Study Areas
Enslavement
Anti-Slavery
Free Persons of Color
Underground Railroad
The Violent Decade
US Colored Troops
Civil War
20th Century
Year of Jubilee
Old Mail
2002 Mail
2003 Mail
2004 Mail
2005 Mail
2006 Mail
2007 Mail
2009 Mail
|
2006 Mail
Tolliver Family History, Reply to Calobe Jackson
From Harryette Mullen, January 25, 2006
Dear Mr. Jackson,
In a previous exchange [click here to read that
letter], you mentioned that a man named "Toliver" or "Tolliver" was
a member of the Harrisburg Giants baseball team in 1906. I wonder if he
could have been Henry Tolliver, born about 1888 in Caroline County, VA.
In 1900 he lived at 1407 James Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with his family:
father Rev. Walker Tolliver, stepmother Hattie Wise Tolliver, and sister
Lula Tolliver. As I've learned from Afrolumens, several residents of
this neighborhood were associated with early African-American baseball.
Some also belonged to a church pastored by Rev. Walker Tolliver.
By 1910 Henry apparently had moved to Philadelphia where he possibly
worked for the railroad. In 1910 "Henry Toelafero" was a lodger in
Philadelphia's 20th Ward. His occupation was "laborer, freight." In 1920
he might have been a railroad worker rooming and/or boarding in
Philadelphia and/or Washington, DC.
Henry was the third child (elder son) born to Walker and Nancy
Taliaferro. In 1880 Walker and Nancy lived in the town of Madison,
Virginia. After the death of his wife (between 1888-1890), Walker moved
from Virginia to Pennsylvania with their three children Julia, Lula, and
Henry. Walker Taliaferro (Tolliver) married Hattie Wise of Chambersburg
in 1893. In 1895 Walker became the first full-time pastor of Zion
Primitive Baptist Church (now Greater Zion Missionary Baptist Church) in
Harrisburg. With his second wife, Hattie, Walker Tolliver had three more
children, all born in Pennsylvania (Harrisburg or Chambersburg): Joseph,
Beatrice, and Harryette.
You were kind enough to send me high school yearbook pages for my
grandmother's brother Joseph and sister Beatrice. Recently I have found
the yearbook for my grandmother (b. 1913) as well as her diploma from
William Penn High School. I also have several letters that my
grandmother received from her mother Hattie Wise Tolliver in Harrisburg.
Hattie's generation was the first in her family to acquire formal
education. Her parents, Hannah and Uriah Wise of Chambersburg, were born
into slavery in Virginia, arriving in Chambersburg between 1870 and
1880. Neither could read or write.
My grandmother turned ninety-two in November, 2005. She never met her
half-brother Henry, although she recalls visits with her half-sisters
Julia (in Pittsburgh) and Lula (in New York City).
Best wishes,
HM
[Editor's note: click here for an article about the
Harrisburg Giants baseball team.
Click here for an article about Zion Primitive Baptist Church.
Click here for an autobiographical sketch of Rev. Walker Tolliver.]
|