The Lincoln School For Colored Children

EDITOR’S NOTE: In 1881 Crawfordsville School Trustees ordered a school be built at the southwest corner of Spring and North Walnut Streets to serve black students in grades 1-8. Once graduated, the students attended the integrated Crawfordsville High School. This site accommodated the vast majority of black families living in Crawfordsville’s north end. Trustees purchased the lot in September 1881 for $2,000. On Dec. 3, 1881, Hinckley and Norris won the contract to build the building for $6,400. The architects designed a plain two-story red brick structure with playgrounds for all the black children who resided in that area. Lincoln School officially opened in September 1882 with 42 students. When the black population moved to the east end to work in the factories, Linclon Building 1 was renovated into Horace Mann, and Linclon Build 2 was opened on East Wabash Avenue. That building became Lincoln Rec Center and was demolished in 1981. This project began as a project historical research project to honor all those individuals who went to school in separate and unequal facilities as the law dictated.

Clara Freeze Coleman

1895- 1858

Educator 1914-1930

Clara was the longest-serving teacher at Lincoln School for Colored Children, teaching grades one through four from 1914 to 1930.

Clara was born on 27 June 1895 in Noblesville, Indiana, to Francis and Mary (Mamie) Emma Lyons Freeze. The entire family, including Walter, Katherine, Emeline, and Earnest, attended and was active in the Noblesville Bethel AME Church. Clara graduated from Noblesville High School on 2 June 1913 in a class of 30 students. She had accumulated an astounding 35.5 credits. Her senior quote was, “I look upon indolence as a form of suicide.”

Clara had quite a sense of humor when, at a church service, she recited from Paul Laurence Dunbar in a very amusing manner, “When Mamie Says the Blessing (In the Morning) .” The audience rewarded her reading with a standing ovation, and she quoted “Nevermind Miss Lucy (Discovered)” as her encore.

By 1914, she was teaching at the Lincoln Colored School for Children, grades one through four, and music. The Noblesville Ledger kept close tabs on Clara, whom the newspaper called “Our Pride.”

Crawfordsville resident Francis Wooden remembered Clara as her first teacher. “Miss Freeze belonged to some of the local organizations, she went to our church, and she did little things like visiting the homes of the kids. While she was here in Crawfordsville, she stayed with Nathaniel and Mattie Davis on Jefferson Street. She intermingled just like she belonged here.”

In January 1929, Clara’s life took a dramatic turn. Lucian Albert Coleman of Indianapolis began to court her. They married that same year and were blessed with one daughter, Mary Frances (Hollis), born on 18 September 1931. Unfortunately for Crawfordsville, these events marked the end of her teaching career.

Clara’s husband, Lucian, was born on 26 February 1889 in Russellville, Kentucky. He achieved an elementary education and worked as a hotel porter, a chauffeur, and for the Allison Division of General Motors in Indianapolis. He also served in the United States Army during World War I. He served as a chairman of the Board of Trustees at the AME Church and a commander of the Colored American Legion Post.

By 1946, Clara had opened her own business at her home on Route 1 Noblesville, selling the Charis Corsetiere, a company that allowed women to personalize corsets.

Tragically, Clara was mortally wounded in an automobile accident on 16 November 1957. The car in which she as a passenger collided with an oncoming vehicle that had turned out of the proper traffic lane. Both her hips and right wrist were shattered. She was taken to General Hospital in Indianapolis and stayed an agonizing 50 days, finally dying on 5 February 1958. She was buried in Riverside Cemetery. Lucian died on 18 December 1966 at the West 10th Street Veteran’s Administration Hospital. Even though he had remarried Geneive Brown in 1960 after Clara’s death, he was buried next to Clara at Riverside Cemetery.

Clemmie Melvin Purcell

1900 to 1966

Building caretaker 1917 to 1918

Clemmie Purcell was born on 26 July 1900 in Freedom/Glasgow, Kentucky, to Elmer and Ruby Johnson Purcell. By 1917, Clemmie and his younger brother Leonard had made their way to Crawfordsville to live with his sister Mattie Whitney and her husband, John. The family attended the Baptist Church in Crawfordsville.

Clemmie’s first job was building caretaker and maintenance for the Lincoln School. On 12 September 1918, Clemmie registered for the World War I draft. His military papers described him as slender, medium height, with black hair and eyes, and employed by Purdue University as a cook. By 1920, he began working as a newsboy.

Clemmie married Fannie M in September 1929, but marriage details are unclear. In the 1930 census, Clemmie and Fannie lived in Frankfurt, Indiana, where he worked as a mechanic. The couple was listed in the 1934 directory but not after, apparently divorcing before 1937.

By June 1929, Clemmie had purchased a 1929 Ford touring car from a Ford dealer in Indianapolis. Newspapers said they hoped “he gets the first 1000 miles on it before tearing it up”.

In June 1937, he married Mary Jane Lewis, a local sales clerk. The family grew as children Terry, Joe, Dennis, Betty, Janet, and Cynthia were born.

When he retired, he had been a 30-year employee of the Ford Garage in Frankfurt, Indiana, where he worked as an automobile mechanic and body man. Clemmie died of liver cancer on 5 June 1966 in Frankfurt. His wife, Mary died on 24 October 1998.