Judson Douglas Wetmore to Charles W. Chesnutt, 30 December 1924
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TELEPHONE The day after I wrote you the last time, and told you about your story in the Crisis and stated, that it was from your book "The Conjure Woman, and other stories,"1 I had lunch with Dr. DuBois2 at the Civic Club, and was very surprised, when he told me, that this story had never been published before, and I then realized I had made a mistake by not reading it, and I now write to apologize.
When I started to read the first instalment, and saw old Julius was one of the characters, I immediately assumed that it was one of the stories out of the abovementioned book, and did not finish the story.3 I have learned two things however, from this mistake; one is, to be careful in jumping at conclusions, and the other is, that Chestnutt has one character, that he intends using for the balance of his life.
Well, how are you, and what sort of Christmas did you have? I certainly wish you could have been at our house for Christmas, as we have a beautiful tree, and had a dinner fit for a king.
Of course, I know you had a good dinner, because Mrs. Chestnutt4 always has good food at her home, but you did not have any babies to enjoy the Christmas tree with you.
Remember me very kindly to Mrs. Chestnutt and your two daughters,5 and tell them that I trust they had a pleasant Christmas, and wish for them a Happy and very Prosperous New Year.
The next time you write me I may send you a picture of Frances, though you do not deserve it.
I know if Lucile and Frances6 were here they would send love to you.
Take care of yourself, and do not drink too much New Year's Eve Night.
Sincerely yours, J. D. Wetmore JDW:FB.Correspondent: Judson Douglas Wetmore (1871–1930) was a mixed-race lawyer who grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and was a childhood friend of James Weldon Johnson, who might have introduced Wetmore to Chesnutt. After getting a law degree at Michigan Law School in 1897, Wetmore worked in Jacksonville, but moved to New York City in 1906 to open a law practice. In 1907, he married and later divorced a White Jewish woman, Jeanette Gross (1888–?), with whom he had a daughter, Helen Mable (1908–?). In 1921, he married another White woman named Lucile (or Lucille) Pipes (1894–1966), with whom he had two children. Wetmore died by suicide in July 1930. Both of his wives were aware of his mixed-race status. In official records, he and his children consistently are listed as White, but it was not a secret he was Black (see "Cremate Body of New York Lawyer Whom Many Mistook for White," Afro-American [Baltimore, MD], August 9, 1930, 7; and James Weldon Johnson, Along This Way: The Autobiography of James Weldon Johnson [New York: Viking Press, 1968; orig. pub. 1933], 252).
1. Chesnutt's collection of short stories, The Conjure Woman, was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company in March 1899. [back]
2. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868–1963) was a sociologist, historian, and world-renowned civil rights activist. After completing coursework at the University of Berlin and Harvard University, Du Bois became the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard in 1895. He was a professor of history, sociology, and economics at Atlanta University (1897–1910 and again in the 1930s). He was a prominent leader of the Niagara Movement and helped found the NAACP in 1909. As the editor of the NAACP's journal, The Crisis, from 1910 to 1931, Du Bois published four of Chesnutt's short stories as well as two of his essays. See "The Doll" (April 1912), "Mr. Taylor's Funeral" (April/May 1915), "The Marked Tree" (Dec 1924/Jan 1925), and "Concerning Father" (May 1930); and "Women's Rights" (August 1915) and "The Negro in Art" (November 1926). [back]
3. Wetmore erroneously assumed that "The Marked Tree", which appeared in the The Crisis in two installments (vol. 29, no. 2 [December 1924]: 59–64 and vol. 29, no. 3 [January 1925]: 110–113) was an already-published story. "The Marked Tree" featured the character of Uncle Julius, Chesnutt's famous Black storyteller from The Conjure Woman (1899), who had not appeared in a story since "Tobe's Tribulations" in 1900. "The Marked Tree" was to be the last Uncle Julius story. [back]
4. Susan Perry Chesnutt (1861–1940) was from a well-established Black family in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and worked as a teacher at Fayetteville's Howard School before marrying Chesnutt. They were married from 1878 until his death in 1932 and had four children: Ethel, Helen, Edwin, and Dorothy. Susan led an active life in Cleveland. [back]
5. In 1922, two of Chesnutt's daughters, Helen and Dorothy, were living with their parents while pursuing their careers. After finishing college in 1904, Helen had returned to Cleveland to work as a secondary-school teacher, and she continued to live at the house until her mother's death in 1940. Dorothy lived with her parents as a student, probation officer, and eventually junior-high teacher, until her husband completed his medical degree in 1931. [back]
6. Judson Douglas Wetmore's second wife, Lucile (or Lucille) Pipes Wetmore (1894–1966), was a White woman, originally from Louisiana and widowed in 1918 after a very brief first marriage. The couple married in 1921 and had two children: Frances Lucile (1922–1993) and Judson Douglas, Jr. ("Junior," 1923–1995). After Wetmore's suicide, Lucile remarried in 1931 and again in 1945. [back]
