Truxton Is In Shaw

In this segment of Black Home Owners of Truxton Circle we have a house where the lot number has changed. I went to look for one of those DCRA photos of the house from 2004, there was none. When I plugged the square and lot number (SSL: 0617 0224) into the DC Recorder of Deeds database, it doesn’t go any further back than 1951. So then I need to hunt down the original lot number, and it appears to be lot number 169. That only goes as far back as 1950 and it appears the property actually belongs the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company.

Okay.

I just looked up Hamilton Rucker and could not find that name associated with any property.

So I looked at the 1902-1903 General Assessment. Lots on square 617 (bounded by O, 1st, N, North Cap and NY Ave) from 169 to 183 and more were owned by George M. Sternberg et al and trustees, which was the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC). Doctor Brigadier General Sternberg was on the board of the WSIC.

WSIC owned a great number of properties in Truxton Circle. That’s another post. But did Hamilton Rucker own 42 O St NW, Imma gonna say no. This was not exactly a dead end because I got to talk about the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company and it only plays a part in my eventual deep dive into the WSIC, as I have warned.

In this post of Black Home Owners of Truxton Circle I go all over this great United States of America, chasing down William Foster Turner and his wife Minnie Lee Turner. Okay I just go out West, but I had to wander pass the Mississippi.

In 1920 William F. Turner was an African American government clerk who lived and owned 107 P St NW with his wife Minnie. He was born on October 2, 1874 in the state of Arkansas. In July 1899 he married Minnie Lee Slaughter, the daughter of James and Sarah Slaughter, a barber and laundry woman in White County, Arkansas. They lived with a lodger, another clerk, named Joseph H. Goldsby.

The farthest back I can find the Turners is in the 1900 Census where the twenty something couple was living in Indian Territory. Seriously, where the form says state, the census has Indian Territory. They lived in a town called Wagoner, and maybe that’s Wagoner, OK. William was a teacher. They lived with Minnie’s brother, Edward (Eddie) Slaughter, a 21 year old day laborer.

In 1910 they were living back in Searcy, Arkansas with Minnie’s widowed mother and her 35 year old brother Will H. In Arkansas, William was a government clerk. It’s not clear if he was working for the Census Bureau or the Commerce Department.

The earliest record I can find of the Turners in Washington, DC at 107 P St NW, is William’s World War I registration in 1917/1918. At the time he was working as a clerk for the US Patent Office.

Something happened.

Yes, that’s history, something happening. But something happened and it appears William Turner moved to Denver, CO without Minnie. In the 1930 census William F. Turner lived with his sister Lulu, brother Forrest W., their father Benjamin, and the Pinkett niece and nephews. He was working as a salesman for a publishing company. He is reunited with Minnie by the 1940 census, where they are living in Denver, CO together alone.

Was losing the house the thing that happened? Because that happened. The on-line land records go back to 1921 and the earliest record is a 1923 trust between the Turners and the Columbia Building Association for $3000. I’m just going to skip to the end. In 1930 the Turners borrowed $715.00 at 7% interest, through trustees Raymond D and F Thomas Evans. In 1931, the Evans foreclosed because the Turners defaulted on the loan. They advertised in the Washington Herald that they would sell to the highest bidder.

The Turners died in 1966 in Colorado. They are buried with William’s brother Forrest W. Turner in Denver.

Welcome to the Black Home Owners of Truxton Circle series. In this series, I pick the name of a Black home owner from the 1920 census who lived in Truxton Circle, and try to track their life in this DC neighborhood.

The 1920 Census poses a question, because there is the main Charles Cummings, a sailor, who lived at 105 P St NW with his wife Sallie, his brother-in-law Roger B. Griffin, and lodgers, Mr. James and Mrs. Ollie Brown. And another Charles Cummings, a 42 year old married cook on a US Naval ship, in the Navy Yard, of a name I cannot make out. Are these the same guy? It is very possible he was counted twice. It wouldn’t have been the first person I found who was counted twice.

Doesn’t matter much because he died August 6, 1927.

The DC Recorder of Deeds land records go back to 1921. When looking at 105 P St NW (Sq. 552 lot 186) the records don’t have a lot of Chuck in it. The first record is a trust (borrowing money) from August 28, 1928, between Charles’ widow Sallie R. Cummings and trustees associated with the Columbia Building Association for the sum of $1,500. It is in that document that it is mentioned that and when Charles Cummings died. This debt was paid in 1940.

The following document was a September 1928 release acknowledging payment for a debt taken out by Charles and Sallie R. Cummings in 1918.

Sallie borrowed money again in 1939 from trustees for the amount of $960.00. This debt was paid off in 1943.

In a 1967 trust the document mentioned that Sallie R. Cummings had passed away and Clarence E. Smith inherited the property. Who was Clarence E. Smith? No idea. In the 1967 document he owed $2,125 to Century Investors Inc.

I’m not sure what happened because the next document is from May 1971 and it transfers the property from the American Security and Trust Company to George Basiliko. Two months later there is a release for Clarence E. Smith for the 1967 debt. Once again. I’m not sure what just happened.

But that is not the last time the Cummings and Mr. Smith appear.

In November of 1971 Clarence E. Smith, a divorced man, signed a trust document, for the consideration of $14,000 to transfer the property to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA). In this document we’re given Sallie’s death date, September 2, 1964, as well as Charles’ death date. Like before, I’m not sure what was going on there.

The following document for the property is a contract for a whole slew of Truxton Circle properties written up by RLA. I should investigate it. But not now. Because I’d need to do some research about what the hell the city was up to in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

 

Sometimes when I take a name of an African American homeowner from the 1920 census for Truxton Circle, I go down a fun little rabbit hole that has me staying up way past my bedtime. This is not one of those incidents.

Walter R. Carter doesn’t have a lot of interesting info in Ancestry about him.

There are a lot of Walter Carters in DC in the time period I’m looking. In 1910, according to the city directory, Walter R. Carter was a clerk at the ??? Post Office Department? (whatever p o d is) and living at 214 D St NW. In 1916 he was a clerk in the Treasury department, living at 110 F St NW. But in 1917, same address, same department but a messenger instead of being a clerk. But in the 1919 city directory there were 2 Walter R. Carters, the clerk on F St with the IRS and a messenger at 111 P St NW with the Treasury department.  Too many Walter R. Carters.

So let’s go to our source. In the 1920 census, Walter R. Carter, 40, born in Alabama and working as a clerk, lived with his 24 year old wife Beatrice H. Carter, who also worked for the government (but I can’t tell what she did) and a 21 year old lodger a seamstress from Texas,  Minta McGill.

The 1930 census just confused things. There was another Walter Carter in 1930, who lived on P St with his wife Beatrice, however, it was a completely different Walter, because back at 111 P St NW, Walter R. Carter was a divorced man, living with a couple from North Carolina, the Sanders, as his renters. The other Walter Carter, married to a different Beatrice (different ages), was from Virginia and worked as a chauffeur for a private family. The other Walter lived on the next block at 53 P St NW. I wonder if they knew of each other.

So what say the land records? Well we can see the Carters’ divorce reflected, though they don’t say it in so many words. The online land records start around 1921, the first records related to this property start in 1931 with a release. There should be a record of the 1927 trust (or debt) taken with trustees Melvin F. Bergmann, Louis C. Dismer and Charles W. Schafer, but I don’t see it. I see the name Bergmann appearing often in these land records… I should follow up on that one day. Beatrice H. Carter’s name appears on a few releases, acknowledgement of payment of debts, from 1934. But a trust, borrowing money, from 1934 for $1000, with trustees F Thomas Evans and Herman Miller, has him borrowing the money without Beatrice. In a 1935 release for a 1934 debt, the document states that Walter R. Carter is an unmarried man.

In 1946 Walter R. Carter sold the property to Ida Owens, who happened to be married to Hance Lee Vance Owens, for $5000.

The census sometimes steers you wrong. This is the series where I look at the 1920 census for African American home owners in the Truxton Circle neighborhood. The census said he lived at 1653 New Jersey Avenue NW, but when I looked at the land records, no Lomax. Thankfully, I can search by name.

In the name search for Mr. Ernest E. Lomax, I discovered he owned his home at 1627 NJ Ave NW (SSL: 0509E 0013), as well as 1726 Montello Ave NE (SSL: 4053 0017), 1110? 1st St NW (0557 0035- currently a greenspace), 409 H St NW (SSL:0517 0803), and lots somewhere in NE DC close to Eastern Ave and Hunt Pl NE (SSL: 5204 0020).

In 1910 Ernest and his son Herbert Lomax lived at 211 G St NW, without any other family there. Ernest was a widowed tinner at the time but later became a plumber. According to the 1919 city directory the family was at 1627 New Jersey Ave NW. There Ernest was a plumber working for Swann & Lomax, living with his new and younger wife Mamie, and a family of in-laws the Downings. In 1930 the Downings and Lomax remained at 1627 NJ.

The available land records start around 1921 and there are a number of trusts and releases between 1922 and 1937 between Ernest Lomax and the Washington Loan and Trust Company. In 1941 Lomaxs transferred the property to Phoebe E. Tyrrell, who later in 1946 transferred the property back to Mamie M. Lomax, and her male relatives, Edward H. , Elmer H. and Leon E. Downing. In another 1946 deed, we are told Mamie was a widow and Ernest had died.

In 1960, Elmer H. Downing sold the property to Sidney and Jean Blanken. In that deed, it’s revealed that Edward Downing died May 27, 1960 and Mamie Lomax died October 18, 1949.

A 1949 deed from his H St property gave a number of death dates. The widow of Herbert Lomax, Gertrude, sold the property to Minnie Shapiro. Herbert Lomax died January 25, 1949. Ernest’s first wife and Herbert’s mother, Louise, died November 21, 1909. Ernest Lomax died April 17, 1941.

The goal of this exercise is to pull the names of Black home owners from the 1920 census and explore what I could find.

Sadly, the name in the census doesn’t match up with the name in the DC Recorder of Deeds on-line records site. I double checked the census page, tried variations of the spelling and just searching for the surname. Nothing.