The DeMond Family   Quam DeMond 1796-1878   Quam DeMond was born in 1796 in New Jersey. He was the son of Mathias DeMond and had one brother Juan O'day.  He had 16 children and was married to Lydia DeMond. The 1840 Census indicates Quam was a free man of color between 35 and 55 years of age.  In the 1840 census he is listed as Q DeMond. Our family concludes that Quam must have been 44 years of age during the 1840 census and lived in Ovid, New York, Seneca, and County. The 1840 Census indicates 2 males under 10 years of age, 1 male between 10 and 24 years of age and 3 females under 10 years of age occupied Quam's household. Lydia DeMond dies in 1842.   Quam marries Phebe Darrow and in the 1870 census Quam and Phebe are listed as living in Covert, New York, and Seneca County.  Phebe is listed as having been born around 1823. In 1870 Quam is 74 and Phebe is 47. Their children are Darwin DeMond, Anna Eliza, and Able DeMond.  I think Able DeMond might have been Abraham Lincoln DeMond.  Since Able is age 3 during the 1870 census and Abraham Lincoln DeMond was born around 1868 or 1867. Some family members believe that Able died during childhood.    The census has Quam DeMond listed as Lualm DeMond.  The "Q" was transposed to an "L." However in the original census document the letter is "Q."  In 1870 his occupation is listed a farmer.  He indicates the value of his real estate is $3000.00 and his personal assets are worth $1000.00.  According to the census, his neighbors are white and are from New York, Ireland and England. His last will and testament are in the Seneca country court house. Quam DeMond died in 1878 and is buried in Trumansburg Cemetery near Ithaca, New York.   Theordore DeMond     Theodore DeMond is listed in the 1870 census.  He is born in 1829  and lives in Ovid, New York, Seneca County.  He is married to Susan V DeMond. At the time of the 1870 census, he is 41 and his wife is 29. The 1870 Census lists them as having four children: John L. - age 7, Willet W. age - 5, George G  age4 - and Edward B. age 1.  The value of his real estate is $600.00 and his personal assets are worth $250.00.    In the 1880 census Theodore Calvin (8),  Mary Lucinda (6) and Sidney B( 2) DeMond are listed in Theordore's household.   We are still researching the information of the other son which is linked to the lineage of the Martin DeMond Family. As per our research, Theordore DeMond had a son Theordore Calvin DeMond who migrated to Port Jervis New York.  Theordore Calvin DeMond was the father of Martin Theodore DeMond. We are still researching the DeMond family line.       Abraham Lincoln DeMond 1867-1946    Reverend Abraham Lincoln DeMond was born in1867 in Upstate New York.  Rev. DeMond, a graduate of Howard University Seminary, was an iterant Congregationalist minister for 45 years.  He was assigned to pastorates in New Orleans, Louisiana, Charles­ton, South Carolina, Memphis, Tennessee, and Montgomery, Alabama.  He delivered the famous speech: the Negro Element in American Life in Dexter Avenue Baptist Church on January 1, 1900.   He married Lula Watkins Patterson, a Montgom­ery, Alabama music teacher.  Lula was a graduate of Selma University. Lula Watkins was the daughter of William Watkins and Sarah Watkins of Montgomery, Alabama. William Watkins was a prominent contractor in the Montgomery Alabama community.  He is known for building the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.   Lula and Abraham DeMond had six children. Albert DeMond, Charles DeMond, Ruth DeMond, Marguerite DeMond, Arthur DeMond and Rudolph Harvey Patterson from Lula's first marriage.     Rev DeMond was a minister in Buxton, Iowa in the the early 1900s, it was an unusual community that existed in America's heartland. Originally established by the Consolidation Coal Company, Buxton was the largest unincorporated coal-mining community in Iowa.   What made Buxton unique, however, is the fact that the majority of its five thousand residents were African Americans-a highly unusual racial composition for a state which was over 90 percent white. At a time when both southern and northern blacks were disadvantaged and oppressed, blacks in Buxton enjoyed true racial integration-steady employment, above-average wages decent housing, and minimal discrimination. For such reasons, Buxton was commonly known as "the black man's utopia in Iowa."   Rev Abraham Lincoln DeMond dies in Freeman's Hospital and is buried in Lincoln Cemetery in Washington, D.C.     Lula Watkins DeMond   Lula Watkins Patterson DeMond was born in Montgom­ery, Alabama. She was graduate of Selma University  and taught music at Selma University and Avery Normal Institute in Charlesotn , South Carolina. Lula Watkins was the daughter of William Watkins and Sarah Watkins of Montgomery, Alabama. William Watkins was a prominent contractor in the Montgomery Alabama community.  He is known for building the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.       Theordore Calvin DeMond   Theodore Calvin DeMond is listed in the 1920 census.  He is born in 1878 and is 45 years of age. He lives in Port Jervis, New York, He was  married to Jennie DeMond, who is listed as age 33. At the time of the 1920  census, they are listed as living on Hamilton Street and owning their home. The 1920 Census lists them as having three children: Margaret. - age 5 Martin Theodore. Age - 3  Ruth M  age 1 1/2.  There is a Reimy and Anna DeMond listed on Hamilton Street.  They are age 40 and 41.    We are still researching the information of the other son which is linked to the lineage of the Martin DeMond Family. As per our research, Theordore DeMond had a son Theordore Calvin DeMond who migrated to Port Jervis New York.  Theordore Calvin DeMond was the father of Martin Theodore DeMond. We are still researching the DeMond family line.     Marguerite DeMond Davis   Died - 1978   Marguerite DeMond, was born on October 9, 1907 in the now non-existent town of Buxton, Iowa, where the egalitarian Congregation­alist Church posted her father for a year to minister to the spiritual needs of Buxton's predominately black coal mining population.   Marguerite DeMond attended Avery Normal Institute in Charleston, South Carolina, operated by the American Missionary Association and the Congrega­tionalist Church. Even before the Civil War, Avery Normal Insti­tute's racially integrated faculty was providing quality educa­tions for African Americans. Lula DeMond taught at Avery Normal.     Marguerite DeMond graduated from Syracuse University in 1931 and came to Washington, D.C. with her mother in 1932. Her older sister Ruth DeMond, also a Syra­cuse University graduate, taught at Cardoza High School. She had recently married Rev. Robert W. Brooks, pastor of Lincoln Congre­gational Temple, one of Washington's most prominent church­es that like Berean Baptist Church filled its pews with educat­ed, upwardly mobile black professionals.    Marguerite DeMond went to work as a researcher for African American historian Carter G. Woodson's Association for the Study of Negro Life. After a one-year courtship Marguerite DeMond and John P Davis, who met in Woodson's office when Davis went there to enlist his support for the Joint Committee on National Recovery, were married by Reverend Brooks in Washington on September 17, 1934. They moved into a small, second-floor apart­ment on S Street, in the same middle class Northwest Washington neighborhood on the fringe of Howard Univer­sity, where Davis was raised and his parents still lived.

                         ©2004 John Preston Davis Collection for African and African-American Documentation