Looking for America
In 1893, James Francis and Virginia Lee Greer accepted positions at Baylor University. Professor James Francis Greer took the helm as VP and professor of Latin Studies. Virginia assumed the duties of girls’s dormitory matron at Georgia Burleson Hall. The massive three-story hall was one of the two original buildings and a mirror image of “Old Main” next door.
Virginia had the monumental task of managing the lives of the female students, all of whom lived in the dormitory — from selecting and ordering uniforms to menu-planning and orchestrating the cooking to washing linens and cleaning to caring for sick students and managing the small farm that provided the food for meals, it was a lot. And, a LOT was riding on this position.
In the memoir, Lillian named names of those who supported this massive effort:
William Hudson, cook
Celestine, general helper
Bill Long, handy man and farm helper
The Starks: Phil, America and their children, Effie & Evie, and Phil’s orphaned niece, Marah.
Besides the cook, all were people of color -- either black or "mulatto" (mixed race).
I wondered if these names were real names. Or, perhaps Lillian remembered incorrectly or just made them up? An obituary clipping for Bill Long in Lillian's notebooks gave me hope that the other names were correct, as well.
America Stark played a key role in ensuring Virginia Lee Greer’s success— as she’d done at the Greers’ previous posts at other colleges in Louisiana, Texas and Georgia, according to Lillian. Virginia and America worked hand-in-glove, a solid team not to be reckoned with.
Lillian notes that America had “worked” for Virginia’s parents, John Bachman and Sarah Harwell Lee, in Louisiana when Virginia was “growing up.” As America was about forty years old in 1893 — she was born before Emancipation. It seems likely that America was enslaved by John Bachman and Sarah Harwell Lee, but finding documentation will be difficult.
I found no evidence of the Starks until I saw America Starks in 1896-97 Waco City Directory:
"America Starks (c), servt, Georgia Burleson Hall."
Eureka! The only thing Lillian had gotten wrong was the missing “s” at the end of their name. Then, with a little online sleuthing, the librarian in the Waco Genealogy Room found America and Phil Starks on the 1900 and 1910 censuses through Ancestry.com. (I hadn’t thought to look for them there!) He also found Effie's death certificate which provided a key piece of information: America’s maiden name, Phillips.
With her maiden name, I was able to find her on the 1870 census, the first time she would be enumerated by name, if she was enslaved. She is twenty years old, which validates her birth around 1850, living in Keachi (aka Keatchie, Keachie), Louisiana (the same village as Virginia's parents, the Lees, but not very near) with two sixteen-year-olds who have different last names. She is identified as mulatto and is one of many non-white households listed above and below the white family of YW Graves, a large plantation owner and founding family of Keachi. Most likely, these are folks who were enslaved by the Graves just several years before. For now, I do not know if America was enslaved as a child by the Graves or the Lees.
I started to really dig in at Ancestry.com and, to my luck, at least two of America’s descendants have developed family trees that go back to America’s parents, Isaac and Mary Ann Phillips. The most spectacular item on their trees was a photo of America. I was speechless. There was America, looking back at me from my computer screen.
America's daughter Evie's death certificate identifies Giles Varner and America Phillips as her parents. I find it interesting that Evie is identified as "colored" when she is the daughter of a mulatto woman and white man and has quite fair skin. Racial labels were fluid.
A little more census work revealed that Giles Varner, a single white man of 32, lived about 20 dwellings away from twenty-year-old America in 1870...
There is no record of America's living situation from 1871 until the next census in 1880, but during those years, she birthed eight children and Giles died (1879). On that 1880 census, she is enumerated as America Varner with seven children and three nephews. Her first name and gender are garbled, but the children's names and ages align. According to my research, because she used Giles Varner's name and she is identified on the census as "widowed," they were most likely living openly as a couple, if not legally married. In a brief window during Reconstruction, interracial marriages were legal in Louisiana! In 1894, Louisiana and six other southern states restored interracial marriage bans.
The 1880 census entry is difficult to make out but it appears she is working and living on the farm of Simon Starks. Is he related to Phillip Starks?? In 1880, Phil Starks is married to Lizzie with one child, Abram. Lizzie and Abram disappear. Another rabbit hole for another day...
America and Phil married in 1882, according to census reporting. Because there was a fire and most of the entire 1890 US census was destroyed, the next evidence of their whereabouts is Lillian's reporting in the memoir that they arrived in Waco in 1893 and then the 1896 Waco directory listing.
By 1900, they (Phil, 48, and America, 49) are back in Keatchie renting a farm. Living with them are adult son, GJ Varner, Jr. and two "servants." In 1910, they are still on a farm in Keatchie living with a grandson, Moses, Phil's mother, Rhina, and a boarder.
Phil dies in 1917 and America dies some time after 1920.
After an afternoon searching deeds at the De Soto Parish Archives, I found one deed with America Starks -- none for Phil Starks. Giles Varner on the other hand, bought and sold hundreds of acres. In 1920, America sold her house to daughter Effie, who lived nextdoor. Sadly, the description of the property is based on adjacent property owners, rather than exact coordinates (I hate it when they do that...). A lingering question that needs deeper digging: What happened to Giles Varner's land? His children were all minors when he died. I found no evidence that America received it upon his death. He was also a Confederate Soldier (really!) and there is no evidence that America ever received any benefits after he died.
I have found no record of America's death or burial, nor Phil's burial. Several of America's family members are buried at Good Hope Cemetery, the black cemetery. I scoured the headstones and found no stone for America or Phil.
I also found no record of Giles Varner's burial.
America's final resting place is a mystery. Perhaps more genealogical sleuthing will reveal it some day, but for now I feel fulfilled that I have learned so much about America's life and that she now exists for me beyond a footnote in the Greers' story.
Bye, bye, Keachi, for now...
Loved the story. Thanks for sharing it.