|
The home today numbered 941 North Camp Street was built sometime in the final quarter of the nineteenth century. In 1880, the lot was apparently numbered 83 Camp. The census at this time records the occupants as a White family--38 year old George Bailey, his wife Elizabeth, sister-in-law Mary E. Miller, and niece Nellie Mathews. By 1900, the first African-American families had begun to settle on the street and the house at 941, then numbered 919, was occupied by a 42 year old Kentucky born janitor named Ephraim B. Covington, his wife Angy, and niece Mary E. Brooks. The Covingtons were among the first African-American homeowners in a neighborhood that included many highly mobile renters; they lived in the residence at 941 for nearly 40 years. The 1910 census still records
Ephraim Covington as the head of the house. He apparently remarried sometime
between 1900 and 1910 as his wife is listed as Amie B. Ephraim's age in
1910 is listed as 45 and then 58 in 1920 so it is unclear what his actual
age was. By 1920, Ephraim had married again, this time to an Indiana born woman named Ella. Ephraim's steady work as a building custodian had allowed the Covingtons to become one of the few African-American families on the block to pay off their mortgage by 1920. According to the addresses listed for Ephraim Covington in the Indianapolis City Directory, the Covingtons continued to occupy the house at 941 Camp at least until 1941. By 1951, the Covingtons had moved out of the neighborhood and the house was occupied by Benjamin W. Cash and his family. In 1996, Dr. Rick Jones, the Indiana State Archaeologist and an IUPUI adjunct faculty member, conducted an archaeological project excavating a well in the backyard of the house at 941. The well was likely filled in near the end of the Covingtons' tenure at the house; many interesting artifacts were found including a souvenir coin from the 1893 World's Fair held in Chicago and a number of bottles and milk seals from the Polk Dairy, a dairy based on the southside of Indianapolis started in 1910. For more information about the excavation at 941 Camp street click here. |
