The People of Lee Town
Gladys Bennett and Glenwood Olson have something in common. Both have lived in the area once known as Lee Town; and both are African Americans whose parents came to Mt. Pleasant in search of a better life for themselves and their children.
Gladys Bennett lived all of her life in Lee Town. Her house sat north of the railroad tracks in an area bordered by Cedar Lane and the Lee and Cherry Streets. She lived there until her health failed and she moved to the Mapleleaf Healthcare Center. Recently the house was demolished.
She and her sister, Florence Dabber, grew up in Lee Town, as did their mother, Rosetta. Her father, Bert Wells, was born in Fort Madison. Bennett's father worked as a domestic for a number of years for some of Mount Pleasant's wealthiest residents, including the Van Allens, Gaylords, and McClures. "My grandparents came from the south," she said. "Mama was born here, up on Cherry Street." She believes her mother may have even attended the all-black "Frog Pond School" that operated near Tracy Lake until 1867, when local schools were desegregated.
Bennett moved to Mt. Pleasant with her family in 1913. Florence and her twin brother, Bill, were born there three years later. In all, the Wells had 11 children: 6 boys and 5 girls. Two of their sons, Robert and Bill, attended Iowa Wesleyan College. The college has a long tradition of providing equal opportunity to minorities. In 1890, the first Asian student was enrolled and one of the graduates that year was the third black student to receive a degree. "A lot of colored people went over there," Bennett recalled. "I have a whole lot of relations that went to college."
Gladys Wells Bennett's home before it was torn down.
Glenwood Tolson also attended Iowa Wesleyan and graduated with a two-year "normal" teacher's certificate in 1937. Although as a black student he wasn't allowed to stay on campus, he was the first black to play in the college band. "I only did that because I didn't want to take physical education," he recalled. "So the music teacher came over and asked me if I wanted to play. I said yes, if I can get out of P.E." The certificate should have entitled him to teach in rural schools up to the eighth grade, but, unfortunately, a peculiar type of discrimination prevented him from doing so. A black teacher still could not teach white students. "After I got out of school, I couldn't teach in Iowa schools because they were integrated," he recalled. "So, I hung the diploma on the wall and went to work doing housework and taking care of lawns."
Over the years, Tolson held a variety of jobs, including shining shoes at the barber shop, chauffeuring for Dr. W. A. Sternberg, cleaning and delivering mail at the post office, and working for a time at the feed and grain company. He was a custodian at the Henry County Savings Bank for more than 40 years and owned a garbage pick-up service. He has been on the Community Action Board of Directors since 1965. After his retirement, Tolson worked for two years as a carpenter for L.J. Roth Construction in Olds. Glenwood says he has personally built about four homes in Mt. Pleasant.
Tolson came to Iowa with his parents, Walter and Flossie Tolson, when he was 20 years old. Born in Missourion April 20, 1916, he still remembers what it was like to live in a segregated state. "We moved here because we couldn't make anything in Missouri," he said, "and my mother wanted me to go to college." Tolson's parents never attended school, but were self-taught to read and write. They were determined their son would not succumb to a similar fate, and sent him to a special all-black vocational school near Clarence, Missouri, from 1931-1935. "I drove by a big, white school every day on my way to school," he remembers. "I went to a high school that was 75 miles from home. After I got out of that there wasn't anything I couldn't do."
After coming to Iowa, the Tolsons worked at a 225-acre farm north of New London before moving to Mt. Pleasant in 1936. Their first house was on Lee Street, Glenwood recalled. Later they would purchase three acres at the southeast corner of Palm and Maple Leaf Drive.
In 1939, Glenwood met his future wife Ailleen, and in 1940, they were married. Through the years, the two say they have experienced their share of personal discrimination. "We couldn't eat in restaurants or stay in hotels," Glenwood lamented. "One year we had 18 people stay at our house because a big snowstorm came and they were stranded here with no place to stay overnight." "She cooked for all of them," he said while Ailleen nodded in agreement.
Fortunately, the Civil Rights Movement did much to open the doors of opportunity for black Americans, and although Glenwood was unable to use his college degree, his descendants are not experiencing a similar fate. The Tolson's four grown children all graduated from college and found prestigious jobs as a surgical nurse, an executive for the Veterans' Administration, a therapeutic dietitian, and a professor of music at the University of Kentucky in Louisville.