Lucinda (Cinda) White searching for her children.
South Carolina Leader (Charleston)
December 08, 1866
NOTICE
Cinda White, desires to hear of the
whereabouts of her Children, Sally, Jane,
and Hercules, Hercules was sold in Atlanta
by Jack Wallace, about three years ago and
taken to Tennessee: the girls was sold to
James McDaniel in Thomaston Ga. about
the same time. Address; Lucinda White,
Duncan St Charleston So. Ca
Cinda White, desires to hear of the
whereabouts of her Children, Sally, Jane,
and Hercules, Hercules was sold in Atlanta
by Jack Wallace, about three years ago and
taken to Tennessee: the girls was sold to
James McDaniel in Thomaston Ga. about
the same time. Address; Lucinda White,
Duncan St Charleston So. Ca
Share Information About This Ad or Obituary
David E. Paterson
An Indenture of Apprenticeship in the loose papers of Upson County Court (Thomaston-Upson Archives, Thomaston, GA) records that on November 23, 1866, Judge Thomas S. Sharman bound out Sallie McDonald (about 13 years old) and Jane McDonald (about eleven years old) to James McDonald, who claimed he had them in his possession at the time of Emancipation, and that they had no relatives to care for them. The children were to learn “husbandry & ordinary housework.” James McDonald, an elderly, blind Baptist preacher, served as pastor of Thomaston's Bethesda Baptist Church, 1865-66. He moved to Stone Mountain, Ga., about December 1866, but died in Rome, GA, 25 April 1869. (ref: Edwin L. Cliburn, In Unbroken Line, A History of the First Baptist Curch of Thomaston Georgia (1979), pp. 136-143).
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Lucinda White followed up her newspaper advertisement with a letter (below) to the Assistant Commissioner, South Carolina, of the Freedmen’s Bureau on 24 December 1866.
Asst Comr SC, Roll 5, Register of letters received, 1865-1867, p.394
[registry no.] 144 [received] Dec'r 27, 1866 [from] White, Sinclair [sic]
[summary:] Charleston SC Dec 24, 1866
Requests transportation from Thomaston Ga to this City for two childrem Sally and Jane McDonald.
Ford Dec 27, 1866 to Gen Howard, approved
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[M798, Roll 11, Register of Letters Received, Volume 2, 515]
Charleston, S.C., Dec’r 24, 1866
[Lucinda White (freedwoman)] Requests transportation to this place for her two children Sally & Jane McDonald, said to be living with James McDonald, at Thomaston, Upson Co., Ga.[1]
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[M798, Roll 8, Endorsements Sent, Volume 2, 94-95]
Endorsements on Comm’r from Scinda White (freedwoman), dated Charleston, S.C., Dec’r 24, 1866 – requesting transportation from Thomaston, Ga., to Charleston, S.C., for her two children Sally and Jane McDonald.
Charleston, SC, Dec’r 27, 1866
Respectfully forwarded to Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard Com’r, approved.
(signed) R. K. Scott
Bt. Maj. Gen. & A. Com’r
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Washington, D.C., Dec’r 31, 1866
Respectfully referred to Bt. Brig. Gen. H. M. Whittelsey, chief Q. M. Bureau R.F. & A.L.
By ord of Maj. Gen. Howard,
/signed./ A. P. Ketchum a.a.a.g.
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Washington D.C. Dec’r 31, 1866
Respectfully referred to Bt. Maj. Gen. Davis Tillson, ass’t com’r State of Georgia, for investigation and report as to the circumstances &c. of the children for whom transportation is asked.
By Command of Maj. Gen. Howard Com’r,
(signed) Hy. M. Whittelsey,
Bt. Brig Gen & chief q.m. &c.
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Respectfully referred to Thos. S. Sharman Esq., Agent Bureau R.F. & A.L. for Upson County, for investigation and report in compliance with endorsement of Bv’t. Brig. Gen. Henry M. Whittelsey, Chief q.m. Bureau R.F. & A.L. - This paper to be returned with report.
By command of
Col. C. C. Sibley
Office A. Com’r Bureau R.F. & A.L.} Eugene Pickett
Savannah, Ga, Jan’y 30, 1867 } Capt. & a.a.a.g.
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[M1903, Roll 67, Macon (Subassistant Commissioner), Registers of Letters Received and Endorsements Sent, Vol. 1 (291), 72]
Office S. A. Comr B of RF&AL
Macon Ga Feb 22 1867
Respectfully returned to Capt. Eugene Pickett, a.a.a.g., Bureau R.F. & A.L., with letter of Thos. S. Sharman enclosed.
(signed) N. Sellers Hill
Capt & S. A. Com’r
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[M798, Roll 8, Endorsements Sent, Volume 2, 147]
Office A. Com’r Bureau R.F. & A.L.
Savannah, Ga., Feb’y 28, 1867
Respectfully referred to Lt. John Leonard S. A. Com’r, Atlanta, Ga., for the investigation and report called for by Maj. Gen. Howard com’r, and attention invited to enclosed letter from T. S. Sharman Esq., late agent of the Bureau at Thomaston, Ga.[2]
By Command of
Col. C. C. Sibley
Capt & a.a.a.g.
[below is partial extract of Thomas Sharman's letter dated 11 February 1867. Sharman was tendering his resignation from the job of Freedmen's Bureau Agent for Upson County:]
"I will say that the old Gentleman that had those minor Girl children has removed, as I understand, to the Stone Mountain Geo, but when the [next] agent is appointed he will make the report officially."
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That is the end of the Freedmen's Bureau paper trail. Unfortunately the Sub-Assistant Commissioner for Atlanta, Lieutenant John Leonard, to whom Lucinda White's letter was forwarded, apparently lost all the paperwork. Leonard was such a terrible administrator that General Tillson's headquarters wrote to him in August 1866, demanding to know if he was still even on duty with the Bureau. The same letter demanded an explanation for the lack of records:“Captain Waldridge [who Leonard had relieved at the Atlanta post] reports an entire absence of any Official records of the Proceedings of the A.S.A. Com’r at Atlanta since his relief from duty at that place. You will report at once what you have done with the records of your Office made under your direction and if you have not kept a record, your reasons for not keeping a proper record.” Leonard finally wrote back in March 1867 asking permission to hire a clerk, complaining that “it is actually impossible to perform the duty required of me without a clerk.”[1] These letters suggests why there are almost no records of any correspondence to or from from Leonard’s office at Atlanta from June 1866 until May 1867.
For several years I have been on the look-out for Lucinda White and all her children in other records. No luck so far.
[1] Leonard’s first recorded letter as Sub-Assistant Commissioner in Atlanta is dated 1 March 1867 (M1903, Roll 43, Leonard to Tillson), explaining that he was on duty at Atlanta by Special Order 67 of 19 June 1866. First quotation from letter in M798, Roll 3, Ass’t Com’r for Georgia, Letters Sent, Vol. 4, p. 647, W. W. Deane (by command of Tillson) to Leonard, dated 30 August [1866]. Leonard’s recorded responses are in M1903, Roll 43, Sub-Ass’t Com’r for Atlanta, Letters Sent, Vol. 2, p. 1 dated 1 March 1867, and p.10, dated 22 March 1867 (second quotation).