was 29. Among those was listed Mr. Peters, colored, a slave.

Are we sharing the stories about local stops on the Underground Railroad? The Mann Houses - in Coudersport and in Millport and other stops along the way to freedom in Canada. W.W. Thompson, local historian and founder of The Potter Enterprise, told a story, some years after the Civil War, about the discovery of a hidden room, complete with a straw tick and blankets in a commercial building at the corner of West and Third Streets, a building once owned by J.S. Mann

Rev. E.S. Toensmeier preaching from the pulpit of the Presbyterian Church in 1906: "The attempt to paint slavery as an ideal institution as is being done in so many quarters should meet with the condemnation it deserves. There were doubtless homes in the South where the relations between Master and Slave was one of affection, of loyalty, of kindliness yet when you have said all you can in praise, the fact remains it was slavery. The Negro was a human being who was bought and sold."

Are they hearing stories from the CCC Camp at  Bark Shanty where W.C. Handy entertained in 1941? The newspaper relates "Mr.Handy will play his music 'conceived in torment' as the featured attraction of a program of entertainment sponsored by the camp. The Bark Shanty Camp was a negro camp.

And who remembers the time The Globe Trotters, described as the "negro wizards of the hardwood," played a game against top local basketball stars in the spring of 1948. 

And what about teaching about the migrants who played a big role in the county's rich agricultural history. To help develop the county's agricultural economy, farmers of the late 1940s and 1950s, began to put more acreage into crop production - peas, beans and potatoes in particular. And so, crop workers from the south - mostly black folks - were brought to the county for harvest. 

Newspapers of the day chronicled the influx of more than 3,000 individuals, while at the same time touting the economic impact for the county.

"A talented writer could almost produce another "Grapes of Wrath" book with the setting in Potter County."

"The Enterprise has pointed up squalid living conditions in migratory labor camps. The paper only finds fault with those old buildings with leaky roofs and no sanitary facilities where scores of men and children are crowded in, and in many cases each man and woman is charged one dollar a week room rent."

"If the workers fight and cut each other or commit other crimes, the cases are reported truthfully. If slot machines are seized or men arrested for the sale of intoxicants, the reports are made. Isn't it just possible that showing of condition will have a tendency to improve them." (1950) 

"Potter County is not only paying gigantic bills of costs to enforce the law but it is being given most damaging publicity because of the bringing of hundreds of Negroes here as farm crop workers."

And this ... 

"Law and order took a holiday Monday at a migrant worker camp in Bingham Township, four miles north of Ulysses. Crimes ranged from assault and battery through sale of illegal intoxicants to selling venison to Negro crop workers. Right in the middle is the white boss at the camp."

And in the background, the work of  local communities of faith.

"The pastor stressed the importance of the assistance-type service rendered. 'Right here in Potter County during farming season there are far more people who need help than society likes to admit. But caring for the deficiencies of mankind in a modern and expedient way is something new, something not wholly accepted."