Uncle Ned was a brother of my maternal grandmother (Lucy Washington Brown) and the only one of her brothers that I ever met. He was born on 17 July 1900 in a rural area of Mississippi to Peter Washington and Mary Barrett Washington. His father was a farmer per the 1910 census of Holmes County, Mississippi where Ned is listed as nine years old. Uncle Ned was part of the Great Migration -- born in Mississippi, moved north to Ashtabula, Ohio for job opportunities and a better quality of life and finally settled in Chicago, Illinois. He is also part of a line of Ned Washington namesakes.
In the 1920 census, he was 20 years old and had made his move to Ashtabula, Ohio where he worked as a laborer on the railroad. His household included his wife, Virginia, their newborn son George and Uncle Ned's 18-year old brother, Gilbert. Uncle Gilbert was also a laborer on the railroad.
By the 1930 census Uncle Ned and his family were living in Chicago, Illinois and he was listed as a molder in a factory. His family had increased to include a daughter Mamie and two more sons; Ned, Jr. and Gilbert. Uncle Ned appeared to have the same job at the same company in the 1940 census. He was again listed as a molder and this time his employer is given as Harvester Company (International Harvester Company)
"For most of the twentieth century, International Harvester (IH) was one of the leading industrial corporations in the United States; its operations were concentrated in Chicago and its suburbs. . . By 1910, when IH grossed about $100 million in annual sales, it had over 17,000 workers in the Chicago area, making it the leading employer in the region. By that time, IH had established its own steel mill on the city's far South Side . . . In the 1930s, IH was the nation's leading manufacturer of trucks, IH had a sales network of about 11,000 dealers across the country. During the 1940s, when the company's national workforce grew to about 70,000 people, many IH workers joined one of two rival unions, the Farm Equipment Workers and United Auto Workers (UAW)." From: Encyclopedia of Chicago, Dictionary of Chicago Leading Businesses (1820-2000)
Uncle Ned about the age I remember him.
While Uncle Ned wasn't named after his father, he was given the name of an uncle -- one of his father's brothers -- Ned Washington who was born about 1876 in Georgia. So far, the only record I have found of this great-granduncle is the 1880 federal census of Barkers, Floyd County, Georgia. Young Ned is a 4-year in the home of his parents Ned and (?) Dorcus Washington.
The eldest Ned Washington is my 2nd great-grandfather, born about 1822 in Georgia. According to the 1870 census he was a farmer, living in Cedar Town, Polk County, Georgia with his wife, their children and a 75-year old woman who I have shown to be his mother in the post, Connecting to Enslaved Ancestor -- Sylvia Adair Washington.
"The Neds" are one of a few naming patterns within my Washington family, naming patterns which have helped me keep track of this family branch.
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