The research for my book "The Talented Tenth" gave me the wonderful opportunity to locate descendants of our Jewels. As a trained and certified genealogist, I spent countless hours at the National Archives both in DC and Atlanta constucting family trees for our founders. I had noticed that since I became a member of the fraternity and have attended every convention since 1983, the fraternity to my knowledge had ever mentioned descendants or honored them at any of the conventions. I realize that we did not even have files on the Jewels. My curiosity was piqued. I wondered if there were family members of the beloved seven. There had to be. In my research I discovered that four of the Jewels(Callis, Chapman, Murray and Olge) had daughters,  Jones(daughter and son) and Tandy(a son). 

After several years inquiring and sleuthing in an attempt of tracking down descendants, I found the granddaughter of  Robert Harold Ogle, following a conversation with a brother in Baltimore who told me that she was teaching at the University of the District of Columbia, where he was attending. He recalled that  one day while on campus, he wore an Alpha t-shirt and ran into Dr. Melanie Brown. She remarked to him, "My grandfather was a founder of that organization. His name was Bob Ogle."  In the transmission of the message, the good brother gave me her name and in my tranposition of my memory, I copied down the wrong name. I ran into him again a year or so later and he gave me her name but couldn't remember the department that she worked in. That was  some four or five years ago. 

Last year, during my research for the book, I had almost given up hopes of locating the granddaughter until one afternoon, I decided to call UDC again and see if there was a name who was similar to what I had on the faculty directory.  I located Melanie Brown in the directory, called her, left a message and was unsure of whether or not it was the correct person.  A few nights, while sitting in my office at home the phone rang and it was Melanie. I was so thrilled.  During our conversation, she said " i don't really know much. You need to talk to my mother. She would be delighted to talk to you." I said, "Mother?" "Yes, my mother is 91 years old and loves to talk but she is a night owl call her after 10 p.m." Well I called her that evening and we talked for hours. I could not put the phone down nor could she stop talking. It was as if we were old friends. 

A few months later, I was on a plane to meet this "Daughter of a Jewel"  in Washington, D.C.  On a cold and dreary Sunday afternoon, I met her daughter at her apartment.  I wore a beautiful  fraternity sweater that belonged to an older chapter brother initiated in Iota in 1968, some 14 years before me. (Years ago, the Chicago Knitting Mills did all of the greek sweaters.)  Underneath  the sweater,  I had on  a black turtleneck. I felt that if I could not be and look like an Alpha on today, where I was about to meet a Jewel's daughter, then when could I be?  After driving around in those DC streets, where northeast changes to southeast in a matter of seconds,  I finally located the brownstone.  Dr. Melanie Brown greeted me with a warm hug and invited me into her beautiful home situated in the shadow of the  U.S. Capitol. As I walked down the hall, there were family pictures and in the center was a picture of our Jewel, Robert Ogle. It was one that I had seen on the cover of the Sphinx Issue commemorating his death in 1936. 

Dr. Brown (who prefers to be called Melanie) said to me "You need pictures for your book. Let's take these off the wall and we will have copies made of them. Now you choose what you want."  We ended taking most of the pictures of the Ogle family to be copied including Ogle's first and second wife, two daughters, grandsons, Olge's grandmother and aunt. 

Next stop was to finally meet Jewel Ogle's daughter. That trip to DC was filled with bad weather. As we drove through Rock Creek park, Melanie shared so many things with me. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and had been former Basileus for the DC Graduate chapter. A divorced mother of one daughter, a fashion designer, Melanie had a beautiful and warm personality. 

I had a bad cold and runny nose that would not seem to stop. I said to my self , here I am with the opportunity of a life time to meet a Jewel's daughter and I am dripping all over the place. I stopped and got some sinus tablets before we arrived to Helen Ogle Atkins apartment. 

In a beautiful apartment building for Senior Citizens, we rode the elevator to her floor, knocked on the door and went in. She was in the bedroom(I was told trying to get all "dolled up" for me) according to her daughter. She walked out slowly, elegantly and majestically all 4ft 10 of her in a light blue dress with a red sweater own. She was beautiful. Soft gray hair pulled back, her skin was smooth and wrinkled free. I could not believe that she was 91 years old and that I was meeting one of our founder's daughters.  She extended her arms for me and planted a kiss on my cheek. We talked, she pulled out pictures. I showed her a picture of a house that is in the history book. It is the picture in Chapter Three that is captioned" A Frequent Meeting Place for Alpha Chapter, 213 South Plain Street, Ithaca. Well it was more than just a meeting place, it was her birthplace, the home of her mother and grandparents. 

Helen Ogle Atkins remarked that her father would be proud to know that Alpha had grown to so many members from its initial seven. She fondly recalled "Nat" Murray, George Kelley and her godfather Henry Callis.   Kelley was her sister's godfather. She painted a vivid picture of Ithaca for me and shared the Ogle's story with me again wiht new details coming flowing. I sat speechless, enthralled, envisioning Ithaca in 1905, when her father arrived from Washington. 

Brief unedited excerpt from the book: 

"Robert Harold Ogle was born on April 3, 1886 in Washington, DC to Jeremiah"Jerry"  and  Mary Ellen Burris Ogle. Very little is known about Jerry Ogle except that by 1920 he was deceased. According to the 1900 Census records show that he was born in Georgia around 1843. By 1900, he and his wife Mary were living at 2524 P Street in Washington, DC . How and why he ended up in Washington, D.C. is not known.  Mary Burris Ogle, was one of seven girls born in Fredericksburg, Virginia on a plantation. The other sisters were Nannie, Josephine, Betty, Fanny, Annie and Mollie. Their grandmother Nanny Price had also been a slave. 

Helen described her Granny Ogle as  having a "very Christian attitude, quiet, patient and accepting."  It was her love that nurtured Robert and his younger siblings including  Walter Jerry, Elizabeth Garfield(but called Nettie), Clifton(who died when at the age of 9 in 1899) and a baby girl Gertrude who died in  infancy. The Ogles later moved to the northwest section of  Washington on 15th Street. 

"Bob" Ogle  attended the public schools in Washington. From 1901-1905, he was a student at the M Street School.  The school was considered one of the finest preparatory schools for African-Americans in the city. Most of the students were children of working class parents.   Admission to the school required the successful completion of grammar school.  With only 530 seats, it was very competitive. The students had to pay for books and supplies. Ogle was enrolled in a four  year liberal arts program and a two year business education program.  Students were required to take English, history, algebra, Latin, physics or chemistry. Electives included French, German, Spanish, Greek, history, and other advanced courses including geometry and political economy. Ogle arrived at the end of Robert Terrell's tenure as principal and the beginning of  Anna Julia Cooper's as principal.  M Street school had a cadet corps and performed often on the White House lawn. In 1905, Booker T. Washington visited M Street.  After graduation in 1905, Robert Harold Ogle entered Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. 

Ogle arrived in Ithaca and found a place to stay at the residence at the home of Annie and Archie Singleton at 411 East State Street. Ithaca was a small, neat town of homes and cobblestone streets. Most of the African-Americans in the city knew each other and often socialize. Ogle learned that two years prior, there had been a terrible epidemic of Typhoid fever in the small town which had been passed through the city's water supply. Over 500 persons contracted it and 40 persons died from the fever...... 

Sometime in the fall of 1905, Ogle met a  young high school senior named Helen  Freeman Moore. Helen resided with her mother Irene and other family members in their home at 217 South Plain Street. It is interesting to note that the home is pictured in Wesley's history book but only described as "a frequent meeting for Alpha Chapter." The house belonged to Henry Moore, Helen's grandfather and one of the most popular African-American men in Ithaca.... 

The Moore's hosted numerous affairs in their home including a reception for Florence Sprague, granddaughter of Frederick Douglas, which was one of the social events of the season. In the fall of 1905, they opened their home to the new students at Cornell including a young, dashing Robert Harold Ogle, who was swept off his feet when he met Helen Moore. 

Helen was described as being "incredibly beautiful".  She was a student at Ithaca High School majoring in Business. The two were spurned by the power of their love for each other and ran off to be married in March of 1906. On December 14, ten days following the decision to become a fraternity, Robert and Helen gave birth to their first daughter Mary Ellen, named for Ogle's mother.  A second daughter Helen Irene who was born on February 14, 1908. There must have been some complications following the birth of the second child.  Helen Ogle became very ill and was unable to care for her newborn and baby daughter. Her mother assumed the responsibility of taking care of the girls, while Ogle attempted to concentrate on his studies. Helen Ogle sickness worsened. Before she died, she told her mother to "take care of her babies."   On October 3,  1908, Helen Freeman Moore Ogle died at the age of 21. 
 
Ogle, who was very close to finishing his studies at Cornell found himself a single parent with two baby daughters to raise. His mother in law was  very instrumental in helping him to take care of his daughters. Mrs. Irene Cecilia Moore helped to shape and mold the girls giving them the motherly nurturing they so needed. Ogle  received the moral support of his friends and fellow brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. During the school year, Ogle worked in several hotels including the Ithaca Hotel and during the summers spent time on the road according to his daughter Helen. 

The Ithaca of Robert Ogle's daughters childhood was a small college town.  Located in Tompkins County half way between Toronto and New York City and in area called the Finger Lakes region, the city had natural beauty. Ithaca was one of the first cities in the state of New York to enjoy electric street lights and railways.  Helen Ogle Atkins recalled  there being one "Colored" policemen and no "Colored " doctors or lawyers. 

Ogle left his daughters in Ithaca and  went to New York City after completing school.  The young ladies spent their childhood with their grandmother and attended the schools there. Helen recalled that often she was the only black "colored" child in her class. Around 1917, Ogle gathered his daughters and moved them to Washington, DC, his birthplace. The girls attended historic Dunbar High School and the Miners Normal School, later graduating from Howard University. When Helen was 13, she and her friends organized a social club called GPT and remains together today, though she remarked that "most of the members have died." 

The family lived in several places in Washington, DC,  including Gresham Street, R. Street from 1923-1926, Florida Avenue, Shannon Place and T Street.  The apartment that the Ogle's resided in was owned by an African-American physician Dr. Frank Jones, who also lived in the building as well as successful Realtor Jimmy Scott, who owned the building next door to theirs. 

Helen received a teaching certificate and taught at many schools including the Birney Elementary School in Anacostia.  During her college days, she did not join one of the traditional four sororities but was active with Phi Delta Kappa National  Organization for teachers. 

Of her dad, Helen recalled that he was very strict, almost too strict and overly protective. She called him father, because to her he acted like a "Father in a catholic school." When it was time for her to go to her senior prom, he told her she could not go out until she was 18. After much chiding from relatives, Ogle consented. When her date arrived to pick her up, she looked up and saw her dad put his hat on. As it would happened,  Ogle followed the young couple all the way to the door of the gymnasium and then returned to meet them to escort them back home. Helen said that "daddy only wanted us to talk to boys for three minutes." 

Bob Ogle as she reflected was very caring, attentive and loving. Sitting with his "long legs crossed" Helen remembered that he paid close attention to whatever his daughters had to say, especially as he sat patiently to hear Helen's poetry. "Daddy went to parents day and took them on excursions on the street car" she recalled. 

Helen graduated from Milner Teacher's College in 1927 and later received her degree from Howard University in 1937, going to school at night.  She along with her husband raised their two children......" 

 
"Never before was it as incumbent upon every member to restate loyalty and exemplify fraternal obligation by consistent life and unimpeachable character..." 
Jewel Robert Harold Ogle, 1936 

"Life's Most Persistent and Urging Question Is What are Doing for others." 
Bro. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

EVEN IN KUWAIT, WE HAVE BROTHERS THERE: 
"Sending you a shout out from Kuwait!  I've been receiving your historical moments from my bro-in-law and bro-in-frat, Shedrick Champion.  Your research is not only interesting, but significant!  After reading them or forwarding them to Alpha, other "greeks", and even non-greeks, I talk crap for hours." 

An Advance Comment on the book, The Talented Tenth: The Founders and General Presidents": 
"Brother Skip Mason takes us back to a time when God gave us men. Men with strong minds, humble hearts, and true faith.  Men who maintained the courage of their convictions.  Men who were larger than their calling.  Men who could stand in the presence of their God and say "The place I occupy does not need reforming."  Men who could look their struggling brothers and sisters in the eye and whisper with love "Follow me."  Men who became the rocks upon which so many others leaned.  As only he can, Skip shares the historical, moral, and spiritual significance of such men:  The Seven Jewels and 30 General Presidents of Alpha Phi Alpha.  From my college days at Zeta Zeta to my writings that have taken me around the world, I am still overwhelmed to think that I'm a part of such a grand organization.  Thank you, Skip!" 

Dennis P. Kimbro 
author, Think and Grow Rich and  What Makes the Great Great