'Canady family traces history to slavery' by Jeanne Williams

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Canady family traces history to slavery

by Jeanne Williams

Temple Daily Telegram - October 9, 2009

CAMERON - In 1929, Little Jim Canady's family could not afford the luxury of a

conventional grave marker, but his son, Ira Canady Sr., took measures to ensure this

burial site would never be lost.

Though many impoverished survivors traditionally employed large rocks to designate a

burial site, Ira Canady Sr. at age 29, manifested his family's ingenious and

pragmatic traits by choosing a long iron pole topped with a ring that he salvaged

from an old farm implement to identify the grave in rural Little Rocky Cemetery,

northeast of Cameron off FM 2095.

Ira Canady Sr. carried on the family tradition of longevity dying in 2000 at age 100,

four months before he would have celebrated his 101st birthday. During his long life,

as he dispensed wisdom and guidance to his 13 offspring, he also told them of the day

he pounded, hammered and coaxed most of the iron pole into the ground as permanent

marker for his father's grave.

In the 1970s, Ira and a brother bought grave markers for the burial sites of paternal

grandparents Little Jim and Kattie Youngs Canady, as well as great-grandparents, Big

Jim and Ella Canady, both of whom were born into slavery. Canady kinfolks are buried

all around Little Rocky Cemetery.

The iron ring is still stuck in the ground at Little Jim Canady's gravesite, and Ira

Canady Sr.'s children still are amazed at how their father managed to work into the

ground a sturdy iron pole. No one today wants to remove the pipe, even if they could.

Thirteen of the 38 burial sites in Little Rocky Cemetery belonged to slaves, said

R.L. Canady, 66, of Dallas. He has researched Canady family history for a decade, and

is now preparing to delve into the formidable task of sorting through slave

schedules, tax records and slave ship rosters to further backtrack his forebears'

path from America to Africa.

Ten years ago, genealogical research meant tediously reading through miles of reeled

microfilmed records, and studying volumes from libraries. Today's researcher, says

Canady, has the benefit of technology. R.L. Canady is the chief family genealogist,

though he is assisted by siblings Ira Canady Jr., 77 of Cameron and Hattie Canady

Steward of Temple.

To date, R.L. Canady has traced the family to 1819 and is planning to enroll in

classes that teach techniques for researching slave families back to Africa.

"It is a good thing longevity was on our families' sides," R.L. Canady said. "Daddy

lived 100 years, so he almost took us back into slavery. Senior genealogists look at

what I have gotten through research and they say we have a good chance in finding

where you are from, because of the periods our family lived."

Mrs. Steward recalled listening to her Dad's stories. "He would take you way back in

to time and tell you all the stories that he knew."

Researching O.J. Thomas High School for a Texas Historical Marker, Mrs. Steward

acquired information on the history of the Little Rocky community, where education

for Milam County's blacks began through developments made by the Freedmen's Bureau in

1865.

The Canady family had heard stories of Little Rocky, and their father could easily

navigate to the family plot where the iron ring protruded from the ground, Mrs.

Steward said. Ira Canady Sr. and his brother Jasper Canady pooled money and bought

tombstones for the four graves.

"They are old graves with new tombstones," Mrs. Steward said.

Little Rocky Cemetery is the only tangible evidence of a 19th-century black community

that also included a church. Members of the Canady clan can easily point out where

the church and the school once stood along the curvilinear County Road 244.

Ira Canady Jr., whose Christian name has been bestowed up the line to an Ira Canady

IV, remembers when he accompanied his father to Little Rocky Cemetery to visit family

plots. Not only has Ira Canady Sr.'s knowledge of names, dates and sites from family

in the 19th century been invaluable to his children's research, but a bonus has been

Ira Canady Jr.'s awareness of county roads, Milam County black history, farmers,

ranchers, land owners, prior owners and tenants of rural houses throughout the

county.

Recent trips to the Canady family plot in Little Rocky Cemetery have been emotional

for the siblings. Cemetery records omitted Ella Canady's gravesite, but R.L. Canady

found reference to the graveyard in death certificates, although family stories and

genealogical logic already had placed her grave beside her husband's.

Visiting the gravesites of the people he had been researching on paper "changed his

outlook," R.L. Canady said.

Ira Canady Jr. remembers his father making frequent trips to the cemetery in the

1970s, but return visits with his brother and sister in recent weeks have been

emotional. The family was saddened by the fact that their family cemetery and the

resting site of former slaves have been neglected.

The cemetery has no sign, and aside from tombstones hidden among trees and

underbrush, could be another insignificant stretch of Milam County wilderness. Ira

Canady Jr. has strung red plastic ribbons through the cemetery to various sites of

interest to guide the family to various gravesites.

Though some graves have traditional engraved markers, such as Woodmen of the World

monuments, many are still designed with large rocks.

"This cemetery held the graves of former slaves, their children and persons born in

slavery with the exception of one person who is descendent of one of the earliest

people born, 1821, a slave and Canady family relative," R.L. Canady said. Hence, the

newest grave was dug in 1999 for a man who wanted his resting place to be with his

ancestors.

The Little Rocky Cemetery Association was established this year, and Nov. 10 has been

designated as the first cleanup day.

"Members have committed to pledges to give honor and respect to those buried there,

those who cleared the way for hope for their people," R.L. Canady said. "Thus, with

commitment from these members a pledge to give back to those who gave so much and

received so little may rest in peace and dignity in a proper burial ground, the

Little Rocky Cemetery of Milam County."

The first celebration for descendants of former slaves buried at Little Rocky

Cemetery is tentatively scheduled for June 19, 2010, a date significant as

Juneteenth, the day Texas slaves learned they had been freed.

Shirley Williams/Telegram
Siblings R.L. Canady, Hattie Canady Steward and Ira Canady Jr. are joined by cousins Theresa Dawson and Renola Osband for a moment of family reverence at their grandmother’s gravesite.

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