Julia Johnson 1880 Census and Almshouse Record 1888
Irene
How was Julia viewed at Sylvester Manor? Her years of dedicated service as a housekeeper on the estate and potential biological relation to the Havens family, along with Cornelia’s safekeeping of sketches depicting her childhood home suggest that she held a valuable place. The reality of her final days implies quite the opposite. In the winter of 1880, at the age of 71, Julia entered the poorhouse in Greenport, unable to sustain herself until the Horsfords returned to the Manor that summer from their main home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During the 19th century, poorhouses provided food, shelter, clothing, and medical care to the poor, elderly, and disabled. They were widely criticized for having substandard living conditions and mistreating their patrons, often being likened to prisons for those who could not care for themselves. Residing in such a place does not seem to be appropriate for a woman whose impact on the Manor, according to letters between the Horsford daughters discussing her health and well-being, was substantial. Upon returning to Shelter Island during the summer, the Horsford daughters frequently walked the trails to visit Julia, yet nothing was done to assist her once winter descended.
When we consider Julia’s position by this point in time as a single Black woman approaching old age, this discrepancy becomes much clearer—reflecting the various challenges persons of her gender and racial background faced in financially providing for themselves at a time when systemic racism afforded African Americans limited social and economic opportunities. According to the Suffolk County census dated June 18th, 1880, Julia had the occupation of “keeping house,” suggesting that while she was not unemployed, she had still failed to secure adequate lodging and funds to tide her over while the Manor lay unoccupied, precipitating her brief stay at Greenport. Rather than receiving aid from the family she had helped support for decades, Julia was left to fend for herself.
Although Julia eventually returned to Sylvester Manor, she fell on hard times soon after and was admitted to the Suffolk County Poor House on April 25, 1888. According to her inmate record, she was single, possessed good habits, had received no education, and remained a housekeeper. Her “cause of dependence” is listed as old age and her probable destiny for recovery from this ailment is indicated as “not favorable.” The stipulation of no education contradicts evidence in the archives that Mary Catherine L’Hommedieu paid for Julia to be schooled by a local Shelter Island teacher—another recognition of Julia’s respected presence to the residents of the Manor that challenges evidence implying she was also forgotten about.
None of the other questions in the record are answered, including the sections dedicated to Julia’s family history. There is also no indication that Julia had previously resided in any poorhouse or charitable organization, refuting her earlier stay at Greenport. These incongruities gesture towards the lack of accurate record keeping for African Americans prior to the late 19th century. National census records only began tracking African Americans by name in 1870, offering a potential reason for why Julia’s parentage is absent. It also points to a possible refusal to acknowledge her mixed-race ancestry, which would have been revealed by naming her father, who was most likely white. Archival sources, more often than not, provide clues to the information people wished to bury, the stories that went untold because remembering them was either too painful or too controversial. Perhaps the omissions in Julia’s records were mere clerical mistakes or maybe they formed part of a wider effort to maintain strict racial boundaries and deny Julia’s true heritage.
No discharge date is specified in Julia’s record but her stay at Suffolk County was not indefinite. Towards the end of the 1800s, Julia moved to Sag Harbor to live within the African American Eastville community before passing away in 1906 in her late 90s. Once her material value to the Manor evaporated, so too it seems did her life there.