THE NEGROES OF XENIA, OHIO.                                    1023

write.   This illiteracy is about 3 per cent higher than that of the United
States, and 31 per cent lower than the percentage of illiteracy for the
Negro  race at large.  Compared with  Farmville and  Sandy  Spring,
the Negroes of Xenia show to great advantage.    In Farmville 42.5 per
cent could read and write,  l7.5 per cent could  read  only, and 40 per
cent were wholly illiterate.    In Sandy Spring, of those reporting as to
literacy, the percentage of illiterates was 21.7, and of those who  could
read  and write and who  could read only, 72.3 and  6 per  cent, respec-
tively.   The  illiteracy of those between  the ages of 10 and 20 years is
less than  0.9 per cent, against 8.6 per cent for Sandy  Spring and 23
per cent for Farmville.   The  illiteracy increases with  age.    From  21
to 30 years, inclusive, the illiteracy for Xenia is 1.5 per cent; from  31
to 40 years it is 2.7  per cent, and  for 41 years or over  it leaps to 31.7
per  cent.   The great difference  in the  illiteracy of  Xenia  and  that of
the Negro race as a whole  is doubtless due to excellent  school  advan-
tages in Xenia.

                      OCCUPATIONS AND WAGES.

   While agriculture is the chief occupation  of Greene County, very
few  of  the  Negroes  of  Xenia are farmers or, for  any considerable
length of  time, farm  laborers.      They  are  engaged  in  all the various
lines of work opened  to them  by city life.     The  following table exhib-
its these lines of work for males and females:

                       OCCUPATIONS, BY SEX AND AGE PERIODS.

                  Occupations.  10 to 15   16 to 20  21 to 30  31 to 40 41 years Age un- Total.
                                  year.     years.   years.    years.   or over.  known.
MALES.

Apprentices............................       2      ...................................    2                                               
Barbers ...............................       4        3         5         6        1      19                    
Basket maker ........................................................      1     .......    1
Blacksmiths ......................................     2       ......      8        2      12
Bricklayers and plasterers........................     1         2         6     .......    9
Brickmakers ...............................................      1         2     .......    3
Butchers .........................................     1         1       ...............    2
Bottlers .........................................     1         1       ...............    2
Carpenters .......................................     1       ......      6     .......    7
Carpet layer .....................................     1       .........................    1
Cigar maker .........................................................      1     .......    1
Clergymen ........................................     1         1         8     .......   10
Clerks ................................       2        1       ......      1     .......    4
Coachmen .........................................     1         1       ...............    2
Constable..................................................      1       ...............    1
Cooks    .........................................     1       ......      6     .......    7
Domestic servants  ....................       1        4       .........................    5 
Elevator operative  ...................       1      ...................................    1
Farmers and gardeners   ..........................     1         1        11     .......   13
Farm laborers .........................       1        4         5        16     .......   26
Firemen, stationary engine .......................     1         1         3     .......    5
Grocers  .........................................     1         2         4        1       8
Hackman ...................................................      1       ...............    1
Hostlers...............................       3        3         2         7     .......   15
Ice cream makers(a) ...................       1        1                   1     .......    3 
Janitors .........................................     2                   5     .......    7
Junk dealers ..............................................      3         1     .......    4
Laborers, cordage factories ....    2        12       39        16        19     .......   88                                                                         
Laborers, unspecified ..........    5        13       40        39        66        2     165
Mail carriers ....................................     2         1         1        1       5
Messengers ............................       2      ................      1     .......    3
Nurse ...............................................................      1     .......    1
                       a One ice cream maker also keeps billiard hall.




			

OHS Archives/Library Pamphlet Collection

"The Negroes of Xenia, Ohio: A Social Study (1830-1900)." Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor

R.

Issue Number:  48