00:03 - Fantastic.

00:05 - So I.

00:06 - Right out of the gate.

00:07 - I want to ask if you can hear me. Okay.

00:09 - Or if I need to use a microphone.

00:12 - Volume is good.

00:13 - Okay, I see. Thumbs up. That's excellent.

00:15 - Because I hate speaking into a microphone because then you can hear me breathing.

00:20 - And because I am a presenter who likes to move,

00:24 - Then I get myself out of breath.

00:28 - So fantastic.

00:34 - So the project that we're going to talk about

00:36 - tonight is a project that is now almost 14 years old.

00:42 - It was started

00:46 - with just a simple ask.

00:51 - So those of you

00:52 - in the room who are from the Edinburgh community,

00:56 - you may actually know the woman in the photograph here.

01:01 - This is Kestrel Smith.

01:03 - Kestrel is the oldest daughter of Leroy and B Smith and Kestrel.

01:13 - She very much wanted her

01:14 - parents story to be documented,

01:18 - and she knew that time was potentially running out.

01:23 - Her father was 94 years old when she approached the Edinburgh Area

01:27 - Historical Society to have his oral history documented.

01:32 - And so she came with this request,

01:36 - and she came with her request to Ruth Cogan.

01:40 - Again, those of you

01:41 - that are from the Edinburgh community, that name will be familiar to you as well.

01:45 - Ruth at the time was incredibly active with the Edinburgh Area

01:50 - Historical Society.

01:51 - She worked in the library and archives of the Society,

01:55 - and so when Kestrel asked

01:58 - if if a project could be done.

02:01 - Ruth, without question, said yes, this is, this is going to be an important

02:05 - opportunity to add a personal story

02:10 - to the Edinburgh Area Historical Society's collections. That

02:16 - would help fill a gap right?

02:20 - There were, there are and there were then gaps in the collection.

02:25 - As with any institution that collects

02:27 - and relies on the public to contribute materials to the

02:31 - to the collection of the organization, there are always gaps.

02:35 - There are underrepresented communities in the collection, people who may not feel

02:41 - that their stories are important enough

02:44 - to be collected and then told by the historical Society.

02:48 - But thankfully, Kestrel understood the value of her parents story,

02:52 - not just for the Edinburgh community, but for the university as well.

02:57 - And then, of course, for the Edinburgh Historical Society.

03:02 - So Kestrel asked, ask to.

03:06 - Ruth turned into a funding request

03:09 - that was submitted by the Edinburgh Area Historical Society

03:14 - to the Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission.

03:17 - They had a funding program that was funded with the National

03:20 - with funding from the National Park Service's Preserve America Program,

03:24 - and the grant program was special, frankly,

03:28 - to fund projects that would help document African-American history.

03:37 - This was a massive

03:39 - project, even though the funding amount was relatively small.

03:43 - I can't now recall the total amount of the project,

03:47 - but I want to say it was under $8,000.

03:51 - So with the funding that was received,

03:57 - the project included

03:59 - the following components.

04:03 - So we sat down at Edinburgh University's oral history

04:08 - studio and documented the history

04:13 - of Leroy Smith as he told it.

04:16 - Right.

04:16 - It was a an oral history, his oral history that was shared and recorded.

04:20 - We also had a few other family members

04:23 - that were documented through an oral history.

04:27 - We also scanned

04:30 - photographs that the family let the Historical Society borrow.

04:34 - So digital versions were made of the The Families photograph collection.

04:41 - Those are still stored at the Edinburgh Area Historical Society.

04:46 - Also part

04:47 - of this exhibit are also part of this project.

04:50 - All of the history that was collected was taken

04:54 - and an exhibit was made out of it

04:57 - to tell the Smiths family story.

05:00 - We also created a

05:03 - about a 16 page essay talking about the history of the family.

05:08 - And then, of course, there was also a public program

05:11 - that followed or went in line with the exhibit

05:15 - where we talked about the project and the results.

05:18 - So all of that was part of this project,

05:23 - something that didn't get done, but we snuck into the project.

05:27 - Scope of work was development

05:31 - of a county wide driving tour aimed at highlighting

05:35 - Erie County's African-American heritage.

05:39 - So part of the project we did have

05:43 - the part of the project involved a student from Mercyhurst University.

05:47 - We paired them with Sarah Thompson and Johnny Johnson.

05:51 - Both local, both local historians who have done work

05:54 - with Erie County African-American history.

05:57 - And she did come up with a first draft.

06:00 - But that

06:01 - was the piece of this project that wasn't finished.

06:04 - Everything else we were able to wrap up within a year,

06:10 - even though the county wide driving tour wasn't

06:15 - finished in 2012 when we wrapped up the

06:18 - The Smith Family Documentation Project,

06:22 - about seven years later, we dusted it off

06:27 - and that original draft

06:30 - that came from that Smith Family project

06:34 - is the document that has become

06:40 - a shared heritage

06:42 - and the the county wide driving tour

06:45 - that you can find today at Shared Heritage dot org.

06:49 - So in addition to

06:53 - featuring the driving tour of African American heritage sites

06:57 - throughout the county, we also have lots of great history presented.

07:03 - So you'll see some of the tabs at the top.

07:06 - We've got a brief history of African American

07:09 - heritage in Erie County broken down into various eras.

07:14 - We have if you click on

07:15 - important people, you're going to find links to biographies

07:19 - of individuals who lived here in Erie County.

07:22 - One of those links will take you to the history of Leroy and Beatrice Smith.

07:29 - Historical Voices.

07:30 - We have oral histories recorded

07:34 - by other individuals in the community.

07:37 - So you can watch oral history interviews

07:40 - under the historical voices and under additional resources.

07:44 - You can access a PDF copy of the

07:49 - What is Still Today the definitive history

07:52 - of African-Americans in

07:55 - specifically the city of Erie.

07:57 - And that is a journey from Jerusalem,

08:00 - and that was written by Sarah Thompson.

08:03 - So that book was originally published by the Erie County Historical Society.

08:07 - It is today out of print,

08:10 - but you can access a PDF copy right through the shared Heritage website

08:15 - because it's that important that this history be available to people.

08:21 - So project team members,

08:24 - we really do have to

08:27 - give kudos to Ruth as the project coordinator.

08:31 - She really drove this project from start to finish.

08:35 - I had the privilege of serving

08:37 - as the Technical Assistance

08:40 - Grant consultant,

08:42 - which was appointed by I was appointed by HMRC

08:46 - to work with the Edinburgh Area Historical Society on this project.

08:50 - And then you can see going through the list of names,

08:53 - we have several several representatives from Edinburgh

08:57 - University and I'm I have to apologize up front.

09:01 - I realize it is Pan West,

09:04 - but I will throughout this presentation, continue

09:07 - to refer to it as Edinburgh University, so I apologize if that offends you.

09:11 - It's just how I know the college.

09:15 - Okay.

09:19 - So we have we have several

09:22 - several individuals from the university that were part of this project

09:27 - performing different research.

09:29 - They all had different research assignments.

09:32 - So Aubrey Dillane was a longtime friend

09:36 - of the Smith family that wanted to be part of the project.

09:40 - Of course, you are bunko history professor Adriana Houseman was the Mercyhurst

09:45 - University student that worked on the draft of the county wide tour.

09:50 - Johnny Johnson, well-known local public historian.

09:55 - Many of you will remember Dr. Joe Lace.

09:57 - Joe was the also a history professor

10:00 - and director of the Oral History studio here at Edinburgh.

10:04 - The library Archivist. Dave Springer.

10:06 - Castro Smith.

10:07 - We had to keep her on this list because even though she was indeed

10:11 - part of the project as a member of the Smith family,

10:14 - she was also incredibly important, an important member of the team itself.

10:19 - Eric Brewer's Eric

10:21 - did research on the Smith family home, so he was able to provide a write up

10:27 - about the

10:28 - architecture itself of the farmhouse.

10:31 - And let's see, Sarah Thompson, of course,

10:35 - author of Journey from Jerusalem, and then Stacey Turner.

10:38 - She was a graduate student.

10:39 - She worked with Dr.

10:41 - Lace on the oral history interviews.

10:44 - So this was a pretty extensive

10:47 - project team that we had working on this.

10:51 - Without further

10:52 - ado, let's jump into the Smith story.

10:56 - I should note that the Smith story, it is a personal story, right?

11:01 - I am a public historian.

11:03 - I believe that public I believe that all history is local history.

11:08 - It starts at the local level.

11:10 - It starts with individual stories.

11:14 - Even if you were to look at the story of someone like Harriet Tubman

11:18 - and her story has national significance.

11:23 - But if you if you look at it at its core, it is also a personal story.

11:28 - It's a story of an individual who achieved incredible things in their lifetime.

11:33 - So we're going to look at the story of Leroy and Beatrice Smith through that lens

11:40 - as incredible people who did incredible things,

11:44 - perhaps not nationally, but certainly in the Edinburgh community.

11:49 - They left their mark on the Edinburgh community.

11:54 - So Leroy is from

11:58 - originally Reserve Louisiana.

12:01 - I found this amazing.

12:03 - So if you look I don't know if it comes across well,

12:07 - this little red area here is reserve.

12:11 - It is located along the banks of the Mississippi River

12:14 - and its claim to fame.

12:17 - Well, I'll talk about that in I guess, in just a minute.

12:22 - Is the God show Sugar refinery.

12:26 - So Leon Godchaux purchased property

12:30 - along the Mississippi River there originally was a plantation there in the

12:35 - in the years following the Civil War, Leon Godchaux purchased a plantation.

12:40 - And then over time utilized that land

12:44 - to build out the Godchaux sugar refinery.

12:47 - This by 1900

12:51 - was the largest sugar refinery in the country,

12:56 - and it was one of the largest in the world.

12:59 - And Leroy's father, Osama,

13:01 - was a laborer working at the Godchaux sugar refinery.

13:06 - The town of Reserve grew up around the refinery

13:10 - as laborers came to work at the sugar refinery.

13:14 - They built homes,

13:17 - and that's

13:18 - that's how the town developed over time.

13:22 - Here's family is huge.

13:26 - There are 14 children, if I'm counting them, right?

13:31 - So both Osama

13:34 - and Alice were married previously.

13:37 - Osama had three children from his first marriage.

13:41 - Alice had two children from her first marriage.

13:45 - And then together they had nine more children.

13:49 - So this really was quite a large family,

13:52 - and I have them listed here in order of the nine as they were born.

13:57 - And so Leroy was actually one of the youngest.

14:05 - Osama was Creole, by the way.

14:10 - His schooling.

14:15 - He actually attended

14:17 - Leon Godchaux Grammar School in reserve.

14:22 - But education opportunity days were very limited in reserve at that time.

14:27 - And so wanting a greater education,

14:30 - it was at this point he actually after finishing grammar school,

14:35 - he moved in with his sister Estelle in New Orleans,

14:39 - and he finished high school actually in New Orleans.

14:44 - He attended Xavier University and

14:51 - you might like this.

14:52 - He was a biology major,

14:57 - so he actually commuted

14:59 - on a regular basis or on a daily basis from the Felicity Street address,

15:04 - which is where he lived with his sister Estelle,

15:07 - to Xavier University.

15:09 - Xavier is,

15:13 - really unique in that it is.

15:17 - Well, if, if their own history is to be believed, their website is to believed.

15:23 - It is the only Catholic historically

15:26 - black university in the country.

15:32 - So Leroy studied biology

15:36 - with the intent to ultimately go to medical school.

15:40 - He never did.

15:44 - have the opportunity

15:46 - to enter medical school, but that was why he majored in biology.

15:49 - Had a he had a strong interest in in the medical field.

15:55 - He graduated from school

15:56 - in 1940, and following graduation,

16:01 - he did

16:03 - what you would expect

16:05 - a variety of odd jobs immediately.

16:07 - So after graduating,

16:09 - he decided to attend a couple of night courses, continue his education

16:14 - at the local business college, and that I love this.

16:17 - He also worked as a milk tester at a local dairy.

16:24 - So shortly after graduating,

16:28 - Leroy entered military service.

16:33 - So he actually served during the World War two era.

16:38 - So just before Pearl Harbor,

16:42 - the country had not yet formally entered the war.

16:46 - And so after Pearl Harbor,

16:49 - Leroy really felt that if he didn't enlist voluntarily,

16:54 - he would be called upon to serve, he would be drafted.

16:59 - And so he made the step to go ahead and enlist himself.

17:03 - So he enlisted

17:06 - in 1942.

17:08 - He actually spent his entire military career

17:11 - working at Hammer Field in Fresno, California.

17:14 - He was in the service from 1942 to 1946.

17:20 - I actually think

17:22 - he was very fortunate to have served out of California

17:25 - for that four year period.

17:32 - So. B

17:35 - So she's actually originally from Arkansas.

17:38 - You can see these little

17:41 - red dots show you exactly where she's from.

17:45 - Her family, however, moved to New Orleans

17:49 - when the family was still very young.

17:52 - So these parents are Greenville and Carry Shelby

17:56 - and her father was a porter at a local restaurant.

18:00 - And Carrie actually was, not surprisingly,

18:04 - a stay at home mom who cared for their seven kids.

18:08 - Another large family, not quite 14, but seven, is a pretty good number two.

18:13 - And what I think is most

18:16 - interesting about Carrie's

18:19 - family or I'm sorry, Abby's family, is the fact that her mother, Carrie,

18:24 - was so well-educated. So

18:29 - if you look at

18:30 - Carrie's educational credentials, they're just amazing, right?

18:34 - So these mother, Carrie,

18:39 - she graduated from Knoxville College

18:42 - in Knoxville, Tennessee.

18:44 - She also attended the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University

18:48 - in Normal, Alabama, and then taught school ultimately in Clarksdale,

18:53 - Mississippi, just before she became a mom.

18:57 - So you can see that education was incredibly important to Carrie.

19:01 - And in everything that we've come to know

19:04 - about, be that

19:07 - that prioritization of education

19:10 - was transferred to B, who then transferred it to her own children.

19:16 - So these are B's As siblings, I will refer to her

19:19 - as B just because that's how her family refers to her.

19:22 - But her official name is Bessie Beatrice,

19:28 - and these are all of her siblings.

19:31 - And you can see she was

19:34 - almost at the end of the line.

19:37 - I'm not doing a very good job of following myself

19:40 - in my own notes.

19:56 - So Bea's education,

19:58 - she attended Gilbert Academy,

20:01 - which was a property school of Dillard University.

20:05 - She also attended straight college Straight Business College.

20:10 - That, too, is affiliated with Dillard University, just as Xavier

20:15 - is a historically black college or university, so too is Dillard.

20:20 - So when B graduated from the business college,

20:25 - she actually moved to Washington, D.C., where she found employment

20:29 - with the Pentagon.

20:35 - So the meeting and this is where I have to

20:40 - dig in to the oral history,

20:42 - it is not quite as powerful to have me read to you Leroy's words,

20:47 - but I wasn't able to get my hands on the recordings

20:50 - for for you to hear his story in his own voice.

20:54 - So I'm going to read to you

20:59 - a segment of his oral

21:00 - history, and it's the segment that talks about

21:04 - he and B meeting and ultimately falling in love.

21:10 - So these are Leroy's words taken again

21:12 - from his oral history.

21:16 - I gave my life to the Lord since I was 12 years

21:18 - old, and God has been working in my life just in these last ten or 20 years.

21:24 - I really seen how he has worked in my life.

21:27 - But at that time I was just a youngster

21:30 - and I was active in the church from school age right up through college,

21:35 - the church choir, a Sunday school teacher.

21:38 - I worked in youth groups and anything like that had Christian living.

21:43 - So all through my life I had this influence.

21:46 - We had some friends who invited Bessie Beatrice to come to a service

21:51 - at my church, and at that time I was singing in the choir.

21:55 - She was coming from a background similar to mine.

21:58 - She was active in her church, active,

22:02 - but a leader, especially in youth groups and children.

22:08 - She just seemed to attract young children to her.

22:11 - She'd play games with them where she was the teacher

22:14 - and she would teach them various things.

22:16 - You know, she was just like a magnet.

22:19 - And that was one of the things that attracted me to her,

22:22 - just to see how other people were attracted to her.

22:26 - But anyhow, she went to a service at my church.

22:30 - I knew her sister in law and her brother, but I didn't know her.

22:35 - That's how she got introduced to me.

22:38 - Bessie B, there's this guy I want you to meet at that church.

22:42 - Why don't you come and take a look?

22:44 - I want you to see this guy.

22:48 - I don't think it wasn't her brother that said that, but I knew the

22:52 - sister in law, and I'm just sure it was she who made the invitation to her.

22:56 - And so she came this particular Sunday

22:59 - and she came to the service and I was introduced to her.

23:03 - The sister in law's name was Dorothy.

23:06 - I think she's gone to be with the Lord now.

23:08 - She and I were very good friends and the friendship was started

23:12 - between us and we kept it alive via phone.

23:16 - The friendship grew and from year to year I am getting older

23:20 - and she was getting older and we fell in love.

23:30 - So Leroy,

23:31 - he visits B in Washington, D.C.,

23:35 - and they decide

23:38 - they need to get married, right?

23:41 - He's in the service.

23:44 - And I think in many ways it was

23:51 - they wanted to get married before

23:52 - or if something were to happen right in the military service.

23:55 - Right.

23:56 - So they chose to get married in 1944.

24:00 - They got married August 11th, 1944, at the Metropolitan Baptist Church.

24:04 - And after the after the wedding

24:08 - ceremony, B's family in Washington, D.C.

24:12 - actually hosted a reception for the couple.

24:15 - And I think this is just a lovely photograph.

24:18 - Again, for those of you who

24:21 - are familiar with the 1940s,

24:24 - I was very surprised when I saw B in a white wedding gown.

24:29 - Oftentimes in the 1940s, women wore suits.

24:33 - They wore,

24:37 - suits of brown, of Burgundy.

24:41 - And so I love that she was able to wear

24:43 - a white wedding gown for her,

24:46 - for her wedding.

24:50 - So Leroy didn't join B though, until 1946, remember?

24:54 - So after, after they got married, he had to go back to Hamer

24:58 - Field in Fresno, California.

25:00 - He ultimately, came out of the military

25:03 - in 46 and joined her.

25:07 - He wasn't.

25:11 - He was called back, let's say, to New Orleans,

25:14 - his sister Estelle, who he stayed with during his

25:20 - time in

25:21 - middle school and high school and in college.

25:24 - Estelle had a stroke while traveling.

25:28 - Leroy Actually met her

25:31 - during her travels and then traveled with her

25:34 - back to New Orleans, where he stayed.

25:38 - He and B stayed with her for two months before she passed.

25:43 - They stayed in the home and they weren't quite sure

25:47 - what to do now that they find themselves back in New Orleans.

25:51 - So it had always been a passion for Leroy to raise squab.

25:57 - And again, that that probably doesn't sound like something

26:02 - any one of us would get into today,

26:05 - but that it was indeed what Leroy's passion was.

26:07 - And I can assure you, having spoken with him during this project,

26:10 - he really did have an interest in raising pigeons.

26:16 - So his

26:17 - idea was to raise pigeons for poor squab, right.

26:21 - For food.

26:24 - But in order to do that, he needed to have a location

26:28 - where he could raise a large enough flock,

26:32 - where he could be a full time supplier for restaurants and hotels.

26:37 - And so he immediately set out looking for a farm

26:42 - where they might be able to raise

26:46 - a flock large enough for his business venture.

26:50 - And so they started looking north.

26:56 - And so in 1948,

26:59 - Leroy and B actually made the decision to move from New Orleans

27:04 - to Edinburgh, Pennsylvania.

27:10 - And it's really it's

27:12 - really amazing how people's lives take them places.

27:16 - He found the advertisement for the family farm

27:20 - in a farmer's almanac.

27:23 - It was an advertisement for a 38 acre farm in Edinburgh, Pennsylvania,

27:29 - with a farmhouse and a barn and a pump house.

27:33 - It had strawberry fields and there were a few other things

27:36 - listed in the advertisement and it immediately called to him.

27:42 - So their decision to move north wasn't

27:46 - just solely based on Leroy's desire

27:50 - to raise pigeons.

27:52 - They also wanted to leave the South.

27:57 - Some of you may be familiar

27:59 - with the term the Great Migration.

28:02 - So from the early 1900s

28:05 - to about the 1970s, we see

28:10 - the shift in population.

28:12 - We see millions of African-Americans leaving

28:16 - the southern states for opportunities in the north.

28:20 - And so if you trace that back to,

28:23 - you know, what was happening in the South,

28:26 - you're looking at an era when Jim Crow laws were in effect.

28:31 - And so

28:33 - that was a driving force for individuals

28:36 - who were seeking opportunities, freedoms, equality.

28:40 - And so we see millions of African-Americans during the early

28:45 - to mid 1900s

28:48 - leave southern states for northern and western states.

28:52 - When Leroy and Beatrice made their decision,

28:56 - I'm quite certain they were not thinking that they were part

28:59 - of a great migration, right.

29:02 - A national movement that was happening.

29:05 - Their decision was again very much rooted

29:08 - in a personal experience, which again, I wish you could hear this

29:13 - in Leroy's words, but I'm going to read an excerpt

29:16 - from his oral history about

29:20 - their decision to move to the north.

29:29 - I completely lost my train of thought.

29:30 - I'll go ahead and start the quote. yes.

29:36 - So the quote actually talks about

29:40 - an experience that his family encountered,

29:45 - with racism, legal segregation.

29:49 - During that interview,

29:52 - Leroy

29:54 - very rarely

29:56 - talked about encounters of racism.

30:00 - He he this this is such a unique,

30:05 - telling by him in this oral history interview.

30:10 - He really,

30:13 - he really,

30:16 - I don't want to say avoided.

30:18 - He really didn't talk about,

30:22 - encounters with racism that, that he had in general.

30:26 - He was incredibly positive.

30:28 - I think Castro was much more open

30:31 - with talking about lived experiences that she had.

30:36 - So this really is,

30:39 - a unique portion of his oral history.

30:44 - So again, this, this is one of the instances

30:47 - or the instance that

30:50 - made their decision for them to move north.

30:53 - We had this idea that we don't want to bring our children up in a segregated

30:58 - area.

30:59 - Sometime during our lives, we ought to move away from Louisiana

31:03 - and go up north or west somewhere,

31:06 - but get out of the segregated section.

31:09 - Let me give you a little story about something

31:12 - that really helped us to come to this decision.

31:15 - A nice park.

31:16 - It was in the way that the areas were segregated or separated.

31:20 - I'm sorry. Separated.

31:21 - Colored and white in the colored section, there was this beautiful park.

31:26 - It was named Shakespeare Park.

31:27 - And in the white section there was a park.

31:31 - The Audubon Park.

31:33 - And that would be really like any big city.

31:36 - Main park. Audubon Park.

31:39 - Well, black people, you could go in those parks

31:42 - in Audubon Park, in the white Park, you could take a tour.

31:48 - What was prohibited Like everybody else,

31:51 - you take a picnic basket to the park

31:55 - and you have a picnic

31:57 - and you couldn't do that.

31:59 - So we went for a holiday or something.

32:01 - We went to Audubon Park, and I was showing the kids certain things.

32:05 - Something I can't remember.

32:07 - It's been so long.

32:09 - And they brought a picnic basket.

32:12 - I had never had this experience before,

32:15 - so we had a picnic basket packed and we were going to have a little picnic.

32:20 - So when we got all settled in an area where we're going to have the picnic

32:25 - after our little tour, after we sat on the grass

32:29 - and have a little picnic, just as we got settled.

32:33 - Here comes an officer.

32:35 - It was his responsibility to make a round of the park, you know.

32:40 - And he did it not on foot, but on horseback.

32:44 - Just as we got settled.

32:46 - Here comes this big horse coming.

32:49 - And the policeman says, What's going on here?

32:53 - We're just going to have a picnic.

32:55 - no, you can't have a picnic here.

32:57 - There's a park down in.

32:59 - Go and have your picnic in Shakespeare Park.

33:03 - There were the kids, and they were all excited.

33:05 - We just packed up and went home because all of the excitement was gone.

33:11 - Plus, that was very embarrassing.

33:13 - And I don't know how they felt.

33:15 - But, boy, it sure did something to me.

33:19 - A guy come and say, You can't go down and your park is there,

33:23 - you know.

33:29 - Again, it's more impactful

33:30 - to hear it from Leroy himself.

33:36 - So they wanted to move north

33:40 - to give their children different and better experiences

33:45 - on the farm.

33:48 - This is the farm.

33:49 - They purchased a 3050 rice road here in Edinburgh.

33:53 - They purchased the farm in 1948

33:57 - after seeing the ad in the Farmer's Almanac.

34:00 - Leroy made plans to travel to Edinburgh to see the farm in person.

34:05 - He didn't bring B with him when when he was inspecting the property.

34:09 - He brought someone with him.

34:11 - I believe it was a cousin.

34:13 - Leroy could only remember. His first name was Nick.

34:17 - And so they came.

34:19 - They.

34:19 - They got lodging in the YMCA in downtown

34:23 - and then traveled out and met Ben Skelton,

34:27 - a realtor here in Edinburgh, to inspect the property.

34:34 - The property won Leroy over,

34:37 - and so he went back to Louisiana,

34:40 - told me that it was it was a go.

34:44 - And so in 1948, they bought the property.

34:47 - B was four months pregnant at the time with their first their first child.

34:52 - They also brought with them Edward Kosi.

34:55 - Edward.

34:57 - If I recall correctly, was Estelle's son.

35:00 - So this is Leroy nephew.

35:05 - So I think it's important that we spend a little bit of time

35:08 - just talking a little bit about

35:13 - Edinburgh and Edinburgh's

35:16 - African-American community.

35:21 - As part of this project,

35:23 - researchers went back and looked at the census records for both Edinburgh,

35:29 - the borough, as well as Washington Township,

35:33 - to look for African-Americans who were recorded on the census.

35:38 - Again, as far back as we could go.

35:43 - So Edinburgh Borough

35:45 - was incorporated in what, 1840?

35:49 - And so we were able to go back

35:51 - at least to 1860 to see some of the.

35:55 - But it took us until 1860, I should say, to find some

35:59 - some of the first African-Americans to be living in the area.

36:04 - If I'm not going to mention all of these individuals,

36:07 - but I think you can see from the list that there were very few African-Americans

36:12 - living in both in Washington Township at the time.

36:16 - What I do think is interesting is that if you look at

36:20 - look for the occupations of most of these gentlemen,

36:24 - they're nearly all barbers

36:30 - and McLean Baptist Church.

36:34 - Their pastor, Elder Devon,

36:37 - who pastored the church from 1863 to 67,

36:42 - was African-American.

36:48 - So when

36:48 - the Smith family made the decision to move to Edinburgh,

36:52 - it's not as if they were moving to Edinburgh

36:56 - to move into an African-American neighborhood, right?

36:59 - They did not have family here.

37:02 - They were not moving to be closer to family.

37:05 - They were moving to a community that

37:09 - for the better part

37:10 - of their existence here, there

37:14 - really were no other African-Americans in the community.

37:17 - That doesn't mean

37:19 - I'm separating a little bit the community from the school, Right.

37:23 - So the university.

37:25 - It does have a history

37:27 - of having African-American faculty members and students.

37:32 - But typically, the students are only here for schooling.

37:35 - Right.

37:37 - Whereas the Smith family, these this was a family

37:39 - that was moving to Edinburgh permanently.

37:45 - So finding work.

37:47 - So, again, as we discussed earlier,

37:50 - Leroy's passion was to raise pidgin for food

37:56 - and to sell it to restaurants and hotels in the Erie area.

38:01 - So he actually had

38:03 - his inventory of 100 birds shipped

38:07 - from New Orleans to to the city of Erie.

38:12 - He visited a few hotels

38:14 - and restaurants in the city of Erie,

38:18 - kind of testing the waters, gauging the interest,

38:22 - if any of them were interested or or maybe had squab on their menu.

38:27 - And unfortunately, he decided very quickly that it was not a business

38:31 - venture that would work here.

38:33 - So he ended up freezing all of his birds

38:38 - and he and B, ate through them

38:40 - over the next couple of years.

38:45 - So I just threw this up here

38:48 - just to give you something interesting to look at this book.

38:52 - It's actually dated 1948,

38:56 - the year, right, that Leroy and B bought the farm

38:59 - in Edinburgh with the intent to raise squab.

39:02 - It is the national Standard squab

39:05 - book published or written by Elmer Rice, and it's a primer

39:09 - on how to raise pigeon for squab.

39:15 - the interesting thing is you can find

39:19 - they taste like chicken.

39:20 - I don't know. I don't know.

39:23 - So since the

39:26 - since the pigeon business venture did not fly,

39:31 - he did apply for work at the VA hospital.

39:35 - So the VA hospital construction

39:38 - started on the VA hospital in the city of Erie in 1948.

39:43 - It was a multimillion dollar project.

39:45 - And when all was said and done,

39:47 - they were going to have a workforce of about 250 people.

39:51 - So Leroy, remember, his degree

39:54 - from Xavier is in biology.

39:57 - Leroy applied to work for the VA hospital.

40:01 - The very first job that he had

40:02 - there was working in the kitchen, kitchen and laundry service.

40:07 - But as soon as an opening

40:09 - was available in the radiology lab, he applied to be part of the radiology lab

40:15 - and got that position.

40:19 - He worked his way up over his 30 year career

40:22 - so that when he retired in 1980,

40:25 - he was actually supervisor of the lab.

40:31 - this is.

40:33 - This is Leroy here.

40:40 - So the family

40:42 - remember I mentioned that that baby was four months pregnant

40:45 - when they were beginning to look at the house in Edinburgh

40:49 - or the farm in Edinburgh. Unfortunately,

40:54 - the baby passed away shortly after birth.

40:58 - But they did have they did ultimately

41:00 - have this beautiful family of four.

41:04 - And that's a little misleading because they actually

41:06 - had a larger family than this.

41:08 - But I'll get to that in just a minute.

41:11 - So we have Shastra,

41:13 - Julie Siva and, Stephen,

41:17 - the four children.

41:26 - So Leroy and B were also foster parents.

41:33 - It is estimated

41:35 - that while their home was open to foster children,

41:40 - they had more than 75 children

41:43 - come through their home,

41:46 - some of which they stayed in touch with even

41:52 - as late as 2012, when we were working on this documentation project.

41:57 - This is one of them.

42:00 - So this is Terry Carr and this is Stephen.

42:05 - Terry was one of the children

42:07 - that came to them through the foster care system.

42:11 - Unfortunately,

42:12 - they were removed from the family home and taken to Detroit,

42:18 - replaced with their father, who was abusive.

42:22 - So Terry wanting to protect his younger brother,

42:26 - he reached out to the Smiths, who some somehow

42:31 - they were able to send money to Terry and his brother,

42:34 - who then got onto a bus and traveled

42:38 - back to Edinburgh.

42:41 - When they arrived back in Edinburgh.

42:44 - The Smiths contacted the Office of Children and Youth

42:48 - and they were placed with the Smith family.

42:53 - Though it was rocky because they they did have to go through

42:58 - a court proceeding and justify their behavior.

43:00 - Right.

43:01 - Because they had sent money to the boys and encouraged them to leave their father,

43:05 - who they were placed with and come back and return to the Smith family.

43:09 - So there was a court proceeding, but the court ultimately found

43:13 - that the father was abusive and that the Smiths were

43:18 - in the right and they were able to keep the boys.

43:21 - And so Terry Terry is one of the foster children that,

43:26 - again, during this project was still in touch

43:28 - with the family.

43:33 - Community service.

43:35 - It's incredibly important to spend

43:38 - time talking about the community service that the family engaged in.

43:43 - So Leroy and B

43:46 - actually set an incredible example for their children.

43:50 - Not only were they giving of themselves

43:54 - by serving as foster parents, you can imagine

43:58 - 75 children over the course.

44:02 - I'm not sure of the exact timeframe, but even if that was over 20 years,

44:07 - that's a lot of children that come through your home.

44:11 - But they also volunteered in

44:14 - with organizations around the community.

44:17 - So they were involved in the area city mission.

44:22 - They volunteered at

44:25 - and advocated for the Community Country Day School.

44:29 - So at the top here, we have mother Mary

44:32 - Beth Kennedy and Charles Kennedy Senior,

44:36 - who were the founders of the

44:38 - Community Country Day School.

44:44 - G Kak, That was another.

44:47 - We were also able to find their names in the newspaper

44:50 - as connected to volunteering with g cak

44:54 - g Cak traces its roots back

44:57 - to President Johnson deciding

45:02 - to to declare a war on poverty and

45:08 - millions of dollars were allocated by the Federal government

45:11 - for these poverty action teams all across the country.

45:16 - And so Alex Thompson, Dr.

45:19 - Thompson was the original director

45:23 - of of G Kak.

45:25 - Ultimately out of

45:28 - the poverty action group.

45:32 - We also have

45:33 - the development of our neighborhood centers like the Booker

45:37 - T Washington Center,

45:41 - the MLK Center,

45:43 - those community centers and areas came out of the work

45:47 - that the original

45:51 - Greater Erie Anti-Poverty action team.

45:55 - Something along those lines which became g KEC came out of that work and

46:01 - so Leroy

46:02 - and B volunteer their time and expertise

46:06 - to all of these different organizations and efforts.

46:11 - So again, we didn't

46:14 - necessarily hear a lot from Leroy about

46:21 - racism, racism

46:23 - that he encountered throughout his life,

46:26 - but his children, specifically, Castro

46:30 - was willing to talk with us openly about what she had experienced.

46:35 - And I think, you know, I think it's important for us to recognize

46:40 - that racism existed in Edinburgh, Pennsylvania.

46:46 - So even though they were fleeing,

46:48 - segregate Asian legal segregation in the South

46:53 - for new opportunities in the North, they very much encountered

46:58 - biases in discrimination here as well.

47:02 - And so

47:04 - one of the one of the things we felt that was important

47:07 - as part of the documentation and project was to help

47:13 - help kind of contextualize

47:16 - the discrimination that was occurring in in Edinburgh.

47:20 - And one of the things that we identified were all of the or many of the camps,

47:25 - many of the camps in cottages,

47:27 - rental units, camps where children could be sent

47:32 - within the guidelines or rules for the camp.

47:38 - They excluded,

47:41 - for the most part, non Gentiles, I believe,

47:44 - was the the phrasing that was used.

47:47 - So certainly

47:51 - discrimination was something that was present and encountered here.

47:54 - Chris Castro herself actually talked about,

47:59 - you know, what it was like to be in a school

48:03 - where she and her siblings

48:06 - were the only African-American students

48:10 - there were.

48:11 - You know, they encountered teachers who just

48:16 - simply lacked understanding.

48:19 - They also Castro talked about being spit on.

48:24 - So their experiences,

48:26 - Castro was was much more open about talking about

48:30 - the negative experiences she had in Edinburgh than

48:37 - than her father.

48:45 - The family, though, was incredibly

48:50 - motivated,

48:53 - again, prioritizing education and not just the education

48:57 - of their own family, but the education of the community.

49:01 - Some of the things that they involved themselves with the entire Smith family,

49:05 - not just Leroy and B, but even Castro,

49:09 - were aimed at bridging

49:12 - any divide that may have existed between black and white.

49:15 - Right.

49:16 - Education was key.

49:18 - Exposure was key.

49:20 - And so this is this is one of the,

49:24 - circumstance or

49:26 - one of the

49:31 - events

49:33 - that I think is worth noting.

49:35 - So Castro the years February

49:39 - 1969, Castro is president of the student council,

49:44 - and she suggested

49:49 - that there be an assembly

49:50 - to acknowledge Black History Week.

49:54 - And so she was politely refused.

49:58 - She was told that a significant speaker could not be found,

50:04 - and therefore it was not a worthwhile

50:07 - or permissible effort.

50:11 - Castro And I suspect that

50:13 - she was supported greatly by be in this

50:17 - Castro then who would not be denied.

50:21 - She then reached out to the mayor

50:24 - of Cleveland, Carl Stokes.

50:28 - He happened to be the first African

50:31 - African-American, African-American mayor

50:34 - of a major US city.

50:39 - And he was actually

50:41 - she reached out to him when he was in office.

50:44 - So she reached out to Carl Stokes

50:47 - to see if he would come to Edinburgh

50:50 - and speak at a scholastic dinner.

50:53 - The student council was charged with planning and Mr.

50:58 - the Mayor Stokes, was not able to attend, but he did

51:03 - send his administrative aide.

51:07 - So Reverend Lehman

51:10 - actually did come to Edinburgh and spoke

51:12 - to student council.

51:17 - And I love this.

51:20 - We're quite certain that he did indeed

51:22 - prove to be a speaker of significant prestige,

51:27 - which is why she was told she couldn't have

51:29 - the assembly in the first place.

51:36 - So Leroy and B worked often with the university again

51:39 - wanting to expand the diversity

51:44 - programing of the university.

51:47 - So it was very common for them

51:51 - to make arrangements for speakers to come.

51:55 - They were also driving forces.

51:57 - When it came to that's in the next slide.

52:00 - I'm sorry.

52:01 - So one of the one of the presenters,

52:04 - they had come

52:07 - was Pauline Myers.

52:10 - She her program

52:12 - included The World, The World of My America.

52:17 - And, it included excerpts

52:22 - from To Kill a mockingbird, The Poetry of Langston

52:26 - Hughes, the words of Sojourner Truth

52:29 - and Poetry by Paul Laurence Dunbar.

52:32 - And the program later became a PBS special.

52:36 - And this is where we get

52:37 - the title movers of Edinburgh.

52:41 - if, I'm not sure if you can read this, but

52:47 - this autographed picture

52:50 - that Ms..

52:51 - Miers left them actually refers to Leroy

52:54 - and B as the movers of Edinburgh.

53:08 - So in 1973,

53:11 - B was incredibly instrumental

53:13 - in organizing the first Black History Week

53:18 - event or celebration here at the university.

53:22 - There were a number of other speakers

53:24 - that they were responsible, specifically, B was responsible

53:29 - for working with other folks

53:31 - here at the university to,

53:35 - to get come.

53:36 - So Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, And here in the photograph

53:40 - we have Andrew Young, who was the mayor of Atlanta at the time,

53:46 - all speakers that that be was instrumental

53:49 - in bringing to the the university community.

53:53 - This photograph was taken in 1981.

53:57 - I find this surprising.

53:59 - Just look how youthful and vibrant Bea looks.

54:03 - She actually died the following year.

54:05 - She died in 1982 at the age of 60.

54:09 - She died very young,

54:15 - So I knew I would get into trouble if I only mentioned

54:19 - Leroy and be in organized doing

54:23 - special speakers here at the university.

54:26 - So I did want to at least call out a few other folks

54:30 - who were very involved in

54:35 - getting African-American speakers here,

54:39 - artistic performances,

54:42 - creating special programs,

54:46 - training programs,

54:49 - prep programs

54:51 - again, that were all administered through the university.

54:54 - So these are just a few of the folks who helped,

54:58 - as well, diversify

55:01 - the offerings of the university.

55:06 - So I actually thought it was

55:09 - important to end with this, and I'll just give you well, I'll read it.

55:14 - I guess I'll it.

55:17 - So as we end tonight, I think it's

55:22 - this account of B

55:26 - is, first of all, what Leroy would probably want us to end on,

55:30 - because throughout his oral history, you can tell

55:33 - you could tell just how much he loved his wife,

55:35 - how much he missed her, how much she respected her

55:37 - for for the work that she did in the community.

55:41 - And so I'll I'll read what I have here.

55:46 - Father Robert Bauer, a retired Catholic priest living in Edinburgh,

55:51 - recalled that B pushed him to work on issues

55:54 - of social injustice and inequality.

55:57 - He admitted that he may not has may not have been as engaged

56:01 - in the effort to improve racial tensions at Edinburgh State College,

56:05 - had B not encouraged him to do so.

56:08 - Father Bower remembered B as one of the great people of my life.

56:14 - She made being good look easy.

56:18 - He said he was one of the individuals that we interviewed

56:22 - as part of this project because he had firsthand knowledge of the Smith family.

56:27 - Well, let me let me back up and let me,

56:30 - let me review this specifically.

56:33 - And if I misspoke, let me correct it.

56:35 - Let me take the opportunity to correct it.

56:40 - Yeah.

56:43 - Okay.

56:44 - So let's see.

56:46 - I'll just quickly read through here,

56:51 - through their life of the Rice road farmhouse tho

56:55 - their life at the rice road farmhouse was a minimum manifestation of their dream.

56:59 - The Smith family was not able to escape discrimination entirely

57:04 - through the first half of the 20th century.

57:06 - We know that de facto segregation, which was of course

57:13 - then, not legal.

57:14 - The non-legal version of segregation

57:17 - was practiced openly in the North,

57:20 - though segregation was officially condemned and outlawed,

57:24 - discrimination was widespread in both urban and rural environments.

57:28 - Edinburgh was no exception, as evidenced by the prevalence

57:32 - of racially based rules and discriminatory language

57:36 - in promotional materials of clubs and private organizations.

57:40 - So we have to come to camp for Goal for Girls,

57:44 - one of the Edinburgh Lake youth

57:46 - camps offering boating, fishing, archery, athletics, swimming and canoeing.

57:51 - They printed on their application form Gentiles.

57:54 - Only accepted at two camps are Camp Willson Gear Cottage,

57:59 - also located along Edinburgh Lake,

58:01 - included the following statement in their promotional brochure.

58:04 - We endeavor to maintain first class cottages, furnishing

58:09 - same for comfort and convenience and cater only to Gentile people

58:13 - who appreciate the comforts of a quiet place in the country.

58:16 - Because Go Camp and Culbertson Hills Country Club maintained

58:20 - similar race related requirements

58:24 - and all of these primary sources, the

58:31 - the applications, the camp

58:32 - fliers guidelines were actually found

58:36 - in the archival collections of the Edinburgh Area Historical Society.

58:40 - So these descriptions and words were taken from those original

58:44 - those primary sources that targeting Jews just like this and saying,

58:50 - I think they're using it as a code word for African-Americans as well.

58:56 - So, I would,

58:58 - I would actually venture to say that

59:01 - anyone other than the

59:04 - white individuals would have been excluded.

59:08 - But the

59:10 - I think the reason we're pulling out these examples is to show that there were

59:17 - examples of racial segregation or racial discrimination

59:21 - I'm sorry, racial discrimination happening in Edinburgh

59:26 - while the Smith family was here.

59:30 - I have I have gone back

59:32 - and I've tried to listen through the oral histories.

59:35 - And at no point is there a clear

59:39 - connection to how she became involved.

59:45 - But it is.

59:48 - It is, yeah.

59:51 - Maybe through something like you can met somebody

59:55 - considered to be a, you know, a resource.

59:58 - 497 Quite possibly. Quite possibly.

01:00 - 06.436 We, we did go through the university archives.

01:00 - 08.271 Dave Springer

01:00 - 10.974 was incredibly helpful in going through the archives

01:00 - 15.378 and we looked for any and all mention that we could find of be

01:00 - 17.080 and we found

01:00 - 20.917 lots, we found her name appearing in

01:00 - 24.220 a lot of public program

01:00 - 26.956 or student driven programing.

01:00 - 29.092 But again, that answer

01:00 - 32.095 was that question was never answered really.

01:00 - 34.931 They were also heavily involved in the church,

01:00 - 41.537 as you could hear from the excerpts taken from Leroy's oral history.

01:00 - 44.474 He was,

01:00 - 47.276 had a very strong faith.

01:00 - 49.912 And so they were involved.

01:00 - 53.850 We were able to connect them to

01:00 - 55.351 at different times,

01:00 - 59.455 four or five of the local churches.

01:00 - 03.426 And so it's also possible that that they were connected

01:01 - 08.931 through friends, friends they had made through the church.

01:01 - 11.634 That one too. I,

01:01 - 13.603 I had

01:01 - 16.239 tried to remind myself

01:01 - 21.210 to mention it, and I completely forgot

01:01 - 24.681 when we were talking about

01:01 - 26.883 circumstance or racism

01:01 - 31.187 that they had encountered.

01:01 - 32.522 here.

01:01 - 37.026 so here's, here's a another excerpt for you.

01:01 - 38.594 Not of Leroy's oral history,

01:01 - 42.632 but from ultimately the, the essay that we wrote,

01:01 - 45.068 adding to the complexity of the circumstances,

01:01 - 50.073 the Smith children came of age at the height of activity

01:01 - 53.509 for the national and local civil rights movement.

01:01 - 57.480 It was an era of both change and resistance, and the family boldly

01:01 - 01.417 confronted social and political barriers.

01:02 - 04.020 For many years, the family worshiped

01:02 - 09.292 at the First Church of God in Cambridge Springs,

01:02 - 09.625 right?

01:02 - 14.731 Just down the road, just days after the assassination of Dr.

01:02 - 16.833 Martin Luther King Jr.

01:02 - 19.202 In April of 1968,

01:02 - 23.372 the pastor announced from the pulpit that the death of the civil

01:02 - 27.610 rights leader was for the best,

01:02 - 33.349 which marked the end of the Smith's attendance at that church.

01:02 - 36.219 But but they had yes,

01:02 - 40.289 they were very active in the local faith community.

01:02 - 43.025 That was the first Church of God is just in Cambridge

01:02 - 56.172 Springs is just one of the churches They they attended.

01:02 - 02.245 So I can tell you where they're at per

01:03 - 05.681 2012.

01:03 - 08.785 So this information is a couple of it's

01:03 - 12.054 certainly old.

01:03 - 14.257 I'm sorry for having to flip back and forth.

01:03 - 19.095 But so Castro, she was incredibly well known

01:03 - 21.697 for her ability to play the piano.

01:03 - 24.867 And actually the very first photograph I had of her,

01:03 - 27.570 which was the second, I think, slide,

01:03 - 29.372 it was actually of Castro

01:03 - 34.177 seated at a piano during a recital at a at a church.

01:03 - 36.946 So Castro received degrees in piano performance

01:03 - 41.951 and music from Oberlin Conservancy and Oberlin College

01:03 - 44.420 and completed her juris doctorate

01:03 - 48.758 from the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

01:03 - 50.693 At the writing of this narrative.

01:03 - 52.662 So this is 2012.

01:03 - 57.700 She was an attorney for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office.

01:03 - 01.204 Julia is a mother of three

01:04 - 04.540 and again at the writing of this, in 2012,

01:04 - 08.511 she was a certified nursing assistant in Erie.

01:04 - 11.848 Theba graduated high school in Germany

01:04 - 16.152 while living with Castro, whose husband was serving in the Army.

01:04 - 17.820 She attended Geneva College

01:04 - 21.924 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, and earned a degree in special education

01:04 - 27.930 and also a master's in special education at Edinburgh State College.

01:04 - 29.532 She was living in Cleveland

01:04 - 33.336 with her 16 year old daughter, Kristin at the time.

01:04 - 37.840 Stephen graduated from General McLane High School in 1979.

01:04 - 39.542 He earned a B.A.

01:04 - 44.580 from Oberlin College in 1983 and a juris doctorate from Case

01:04 - 49.352 Western University School of Law in 1986.

01:04 - 54.290 And then at the writing again in 2012, he was executive director

01:04 - 06.269 of the Harvest Center of Charlotte, North Carolina.

01:05 - 09.305 So perhaps that's something the representatives

01:05 - 13.009 from the Edinburgh area Historical Society would like to mention.

01:05 - 13.376 I don't know.

01:05 - 17.213 Are you allowed to provide an update on the the question?

01:05 - 21.884 The question was how do we does the public have access

01:05 - 25.688 to these oral histories?

01:05 - 29.592 So the short answer is not at the moment,

01:05 - 34.330 but as the university transfers that collection over to the Edinburgh area

01:05 - 40.870 Historical Society, they'll probably need some time for processing.

01:05 - 42.605 what we do.

01:05 - 44.273 Yeah,

01:05 - 49.645 but, but that collection, not only does it have the oral history interviews

01:05 - 53.282 that were collected as part of the Smith Family Documentation

01:05 - 57.053 Project,

01:05 - 00.022 there is an extensive collection

01:06 - 04.593 of World War Two veterans,

01:06 - 07.063 whose oral histories were collected.

01:06 - 08.764 And then

01:06 - 11.100 there was a

01:06 - 14.603 so not only did they do Veterans World War Two veterans,

01:06 - 19.675 they also a series where they interviewed women who joined the workforce

01:06 - 25.081 here at home while their husbands, brothers, fathers were overseas.

01:06 - 28.150 So there are complementary,

01:06 - 31.253 series and they're really fascinating.

01:06 - 35.491 And there's quite a few oral histories in those two collections alone.

01:06 - 39.161 And then I don't know if I shared this with you guys.

01:06 - 42.331 I was also involved in the documentation Project

01:06 - 47.503 for the Italian-American Women's Association of Erie.

01:06 - 50.473 so the, the founding

01:06 - 54.577 women of that organization,

01:06 - 56.512 the majority of them were

01:06 - 59.515 in their eighties and nineties and hundreds.

01:06 - 02.051 And looking at,

01:07 - 05.321 we were looking at doing an oral history project before they passed.

01:07 - 09.091 And so, for a year I spent,

01:07 - 11.660 time driving,

01:07 - 13.129 little old Italian women

01:07 - 17.366 from Erie to Edinburgh to have their oral histories recorded.

01:07 - 21.270 So that, that, that collection is also part of the oral

01:07 - 25.975 history studio's collection

01:07 - 27.343 to the results.

01:07 - 31.213 So all of these photographs were taken

01:07 - 34.283 while the Smith family

01:07 - 37.486 had a private viewing

01:07 - 41.457 of the Smith Family exhibit.

01:07 - 47.263 And yes, Leroy was actually quite excited to have his family history

01:07 - 51.767 on the walls of the Edinburgh Area Historical Society.

01:07 - 57.373 He had, you know, his children, grandchildren present at their viewing.

01:07 - 00.943 They also attended the

01:08 - 03.813 the public opening of the exhibit.

01:08 - 06.482 Yes, I think

01:08 - 09.452 Leroy was very much aware

01:08 - 13.089 of how important the project was, and he was just.

01:08 - 17.193 So he's just so proud of his family.

01:08 - 19.962 I think he really appreciated the project

01:08 - 25.067 and Leroy passed away in 2016,

01:08 - 28.104 so he was 94 when we did this project.

01:08 - 36.612 He was 98 when he passed,

01:08 - 41.117 so I actually don't know now who owns it.

01:08 - 43.819 It was my understand when we were doing this project

01:08 - 47.089 that the Smith family still owned that property.

01:08 - 50.893 It was vacant, but being maintained.

01:08 - 54.864 I do not know if the property had has been sold

01:08 - 58.367 since this project came to a close,

01:08 - 02.905 because again, that was what for 14 years ago when we started.