In a previous post we looked at filmmaker Eloyce Gist, in this post, she is Mayme K. Patrick-Gist. Same woman, but as a home owner.
Looking in the 1930 census, Mayme King Patrick was an African American beautician, who owned her own shop, and owned her own home. According to the 1933-1934 General Assessment, Mayme King Patrick owned lot 167 on square 551. Since it is square 551, the house no longer exists.
Mayme Eloyce King was born in Galvaston County, Texas October 21, 1892 to Josephine Beavers and Walter Louis King, a farmer. She was the eldest of their seven children. In 1912 she gave birth to her daughter Homoiselle Vivian Patrick, the father was a library janitor, Roscoe C. Patrick. By the 1920 census, Mayme had moved to DC and was living as a roomer on 6th St and working as a hairdresser. In the 1930 census, she lived with 3 lodgers and listed her daughter as her 16 year old sister.
People are complicated. Life is complicated.
So let’s look at the story the Recorder of Deeds’ records tell about Mrs. King. The first record is from 1922, transferring the land from Carrie N. Mills to Walter L. King and his daughter Mayme King Patrick. The family, father, mother and adult daughter Mayme, borrowed $4,500 from trustees and $3,340 owed to Ms. Mills. I am loathed to look at the permits to see if they were building up a commercial building for her business. This was almost where R meets Florida Avenue and Sq. 551 was a commercial block.
Maybe her parents were just co-signers. In 1923 they transferred the property to her. She borrowed various amounts small and large, but mostly large during the 1920s from individual trustees. In 1934, papers revealed a name change (Mayme King Gist) and she began borrowing from an institution, $6,367.10 from the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation.
In 1932 she married James E. Gist in Philadelphia. Despite this, he does not show up in the land records. The 1940 census has a Arthur W. Gist listed as the head of 134 R St NW. They are both listed as photographers.
People are complicated and this chick is very complicated.
In 1939 she married a man 17 years her junior, Arthur Clifton Wood in Prince William County, VA.
In 1942 she borrowed $5000 from the Perpetual Building Association. And again in 1944, but she remains as Mayme King Gist. Then $6000 in 1945, followed by $6,900 in 1946 by Perpetual. There is more borrowing and repayment with others in addition to Perpetual in the 1940s and early 1950s.
There is no explanation of how or why her name changed once again to Mayme King Slaughter in 1953 documents. She married John William Slaughter in 1952, they separated a few years later, and eventually divorced in the 1970s. She is the sole entity mentioned in the records. No pesky husband gets attached to the records. She only used this name with one set of trustees, Ernest T and John H. Eiland, for loans in the early 1950s. Not sure what that was all about.
The last record for lot 167, is a loan from 1964 from trustees and here the trail ends for this lot.
Wandering back to one of several family trees on Ancestry.com, Mayme’s story ends in July 1974 in Atlantic City, NJ. Her daughter Homoiselle P. Harrison, died in the District of Columbia at the age of 87, January 18, 2000.