- Title
- Era of progress and promise, 1863-1910 : the religious, moral, and educational development of the American Negro since his emancipation
-
-
- Date
- 1910
-
-
- Creator
- ["Hartshorn, W. N. (William Newton), 1843-1920."]
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
Era of progress and promise, 1863-1910 : the religious, moral, and educational development of the American Negro since his emancipation
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I
D. L. Knigbt
Louisville, Ky.
Albert W. Williams, M.D.
Chicago, Ill.
Mr. Knight is engaged in the transfer business. He was
born in Bullitt County, April 10, 1863. Ilis widowed mother,
having five small children, was unable to give him the advan¬
tages of an education. He learned the alphabet at an early age
in the Sunday-school. Later he re-
ceived private lessons and by hard
study, in a few leisure hours, acquired
an education.
At the age of fourteen, he went to
Louisville and worked at the hardest
of manual labor. A year later he
sent for his mother and her children,
and then began to study what he could
do to enable him to support them.
One day while working in a brick
yard he saw an old horse grazing in
the field. He was impressed to buy
the horse. He bought the horse and
a dilapidated wagon and in a week was a vegetable peddler.
His trade grew so rapidly that he was soon able to buy a coal
wagon and two mules, and began to deliver coal. His business
increased until he was able to buy a transfer wagon and horses,
and began the transfer business.
The beginning was very discouraging. He made onlv seventy-
five cents during his first few weeks. He persisted, however, and
at the present time has a business that averages about $12,000 a
vear, and he owns seventeen wagons and twenty horses and
mules, in addition to other property.
Ilis “ Lightning Transfer " Company was the first of the
kind run by Negroes in Louisville. About two years ago he
leased a farm three miles from the city. Upon this farm he has
raised more than enough to supply his stock for a year, and he
has realized about $500 from the sale of garden products.
Mr. Knight owns real estate in Louisville valued at $8,000.
At the annual convention of the Negro Business League in
Louisville, in August, 1900, he was chairman of the General
Committee of Arrangements. His address of welcome was
brief, cordial, and in good taste. He occupies a very prominent
place among his people, and is considered one of their most
successful business men .
Du. Williams is a physician and surgeon. He was born on a
cotton plantation near Monroe, I, a., January 31, 1863, of slave
parentage. He worked in the cotton and sugar-cane fields until
he was fourteen vears old.
•«
When a small bov, he heard of the
North and especially of the state of
Ohio, and had a desire to go North for
education. In those days there were
no public schools in Louisiana.
In December, 1876, a Missouri
mule trader hired Williams to herd
mules through the South to be sold,
and he worked so well that he finally
succeeded in realizing his desire, as
the trader paid his way to Springfield,
Mo., where he secured a job on a farm
for $10 per month and board. He
saved money, paid the money advanced
for transportation, and, having saved more money, bought books,
and entered school for the first time at the age of fourteen,
learned his ABC’s. He passed the district examination in
1881, and spent ten years in study and in teaching.
He studied medicine in Northwestern University Medical
School, Chicago, three years, graduating in 1894. He was
resident physician of Provident Hospital and Training School
two years, and for twelve years has been attending physician.
He was secretary of Provident Hospital medical staff six years,
and president of medical board 1906-1907. Dr. Williams has
been treasurer of the National Medical Association of Colored
Physicians, Dentists, and Pharmacists five years; member of
the American Medical Association, Chicago Medical Society,
Illinois Medical Society. At present he is making a specialty
of lung diseases. In 1908, he delivered a series of lectures on
tuberculosis. He is secretarv of the sub-committee of the
Chicago Tuberculosis Institute, which meets in different colored
churches for the purpose of instituting plans to prevent the
spread of that disease. Dr. Williams is a large property owner
in ( Chicago. He is president of the Black Diamond Develop¬
ment Company, which produces and markets natural gas, and
which has $50,000 assets.
D. L. Knight
446
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