In 1940 my grandparents and family were living at 6429 Scotten at the corner of Moore Place. They owned the house and it was worth $5,000. They had lived in the same place in 1935 and in fact had been there for over 20 years as all the girls in the family were born in that house. My grandfather was a medical doctor in private practice at the Cleage Clinic. The amount of money he made in 1939 was a crossed out number, replaced with “0”. He was the informant, that is he is the one that talked to the census taker and gave them the information on the form.
My grandfather was 56 years old, born in Tennessee with plus 5 years of college. My grandmother was 50, born in Kentucky with 4 years of high school. My father was 28, born in Indiana, had plus 5 years of college and was absent from the home. All the other children were born in Michigan. Louis was 26, had plus 5 years of college and absent from the home. Henry was 24 and had 5 years of college. Hugh was 21 and had 2 years of college. Barbara was 19 and had completed 1 year of college. Gladys was 17 and had completed 4 years of high school. Anna was 15 and had completed 2 years of high school.
All of the children were in school. Anna was still attending Northwestern High school. Gladys had graduated in 1939 and was a freshman at Wayne State University. Henry, Hugh and Barbara must have been at Wayne. Louis graduated from Wayne State medical school in 1940 and was doing a residency at Homer Philips in St. Louis. My father graduated from Wayne in 1938 and was in the seminary at Oberlin College.
Source: 1940 U.S. Census. State: Michigan. County: Wayne. City: Detroit. Ward 14. Enumeration Districe: 84-787. Sheet number: 11-A. Head of household and informant: Dr. Albert B. Cleage. To see the census sheet for the Albert Cleage family click HERE.
I hadn’t realized that one of my grandmother sisters and all of my grandfather’s living siblings lived within walking distance of their house. I have labeled their houses, Northwestern High School, Wingert Elementary School and the Cleage Clinic. I sort of knew this, but I didn’t realize it until I mapped it out after finding everybody in the same neighborhood. In future posts I will share what I learned about each household in 1940.
Kristin,
I noticed in a Census Record I was reviewing for a dentist that his income was listed as “0”. I was beginning to wonder if that’s what they put for people who were self-employed and/or not paid by someone else. Thoughts? That’s some house for $5000. My grandfather owned a house 1/4 the size worth $6700. Interesting.
Don’t worry about the double posting, I deleted one. I wonder if there was some technicality like that. I’ll have to look and see if I can find something. He was a city doctor at the same time, although that’s not mentioned on the census. I was wondering if he got paid in Detroit script but I’m not sure they were still using script in 1939. Was your grandfather’s house new? In a scenic spot on the river or some other good location?
As I look at the house on Scotten I have the same thought I get when I look at older homes in Detroit or anywhere. I do the same thing with the older homes everywhere I’ve lived.
Oh yeah — the thought — Who built this house? What were they doing for a living? Large homes like the one on Scotten — were the original owners wealthy? How did they achieve their wealth?
It is a beautiful home and the family information is priceless.
There was a real mix of homes in the neighborhood – brick like this, but on small lots, frame, flats, a few apartment buildings on the corners of some blocks. The house is gone now. A weedy lot.
How very cool to get all this info. Haven’t looked for my family on the 1940 but will.
You continue to weave a great story.
Keep on … Keepin’ On!!
gem!!
Your grandparents house was across the street from the corner candy store at Moore pl. and Scotten. My favorite stop on the way home from Wingert Elm. school
I noticed last time I was looking at the area on google maps that the store building is gone now. Was your family living there in 1940? What was your address when you were there?
My father moved to Detroit and the area in the early 30’s to attend Detroit College of Law. My mother and sister came later. My sister went to Wingert, Mc Michael and Northwestern(class of 48). She went off to Howard the same week I started kindergarten at Wingert. In my day we lived at 6614 Firwood, between Tireman and Moore Place. If you enlarge the map you will see Firwood. The house is still there. I walked by the house on Scotten every day. We moved to Atkinson in June of 52′.
I just went and looked. The house looks good. The block looks good. I see your family was just a block from my great uncle Henry’s house on Boxwood. I’m going to look in the census and see if I find your family.
aww, there’s another family living at 6614 in 1940.
That was probably Dr. Sims. we didn’t move there until about 1946. Prior to that we lived across the street at 6631 Firwood. I will ask my sister when we moved there. She is turning 81 and I hope she remembers.
Yep, you were across the street. Your family was anyway. here’s a link, you should be able to go there and download it. Your father is at the bottom of this page and your mother and sister are at the top of the other. Your father also got the bonus questions so he is at the very bottom.
http://interactive.ancestry.com/2442/m-t0627-01863-00929/?cj=1&netid=cj&o_xid=0002370638&o_lid=0002370638#imageId=M-T0627-01863-00948
Kris, this is great information. Do you look for people by city or given name. I wonder where my father’s brother’s were in 1940. Sterling Boone was probably in Little Rock, Ark and had a daughter named Peggye, James T ? maybe Dermott, Wilverlyn also. Samuel W.? maybe Georgia or Arkansas at Philander Smith College in Little Rock. Can’t even think of where Uncle Ambrose mighht have been.
Jocelyn, the 1940 census isn’t indexed yet so you have to have an address where they were living in 1930 until the index is completed. I didn’t have your parents exact address but I knew the general area and so I had to go through the pages of the census looking for them, line by line. Each district is between 28 and 42 pages (just about). I could find so many of my family because they were still in the same houses they had been in in 1930 or in the same neighborhood. I’ll look for everybody else when the index is complete. Right now I’m going page by page and line by line looking for my Turners in Lowndes County AL and about to conclude they all moved to the city!