The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 100, July 1996 - April, 1997 Page: 67
551 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Courtship Letters of an African American Couple
the Civil War except the eldest daughter, who was born in 1862 in Geor-
gia.5 This indicates that the family probably migrated to Texas sometime
after the Civil War ended in 1865. Interestingly, the Knotts family was
listed as mulatto in the 188o census, but Lucia was recorded as black, as
was Calvin, in the 1900oo census. Both Lucia's father, Benjamin, who was a
farmer, and her mother, Bafette, whose occupation was "keeping
house," were listed as illiterate; however, all their school-aged children
attended school and could read and write.6 Little information about
Calvin Rhone's early life could be found, other than the fact that he was
born in Mississippi in 1861.7
A more personal narrative than is told by the census records unfolds
within the Rhone family papers. Although the courtship correspon-
dence ended with a letter from Calvin that set the date of their wedding
for December 27, 1887, the rest of the family papers flesh out the story
of their long married life together.8 Later letters between Calvin and Lu-
cia Rhone, and between other family members, reveal the prominent
place this middle-class family held in the black community of Fayette
County in Texas. Both Calvin and Lucia were schoolteachers, and thus
would have been leaders in their community.9 Calvin was a member of
the La Grange District Association of the Baptist Church, and he also be-
longed to various fraternal organizations. He was known as "Professor
Rhone," a title that indicated the respect others held for him. Lucia was
a women's club member, and she also was active in the Baptist Church.
During their long marriage, they had twelve children, eight of whom
survived. At least five of their children attended Prairie View A&M Col-
lege. One daughter, Urissa Brown Rhone, whose papers are among the
collection, had a long teaching career and eventually became principal
of Round Top-Carmine High School.
SUnited States Tenth Census (188o), Fayette County, Texas, Population Schedules (microfilm,
Texas State Archives, Austin).
6 Ibid. There is a letter from Benjamin Knotts to Calvin Rhone in the Rhone Family Papers,
perhaps suggesting that the census taker was in error or that someone wrote the letter for him.
7 United States Twelfth Census (1900oo), Fayette County, Texas, Population Schedules (mi-
crofilm, Texas State Archives, Austin). According to the 19goo Census, Calvin Rhone was born in
1861, although the Rhone Family Papers collection finding aid lists his date of birth as after
emancipation, in 1867; Julia Payne and Lawrence A. Landis, "Finding Aid" ([n.p.], 1984). Earh-
er census records for the Rhone family were not found
8 Calvin Rhone to Lucia Knotts, Dec. 12, 1887.
9 Scholars have documented the prominent and respected role black schoolteachers held
within African American communities. See Shirley J. Carlson, "Black Ideals of Womanhood in
the Late Victorian Era," Journal of Negro Hzstory, LXXVII (Spring, 1992), 65-66; Lucy Craft
Laney, "To Get An Education and Teach My People," in Ruth Bogin and BertJames Loewenberg
(eds.), Black Women in Nineteenth-Century American Life. Their Words, Their Thoughts, Their Feelings
(University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976), 300.1996
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 100, July 1996 - April, 1997, periodical, 1997; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101218/m1/95/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.