Page 2 * CCC NEWSETTE ** February 24, 1983
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"THE EDGAR SMITH STORY" OF EVANSTON BLACK HISTOPY (From Page Onej
WHEN AMERICA'S FIRST 'HORSELESS CARRIEAGES," OR AUTOMOBILES HIT CHICAGOLAND, SOME 13 OF THEM BEING DRIVEN BY WHITE DRIVERS FROM CHICAGO TO EVANSTON, WITH ONLY TWO OR THREE OF THEM SURVIVING THAT LONG, ROUGH JOURNEY. ONE OF THE CARS BELONGED TO PAUL TEIGENS, AND THEN IT WAS THAT HIS GERMAN STUBBORNESS CAME TO THE SURFACE •.
"EARLY EVANSTON'S RACIST TOWNSFOLK (WILL RACISM EVER DIE?) DIDN"T COTTON TO THE IDEA OF A BLACK MAN DRIVING THAT NEWFANGLED MACHINE, AND URGED MR. TEIGENS TO REPLACE HIS COACHMAN WITH A ~IHIT[, DRIVER. WARMLY APPRECIATIVE OF EDGAR'S LOYAL'7'Y AND SKILLS AS A COACHMAN, PAUL TEIGENS INSISTED THAT IF ANYONE DROVE HIS CAR, IT WOULD BE EDGAR SM ITH! THEN, LET IT BE NOTED THAT ONE EDGAR SM I~"H
WAS ONE OF, IF NOT THE FIRST, OF EVANSTON'S BLACK CHAUFFEURS.
"THE WOMAN TO WHOM EDGAR REFERRED IN THE PHOTO AS 'MARIE' IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN MARIE FLOYD, THE FIRST WIFE OF MONROE FLOYD, LONG A MEMBER, errs TO ..• DIAN AND STALWART OFF IC IAL OF EBENEZER AME CPURCH. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EDGAR AND MARIE, APPARENTLY, WAS MERELY PLATONIC, SINCE THE FLOYDS, THE CANNONS AND THE SMITHS WERE PART OF A SOCIAL SET THAT RAN AROUND TOGETHER, CLOSELY KNIT.
"EDGAR'S WIFE WAS MAMIE SMITH, AND WHEREAS EDGAR DIED AROUND 1936-37, MAMIE IS SAID TO BE LIVING STILL IN AN ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN NURSING HOME AT THE REMARKABLE AGE OF 1021 (Note, that was as of 1978.)
"EDGAR'S ARRIVAL IN EVANSTON WAS AFTER THE SPANISH-AJ!ERICAN WAR (1898) AND BEFORE THE 'GReAT WAR' OR WORLD WAR I (19l4-ln8). HE WAS WORKING FOR GERMAN-AMERICAN PAUL TEIGENS DURING WORlD WAR I AND, SIGN IF ICANTLY, SINCE TEIGENS WAS OF GERMAN BERTH, THE U. S. HELD PAUL IN RESTRIC'!'IVE DETENTION THROUGHOUT THE CONFLICT, REFUSING HIM PERMISSION TO TRAVEL NEAR ANY WATERS OF CON'T'TNEfITAL U. S. (SHADES OF WORLD WAR I I, WHEN AMEP..TCM!BORN JAPANESE CITIZENS OF CALIFORNIA AND ELSEWHERE WERE HERDED INTO OUR STYLE CONCENTRATION CAMPS.)
"BUT SEE WHAT AN bLD, FASCINATING PHOTO, FOUND IN AN ATTIC AND ABOUT TO BE THROWN AWAY, DISCLOSES? SOMEHOW, ALBERTA McNEAIR FIGURED THAT CCC NEr"SETTE '"OULD BE .INTERESTED IN THE COLLEC':'ION OF PICTIIRF:S SHE FOUND, r'fHICH ["OULD BE. OF LITTLE ELSE THAN SENT.INENTAL VALUE TO FAMILY MEMBERS, AND SUBMITTED
(SEE NEXT COLUMN)
THEM TO US. WE WISH WE HAD THE TIME TO PURSUE THIS TYPE OF ORAL BLACK EVANSTON HISTORY.
"WE UNDERSTAND THAT SOME LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS HAVE BEEN FUNDED FEDERALLY TO DO SO. BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, WE URGE THEM TO GATHER DETAIL FROM WONDERFUL INFORMANTS SUCH AS MRS. LILLIE CANNON AND MR. FRANK D.SMITH."
BLACK HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE; A SALUTE TO TWO PIONEER BLACK MEDICOS
Just as "The Edgar Smith Story" reflected the domestic service role of black Evanstonians, a booklet titled "Disease Knows No Color Line," sought a medical facili ty where "our Negro" servants could go for care. Denied access to Evanston and St. Francis Hospitals, blacks could enter only Cook County and Provident Hospitals in far off Chicago.
Credit the late Doctors Butler, Arthur G. and Isabella, who founded Butler Sanitarium at 1918 Asbury. Subsequently, in concert with the late Doctors Elizabeth Webb Hill, J. Edmund Bryant, A. Rudolph Penn and others, they converted Dr: Penn's mansion at 2020 Brown into what became the Community Hospital of Evanston.
CCC offers a special Black Hitory Month commemoration to the memory of the Doctors Butler, two black pioneer physicians in a dedicated struggle to deliver medical services; and to all their associates for their tr~endous contributions to the health, education and welfare of black Evanstonians.
All Evanston benefitted because of them.
