Summie Mode-Sarah Dover-Emma J. Padgett
I hope this information is useful to someone. Alison Stevens sent me the census information and Ann provided the other material. Would be nice to know where Brice Summa Mode was in 1870. Cocke or McDowell County perhaps.
During conversations on 11 June 2007 and 20 January 2009 with Ann Mode Reitman of Oregon the following information was gathered. Her grandparents were Summa/Summie Mode and Sarah Dover. Summie is pronounced like “Sunny,” she stated that Summie Mode had “dark blood” or black blood and it showed up in Summie and his kids, Arthur, Ebb, and Joe. They also had ahalf-brother named Robert (Bob) Mode who lived in Sutherlin, Oregon. Joe Mode was Ann’s dad. She said, “Grandpa Mode had a lot of Negro in him, had slaves, and a couple of wives.”Summie’s first wife was Sarah Dover and a second wife was Emma. Emma is buried beside Summie and her stone says “Wife of Summie Mode.” Summie married Sarah Dover in McDowell County, N.C. Ann’s aunt on her mother’s side told her that there was some dark blood in the Mode family. One aunt, perhaps the same one, said to Ann on her deathbed “You do know that you have Negro blood in you?” Ann said that her Aunt Elma Anderson, a Swede, hated the Modes, perhaps because of the dark blood and some of her kin would not talk about the family.
Ann said, “All the Modes drank, Summie made liquor, had parties and furnished the liguor.” It was said of Summie, she said, that “If you didn’t get your liquor from Summie Mode, you didn’t get your liquor.” I believe she said he lived in or near Sutherlin, Oregon. Ann heard that Summie might have been chased out of North Carolina. He had a maid or housekeeper, she said, and he may have gotten her pregnant and may have moved because of this. Or, he had “left in the middle of the night.” According to Ann epilepsy runs on her side, saying that she found where her Uncle Ebb had ordered epilepsy medicine, that her brother, Les Mode, has a daughter who has epilepsy, and that someone’s daughter had drowned recently due to an epileptic fit while no one was around. She said that she had a big oval picture of Summie Mode and that he was “quite a good looking man,” and mentioned that many people on her side had “pug” noses. Summie died in 1933. At one time, she said, there was a town in Oregon called Modesville.
The 1900 Douglas County, Oregon census lists Summie as Brice S. Mode, 49, married 27 years, white, farmer, NC, NC, NC.
His wife in 1900 is listed as Sarah E. who is either 45 or 55. Shows she was born in 1855 in NC.
The 1910 Douglas County, Oregon census lists Summie as Brison S. Mode, 59, widowed, MULATO, farmer, NC, NC, NC.
The 1910 Census also shows an Emma J. Padgett, 45, housekeeper.
This information was gathered and compiled by William Joseph Mode, 2nd great grandson of Mary Jane Dover Mode Dover and great grandson of John Thomas Mode, half-brother to Mary Magdaline, Frank, Joe Mills, Lou, Lea, and Ada Dover. Much more can be gathered and compiled and much more needs to be found regarding the parentage of Mary J. Dover Mode Dover.