Silbert Billouin - Jamaica Plain Success Story

Mr. Sil Billouin Jr.


Sil and young daughter Angelique.


Father and daughter.


On February 13th, I posted a story about Silbert "Tink" Billouin Jr., who was voted President of my brother's Mary E. Curley graduating class. Through the magic of the Internet, I've heard from Silbert's daughter Angelique, who has been kind enough to continue the story where I left off.

After getting out of high school, I came along. My mother was 18, he was 19. He followed his dads foot steps in sales and was a top achiever in everything he did. He was commissioned sales so he made a good living and was able to send me to private school, beaver country day school, Newman prep school and Emerson college. We lived at 9 Sheridan and then moved to 41 Sheridan street in jp. When his dad died, I moved in with his mom (my grandmother ) next door and lived with her for most of my teenage years.

They packed up and moved to Navarre Florida in 1989. Him, my mom and my brother Max. Max was then 9 years old. I stayed in Boston and tried to make it on my own. A year later I moved in with them in Fla. The rest of his years were pretty significant. He started out working for Cellular One in cell phone sales. He moved his way up in the company and eventually opened his own retail store, Tri County Cellular where he sold cell phones and pagers, He was best known for his involvement with the local area optimist club and the Navarre Youth Sports Association. He was a big part of the lives of the youth in the area. When they got to Florida, he no longer went by "Tink". His professional name was "Sil" or as the kids called him "Mr Sil".

I always remember him being happy and positive no matter what. When asked how he was doing he would always reply that he was "filled and thrilled with divine power, energy and enthusiasm".

In 1998 he was diagnosed with colon cancer and battled it for 3 years. At some time in those 3 years he decided he wanted to be a motivational speaker. He never got to do a presentation, however he did get to talk at my Avon sales meeting about his life experiences and successes in sales and marketing.

When told he had 4-8 weeks to live, he got on a mad dash to get everything in order. He created his final will, and his own program for his funeral service. Hi passed away 2 days after thanksgiving 2001. The local community merchants had signs on there marques saying "we will miss you sil" My mother, Joyce Billouin and brother Max still reside in Navarre Florida.

All of the Billouins except for 2 cousins moved from Jamaica Plain to Florida. Our family was a prominent part of Jamaica Plain and I did not even realize it until reading your blog. I was always told that as a child, but was too young to understand.

Mr Sweetzer and Mr Bancroft

Sidney & Smith, 1852 (copyright © 2000 by Cartography Associates.)
David Rumsey Collection

[H. Sweetzer appears on the map above in the lower left quadrant, just above the bold letter B. The house seems to have been across from today's Faulker Hospital on Centre street.]


The few times I've found mentions of African-Americans in Jamaica Plain in these pre-1924 newspaper archives, it has generally been when they were accused of a crime. Although I think that it is of historical interest that African-Americans lived in the community during these years, I haven't posted any of the articles because of the obviously unbalanced picture they portray. In this case, I think the date of the event makes the articles worth reproducing. This is the first dated reference I've found to a named African-American in Jamaica Plain that post-dates the presence of slaves in the community. The fact that black people could only make the newspaper when they were accused of crimes says more about the newspapers and their readers than about the people themselves. If John Bancroft had gone about his business and never met Henry Sweetzer, we would never have known his name. As it is, we know that he and his wife lived somewhere in Jamaica Plain, and that he did odd jobs for the local gentry. Maybe someone somewhere knows more about him; where he came from, and how he came to be in rural West Roxbury, when African-Americans in Boston were limited to living in a segregated community on the back side of Beacon Hill.



New York Daily Times September 2, 1856


News from Boston.

Ferocious And Probably Fatal Assault


On Saturday, Mr. Henry Sweetzer, a wealthy gentleman, residing at Jamaica Plain, called at the house of John Bancroft, a colored man, to engage him to do some work, and finding Bancroft intoxicated and abusing his wife, he remonstrated, where upon Bancroft strick him with a piece of iron with so much violence that no hopes are entertained of Mr Sweetzer's recovery. Bancroft fled and has not been arrested.


September 4, 1856


The Murderous Assault At Jamaica Plain.

Mr. Henry Sweetzer, whose skull was fractured by being struck with an iron crane by John Bancroft, a negro, on Saturday afternoon, lingered till this morning, when he expired. Mr. Sweetzer was a gentleman of about 64 years of age, and had held several town offices. He had acquired a fine property by active business in this city, but retired to spend the closing years of his life on his own estate. The negro who committed the assault came home on Sunday evening and delivered himself up to the authorities, by whom he was immediately carried to Dedham Jail. He said that he did not know what he was about at the time he did the deed. He was maddened by liquor and did not even know who the person was whom he struck. However true this statement may be, he is evidently a very dangerous character.-- Boston Traveller, 2d.

The Right To Run

The story below seems to be about race in early 20th Century Boston, but it's probably more about Boston politics, and only tangentially connected to life in Jamaica Plain. On the surface, it describes an effort of a black man to run for office as a Republican. His words resonate with our time, but there's a hitch. A recent book* describes Allen as "a machine politician of dubious character," who was elected to office only because his name did not reveal his race. His electoral succes in the Jamaica Plain district cited below may have been for just that reason. It was common practice in Boston politics to run an unknown Italian-American against an Italian-American politician, or a Joseph Murray against a John Murray. Party loyalty may have caused voters to put their mark beside the name Allen without knowing who they were voting for. Of course, we don't know the real character of the man, and he can't have been much worse than those he ran against. I imagine we'll never know what the people of Jamaica Plain thought of Ike Allen after they heard him speak, but he was probably the first African-American to win any election in Jamaica Plain.



Boston Daily Globe November 26, 1903


Right To Run.

That's What "Ike" Allen Claims to Have.

Still He Doesn't Know Whether He'll Stick or Quit.

"Always Ready for Peace in the Party."

Speaks to Members of Jamaica Plain Citizens' Association.

Wants No One to Vote for Him Because He's Negro.


A meeting of the Jamaica Plain citizens' association was held last evening in the hall of the Bowditch school on Green st. It proved to be a very interesting one, as invitations had been extended to the various candidates for public office, and many of them accepted and addressed the members, among them Hon Isaac B. Allen, candidate for street commissioner.

Rev Charles F. Dole, president, occupied the chair, and introduced the speakers, who were George W. Galvin, socialist candidate for mayor; aldermanic candidates R.L. Raymond, Joseph I. Stewart, John Fitzpatrick, socialist, and councilmanic candidates John J. Conway, William H. Jordan, John Grauman, William H. Howers, Howell T. Wood, Paul A. Jepson, Jas. A. Price, Jeremiah J.Hourin.

The first business of the meeting was a discussion of the proposed extension of the elevated structure to Forest Hills sq. It was voted to appoint a committee of three to attend the hearing before the board of aldermen, Dec 2, to oppose the extension.

Each speaker was given five minutes in which to express his views, and none of the candidates was listened to with more interest than was Mr Allen, who in opening said with a smile: "You republicans know that you are confronted with something you have never been confronted with before. Now I don't know if I shall stay in the fight or not. I am always ready for peace in my party, but I believe I have the same right to run as a candidate as any citizen in this city.

"I am 59 years old and I have given the best part of my life to the work of the republican party. I do not believe that the voters of ward 23, who gave me such a splendid majority, did not know who they were voting for. I believe that every voter knew that Isaac B. Allen is a negro. My whole object is to elect a republican man. See to it that you elect George W. Swallow mayor of this city: never mind if I am on the ballot or not."

Speaking of the negro in the south, Mr Allen said that he did not believe the southern negro would change his politics, as he has everything to thank the republican party for.

"I do not want any one to vote for me because I am a negro, but because I am an American citizen," he said, "but whatever you do, vote for the republican ticket from top to bottom."



*Boston Confronts Jim Crow, 1890-1920, Mark Robert Schneider.

Rachel Allen House for Colored Women - Update

I did a road trip to South Huntington avenue to get some pictures and refresh my memory. Refresh I did, when I saw the Sherrill House, which I had long forgotten. I passed it many times on the streetcar, but never paid enough attention for it to lock into my memory. Or else I'm just getting old. In any case.... a quick search to the Sherrill House online paid dividends. You can read about the history of the Sherrill House here. Sure enough, the Sherrill House began its life as the Trinity Church Home for the Aged (Rachel Allen Memorial). The original building was closed in 1966, and torn down in 1968, replaced by a new brick building in 1970. That building housed the merged Trinity Church house and the St Luke's Home for Convalescents, formerly of Roxbury in the new Sherrill House.

So now we know what happened to the Rachel Allen home. Except, what happened to the "Colored" part? Can I speculate that the word was removed - one might say whitewashed (pun intended) - from history out of some fear of giving offence? If so, the law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head, as the existence of an institution for the care of African-Americans in Jamaica Plain - and Boston - is removed from memory. I would have thought that the current institution would be proud to have descended from the impulse that led to the founding of the original Rachel Allen Home for Colored Women.

Am I making too much of this? Maybe... but I'd bet dollars to donuts that I'm more right than not.

Mr Washington Mills

Boston Daily Globe August 9, 1908

Up From Slavery.

Washington Mills Now a Boston Janitor.

How He Ran Away as a Boy and Reached Yankee Lines.

Washington Mills, born into slavery in Murfreesboro, N.C. in 1848, was destined to pass through many and varied experiences before he attained his present pleasant position as janitor and engineer at the American Unitarian association building in Boston.

As a boy his life was uneventful until Noverber, 1862, when the rumor spread that the "Yanks" were near by in Winston, N.C. A little company of 12 slaves, two of whom besides young Mills were boys, decided to run away to the Yankee lines.

So one dark Sunday night they met and set out upon this desparate venture. They travelled through a dense wood until 2 o'clock in the morning, when they reached the house of the mother of one of the men. Here they rested a short time, then went on to the banks of the Clowan river.

They waited a week, hoping that a gunboat would pass which would put them across. None came, however, but at sunset, just a week from the time they started, they procured a boat which landed them on the other side.

They travelled on and on through the deserted confederate country, till they were halted by a Yankee picket. Their leader stepped forward and replied "Friends."

The little band was at last within the northern lines, and under the protection of the Federal government, and then, for the first time in his life, Mr Mills says, he "breathed free air."

This camp which the company had reached was at Trenton, N.C., and they were placed upon an old schooner which in a week's time landed them in Newburn, N.C. There they separated and little "Washy" with another boy set out to look for employment, which they soon found with the 43rd Mass regiment; "Washy" working for the cook, and the other boy for an officer.

In the middle of December, the regiment went on a short expedition, and engaged in several skirmishes. The little colored boys tramped in advance of the regiment. One day, as they were on the march, little Washington Mills happened to walk beside Adjt James Whitney, of Boston, who was riding in front.

"Hello! Where are you going?" Mr Whitney asked the boy.

"With a regiment," he replied.

Mr Whitney said he had promised his mother to bring her a little black boy from the south, and suggested to the boy that he enter service and go home with him. It was satisfactorily arranged, and young Washington Mills entered upon the fourth great change in his life.

When the regiment was ordered home at train for Baltimore was boarded. All the cars were flat except one, a box car, into which "Washy" climbed, and fell asleep. When he awoke he was amazed to find that the train was wholly made up of box cars. Upon inquiry he learned that his car had been switched off. Within a few hours he arrived in Washington, friendless and alone.

He tried to board a train, but was knocked off.

At last he climbed onto a train which he was told was bound for Philadelphia. He had no idea of either the route or the destination, but as luck would have it, he rode into Baltimore. At that time the railroad passed through the main streets of the city, so the train was obliged to slow down. The boy, tired of the long ride, got off and ran beside the cars.

He happened to glance across the street, and there stood Adjt Whitney, who had given him up for dead.

The completes the story of the more exciting adventures which Mr Mills has passed through.

He reached Boston on July 21, 1863, and went to live in Adjt Whitney's home. Miss Whitney, his benefactor's sister, undertook to teach him the "three Rs," as he did not know A from B. He learned quickly, and attended the public schools for two years and a half.

He remained with Mr Whitney for four and one-half years.

He had become a young man and began to feel the natural desire to earn a salary. A Mr Weld offered him work, and he worked for him for 10 months.

Mr Weld then offered to find him a chance to learn the carpenter's trade. Through the influence of Adjt Whitney's father, he was apprenticed to Jonas Finch, a carpenter. He learned the busines, married and settled in Jamaica Plain. He worked for Mr Finch for 20 years.

On December, 1887, he obtained the position of Janitor and engineer at the headquarters of the American Unitarian association, where he is at present pleasantly situated.


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I took the following entries from the Boston directory of the time.


Sampson, Murdock, & Co.
Date: 1885

Mills, Washington, carpenter, home Boylston av. near Porter, J. P.

Sampson & Murdock Co.
Date: 1905

Mills, Washington janitor 25 Beacon home 18 Boylston av J P


Boylston avenue was the present section of Amory street between Boylston street and Green street. Eighteen Boylston avenue was a split two-family house just south of Porter street. It is no longer there.