Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1898-11-18
MANY GEORGE wAsHMGToNs.
Their Names Are Numerous I'm the Dt-
recfOries of All Of Our
Large Cities.

A man who recently met in Washing
Ton a Mr.. George Washington seemed
to think that he must have been related
to the great general.
"You will find that it is common
honor to have that name down here"
the. other, said, "and a number of them
you will find are colored. You see, in
slavery days, they usually were desig-
mated by the name of the family or
plantation to which they belonged, and
thus many colored George Washing
tons are also found scattered through
out 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 no less than Al living there
to-day. Curiously, not one of these is
recorded as being colored, although
this cannot be altogether correct, espe-
cia1ly as the number includes p labor
ers. Four are drivers, there is paint
er, a barber, janitor, i've walters.
coachman, bricklayer, porter, con-
tectioner, and one clerk-not even pro-
fessional man, much less president"
Baltimore came next in the list of tie
cities, there being 80 named after the
father of his country; then he found
20 in New Orleans, 16 in ST. Louis, Is
in Richmond, 10 in Philadelphia, Is in
Savannah. IS in Charleston, S. c., 10 in
Louisville, 10 in Kansas City, 0 in Chica-
go and in Pittsburgh. 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 includ-
ed; and, with the addition of those liv-
ing outside of city limits, it is safe TO
say that there are nearly thousand
| George Washingtons in the United
| States to-day.
| The occupations of those recorded
show that with few exceptions they are
among the manual workers. There are
| drivers, janitors, BARRIERS, conductors,
cooks, Iumbermen, carpenters, black
smiths, icemen, shoemakers, porters,
| laundrymen, restaurateurs, coachmen,
rivermen, brickmakers, a clothes clean
er, a leather decorator, millwright, a
| lampmaker, clockmaker, a book
keeper, and one real estate dealer
| any VI lAIOSS
corded had a middle initial.
One of New York's colored George
Washingtons keeps a barber shop. He
is getting old, has lost his sight, but he
still entertains his customers while his
men do the work. When asked about
his name he said: 81 know good many
George Washingtons and some of them
| tell queer stories about tracing their
| family name, but L tell the straight
story about mine. Ny great-grand-
father was in Washington's army. He
adopted the name, and there have been
three George Washingtons in our fam
| lily since. Yes, there are good many
more men of that name than are record
ed in the cities. Why, know Of half a
dozen right around here; one of them
| died recently"
1t occurred to the Investigator that
there were probably like number of
| Abraham Lincolns springing up
throughout 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 OF
| three in any one.-N. Y. Sun.