At the time of the 1910 federal census, George Washington and Jennie E. Rawles were one of three African American households in enumeration district 188 – the area spanning Weedin Place to 15th Avenue NE, NE 62nd Street to NE 70th Street, that formed the heart of the neighborhood we now call Roosevelt. Widowed, they married each other late in life – George was 62 and Jennie 55. Two streams of migration merged in their marriage, two lives of contrasting circumstance and experience.
George Washington Rawles (in various records
his surname appears as Rawls, Ralls, and Rowels) was born into slavery in South
Carolina, May of 1846. He married his first wife, Jane Jordan, in 1867, and
farmed in Chester County, South Carolina, at least through 1880. The 1885
Kansas Census found George, Jane, and their five surviving children in
Ellinwood, Kansas, where George worked as a laborer. By 1892, the family had
moved again, to Leadville, Colorado, where George worked as a general laborer
and hod carrier.
By the time of the 1900 census, only two of
George and Jane’s nine children were still living. Daughter Mary, divorced, and
her two daughters shared George and Jane’s household in Leadville. Daughter
Mattie, who had married James H. Allen and begun a family of her own, lived
several houses down the street.
Jennie E. Carter was born in Canada in 1853.
Her Virginia-born parents most likely escaped slavery via the Underground
Railroad. Jennie married Thomas A. York, a barber, in 1877. Thomas, also born
in Canada, had moved with his family to Ypsilanti, Michigan - a major stop on the
Underground Railroad - in the late 1850’s. Thomas’s older brothers, David and
George, had served in the Union army as privates in Company B, 1st Infantry
Colored Regiment Michigan.
By the time of the 1900 Census, Thomas,
Jennie, and their three daughters had moved from Ypsilanti to Indianapolis.
Frances and Hattie, the two oldest girls, worked as servants. On Christmas Eve,
1900, Francis married Henry M. Terry.
With perhaps more urgency than any other
group, African Americans were drawn to Seattle in hopes of a better life.
Unlike the South (and neighboring Oregon), Washington State had no
segregationist legislation. However, the comparative civil and political
freedom was offset by the lack of economic opportunities. Labor unions, for
example, excluded African Americans. Skilled tradesmen found themselves limited
to jobs in service, as barbers, bootblacks, and porters. Women found employment
as cooks, maids, and (non-union) laundresses.
Jennie, widowed, came from Indianapolis in
late 1902 or early 1903 with Hattie, and Frances and Henry. Henry, a
bricklayer, was able to practice his craft in Seattle. Jennie and Hattie found
work as cooks. By 1903, George and Jane Rawles had moved to Seattle and were
living in the house at 829 NE 67th.
Mattie and James Allen lived nearby at 1007 NE 68th. George continued to
work as a laborer. His son-in-law, James, worked as a bootblack, janitor, and
porter.
Jane Rawles died in December of 1907. In
September of 1908, George and Jennie married. They remained at 829 E. 67th until
1912 (the house currently at that address was built in 1913). Along with
Francis and Henry Terry, they moved to Tacoma, where they spent their remaining
years. George died in 1922, aged 76. Jennie died in 1927, aged 73.
Recommended reading:
Seattle’s Black Victorians: 1852 – 1901, Esther Hall Mumford, Ananse Press, 1980
The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era, Quintard Taylor, University of Washington Press, 1994
The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era, Quintard Taylor, University of Washington Press, 1994
