Saturday, March 12, 2011

Nelson Tillis in the Census 1870-1900

The 1870 Monroe County census (see here) listed four Black males and three Mulatto males in Fort Myers. The eldest Black males listed was Julius Cesare, a farmer, aged 40, born in North Carolina, whose personal estate was valued at $300 . He employed a Black labourer, July Walker, aged 25, born in South Carolina. Nelson Tillis was the eldest Mulatto listed in the census, and occupied his own dwelling. His age was given as 23 and his occupation as farm laborer. His birthplace was listed as Florida, suggesting that he was formerly a slave on the Willoughby Tillis plantation at Fort Meade, whose slaves were liberated by Union forces in April 1864.

Tillis was the only Black or Mulatto in Fort Myers who had a wife or child. His wife, Ellen, was listed incorrectly as Mulatto: she is normally considered to have been White based on photographic evidence and oral testimony (see here). Their eldest son, Eli, was aged 1 in this census. We may therefore conclude from this census that there is doubt as to whether Tillis was the first African-American in Fort Myers, but the census supports the claim that he was the first to raise a family.

In the 1880 Monroe County census Tillis’s wife’s Christian name is revealingly listed as “Pink?” His children are named Eli, Marion, Ida, Ann, Candaise and Lavina.

In the 1900 census (see here), Ellen Tillis was listed as Black. Their marriage year was dated to 1872, even though they had been listed as married in the 1870 census. Nelson was given an earlier year of birth (November 1842) than in any earlier census, and the gap in age between him and Ellen was larger than stated elsewhere. They were listed as having 11 children of whom 10 survived.

Eight Black children were recorded as being ‘At School’ in the 1900 Fort Myers census. These were Irene Major, Hager Robison, Doshie Tillis, Benjamin Tillis, Ernest Mitchell, Robert Mitchell, Isabelle Moody and Charlie Moody. The two Moody children were grandchildren of Nelson Tillis via his daughter Ida. There was also a Black schoolteacher in the area named Mary Price. These facts support the hypothesis that Tillis provided or found education for his and other children.

The marriages of some of Nelson Tillis’s daughters have been traced . Daisy ‘Carrie’ Tillis married John Perkins on 9 May 1895 (see here for all the Tillis daughter records), but she was listed as a widow in the 1900 census. Her sons from the marriage were Louis and Alton. Louis was conscripted into military service in 1917-18 (name registered as ‘Lewis Perkins’, see below). Daisy then married again to J.N. Cheney on 9th October, 1903 (see here). Alice Tillis married cattle herder David Smith on 17th December, 1891. Emma married Shedrack Bethel and they had daughters called Ella and Zephie. Doshie married William Blocker in 1905.

Two of Nelson Tillis’s sons and four grandsons were listed in the register of the Lee County military draft for 1917-18 (see here). The sons were Benjamin and William Tillis. The grandsons were Lewis Perkins, and Charlie, Lawrence and James Moody.