Langston

Taresha Langston English 1103 Raymond October 13th 2013 The Langston Family My research wasnt quite able to get me far back enough to find a specific country of origin for my mothers side of the family but it is presumed that my earlier ancestors were taken from their home in West Africa and brought to England. This hypothesis has been floated around my family for some time and it would explain why the last names of Atchison and Langston are within my family tree considering both come from old English/Scottish roots. From England it is said that the family was brought to America via boat to the east coast who then migrated west. Most of the records found place Missouri as the main state of origin. Although my mothers father side does in fact come from Kentucky. The first records placed my great-great grandfather, George Atchison and his wife Francis, in Plattsburg, Clinton, Missouri in 1900. This is where my great grandmother Lula Atchison met her husband Clyde Langston and where my grandmother Betty June Langston was born along with her sister Helen Mae and her brother Rudolph. At some point in time, the family moved from Plattsburg to St. Joseph, Missouri. No one is quite sure why this move was made. This is where my mother and my aunt were born and in return this is where I was born. St. Joseph is commonly known as being the birthplace of the Pony Express, the first mail system ever created in the United States. Today if one were to go to the town center, next to the town hall in a bronze statue depicting a man on a horse carrying the first mail. Jesse James is also heavily connected with St. Joseph, Missouri for this was his birthplace.

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Considering my family tree spans back to an age where equality for all races was just a dream, jobs held werent of very high standings. My great-great grandfather worked as a porter in a barber shop and as a day laborer. His wife Francis held no job and stayed at home with her children. Georges son Leonard held the same job as him. Later on down the family tree other jobs were introduced such as my Grandmothers job as a house maid and nanny to rich white families in the St. Joseph area while my grandmothers husband Winfred Mabin was a barber then turned butcher in St. Joseph. Helen Mae Langston, my grandmothers sister, worked in a mental hospital as a cook. Even now, the job fields range from Florence Boldridges job as Director of Diversity and Womens Engineering Programs at the University of Kansas to my jazz singer cousin Etta Green Cox. In my research into my family history it was found out that one of my great grandmothers brothers, Otis Atchison served in World War I. Born December 26th 1892 in Plattsburg, Missouri, Otis enlisted in 1917 at the age of 25. After serving in the military, Otis moved from Plattsburg, Missouri to Denver Colorado where he was a roomer in Maime McKees home. Once he was settled here, he worked as a porter in a barber shop much like his father. He was married but has no known record of having kids. Otis Atchison dies December 7th 1948 at the age of 56. He is now buried in the Plattsburg colored cemetery for war veterans. Upon my research and interviews conducted I found some rather interesting facts about my mothers side of the family. One of these interesting things happens to be that my great aunt Helen Mae has a bust of her in the St. Joseph museum in the Native American exhibit. My mother has gone there and visited it but failed to mention why it was there. There are Native American roots found in my family that are tied to the Blackfoot tribe of the Great Plains. The Native Americans of the Great Plains original territory stretched from Montana all the way up a

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little past the now Canadian border. (Blackfoot Indian Tribe.) Another thing I personally found interesting was when I discovered census records from 1910-1940 where the question of whether or not the household members could read and write. Coming from an African-American family, I didnt expect my great-great grandparents to have been able to read or write considering they were born in the late 1800s but I was proved wrong. According to the records, every person spanning back five generations could read and write. Among the more colorful members of my family would be my mothers sister, my Aunt Tamera. Born in July of 1958, she is the older sister to my mother by seven years. Standing at roughly 52, my Aunt isnt very tall, which is something that runs in my moms side of the family. Being tall isnt her only physical attribute, shes also quite on the thin side and has a complexion a little darker than me, but her most distinguishing feature is her beauty mark located upon her face a little left of her nose. But when it comes to my Aunt Tamera the most significant thing about her is the story behind why she only has one kidney. During her late teens she sought out a doctor for pain and the doctor told her that it was very critical that they remove her kidney before anything serious happened. Of course being the still impressionable teen at the time, she went ahead with the procedure, without telling my grandmother. Once my Nana found out, she was livid and took her back to the doctor with my mother in tow to demand an explanation. When they arrived to the place where the operation and doctor was, there was nothing there. The place turned into a virtual ghost town. They tried to look up the doctor she had gone to but nothing came up. This is when my Nana and aunt had realized that the doctor was a fake. They eventually went to see a real physician who then told my aunt the procedure wasnt even needed. (Langston)So it is now an ongoing cautionary tale within my family to make sure your doctor is legitimate. Its also a joke that her kidney ended up on the black market and now someone,

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somewhere in the world is walking around with her kidney. Considering this happened during the seventies, not much was done after the realization. As of right now, the Langston family isnt as big as it used to be due to the number of deaths within the family. There are no remaining members of the family alive from the third generation and with only one boy, Steward, born to the fifth generation, the passing down of the Langston name is in his hands.