Evidences of Progress Among Colored People

by G. F. Richings

In this chapter it is my purpose to mention some men and women engaged in different lines of business throughout the country.

MR. E. H. DIBBLE.

Mr. Dibble is a native of South Carolina, and is at present operating a large store in Camden, S. C., where he keeps a stock of dry goods, boots, shoes, fancy and family groceries. Aside from the store he owns he also has an interest in another one in the same town, which is operated by his brother. The patrons at either one of the stores are not all colored by any means, but a large percentage of their trade comes from a splendid class of white people. My object in making mention of so many men engaged in business in the South is to stimulate among my readers, and especially in the North, a determination to at least make some effort along that line.

ROBERT G. WALKER.

Robert G. Walker, of Springfield, Ohio, is a carpenter and contractor the race may be proud of. He was born in Ohio. At one time he was the leading contractor of Hill City, Kansas, and gave employment to fourteen men as carpenters. He built the courthouse, jail, and many of the store buildings. He also served there as city clerk. He returned to Springfield because of hard times in the West, and began contracting for himself after working a while as foreman for a white contractor. Mr. Walker has built some of the finest houses in Springfield owned by white people. He is very much thought of by his race and the better class of the whites.

JAMES NELSON,

manufacturer of "IXL" and Whiteley plows, two and four-horse wagons, carts, etc., in Springfield, Ohio. Mr. Nelson was born a slave in the State of Kentucky, and learned his trade as blacksmith while a slave. He has carried on a business in Springfield for himself, with a great deal of success, for quite a number of years. He bought out the entire right to manufacture the "IXL" and Whiteley plows, and has very much improved the plow and worked up a splendid sale for it, principally throughout the various Middle, Western, and Southern States.

He also makes a specialty of manufacturing an iron tank-wagon, used by men who are in the oil business and deliver oil from house to house. He has shipped these tank-wagons to several of the different States.

JOHN H. ANDERSON.

John H. Anderson, of Urbana, Ohio, is the leading contractor and builder of that city. He has had and finished some very large contracts. He built the Y. M. C. A. building in Piqua, Ohio, also a beautiful passenger station at same place. Mr. Anderson had a contract to build a factory in Urbana that cost one hundred thousand dollars. His finest work, he says, was done on a residence in Urbana that cost forty thousand dollars. Most of the men employed by Mr. Anderson are white; but whenever he can secure a good workman among colored men, he is only too glad to give him work. I regard him as one of the leading colored contractors in the country.