Lazarus Tate, Company G

“[The pensioner’s] first payment should have been $80 after deducting the legal fee, but through some hocus-pocus at the bank, W.R. Drury* managed to have the pensioner paid but $60, and then exacted an additional fee of $10. This disreputable transaction took place at Union Savings Bank, and is only one of many.” — Letter from Special Examiner to Hon. Wm. Lochren, Commissioner of Pensions, Washington, DC, 25 May 1893

 

Invalid — 718, 183 / 555,866
Widow — 1,072,276 / 820,697, Harriet Tate

 

Deposition, Mark Sanford, 12 May 1893
51 years old; occupation, laborer; residence and post-office address, 26 Avon St., Norfolk, Va.
“[Tate] never called me to be a witness. I have known him 15 or 16 years… In writing up my pension papers my name is sometimes given as Mark Sanford. My correct name is Mark Sanders.”

 

Deposition, Lazarus Tate, 13 May 1893
above 60 years old; occupation, laborer; residence and post-office address, 31 Fox Lane, Norfolk, Virginia
“I first applied under the old law in 1889”

 

Deposition, Willis Creekmore, 18 May 1893
62 years old; occupation, laborer; residence and post-office address, 62 Cottage Road, Norfolk, Va.
“In the Army my name was spelt [sic] Quickmore. … I am now pensioned as Willis Quickmore…. [Lazarus Taite] was in the same company. He is now living in Norfolk…. I was once with him before Mr. W.R. Drury who is now said to be in prison. It was three or four years ago…. I know in Texas we were all sick. I don’t remember [Taite’s] individual case…. I do know that he has been broken up with rheumatism for seven or eight years, but I do not recollect further back.  I do remember that he was often left behind with the waggoners [sic] , but I don’t remember now whether it was because he was sick or what.”

 

Letter from Special Examiner to Hon. Wm. Lochren, Commissioner of Pensions, Washington, DC, 25 May 1893
“I find that the pensioner’s first knowledge of this claim was after its allowance. His first payment should have been $80 after deducting the legal fee, but through some hocus-pocus at the bank, W.R. Drury managed to have the pensioner paid but $60, and then exacted an additional fee of $10. This disreputable transaction took place at Union Savings Bank, and is only one of many.”

 

Questionnaire (Form 3-173), Lazarus Tate, 30 October 1897
“[Marriages] Lived with Harriet Tate from about 1867 … lived with Comfort Tate (Comfort Richardson) before war. She married while I was in the army.
“[Living children] Eight or nine by Harriet Tate. Mary Lou, Emma Tate, John Tate, Roland Tate, Augustus Tate, Leroy Tate, Hattie Tate, Lillie Tate (several dead, not named). Walter Tate, Morris Tate, Rosa Tate — these three by Comfort Richardson. Don’t know dates of birth of any.”

 

Questionnaire (Form 3-340), Lazarus Taite, 14 March 1898
[Wife’s name] Harriet Taite; Harriet Dozier
[Living children] Three by first wife, all over 40. Seven by second wife.
Emma, John, Roland, Augustus, Leroy all over 16.
Hattie, 13 in April 1897.
Lillie, five years, August 4, 1897.

 

 A Transcript From the Record of Deaths in the City of Norfolk, Health Department, City of Norfolk, Virginia, Lazarus Tate, 10 March 1904 
“Date of Death, March 10, 1904 … Age of Deceased, 74 years … Birthplace, Sussex County … Cause of Death, Pneumonia … Place of Death, Norfolk Co., Va. … Place of Burial, West Point Cemetery … Undertaker, J.E. Edwards”

 

General Affidavit, Maria Hawkins, 18 April 1904
55 years old; residence, Norfolk, Va. … “That she is a daughter of Lazarus Taite by his first wife”

 

Form 3-289c (for typewriter), Harriet Taite, 27 November 1916
about 65 years old; occupation, washing and ironing; post-office box, 821 Roswell Ave., Norfolk, Va.
“I was married to Lazarus Taite here in Norfolk, Va., by Rev. David King, under the name of Harriet Dozier, that was my maiden name. I do not know the date of my marriage. Mr. Hubard** got the date from the courthouse. I have no marriage certificate. I commenced to live with him as his wife about 2 years after the war.  I met him the first week he came out of the army. I was with his sister on the street in Suffolk, Va., her name was Charlotte Parker, now dead. I was not grown then, I reckon I was about 14 years old. When I first commenced to live with him I was only about 16 years old. We commenced to live together in Suffolk, lived there some 10 or 12 years, then we moved to Norfolk. I could not tell how many years we had lived here when we were married. I had children by him before we were married.

“I think that I was born in Camden Co., N.C. or Sandy Hook. I don’t know the date of my birth, or month. I don’t know my age. My father was Major Dozier and my mother was Luvinia Dozier, Williams was her first name.  When I was a child I lived in Camden Co., do not know the name of the place. My father belonged to the Doziers and my mother to the Williams, I don’t know which Doziers. My mother belonged to a widow Suky Williams. When I was just a small girl I was sent to near Suffolk, about 6 miles from Suffolk, to James Decormice. I stayed there until about a year or so after the war, then I went to Suffolk and soon after that met Lazarus Taite. I was stopping with his sister and working for white people as a nurse girl when I met him. I was called Harriet Dozier until I commenced to live with Taite and I have been called Harriet Taite ever since.

“[He] told me that his home was in Sussex Co., Va., do not know what part, he belonged to people named Blow. I don’t think that he ever went back there after his discharge from the army.

“He was never married before he married me except under the old-fashioned law they had before the war.  He had a wife named Comfort in slavery times, he told me, I never saw. He never lived with her after the war, she was married while he was away, right in his mother’s house he told me, at the place where he came from, to a man named Paul Williams. I think that she has been dead 3 or 4 years, died in Baltimore, Md., so her Maria Hawkins, and daughter-in-law Eliza Taite told me Maria lives in Norfolk.

“My husband has one sister Malinda Guy living here, and two brothers Joe and Zack Taite who I think live in Suffolk. Maria is his daughter by his first wife, Comfort.

“Comfort was the only wife he ever had before he had me. I never heard that he had any other woman but we two.

“I never left the soldier, he left me once was 7 or 8 months then come back and lived with me till he died, near this city, on the old Ocean View RR, now in this city, Maltby Ave. I was with him when he died. I did not leave him, he left me. We lived on Fox Lane, in the city, then on Cumberland Street, and about 2 years before he died we moved to Maltby Ave., in the county, where he died…. He died about 12 years ago, in March, will be 13 in March. I moved away from Maltby Ave. that fall, on Pulasky street, near Highland Ave., I staid there the winter out, then I moved to Highland just around the corner, that fall a [sic] back to Pulaski Street, just across the street where I had been, was there about 4 years. I next moved to St. Paul Street, near Nicholson, was there 3 years I know, then I moved out on Church beyond Goff, was there part of the winter. I then moved with my son, Augustus Taite to Portsmouth, in 2 or 3 months he died then I went back to Norolk [sic], on this avenue, Roswell Ave., have lived here ever since….

“I have lived in the house with no one but my children, no lodgers sometimes, young women. I have a son living with me now, Roland Tate. My daughter Hattie Simmons, lived with me till about two weeks ago, most of the time.

“Q.  Who have known you well since your husband’s death:
A.    Nannie Reed, India Griffin and neighbors, one of them is Fannie Reed, have known me well and visit me … I have but one brother and one sister, they live near Oriental, N.C. My brother, Frank Dozier, lives across the river from Oriental and my sister Jane Dozier, lives this side of Oriental. I forgot to tell you an old man James Warren lives in the house upstairs, has been in the same house with me 8 or 9 years. He does not live with his wife. …. I got my age from my brother Frank. I don’t know how he got my age unless he got it from older heads, he is younger than I am, and my sister Jane is also younger. I got a letter from him and took it to Mr. Hubard. I think my brother said that I am 65. I don’t know really how old I am. I don’t know of any one who who knows of his own knowledge how old I am. I don’t know of no one who knows my age, to swear they know it. I have not lived near my brother or sister since they were children.

“Q. Who has known you since the time you became of marriageable age?
A.    There is no one around here that I know of except my husband’s sister Malinda Guy. I do not know if any of the people I worked for in Suffolk are living. I worked for different people. I worked for a family named Laster the time he was waiting on me, but I don’t know anything about them now, don’t know if they are living or not. I cannot name any colored people in Suffolk who knew me but his brothers Joe. and Zack Taite.

“I have made out my papers before Mr. Hubard …. I had two witnesses, Rev. Price and Epsie Minkley.”

 

Form 3-289c (for typewriter), Willie May McNeal, 27 November 1916
19 years; wife of Philip McNeal, a seaman; post-office address, 530 Cumberland St., Norfolk, Va.
“I have known Harriet Taite my whole life…. I remember her husband Lazarus Taite, but I was very small when he died. I remember when he died….”

 

Form 3-289c (for typewriter), Bessie Tate, 8 December 1916
32 years old; wife of Leroy Tate, a chauffeur; post-office address, 860 Johnson Ave., Norfolk, Va.
“I have known Harriet Taite since I was a little girl …. I married her son Dec 27, 1905 … No, I have never lived in same house as claimant, but have visited her, on St. Paul St., Pulaski St., and Roswell Ave., every week nearly, every few weeks, since I have married her son …. The spelling of the name is Tate not Taite.”

 

Form 3-289c (for typewriter), Malinda Guy, 28 November 1916
75 years old; widow of John Guy; no occupation; post-office address, 315 E. Bute St., Norfolk, Va. “I am a pensioner …The soldier Lazarus Taite was my own brother. We belonged to old Col. Geo. Blow, in Sussex Co., Va. near a place called Littletown. …. My brother Lazarus left there when the war first started, he and my father John Taite….. I think that my father was a soldier but I am not sure. My father sent for us soon after the surrender and we came to Norfolk, and lived on Avon Street. …. He had but two wives. His first wife was Comfort Richardson. I grew up with her … [I first met Harriet in Suffolk] … Mrs. Norfleet had her working for her … Harriet was then a little girl … about 12 or 13 years old … She left my house when she was almost grown, went to live with Mrs. Sumler, and after she left my house she commenced living with my brother Lazarus … The reason my brother left her he told me, was on account of Walter Price, he was working in the navy yard, and Price would be at his house nearly all the time, from the time he was gone … I used to see him there any time … my brother thought that two of her children were not his, but Price’s children …”

 

Form 3-289c (for typewriter), Maria Hawkins, 29 November 1916
“I don’t know my age. I think I was born ‘a little bit before the war’; wife of George Hawkins; post-office address, 631 Fox Lane, Norfolk, Va.
“My father was Lazarus Taite and my mother was Comfort Taite, later Comfort Williams. She died in Berryville, Va. a year ago this month …. Her last husband was Paul Williams. He died in Berryville too …. I was brought to Norfolk in 1865 by my grandmother in 1865, my father was not there then; he moved there in 1866 … My father was Harriet’s first husband …. Price was at my father’s house a good deal when they lived in this lane of the time. He worked with my father and they seemed to be very friendly, never had any words that I heard of.  I have but one whole sister, no brother, my sister is living in Baltimore, her name is Rosa Williams, she was a baby when my father left my mother and she lived with my mother till she was married, so far as I know.”

 

Form 3-289c (for typewriter), Nannie Redd, 11 December 1916
about 50 years old; wife of Junius Redd; occupation, laborer; post-office address, c/o Clarence Merrell, Princess Anne Rd., Norfolk, Va.
“I have visited her most anytime when I had time, she has visited me. … She is a nice, clean, decent woman. She belongs to a church, but not to my church. She has had a roomer named Warren for some time, also has women roomers, and she works all the time when able, takes washing in at home.”

 

Form 3-289c (for typewriter), Nancy E. Hare, 24 December 1916
“I don’t know my age. I guess I am over 60. … [I don’t know how long I’ve know Harriet] but it was before I moved to Norfolk and I have been here 33 years …. I never went to their home and she has never been to my home. …”

 

Form 3-289c (for typewriter), Epsey Meckley, 13 January 1917
69 years old; occupation, washing & iron; post-office address, 759 Johnson Ave., Norfolk, Va.
“I am pensioned as the widow of Solomon Meckley. I have known Harriet Taite for over 25 years. I got acquainted with her when she joined my church. I never knew her husband…. We have a committee of 14 women in the church to which I belong. It is the duty of that committee to look after the women of the church, to inquire into any charges brought against them, and no charges have been brought before that committee against Harriet Taite. I have never been to her home about anything. Her standing is good in church. Rev. Richard Bolding [sic] is pastor.”

 

Form 3-289c (for typewriter), Fannie Reid,16 January 1917
42 years old; wife of Henry Reid; occupation, laborer on a wharf; post-office address, 1019 Carrollton St., Norfolk, Va.
“I have known the claimant Harriet Taite for 12 years, I did not know her husband, when she moved next door to me on Moseley Street she said that he had not been dead long. … Moseley Street is now called Highland Ave.”

 

Form 3-289c (for typewriter), Leroy Tate, 16 January 1917
33 years old; chauffeur; post-office address, 860 Johnson Ave., Norfolk, Va.
“The claimant Harriet Taite is my mother. The correct spelling is Tate not Taite. My father was Lazarus Taite. I lived in the same house with my mother till I was married in 1905 but I have been at her home quite often since that time, go by to see how she is, and to see if there is anything I can do … I judge that she is about 65, from the best information I have or can get is my oldest brother, John Tate would be between 40 and 50 years if living.”

 

Form 3-289c (for typewriter), James Warren, 16 January 1917
“I do not know my age. I put it at 40. I guess I was about 10 years when the civil war ended. I was born in slavery times.”; post-office address, 821 Roswell Ave., Norfolk, Va.; occupation, laborer
“I first knew Harriet Taite about 10 or 11 years. I rented a room from her when she lived on Moseley Street, and I have been with her every since, except a month or two when she was in Portsmouth with one of her sons. I did not rent the whole room, her son Roy Taite, slept with me, we worked on the dock together.”

 

Form 3-289c (for typewriter), Walter A. Price, 18 January 1917
50 years old; occupation, minister of the gospel; post-office address, 1242 Calvert Street, Norfolk, Va.
“I first knew Lazarus Taite the second night he came to Norfolk from Suffolk, that was about 33 years ago. I was then a stevedore. with my father, now dead, and he came to work under me, I hired him. …. I went with him to get the license and saw Rev. David King marry them. He told me that he had a wife in slavery times, but I know nothing about her, had two children by her, Walter and Maria…

“We were partners in store business, on Fox Lane, he could not read or write … We had no falling out. I was friendly with him till he died ….
“I knew claimant’s father, Major Dozier, he died on Fox Lane. I shrouded him. I do not know claimant’s age. I think that she is between 60 and 65, not over 65. Harriet had 4 children when I first knew her, had some born here, in Norfolk, do not know how many.”

 

Form 3-289c (for typewriter), India Griffin,18 January 1917
53 years old; widow of Geo. W. Griffin; occupation, housework and washing; post-office address, 830 St. Paul St., Norfolk, Va.
“I first knew Harriet Taite when she moved across the street from me on this street, lived there about 3 years, then moved to where she is now lives, except a short time she was in Portsmouth. I could not tell the year I first met her, some 7 or 8 years ago…. I never saw anything wrong of her, she always acted as a lady, I have been in her house at different times.”

 

Letter from United States Post Office, Norfolk, Virginia to Commissioner of Pensions, Finance Division, Washington, DC, 20 October 1925
“My Dear Sir — This office has ascertained that Harriet Taite, 1530 Church Street, died on September 19, 1925. Respectfully yours, C.L. Wright, Postmaster.”

 

 

*Several pension applicants reported that W.R. Drury, an attorney in Norfolk, Virginia, engaged in unethical and/or illegal practice.
Suggestion: Enter Drury in the search box to identify those pension applicants.

**Hubard and Hubard was a law firm in Norfolk, Virginia. It handled a number of pension applications for this regiment’s veterans and beneficiaries. Suggestion: Enter Hubard in the search box to identify pension applicants who engaged an attorney from this firm — Leslie