Monday, February 11, 1901

11th – Geo. & I took 2 cords of wood to Mr. Lee in the morning. Geo. took him a cord & I took him a load of soft wood in the evening. The snow is about gone & so are the roads.

There’s no way to know which Mr. Lee Jesse means. Maybe George and Jesse brought two cords (total?) to Robert and Ollie’s house because they went through a lot of wood on account of having three kids. It could have been John Lee’s business that needed two cords, and maybe he sold some to customers through his store. Maybe Washington and Belle just used a lot of wood and liked to stay warm! There is no way to know for certain.

There are two seemingly unrelated African-American Lee families in Green Township, Livingston County. Both lived in Utica at least as far back as the 1870 census. One is an older couple named Washington and Belle Lee, and her son Edward Jones who was possibly the man mentioned in Jesse’s entry from August 9th. Another Lee family is teacher John Wesley Lee, his wife Mae Samantha, and John’s mother Chaney English Lee. In a separate household is Chaney’s other son, day laborer Robert Levi and wife Ollie Lee, and their three kids Pearlie, Bessie, and Gussie.

John Wesley Lee listed himself as a school teacher in the 1900 federal census. In 1910 he reports himself as running a barbershop. In 1920 he lists himself as a restaurant manager. In 1930, he is living in Chillicothe and says he is a barber, and in 1940, still in Chillicothe, he is listed as a teacher again. John and Mae are the Lees who ran the store in Utica where ice cream was sold up front, and music lessons were given in the back, and he ran a theater on the second floor where one could see traveling vaudeville performances or movies. Jesse’s daughter Jessie Elizabeth remembers eating ice cream in that shop, and her Grandpa Jim taking her and her little brother Jim to the vaudeville performances during the aughts and teens:

Utica had an Ice cream parlor in front & in back end was a barber shop run by Mr. Lee. He taught colored school & played horn & she played piano, cooked pies & restaurant eating for brick plant men to put in their lunch boxes & Mr Lee had a room off back for barber shop…. There was a long hall above Mr & Mrs Lee’s ice cream store, with stairs leading up from outside & stage shows used to come in off trains. The shows would have 3 or 4 different parts, each with different scenes & the curtain would come down each time & they would re-decorate the stage. While curtain was down, certain funny guys would come out and entertain before time for the next act or some one would come out to sing. Mrs. Lee had a small round table at door with cigar box where she’d collect money when people came in. Usually hall was packed & every one paid with silver dollars, because there was no paper money then. Grand-dad would go every time & take Jim & me & he’d always take front seat & cup his ear so he could hear everything. Then other times Mr. Lee had a compartment away back & a picture Machine & would have silent pictures. You had to read fast to keep up. All kinds of shows – some funny & some were westerns, on certain nights there would be a serial & of course you’d have to come back each time until the ending.

Mae Lee, the lady who made the pies and lunches for the brick plant employees, bought eggs from Mary Frances Frazier to help make those pies.

A fascinating text about the activities of the African-American Community in the Utica and Chillicothe area has been posted at the Livingston County Library website.