Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 149
24.03.2006
conducts a real estate business on Broad Street--the only Negro, it is said, who
conducts a large business enterprise on this important thoroughfare. At the same
meeting it was brought out that a Negro by the name of Phillip J. Allston was
chemist for the Potter Chemical Company, having risen from bottle-washer to
that responsible post. The story of J. S. Trower, caterer, of Philadelphia, showed
that he was frequently engaged for the most important functions in the city and
had been regularly employed by the Cramps Company, shipbuilders, to take
charge of the catering in connection with the ceremonies accompanying the
launching of new ships for the Navy. Mrs. Bell Davis of Indianapolis, Ind., has
become equally successful as a caterer. When the National Negro Business
League met in Indianapolis it was she who served the annual banquet. Booker
Washington took the greatest satisfaction in disclosing her achievements to the
Negro people who had previously known little or nothing about her. He thus
introduced her at a meeting of the League, "Mrs. Bell Davis, a widow, the
celebrated caterer of Indianapolis, Ind., who has served banquets and receptions
in honor of Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the United States, who owns a
stock of Haviland china, linen, and silverware valued at thousands of dollars, all
unencumbered, furnishes another illustration of what heights can be attained in
the commercial world by strenuous effort and making use of every little
opportunity which presents itself. Mrs. Davis' humble beginnings, hardships
encountered, and
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success achieved would make three chapters of a most interesting biography."
Among the men spoken of by Booker Washington at the Philadelphia meeting
of the Business League was Heman E. Perry, the founder of the first and only
old line legal reserve life insurance company operated by and for Negroes. In
his efforts to raise the $100,000 initial capital required by the law of his State--
Georgia--Mr. Perry had tramped all over the United States at least three times.
Finally, having tried every conceivable source without securing the required
amount, he returned to all the subscribers of capital stock the money they had
paid in plus 4 per cent. interest. This action so inspired the confidence of the
subscribers that almost without exception they not only returned the money, but
subscribed for additional stock with the result that the initial capital stock was
oversubscribed. When examined by the State Insurance Department three years
after it opened business this company was found to have a gross income of
almost $77,000 and admitted assets of almost $160,000. Each subsequent
examination by the State Department has showed a healthy growth, low