It is quite a common thing to find colored men engaged in large business enterprises in the South, where the colored population is large. There are, however, a few North who are engaged in business to a greater or lesser degree. In Trenton, N. J., I met Mr. J. W. Rodman, who has built a splendid brick building, in which he conducts a very successful grocery business, and I am sure the largest trade he has is among the white people.
At Evansville, Ind., I found Mr. John Neville and Mr. McWhorter. These gentlemen were conducting a fine barber shop and a magnificent Turkish bath-house. It is the only place of its kind I ever found operated by colored men. That was in 1893, and I suppose they are still engaged in the same work.
Providence, R. I., has a colored man by the name of Richard Grant who was in his younger days a slave in North Carolina. He began life in Providence as a common day-laborer. He now owns and controls the street-sprinkling business of that city, having five wagons made for that special work.
Hopkinsville, Ky., can boast of one, at least, very successful colored merchant in Mr. Peter Postel, who was once a slave. He owns a very large brick building where his business is conducted, besides houses he has to rent. I am unable to say what his wealth is, but I am told that he is quite a wealthy man. While he has been deprived of an education, he has given his children every advantage along that line.
Mr. E. Watts, of South Chester, Pa., has by hard work and close attention to his business built up a good trade in the grocery business. His brother, Mr. John A. Watts, who has passed away, began in Chester at hard work, and when he died owned a fine grocery store and several houses.
At Boston, Mass., one of the most successful wig-makers is a colored man who conducts what is known as Gilbert & Co.'s Wig Manufactory. He owns the establishment he learned his trade in. His name is Gilbert Harris.
The late Thomas H. Boling, of Philadelphia, Pa., operated quite a wholesale and retail store where choice flour, soaps, starch, and a general line of groceries were sold. In speaking of his success he said: "When I started this business I did not have as many hundred dollars as I can muster thousands now." And yet he did not try to impress me with the fact that he was wealthy. But it is generally known that Mr. Boling has been a very successful man.
JOSEPH H. DICKINSON.
Joseph H. Dickinson was born June 22, 1855. He attended school in Detroit, Mich. At the age of fifteen he enlisted in the United States Revenue Service. At seventeen years he entered the employ of the Clough & Warren Organ Co., where he now is, and in whose service some of his best work has been accomplished. In 1880, he married Miss Eva Gould, of Lexington, Mich., and two years after formed a partnership with his father-in-law, known as the Dickinson-Gould Organ Co., for the manufacture of parlor and chapel organs. This firm sent to the New Orleans exhibition a large chapel organ as an exhibit showing the progress of the colored people in manufacturing. Prior to this, for the Centennial Exposition in 1876, Mr. Dickinson helped to construct a large combination organ for the Clough & Warren Organ Co., which received a diploma and medal. In 1886, Mr. Dickinson returned to the employ of Clough & Warren and his chief work lies in superintending the building of the higher grade of organs.
