HONORING AN ELDER
In the period of these photographs (1910-25), an African American of the age of this woman most likely was born in slavery.

CONTRIBUTED BY STAN SCHMUNK 2/23/2017: I can say with 100% confidence that this is Hannah Rosier. She is the only elderly black female in the 1910 Census. I don't know if she and her husband, John, were ever slaves. The censuses show that they were free blacks living in Washington D.C. Hannah came to Lincoln in about 1872-1873 and spent her life nursing women and delivering their babies. She passed in 1915.

ADDED BY STAN SCHMUNK 2/27/2017: Hannah's father, Daniel Bruce, was born in 1779(!). He bought his wife, Hannah Brigette, from her slave master when she was 38 yrs old. Their daughter, also named Hannah, was born in 1821. The family was free and lived in DC. In 1848 Hannah married young John Rosier, who was a barber. They started to make a family. Sometime in the late 1850s John moved his family to a small farm in Wisconsin. By the early 1860s as the Civil War began John was drafted into the Army. He fought with the 5th Wisconsin Infantry Reorganized co E. The 5th was sent to Virginia and charged with pursuing Lee and causing him to surrender, which he did at Appamatox as the 5th looked on. John returned home to his farm but passed in 1869, possibly from war injuries. Hannah was then left with her kids and a farm to manage. For whatever reasons she left the farm and again for whatever reasons she sought a new life and landed with her brood in Lincoln, NE in 1872-1873. There she nursed the black community and delivered its babies for 40+ years. She died in 1915 at the age of 94 and is buried with her kids in Lincoln's Wyuka Cemetery.

Photographs taken on black and white glass negatives by African American photographer(s) John Johnson and Earl McWilliams from 1910 to 1925 in Lincoln, Nebraska. Douglas Keister has 280 5x7 glass negatives taken by these photographers. Larger scans available on request.