Cheesy Grits:Granddad Ralston Arrives

Although he was born in 1892 in South Carolina—Charleston, we presume—at some point during the first decade of the XXth century, Granddad George, his mother Valeria/"Valley", and his sister, Myrtle Christina, moved from their home in Savannah (GA) to New York City.

Why did they move? The memoirs of Walter White, the first executive secretary of the NAACP, may provide a clue. The White family lived in Atlanta (GA) just up the road from Savannah. There was a horrible white-instigated riot against African Americans in Atlanta in 1906, during which some 25+ African Americans were killed, and the White family home itself came under threat. Walter White's father gave him a gun and posted him at the front of the house:

"In a very few minutes the vanguard of the mob, some of them bearing torches, appeared. A voice which we recognized as that of the son of the grocer with whom we had traded for many years yelled, “That’s where that nigger mail carrier lives! Let’s burn it down! It’s too nice for a nigger to live in!” In the eerie light Father turned his drawn face toward me. In a voice as quiet as though he were asking me to pass him the sugar at the breakfast table, he said, “Son, don’t shoot until the first man puts his foot on the lawn and then—don’t you miss!”

 Young Walter was only thirteen years old at the tine and was in fact a year younger than Granddad Ralston. I'm sure that news of the riot reached Savannah, and I'd guess that Granddad's mother, Valley, could see that her son, George, as a young black man, was especially vulnerable, and was determined to keep him as safe as she could. Leaving Savannah and the South seemed the best choice for her and her family, as it came to be for many, many African Americans and their families.

Why New York City? Valley's uncle Weston Thorne had moved from Charleston to New York City around 1878 and her sister Lily had also found her way there around 1900. Valley's mother (and Weston Thorne's sister) Rebecca also arrived in New York City in the first decade of the XXth century. So the presence of family in New York City could well have been a factor in her decision to move her family there. [Later edit: I checked the family tree again and it turns out there was another Thorne in New York City besides Weston: Harriett ("Hattie") Thorne Desverney was there with her husband Arthur and their three children. The Desverneys were a musical family, but to hear about them, you'll have to search for them elsewhere on this blog.)

One piece of evidence we have that dates Valley's arrival in New York City is her death certificate, which includes the length of her residency in the city. She died in 1947 and her death certificate records that she lived in New York City for 40 years, which would put her arrival at around 1907.

As family historians know from long experience, however, information on death certificates can be mistaken, sometimes wildly so. Until I find better documentation, we'll settle on the arrival of the Ralstons in NYC as having occurred sometime around 1907. (There is a Ralston in New York City in the 1905 New York state census; it may be Valeria, but the census data is too brief to be completely sure.)

The first solid documentation of the presence of the Savannah Ralstons in New York City is found in the 1910 federal census. They are living at 347 W. 59th St. in Manhattan, and Valley has taken up with a Texan named Frederick Wilcoxson; her mother, Rebecca (Thorne) Howard, is living with them and for some inexplicable reason—inexplicable to me, at least—Granddad George and his sister Myrtle are identified as "lodgers." (Their family names are given as "Royston"; I'd guess that the census taker wasn't highly motivated to get it right, as Rebecca Howard's last name is given as "Hubbard.")

Anyway, we're in New York City now, it's 1910, and Granddad George's career in athletics is about to begin.



Notes:

1) I covered the Ralstons' life in Savannah in more detail earlier in this blog. If you're interested, using the blog search field to search for "Savannah" will turn up those posts. Earlier blog accounts of the New York lives of Weston Thorne and his family, and Valley's sister Lilian Howard Mendozia may be explored the same way.

2) The excerpt from Walter White's memoir was taken from a longer excerpt that was accessed here:
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/104/

The full bibliographic citation for White's memoir is:
Walter White, A Man Called White (1948; reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1969)