This is a post for something in the future, so I will try to be vague, as not to ‘spoil’ that post. While doing some research for a Truxton Circle house, I came across a couple who appeared to have been in an interracial marriage. They were married well before Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which was used to outlaw the Loving’s marriage in the case of Virginia v. Loving. However, I discovered, with this family, race can be a fluid and changing thing.
Hester DeaN
Hester Dean was born January 28, 1868 to Catharine Morgan and Robert Dean in Delaware. Her parent’s history was recorded for the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians of New Jersey in 1980, from an early 1940s source. That history intertwines with the Seeney’s history and American Seventh Day Adventist history.
In the 1870 census the Dean family were living in Kenton, Delaware and listed as ‘White’. This is the opinion of the census taker, so they were either White or white-passing. From an oral history Catharine’s mother was a White woman.
In the following 1880 census, the Dean family was then considered to be ‘mullato’ by the census enumerator. Catharine had remarried and she and the children, including Hester, were living under the headship of William A. Carney. For the Civil War Draft, Mr. Carney was listed as Black and was in the USCT in the 32nd U.S. Colored Infantry, where he was considered mulatto.
By the 1900 census Hester was married and the Delaware census taker considered the family to be Black. She and Frederick has been married since about 1888, She had 9 children, 7 survived and were living with her. 1910 they still had 7 children living with them, three of them were 10 and under.
The Seeney family lived in Alexandria, VA during the 1920 census. The census taker decided the family was White.
By the 1930 census the Seeneys were in Washington, DC on Douglas Street, but not in Truxton Circle. They had owned a TC property from 1920 to 1922. In this census they were considered Black again. In 1930 Hester was a widow living with her 41 year old son, painter, Fred A. and 13 year old grandson Donald A. Durham. In 1940 she was still at 4446 Douglas St NE with son Fred A. and daughter, public school waitress, Sophie Luckett and her three children.
Hester Seeney died in 1948 in Delaware. She had 11 children. Some predeceased her such as five year old Myrtle Seeney who died of scarlet fever in 1902. (Dolly Neslie Seeney born and died in 1892- I cna’t find evidence of her existence). Paul Russell Seeney of typhoid fever (1900-1918); Marella Durham of Braddock Heights-Alexandria, wife of William died Nov. 1918. Her remaining children were Herbert Benjamin Seeney (1883-1969) Frederick Aubrey Seeney (1888-1953?); Harold E. Seeney (1889-1950); James Clifford Seeney (1892-1965); Sophia Luckett (1901-1987); and Orville Osborn Seeney (1903-1969).
Frederick “Fred” Harold Seeney Sr.
Hester’s husband, Fred H. Seeney was born March 12, 1865 in Kenton Hundred, Delaware to Sarah Sallie/Sally Clark and James Seeney.
The Encyclopedia of Seventh-Day Adventists sums up how the census viewed Fred’s race: “Fred was identified as “mulatto” in the 1870 census, “black” in 1900, and finally as “white” in 1920”. They skipped 1910 where he was ‘mulatto.’ Take a look at his photo. Is he passing? Does he look White? Honestly, I think he looks more Latino than anything else.
For most of his life he was a farmer in Delaware. His biography on the 7th Day Adventists site delves more into his growth as a pastor. In 1902 he came to Washington, DC to assist Lewis C. Sheafe in the Spring and Summer. He came back to DC in 1916 and expressed his frustration with racial segregation in the church. It appears he helped established a break away from the People’s Church, Ephesus, which is currently Dupont Park Church. In 1917 he was transferred to the First Seventh Day Adventists Church which is currently at 810 Shepherd Street NW. He went back to Ephesus Church in 1923, but had to remove himself to battle with cancer, a battle he lost in 1925.
This was a racially ambiguous family. Poking around with Fred and Hesters parents, they could be considered White one moment and mulatto another. I’m using the term ‘mulatto’ because that is what’s on the census and the other documents. There’s another website claiming Native American connections that I have not seen in the historical record.
Daughter Adeline Marella Durham died in 1918. On her death certificate “Color” is scratched out and replaced with Moor. She may have identified with the Moors of Delaware. Her husband William Henry Durham Sr. was referred to as “colored” at the time of his death in 1924. Another curious thing on her death certificate, the cause of death is lobar pneumonia and just under that something that looks like “abortion”. The secondary cause of death was influenza.
James Seeney married Mrs. Ina Hurd in 1931, the same year his first wife died. In the Michigan marriage certificate he is listed as White. However in the 1930 census, he and his family are listed as Black. His daughter, Sallie Louise Artis, when looking at her image could be Black or White. Her brother Dr. James Harold Seeney Sr. could also pass as well.
Frederick Aubrey Seeney Jr. on his World War I draft registration form listed his race as “Morro”. I have no idea what that is. For WWII’s draft he was Black. If the photo on the left is accurate, then he too was racially ambiguous.
With all the poking around I did not see any records relating to their Native American heritage. I have, with other people, stumbled over the odd mention or inclusion on a tribal census. But not with this family. I am not doubting their Native heritage, just pointing out that I didn’t find anything.
This is getting long so I will leave it here.