2006 Mail

Dear Mr. Jackson,

In a previous exchange [click here to read that letter], you mentioned that a man named "Toliver" or "Tolliver" was a member of the Harrisburg Giants baseball team in 1906. I wonder if he could have been Henry Tolliver, born about 1888 in Caroline County, VA. In 1900 he lived at 1407 James Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with his family: father Rev. Walker Tolliver, stepmother Hattie Wise Tolliver, and sister Lula Tolliver. As I've learned from Afrolumens, several residents of this neighborhood were associated with early African-American baseball. Some also belonged to a church pastored by Rev. Walker Tolliver.

By 1910 Henry apparently had moved to Philadelphia where he possibly worked for the railroad. In 1910 "Henry Toelafero" was a lodger in Philadelphia's 20th Ward. His occupation was "laborer, freight." In 1920 he might have been a railroad worker rooming and/or boarding in Philadelphia and/or Washington, DC.

Henry was the third child (elder son) born to Walker and Nancy Taliaferro. In 1880 Walker and Nancy lived in the town of Madison, Virginia. After the death of his wife (between 1888-1890), Walker moved from Virginia to Pennsylvania with their three children Julia, Lula, and Henry. Walker Taliaferro (Tolliver) married Hattie Wise of Chambersburg in 1893. In 1895 Walker became the first full-time pastor of Zion Primitive Baptist Church (now Greater Zion Missionary Baptist Church) in Harrisburg. With his second wife, Hattie, Walker Tolliver had three more children, all born in Pennsylvania (Harrisburg or Chambersburg): Joseph, Beatrice, and Harryette.

You were kind enough to send me high school yearbook pages for my grandmother's brother Joseph and sister Beatrice. Recently I have found the yearbook for my grandmother (b. 1913) as well as her diploma from William Penn High School. I also have several letters that my grandmother received from her mother Hattie Wise Tolliver in Harrisburg. Hattie's generation was the first in her family to acquire formal education. Her parents, Hannah and Uriah Wise of Chambersburg, were born into slavery in Virginia, arriving in Chambersburg between 1870 and 1880. Neither could read or write.

My grandmother turned ninety-two in November, 2005. She never met her half-brother Henry, although she recalls visits with her half-sisters Julia (in Pittsburgh) and Lula (in New York City).

Best wishes,
HM