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Muriel States was born in Avonport, Kings County, on November 16, 1888. Her parents were John and Georgina States. Her maternal grandparents were Benjamin and Rachel Jackson, the former was brought to Nova Scotia from the United States while the latter was from Windsor, Nova Scotia. Her grandparents lived on what was then called the old Windsor Road.
Muriel States was interviewed on July 21, 1982, two years before her death on September 2, 1984.
Muriel States recalled that her father, John States worked in Avonport as a brickmaker:
'He worked for Robert Shaw who owned the business.
When he died his son Lloyd took over. My father
worked for him and my father got hurt and was taken
to hospital and never recovered.'
According to Muriel States, her father was sixty-three years old at the time of his death. Her mother, Georgina, died ten year later at the age of seventy-three.
Muriel was the only girl in the family. Her six brothers were Walter, Lamont, Carl, Randolph, Rafael and Cecil. She didn't recall that growing up or going to school in the white community of Avonport caused any problems for her or her brothers:
'Colour didn't seem to make any difference
especially when you were growing up. But
then when you became a young man or woman
you can see the difference, see the change.'
Of her brothers, all of whom predeceased her, Muriel States recalled that they didn't like farming and there was little other work available. Two of her brothers, Carl and Cecil went to New Glasgow to work when Muriel was living there after her marriage to Reverend Wellington States. They worked as potters in the clay works in New Glasgow. After this they went to work in the car works in Trenton. At this time it was more promising for young men to emigrate to the United States in search of employment. Her brothers did the same and moved to Roxbury in Boston.
Of the time she went to school, Muriel States recalled that teachers were not college graduates but high school graduates who had to cope with heavy tasks.
She remembered that one of her brothers was once in a grade ten class and the teacher was responsible for all classes from ABC to grade 10. She had to do it all. Sometimes she would get young women who were going to school and about to finish. 'She'd get them to help her.'
Muriel States was sixteen years old when her school days ended. At the time schools in the country areas went up to grade 9. The higher grades were not available unless one went to such places as the Weymouth High School. Though her account is not explicit, the likely conclusion is that she went up to grade nine. Unlike other black girls at this time who went immediately into domestic employment after finishing school, Muriel States did not have to do so:
'I was the only girl in the family and I used to go
around with my mother. We had a nice home and
a big house. When tourists came in in the summer
she used to cook.'
Some money came to the family as a result of this effort. When her father died, they lived on their farm with some of her brothers helping out. She did some weeding and planting herself in the family garden. 'We raised all our own crops you know. Potato bugs, that was the worst thing.'
She remembered helping her father one day. It was about to rain. He had to bring in the straw and the oats. She helped with the loading and unloading of the wagon:
'I did that and blistered my hands. He gave me 3 cents
a load. I thought it was very funny.'
Muriel States first met the man she was to marry in 1907, Reverend Wellington States, in Falmouth on a visit to her aunt with her parents. That Sunday it was Rev. States' turn to preach in Falmouth. His duties as itinerant preacher for the African United Baptist Association (AUBA) took him to various parts of the province on different Sundays; Falmouth, Hammonds Plains, Cobequid Road, Beechville (then known as Beech Hill).
Muriel and Wellington States took up residence in New Glasgow on the very day of their marriage . in 1907. In total, he lived in New Glasgow for thirteen years and she for twelve years when they moved to Dartmouth in 1919 when Rev. States was called to the Victoria Road Baptist Church. The marriage was blessed with three children, described by Muriel States as Leota Olga, the little girl, Patricia, the school teacher, and Coulter.'
Before that came the war years and the formation of the No. 2 Construction Battalion, Canada's segregated black battalion, in 1916. Muriel States recalled that her husband attempted to enlist, without success:
'He was a delicate man. He really wasn't a strong,
robust man and his body condition wouldn't allow him
to go into the army. He was turned down.'
As destiny would have it, it was not Rev. Wellington States but Rev. Andrew White who was offered the position of chaplain to the No. 2 Construction Battalion.
Rev. Wellington States went on with his church work as far afield as New Glasgow, Tracadie and Cherry Brook, travelling on foot, horse and buggy and by train, until in later years he acquired a car.
As Muriel States describes it, her husband was associated with the construction of churches in New Glasgow, Granville Ferry, Lequille, Bridgetown, Hammonds Plains and New Road before coming to the Victoria Road Church.
The Victoria Road Baptist Church was preceded by a church on Crichton Avenue (also known as the Coloured Walk)"right next to where Frank Fowler lives on the place now next to where the church was, Mr. Samuels once built his house there.'
Of her coming to Dartmouth and her husband's assignment to the Victoria Road church, Muriel States remembered with pride how the problems and difficulties were overcome:
'We came here when there was nothing. That church
was an empty hall that was given to them and just as
they gave it to them they used it. They had it seated with
benches. It was an Anglican hall, a beautiful building.
They gave it to the colored people because they had
no church. A little building up on the lake, they called it.
A church was a church. I don't know whether it was torn
down or burned down but that's where they used to hold
service.'
Muriel States remembered how hard the ladies of the Victoria Road Baptist Church congregation worked to raise money. The church organ alone cost six thousand dollars. According to her 'the women worked like beavers." For her part, age had restricted her movements and she was assigned the task of writing letters of appeal. She wrote widely, to the ladies president of the Somme Branch, to persons whom her husband had baptized, to Toronto, Montreal, Weymouth Falls - wherever a name came up: 'anywhere I knew that there were people that he had baptized and because they had such a great liking for him, they would send me something anyway."
Through her efforts, Muriel States raised $460 towards the cost of the organ. This feat must be seen in the context of her age: she was 88-89 years old at the time.
She also had kind words for the marvelous work done by the deacons: 'They were lovely. There was no deceit. They were true and, oh my gracious, they worked.' She recalled these gracious persons:
'There was Deacon Bauld. Florence Smith married one of the boys, Doug Bauld. Pred Bauld was one of the deacons. There were the deacons in the Tynes family Henry, John and Baron and Deacon James Brown.'
Before the States came to Dartmouth in 1919, the Sunday School for black children was run on a segregated basis by the United Church. Rev. Wellington States stopped that promptly. It was not easy for black folk to accept this at first. As Muriel States puts it:
"I said well that was awfully nice of them to give
you the help. But we have our own help now so
we don't need them. We will write them and thank
them. First, some of our coloured people felt the blacks
didn't know anything. The white people knew it all.
What they said they would listen to more than their own.
Some of them do the same today.
The start was made and progress was recorded. Robert Tynes was an excellent superintendent. Muriel States was herself a Sunday School teacher for more than eight years.
Her first working position was that of supervisor of children at the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children. At one time she had 58 wards in her charge, some of whom were quite grown up. Many have returned to visit her over the years. At the same time of the interview, she recalled the most recent visitor as Mrs. Katherine Blighton, then living in Glenwood Avenue, Dartmouth. When her mother died she was one of five children entrusted to the home.
Prom her mother she had learned how to cook and how to be a good housekeeper. This training helped her to keep house for different families. Her most important post as housekeeper was that at the residence of the superintendent of the Nova Scotia Hospital, a position she ceased to occupy when she turned 65.
Muriel States held many positions in the church and in the community. At the time of the interview, she must certainly be counted as one of Nova Scotia 'S finest examples of dedicated and upright womanhood, a lady of dignity and gracious bearing who did much to endear herself to the conanunity of which she was an inseparable part.
Mrs. Muriel States is survived by her daughter, Patricia Riley and her son, Coulter, both of Dartmouth. They are active in church and community affairs.
Mrs. States was an inspiration to anyone that met her. Her personality reflected the warm, devoted and determined individual that she was.
Postscript. The following obituary notice appeared in the Chronicle-Herald on Tuesday, September 4, 1984:
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