Emmanual Taylor Gordon, Rose Beatrice Gordon and the Gordon Family, White Sulphur Springs, Montana
Contributed by Michael K. Johnson, Ph.D., University of Maine-Farmington, May 2008
Emmanual Taylor Gordon
Born in 1893 into the only African American family living in White Sulphur Springs, Montana, Emmanuel Taylor Gordon (1893-1971) became an internationally famous singer during the height of his career in the 1920s. After several years of performing in vaudeville with a vocal group called the Inimitable Five, Gordon’s concert career started with a premiere performance at Town Hall in New York City in 1925, which was followed by a coast to coast tour. In a career highlight, Gordon performed in New York City’s Carnegie Hall in 1927, shortly before touring France and England from 1927-28. He became a well-regarded author in 1929 with the publication of his autobiography Born to Be (currently in print through the University of Nebraska Press).
In that book, Gordon tells of growing up in White Sulphur Springs (where he was known as “Mannie”), of his relationship with Ringling Brothers’ circus impresario John Ringling (for whom he worked as the personal porter on Ringling’s private railway car), and his eventual rise to national and international fame singing spirituals as a member of a duo with J. Rosamond Johnson (who played piano and who arranged many of the songs for piano and voice). Taylor Gordon was also an active participant in the outburst of African American literary and artistic creativity during the 1920s centered in New York and known as the Harlem Renaissance. He was friends with such well-known artists and writers as Aaron Douglas, Langston Hughes, and James Weldon Johnson (Rosamond’s brother). In his later years, he returned to White Sulphur Springs where he lived (with his sister Rose) until his death in 1971.
Taylor Gordon was Montana’s most important contributor to the development of African American music, and a central national and international figure in popularizing one of America’s most distinctive and original forms of folk music, the spiritual, of which “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” is perhaps the best known song. Two spirituals in particular, “Stand Still, Jordan” and “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel,” Taylor Gordon made his own in a way that few other performers could match.
The Gordon Family
Although none of the other Gordons achieved Taylor’s celebrity status, a look at their stories can provide a slice of what life was like for African American residents of Montana from the late-nineteenth-century through the middle of the twentieth century. Included in the sketch of each of the family members is a letter written by that person. A distinctive trait of the Gordon family is a well developed sense of humor, which is revealed in several of the letters. Although the Gordons were well regarded in the White Sulphur Springs community, there were also moments when they had to address the “problem of the color-line” (to use W. E. B. Du Bois’ well-known phrase), as is revealed most clearly in the letter from Rose Gordon.
John Francis and Mary Anna Goodall Gordon met in Cairo, Illinois, where they married in 1879, and where their first child Robert James Gordon was born in 1881. According to Gordon’s Born to Be, John was offered a job as a chef by a gold-mining company and moved the family to one of the company’s operations in Fort Benton, Montana. The only Gordon sister, Rose Beatrice, was born in 1883 in Barker, Montana. After some time spent moving camp to camp, the family settled in White Sulphur Springs, where John Francis Gordon, Jr., was born in 1885, followed by brothers George Washington Gordon in 1888 and Taylor in 1893. Their father died in a train accident in 1895.
Mary Anna Goodlow Gordon
Mary Anna Goodlow (1853-1924) was born a slave in Kentucky and migrated to Montana in 1882, where she lived for the rest of her life. In White Sulphur Springs, she helped make ends meet by taking in laundry and by selling baked goods to neighbors. Eventually, her reputation for cooking excellence allowed her to focus on catering for events such as weddings, dances, etc. So well regarded was her cooking that the local newspaper, the Meagher Republican, frequently mentions her contribution to various events. For example, December 30, 1904, an “Of Local Interest” item reports on a holiday ball sponsored by the athletic club and makes special note of “The excellent supper served by Mrs. Gordon, assisted by her daughter, Miss Rose. . . . It was a veritable holiday feast, dainty and replete with innumerable good things.”
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Letter: From Anna Gordon to John Francis, July 22, 1889
[Emmanuel Taylor Gordon Papers, MC 150, Box 14, Folder 3].
"Dear Husband, I received yours of the 16th. I was glad to hear from you and sorry you are not feeling well this summer. I am tolerably well. The children are well. The Baby creeps a little now and is fat and Hearty. I guess you get tired of hearing of bills but I think I should tell you what I do with the money. Up to the first of May Anderson's bill was 30.00 dollars and I gave them 30.00. [. . .] and to the Druggist 5.00 and Wash Madison, gave the 5.00.
We have no food bills standing. They are all paid.
I wish something would turn up for you on this side. [. . .] We have had cloudy spells with no rain and everyone predicts a scarcity of everything this winter. No more at present from your Affectionate Wife, Anna Gordon.”
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Letter: From Anna Gordon to John Francis, September 15, 1889
[Emmanuel Taylor Gordon Papers, MC 150, Box 14, Folder 3].
"Dear Husband, I received yours of August the 25th. It found the children well and I feeling some better. I was very glad to hear from you and I hope this will find you well. Out of the money you sent me I paid Anderson's 21.00 dollars. [. . .] and I bought shoes for the three children. I have Robert and Rose going to school.
Here the weather is very threatening which makes one think of saving something for winter such as wood and vegetables.
We will not need anything to wear after Robert has an overcoat.
The Baby crawls where ever he wants to go and is very stout.
Mr. Smith gave a Ball last week and Mr. Langham said to tell you the Band was improving very much.
Write soon from your Affectionate Wife, Anna Gordon."
Robert James Gordon
The eldest son, Robert James, was born in Cairo, Illinois, in 1881, and died in White Sulphur Springs in 1962. He spent most of his life in the Springs, was an avid hunter and especially fisherman. In his younger days, he pitched for the Springs baseball team, and he operated the Frank Phelps’ bowling alley. He was also a custodian at the First National Bank until he retired in 1951.
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Letter: From Robert to Taylor, February 17, 1953
[Emmanuel Taylor Gordon Papers, MC 150, Box 1, Folder 7]
"Dear Bro: it is very funny that the letters that I write to you have come back unclaimed. I'm trying again and if this one comes back I am going to turn it over to the PO. I and an old Frenchman had a fine fishing season. We covered quite a lot of country but found that lower Smith river was the best of all. We caught some of the biggest white fish that I ever saw out of Smith River and below Walter's I caught some 2 lb Rainbows.
"We had a three day open season on either sex. I went but did not see anything. The boys with the jeeps drive around the highest parts, and scare the game way back in the mountains. I think they should stop that type of hunting. In spite, I had more meat than ever. The rest of the boys got plenty and gave me plenty. . . . Sis and I are well at this writing, hope the same for you. It is the mildest winter since ‘34, but expect to have a bad spring."
John Francis Gordon, Jr.
John Francis Gordon, Jr. (known also as Sam), was born in 1885 in White Sulphur Springs, and he died in Seattle in 1952, where he spent most of his life, working as a cook for the Dollar Steamship Line. He moved to Seattle, probably around 1912, after several fingers froze during a particularly cold Montana winter, and he never returned. In postcards to Rose at the Hoffman House in Lewiston, Montana, around 1907, a very playful Sam addresses her as "Old Scout" and signs himself as "Harry Hotfoot." There aren't a lot of letters in the manuscript collection from Sam after that point, and most of them are from the last few years of his life and are indicative of economic hardships of the period.
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Letter: From Sam to Robert Gordon, October 21, 1947
[Emmanuel Taylor Gordon Papers, MC 150, Box 14, Folder 4]
"I have been on the shelf for the past year. I worked too hard during the war but what's the use of working so hard when you have to spend it all for Doctors? . . . Well Seattle is sure a [?] place. There is lots of colored people here but not no work. Lots of them have bought homes and it's going hard for them to make payments but I guess by the good will of God they will be able to make the grade.
"I worked for a Greek at the US Hotel but he won't pay me my overtime so I will have to take it to the labor board. I have quite a sum coming. How is George? I wrote him but he hasn't answered yet I guess maybe he is busy. What are you doing to keep yourself busy in WSS. Has the old town grown much? I sometimes long to see it, but it is so cold in the winter, so hot in summer."
George Gordon
George Washington Gordon was born in 1888 in White Sulphur Springs and died in Bozeman in 1948, where he spent most of his life working at the Elk's Lodge, initially as steward and eventually as head caterer and bartender. George is the “stout” baby referred to in his mother Anna’s letters.
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Letter: From George Gordon to Rose, July 31, 1939
[Emmanuel Taylor Gordon Papers, MC 150, Box 7, Folder 3]
"I gained so much weight again. I don't eat much. I guess I am just going to be a little old fat man. […]
[The next section of the letter responds to a letter from Rose, about something Mannie has done that has seriously annoyed Rose]
"So Mannie is a hayseed. Quite a swell dish for a famous tenor, ha ha. I am sorry, wasting a beautiful talent because of the lack of Human Knowledge. I mean real knowledge of courtesy. Oh well, he is still younger than we are.
"All the darkies here are well and doing all right for them. Give Mr. and Mrs. Sherman my best regards, and is Olga sober? And if so give her a hello for sure. If she is drunk, tell her I will come over and we will sober up together. "
Rose B. Gordon
Rose Beatrice Gordon (1883-1968) was born in Barker, Montana, and moved to White Sulphur Springs with her family around 1884 or 1885. She attended school in the Springs, and graduated from the high school there. After spending a period of time working in Lewiston in the 1900s, she returned to White Sulphur Springs to help her mother with her catering business and, beginning around 1910, with the Gordon Café (which operated under several names, including the Gordon Café and Notions Store). With her mother or alone, Rose operated several restaurants (The Waffle Shop, Rose B. Gordon Café, Kentucky Kitchen, Rose’s Café) into the 1940s. In 1944, she changed directions and began what became a thriving massage and physical therapy business. In the segregated America of the twentieth century, Rose was a black businesswoman in a mostly white town, served as an officer in both business and religious organizations, and established herself as an important community voice (through, in part, regular letter to the editor newspaper columns) who became known as the “village historian” of White Sulphur Springs. Through her letters, which were sometimes re-published in other newspapers, she commented on local and national issues, writing many tributes to local residents upon their deaths, but also writing about Civil Rights issues, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, and other issues of national consequence.
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Letter: From from Rose, undated (ca. 1920s or 1930s)
[Emmanuel Taylor Gordon Papers, MC 150, Box 9, Folder 5]
"I have just heard the latest gossip that Mrs. Winters is being asked to resign from her Lodge for keeping my company.
"Mrs. Ashford can you prove that my company is such that one would be damaged by my association?
"I know my skin is black [which] I can't help, you might have been born black would that necessarily have to corrupt your character?
"Mrs. Ashford I pity you as a mother would pity a child, and each night as you pray ask God to teach you to understand that each race is own [?] and that you are not to abuse and wound their feelings.
"Mrs. Winters came into my life in one of the greatest sorrows that comes to a human being who loves home, the loss of my Mother, and if being kind to the sad and suffering is against the rules of your order, may God send an angel to teach them the right way.
"I am sorry for Mrs. Winters. Her pleasures are limited but you know some even envy us of them. May [God] Help you and Bless you."
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Letter: From Taylor Gordon to Carl Van Vechten, May 30, 1927, from Paris, France
[James Weldon Johnson Collection, Beinecke Library, Yale University; JWJ Van Vechten Correspondence; Box G Gordon, Taylor 1917-65]
The following letter from Taylor to Carl Van Vechten narrates Taylor’s first encounter with a bidet, during his tour of France with J. Rosamond Johnson. The letter is one of several written during this trip that led Van Vechten to encourage Taylor to write a book, which became Born to Be. A shorter version of the bidet story appears in the book. The original story, as told in this letter, is not only longer but also a bit more risqué.
To the one and only Carl
Oh boy I must tell you this place is the place of the world so far. So much beautiful scenery to see and the city and people. I was sure things of interest was going to happen to me the next morning on the boat after the night you and Eddie gave me such a fine send off.
Well first of all I thought when I got to the station here from the noise outside it was French new years. And I was anxious to get outside of the gate to see what should have been a mob of half-lit-up joy makers. And to my surprise, they were only a gang of taxis, hustling for passengers. Well, that set me straight, that is I said to my self I am not going to know too much here from my imagination. I must look and listen. So after struggling with our French we landed at a nice little hotel, bags and clothes hung up. I felt that I must release my self of some of the ship’s food. I started to sit down on a funny looking kind of a stool [but] I never did care for cold enamel. So I looked for the wood to cover it but none to be found.
I said to my self. My, France sure likes their beautiful trees, for they won’t cut enough to cover this hard cold stuff. Then I noticed two little faucets on the side. I said, hmmm, funny kind of a flush, and by chance I saw a strainer in the bottom of the bowl, then only did it strike me it was not for what I wanted to use it for.
Being rushed I looked elsewhere when I saw “W. C” in white letters. I went there. That was what I wanted. While spending my time there, my mind ran fast. I was trying to think just what the thing was for. After coming out, I investigated. It’s in such a [?] place. I couldn’t see why a foot tub should be so up in the corner. I saw no cloth[es] rack, and, too, what a funny hotel that would expect people to wash out small bits of their underwear.
So the landlady came in the room to tell me about the keys. I would of ask her what it was for but she looked so innocent, if I with all my travels didn’t know, especially from America, the home of bath tubs, why be so silly and ask her.
So I thought of Chief [performing partner J. Rosamond Johnson], who was in a room just below me. I went down there to find him. He was a long time letting me in and when I did get in, he seemed to be confused, and at some difficult task, trying to take some dreadful smelling stuff out of one of those same kind of little tubs, he seemed so [worried?] I did not bother him about the question, and by the expression on his face I knew he had not used the thing for just the right thing.
So I returned to my room after seeing Josephine Baker’s show and so many pretty nude women. I feel kinda funny, it’s hard to get to sleep somehow, but the sight of the beautiful women is not what’s got my mind all upset. It’s—I wonder just what that little tub is for.
I sure will find out before I leave Paris.
Oh, maybe it’s to wash your teeth with. They have something that looks like that on the Pullman’s, but why do Frenchmen like to stoop so low?”
About the Author
Michael K. Johnson (PhD, University of Kansas) is an associate professor of English at the University of Maine-Farmington. His primary research interest is the portrayal of African Americans in the literature and cinema of the American West, which is the focus of his book, Black Masculinity and the Frontier Myth in American Literature (University of Oklahoma Press, 2002). Other publications include recent articles in African American Review, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, and Western American Literature. His article “Migration, Masculinity, and Racial Identity in Taylor Gordon’s Born to Be” was published in the anthology Moving Stories: Migration and the American West (Ed. Scott E. Casper. University of Nevada Press, 2001). His current project is a book-length biography of Harlem Renaissance–era singer Taylor Gordon and his sister Rose Gordon. For more information about that biography, see his blog: http://taylorandrosegordonproject.wordpress.com/
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