The McLendon-McClendon Family Reunion
Saundra Brown
The MCLENDON/MCCLENDON Family started when my great great great
grandfather PAUL MCLENDON (mulatto, born 1824 in Early County, Georgia)
"married" MARTHA (last name unknown, mulatto, born 1825 in Early County,
Georgia) around 1840. They appear by name in the 1870 Ft. Gaines, Clay
County, Georgia Federal Census living next to their slaveowner NEEDHAM
MCLENDON and his 3rd wife HARRIET. PAUL MCLENDON claims $250 personal
property in this census. Clay County was cut out of Early County, Georgia
in 1854. Their slaveowner NEEDHAM MCLENDON was born between 1790-1800 in
the Darlington District, South Carolina and migrated to Georgia in the
1830s. MARTHA seemed to be the slave he had first of the two. She was
with him in the 1840 census.
PAUL and MARTHA MCLENDON raised 8 (maybe more) children whose names
were CLARISSA (1841), JOSEPH (1852) BENJAMIN (1855), GEORGE (1858), HENRY
(1861), CHARLES (1863), JAMES (1866), and ISAAC (1869). It is strongly
suspected that besides being the slaveowner, NEEDHAM MCLENDON was also a
"sperm donor" to our family. MARTHA's son BENJAMIN is the spitting image of
NEEDHAM's grandchild, NEEDHAM HOLMES MCLENDON (born 1835 Early County, GA).
Pictures of both of them confirm their facial feature likenesses.
In the 1880 Federal census, MARTHA has moved from Ft. Gaines, Clay
County, Georgia about 20 miles down the road to Early County, Georgia,
1140th Militia District, Paul is not shown with Martha who is listed as age
55, House Keeper. With her are her sons, GEORGE, age 19 (an age
discrepancy); HENRY, age 15 (an age discrepancy), and JAMES, age 12 (an age
discrepancy, also). This group is still listed as MULATTOES, therefore
verifying that they were extremely light skinned people. Sometime after
1880, an extra "C" was added to our McLENDON surname, i.e. McCLENDON.
Today, members of our family live in various states including Georgia,
Alabama, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, California, Alaska, Illinois, and
overseas in Turkey. These descendants are "wrapped up, tangled up, and tied
up" with the following surnames: MEANS, LEATH ( and its variant spellings),
PRICE, SMITH, SOTVALL, DANZEY (and its variant spelling), GRIMSLEY,
CUNNINGHAM, CORBITT, LONG, THOMAS, WARD, BENSON, JOHNSON, FINCH, and
HENDERSON. We know many of the descendents of 2 of PAUL and MARTHA's
children. They are the descendants of JOSEPH MCLENDON and 1st wife, WILLIE
STOVALL, and 2nd wife GERTRUDE (surname unknown); and BENJAMIN MCLENDON and
SYLVIA MEANS. SYLVIA, part Native American, was the daughter of THOMAS
MEANS (born 1825 in Georgia, who was a blacksmith) and ELIZABETH LEATH, both
of Blakely, Early County, Georgia. ELIZABETH's mother, REBECCA LEATH was a
half-blooded Native American born in 1800 in Richmond, Virginia. She was
carried to Georgia by her slaveowner, WILLIAM C. LEATH of Virginia. There
are 2 prominent Native American tribes that are situated around Richmond,
Virginia now: the PAMUNKEY tribe, and the MATTAPONI tribe. It is said that
POCAHONTAS was a descendent of one of these tribes.
Sometime before 1898, the majority of the MCLENDON-MCCLENDON family
migrated across the Chatahoochie River to Henry County, Alabama. There
BENJAMIN MCLENDON; BENJAMIN G. (PRICE) SMITH (father of EMMA SMITH who
married ELIJAH MCLENDON, son of BENJAMIN MCLENDON); and WILLIAM PRICE
(brother of BENJAMIN G. (PRICE) SMITH were 3 of 5 trustees who founded the
OAKEY GROVE AME CHURCH in Haleburg, Henry County, Alabama in 1898. This
year this church is celebrating their 100 year anniversary. Since its
founding however, the name of the church has been changed to the OAKEY GROVE
COMMUNITY CHURCH.
At the last year reunion, 4 of the eldest remaining MCLENDON-MCCLENDONs were
honored: (1)COREEN MCCLENDON born 1902 in Alabama, who married ANDREW
THOMAS in Alabama and then migrated to Baltimore Maryland by 1942. Her two
children and their children are still living in Baltimore: (a) TYRONE BUNYAN
THOMAS of Alabama who married REONA JORDAN of Mississippi; and (b) WILLIE
VELL THOMAS of Alabama who first married LAWRENCE ELLSWORTH OLIVER of
Baltimore, Maryland, and later married JETER REDMOND, of Virginia; (2 & 3)
the twins OSSIE MOORE DANZEY and OZZIE MOORE GRIMSLEY born 1906 in Alabama;
and (4) JEREMIAH MCCLENDON born 1913 in Alabama and who migrated with his
parents to New York. After the reunion, COREEN MCCLENDON THOMAS died on
August 9, 1997. She was a faithful member of Whitestone Baptist Church and
her funeral was held there.
We have prominent MCCLENDON relatives from all walks of life.
SYLVIA MEANS MCLENDON's brother, REV. SAMUEL GEORGE MEANS is listed in
3 references: (1) BLACK BIOGRAPHY 1790 - 1950, A Cumulative Index, Volume 2
K-Z, Editors - Randall K. Burkett, Nancy Hall, Burkett, Henry Louis Gates,
Jr., 1991 Chadwyck-Healey Inc; Biography: 052, Vol. I, p. 508f; (2)
Caldwell, Arthur Bunyan, HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO AND HIS INSTITUTIONS,
Georgia Edition, Vol. I and II, A. B. Caldwell Publishing Co., Atlanta,
1917; 1920; (3) Wright, Richard Robert, Jr., CENTENNIAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF THE
AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Book Concern of the A.M.E. Church,
Philadelphia, 1916; ILLUSTRATION in book #293, on p. 158.
REV. SAMUEL GEORGE MEANS, the son of THOMAS and ELIZABETH LEATH, both
African Methodists, was born November 8, 1873 in Early County, Ga. One of
the most efficient and successful pastor and evangelists in the A.M.E.
connection in Georgia, REV. MEANS, one is a man who,without early
advantages, has won a position of prominence and usefulness in his
denomination. His grandmother, REBECCA LEATH, was a native of Richmond,
Virginia, and is said to have been half Indian. REV. MEANS joined the
A.M.E. Church on probation, September 16, 1883. He was converted and became
a full member August 28, 1889. He was licensed to exhort February 9, 1894.
He finished from the correspondence course of theology at Morris Brown
University, June, 1908, and was that same year given the degree of DOCTOR OF
DIVINITY by Campbell College, Jackson, Miss. He has engaged extensively in
evangelistic work, having in the last twenty years added to the Church more
than 18,000 souls. He was a member of the general conference of 1912.
REV. SAMUEL GEORGE MEANS migrated by 1920 to Pennsylvania. In
Pennsylvania, SAMUEL became a Baptist Minister. He pastored for many
years at the Burke Street Baptist Church in Philadelphia. About 30 years
ago, the congregation figured that he was too old to preach, so they
released him. He was very angry about this. Therefore, he founded
another church and named it THE MEANS TEMPLE, 1904 N. Mervine Street in
North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Relatives of the McCLENDON family
attended church services there between 1932-October 1933. The MEANS TEMPLE
church lasted through the 1940s. His brother named JOHN was a minister in an
AME Church in Georgia. SAMUEL had a son who became a Baptist minister in
New Jersey.
TED LONG, great great grandson of PAUL and MARTHA MCLENDON, was featured in
an article in the January 1, 1996, THE DOTHAN EAGLE, Volume 89, Number 85
Front Page "STAR HAIRDRESSER: DOTHAN'S LONG A CUT ABOVE" by Kasey Reaves,
Eagle Staff Writer (Includes a photograph of Ted Long). TED LONG is a
hairdresser who has styled hair of various movie stars such as MELBA MOORE.
His name is listed in the credits of the movie 1995 "Waiting to Exhale"
Directed by Forest Whitaker. He has also worked on the movie sets of 1996
"Rose Wood" Directed by John Singleton; 1995 "Soul Of The Game" Directed by
Keevin Sullivan; 1995-1995 "Dead Presidents" Directed by The Hughes
Brothers (Albert and Allen); 1994 "Black Panthers" Directed by Marie Van
Peebles; 1993 "Posse" Directed by Mario Van Peebles; "First Breeze Of
Summer" by Leslie Lee, WNET, New York;
"I Am A Fan" by Bob Ellison, Brentwoor T.V. Corporation New York; "To Be
Young, Gifted And Black", Adopted by Robert Meniroff, Michale Schultz,
Director; "Life On The Mississippi", Mark Twain, by Phillip Seisman "The
Wiz" by Joel Schumacher and Charles Smalls; "Denmark Vesey" by William
Hauptman, WPBT, Miami; "King" (Martin Luther), "King Lear", New York
Shakespeare Festival, "Benny's Place". TED LONG owns a beauty shop in
Dothan, Alabama called LONCAR'S BEAUTY SALON, INC. He is also a licensed
masseuse.
There is JOSEPH MCCLENDON III, great great great grandson of PAUL and MARTHA
MCLENDON, who has co-authored a book with Anthony Robbins called UNLIMITED
POWER, A BLACK CHOICE, (Simon & Schuster ISBN 064 82436 1). JOSEPH is a
head trainer for Robbins Research, International has penned a thoughtful
how-to book for African Americans. Aimed at a general audience, the premise
of this work is that all can enjoy the good life and that it takes only
knowledge, courage, and success to obtain one's goals. Robbins a noted
writer in the field of self-improvement and motivation -- has joined forces
with McClendon in this convincing, general audience book which is
particularly strong on building self-esteem and confidence.
There is SAUNDRA R. OLIVER BROWN, granddaughter of COREEN MCCLENDON THOMAS
of Baltimore, great great great granddaughter of PAUL and MARTHA MCLENDON,
B. S., Music Education, M.Ed, Music Education, a Music Instructor who has
taught in the Baltimore City Public Schools (1967-1970), Towson State
University (1971-1979), Prince Georges Public Schools (1979-1981) and the
Chicago Public School System (1982-Present). She sang with the Baltimore
Opera Company as a chorister (1970-1976). She has since gone on to write 2
books on her family heritage on her father's side - DENTs and OLIVERs, and
presently, she is working on a book illustrating her mother's side of the
family - the MCLENDON-MCCLENDONs. SAUNDRA BROWN is the president of the
Afro-American Genealogical and Historical Society of Chicago, Inc. (AAGHSC).
She is past vice president of Genealogy of the Chicago Chapter of the
(AAHGS) Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Patrica Liddell
Researchers (PLR). She has a bulletin board on Microsoft Network (msn.com)
called "ANCESTRAL LINKAGES" which is under the African American Forum. As a
music teacher, in 1997 she wrote 2 proposals for her school and won $5000
from the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Chicago for the "DUELING KEYBOARDS"
project. Also, she won $1500 grant from the Oppenheimer Foundation Teacher
Incentive Award to teach her students how to research their family heritage.
She has written many articles on genealogy that have been published about
her DENT family research as well. SAUNDRA BROWN was initiated in the
Baltimore Alumnae Chapter of DELTA SIGMA THETA in 1976 under the name of
SAUNDRA R. OLIVER BLAKE. She was a very prominent church musician in the
Baltimore area. She has been featured in many articles in the BALTIMORE
AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPER.
SAUNDRA's son WILLIAM BENJAMIN BROWN participated in the Chicago History
Fair by submitting a paper detailing the migration of his father's side of
the family, the JAMES from Kershaw County, South Carolina to Chicago,
Illinois before 1920. WILLIAM was a finalist and won a $250 scholarship to
the college of his choice. He will be entering his senior year in high
school and is carrying a 3.19 average with an A.C.T. score of 24.
There is MARCUS VINCENT NICHOLS, great great grandson of BENJAMIN MCLENDON
who married SYLVIA MEANS, who is a body builder and has won many awards for
his efforts. His picture has appeared in the various magazines that
exemplify this sport.
There is RICHARD ANTHONY MCCLENDON, great great great great grandson of PAUL
and MARTHA MCLENDON, who is a medical doctor.
There are 2 MCLENDON-MCCLENDON reunions planned for this summer. The
descendants of JOHN MCLENDON, son of JOSEPH MCLENDON, grandson of PAUL and
MARTHA MCLENDON will hold a family reunion on July 24, 25, 26 in Blakely,
Early County, Georgia. However, there will be a much larger family reunion
in August as well. The descendants of PAUL and MARTHA MCLENDON "globally"
will hold their 2nd Annual MCLENDON-MCCLENDON reunion in Dothan, Henry
County, Alabama at the Holiday Inn West on August 21, 22, 23, 1998. For
further information contact the following people: Bessie Knight Farmer,
Dothan, Alabama, 334-983-1640; or Mary Alene Danzey, Haleburg/Columbia,
Alabama 334-585-3330; or the family historian, Saundra R. Oliver Brown at
Saun...@email.msn.com.