Lucy Breckenridge, best known for her diary covering early Washington State History, was born March 18, 1857, in Staunton, Virginia. In 1870, when Lucy was 13 years old, she did domestic work at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, Virginia. Henry Breckenridge, born October 31, 1848, was a laborer at the asylum. Lucy and Henry married on December 21, 1871, and welcomed their first child, John Henry Breckenridge, April 22, 1877. They both worked at the asylum while raising their son.
In 1888, coal miners in Roslyn, Washington Territory went on strike for better working conditions. The Northern Pacific Coal Company (subsidiary of the Northern Pacific Railroad) ignored the miners’ demands and instead hired James Shepperson, to recruit Black workers from the east and south to replace the striking miners. When the men arrived in Roslyn, white miners threatened them with violence. A second train transported Lucy and John Henry to Roslyn. The couple’s second child, Mary, was born April 20, 1898. Three years later the family moved to Spokane where they purchased a home.
Henry died by accident January 22, 1907. Once daughter Mary completed high school, she moved to Tacoma. With Mary’s absence, and her son, John Henry, working as a cook on a merchant ship, Lucy became lonely and began to write her feelings and thoughts on scraps of paper, posting them on the walls of her home. Those thoughts and feelings eventually became the Lucy Breckenridge Diary and covered the years 1919-1929.
While most of the accounts focused on relatives, she also wrote about conflicts with her neighbors and strangers and described her garden including the fruit and vegetables she produced. Her writings often listed the price of goods and services: beef at $1.40 per pound; sugar and coal oil $.40; life insurance $.75; electricity $1.12; a telephone bill at $3.40 a month and water bill for the same period at $2.00. She wrote about how thankful she was for the periodic money she received from daughter Mary.
Occasionally her diary recalls major events. On November 10, 1922, Lucy described Armistice Day and told how she reluctantly ventured downtown to celebrate. On August 21, 1924, the Barnum and Bailey Circus came to town. On Christmas Day (December 25, 1924) she sadly wrote “no colored folk came out to visit me today.” On June 10, 1925, she wrote, “I thank the Lord for my garden, for it keeps me from being hungry” while on September 20, 1926, she wrote about the great Miami Hurricane where three thousand people perished.
Lucy Breckenridge died on April 15, 1940, at the age of 83. Her remarkable life saw the Civil War, the end of slavery, and migration to Washington Territory where she lived in Rosyln and Spokane. Through her diary, one of the few written by an African American in Washington in that era, we see life through the eyes of an early citizen. On June 21, 1989, nearly forty years after her death, Lucy Breckenridge received posthumous recognition from the Washington State Genealogical Society as a Washington Pioneer and First Citizen for settling in the state between 1889 and 1900. Today, through a contractual arraignment, the diary is on loan to the Central Washington University Library. The diary will return to the Williamson-Hill-Breckenridge family in 2032.
About the Author
James E. Williamson is originally from Spokane, Washington but currently lives in Denver, Colorado. He attended the University of Utah before transferring to Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington where he graduated in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He served in the United States Army from 1979 to 1982 as a medical supply specialist. In 1982, he attended Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia, graduating later that year as a Second Lieutenant. His first assignment as an officer was at Tooele, Utah Army Depot but from 1985 to 1986 he was battalion supply coordination staff officer in Stuttgart, Germany. After promotion to Captain, he served as the Company Commander of the 11th Heavy Material Supply Company located in Boblingen, Germany. Williamson completed military service in 1994 at the rank of Major.
Williamson later worked for City of Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO) as an airport concession manager for 5 years. While in that position he graduated with honors from Park University in Parkville, Missouri, completing the requirements for a master’s degree in public administration. In 1999 he secured a position with the City and County of Denver, serving as Director of Facilities Management for 20 years before retiring in 2019. James Williamson enjoys skiing, snowmobiling, and hiking in the Rocky Mountains. He also enjoys traveling in Western Europe. In the future he intends to focus on writing more short stories that draw from my firsthand experiences.
