From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
West Indies Children Brought to Kentucky After Spanish-American War, 1898
The names of children brought to Kentucky from the West Indies, at the close of the Spanish-American War, will be found in the NKAA entries titled Immigration from the West Indies to Kentucky, starting in the 1890s.There were also children born in the West Indies and living and working in Kentucky before the Spanish-American War. These were children who were not living with their parents or family members. One being Emily Cotterell, b.1835 in Martinique, she was one of the many children at the Nunn Farm in Hardin County, KY. The farm was a children's home. In 1860, there was a child by the name of Jack Crusader, b.1848 in St. Thomas. He was employed as a domestic in the home of the John Helm family in Newport, KY.
During the Spanish-American War, on September 10, 1898, on p.2 of The Daily Leader newspaper in Lexington, KY, there was an article titled "Our Boys in Porto Rico." The article was a letter to the editor signed by F. S. Clark, Company M, Battery A, First Kentucky Regiment, stationed near San Juan, Porto Rico [Puerto Rico]. From the next to last paragraph of the letter, "I have bought a very bright Porto Rico boy and he is very anxious to come to the States with me. I have a monkey an[d] parrot and the boy takes care of them for me." No records have been found as to whether F. S. Clark brought the child to Kentucky.
News of the children who were brought to Kentucky by the returning soldiers was reported in Kentucky newspapers. The soldiers were returning home from the Spanish-American War, 1898. The children, mostly boys, were said to be war orphans who had lost their parents and other family members during the fighting. The children entered the United States aboard the same ships as the returning soldiers. Once in Kentucky, there was much fanfare in the newspapers with a child sometimes referred to as an Army unit's mascot. It was also news that the children would be or had been "adopted" by the soldiers. What this meant was that a soldier had taken a liking to the child, claimed the child, and brought the child home to Kentucky. The adoption may or may not have taken place later. There is absolutely no mention in the Kentucky newspapers as to the thoughts and feelings of the Cuban or Puerto Rican people about the taking of the children, or if it was even known. The newspaper stories in Kentucky were presented as if each soldier who brought a child home was doing an acceptable thing.
U.S. soldiers bringing children from the West Indies to the United States at the close of the Spanish-American War was not unique to Kentucky. There are many newspaper articles about soldiers returning home to other states with a child in tow. There was no mention of legal documents to account for the children being brought into the United States. There were no child adoption agreements between the United States and Cuba, or with Puerto Rico which Spain had relinquished to the United States in 1898. On May 2, 1917, citizens of Puerto Rico were given U.S. statutory citizenship when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act.
The statutory citizenship extended to children such as Pedro Gusman, who in 1899 was described as a boy who was brought from Puerto Rico to Louisville, KY (Jefferson County), by Captain William A. Colston of the 1st Kentucky Volunteers. There was John Blanco (b.1886), who in 1900 was working as a servant in the home of Bonaventure Cicek and Leo Greulich, both Catholic priests in Louisville, KY (Jefferson County). Pedro Maurer (b.1888), in 1900 was said to be the adopted son of George J. Romele in Louisville, KY. Romele was a professor of music. Most all of the children mentioned at this point were enumerated as white in the U.S. Census. Montalvo Trinidad (b.1884), was enumerated in the 1900 U.S. Census as black and born in Puerto Rico. He was employed as a waiter at the Fountain Ferry Park Hotel in Louisville, KY. He had arrived in the United States in 1898.
Occasionally, a newspaper would report that a soldier had gotten permission from his unit officer to bring a child home with him, or it was said that a local authority in the child's country had given his permission for the soldier to take a child home. The children were not granted citizenship when they entered the United States. Some of them from Cuba would later apply for citizenship when they were adults. Others did not apply and may have assumed that they were citizens as a result of their supposed status as an "adoptee" of the U.S. citizen who was a war veteran.
The Federal Immigration Act of 1891 did not apply to the military men who were returning home from the Spanish-American War with children aboard the same ships as the soldiers. The 1891 act had created the Superintendent of Immigration Office within the Treasury Department and the office was responsible for processing immigrants and enforcing restrictions. None of that happened in reference to the Cuban and Puerto Rican children arriving with the U.S. soldiers. Nor was there any oversight or input from the State Geologist who also served as the Kentucky Commissioner of Immigration. It would be almost a century before the international adoption guidelines from the Hague Convention were drafted in 1993, and ratified and enforced in the United States in 2008.
Regardless of the future guidelines, there continued to be children arriving in Kentucky from the West Indies after the Spanish-American War. In 1899, one year after the war ended, Richard Tennelly from Owensboro, KY, enlisted the help of Leo Mattingly, Company G, 1st US Infantry, in acquiring a child from Cuba. The child, Manual Carreno, was said to have come from an orphan home and Richard Tennelly had gotten permission from a Cuban government official to bring the child to the U.S. Leo Mattingly, also from Owensboro, KY, was a U.S. soldier in Cuba. [The United States occupied Cuba until 1902.] Mattingly had been working on Tennelly's behalf with Major Dr. William Dolz, said to be governor of a Cuban province. Richard Tennelly had forwarded his request to Dolz for a Cuban child. When the request was acknowledged, Tennelly forwarded to Dolz $27 for the child's transportation, $5 for the child's clothes, and $5 was sent to Leo Mattingly for his effort in establishing the connection to Dolz who had served with the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American war. Richard Tennelly went to Cuba and returned home to Kentucky with the child Manual Carreno in 1899. The child, was enumerated in the 1900 U.S. Census as white, born in Cuba, and a boarder at the Tennelly home in Owensboro, KY.
In another Kentucky-related case, the U.S. Immigration Office did stop Cuban children from entering the United States. Six years after the Spanish-American War, in 1904, Mrs. Rosa G. Adams attempted to bring children from the Mariel Orphanage in Cuba to Hickman, KY. Mrs. Adams was an American missionary at the orphanage. The U.S. Immigration Office refused to give Mrs. Adams permission to bring the children into the United States and they remained in Cuba. Though thwarted in that instance, Mrs. Adams' mother, Mrs. Mary A. Powell, went to Cuba and got the children of Louis Joy and returned to Kentucky with the children. Louis Joy, a U.S. citizen who lived in Cuba, had given his permission for the children to be placed in Mrs. Powell's home. Louis Joy came to Kentucky to visit his children in 1909. The following year, in 1910, one of the children, 11-year-old Pearl Joy, was still living at the Powell home in Short Creek, KY (Fulton County). Pearl Joy was enumerated in the 1910 U.S. Census as white, born in Cuba, and a boarder at Mary A. Powell's home. Mrs. Powell died in December of 1910.
In Lexington, KY, it was reported in 1900 that a father from Cuba had placed his three sons with Dr. Melvin Rhorer who was also a horseman. The brothers were enumerated in the 1900 U.S. Census as black, born in Cuba, and they were boarding students living at Dr. Rhorer's home. Their names were Gabriel, John, and Jose Fernandes. According to the newspapers, they had come to Kentucky to learn about the horse racing industry and the North American Turf Association. The brothers' father's name was not given.
Among the teens from the West Indies who came to Kentucky on their own was 16-year-old Arturo Aragonnesses from Cuba. He had come to the United States in 1908 and was working at Frank O'Sullivan's Place in Louisville, KY. Arturo Aragonnesses was returned home to Cuba after his father notified the Louisville Chief of Police that his son had run away and should be sent back home. Another teen, Jose Garcia, was about 16 or 17 years old when he came to the United States in 1907. Three years later, in 1910, he was living in Berea, KY, and was enumerated in the U.S. Census as white and head of the household with four young men. Three of the men were from Cuba and one from Germany, all were enumerated as white in the 1910 Census. Frank Rivera, the youngest of the group, was 16 years old and had come to the United States in 1909.
Andrea "Andrew" Lopez (b.1886) was one of the children who was returned to Cuba at the request of his family. He had been brought from Cuba to Owensboro, KY (Daviess County), by 21-year-old Rufus Eli Walp who was a Kentucky volunteer soldier during the Spanish-American War, 1898. Andrew Lopez was enumerated in the 1900 U.S. Census as white, born in Cuba, and the adopted son of Rufus E. Walp. In August of 1900, Andrea Lopez was returned to Cuba to live with his relatives. Four years later, he came to Owensboro, KY, for a visit.
There was never an official count of the number of children who were brought to Kentucky or came on their own from Cuba and Puerto Rico following the Spanish-American War, 1898. Nor was there a count of other children from the West Indies who were not living with their parents or a family member. The names of at least 30 children have been included in the NKAA entries titled Immigration from the West Indies to Kentucky. The names of these children were found in Kentucky newspaper articles, obituaries, the U.S. Census schedules from 1898-1910, ship manifests, and other official documents. More than likely, the number of children who were brought to Kentucky from the West Indies is much higher. Not every child was mentioned in the newspapers and not every child was counted in the U.S. Census schedules.
SOURCES: Ancestry.com; 1890-1910 U.S. Census Schedules; "The Geological Survey," The Courier-Journal, 04/23/1880, p.2; "A Porto Rico boy," The Morning Call (Pennsylvania), 09/08/1898, p.2; "To refuge: Cuban mascot of first will be sent." The Cincinnati Post, 11/07/1898, p.2; "Dr. Tackett's Ward. Has adopted a little Cuban boy who was surprisingly honest." Morning World-Herald, 11/20/1898, p19; "Comes back from Cuba," The Kansas City Times, 12/19/1898, p.2; "A Real live Cuban," Owensboro Daily Messenger, 05/19/1899, front page; "A Joyous occasion," The Courier-Journal, 05/19/1899; "Brings a Cuban boy home with him." The Frankfort Roundabout, 05/27/1899, p.4; "Has a little Cuban with him," The Daily Leader, 06/02/1899, p.7; "Yankee Doodle" in Spanish," The Sunday Leader, 07/02/1899, p.3; "Will get a Cuban boy," Owensboro Daily Inquirer, 07/05/1899, front page; "Dick Tennelly's Cuban boy," Owensboro Daily Messenger, 07/06/1899, p.3; "He is catching on," Owensboro Daily Inquirer, 07/19/1899, p.4; "A Cuban boy," Owensboro Daily Messenger, 07/22/1899, front page.
SOURCES: "Brought a Cuban boy," Owensboro Daily Messenger, 02/23/1900, p.8; "A Cuban gentleman has left his three boys ...," The Adair County News, 04/11/1900, p.3; "Returned to Cuba," Owensboro Daily Messenger, 08/23/1900, front page; "Our own Andrew, Owensboro Daily Inquirer, 04/27/1904, p.5; "Home from Cuba," The Hickman Courier, 05/27/1904, p.5; see Mrs. Rosa G. Adams in "Local and personal," The Hickman Courier, 06/03/1904, p.5; "Chief Haager asked to look for runaway boy." The Courier-Journal, 11/25/1908, p.8; "Must go back to Gethsemane," The Courier-Journal, 11/26/1908, p.6; see Louis Joy in "I've been thinking," The Hickman Courier, 07/01/1909, p.9; "Death of Mrs. Powell," The Hickman Courier, 12/15/1910, p.7; "Porto Rican arrested," The Courier-Journal, 07/28/1899, p.5; "Porto Rican gets 15 days," The Courier-Journal, 08/30/1901, p.12.
* See also the NKAA entry for Peter White, a child who was enslaved after being taken from Mexico and brought to Kentucky following the Mexican-American War, 1846-1848.
* University of Kentucky librarians, Kopana Terry and Tina M. Brooks, assisted with the research for this entry.