Well, I’ve done it once again. I’ve gone down a research rabbit hole and am trying to climb my way back out by writing and posting a couple more pieces about Alex Albritton that are hopefully not ridiculously long. (Past ones are here, here and here.)

As of late, i.e. the last week or two, the particular rabbit hole down which I’ve plummeted has been investigating Albritton’s family, including his ancestral roots and where he came from. However, the idea for this post originally germinated when I happened to notice that a black cloud seemed to follow the family.

As in, several of Alexander’s relatives also either died tragically young, or were involved in some pretty grim stuff.

Let’s begin with Alex’s older brother, Benjamin Davis Albritton, who was born in South Carolina but made his way to Philadelphia after several years in Georgia with the rest of the family. In Philly, Benjamin worked as a locomotive repairer for a railroad company, which is one of the coolest jobs I’ve come across in all my Negro League research.

But Benjamin’s life was also short – he died on Oct. 14, 1918, at the age of 33. His death certificate lists cause of death as lobar pneumonia, a severe type of lung infection. However, the deadly Spanish flu pandemic at the end of the 1910s was in full force by October 1918, and, given that many of the deaths in the pandemic actually resulted from a secondary infection of lobar pneumonia, Benjamin Albritton was very likely a victim of the Spanish flu pandemic.

Another of Alexander Albritton’s sons, Ralph – in fact, his first-born child – was at an even younger age at death than Benjamin was – Ralph was only 19 on May 10, 1935, when he was struck down by percardial effusion, or a build up of fluid in the pericardium, the sac around the heart. Ralph worked as a bricklayer at the time, according to his death certificate. I don’t have much more information about Ralph or his death.

Then there’s the case of Alex Albritton’s namesake, Alexander J. Albritton, who died at the fairly young age of 46 on Dec. 9, 1963. While that death age isn’t as saddening as 19 or 33, it’s the flippant way in which the Philadelphia medical examiner at the time filled out Alex Jr.’s death certificate. In particular, cause of death was limited to “not determined,” and manner of death stated as “presumably natural.” The coroner also couldn’t be bothered to find of Alexander Jr.s Social Security number, which simply a question mark filling in that space.

Next was John Clarke Jr., Alexander Albritton’s grandson; he was the son of Alex’s daughter Ruth Albritton and her husband, John Clarke Sr. John Jr. was only 16 in early December 1960, when he was stabbed in the heart with a penknife by 18-year-old Luther Dockery during a brawl reportedly instigated by Dockery. At the time, John Jr. was a sophomore at Edward W. Bok Technical High School, a vocational school in Philadelphia.

(It might be worth noting that Luther Dockery apparently liked stabbing people, because roughly two years before he killed John Clarke Jr., he stabbed another young man, this time in a gang fight, and was given probation.)

But members of the Albritton family weren’t just victims of tragedies – they sometinmes were the perpetrators, beginning with Frances Albritton, another of Alex Albritton’s children. In September 1966, 37-year-old Frances stormed into Herb’s Friendly Bar in the Glenwood section of Philadelphia and fatally shot Rita Widner (or Wynder) in the chest, then wounded Widner’s husband and a bystander.

The women reportedly had an earlier altercation that resulted in Frances, reportedly nicknamed Goldie, holding a significantly angry grudge against Widner. Roughly three months after the shooting, a jury convicted Frances of the killing. I was unable to find out any further information about what happened to Frances following the murder and conviction.

But 28 years before Frances committed her crime, her older brother (and therefore Alexander’s son) Joseph allegedly shot and killed Martin “Gutty” Supplee, who was apparently somewhat of a star on the local Philadelphia basketball scene.

The reason for the shooting seems to have been a little hazy and more than a bit unsavory; according to the Sept. 22, 1938, Philadelphia Tribune, Albritton had reportedly hit it big in a “numbers” drawing but was then assaulted and robbed by Supplee and Supplee’s friend, Matthew Fields, who were unhappy that Albritton wouldn’t split the winnings with them.

The alleged attack and thievery left Albritton hungry for revenge, so, after searching for his attackers for three hours, stated the Tribune, he walked into a tap-room bar where the alleged robbers were hanging out and shot Supplee in the head and wounded Fields with a shot to the leg. Albritton reportedly absconded after the shooting and couldn’t immediately be found.

But Fields, after going to the hospital for treatment to his shot leg, said he and Supplee didn’t assault or rob Albritton, while Supplee’s mother alleged that “Albritton thought he was bad – a gangster. He killed my husband for nothing.”

Unforttunately, I was unable to find out any further information from after the initial media coverage of Supplee’s murder, so I don’t know if, when or how Alexander Jr. was caught and what subsequently happened to him as a result of Supplee’s death.

With the subject of organized crime and numbers running, we actually circle back to Alex Albritton Jr., who also seems to have dabbled in similar illicit matters. In September 1950, Alexander Jr. was sentenced to six months in the county prison for gambling-related charges.

All of these incidents, early deaths and instances of violence combine to make one wonder if the Albritton family was cursed in some way, beginning, of course, with Alex Albritton Sr., a baseball star who ended up dying violently in a notorious psychiatric hospital. Having run through that depressing family tree, let’s take a little look at where the Albrittons came from and how they made their way to Philadelphia. 

We can begin with Alexander Albritton Sr.’s parents, D. Matthew Albritton and Charlotte H. Albritton (nee Williams). They’re listed in the 1880 Census as living in Charleston, S.C., but while Charlotte was apparently born in South Carolina, Matthew’s birth place is stated as North Carolina.

Given that Matthew was roughly 27 years old as of 1880, his approximate birth year of 1857 would have him, a person of color, likely born into slavery. I found several slaveholders with the last name of Albritton in Pitt County, N.C., in the 1860 Census.

Then, in the 1870 Census, I discovered a 17-year-old Black man living in Pitt County with a name that appears to be, at least on the Census sheet, Mort or Most Albritton, but could very well be Mat or Matt Albritton, living in the community of Pactolus in Pitt County.

Meanwhile, Charlotte Williams was living in Fairfield County, S.C., with her parents, John and Sylvia, and family after being born in roughly 1862. She apparently married D. Matthew Albritton in 1880; however, I don’t know how Matthew and Charlotte came to meet – or, perhaps more precisely, how Matthew ended up in South Carolina to marry Charlotte.

The couple were living in Charleston County, S.C., as of the 1880 federal Census, which listed no children for them at that time. But sometime between 1880 and the 1900 Census – the vast majority of the 1890 Census records were destroyed by fire in 1921 – Matthew and Charlotte moved to Irwin County, Ga. According to the 1900 records, the couple had four children, including 8-year-old Alexander, the youngest of the quartet. But while Alex’s three older siblings (John, Benjamin Davis and Edith) were born in South Carolina, Alexander himself was born in Florida – specifically, the town of Live Oak, Fla., in Suwannee County.

The family then shifted to Ben Hill County, also in Georgia; the 1910 Census also indicates that Matthew and Charlotte have three children with them, including the youngest, Alexander.

However, Matthew appears to have died between 1910 and 1920 – the ’20 Census has Charlotte living alone aside from one boarder in Ben Hill County, and her marital status is stated as widowed.

Meanwhile, Alexander in 1920 is by now living in Philadelphia, with his wife, Marie (nee Brooks), and their two sons, Ralph and Alexander Jr. The family is stated as living just a couple doors down on Ellsworth Street from Alex Sr.’s brother, John, and John’s wife, in what appears to actually be a largely Italian neighborhood. (What’s odd, though, is that while John’s last name is spellecdcorrectly, Alex is listed as Alek Albrim, for some weird reason.) After that, the Albrittons rermained in Philadelphia.

The one remaining primary to the Albritton family puzzle is Marie, Alexander Sr.’s eventual wife. According to multiple sources, Marie Brooks was born in March 1902 to John and Addie Brooks in Georgia; the family lived in Muscogee County before Marie struck out on her own and apparently rented a room in Dougherty County, Ga., in 1920.

She and Alex Sr. married in the mid-1910s, when Marie was still only roughly 15 and Alexander was 19. I’m not sure how Alexander and Marie met. From what I can ascertain, Alex and Marie’s first two kids, Ralph and Alexander Jr., were born in Georgia, before the family moved north, while the rest of their offspring – they had five additional children – were born in Pennsylvania. 

The 1940 Census sheet on which Marie and those last five kids lists Marie as widowed, meaning the document was filled out after Alex Sr.’s tragic death. Marie appears to have eventually moved to East Orange, N.J., at some point later, dying there in August 1975.