Because the 1880 census was the first to have addresses, one of the few things the 1870 census could tell us about Horace Dyer, was that he was a 29 year old married illiterate Black man who worked as a porter in a store and lived in Washington, DC. He was born in Maryland around 1841, so there is a possibly that he was not born free.
He lived at 1402 1st St NW in 1880. His job was listed as 40 year old laborer. His wife Emily worked as a laundress, a kind of work a woman could do from home while caring for their 3 sons, Joseph (6), Phillip (3) and Theodore (1).
An 1890 city directory had him living at 119 O St NW. He also was listed as a fireman and had a middle initial “J”.
Something interesting happened between the 1870 and the 1900 census. According to the Ancestry family tree (take with a grain of salt) Emily/Emilia Galloway Dyer died in April 1886. November 1887, more than a whole year, he married Mary Jane Simmons, another laundress. He gained three daughters, Ida (19) from Emily and Lucinda (11) and Mary (7) from Mary Jane. He was a homeowner. He could read but he could not write. The census clarified he was a fireman for a store.
When he was 69 during the 1910 census he lived with his wife, who remained a laundress, even at the age of 55, two unmarried adult children and his 95 year old mother. Horace worked as a government fireman. The son under his roof, Phillip Augustus Dyer (32) worked as laborer. With the exception of his wife, all the other women in the household were not employed.
1402 1st St NW does not exist anymore. Armstrong sits and sat there. By 1917 he had moved to 1420 5th St NW, so his ownership would not show up in the online records of the Recorder of Deeds. But his ownership can be confirmed in the DC General Assessment 1902-1903. He owned a lot on Square 553, lot 4, West 19. If I am understanding it correctly, the home was 2,565 square feet and the lot was 770 sq. ft.
He died March 30, 1927. According to his obituary in the Evening Star, May Jane had already passed away. He was survived by his three sons, Joseph H., Phillip A., and Edward T. and three dollars Ida C. Duvall, and Lucinda C. and Cora E. Dyer. He was Roman Catholic and his requiem mass was at St. Augustine’s.
Thousands of people have lived in the Truxton Circle neighborhood for over 100 years and they have thousands of stories. 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.
Horace Dyer Ancestry-Library Edition Family Tree