Thousands of people have lived in the Truxton Circle neighborhood for over 100 years and they have thousands of stories.
John Johnson. I don’t have much hope with a name that common, but let’s see what pops up. A John Johnson shows up in my Truxton Circle Census spreadsheet.
The first John Johnson shows up in the 1900 census as a boarder of Warner Snowden at 113 Reeves Street, which was an alley where the Co-op exists today. He was a 24 year old Black male born January 1876 in Virginia and worked as a day laborer. This John Johnson possibly died on October 6, 1911. The 1911 John Johnson was 35, so about the right age.
He couldn’t have been the John Johnson who lived at 6 P Street NW in 1920, because 1920 John Johnson was White and a DC native. 1920 John Johnson was a married journeyman carpenter who lived with his widowed mother. His parents were immigrants. His father was from Holland and his mother from Germany. His mother Rosa B. Johnson previously was listed as a homeowner in the 1910 census.
The last John Johnson, 1940s John Johnson is the ghost of 1900 John Johnson because he’s living on Reeves Court, on the same block where the Northwest Co-op sits. 1940 John Johnson was a Black 64 year old Virginian lodger who worked as a laborer for the W.P.A. making about $640 a year. The 1940 John Johnson was married to a 38 year old Mabel.
I don’t think these are the same guys, but I could be wrong about 1900 and 1940 John Johnsons.
The goal of the Truxton Circle History Project is to find every man, woman, and child who lived in the neighborhood using every available source. The Project uses the 1880-1950 censuses, the power of Ancestry and every other online resource to discover and uncover neighborhood history.