Juneteenth — the day black Texans regard as their own Emancipation Day — is a time for many to mark how far they have come as a people.

For the Bereal family of Waco, it’s an occasion to reflect on as well as revel in freedom.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day Union forces, led by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, landed in Galveston with the news that the Civil War was over and enslaved blacks were now free.

Mike Bereal (1888-1942) was the father of Willie Louise Bereal Miller, of Waco, an amateur genealogist. He was twice wed, first to Wilma (1889-1981) and then, in the 1930s, to Lelia Harrison, of the family that gave the rural community of Harrison Switch, about eight miles southeast of downtown Waco, its name.
Photo courtesy of Willie Louise Bereal Miller

About 2 1/2 years after President Abraham Lincoln’s original proclamation freeing the slaves, the order could now be enforced with federal might.

Willie Louise Bereal Miller, of Waco, 73, said she’s the youngest granddaughter of one of the oldest black families that migrated to Central Texas after freedom was won.

The daughter of Lelia Harrison (1909-76) and Mike Bereal Sr. (1888-1942), Miller said she comes from a line of former slaves whose descendants have gone on to make great American dreams.

Her father, who worked as a “classifier of hides” in a tannery in old East Waco before he was killed in a stabbing outside of Fadal’s drugstore, was one of the children of Sophie McGee and Marcus Belltran Bereal, who came to Waco sometime after emancipation.

Sophie McGee Bereal (1839-1934) was born a slave in South Carolina. She gave birth to 12 children — only six of whom made it into adulthood.

Her life was testament to hard times. A widow by the time of the 1880 U.S. Census, Sophie Bereal worked as a housekeeper. According to the 1900 census, she was a midwife, and her eldest daughter, Agness, 24, was a washwoman (laundress). Another child, a teenage son, was listed in another census as “occupation: boot black.”

Because of the power of the Internet, specifically the connections made by Facebook, Miller said, she’s discovered “all sorts” of relatives in his family tree. A special treat, she said, has been tracking down the descendants of Mandres L. Bereal, her father’s brother, who moved his family to California in the 1930s.

An avid musician who steered all his children into that field, M.L. Bereal Sr. was born in Waco in 1876 and died in Los Angeles, Calif., in 1966, after decades in the music business. The last surviving child of his marriage to Caldonia Bereal (1877-1966) is Miller’s cousin, preacher Charles, 91.

This picture shows the Bereal family band, circa 1930 in Waco, with five of the seven sons of Mandres L. and Caldonia Bereal. The family moved to Los Angeles to escape the Great Depression in Texas.
Photo courtesy of Willie Louise Bereal Miller

Many of those descendants, she said, have stayed in the music business, either as educators, church performers or professional instrumentalists and singers.

Meanwhile, M.L. Sr.’s only daughter, Levi Bereal Cooke (1900-72), who stayed in Central Texas when the boys in the band went west, taught school in the Waco Independent School District for many years, Miller said.

Cooke’s husband, Charles, was an embalmer and undertaker in Waco in the 1930s.

Miller said she shares her passion for family ties with her own children: Una Lanell Watkins, 54; Inger Annette Barbour, 52; and Rocky Deverleo Miller, 40.

tjryan@wacotrib.com

757-5746

Levi Bereal Cooke (1900-72), the only daughter of Caldonia and M.L. Bereal Sr., of Waco, was a young student at Paul Quinn College in Waco when this photograph was taken.
Photo courtesy of Willie Louise Bereal Miller

Sophie McGee Bereal, the matriarch of the Bereal family of Waco, was born a slave in South Carolina in 1839. She came to Waco with her husband, Marcus B. Bereal, shortly after Emancipation in 1865. Already a widow by the time of the 1880 U.S. Census, Sophie Bereal worked as a housekeeper, and her children worked, as well, taking in laundry or shining shoes.
Photo courtesy of Willie Louise Bereal Miller

RELATED SEARCHES

• Juneteenth Celebration features gospel music festival, live jazz , parade