AHPW Family

Adams and Porters

Harrisons and Washington

FROM SLAVERY T0 CALIFORNIA
THE PORTER - ADAMS FAMILY SAGA
BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT ADAMS August 3, 1983
Friday N. Porter Sr. was born in Louisiana during the year 1811.  He is the first Porter known in family. Friday Senior's only known son, was Friday N. Porter Jr. (aka Roger Friday Napoleon Porter) who was born May 24th, 1848, in Indian Village, Louisiana.  My mother Miltilda  A. Rates Porter (aka Pinkey) was born March 7th, 1862, in Orangeburg Kentucky. She left Kentucky at an early age to live with her oldest sister Dicy Alexander who lived in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Her sister Dicy partly raised Matilda. My mother Matilda Married Friday N. Porter Jr. in New Orleans on April 6th, 1882.  Rev. Guy Beck, a Baptist minister, married them, in the presence of Thomas Freeman, Henry Williams and Solomon Signal.
Friday Jr. was a carpenter by trade who built many homes in the New Orleans area. He also built his own home for his wife and their seven children whose names were:
Nathaniel N. Porter	 Born: 1/04/ 1883
Mabel .E. Porter  Born: 9/23/1884
Ruth A. Porter Born:	6/04/1886
Alexander W. Porter & Octavia J.  (Twins)
Born: 1/ 8/1888	
Avie E . Porter (aka Avery) Born: 7/ 19/ 889
James A. Porter Born: 4/28/ 891
Friday Jr. built and operated the general store in Pearlvillle, Louisiana. Their general store was also the post office where people in the area would come for their mail and food. My mother attended the store and took care of the mail. On July 10th, 1888, Friday N. Porter Jr. took the oath of office as Pearlville Postmaster. He also worked with the Sheriff Department of Pearlville. 
Friday N. Porter Sr. started homesteading 39 acres of land in Pearlville on May 20 th, 1862. The Porter family also had their own cemetery in Pearlville. My mother, Matilda Porter and Friday N. Porter Jr. were a very happy couple until on December 10, 1897 when Friday N. Porter Jr. passed away to be with our Heavenly Father.
James A. Porter, the youngest member of the Porter family, was willed by Aunt' Dicy Alexander a large parcel of property in the city of New Orleans.
The history of the Adams branch starts 150 *years ago with Calvin Felix?Adams, who was a slave that was set free and given the name Adams by whites who raised him. He was born in Charleston, S.C. He. Was a coachman for his master or a modern day chauffeur, He left South Carolina with his master to Daphne, Alabama.
My father Calvin Felix Adams was first married to Millie Jones Adams. To this union came four children: 
Theresa Felix Samuel Lucinda Adams My, father had two brothers. My uncle Will the oldest was a horse doctor. He was killed when I was young. Uncle Bud worked on boats.
Years later my father met my mother Matilda Rates Porter. They married in Louisiana in 1898. After marriage to my father, mother had four more children:
Odessa C. Adams Born: 8/23/1899
Twins Born: 1900 (both died)
Theodore R. Adams (me) Born: 10/2/1901
My father worked many jobs to support his family. He worked as a horse and cattle doctor, a sanitation man and he sampled and bottled whiskey in a saloon. He was also a charcoal burner that made coal to be used as fuel for burning. He was a specialist at making smokeless coal. 
He homesteaded our home on 166 acres of land in Slidell, Louisiana. Grover Cleveland was the President at that time. There was never any proof, but it was said the land was lost because taxes were not paid.
My mother was a missionary, and spent much time helping the sick, washing and dressing people who passed away at home (a forerunner of the modern day mortician) and as postmistress at the general store.
Me and my brother Samuel with my siter Odessa sold milk for my father's dairy to people in Slidell, Louisiana, we sold sweet milk, buttermilk and butter from door?to-door with two Large buckets between the three of us. Samuel was the strongest of the three of us would walk in the middle supporting weight of the buckets with me and Odessa helping along a three-mile route bare foot.  We had good feet in those days.
My father raised and sold vegetables from door to door, while my mother took in washing and ironing; she always kept busy. My dad had about 80 head of goats that we sold to many poor people in the area. My father also sold the lumber from our 166-acre farm to the Salmon Lumber Company.
When we delivered milk we would have to fight off the mosquitoes get to where we were going and other times we'd have to fight the bad kids while delivering buckets of milk; sometimes we would loose a little, but we always made it thru. The milk that we lost out of our buckets on our way would some times be substituted by water in the buckets. (smiled) And when we got to one of coloured lady we sold milk to she would say to us " you kids p some water in this milk?" "Don't lie to me, because I'll tell you daddy on you."
We had a mule named Jolly. He was brown and he knew every stop my dad made to deliver his vegetables. When he get to some ladies house the old mule would just stop good because he knew my daddy would talk a long time to the ladies. On Sunday mother and dad would take us to church and Jolly would stop on the way to church at the place where my daddy sold his vegetables at the lady's house where he spent time talking. (smile) Mother would say to daddy " see Jolly is telling on you." And it was hard for him to get to go on the way to church.
Life for our large family was not always easy, but? being a part of a close family gave us a , sense of belonging.
As the Porter ? Adams children grew they went in many directions. Nathaniel moved to Alabama, Mabel moved to Detroit; Ruth moved to California  in ,1912; Alexander also moved to California 1912; Octavia stayed in Louisiana; Avery moved with her husband, John Washington (see Washington ? Harrison branch) to California in 1919 and James stayed in New Orleans.
In 1910 the Adams part of the family moved to Daphne, Alabama and stayed for eight years. We went to Alabama by scooner (a sail ship) up the Mississippi. My father truck farmed and made charcoal. I left the whole family and went back  to  New Orleans to work just before the family decided to leave Alabama for Detroit to be with Mabel.
We went to Detroit in 1919 by train but when my father saw ice cycles forming on his mustache he decided it was too cold a; pushed on West to be with the Porters.
In 1920 my father, mother, Odessa and her daughter Pat came to Los Angeles. We first stayed on 32nd Street my sister and I with Ruth and my mother and father with Alex and his wife Odessa. We then moved to McGary Street close to Alameda.
My father and I bought a lot in Watts on what is now 110th Street between Hooper and Compton. We built a three-room house less than a week with the help of Johnny Washington. My father Did odd jobs and I worked for Ralph Grocery Co. They only had 6 stores at that time and I delivered bakery goods to the store in a Model "T" Ford. I also knew the original Mr. Ralph and family.
My father passed in March 1924 and my mother passed in 1929 I married my first wife Willie May Adams, in 1926 in Salinas, California and we stayed in the house until her death in 1952.
In 1944 I bought 1/2 acres in Gardena at the same time that Alex bought 11/2 acres across from me. When I married Louise Winston Adams in 1953 we had a house moved onto the lot in Gardena. We are still in?that house today.
I am glad that God has let me live, and gave me a sound mind to share a portion of history with my family. I am grateful for the warmth of each family member. I hope this reunion will enhance the growth and enrich the life of each of us and help the family succeed. History of the Porter?Adams family has touched many lives in cities throughout the United States, from Louisiana to California.
We know that family is a life long relationship and is about he strong taking care of the weak.
May God bless and keep you. May he lift his countenance upon you, and give each of you peace, courage, love, patience, strength and hope for years to come.
Thank you
Theodore R, Adams

My mother's name was Diannah Davis (also known as Annie Davis.) Her father's name was Henry Davis and her mother's name was Mary Davis. She had three sisters, Mary, Martha and Pearlie and two brothers; Charlie and Alfred.

My mother was born in South Carolina, I don't know what city or town. My father was born in a little town called Bogatta, Louisiana. They were married in Slidell, Louisiana.  My mother's first husband was named George Wesley  Washington. They had four children, Isaiah, Mary, and Henry. One month before the fourth child was born, her husband George met with a train accident and died.  John W. Washington was born a month later. He never saw his father.

My mother was left a young widow with four children. She met Mr. Walter Henry Harrison, my father, and they were married. To this union was born, Charity, Arthur, Albert, Pearlie and Lillie (me). My mother was a good cook. She cooked for large family hotels and did day work. She was the best midwife in town. There are many men and women living and dead whose births were never paid. At that she only received $3 ? $6 for her services. If the family did not have a horse and wagon she would have to walk to the house day or night, rain or shine. It did not matter, she would go.

My mother was stewardess in Mount Olive Methodist Church. My father was one of the first trustees of the Church. He was also an ordained minister of the A. M. E. Church.
In those days men would go around and recruit families to go on farms and work, so my father decided he would take his family and go on one of those farms. My mother got the children together. She said that she would take the girls with her, Mary, Charity, Pearlie and Lillie. She took Arthur and Albert because they were small. She left Isaiah, Johnnie and Henry with Rev. Joe Dowery and his wife's sister, Sarah Dowery.

My mother was reared in Pensacola, Florida. Her father was a fisherman. She knew about fish, oyster, crabs and shrimps; cotton and corn she did not know. Mary, my sister, met Mr. Charlie Owens Lee, and they were married in Port Gibson, Mississippi. Mary and Charlie had four children; George, Rosie Anna, Jesse and Ike Lee.

My mother said to Charlie, "I don't know nothing about farming, I want to go back to Slidell Louisiana. Charlie said, "Mother I will help you get away."  He did and she did. My mother said that we had to slip away before day. We had to walk a long ways before we could get on a train. Can you imagine a mother with six children slipping away with her six children before day?

Charlie and Mary stayed until they could slip away. My father stayed and every year he was so deep in debt that he could not leave and that was the end of their union. He would write to us often and my, mother would always say, "You children had nothing to do with your father and me separating. He is your father and regardless to what he does you always remember that. You hear me?"

After many years passed my mother met Mr. George Lewis and they were married in 1908. They lived happily together. My mother had the pleasure of seeing Charity and Leonard Crawford married. She saw Johnnie and Avery Porter happily united in holy wedlock.

My mother told us all through the first part of the year, she was going to spend Christmas with Johnny and Avery, because Avery was expecting a child and she wanted to be there when it came. She was. She was with Avery in delivering their first three children, Jewel, Augusta and Rosie Lee. Rodger, their fourth child, was born Nov. 5, 1910. Mama didn't come home until after Christmas. She went to church the first Sunday in January 1911. She came home and said to my stepfather, "Lew I want you to go and pay the taxes in the morning, because they are due." When he did. she said "Now I have done all that I have wanted to do."

Lew left about 6:30 AM, Tuesday, January 17 , 1911. They were talking to each other as long as they could hear each other. About 8:00 AM, a man called my stepfather and told him to go home at once, that his wife had died. He said, "No not my wife. We were talking to each other as I left home." God had blessed them with three years of happy marriage.

I would live with my sister Charity for a short while, and then I would live with my brother 
Johnny for a spell.  Johnny worked in Slidell at the Todd Ship Building Co. In 1919, the war was on and they needed workers in? the shipyards in San Pedro, California. Johnny's boss transferred him as the lead man and some other men to L. A. to work in the shipyards. There he and Avery joined their brother and sister?in?law Alex and Odessa Porter.

The Porter's had been in Los Angeles since 1912 . Now, in 1911, my sister Pearlie had gone to live with her husband Jerry Robinson in Hattiesburg Mississippi. Jerry had a cleaning and pressing shop. I missed Pearlie so much that I got to crying for her and told Johnny that I wanted to go and live with Pearlie. They told me to stop crying and they would send me to live with Pearlie.

One year to the day that our mother had died, January 17 , 1912 , Jesse was born. Jesse seemed so small that Pearlie was afraid to hold him when she bathed him. I told her to give him to me. I'll bathed him, I knew how to hold him. You see I had seen my mother bathe so many babies. I just loved to bathe Jesse. That's why he's still my baby.

I lived with Pearl until Jerry, went to Laurel Mississippi . Shortly, afterward Pearlie 
and Jerry separated. Jesse was two. I stayed on in Hattisburg Mississippi where I met 
James Mosley, we were married on January 14 , 1914. In April 1916 , we went to Chicago. Jimmy was drafted and went to France.  I was left in Chicago with my mother?in?law with some friends, all of us were from Hattisburg.

When the boys came home from France in 1918 , Oh l what a day, when we got the news that the war was over. We started walking the streets about 3:00 AM in the morning and we walked until we couldn't walk any more, Then the boys came home,  there we were again in the street after it was all over I went to St Paul Minn.

In 1919 , my sister Pearlie married Willie "Bill " Craig in Hattiesburg. He had just been discharged from the Army. They had been going together before he was drafted.

My sister Britton wrote me to come to L. A.  I did. I stayed a month and moved back to Chicago. I wrote to Charity, Britton we called her, and I told her that I was getting ready to go to Pensacola Florida. She sent me a special delivery saying to come at once, she needed me. That was on Wednesday I could not leave Chicago until Sunday. She sent me some money, come at once, and I did. I took a cab to her house. She was sitting on her porch weighing about 175 pounds and here I was weighing less then 100. I got so mad at her that if the train had been there I would have gotten on the train and gone back where I came from.

The next thing that Britton did was to get Pearlie, Willie and Jesse out here from New Orleans. They arrived St. Patrick Day, March 17 , 1922. Then she got Arthur out here from Texas. Then, the five of us were together again; Johnnie, Charity, Arthur, Pearlie and me.  In June 1927 Avery Washington Passed, leaving six children; Rosie Lee, Rodgers, Booker T., Louise, Charles and David. In December 1931 Her husband, our brother, Johnny died.

Four years before , in 1927 I met 1st Sergeant George H. Shelton, Retired U. S. Army. In two years, January 17 , 1929 , we were married. George was twenty years older than I. This did not set too well with my sisters, Britton and Pearlie. But it wasn't long when George bought our home on 42nd street that everyone came around to realize that George was an outstanding than. We had a happy marriage for 34 years. George died September 18, 1963. Twenty years ago.

Back in April 1944, my sister Charity decided that our father was too old to be working on a farm. So she said "we are going back to Ark. to get our daddy so we can look after him." She took Estelle and Estelle's son, Russell, and me . Off , we went to Slidell to get papa's youngest brother, Jimmie Harrison, and we all went to Wilson Ark. to get papa. Papa said, "Oh Lord, children I can't go now, you see my crop is just sprouting up, but I promise you if the Lord spares me I will be there for Christmas. 
 
On December 23 , 1944, about 9: 00 PM, my phone rang and a lady asked if I was Mrs. Shelton. When I replied that I was, she said that she had my father and stepmother at her house. She said they had rode together on the train from Ark. She lived on 47th and Hooper and I lived on 42nd and Central. I picked up my parents and took them to Britton where they lived until Britton's health failed. Arthur took them until his health failed. My  stepmother passed while she was still living with Arthur.

It was now Pearlie's turn. She and Willie were living with Myrtle and Jesse, in their recently purchased Compton home. Papa stayed with Pearlie until the Lord call him home. We were pleased because we did what mama 'told us to do. Charity had no children but she and her husband Moses Britton raised our deceased cousin's daughter Estelle and gave her the name Britton. She attended the L. A. City schools. When the time came they gave Estelle a beautiful wedding.

Moses and Charity had come to Los Angeles in 1919 with my brother John Washington. Moses was employed by the City. The Brittons bought their home on Palomaris Street, now known as 25th St, one block east of the Long Beach Tracks. He passed away in October 1943. Charity passed away on December 24, 1946. Estelle, the adopted daughter, passed away in 1947. In Slidell today there is the Annie Harrison Graveyard. My mother gave land for the graveyard and today it is still known as the Annie Harrison Graveyard.

My mother and brother and other relatives are buried there. There is much more that I could say but I think this is enough. Our family bible got lost, I don't know how since I was only 13 when my mother died and I did not have the say so about what was left but I'm sure Sister Charity did what she thought was best. Sister Pearlie and I were so close to each other, we were almost like twins. We buried Pearlie March 9th, 1973. On November 12, 1982 Bill said to me "Lil, I won't be here tomorrow." I Said, "Where are you going, Bill?" He said, "To heaven." Willie "Bill" Craig died the next day, before noon.

Today I live with Jesse and his lovely wife Myrtle. We get along just lovely. I am grateful to them. They are so thoughtful of me. Pearl, my Godchild, their lovely daughter and her husband John Williams, my prayers for them are that God will keep them, in his care. Not them only, but each and every one of you, so I leave you with John 3 :16. Thank you,

Lillie H. Shelton

Minor Editing, formatting Graphics by Greg  Washington July 8, 2001

Click on the photos below to enlarge. You are welcome to print copies for your enjoyment!

History by Clan

The AHPW Family Stories

Family Videos

The late Jesse Robinson on the: Adams, Harrisons, Porters and Washingtons

Segment 1 Segment 2