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Author: Contribution
Surnames: Perry
Classification: biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.chesnutt/38/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
Chesnutt, Charles W. 1858-1932, Writer. Charles Waddell Chesnutt, an Afro-American man of letters, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on 20 June 1858, the son of free blacks who had emigrated from Fayetteville, North Carolina.
When he was eight years old, Chesnutt's parents returned to Fayetteville, where Charles worked part-time in the family grocery store and attended a school founded by the Freedmen's Bureau. In 1872 financial necessity forced him to begin a teaching career in Charlotte, N.C.
He returned to Fayetteville in 1877, married a year later, and by 1880 had become principal of the Fayetteville State Normal School for Negroes.
Meanwhile he continued to pursue private studies of the English classics, foreign languages, music, and stenography. Despite his successes, he longed for broader opportunities and a chance to develop the literary skills that by 1880 led him toward an author's life. In 1883 he moved his family to Cleveland, Ohio.
There he passed the state bar examination and established his own court reporting firm. Financially prosperous and prominent in civic affairs, he resided in Cleveland for the remainder of his life.
"The Goophered Grapevine," an unusual dialect story that displayed intimate knowledge of black folk culture in the South, was Chesnutt's first nationally recognized work of fiction. Its publication in the August 1887 issue of the Atlantic Monthly marked the first time that a short story by a black had appeared in that prestigious magazine. After subsequent tales in this vein were accepted by other magazines, Chesnutt submitted to Houghton, Mifflin a collection of these stories, which was published in 1899 as The Conjure Woman. His second collection of short fiction, The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line (1899), ranged over a broader area of southern and northern racial experience than any previous writer on black American life had attempted. These two volumes were popular enough to convince Houghton, Mifflin to publish Chesnutt's first novel, The House Behind the Cedars, in 1900. This story of two blacks who pass for white in the postwar South revealed Ch!
esnutt's sense of the psychological and social dilemmas facing persons of mixed blood in the region. His second novel, The Marrow of Tradition (1901), is based on the Wilmington, N.C., race riot of 1898. Hoping to write the Uncle Tom's Cabin of his generation, Chesnutt made a plea for racial justice that impressed William Dean Howells as a work of "great power," though with "more justice than mercy in it." The failure of the book to sell widely forced Chesnutt to give up his dream of supporting his family as a professional author. In 1905 he published his final novel, The Colonel's Dream, a tragic story of an idealist's attempt to revive a depressed North Carolina town through a socioeconomic program much akin to the New South creed of Henry W. Grady and Booker T. Washington. The novel received little critical notice.
During the latter years of his life Chesnutt continued to write and publish occasional short stories, but he was largely eclipsed in the 1920s by the writers of the Harlem Renaissance. He was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1928 by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for his pioneering literary work on behalf of the Afro-American struggle. Today Chesnutt is recognized as a major innovator in the tradition of Afro American fiction, an important contributor to the deromanticizing trend in post-Civil War southern literature and a singular voice among turn-of-the-century realists who treated the color line in American life.
Name: Chesnutt, Charles Waddell
Date: Nov 18 1932
Source: Source unknown; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #014.
Notes: Chesnutt: Charles Waddell, age 74 years, residence, 9719 Lamont Ave., beloved husband of Susan, father of Ethel Williams, Helen and Edwin Chesnutt, Dorothy Slade.
Funeral from late residence, Friday, at 2 p.m.
Name: Chesnutt, Dr. Edwin J.
Date: Sep 27 1939
Source: Source unknown; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #014.
Notes: Chesnutt: Dr. Edwin J., son of Mrs. Susan U. and the late Charles W. Chesnutt, brother of Mrs. Joseph Beaman of Washington, D. C., Helen M. and Mrs. John Slade, died Monday evening at the residence of his mother, 10829 Morison ave.
Funeral Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2:30 p.m. at the Emmanuel Church, 8614 Euclid ave.
Name: Chesnutt, Susan U.
Date: Jun 21 1940
Source: Source unknown; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #014.
Notes: Chesnutt: Susan U., beloved wife of the late Charles W., mother of Mrs. Joseph Beaman, Washington, D.C.; Mrs. John Slade and Miss Helen M. Chesnutt, died suddenly at her home Tuesday, June 18.
Services at Emmanuel Episcopal Church. 8614 Euclid Ave., Friday, June 21, at 2:30 p.m. Friends may call at the residence, 10829 Morison Ave., Cleveland, Ohio.
Name: Slade, Dorothy Chesnutt
Date: Jan 1 1955
Source: Cleveland Press; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #156.
Notes: Slade, Dorothy Chesnutt, beloved wife of Dr. John G. Slade, mother of John, sister of Helen M. Chesnutt, and of Ethel Chesnutt Beaman of Washington, D. C., died at her residence, 10829 Morison Ave., Dec. 29.
Funeral services at the House of Wills, 2491 E. 55 St., Monday, Jan. 3, at 1 p.m.
In lieu of flowers friends may make contributions to the Cancer Fund.
Name: Chesnutt, Helen Maria
Date: Aug 10 1969
Source: Plain Dealer; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #099.
Notes: Chesnutt. Helen Maria Chesnutt, beloved daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Chesnutt, Passed away Thursday, August 7, of Margaret Wagner House.
Funeral services will be Monday, August 11 at The House of Willis, 2491 E. 55th St. of 10:30 a.m.
The family will receive friends Sunday. At The Funeral Home, 2-6 P.M.
Name: Chesnutt, Lewis H.
Date: Jan 18 1933
Source: Source unknown; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #014.
Notes: Chesnutt: Lewis H., of 1250 E. 85th, husband of Rosa B., father of Mrs. William H. Brooks, Clara E., Marian G., stepfather of Mrs. A. G. Evans, brother of Mrs. Lillian Richardson, Andrew J. and the late Charles W.
Funeral Thursday, Jan. 19, 2 p.m., from the residence.
Charles Waddell Chesnutt was a mixed race author, essayist, political activist and lawyer, best known for his novels and short stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity in the post-Civil War South. Wikipedia
Born: June 20, 1858, Cleveland, OH
Died: November 17, 1932, Cleveland, OH
Spouse: Susan Perry (m. 1878)
Movies: The House Behind the Cedars, The Conjure Woman, The Doll
Parents: Ann Maria Sampson Chesnutt, Andrew Chesnutt
Cuyahoga County
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Author: montana20012003
Surnames:
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.chesnutt/4.18.2.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
I know. I have struggled to find family. after my dad died there was only one brother left living in FL and they sent me info. also about the book that had been written. I had to contact the author Ray Griffin and correct some things that were listed concerning my dad's lineage. I was told there was a fire back in the 1700-1800's in NC that destroyed courthouse records. the last of my dad's family all live in FL Ga and Wa. facebook has been handy in locating cousins, aunts, uncles, ex wives.
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Author: rnformel
Surnames:
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.chesnutt/4.19.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
Has anyone done the ancestry dna test? Would love to see if any of us match.
Melinda
pedsrnformel(a)gmail.com
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Author: rnformel
Surnames:
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.chesnutt/4.18.2/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
Hi Brenda, this is an old message board but I am hoping you still are monitoring.
I purchased the book by Ray Griffin about a year or so ago. My maternal grandparents are listed on page 112. Thomas Woodrow Chestnut & Odie Pickering.
I am always looking online for more information about the Alexander Chesnutt who died 1690 and his son John Chesnutt.
Do you know if any more information has been found or if another book will be published? There is so much conflicting information about the descendants of this family.
The book is a treasure!
Melinda
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