“The Clifford Family and J.R. Clifford, A Civil Rights Pioneer”

Rosemary Clifford McDaniel
J. R. Clifford Stamp Celebration
February 20, 2009
West Virginia Cultural Center Theater
Charleston, WV

 Good morning,

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak about the Clifford family and J. R. Clifford-- with a focus on the information gleaned from genealogical research.      

I began researching the Cliffords in 1991, when my oldest son was given an assignment for seventh grade to draw his family tree.  My direct line was quite small.  My father and my aunt had only one cousin, one uncle, and one grand-uncle.  Our family Bible revealed that my earliest known Clifford ancestor was a great-great grandfather, William Henry Clifford, Sr., born in 1835 in Virginia.

When I asked my aunt if she knew of any other Cliffords, she showed me the photo and biographical sketch of “J.R. Clifford, Esq. , Editor-Lawyer-Teacher-Orator”, in Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising, by William J. Simmons, published in 1887.  She explained that J.R. was believed to be a distant relative.  This book had belonged to my great-grandmother, Carrie Williams Clifford, the first woman admitted into full membership in the Niagara Movement and one of the founders of the Washington, DC branch of the NAACP.

My research took a major leap forward when I was introduced to Dr. Paul Ingraham Clifford of Atlanta, GA who had researched his family’s genealogy and was in the process of writing a book about his grandfather, J. R. Clifford.   Dr. Clifford introduced me to several members of the extended Clifford family who had been assembling for family reunions since 1973, and met Dr. Clifford for the first time, in 1988, on the occasion of his lecture entitled “Certain Dimensions of the Life and Times of J.R. Clifford, Pioneer”, at the Admiral Boarman House in Martinsburg, WV.   

Dr. Clifford sent me a copy of his speech that expanded upon the biographical information in Men of Mark and offered detailed information about J.R.’s genealogy and the major events in his life, including his journey to Chicago to attend school under the guidance of John J. Healy; his Civil War service in Company F, 13th Regiment, US Heavy Artillery; his whereabouts and continuing education after discharge; his graduation from Storer College; his marriage to Mary Elizabeth Franklin and their ten children; his career as a teacher and principal at the Sumner School in Martinsburg, WV; his founding of the Pioneer Press newspaper; his notable career as a lawyer as evidenced by Martin v. Board of Education and Williams v. Board of Education; his leadership roles in the Niagara Movement and the National Independent Political League; and his membership in numerous organizations including the Pen and Pencil Club of Washington, DC, the Knights of Wise Men, and the American Negro Academy.  J.R. was a 33 Scottish Rite Mason.

Dr. Clifford’s speech illuminated J. R.’s early opinion about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for which the Niagara Movement had served as a forerunner.  Despite his preference that the organization would have chosen the name “National Association for the Advancement of Humanity”, in reference to the NAACP, J.R. wrote in the Pioneer Press, in 1917, “An organization so important, so efficient and so needed calls for the support of every man and woman of us.  There should be a local branch here with at least one hundred members”.

Dr. Clifford and I exchanged information and met several times, prior to his passing in 1993.  He directed me to Hardy County, VA as the location where J.R.’s family originated.  In 1991, Dr. Clifford wrote “ …the Cliffords, like most American families, dipped into a number of different gene pools.  I do not believe the terms “black” or “white” or similar adjectives are helpful or heuristic in the kinds of problems with which we are dealing.  These people were Irish, native American and “free people of color” in varying degrees of combination and admixture”.   He also wrote, “I further hope that should I die before I have completed my research, that you can find it possible to pick up where I leave off”.

Thus, my early research efforts focused on confirming the material in Men of Mark, validating Dr. Clifford’s information, connecting J.R.’s family to other Clifford families from Virginia, corroborating the stories shared by members of the extended family who invited me to my first Kent-Clifford reunion in 1992, and finding out how far back I could trace the Clifford lines.

This quest led to research of the census records and Civil War Pension Files at the National Archives in Washington, DC; research of City Directories, County histories and various sources at the Library of Congress and the DAR Library; and research of the documents on the Niagara Movement in the Moorland-Spingarn Collection at Howard University.

J.R. Clifford’s Civil War Pension File provided numerous statements in his own words and handwriting to substantiate the chronology of the major events in his life.  Some interesting new facts were that his father Isaac had introduced him to John J. Healy, that Healy had accompanied him when he enlisted, and that he had returned to Chicago to live with Healy, immediately after his discharge.  The documents also indicated that J.R. had lived briefly in St. Catherine’s Canada in the 1870s and that his marriage to Mary Elizabeth Franklin was performed by Rev. N. C. Brackett, President of Storer College.

Although the Bible he mentions that can confirm the date of his birth has been lost, it is fortunate that a copy of a postcard depicting the house where he was born with a notation of his birth date and birthplace in his own handwriting--survives.

Further research of the Pension Files clarified the familial relationships and confirmed the Civil War service of several of J.R.’s relatives--his brother, Theodore Kent Clifford, a United Brethren minister; his uncle, John Clifford, and his cousin, Lorenzo Dow Clifford, of the Lett Settlement in Muskingum County, OH; and his uncles, Solomon Clifford and Jacob Clifford, of PA.  For more information on the Letts and their connection to Benjamin Banneker, the Lett Settlement and the Underground Railroad, go to <http://www.henryrobertburke.com/lettsettlementreunion/.

There is an interesting story about Daniel Clifford, another one of J.R.’s uncles, whose interview appeared in the Bradford Daily Era on May 5, 1887.  Daniel Clifford recounted that in the 1850s, he was a member of a group of seventy-five men who had organized in Canada in order to participate in John Brown’s raid.  According to Daniel, he and the other men were delayed in Canada beyond the scheduled date for them to join forces with Brown and Brown, in Clifford’s words “a very passionate, hot-headed man”, launched the attack without them.

I travelled to the State Library in Richmond, VA and numerous Historical Societies and County Courthouses in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to research County Histories; newspapers; deed records; cemetery records; court order and minute books; wills; birth, marriage, and death records, etc.  I came here to the WV State Archives and also went to the NJ State Archives in Trenton, NJ.

The majority of my research was done many years ago, before the proliferation of genealogical information on the Internet.  Today, one can view—online, not only census records, Civil War Files, and Freedman’s Bureau Records, but also an incredibly wide range of other information.  There are web sites flooded with information categorized by surname or by geographic area and even by ethnicity.  One has access to books and primary documents that have been digitized and are searchable with the click of a mouse.  For example, the DuBois papers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, an excellent source of information about the Niagara Movement, are now available online.

In closing, I will briefly highlight three research findings.  

First, in 1996, I found the record of the lawsuit, in 1796, by Isaac Clifford, alias black Isaac, that led me to advance the theory that he is the earliest documented Clifford in these lines and therefore the one whom I consider the “patriarch”.  This Isaac Clifford was a free person of color, born circa 1776, who sued a white man, James Ryan, for trespass, assault, battery, and false imprisonment because Ryan kidnapped him and tried to hold him as a slave.  Clifford won.  The verdict was appealed.  Clifford won a second time.

These court proceedings provided evidence that the first Isaac Clifford had some affiliation with James Clifford, the only Clifford found in the 1790 VA Census.  This James Clifford who appeared as a witness on Isaac’s behalf is related to the Cliffords of Hunterdon, NJ and Ligonier, PA who were of English ancestry.  For more information on this family, go to<http://www3.telus.net/cliffordweb/.

The prevalent family story that the Clifford patriarch was a red haired Irishman who courted a slave woman remains unproven, despite its similarity to what is written about J.R. Clifford and Clifford Hollow in Hardesty’s West Virginia Heritage Encyclopedia, Supplemental Series, Volume III, page 242.  

Second, in 2006, I realized that there is a strong likelihood that one of the reasons J. R. Clifford participated in the Williams v. Board of Education lawsuit is that he was related to some of the children who attended the Coketon Colored School where Mrs. Williams taught.  For example, the children of his half-brother, James Henson Clifford, who was a school teacher living with his family in the Fairfax District of Tucker County, WV, according to the 1900 census, might have been students there.

Third, in 2008, I was able to confirm the family story that there was some kind of connection with Thomas Jefferson by determining that J.R. Clifford’s wife, Mary Franklin Clifford, was related to the Hemmings family that included Sally Hemmings and Elizabeth “Betty” Hemmings.    

I want to express my appreciation to the many family members who have so generously shared their photographs and information, especially Mrs. Freda Rolls, Ms. Kimberly Rolls, Mr. Clifford Jackson, and Mr. Clarence Spiller.  I also want to acknowledge Mr. James Henson Clifford, Jr. and the late Mr. James Ward Clifford, Jr. for participating in a DNA comparison that confirmed a shared male lineage.

In conclusion, genealogical research suggests that a precedent for J.R. Clifford’s unwavering defiance, his persistent protests against injustice, and his decision to demand redress through the court system during the 1890s, is found in the courageous lawsuit waged ----one hundred years earlier--- in 1796, by his great-grandfather, Isaac Clifford, the patriarch.  

If you wish to contact me, my email address is rmcdaniel@starpower.net.

 Thank you.
Rosemary Clifford McDaniel

SOURCE: SOURCE: Online @ http://henryburke1010.tripod.com/lettsettlementreunion/id34.htm