The sun., 1898-10-16
Many Citizens Named After the
Great Soldier, Statesman
and Truth Teller.
WILMINGTON HAS BUT THREE
The Majority of This Name are
COlored Men and in Most Cases
are Descendants of the
George Washington
Slaves.

| A Wilmington man who recently Wis
tied Washington met man by the name
Of George Washington and by reason Of
his residing in the city named after the
celebrated General Washington came to
the conclusion that he must be related to
''the great truth teller George" The
man on being questioned on the matter
stated that he was not aware of any rela-
tionship existing between he and former
President Washington.
"You will find that it is common
occurrence to find persons in this city
named George Washington, and the ma
jorjty of them you will find are colored
people," said The other. "You see in
slavery days, they usually were desig-
mated by the name of the family or plan
tation to which they belonged, and thus
many Colonel George Waehingtons are
also found scattered around throughout
the country
Becoming interested, the young man
looked up some of the Washingtons of
the large cities. The capital seemed to
be the home of George Washingtons, as
there are less than forty-one living there
today. Curiously, not one of these is re-
corded as being colored, although this
cannot be altogether correct, especially
as the number includes twenty-one labor
ers. Four are drivers, there is a painter,
a barber, janitor, five walters, a coach
man, a bricklayer, a porter, confec-
toner, and one clerk-not even a pro-
fessional man, much less President"
Returning to his home in this city he
looked up the number Of George Wash
ingtons and to his surprise found only
three, two of whom were colored laborers
and one white man and teamster. e
The colored men had descended, as
they stated, from slaves, who were form
erly the property of "Massa' George
Washington, but the white man while
coming of Virginia stock did not lay
claim to any relationship whatever.
The man becoming interested in locat.
ing George Washingtons proceeded to
examine the directories of the following
large cities when convenient and found
the number Of the honored name as
below stated.
Baltimore came next in the list of
cities, there being 32 named after the
father of his country; then he found 26
in New Orleans, is in St. Louis. 10 in
, Richmond, l6 in Philadelphia. 15 in
Savannah, 13 in Charleston, s. c., 10 in
Louisville, 10 in Kansas City, 8 in
Chicago and in Pittsburg. But strange
to say New York City records only 4,
and within an hours investigation fully
800 George Washingtons were recorded
in some thirty odd cities. This number
would probably be doubled if all the
cities Of the country had been included;
hn oll;tio,, nf fhnca liuSrr
outside of the city limits, it is safe to say
teat there are nearly thousand George
Washingtons in the United States today
The occupations of those recorded
; show that with few exceptions they are
among the manual workers. There were
drivers, janitors BARRIERS, conductors,
cooks, lnmbcrmen, carpenters, black
smiths, icemen, shoemakers, porters,
laundrymen, restaurateurs, coachmen,
rivermen, brickmakers, clothes cleaner,
leather decorator, a millwright, a lamp
maker cockmaker, bookkeeper, and
) one real estate dealer among them.
Scarcely..any ofthose recorded had mid
die initial.
One of New York's colored George
Wash ingtons keeps barber shop. He is
getting old, has lest his sight, but he en-
tertans his customers while his men do
the work. When asked about his name
he said: II know good many George
Washingtons and some of them tell queer
stories about tracing their family name,
butI tell the straight story about mine.
My great. grandfather was in Washing
toms army. He adopted the name, and
there have been three George Washing
tons in our family since. Yes, there are
a good many more men of that name
than are recorded in the cities. Why, l
know of half dozen right around here;
one of them died recently"
1t occurred to the investigator that
there were probably a like number of
Abraham Lincolns springing up through
out the country, and especially among
the colored people, but this was not the
case, there being none in most of the
cities, and not more than two or three
in any one.