Finding Alcorn

This page provides a narrative of how I went about finding Rev. Alcorn before 1900 and what steps led me to the conclusion that he was born with the name Alcorn Howze.
My hope is that sharing this information may be helpful or interesting to other amateur genealogist, especially those who are trying to search for African American families.

Here's how I figured it out...

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Rev. Alcorn's death certificate from 1944 lists his parents names as:

Nathaniel Alcorn and Ella Yarborough.

First, I searched for relatives in Marshall County, MS with the last name Alcorn - this was a DEAD END

Then, I thought his parents may have been enslaved by James Lusk Alcorn - Governor and later US Senator from MS. So, I searched the digital archives of J.L. Alcorn Papers, 1850-1880 at UNC which includes:

Personal and official letters
pre-war slave, property, and plantation records
Alcorn's diary (1879-1880) with short entries on the weather, farming, sale of produce, and social, family, and religious affairs.

I could not find ANYONE that matched Rev. Alcorn, his parents, etc.

this was another DEAD END

After having no luck with the last name Alcorn, I went back to his obituary in the Memphis Press Scimitar from 1944 and saw he had a sister named Mrs. Mary McKenny Hayes.

Alcorn's sister Mary died in 1950. Her death certificate lists her parent's names as Nathan Howze and Ella Sparks--same first names, different last names.

I also noticed Rev. Alcorn's obituary said he was the cousin of Mr. Robert Howze.

So, I decided to look into the possibility that his last name was originally Howze.

If Alcorn's father was Nathan Howze, and he had a cousin named Robert Howze, then I assumed that Robert was a cousin on his father's side. I looked for Robert Howze in the US Census and found him in 1880 living in Wall Hill, MS with his family:

Howze, Jerry 55

Mary 45

Juda 21

Nathan 17

Agnes 15

Robert 10

If this is the right Robert Howze, then his father Jerry would have been Nathan's brother--Alcorn's uncle.

Next, I started searching for Nathan Howze in Marshall County.

I found him in the 1870 Census with his wife Arella....similar to "Ella" but there was no James or Alexander. This census was taken in July of 1870 and Alcorn's birthday is in September, so that may be why we don't see him.

Howze, Nathan 42

Arella 30

Washington 14

Moses 12

Helen 9

Sarah E 2

It took me a long time to find Nathan Howze in the 1880 Census, but I found him! He and the family were living in Independence, Tate County, MS. Sons Washington and Moses must have moved out, but Nathan and A.E.'s other children Helen, Charles and Sarah are with them along with three new children: Alcorn (8), Henry Ann (6), and Mary E. (2).

This is when I started to realize that

Rev. J.A. Alcorn was likely born with the name Alcorn Howze

Howze, Nathan 50

A. E. 36

Hellen 15

Chas 13

Sarah 11

Alcorn 8

H. A. 6

M. E. 2

I found Alcorn Howze and his siblings in an 1880 MS Census which indicated that they were living in Independence, Tate Co., MS and they were attending "Eason's" school at the time.

I am still trying to figure out where that school was located.

According to an 1885 MS "Enumeration of Educable Children" in Tate County, MS:

Sarah (17), Alcorn (15), Henry Ann (11), and Mary (5) are still living in Independence, MS with their parents.

Most of the 1890s US Census Records were destroyed in a fire. Thankfully, someone put together a "Replacement Census" for Tate County, MS by compiling other county records. According to that book, a man named "J.A. Howze" was living in Independence and his occupation was listed as "teacher."

"J.A. Howze"may be evidence of the evolution of Rev. Alcorn's name:

Alcorn Howze -----> J.A. Howze ------> J.A. Alcorn

I still don't know why or exactly when he changed his names.

Later in the 1890 Census book, we find a list of "colored schools" with their teachers and trustees. "J.A. Howze" was a teacher at New Garden and New Salem "colored schools".

Click HERE to learn more about Alcorn's early education and teaching career

I went back to the 1870s US census to look for Alcorn's uncle Jerry Howze. I found him in Wall Hill, Marshall County, MS. with his wife and children, and two older women named Aga and Grace. This was the beginning of a breakthrough!

Howze, Jerry 48

Mary 35

Solliman 15

Juda 14

Nathan 7

Aga 5

Eliza 2

Aga 60 ***

Grace 100 ***

I believe Aga was Jerry's mother, and Grace his grandmother. If that was true, then these would be Nathan's mother and grandmother as well. I wondered if I could find anything about them before 1870--which is hard to do when researching Black family history, because most Black folks were not listed by name in earlier census records or "slave schedules" as they are called.

But, GRACE provided the breakthrough that I needed to figure out who their enslavers were before the Civil War.

In an 1866 Mississippi State Census, I found Grace Howze listed by name! She is living in the household of "E.J. Howze" and there were several younger white folks, likely E.J.'s children, as well as FOUR free people of color. Here's why Grace was listed by name, and why it is so rare to see...

In this state census, only the head of household would be listed by name. Other household members would be noted in their row. The first (left) page was for white people, the second (right) page was for "Freedmen, Free Negroes, and Mulattoes" (example of right page below).

As you can see from the image below, the columns separated males from females, and there were age-range boxes for each group.

So, for example, if there was a male, free person of color, 10 years of age and under, then a number 1 would be marked in that spot.

The last age group option is "over 90 and under 100 years". On the rare occasion that someone was over 100 years of age, the census taker would sometimes write their name in the "remarks" column on the right.

This was the case with Grace Howze and this is the first and only clue I could find that Grace had been living with a white family with the last name Howze.

My next task was to find out who "E.J Howze" was, and see if I could connect them to

Grace, Aga, Jerry, Nathan....and eventually, Alcorn.

Click HERE to learn about E.J. Howze and the rest of the white Howzes

that enslaved Alcorn's family before he was born.