Thank you to our reader Dr. Dolores Mercedes Franklin, independent scholar, for providing CreoleGen with this article about her grandmother, reflecting life in old New Orleans.
Estelle Temple Franklin
When my father, Dr. Charles Lionel Franklin (1910-1996), became disabled in 1995 as the result of illness, he was no longer able to maneuver the stairs at home. The decision was made to sell my parent’s place in Washington, D. C. My father and mother, Madeline Vivian DeLoach (1914-2008), both transplanted, New Orleans-born Louisiana creoles, were forced to downsize and move into an apartment.
When I began packing my father’s belongings in his third floor home office for the move, I discovered his stash of about 300 cherished letters, written from 1933 until 1978, mostly from his mother, Estelle Temple Franklin (1883-1984), and few other close family members. What a treasure – I had before me my grandmother’s record of her family confided in her own voice. My father stapled the earliest letters together, but after that, he saved them in their original envelopes.
The letters were sprinkled with historically significant moments. But, when I started reading them, I also felt deeply about the intimacy, how she captured their personal feelings and experiences. Their lives were unfolding before me like a Michener historical novel. My grandmother was soft spoken but extraordinarily firm, a strong woman with a family first mindset.
Sisters of the Holy Family, New Orleans, La, 1899 — Images collected by W.E.B. Du Bois and Thomas J. Calloway for the “American Negro Exhibit” at the Paris Exposition of 1900 (Exposition universelle internationale de 1900).
When her father Charles Temple (1849-1901) died, his daughter Estelle was orphaned at age 18. As the only one of the three daughters at the age of majority, grandmother had the difficult task of managing the inherited property and caring for her sisters, Cecelia (later, Cecelia Temple Bass) and Louzetta (later, Louzetta Temple Headley Ford). They sold 123 acres of their property to the Sisters of the Holy Family that “formed the cornerstone for the ministries at St. Mary’s Academy, St. Paul the Apostle Church and School, the House of the Holy Family, Delille Inn, Lafon Day Care Center, Lafon Nursing Facility of the Holy Family, and the present Motherhouse.” This was also the site of the former Lafon Home for Boys. I adored my grandmother’s caring but candid manner. These letters were a look into her beautiful mind and spirit.
Born in New Orleans in 1883, grandmother, Estelle Temple Franklin, passed at the age of 100, mentally alert with a great sense of humor. Both she and my grandfather, Clarence Franklin (1879-1965), attended Straight University, founded in 1869 (now Dillard). She was for several years the oldest living Straightite. Six of their 11 surviving sons and daughters attended Straight or Dillard University. Her other children attended a number of different institutions.
My father, Charles Lionel Franklin, graduated from Straight College in 1933.
Straight University Historical Marker
He then left New Orleans for New York City to pursue a PhD degree at Columbia University. Their correspondence began immediately.
Straight University undated photograph, circa 1896-1901 (restored). Row 2 from the top: Clarence Franklin, 5th from the left. Estelle Temple not identified.
Seventh Ward home where Estelle Temple Franklin wrote most of her letters
My grandmother was a prolific and skillful writer most often composing her letters at night in her Seventh Ward home across the street from Corpus Christi School. She routinely referred to the contents of other letters she was writing and the postmarks of her later letters revealed when she was crisscrossing the country to visit her other children who had relocated in other southern, northern and western cities.
The most intriguing and inspirational letter for me was written in August of 1937 when she embarked on her St. Landry parish journey to an area known then as Dubuisson on Bayou Boeuf near Whiteville. This was her personal quest to confirm that she had located two older sisters of her mother, Cecelia Scott Temple (1865-1892), a journey to connect with her mother’s deep Louisiana roots beyond New Orleans. Grandmother was only nine years old when her mother died in 1892—the same year that Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the East Louisiana Railroad car reserved for whites. Nearly fifty years later, she set out to learn more.
My grandmother Estelle wrote:
Reading her letter, I could imagine every step of her journey. Her letter was an inspiration to start my journey of discovery 15 years ago that has evolved into a work on the history of my family. She walked in her mother’s ancestral footsteps and I have walked in hers, making that same journey, meeting people who feel like family, and learning interconnecting stories about the people and history of St. Landry, Avoyelles and Rapides parishes along Bayou Boeuf. No longer an unfamiliar region of Louisiana, this is the area traveled by Solomon Northrup when he was held in bondage.
My message is simply this—take your time when you are called upon to go through family treasures. Imagine the loss if I had thrown away my grandmother’s letters. My father saved the letters after he read them and treasured the memories. I transcribed the letters and now they are preserved in perpetuity.
© Dr. Dolores “Mercedes” Franklin, 2021
March 30, 2021
Sources: A Matter of Degrees, by Dr. Dolores Mercedes Franklin, a nonfiction work in progress; The Grandmother Letters, by Estelle Temple Franklin (Franklin-DeLoach Collection); Dillard University Archives and Special Collections; The Crimson Courier, Straight College, May 1933, New Orleans, LA, cover and page 8; Violets in the King’s Garden: A History of the Sisters of the Holy Family, by Sister Mary Frances Borgia Hart, 1976; Amistad Research Center in partnership with Tulane University, Tulane University, Louisiana; African American Photographs Assembled for 1900 Paris Exposition – Library of Congress Catalog: https://www.sistersoftheholyfamily.com/history
Thanks for sharing your history! What a treasure you found!
Excellent article!
Very inspiring.
Very, very interesting! The story was always told that Adam Haydel donated all that land to the Sisters of the Holy Family.
Thank you for sharing, such a fascinating History, Your Family contribute so much to the History of Louisiana.
Thank you so much for sharing some of your family history! What a great legacy! Your great find (the letters) gives such a vivid picture into their lives. Your Grandmother Estelle is smiling down!
Thank you, Dr. Franklin, for sharing this amazing article of your family’s history and the history of New Orleans… There were so many things I did not know about New Orleans even though I was born there and graduated from high school before I moved away, it is always a pleasure to read articles such as yours to get to know more about the City I was born in …
Finding old letters is great. Thank you for sharing!
How lovely to hear about two separate journeys back to family roots taken by two different generations of women in this family. Thank you for sharing this trip with us.
Thank you so much for the history a lot of us never knew, and I attended St. Mary’s Academy from 1st through 12th grade. You should be so proud. What a great legacy!
Dr. Franklin takes the facts of history and makes them personal, weaving a narrative that brings both alive. Her message at the end is important, for we must tell our own stories. If we do not, who will?
Dr. Franklin, what a treasure! Thank you for sharing your fascinating story. Your rich and detailed contributions to Louisiana history is invaluable.