Month: October 2021

In this case, not only was Otho Peters a Black home owner, he was also a doctor. If you consider pharmacists doctors. It’s 1920, so the rules may have been different.

Dr. E. Otho Peters would give health talks around town. That is what I could tell from looking him up in various publications. I discovered there was a publication called National Negro Health News. In the October-December 1946 edition of National Negro Health News, Dr. Peters is mentioned as heading Metropolitan Baptist Church’s health program. None of these publications cough up a photo of him and most are about the program his started at Metropolitan.

He also had an office on the next block at 100 P St NW, as an optician. In 1920 he was a druggist. In 1922 (where I found the ad in the Howard yearbook) he was an optician. Maybe medicine wasn’t so hyper specialized back then or a Black doctor could wear all sorts of hats. I don’t know.

So in 1920 Dr. Peters was living with his wife, Clara (ne Clara R. Wilson) who hailed from Massachusetts. They were newlyweds having been married on March 8, 1919, it was at least his second marriage. Also in the house was his new mother in law, the widow, Mary A. Wilson.

Looking back for the wife he divorced, I went to the 1910 census. He was a 25 year old lodger living at 939 R St NW working as a porter for a drug store. But looking for his past was hard. He changed up his birth year. In the 1920 census his estimated birth year is 1888 in West Virginia. The 1910 census has him at 1885 in Virginia. Then there is a variation on his name that pops up, E Otho Peters Jr.’s WW2 draft registration has his birth place as Martinsburg, PA in 1893. The other Othos would have been far too young to father a child. His contact person is Mrs. C. Roma Peters at 3335 Sherman Ave NW. He was also unemployed at the time (1942). I did find an Evening Star (9/11/1942) that stated Mrs. Peters was an artist and a well known singer(?). Her background says she was a teacher before marrying. This guy (and his wife) seem hard to pin down so I’ll end the genealogical portion here.

Let’s see what the land records say. The Recorder of Deeds land records go back to 1921, and the earliest record there are two 1923 trusts. I’m getting the feeling, looking at the trusts, that the property was in Clara’s name and Otho was added. That’s the ‘feeling’ I’m getting. I could be wrong. Anywho in the two March 1923 trusts were for $3500 and $1200 borrowed from individually named trustees at 7% interest. One of those trustees, Walter R. Wilcox is named on both of the trusts.

A release from April 1923 paid a March 17, 1921 debt in both Otho and Clara’s names. There are several more trusts and releases for years 1923, 1924, and 1925.

The Peters sell their home in November 1925 to William W. McClaine, another African American.

I should make a tag for Black home owning food service workers of Truxton Circle. In 1920 one did not need to have a fancy job to own a home in Truxton Circle. There have been several waiters and the odd cook who owned reasonably decent homes in this DC neighborhood, and John C. Weekly, waiter, was no different.

John Clauzell Weekly was born August 27, 1876 in northern Florida. It appears he and his older brother Charles, were raised by their grandparents William and Ellen Cole in Pensacola, FL. He married Mary Emma, who was born in Alabama, probably in Florida as that is where they lived in 1900 with their 3 year old son Gerner/ Garner. In 1910 the family was still in Florida where John was working as a bartender in a saloon. Around 1917/1918 they had moved to Truxton Circle but were living at 209 O St NW. After that, they moved to 79 P St NW.

It appears they were members of Ebenezer M.E. Church at 4th and D, SE. It was where funeral services for Mary Emma were held.

When I took a quick look at the DC Recorder of Deeds online records, which go as far back as 1921, I saw a trustees deed. When I see that, it tells me the homeowners defaulted on their loan and their creditors auction off the property to a new owner. I’ve seen this a couple of times. However, it appears the Weeklys were able to save their home.

In June 1924 the Weekys took on two mortgage like debts. One was in both John C. and Mary E. Weekly’s names with individual trustees for $250.00. The other was solely in Mary E. Weekly’s name with the Columbia Building Association, for $2,500.

In March 1927, the trustees (the Columbia Building Assoc. isn’t mentioned) advertised the auctioning of 79 P St NW in the Evening Star. It appears Mary E. Weekly had defaulted on the loan. The winner of the auction was John C. Weekly, who paid $4550 for the privilege of not losing his home.

In 1925, Mary died. There is a deed from February 1925 where Mary’s only surviving sister, Missie Ervin of Chambers County, AL deeded her interest to John.

John married Diamond F. Blair in 1925. In 1933, John died. His widow Diamond sold the property in late 1939.

 

I already did Clark’s neighbor in a previous post- Black Home Owners of Truxton Circle: Harry R. Adams- 135 P St NW over in the pinkish house. So take a look at that after reading this on another Black American home owner.

So Charles A. Clark and his wife Harriet A. (nee Dixon) Clark were property owners. But I did not find proof they owned 137 P St NW. A name search in the land records database that goes back to 1921, has their names all over square 479, lot 15, which is in Shaw and no longer exists. Looking at the Library of Congress map, it looks like they owned 1419 6th St NW, where the Springfield Baptist Church currently sits. The Clarks were on 6th St for the 1930 census. And long story short, they lose that house in 1931 by defaulting on some large debts.

So who did own 137 P St NW? Rudolph Smoyer Blake and Ida Brown Blake.

They too were African American. During the 1920 census when the Clarks were living at 137 P, the newly married (12/29/1919 in NC) Blakes were living as lodgers at 310 F St NW. He was working a as mail clerk for the railway and she and assistant for a printer. By 1930, they were living at 137 P St NW with their 8 year old daughter Jeannette Brown Blake. Rudolph was still a clerk for the railway post office and Ida became a homemaker. During the 1940s, they remained at 137 P St NW. Rudolph died around or before 1946, leaving Ida a widow. She sold the home in 1948 to Thomas and his wife Willie B. Coleman. Ida passed away January 8, 1949, according to land records regarding other properties she owned.

A little side note about their daughter. Jeannette married Joseph Burton Moore in 1947. They divorced. Later, she married some fellow named Barbour. Third time was the charm, in December 1959 she married David Norwood Reed. She died in 2004 as Mrs. Reed.

Bear with me in this post of Black Home Owners of Truxton Circle because this is a situation with the lot numbers that changed. The main owner John R. Duffey owned lots 807, 0025 and 0026 on Square 615. The house 71 P St NW is mainly on lot 0807, but it looks like the property lines don’t line up with the rowhouses.

What this means is I have to look at the lot now associated with the address, 807, and the two other lots that the house at 71 P also sit on.

Let’s look at the history of lot 807. The on-line land records go back to 1921. The first record for 807 is a February 1933 trustees deed. Dang. Right out of the gate and game over. The Duffeys, John R. and Mattie A. Duffey defaulted on a debt, owing $4,200. The Washington Housing Corporation picked up the house and later sold it in December 1933.

Next let’s look at lot 25. There is another property owner mentioned and I will ignore them. The first for the Duffeys is a December 1921 trust for $325.00 and the legal description of the property is 0615/0026 and 0615/0025. June 1922, John and Mattie borrowed another $340.00 from the same trustees, with the same two lots mentioned. October 1922, they borrowed $125.00 from the same trustees. July 1925, the Duffeys borrow $2,500 through the Perpetual Building Association and the same month they got a release for all those tiny loans between 1921-1922. There were several more trusts and releases until the 1933 trustees deed. When looking at lot 26 there are a lot of the same documents for lot 25.

The seeds of the 1933 trustees deed began with a May 1927 trust where the Duffeys borrow $4000 from trustees George F. Hane and William K. Hill. It was the May 1927 debt that was mentioned in the 1933 trustees deed, and the debt had grown to $4200.

And that’s how the Duffeys lost their home.

But who were the Duffeys?

John Robert Duffey was born March 6, 1874 in Boyds, MD to John H. Duffey and Maria J. Hackett. John married Mamie/Mattie A. Warren in 1892. In 1900 the Duffeys were living in Clarksburg, MD with their 3 children, Arthur C., John M. and Rubie E. John was working as a farm laborer to support the family.

They had moved by the 1910 census to Washington, DC where John was a driver and Mattie was a laundress. They lived somewhere called Drapers Court. Around 1917/1918 they moved to P St but lived at 53 P St NW, not 71. John was then working as a porter for a business called Browning and Middleton.

In the 1930 census, Ruby Duffey, was the head of household working as a teacher. Her 59 year old father John, and 36 year old brother Arthur were not employed. Her mother Mattie worked as a servant for a private family. They had a 16 year old lodger living with the family.

By 1940, public school teacher Ruby Duffey (also Duffy), her parents, and her other brother John Maynard Duffey rented a home at 1924 17th St NW. At that point in John and Mattie’s lives they were retired. Their son John was working as a skilled laborer for the city post office. Despite the loss of their home in 1933, the Duffeys had moved on.