Keene - Upton - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

By Karen Zach, Around the County

Thursday, July 29, 2021 4:00 AM
The Paper of Montgomery COunty

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One of Crawfordsville’s most delightful fellows was James “Upton” Keene and he had quite a life! I can’t even imagine, so read on and see if you can!

Born a slave in (likely Fayette County) Kentucky, on April 23 in 1824, his parents were owned by Courtney Talbot, thus he was given to Courtney’s son, Nicholas (Nick) when they were both boys. Oddly, they never had a master/slave relationship. So, does that leave friends? Well, yes, but they went way beyond that! In their own words, they were “kin folks,” bosom brothers.

Simply, they grew-up side by side, their lives spent in work and play together, always together! In fact, Upton here and his boyhood pal in Kentucky died at almost the exact same second. Nick’s obit noted, “Those who knew them believe they are united in the life that follows death and the joy that follows sadness.”

At about age 40, Spring of 1863, Upton and Nick began a contract for feeding government horses. He and Nick shared the profits. Upton decided that if he was working for the government, he needed to wear blue thus he traded a Northern soldier out of his uniform coat. Upton was so proud and shined those brass buttons to perfection.

One day, however, he rode right into a rebel band who were burning railroad bridges. “One Johnny thrust his pistol into Upton’s face while another cracked him over the head, knocking him off his horse. The Rebel Captain ordered him to take off the d _ _ n Blue Coat, throw it into the creek and jump on it. With ice on the creek, Upton gave quite a show, gliding ever so lightly, then bullets from the whole band peppered at the ice, breaking it in several places. Order: “Put that coat to the bottom!” It went with Upton along with it, but he was so “hot” he noted, “The water scalded me!”

Lesson learned – he wore no more blue coats. Well, until he joined at the very end of the war and after the horse feeding contract was up, on Feb 4, 1865 the US Colored Troops Co H, 124th Inf. He began receiving a pension for that service in June 1891 and his wife Emily (Johnson, 20 years younger than he) quickly applied for the widow’s portion as soon as Upton passed away. Before the war, he married Emily Johnson, who was often noted as white or mulatto on the census records. After the conclusion of the CW, the family headed to Crawfordsville, following Nick’s sister, Emily, her husband Peter S. Kennedy and their five children. Kennedy was a prominent lawyer in the city for the rest of his life. Most of the Talbot’s had come to Crawfordsville earlier, shortly after the war began as they had such strong feelings centering with the Northern ideas. Although Nick Talbot never lived here, he visited (quite often) his parents and brothers and sisters who had come North. Each and every time, he and Upton spent hours upon hours together reminiscing about the good ‘ol days.

I still have two of the Keene children to discover but can tell you about a few of them. Sarah Belle I believe was the oldest born when Emily was just 14. She was quite a gal, born June 7, 1858 and passing a couple months shy of her 93rd birthday. She married George Patterson and they were parents of a couple of children, including a gal whom I admire immensely, Blanche Marie Patterson, an accomplished pianist and a chiropodist (she also had a brother, Clinton who worked for Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and was a pullman for several years). James Anderson Keene was just 30 when he passed away. He was a traveler, peculiarly bright and oh so popular. A high school graduate, he loved to see the world, but the world saw him into an early grave due to catching consumption. Irene was born 16 July 1867 and died in Crawfordsville at age 83, dying 25 Jan 1951 and buried at Oak Hill in an unmarked grave. Elizabeth Keene Patterson was born the next year and died at age 92, also buried at OH. Mattie (Martha Rosette) was quite an accomplished young lady, having one of the largest-ever weddings at the AME church when she married (1892) Nathan S. Davis. Upton’s son, Lee was a very sad case. He had a terrible accident while hunting with a friend at the age of 14. Going under a fence, dragging his gun along, it discharged, blowing a leg almost off (which had to be removed) and shot landing in his face. Much pain – again, an unmarked grave and no dates but I believe this was the result of his death. Lincoln (hoping you’ll believe me when I say that Upton loved his America, I sure could tell by his son’s names) was a boxer, having been one of the first of about 20 in the Colored Athletic Club (began 1892) of Crawfordsville. His brother, Frank, was also one of the boxers but not as aggressive as his brother. He was 81 at his death and is buried with most of his family at OH.

The whole family were very active in the AME Church and Missionary Society. Upton was a worker all his life and wasn’t afraid to do anything even cooking during the AME annual Opossum Supper. He was also super active in the Republican party, believing firmly that they were what pulled his people out of slavery. It was to his great delight to debate any brilliant, well-read politician with his “broad-humor and sarcasm” that made him quite an adversary. Just shy of his 74th birthday, Upton sickened and was so for seven weeks prior to his death. He was surrounded by his wife and family as this industrious, quaint and comical man’s life closed on 26 March 1898. Both well-loved and known to everyone in the city, Emily followed him almost exactly one year later at the young age of 54. She has a nice, but small stone and he has a government stone marking his place (thanks to R & S Fine for the photo). Of all the people I’ve written about, I’d love to see their picture so until then, I can just comment: Bless their hearts!

Karen Zach is the editor of Montgomery Memories, our monthly magazine all about Montgomery County. Her column, Around the County, appears each Thursday in The Paper of Montgomery County. You can reach her at Karen@thepaper24-7.com