Many young men traveled north for seasonal work at resort hotels in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the Pennsylvania Poconos.
- Walter Blount, waiter; Saint Charles Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1917
- Ernest E. Boyd, waiter; Strand Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1917
Hotel Strand, Atlantic City, N.J. Image courtesy of westjersyhistory.org.
- Arlando R. Dawson, waiter; Girard Hotel, New York, New York, 1918
- Charlie Gay, dishwasher; Pennsylvania Assembly Hotel, Pocono Pines, Pennsylvania, 1918
Assembly Lodge, Pocono Pines, Pa. Image courtesy of mrlocalhistory.org.
- Alexander B. Joyner, chair pusher; Shill Company, Atlantic City New Jersey, 1917
- Joseph Speight, bellhop; Lorraine Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1918
- Frank Taylor, porter; Hotel Yarmouth, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1918
- James T. Taylor, bellhop; Yarmouth Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1917
- (maybe) William Kelley Cane Thigpen, waiter in kitchen; Johnstown, Pennsylvania, 1917
Work migration was part of my family’s history, too.
My mom told me that her father, Henry Green, left Wilson in 1941 ( when she was 13 years old). old) and went to the Washington DC / Maryland area to work on a dairy farm.
He was delivering milk on a truck for a company that she couldn’t recall the name of . My grandma was simply told that he stepped off the truck and was killed by a speeding car.
. No record of his death…. just told
that he died.
I’ve looked feverishly for years of his birth and death records but to no avail.
Oh, I can only imagine how traumatic that was for her family.
He was born too early for a NC birth certificate, and DC vital records are very difficult to access!