people – Truxton Is In Shaw

Truxton Resident- Louis J. Graser (1875-1955) 140A Q St NW

Louis John Graser was born the son of German immigrants, Christian and Catherine Graser on November 6, 1875 in Washington, DC. Looking at his parents’ ages from the 1880 census, when the family lived at the edge of Shaw, he may have been a surprise baby. His mother would have been about 42 years old, many years after many women’s fertility window had closed.

In 1899 Louis married Nellie Harleston in the District of Columbia. The couple lived with Nellie’s family in 1900 on the 1200 block of 6th St NW. Louis worked as a tailor.

Louis was able to support his wife and their son on a tailor’s wages and live at 140A Q St NW in one of the WSIC homes for White tenants by 1910. Nellie kept house while Louis worked at a shop on F St downtown.

140 Q St NW

It was more of the same for the 1920 census. Louis worked as a tailor for wages. Nellie kept house, and their son Gordon (17) lived with them as their only child. But Gordon being on the edge of manhood was gone by the 1930 census.

Gordon between 1920 and 1930 had become a clerical member of the Episcopal church. In 1938 he was the rector for Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Anacostia. When he received a new appointment in 1940 to Holy Trinity in Melbourne, FL his parents followed him. In the 1940 census, Gordon was the head of household, over his sixty-some year old parents. Louis was still tailor, but had been unemployed for several weeks.

When World War II broke out and there was a draft, Gordon was in Buffalo, NY. According to his registration his mother was living with him. So from that we can assume his father Louis also lived with him in the St. Anthony rectory.

Gordon had relocated both his parents earlier when living in Yakima, Washington in 1935. So it seems fair to say the unmarried Gordon was supporting his parents in their old age.

In 1950 Gordon L. Graser was the priest for a church in Denver, CO and had his parents, Louis and Nellie with him. They lived, most likely, in the rectory with a hired hand, David Romero. At this point in his life Louis was 74 years old and unable to work.

According to an obituary in the Evening Star, Louis J. Graser died on a Monday on May 9, 1955 in Long Island, NY. He was survived by his wife and their son the Rev. Gordon Louis Graser.

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.

Truxton Resident- Frank H. Payne (1878-1942) North Cap and Bates St NW

Frank H. Payne was born November 27, 1877 or 1878 or Nov 7 1881 in Washington, DC to Laura Hill and Charles Payne.

Frank first appears in Truxton Circle in 1900 at 1308 North Capitol St NW. He was listed a being a single 21 year old plumbers apprentice. He lived with his widowed mother, adult siblings, one sister Fannie and 2 brothers and a boarder. Noticeably, a few doors down lived some other Paynes.

In 1905 he married Mary Matthews, the daughter of Irish immigrants.

In the 1910 census he was living with his wife Mary, not in Truxton Circle. He was 31 years old and working as a shop plumber.

In 1920 he was back in Truxton living in the WSIC rental homes set aside for White tenants at 202 Bates St NW. At this point in his life he was still a plumber. This time the couple had two daughters, 9 year old Helen and 8 year old Loretta.

In 1930 Frank was 52 years old and still working as a plumber. His adult daughters were still living with him. In 1931 while still living at home and working as a clerk, daughter Helen got married in NY state to drug clerk Francis X. Richardson, who also lived in DC.

By the 1940 census Frank Payne had moved out of Truxton and was living on the 100 block of Rhode Island Ave NE. It appears he had retired and the only one working in the household was remaining daughter Loretta who was a stenographer. Their lodger Franklin Cole was 6 years old, so he too was unemployed.

December 28, 1942 Frank Payne died. He was survived by his wife Mary E. Payne, and daughters Loretta M. Payne and Helen E. Richardson.

Truxton Resident- Grace Jones (1896-unk) 1st and P St NW

Am I just looking for Truxton residents who share names with famous people? Maybe.

Famous Grace Jones starred opposite Roger Moore in View to A Kill. To my knowledge she never stepped foot in the neighborhood.

The Truxton Circle Grace L. Jones was born as Grace Louise Butler, daughter of Henry and Josephine Butler in DC August 1896. In 1910 the family lived in Truxton Circle at 304 P St NW. Her father was a driver for the government. Her mother was a cook at a cafe. She was was 13 years old and an only child.

She married George Jones when she was 20 years old in April 1917. The 1920 showed that she lived at a second unit in 304 P St NW with her husband George who worked as a messenger for the government. Grace worked as a cleaner for Pullman cars.

By the 1930 census the couple moved to 1532 1st St NW. Grace was still cleaning railway cars. Her husband worked as a laborer for the government. She had her mother living with them, but they were not supporting her, as her 50 year old mother worked as a government charwoman. They also had a male lodger who worked as a messenger.

In 1940 it was just Grace and her mother Josephine. Her husband George was not in the home at the time. George died in 1941.

And that’s where the trail ends. Unless she was White Passing and wound up in a rooming house in Baltimore in 1950. Being the only child of her parents and not having any children, the chance of someone reporting her death to the papers was lower. From her husband’s obituary, I did not get the sense that they were plugged into a greater community that would have marked her passing.

Truxton Resident- Richard Jones (1887-1966) P St & New Jersey Ave NW

Richard Raymond Jones was born March 5, 1887 to Robert A. and Ellin Jones in Washington, DC. He first appeared in Truxton Circle in the 1900 census as a 13 year old student. He and his family lived at 310 P St NW. He may have attended one of the schools along P St for African American students.

He first appears in Truxton Circle in the 1900 census at 310 P St NW at the age of 13. His occupation was “student” he lived in the house his parents rented with his two older sisters and three brothers. His father was a store porter and his mother worked as a laundress. The work of a laundress allowed women to work from home.

In the next census the family was still at 310 P St. He was an adult living at home. He was a single man working as a driver for a bakery. His father was still a porter, but for a drug store this time and his mother had apparently retired from outside work. Richard lived with his 30 maiden sister Emma who worked as a servant, his elder brother Robert (26) who worked as a baker in a bakery, younger brother George (19) who was an “elevator boy” and sister-in-law Sarah (25) who kept house.

In the 1910 census he was listed as being single, however marriage records say different. According to the DC Marriage Index, he married Lessie M. Brown in September 1908. He’s noted as married with 2 children on his World War I draft registration. On that card his address is 312 P St NW, next door to his parents.

By the 1920 census he had relocated to 1637 New Jersey Avenue NW, still in Truxton Circle. At this point in his life he was working as a laborer for the Navy Yard. His wife was at home with their 2 year old daughter. It seems that at least one child died or relocated between WWI and 1920. He also housed his 50 year old mother in law Alice Brown who worked as a servant.

The last time Mr. Jones appears in Truxton Circle in the census is 1930. Still on NJ Ave NW, in the same house. He was a truck driver for a trucking company. His wife continued to keep house going my her other name Mary instead of Lessie. Living under his roof was his daughters Dorothy A. (21) and Venola L. (13) and two year old son Raymond R. For some reason, Dorothy was over at 219 Q St NW living with relatives in 1920.

By the 1940s Richard had relocated to Morris Rd SE in a house he owned, his days of renting over. And there he lived with his new wife Estelle Watts Jones, a waitress, and his 12 year old son Richard (Raymond?). Mary Lassie Jones died September 21, 1933 at their home on New Jersey Ave. Her funeral was held at the Third Baptist Church.

According to the Ancestry family tree, Richard Raymond Jones died March 22, 1966 in Washington, DC.

Truxton Resident- Thomas Jefferson (1887-1977) O St, maybe Hanover Pl NW

Not the third POTUS and founding father. Just a Black man who lived in Truxton Circle. With a name like his there is a limit concerning information with high certainty it is the same guy.

Thomas Jefferson, like the famous one, was born in Virginia. More specifically, he was born September 17, 1887 in Gordonsville, VA. His parents might have been John and Kate Jefferson. It appears he was one of over half a dozen children.

There’s another Thomas Jefferson born around the same time from Pennsylvania who confuses things. In 1910 Thomas Jefferson may have been in Pittsburgh, PA as a 25 year old laborer working in a car barn. He was living with his aunt and uncle. Or in January 1910 a 22 year old Thom Jefferson married a 19 year old Emma Tucker in Washington, DC. The TJ who married Emma was the Truxton TJ.

A 1917 World War I registration card has Thomas Jefferson living at 20 O St NW. He was 29 years old and was captain of the bell-boys at the Cosmos Club. In the 1920 census Thomas and Emma Jefferson lived at 20 O St with their niece Lillie Mae Morgan. TJ was working as a messenger for the Treasury Department. Emma did not work outside of the home. Their 20 year old niece worked as a waitress at a candy store.

In 1930 he was still a messenger for the Treasury Department. He and wife Emma were still on the unit block of O Street, but the census has them at 14A O St NW. It was just them, Lillie Mae moved on. They may have still been at 14A O Street NW in 1940 but the census sheet makes it look like they were at 14A Hanover Pl. Thomas was 52 and still working as a messenger. A few years later, at the age of 54, when filling out his registration card for WW2, he was at 14A O St NW.

The 1950 census and a cryptic notation on the World War II registration card marked a change in vocations. He went from being a messenger to file clerk for the Public Buildings Administration. He and Emma were still in the upstairs unit of 14 O St NW.

Thomas Jefferson was always a renter on O St NW. But looking for him and his wife there’s a record around 1951 of the couple owning part of Square 3025 lot 43, 4122 8th St NW with another couple. According to the Social Security Death Index his last known zip code was 20011 when he died in September 1977.

Truxton Resident- Ella Freeman (1860-1936) 3rd and 4th St NW

We have touched upon Mrs. Freeman in Truxton Resident- Benjamin Freeman 1893-1977- 1st, 3rd, R Sts NW as the mother of Ben Freeman. This post focuses on Ella Freeman.

Ella/Ellen Wheeler was born in Virginia around 1860-1861, around about the time of the American Civil War. It is not clear if her parents were free Blacks or not. The 1870 census showed the family living in Washington, DC with 43 year old Henry Wheeler, a laborer, as the head and his 37 year old wife (Ella’s assumed mother) at home with Ella (9) and sister Mary (12).

By the next census Ella had more sisters. In 1880, the census where addresses start to be recorded, her family lived on the 1000 block of 4th St NW, outside of Truxton. Henry & Louisa were the parents of 6 daughters. Ella and Mary were in their 20s, and their sisters were elementary aged. There was an eleven year gap between Ella (20) and Minnette (9), and an eighteen year gap between Ella and the youngest, two year old Lillie L.

In 1881 she married Charles Freeman.

She and her husband first appear in Truxton Circle in the 1910 census living at 1609 4th St NW. At this point she was 50 years old and this census asked how many children had she had and how many survived. She had eight children and only five survived. The house was full. She lived with her husband Charles, who worked as a messenger, 17 year old son Benjamin, 15 yo son Earle, along with her married daughter’s family, her 6 yo grandson, and a “lodger” Estelle Wheeler, who may have been her sister or other relative.

The 1920 census had the family at 1609 3rd St NW. The house was less crowded with Ella and Charles, 29 yo daughter Anna Williams, her 16 year old grandson, and a 33 year old lodger, Dr. A.J. Bacote. The good Dr. was working as a Pullman porter.

The next census doesn’t provide any clue if they actually moved from 1609 4th to 1609 3rd, because they were at 1623 3rd St NW. In 1930 Ella lived with just 3 other family members. Her husband Charles was still a messenger at 67 years old. The two other family members were her daughter Anna Williams and grandson Robert Williams.

From all the census records, it appears that Ella did not work outside of the home. However the census is spotty with 1890 missing and she not appearing in the 1900 census. She was not recorded in the same house as husband Charles who was living with family outside of the TC on the 1000 block of 4th St NW. It’s possible she may have held a job elsewhere at points in her life.

She died June 30, 1936 at her home at 131 T St NW. She was survived by her husband, two sons Alfonso and Benjamin. Her son Earl died in 1929, at the time of his death he lived with his parents and was a widower. Daughter Anna Williams died in 1933. Ella’s funeral was celebrated at the Third Baptist Church and she was buried at Harmony Cemetery.

Truxton Resident- Harry Mudd (1927-1986) 1415 3rd St NW

Roger C. Carmel as Harry Mudd (1966)- Star Trek TOS

Not Harry Mudd from the original Star Trek series featured in the episode “Mudd’s Women.” That Harry Mudd was a fictional pimp. The Truxton Circle Harry Mudd was a real live person who walked the streets of Truxton Circle, laid his head down in a bed on 3rd Street NW and may have attended school somewhere on P St NW. And TC Harry Mudd was an African American child, not a swarthy White guy dressed like an Aussie pirate.

Hewitt Harry Mudd was born March 5, 1927 in New York City (or DC depending on the document) the son of Blanch E. Malvin and Harry H. Mudd, about 1 month after they married. He first appears in the TC at his aunt’s home at 1415 3rd St NW in 1930. It was a gynocentric home with his aunt, Bessie Taylor a stenographer, his mom a maid, his 60 year old grandmother Sarah Malvin, and female cousins Blanche (8) and Marguerite (6). Were they Mudd’s Women? He was three so he ruled them with whatever cuteness a toddler could muster.

He was still at 1415 3rd St, revealed to be the family home with his father as the head in 1940. His father Harry Mudd (Sr?) was a 60 year old railroad machinist helper. His mother worked as a charwoman for the federal government. Harry was 13 at the time. He lived with his cousins Blanche (18) and Dorotha (16)(Marguerite??) Anderson, Doris Marshall (9) and Ernestine Wingfield (2), along with two female lodgers.

He remained in the house in 1950 as a married man and father. In January of 1949 HH Mudd married Lavinia Marie Phillips. By the time of the census, Mudd was a 23 year old stock clerk. His wife stayed at home with their 1 year old Hewitt the II and infant Jerry J. HH’s parents were still working as a charwoman and railway machinist.

The house was owned by family members. Sarah Malvin, Blanche Mudd’s mother Hewitt’s grandmother, owned the property with Hewitt Harry’s maternal great-aunt, Bessie Taylor. In 1937, Malvin, Blanche Mudd and her daughters Blanche Mudd and Margie Davenport were the owners of 1415 3rd St NW. In 1939, after the death of Sarah Malvin in 1938, the sisters borrowed $1,300 from the Perpetual Building Assoc. In 1946, the sisters changed the ownership to the Mudd family, so that Blanche, Hewitt H. and Harry Mudd. So eventually, Harry became a Black home owner via inheritance. The Mudd men sold the property in 1962 to Talley R. Holmes after Blanche’s death.

H. Harry Mudd died October 31, 1986.

Truxton Resident- William H. King (1889-1952) 140 Q St NW

William Harrison King was born January 18, 1889 in Washington, DC to John S. King and Katie/Catherine Turpin. He was born into a White working class family. His father was a day laborer in 1900 when John King was 50 years old and he was one of seven children. By 1910, Wm’s father had died and he was 21 years old, working as a driver and living with his widowed mother and two teenaged siblings.

He married Emma A. Van Horn and it is in 1917 when the couple shows up at 140 Q St NW in Truxton Circle with the World War I draft registration. In that registration he claimed to support his wife and mother. Census-wise he and Emma appear with his father in law William C. van Horn in the 1920 census. At the time William was working as a salesman for a bakery. The house was one of the Washington Sanitary Improvement Co. homes for White tenants. Based on his obituary, the bakery was probably the National Biscuit Company, which is currently known as Nabisco. He sold National Biscuit Co. products to local groceries in the DC area. By 1930 the couple lived alone. They had no children.

They moved from Truxton Circle to 613 Hamilton St NW and recorded as living there for the 1940 census. In 1952 he died at the age of 62.

Truxton Resident- Robert Brown (1910-unk) Rhode Island and O St NW

Brown. This is a very common name and he is one of two Robert Browns in Truxton Circle. So lets do this thing with the 1910 Robert Brown.

According to my spreadsheet Robert Brown (1910) lived in Truxton Circle in 1920 and 1940. In 1920 a 10 year old Robert Brown was living with his grandparents Arthur and Hannah Bush at 216 O St NW. It was a full house, in addition to the grandparents, there was his uncle Charles Bush and possible mother Gertrude Brown and brother Albert Brown. Then in 1940 he was a lodger at 408 Rhode Island Avenue NW. Both Robert Browns were African American born in the District of Columbia.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear the family was stable and I cannot trace him in time. It doesn’t help that he had a common name.

Black Homeowners of TC- William H. Despert (1875-1956) 139 P St NW

William Henry Despert was born April 1st, 1875 in Washington, DC. He managed to avoid the 1880 census so he first shows up in the 1900 census living in Shaw at 456 N St NW with his wife Bertha and 4 year old daughter Beatrice. He worked as a huckster supporting his family.

In the 1910 census there was a divorced William H. Despert living over on Oakdale Pl living with alone with an unemployed woman lodger, Emma Green. At this point in his life he was a Pullman porter.

According to Land Transfer Books, 1900-1962 held at the DC Public Library he purchased 139 P St NW with wife Emma Green Despert April 24, 1918. When the census came around two years later, 45 year old William the porter was living with wife Emma and her son/ his step-son Herbert G. Green, a 22 year old chauffeur. The 39 year old Emma worked as a hair dresser.

The Desperts borrowed money to purchase their home. In 1933 they paid off that mortgage, but picked up a few mortgages in the meantime. One of those was a 1935 $3,000 mortgage with the Perpetual Building Association. Then they refinanced in 1939 with a $3,800 mortgage with Perpetual,

1930 the residents at 139 P St NW expanded. Herbert, the driver, continued to live there, along with William Henry’s mother-in-law Annie Green, who was 69.

William Despert continued to work into his 60s and 70s. In the 1940 and 1950 censuses he was still working as a porter.

Emma died March 31, 1948. He was alone in 1950, the only resident of 139 P. A few years after her death, William removed his departed wife and added the name of his daughter from his first marriage to the deed in 1952. Beatrice had married and living with her second husband Jordan Johnson over on K St NW.

At the age of 76 he died at home. He was survived by his daughter Beatrice E. Johnson, his brother Walter Despert, two grandchildren, Mrs. Margaret Smith and Jordon Johnson Jr. and five great-grandchildren.

The property remained with Beatrice Johnson until she lost it to foreclosure in 1974. Real estate character George Basiliko picked it up for a little over $4K who immediately sold it.