Parrish, Frazier, undated, tape 1, side 1

Odessa Murdock Diggs: You'll tell me. What is your name?

Frazier Lee Parrish: Frazier Lee Parrish. Diggs: That's L-E-E? Parrish: L-E-E.

Diggs: Okay. And how old are you, Mr. Parrish? Parrish: 78. Diggs: And when was your birthday? Parrish: September the 30th. You mean the day--the year, you mean? Diggs: Yes. Parrish: 1898. Diggs: And where were you born? Parrish: I was born in Chase City, Virginia. Diggs: Chase-- Parrish: C-H-A-S-E C-I-T-Y, Virginia. Diggs: Okay. And what county you started saying-- Parrish: Mecklenburg. Diggs: Mecklenburg. Parrish: County. Diggs: Mecklenburg County.

Diggs: Okay. What was the maiden name of your mother?

Parrish: She. I think she'd be Coleman I think-- Diggs: Coleman? Parrish: I think she'd be.

Diggs: That's C-O-L-E-M-A-N? Parrish: Yeah. Diggs: Do you know anything about your mother's family?

Parrish: Well, I knew--I just barely can remember my mother's mother. My grandmother. I just barely can remember. I was just a little small tike, but I don't know her--her name, but I just merely-- Diggs: Just barely remember her. Parrish: Yeah.

Diggs: What about your mother's father? Diggs: Do you remember-- Parrish: No, I didn't. Diggs:-- your grandfather?

Parrish: No, I never saw him. Diggs: Aunts? Parrish: No. Diggs: Nothing of that.

Diggs: What do you like to be called? Black American? Colored? Or Negro?

Parrish: Well. Negro is not bad because that's what I am. Diggs: Okay, I'll say Negro then.

Diggs: Were you aware of any other language used by your family or your ancestors? Parrish: No. No. Diggs: Okay. What is your occupation?

Parrish: Well, I'm a moulder by trade.

Diggs: You're a what?

Parrish: Moudler. Diggs: Moulder. Parrish: Steel moulder.

Diggs: Moulder in a steel mill.

Parrish: Steel mill.

Diggs: What do moulders do?

Parrish: Well, they--see they have a pattern and they make castings. Steel castings. Just like big gear wheels or bearings. Steel bearings and things like that.

Diggs: I see. And that's what you did?

Parrish: That's what I did. From--from 1914--no, 1916, until, see I went back to the Brickyard. Steel would have gotten hard on my eyes. So I went back, worked at the Brickyard until 1963, wasn't it. Anna Lucile Parrish: 64. Parrish: 64, where I worked in the--in the foundry for over 40 years.

Diggs: All right. What mill was that?

Parrish: Well, now I worked in different places. Diggs: I see. Parrish: You want to name the places? Diggs: Yes. Parrish: I worked at the Keystone Driller in-- Diggs: Keystone Driller in Beaver Falls. Parrish: Yes. And I worked at the--Brighton. Anna Parrish: [??] Parrish: [??] Brighton, uh--not--it had another name too. Brighton. Now--then I worked at Dewhurst Foundry. Fred Dewhurst Foundry.

Diggs: Okay. Is that in New Brighton?

Parrish: That's in New Brighton. Diggs: Okay. Parrish: And I also worked in Elwood City, in a foundry. That foundry was called--I can't recall. I worked in the foundry--

Diggs: In Elwood City, too. And then you said something about a brickyard?

Parrish: Well, I worked for Eastvale Clay.

Diggs: I see. After you left the--

Parrish: After I left the steel mill. Yeah. Diggs: Right. Okay. Parrish: I was there 17 years.

Diggs: At the Brickyard? Parrish: Brickyard. Diggs: And that was the name of it, Eastville?

Parrish: Eastville Clay Product Company.

Diggs: What did you do there? Parrish: Huh? Diggs: What did you do? Parrish: At the Brickyard?

Parrish: I was a--what do you call it? Hacking brick. That is the brick come from the machine out on a conveyor belt. And we had four men there. They would take--the brick came out of the machine on a belt--conveyor belt. Each man had to pick up two bricks and place them on cars until we get the car full and put it in a dryer and stay in the dryer. Just like he put in this morning. It'll come out tonight down the lower end of the dryer. See, his tracks in the dryers. And these cars went in from the belt on these tracks. Right straight down, just like a tunnel. We had a tunnel here and a tunnel here. A tunnel there. You know, when one get full wide, you open your door and start putting the brick on the car. Then another dryer. Well, you make it to this morning. To this evening or tomorrow morning, they'd be down to loading in the dryer. The dryer is about as far from here. Oh, across Second Avenue.

Diggs: It's about a half a mile.

Parrish: No, not a half a mile, but Second Avenue right here.

Diggs: Oh, right here. I see. All right. That's--

Parrish: Yeah, so that's what I did at the Brickyard. Diggs: This is Sixth Avenue, you said. That's Second Avenue. Parrish: This is Sixth Avenue. That's Second Avenue. [???] season. The other avenue is a short cut up here, see.

Diggs: What is your--what religion are you? Parrish: I'm a Protestant. Baptist. Diggs: Baptist. What's the name of the church?

Parrish: Second Baptist Church in Beaver Falls.

Diggs: Second Baptist in Beaver Falls. Parrish: Yeah. Diggs: What about politics?

Parrish: I'm a Republican so far.

Diggs: And is--is voting important to you?

Parrish: Very much.

Diggs: Could you tell me why? I mean--

Parrish: Well, I think that's--that's a man's privilege to vote, you know? I think it's a help to him because if you don't vote, a lot of things that you would be able to get by not voting, you can get it by voting.

Diggs: How long have you lived in the Beaver Falls area?

Parrish: Well, my father my mother moved here in 1909. That's when first brought us from down in Virginia here in 1909. I was just a small boy. I've been in and out of here all the time, ever since.

Diggs: But that's when they came here? Parrish: In 1909. Diggs: Are you a member of any ethnic--that means Negro--fraternal organization?

Parrish: Well, so, you mean, did I? Have I ever been? Diggs: Yes. Parrish: Well, I used to belong to the Elks and Masonics. And to the Pittsburgh Consistory.

Diggs: Pittsburgh Consistory?

Parrish: Yes, as a 32nd degree. Diggs: I see. Parrish: In the Masons.

Diggs: You said used to.

Parrish: Yeah. Not affiliated with it now.

Diggs: Is there any reason?

Parrish: No. No reason whatsoever. But just--see, the Blue Lodge, that is Master Mason lodge here, that is not anymore here. Diggs: I see. Parrish: But when I was active, see, I belonged to the Blue Lodge in Beaver Falls and to the Consistory in Pittsburgh. That's the 32nd degree,see? So. Yes, but I used to be [??] to the American Woodmen for a short time, but not enough to mention, I don't think. Diggs: Oh, you were an American Woodmen, also? Parrish: Yeah.

Diggs: How many years were you a Mason?

Parrish: I can tell you that, to be frank with you, if you're once a Mason, you're always a Mason.

Diggs: Oh, I see.

Parrish: See? That's where that runs. Diggs: Okay. Parrish: So I joined the Mason Lodge when I was 21 years old. Diggs: Which order? Parrish: I belong to the Master Mason Lodge in Beaver Falls when I was 21. That's where I initiated at. Diggs: I see. Parrish: In Beaver Falls.

Diggs: Why did you become a Mason?

Parrish: Well, it's a great--it's a great organization. If a man is a Mason, a lot of things he can--he can get. And a lot of people you will meet different places. That's much like if I went someplace--even today--if I went to a strange place, I wouldn't be worried too much because some of them come to my rescue. Understand?

Diggs: It's like a brotherhood.

Parrish: That's right. I'll give a sign if anyone that ever had any connection with that same organization, they will come to me, see? So I can go anyplace. I'm not worried.

Diggs: That's good. That's a good feeling. [laughs] Now, you said on your grandparents you don't remember much about your mother's-- Parrish: No, I don't. I really don't. Diggs: mother or father. What about your father's? Parrish: Well-- Diggs: Your grandparents on your father's side?

Parrish: I don't know my father's people either. Only of his brothers, that's all. I had two uncles I remember very well.

Diggs: Would you like to tell me anything about them?

Parrish: Well, my Uncle Dan, he worked in Farrell up near Sharon. He worked in the steel mill there. Now, my Uncle Willis and Uncle Jim,they both was--lived in Philadelphia, so I wasn't around them too much. But as a rule, my father's brothers all was men that always had a job, regardless of what conditions the country seemed to be in. They always had a job. So they must have been pretty thrifty.

Diggs: Yeah, it's what it sounds like.

Parrish: See what I mean?

Diggs: Now, your uncle, that was near Farrell. Parrish: Yeah. Diggs: Do you know how long he was in Farrell?

Parrish: Well, Uncle Dan lived in Farrell about, I'd say about 12 years. And Uncle Jim, he went to Philadelphia when he was just a teenager around about 18, and he stayed there until he died.

Diggs: So your uncles were here perhaps before your father came?

Parrish: My Uncle Jim and uncle--Uncle Dan was in Pennsylvania before my father came. Diggs: I see. Parrish: Yeah. Then I had an Uncle John, too. He was here before my father came.

Diggs: Right. Do you remember where he lived?

Parrish: He lived out at Enon Valley.

Diggs: Right. Okay. Now this. The one lived in Enon Valley was your Uncle John? It was John-- Parrish: John Perry.

Diggs: Does your Uncle John--no,--he's not living now? Parrish: No, he's been dead a long time. Diggs: Did he have sons?

Parrish: He didn't have no sons. He had one girl.

Diggs: Is she living?

Parrish: She's dead.

Diggs: Oh. So then that. Okay. And he was the only one that lived in Enon Valley?

Parrish: Uncle John.

Diggs: Where were your--now your father's parents you don't remember?

Parrish: Not them. Not my father's parents. Just his brothers. Diggs: His brothers.

Diggs: Was your father from the same part?

Parrish: Same part of Virginia that I-- Diggs: That you-- Parrish: Chase City, Virginia.

Diggs: All right. Well, what about your mother? Was that her home?

Parrish: She lived in a little town called Red Oak, Virginia.

Diggs: Red Oak?

Parrish: Red Oak. Now, I just can't recall what county that was in.

Diggs: That's all right.

Parrish: But it's the distance from where I was born at about 20 miles. But it was the county line there between the kind of houses where my mother was born and raised there. See?

Diggs: And so your family moved to Beaver Falls from Chase City.

Parrish: My family moved to Enon Valley at first.

Diggs: I see. So your family moved--you lived in Enon Valley, too?

Parrish: For a short time. Then we moved to Beaver Falls.

Diggs: Okay. Parrish: See? Diggs: All right. So they moved to Enon Valley.

Parrish: Yeah, my father and my uncle worked for some people on a farm out there. Right out in Enon.

Diggs: Yeah. What were their names?

Parrish: Bradfords.

Diggs: The Bradfords. That was Reverend Bradford.

Parrish: No, not a Reverend. Diggs: Okay. Parrish: These here people, they didn't go to church. No [??]

Diggs: [laughs] Okay. So--

Parrish: The White people.

Diggs: Yes. Okay. Right. Because most people out there are White. But they were they worked for the Bradfords out--

Parrish: My people worked for the Bradfords. The Bradfords were White people. Diggs: Right. Parrish: But they had a big farm. And my father and my Uncle John worked for these people--Bradfords--when we first came and these, these Bradfords had a little outhouse, small house that we came from Virginia, Chase City, Virginia. That's where my mother and dad and children stayed until my father left the Bradford farm.

Diggs: I see. Is that now what's owned now by Mrs. Douthitt?

Parrish: Well the Douthitts, see, he married in the Bradford family.

Diggs: I see.

Parrish: So that's how he got to be in with the-- Diggs: Contact. Parrish: With the contact with the Bradfords. Diggs: I see. Parrish: But he's a--he's a--he's a Douthitt. Diggs: He's a Douthitt. Parrish: Henry Douthitt, Clifford Douthitt. Maybe you ever heard those names before.

Diggs: Yes, I met Mrs.-- Marge Douthitt. Parrish: That's right. Diggs: Now, you told me--did you tell me what year your family moved to Pittsburgh? I mean, to this area? Enon Valley. It was 1902?

Parrish: No, 1909. Diggs: 1909. Parrish: 1909. Diggs: 1909.

Diggs: Okay. And they moved to Enon Valley? Parrish: Yeah. Diggs: Okay. Now, how many places did you live before Beaver Falls? Beside Enon Valley?

Parrish: Myself? Just me?

Diggs: Your family.

Parrish: Well, we, uh. We lived in Knoxville--I'll tell ya, I lived in New Galilee for a while. After I married, I lived in New Galilee for a while. Me and my family. Diggs: I see. Parrish: But my father and mother still is on the farm out there between New Galilee and Enon Valley. See, my father bought a small farm out there between Enon Valley and New Galilee. So when they bought a little farm, I stayed there with them for a short time. When I got married, I lived in New Galilee for a short time. See, this is my second wife. Diggs: Okay. Parrish: But my first wife and I lived in New Galilee for a while. That's where my--my oldest child was born in New Galilee.

Diggs: New Galilee. And that's in Pennsylvania? Parrish: Oh, yes.

Parrish: That's in Lawrence. It's in Beaver County. But Enon Valley is in Lawrence County.

Diggs: Okay. And when did you move to Beaver Falls?

Parrish: Well, I came to Beaver Falls in 19--must have been around about 1915, 16.

Diggs: When you moved to Beaver Falls, where did you move?

Parrish: When I moved to Beaver Falls, my first place was on 13th Street and it was between Fourth and Fifth Avenue.

Diggs: What was that area like?

Parrish: It was very good.

Diggs: Was it mostly people there from the South?

Parrish: No, no, I only--I was the only Colored in that section. 13th Street in those days. My family was the only Colored down there.

Diggs: And then what was it like when you moved here? Did you move here-- Parrish: No, I. Diggs: --after 13th?

Parrish: After I. After my leaving over there, we moved. I moved my family on Ninth Avenue and 15th Street. It was up near the baseball park. Diggs: I see. Parrish: We stayed there for quite some time. And after that, I moved up to 19th Street and Eighth Avenue.

Diggs: You really lived around Beaver Falls? Parrish: Yeah. Yeah. Diggs: What was Beaver Falls like then?

Diggs: There's many Colored people?

Parrish: Quite a few Colored people. Yeah.

Diggs: Is there much difference in it now?

Parrish: Well, yes, it is. In the early days when Colored was--is around White people, anything that White people could do for you, it seemed like the more willing to do for you then they are today. Because I remember very well when we first came here, we were small and the man we--the Bradfords--the people that we were working for--my father was working for--thye just had lots of cattle, you know. And they gave my father two cows. So that--make sure we get all the milk we wanted. This gave us--made us [unintelligible]. And also harvesting time, we never had to buy no potatoes or cabbage or green beans, tomatoes, nothing like that. We had our own garden. They made it--gave us a garden plot of ground. We raised our own vegetables, see. And we lived good, but it wasn't very much money in it. Money was scarce. But first, food like that. We had oodles of food.

Diggs: You didn't have any problem?

Diggs: Well, do you think that Enon Valley is the same? Perhaps now?

Parrish: Well, somewhat. But it's much practically the same.

Diggs: Right. It's just Beaver Falls--

Parrish: The people that live out there, they're doing good. But. You didn't have no problem with food. Of course. Of course, the wages was cheap then, you know, because money was scarce but for living good in a healthy neighborhood. And the conditions were-- you couldn't beat it.

Diggs: Right. Well, your father, was he a farmer?

Parrish: Well, my father used to run a sawmill in Virginia. Before he left Virginia. He had a sawmill. And after he came here, he started turning out to be a farmer.

Diggs: He ran a sawmill? Parrish: Oh, yeah.

Parrish: Yes, he had a sawmill. I remember it very well because we had--he had a sawmill down in North Carolina when he was in the sawmill biz. Sometimes we children wouldn't see our father for 3 or 4 weeks because it was kind of unconvenient to leave the mill down there and then come clear back into Virginia. So sometimes he, after he had a big shipment of logs and timber, but then after he got his money, he'd come home for, you know, for a short time. Diggs: He was smart. Parrish: But sometimes he'd be three weeks for return to see--yeah, see our father.

Diggs: What about your mother? Did she do any outside work?

Parrish: No. My mother was a was a very delicate woman, sickly. And she didn't do anything. She did what she could because sometimes she did too much. That's why I think she didn't stay well, because she had a big garden in Virginia. And after you got up here, she wanted a big garden and she'd be out there in the morning hoeing the potatoes and cabbage and tomatoes and stuff, when she really wasn't able to do it. Diggs: It was too much? Parrish: Yeah.

Diggs: How many brothers and sisters did you have?

Parrish: I didn't. I had one sister, but she died when she was an infant. And I had two other brothers. That was just the three of us, three boys and one girl, and she died when she was an infant.

Diggs: Uh, in your family--in your immediate family now, before you're married, did you have other relatives live with you or boarders or anything? Do you remember growing up with that kind of--

Parrish: No. My father had a cousin came here and worked on the farm with us one summer and I forget his name. I knew his first name, but he wasn't a Parrish.

Diggs: I see. But he was a cousin.

Parrish: He was a cousin. He worked for a short time.

Diggs: But she never had boarders? Parrish: No. Diggs: Okay. How many children do you have?

Parrish: I have a boy and a girl.

Diggs: And how old are they?

Parrish: Let's see. Clarence, he's born in 1921. That would make him.

Diggs: Okay. That's close enough. And your daughter?

Parrish: My daughter is 48, ain't it Anna?

Anna Parrish: 50 something maybe

Parrish: Is she 50 now?

Anna Parrish: 48 you say? I wouldn't know.

Parrish: I say she's 48.

Diggs: Oh. What year was she born? Do you remember what year.

Parrish: Clarence was born in '21. And I just don't know exactly [laughs]

Diggs: Was she born before him or after him?

Diggs: Okay. Did you ever have any, you know, special training or work? Special education or special training?

Parrish: Well, I went to high school. Diggs: Okay. Parrish: I went to Darlington High School.

Diggs: You went to Darlington High School. Because you were out there in Enon Valley. Parrish: Yeah. Diggs: Okay. But you didn't have any special training? Like you worked in a foundry, you didn't have to have special training for that?

Parrish: Oh yes, you had to learn your trade in the foundry.

Diggs: Okay? And for in the Brickyard was it a special thing?

Parrish: Wasn't there--didn't have to run no trade but foundry, you had to run. You had to serve so many years of apprenticeship before you could get.

Diggs: So you did that? Parrish: I did that. Diggs: At which place?

Parrish: I did that in the three different foundries that I told you I worked at. I started at Keystone Driller.

Diggs: At Keystone Driller.

Parrish: Yeah [unintelligible].

Diggs: And you worked as an apprentice? Parrish: Yeah. Diggs: And this was--you were trained. Parrish: Yeah. Diggs: So which was your first job? How old were you when you got your first job and what was your first job?

Parrish: Well, my first job was on the farm.

Diggs: Okay. [laughs] About how old were you then when you started working?

Parrish: Oh, you had your duck? [laughter] Well, let's see. I've been working ever since I was, I'll say, doing the work. I mean, ever since I was ten years old.

Diggs: Ten years old?

Parrish: That's right. I went to school, but we had work to do before we went to school and we got back from school, it still working. Diggs: You still worked? Parrish: Yeah.

Diggs: When was the first income when you started to support somebody with it? First [??????] you got an income.

Parrish: Well. Let's see. What little bit we did do on the outside working for different farmers, we brought that money home, I did, and gave it to my mother and she thought maybe I need a quarter or something, she gave me and she kept the rest. Diggs: Right. Parrish: But that wasn't very much.

Diggs: Yeah, but this was when you were ten? Parrish: Yeah. Diggs: Started from ten?

Parrish: Started from ten. You worked--worked from. Picked potatoes and pull weeds and cut corn. At that time, if you got $0.50 a day, you had big money. That's right. Because I knew I worked for $0.50 a day on many, many a day from time you can see in the morning until you couldn't see at night, you got $0.50. But the people would give you your dinner and your supper.

Diggs: What are some of the jobs you remember best? Both good and bad.

Parrish: Well, the best job that I really loved and I hated--I couldn't stand in that particular place [??], but on account of my eye that was in the foundry. See and I went to the foundry, I went to the foundry as a laborer, and I said, see those fellows making castings? And they pour this hot metal in these molds. And when they got cold enough, they would lift the top off these molds. And there's your casting that they made, you know, you make it in the sand and then you pour hot metal in there. They form in that--that pattern you had in that sand when you pour that hot metal, that's the kind of casting would come out. And that was interesting to me. So I said to the boss one day I was just a laborer then. I said--his name is Hayes--I said, Mr. Hayes. I said, I like this kind of work. And I said, and I wish I'm at the age now. I say I could--can do most any kind of labor work, you know, heavy or anything. He looked at me, he said, Frazier, he said, you've got a good idea. He said, but I want to tell you something. He says there's no Colored moulders now.

Parrish: I said, well, first everything that come, you know, I said, all I want you to do is give me a chance. Well, he said, I'll study it over. So one day he come past me, I was working, helping these White fellows make these molds. Doing you know, mostly the hard work for these White people because they, they had the knowledge and I had the labor. I had to do the labor. So he come to me, he said, when you get through, come up to the office. So one evening I came up to the office. He said, You know what you approached me with here about six months ago? I said, yeah. He said, You think you'd like to be one of those like them other guys? I said, I don't see why not. I said, all I want is the chance. He said, But I'll tell you something. If I give you the chance, I'm going to tell you this. He said, two strikes on you before you start, because I was Black, see. He said now you think you can make good of that one strike that's against you and still make the grades, he said, I'll give you a chance. I said, Well, I'll take a chance on it. I said, I don't think I'll strike out either.

Diggs: That was fair enough. [laughs]

Parrish: So he gave me the chance and I made good. Now, some of the fellows disliked it, you know, because I was Colored.

Diggs: About what year was that now?

Parrish: Oh, that was 1900--1915. So I had one fella, White fella. He was a big help to me. He said he liked me because I was his helper before this man gave me this chance, you see. He said, I'm going to stick with you. Well, I said, I appreciate that. He did. When I had served my full years of apprenticeship and this boss that gave me this opportunity, he said, Well, now Frazier, I'm going to turn you loose.

Diggs: All right so.

Parrish: I'll be all right now. Diggs: That's okay. Parrish: But as I said, I had it rough. A lot of them was against me and a lot of them would do things that they thought the boss would get asked me about. You know, just like I had--the boss would give me a pattern and they would tell me the wrong way a lot of times I knew it was wrong because I had learned the trade just like they did. And I said, No, I won't do it that or I'll do it my way. And my casting come out. Sometime my casting is better than the one that that said that they'd been working their trade so long.

Diggs: Right. That's what they were afraid of.

Parrish: That's what this trader said, that I would be better than what they were. In fact, I've become to be one of the best moulders they had in that foundry.

Diggs: See, that's what happened. See, what you did was trailblaze the way for people today. That's what happened. So now the reasons then that you came to Beaver Falls [doorbell rings] is because your parents were here.

Parrish: My parents was here.

Diggs: Yeah. Right. Okay. Do you have any idea why they came out here?

Parrish: Well, my Uncle John was here before my father came, and he kept writing down to Virginia, where my father was--Chase City, Virginia and said that the--the environment up here would be better and you could get jobs and you could be your own boss after you got up here, you know, down there--and my father would worked for these other people until he got his own, you know?

Diggs: Start here.

Parrish: Yes. Absolutely. Sawmill. So he's worked with White people at sawmill, but he got it knowing the sawmill business that he got himself a sawmill, a small sawmill of his own. And White people didn't like that. And a lot of times when my father could have sold a lot of his timber, these White people, you know, would cut in.

Diggs: I see. I see.

Parrish: So he said, Well, it's a lot of timber up here. He said, I have to get up here awhile and get a start--you start up one yourself. My--my father, he got up here and liked the farming, so he just went farming.

Diggs: They switched careers. That's marvelous.

Parrish: Excuse me, because I just got filled up because--

Diggs: Yeah, I can understand. That's honest emotion.

Diggs: Um, so now in the area there around Enon Valley that you grew up--