December 2021 – Page 2 – Truxton Is In Shaw

Black Home Owners of Truxton Circle: Tena Jones- 219 Q St NW

In the 1920 census Tena Jones, an African American widow is listed as the owner of 219 Q St NW. She’s recorded as having a boarder, the 65 year old Hester Shelton.

However, looking at the land records it appears Hester Shelton was the actual owner.

From Plate 38 219 Q St NW, is one of those messy ones. The property no longer exists as the Northwest Cooperative sits there. Square 551 lot 8 is one of those properties where several other lots claim to be lot 8 too. Novella Gibson also owned what was part of old lot #8.

sigh

The first land record I can find in the Recorder of Deeds (1921-Present) is a trust (loan) from 1926 in Hester Shelton’s name. The next, a 1928 trust in Tena Jones’ name where the document says she is the sole heir of Hester Shelton. Hester died July 8, 1927. The Evening Star for July 10, 1927 revealed the relationship between Tena and Hester, they were sisters. Her funeral was at the Third Baptist Church.

There was another Shelton sister, Phyllis, who died December 13, 1927 and her address was listed as 219 Q St NW. Her funeral was held at Third Baptist Church.

Hester’s 1926 loan is paid or released in 1928. However the 1928 trust where Tena Jones borrowed $800 from trustees resulted in her losing the property. In 1931, there is a Trustees Deed. Tena Jones died May 8, 1929 at the age of 82 at Freedmen’s Hospital. Her, or her estate’s failure to pay the debt to the trustees resulted in the loss.

According to her death notice Tena Jones was survived by foster children Robert, Edward, Willie, and Dorothy Jones, Lillian Gibbs, and Ruby Plummer. Her funeral was at the Third Baptist Church.

Black Home Owners of Truxton Circle: Jerome Jenkyns- 1629 3rd St NW

In the 1920 census Jerome Jenkyns was listed as the owner of 1629 3rd St NW. He lived there with his wife Ellena, their two sons and a 83 year old lodger, Mary Ann Fletcher.

Jerome Sanna Jenkyns (Jenkins) was born March 10, 1879 in Washington, DC. In 1900 he lived with his adopted father Horace Mandoon and mother (?) Matilda and other relatives at 406 4th St NW. At that time he was 21 years old and attending school. He married Ellena Hawkins in 1906. Their first son Jerome Carlyle Jenkyns was born a few years later in 1910, and in 1913 Ernest Sanna Jenkyns. During WWI he worked as a Monotype Casting Machine Operator for the Government Printing Office. In 1930 Jerome was a chiropractor. But in 1940 he was back to working as a Machine operator.

They were at 1629 3rd St NW at least from World War I, 1917 to the 1920 census. Then the house number changes, maybe. In the 1930 census they are at 1641 3rd St NW, and the German immigrant Frank Glorius (unclear if he’s related to George Glorius) and his wife live at 1629 3rd St NW. Since none of the houses on the odd side of the 1600 block no longer exist, I’m not sure what was happening there. In 1940 the Jenkyns were still at 1641 3rd NW and a different family rented 1629 3rd St NW.

In the land records there wasn’t a whole lot of action. The first documents are from 1922 (please note the on-line records start around 1921) where Frederick L. and Marie T. Aue transferred the property (0551: 0028) to Jerome and Ellena Jenkyns. The Aue’s had owned the property back in 1911, so if they had an earlier arrangement with the Jenkyns it is not recognized in the paperwork. In November 1922 the Jenkyns obtained the property then took out a loan from the Northern Liberty Building Association. It appears the loan was for stock worth $1,500. That loan was repaid (release) in 1945. The last document was a 1972 deed with the Jenkyns sons selling the property to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA). That deed listed Earnest S. Jenkyns and his wife Ethel and unmarried Jerome C. Jenkyns as the sellers.

Ellena died May 8, 1948. Jerome died May 24, 1965. Ernest died September 1993. Jerome C. died June 1997.

Black Home Owners of Truxton Circle: Daniel Lewis- 229 Q St NW

Daniel Lewis was an African American laborer who worked for the government and owned his own home in the DC neighborhood currently known as Truxton Circle. According to the 1920 census, from where we start this series on Black home owners, he lived at 229 Q St NW with his wife Delia (nee Dodson), and 39 year old daughter Alice, who worked as a teacher.

Daniel was born around 1855 in Virginia to James Lewis and Phoebe Tinsley. Barely teenagers he and Delia Dodson were married in May of 1869 in Washington, DC. In 1880 Daniel and Delia, along with children James, Sarah and Alice, lived with Daniel’s parents at 422 Franklin St NW. In the 1900 census the Lewis family was living at 229 Q St NW, with Daniel as the owner.

Daniel must have died sometime around 1922, when his will went to probate court. 229 Q St NW was bequeathed to Delia, and after her death, to daughters Alice V. Lewis and Sarah T. Matthews, and granddaughter Violet J. Lewis. In the one related land record for Sq. 551 lot 9, is a October 22, 1938 deed listing Delia’s death date as December 23, 1932. The Mrs. Matthews, Miss Lewis, and Mrs. Violet J. Parker sold the property to Myrtle Trotter, who later sold it to Jacob and Fannie Non.

229 Q St NW, no longer exists. The Northwest Cooperative sits where it is now. It must have been a large property as it held 2-3 separate households at any given census.

As a side note, I found Alice V. Lewis, retiring from teaching in 1948. She taught at Giddings Elementary school (315 G St SE ) for 48 years.

In praise of the Envirocycle Composter

Sometimes you never know what you had until it is long gone and you can never get it back. That is how I feel about my-no-longer-mine Envirocycle composter.

Taking another break from the Black Home Owners of Truxton Circle, again. Face it, it’s long and tedious. Also rewarding. Anyway..

When I first moved to Truxton Circle, a co-worker (now department head) gave me his composter. He and his partner had no use for it. They lived a couple of miles where I live now in the Maryland suburbs. He was nice enough to throw it in the back of his truck and deliver it to my Truxton Circle home.

I dumped my old plants in it. I dumped some cherry tomatoes from a house warming party in it. That resulted in having accidental cherry tomatoes growing in the front yard. I put shredded paper from shredded documents in it.

I took earthworms found on the concrete patio in it. At another point I bought some earthworms in the mail and put them in. This resulted in the great worm escape on an unusually hot day where worms were oozing out of the slits en masse. It was a sight.

I used the compost tea and the compost for my container garden. I also donated compost for one of the sidewalk trees Brian and crew placed on 4th St. It was a lovely thing to have.

Did it stink? On occasion, when I failed to balance the ‘greens’ and the ‘browns’. The greens were the romaine lettuce butts, egg shells, whole avocados gone bad, remaining parts of avocados gone good, and all the raw veggies that were composting in the refrigerator. I’ll also include tea bags, loose tea, and lots of coffee grounds from nearby coffee shops, when the neighborhood starting having coffee shops.

The browns were the shredded papers, dryer lint, and maybe the odd batch of leaves.

I took it for granted.

When we decided to sell our Truxton Circle home I had to find a new home for the composter. By this time, 19 years had passed and around year 17-18 some urban wildlife tore a hole in the side.

I suspect it was the big bag of fruit I threw in there.

I put the composter on Freecycle, with pics of the hole, and a fellow with a pick up truck picked it up and took it away.

Fast forward 1 year.

I was in my new suburban home and getting tired of putting food scraps down the garbage disposal drain or in the trash. The place where we moved has a composting program, however, I wanted to get back into gardening, and I want my own compost, where I know what’s in the compost.

So I went looking for a new Envirocycle and holy heck those suckers are $500! I could buy similar tumbling composters and I really don’t need the feature that made it great for my urban back patio, the system that captured the compost tea and kept it from staining the concrete. But I really like the door for the composter. I like that all I had to do was turn the composter, no lever or having (but I did) to go in and turn the compost myself.

I don’t really like the new style of Envirocycle. The old model had several little slits, and this new one just has a vent at the top. I guess that would prevent the hole problem I experienced.

Since I’m not paying $500, I bought a $80 stationary composter. It’s eh. I’m just happy I’m not throwing perfectly good scraps away. I might break down and buy a tumbler. I just don’t see one that I like for a price that makes sense to me.

I miss my old Envirocycle. I guess you really can’t appreciate what you had until it is gone.

Black Home Owners of Truxton Circle: Harry R. Adams and the Twine connection- 135 P St NW

We first encountered Charles A. Twine in an earlier post when he lived at and owned 31 Q St NW. He doesn’t appear in the 1940 census, but appears around the 1940s to his death in 1950, he and his family lived with (or just in the home of) their in-laws, the Adams at 135 P St NW. Mamie/Mary Anne Twine, the sister of Charles A. Twine Sr. and the co-owner of 135 P NW, with her husband Harry Adams. I covered the Adams in another post.

While I was searching for information regarding Charles Twine, I found a couple of other Twines at 135 P St NW.

Ida Twine, was born in 1861 to Andrew and Martha Twine. Her mother’s name is different than Charles’ mom’s name, Carrie Thomas Twine. She married the Rev. Mungo Melanchthon Ponton (aka Rev. MM Ponton) around 1900 in Georgia. In MM Ponton’s memorial bio, Ida, his 2nd wife, is identified as Mrs. I. E. Upshaw, a public school teacher. In the April 1, 1948 Evening Star issue covering her death, she died at Freedmans Hospital but apparently lived at 135 P St NW.

Charles Twine’s son, Charles A. Twine Jr placed an ad in a September 28, 1941 Evening Star, listing his address as 135 P St NW. In the 1934 city directory Jr, was living at 135 P St NW while his parents were at 1361 Florida Ave NE.

In the Evening Star Charles is listed as a “Dr.” At some point in time he was a druggist. When he died in 1950 135 P St NW was mentioned as his residence. His family, his sister Mamie Adams (owner of 135), and children Mildred T. Braxton, Charles Jr and Edward Twine, placed an ad in the Evening Star on the anniversary of his death for at least eight years. They referred to him as Dr.