Life and Times (Continued)

By 1880, the Hillsdale community was settled.  Houses were built, and the anchors -- the churches and the school--were in place.  Looking at census records gives us an idea of what was going on in the settlement.  The majority of the men were listed in the census as laborers, without specification of what kind of work they did.  Married women were listed mostly as "keeping house", while the kids that were not in school were listed as "at home".  Other women were listed as dressmakers, washerwomen, cooks and hairdressers.   Many other men were listed as farmers and gardeners.  Most likely, these grew produce and would make it in-town to such places as the Central Market on Pennsylvania Ave or Eastern Market to sell their goods.  Jobs in the government were not as prevalent as they would become in later decades.  There was a now-famous gentleman in the community named Solomon G. Brown, who worked at the Smithsonian Institution.  As a matter of fact, he was the first black man to do so. There were a few men employed as laborers at the navy yard.  Some men worked at the Treasury Department, the Capitol and U.S. Post Office.  The St. Elizabeth Insane Asylum was the other government agency providing a few jobs.  It was close by and employed some of the residents.  I will jump ahead a little and mention that there are records that indicate either Dabney Sr. or Jr. worked at the Asylum.  Looking closer, I believe for reasons that I will later mention, that it was Dabney Jr.

                  Real life and times:  Dabney Sr. sticks up for a buddy and associate.

Here is a story  in the life of Dabney reflecting real-life circumstances and his actions.  I found this quite by chance. 

As mentioned, Dabney did not serve in the military, but had friends that did.  One such individual was Armstead Goodlow, (sometimes spelled Goodloe).  Mr. Goodlow served in Company E, Twenty-third Regiment, United States Colored Troops.  On July 30th,1864, he was wounded in the siege of Petersburg during the Richmond-Petersburg campaign.  His injury caused him partial blindness, and after leaving the service he became totally blind.  He petitioned the Government for "arrears" pension that he should have been receiving due to his injury.  To help Goodlow in this effort, Dabney gave sworn testimony via an affidavit that he had "always known" Goodlow and he was fine before he went in the service but when he visited him after coming out, he affirmed that his sight had been severely diminished.  The statement "always known...." gives one reason to speculate that perhaps the two even fled slavery from the same place/time out of Caroline County, Va.  In addition to this testimony, Milton Johnson, Randall Johnson and another well-know resident of the Hillsdale neighborhood Spencer Coleman, gave a similar testimony for Goodlow.  We shall mention Spencer Coleman later.  Keep him in mind.    The US Senate documents revealing this case are below.  Mr. Coleman is mentioned at the very bottom of the last document.       Wow!