THE McDOWELLS: ~ABOUT THEM~---document-links---pictures---related pages---site navigation
Reverend McDowell’s name was Henry Curtis McDowell but I think his wife called him Curtis. I’m calling him Reverend McDowell to distinguish him from his son Curtis. His wife was Bessie Cherry Fonville McDowell.
Reverend McDowell was born in Alabama in 1894, and was the first black missionary whom the ABCFM sent to Angola. He is mentioned in the 1923 Annual Report for the African Mission:
“It is a long jump,” writes Mr. McDowell, the pioneer missionary of Galangue, “from the crowded slave pens, scorched highways and deeply worn coast paths, congested ship bottoms, slave markets of America, cotton fields of the southern United States of America, and the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln, to the establishment of this station.”
The Find-A-Grave article for Curtis says:
As the child of a missionary, Curtis was home schooled by his mother, Bessie, and became fluent in Umbundu, the native language of Angola.
When Fred wrote several letters on July 9, 1927, announcing his engagement to Sibyl, one of the letters was to Reverend McDowell, about the staffing issues that it would cause for Fred and Sibyl to be together.
Young Curtis was born in 1919. In the early 1930s, he lived with Fred and Sibyl in Massachusetts for a while and attended Westboro Public Schools. We’ve got a 1933 postcard from 20-year-old Maggie, staying at Fernbank in Woods Hole, to her father, Will, in Atlanta, in which Maggie says:
This morning Aunt Sibyl and Uncle Fred left early to go to Westboro. They are coming back early and bring Curtiss. I didn’t know he was colored, did you?
He ended up as a lawyer in Chicago, dying in 2010. AG tracked him down before his death, and spoke with him once about his time with her parents. I've told about that in Fred's story page.
Reverend McDowell and Bessie retired home to the South. There are some newspaper articles about him and I want to take another look, because golly, what an interesting life they had!
Reverend McDowell was born in Alabama in 1894, and was the first black missionary whom the ABCFM sent to Angola. He is mentioned in the 1923 Annual Report for the African Mission:
“It is a long jump,” writes Mr. McDowell, the pioneer missionary of Galangue, “from the crowded slave pens, scorched highways and deeply worn coast paths, congested ship bottoms, slave markets of America, cotton fields of the southern United States of America, and the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln, to the establishment of this station.”
The Find-A-Grave article for Curtis says:
As the child of a missionary, Curtis was home schooled by his mother, Bessie, and became fluent in Umbundu, the native language of Angola.
When Fred wrote several letters on July 9, 1927, announcing his engagement to Sibyl, one of the letters was to Reverend McDowell, about the staffing issues that it would cause for Fred and Sibyl to be together.
Young Curtis was born in 1919. In the early 1930s, he lived with Fred and Sibyl in Massachusetts for a while and attended Westboro Public Schools. We’ve got a 1933 postcard from 20-year-old Maggie, staying at Fernbank in Woods Hole, to her father, Will, in Atlanta, in which Maggie says:
This morning Aunt Sibyl and Uncle Fred left early to go to Westboro. They are coming back early and bring Curtiss. I didn’t know he was colored, did you?
He ended up as a lawyer in Chicago, dying in 2010. AG tracked him down before his death, and spoke with him once about his time with her parents. I've told about that in Fred's story page.
Reverend McDowell and Bessie retired home to the South. There are some newspaper articles about him and I want to take another look, because golly, what an interesting life they had!
THE McDOWELLS: about-them---~DOCUMENT LINKS~---pictures---related pages---site navigation
----------------------------------------------------------
- 1927-03-15 LETTER FROM SIBYL TO FRED
- 1927-07-09 LETTER FROM FRED TO REVEREND CURTIS McDOWELL
- 1927-07-29 LETTER FROM FRED TO ALMA - Bessie
THE McDOWELLS: about-them---document-links---~PICTURES~---related pages---site navigation
There may be a picture of Reverend McDowell in one of the Mission magazines that we have. Other than that, I don't think I've come across anything. Maybe a picture in a newspaper clipping from after his retirement?
THE McDOWELLS: about-them---document-links---pictures---~RELATED PAGES~---site navigation
THE McDOWELLS: about-them---document-links---pictures---related pages---~SITE NAVIGATION~
WHERE AM I?
WHAT ARE THE PREVIOUS PAGE AND THE NEXT PAGE?