Charles William Gatewood was born on September 28, 1895, at 187 Pleasant Street in Boston, to Gertrude Gatewood. Gertrude also had a younger son, Ralph Logan, born in 1899. A father’s name was not listed on Charles or Ralph’s birth record, though on other documents their father’s name was given as “Charles L.” Gertrude was a native Bostonian, the daughter of William Gatewood, a person of color from Virginia, and Margaret (O’Day) Gatewood, an Irish immigrant. She worked as a domestic.
In his early childhood, Charles, his mother, and his brother lived with Gertrude’s siblings, John, a driver, and Frances, also a domestic. In 1899, they lived at 39 West Dedham Street in the South End. The next year they moved a short distance to 20 Camden Street. Gertrude was not in good health, with chronic myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, as well a “cerebrospinal specific disease.” By 1910, Charles and Ralph were living with a foster mother, Frances R. (Simmons) Barker, at the home she owned at 73 Mountain Avenue in Dorchester. Frances had been widowed in 1905. She lived with her two adult sons, Henry and LeRoy, both real estate brokers, as well as LeRoy’s wife, Annie, and their young children. Charles would live with the Barkers into his early adulthood. Gertrude died in 1916.
Charles attended four years of high school, according to the 1940 census. He appeared in the 1914 Boston directory as a shipper employed at 34 Hawley Street. The next year, he began working as a shipper for George F. Damon, stationer, of 7 Pemberton Square. By 1917, his brother, Ralph, was a Pullman porter, based out of Chicago.
On August 1, 1918, Charles was drafted and inducted into the Army. He was initially sent to Camp Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts, where he trained with the 151st Depot Brigade. On August 26, 1918, he was assigned to Supply Company, 807th Pioneer Infantry, an African American unit of combat engineers which had been organized at Camp Dix in New Jersey that July. On September 4, 1918, the regiment sailed for France, departing from Hoboken, New Jersey, on the USS Maui. The regiment participated in the Meuse Argonne offensive from October 26 until the Armistice on November 11. W.E.B. DuBois wrote of the organization, “Bravery, cheerfulness in the performance of duty have been the marked characteristics of this regiment. The boys have suffered much, slept in rain and mud and a number of times been short of rations.” The 807th Pioneer Infantry was known for its band, which, DuBois noted, had “received unusual honors and had the distinction of being the first Army Post Band.” Charles was promoted to ordnance sergeant on April 10, 1919. He sailed for the United States on June 25, departing from Brest, France, on the SS Orizaba. He was demobilized at Camp Devens and discharged on July 11, 1919.
After his discharge, Charles returned to 73 Mountain Avenue. He began working as a postal clerk. He would be employed by the postal service for the rest of his career. In 1922, Frances sold 73 Mountain Avenue. Charles moved to 17 Kenilworth Street in Roxbury, where he lodged in the home of Ellen and William Campbell, a real estate dealer. In the 1920s and 1930s, Charles sometimes appeared in the Chicago Defender’s Boston news column. The paper mentioned the social comings and goings of the “prominent postal clerk”: off to Philadelphia to attend a sporting event, visiting friends in New York, attending a party in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard.
On August 21, 1933, Charles married Geraldine K. Hughes in New York City. Geraldine had been born in Baltimore in 1909, the daughter of “pioneer negro surgeon” Singleton B. Hughes and wife, Hazel. By 1935, Charles and Geraldine were living at 140 Harrishof Street in Roxbury. Charles was a bookkeeper for the post office, earning $2,500 in 1939. In the 1950s, he was a choir director at Saint Richard’s Church, which was located on Buena Vista Street in Roxbury. In 1964, the Gatewoods moved to 47 Crawford Street, about a half a mile from their previous home. Charles retired from the post office in October 1965.
Charles died in Roxbury on May 14, 1969. A requiem mass was celebrated for him at Saint Joseph’s Church in Roxbury. He was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery on Walk Hill Street in Mattapan.
Researched and written by Camille Arbogast.
Sources:
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