Solomon Johnson and the genesis of Coronado's Black Community
Solomon Johnson, co-Founder of San Diego's first black Church, was Coachman to Coronado Founder E.S. Babcock from 1883-1887, and was instrumental in the establishment of Coronado's Black Community
Few know that a formerly enslaved man from Tennessee played an important role in the founding of Coronado and the building of the Hotel del Coronado. His name was Solomon Johnson.
Solomon Johnson, is considered the “Founding Father” of the Black Church in San Diego. Beginning in 1887, Solomon and wife Cordelia’s home in downtown San Diego at Union and F St was used as the site of Bethel AME Church until 1896, when enough funds were raised to build and establish the Church at a separate location. This historic Church remains a pillar today within the African American community of San Diego and is now located at the corner of 31st and K St.
Solomon Johnson was employed by Coronado’s “Founding Father,” Elisha Babcock Jr, in Evansville, Indiana in 1883 and was Babcock’s coachman during the critical years of 1883-1887. It was in this period that Babcock’s remarkable vision of Coronado and the Hotel Del went from dream to reality. Evidence suggests Johnson accompanied Babcock on his early visits to San Diego and his later unsuccessful “fundraising trip” to Henderson, Kentucky in 1886. While in Henderson, Babcock failed to secure his needed funding for the hotel, but Johnson likely assisted Babcock in the recruitment of a stellar group of African American men and women from Henderson who followed Johnson and Babcock to Coronado in 1887.
This influential group of African Americans from Henderson, Kentucky became some of Coronado’s earliest residents. In the Census of 1900, the only black families living in Coronado were from this group from Henderson. They were led there by Solomon Johnson.
Early Life - Clarksville, Tennessee (1847-1881)
Solomon Johnson was born into slavery in Clarksville, Tennessee in 1847; both documents and family lore suggest he and his family were among the 67 people enslaved by Cave Johnson, a US Congressman who later was appointed as Postmaster General of the United States by his close friend and fellow enslaver President James K Polk.
The United States Slave Schedules of 1860 show Cave Johnson owning 5 women in their mid 30’s and 7 boys aged between 11 and 13, corresponding to the ages of Solomon and his mother at that time. Johnson was a vehement supporter of the Confederacy, with all three of his sons fighting in the Confederate army during the Civil War. He died in 1866, soon after the war’s end.
There is little record of Solomon and his family until 1880. The Census of 1880 describes Solomon as living in downtown Clarksville with his 58 year old mother Sylvia and 14 year old brother Major. Their home was steps away from the historic St Peter’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was established in 1866, but not fully constructed until 1873, during the short lived Reconstruction Period.
It is not certain how long Solomon lived in the neighborhood near the Church, but this important institution in Clarksville most certainly would have had an impact on Solomon. The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church was the first African American denomination organized in the United States and, unlike most other American denominations, it was formed due to the racism that existed towards African Americans within the established Church. The AME church grew rapidly during Reconstruction, and remains a vital institution today for African Americans across the country.
In November of 1881, Solomon’s mother Sylvia passed away and was buried in the Clarksville Cemetery. A beautiful flying dove is chiseled into the headstone. Solomon was most certainly his mother’s protector and caretaker, possibly from the time of his teenage years. Soon after her passing, the 34 year old bachelor bid a final farewell to his friends and family before setting off to start his new life. He made an epic and life-changing decision to leave the oppressive and violent Jim Crow South for a chance of a better future in the North. Millions would flee for the same reasons years later, known historically as The Great Migration. Solomon headed for Evansville, Indiana, 110 miles due north of Clarksville.
Evansville, Indiana (1881-1885)
From the Census of 1880, Evansville was ranked the 66th largest city in the United States, with a population of 29,280 people. It was situated along the Ohio River across from Kentucky and was important historically as one of two transit points in Indiana of the Underground Railroad for escaped slaves fleeing north.
In the Evansville City Directory of 1882 (city directories often list information collected in the prior year), Solomon Johnson is listed as a “laborer” living at 223 Church. However, things soon radically change for Solomon. The next year he is listed in the same directory as a “hostler,” (a worker in a horse stable), living at a conspicuous address, 1047 Upper 1st St. This address is precisely the identical address of Elisha Babcock Sr, father of Coronado founder Elisha Babcock Jr, (who lives next door). Solomon likely landed this job some time in 1882. Another life changing event occurs in Solomon’s life in this period. In July of 1882, he marries Cordelia “Delia” Hilliard in Evansville.
Like Solomon, Cordelia Hilliard was born into slavery in Carroll County, Tennessee, in 1859. Cordelia, along with her mother Wincy, as well as her six siblings and ten others were enslaved by John Hilliard, a Baptist Clergyman. In 1876, at age 17, Delia would marry Henry Bledsoe, but the marriage did not last. In 1880 Delia separates from Henry Bledsoe (she is listed in the Census of 1880 twice - both as married and living with Henry and again as Single and living alone). In 1881, Delia leaves Tennessee for Evansville Indiana and upon arrival is using her maiden name Hilliard, evidence that she divorced Henry Bledsoe. She finds a job as a live-in “domestic” at 1130 Upper 2nd, which is literally just around the corner from where Solomon was living at the Babcock estate at 1047 Upper 1st. It is not a stretch to imagine that Solomon and Delia could have met strolling in their leafy upscale neighborhood or perhaps they met at their local AME Church.
Over the next two years, from 1883-1885, Solomon is listed in Evansville in the new position of coachman instead of a hostler, and is still living at the Babcock address, while Delia continues to work as a domestic, living in nearby homes. In 1886, the Johnsons vanish from the Evansville directory, a likely result of them moving to San Diego with the Babcock family.
San Diego, California (1885-1887)
In 1880, the population of the City of San Diego was just 2,637 people, and by 1890 it had grown over 500% to 16,159. The rapid growth was hastened by the arrival of the railroad in San Diego in 1885. The African American population of the region experienced similar growth in this period: there were just 55 African Americans in San Diego County in 1880 (with 33 of those living in the mining town of Julian), but by 1890 the number had grown to 289, with 65 of those living in the downtown area of San Diego.
Elisha Babcock was originally a railroad man. He started out as a clerk in the Evansville Railroad and worked his way up to the position of Freight Director in the late 1870s. He certainly must have anticipated great things for San Diego, as he arrived in the city just as the railroad did, in 1885. It is likely that Solomon joined Babcock on this early visit to San Diego, in early 1885, when Babcock traveled for a reported medical “rest and recuperation.” At the time, Babcock considered himself a “capitalist” (a title he used in 1886 in the San Diego Registry of Voters), but in reality he was much more, he was a visionary. He combined this extraordinary vision with an uncanny ability to execute, something more akin to a Walt Disney than a classic capitalistic investor. He was an early adopter of emerging technologies - he left the railroad industry in the late 1870s to become an investor and leader in the emerging Bell telephone business (he was the President of the Evansville Telephone Company in 1884), and was also a pioneer in the business of making ice, having ownership of five ice factories.
A man of Babcock’s vision and experience, arriving in the dusty bustling city of San Diego (a tenth of the size of Evansville), a city full of potential, must have been exhilarating. He likely stayed in the “New Town” section of the city, within its bustling center of Horton Plaza Park. It is also very likely that a man of Babcock’s stature would have traveled with his coachman, which would allow a man of Babcock’s stature the freedom and flexibility to explore the region as well as demonstrate he was a major player on the scene. The photo below is of Horton Plaza Park in 1885 (take note of the simple side-by-side seating on the horse carriages, typical of how Solomon and Elisha would have traveled together).
While the chaos of San Diego must have excited Babcock, he also found his quiet place to escape the noise of bustling San Diego. He would regularly row a small boat out across the San Diego bay to a barren peninsular island (today’s Coronado) to stroll and hunt rabbits. On one of his trips to the island with new hunting buddy Hampton Story, he had his great epiphany: He would build a resort hotel on this island so grand that would it would attract people from across the world. The adventurous Babcock was well traveled (In 1883 he is listed as applying for passports for he and his family at Key West, Florida, likely en route to a holiday in Cuba), and thus had exposure to the global hospitality world. He was also a trained civil engineer and could envision the massive work that would be required. But even for a man like Babcock, this would be a monumental stretch.
In November of 1885, Babcock and Story, along with local banker Jacob Gruendike, President of First National Bank, purchased the entire island for $110,000 and soon went about planning the development.
By early 1886, the Coronado Beach Company had been formed, and the city’s road network and overall plan was laid out. Subdivision and sale of lots had begun, but the cashflow being generated from the land sales were not sufficient to finance the hotel. Babcock needed serious cash from people with deep pockets, and so he decided to travel back towards Evansville to the first place he knew where such wealth existed - the small but rich tobacco town of Henderson, Kentucky. Henderson was just a few miles across the river from his former home town of Evansville.
Solomon Johnson and Elisha Babcock’s Visit to Henderson, Kentucky (1886)
Solomon would have had a deep understanding of the people in a place like Henderson, Kentucky. Henderson County, in which the city of Henderson is located, had many similarities to Johnson’s home county of Montgomery County, where Solomon’s home city of Clarksville was located. Both had a deep and pervasive relationship between a specific type of dark tobacco and slavery. He would have understood the hard but seasonal aspect of that work as the tobacco moved from the field to the stemmery and from there to the leaf dealers on Main Street and to the boats bound for England. He would have known personally the harsh impact of this work and recognized it on the bodies of the black people he met in Henderson, while also noting the extravagant displays of wealth of the white men of Henderson who ran the tobacco game.
Before Emancipation, the counties of Henderson in Kentucky and Montgomery County (Solomon’s home area) in Tennessee had two of the highest percentages of enslaved persons in the United States, with over 40% of the people living in those counties being enslaved. The reason was simple, these counties were prime riverine tobacco growing areas, and there was big money to be made from tobacco.
At the end of the 19th century, Henderson held a unique place in history due to the export business of dark tobacco. Worldwide shipping from Henderson’s river port resulted in Henderson becoming the richest community per capita in the United States during tobacco’s heyday.
— from the Henderson, Kentucky Tourism Commission website, 2022
“Although the (Henderson) county's tobacco farmers prospered, it was the tobacconists in town who became truly wealthy, and by 1860, as the largest dark tobacco stripping market in the world, Henderson was said to rank second only to Frankfort, Germany as the globe's wealthiest city per capita. (Henderson's wealth, of course, was bolstered by counting slaves as property and thus may not be a fair comparison to Frankfort's.)”
— from the City of Henderson’s application to The National Registry of Places for the downtown district of Henderson, Kentucky, 1989
By 1886, Elisha Babcock would have built a tremendous amount of rapport and trust in Solomon Johnson and would have certainly taken his coachman to make his rounds in Henderson that day. Babcock was a world class networker and planner (he built the Hotel Del in eleven months!) and would have taken advantage of the opportunity to use Solomon to scout for talent from among the Henderson Black community. It is easy to imagine that while Elisha was inside hobnobbing with the wealthy tobacco men of Henderson pitching his glorious vision of the resort hotel, Solomon would have been out in the back with the other coachman and staff talking about the wonders of San Diego, what a decent man and boss Babcock was, and how Jim Crow was less dangerous out West.
An article from the Coronado Eagle in October of 1963 by Lucille Soaper Stites reminisces about this particular fundraising visit by Babcock to Henderson. Her father, William Soaper, and Uncle Thomas Soaper, were among the primary targets of this fundraising visit. Their tycoon father had passed away a few years earlier, and they were both flush with cash. She described it this way:
Among the important potential investors and dignitaries Elisha Babcock would have visited or met on this trip to Henderson would have certainly been William and Thomas Soaper (leaders of the tobacco and industrialist Soaper family), John Atkinson (heir to millionaire tobacco tycoon George Atkinson’s fortune), and possibly the former Civil War Mayor of Henderson David Banks’s family.
The Coronado Pioneers of Henderson, Kentucky
The African Americans that left Henderson, Kentucky and followed Elisha Babcock to Coronado were among the first people of any race to settle on Coronado. Their children attended an integrated Coronado school from the day the schools opened in 1887. They were allowed to buy property, build homes, and run businesses in the town. Some represented the City as early as 1898 as Republican delegates to the California Republican convention. Their children became important civic leaders for the black community of San Diego and beyond, served valiantly in WWI, or were stars on the football field. Babcock’s role in seeing these formerly enslaved African Americans as fellow citizens, and including them in the fabric of early Coronado cannot be understated, but their representation in Coronado’s history may not have been possible without the participation of his Coachman, Solomon Johnson, whose credibility helped sell the idea to these early pioneers of Coronado.
Gustavus “Gus” Thompson
One of the talented young people that Solomon Johnson likely recruited on this trip worked for the Soaper family and would be Solomon’s eventual replacement as coachman to Elisha Babcock. Twenty year old Gustavus “Gus” Thompson, was the coachman for tycoons Thomas and William Soaper’s aged mother Susan. The Soaper family had owned over 50 slaves in 1860 and were possibly the richest family in Henderson in 1885.
Gus Thompson was born enslaved in Cadiz, Kentucky between 1859-1862 to James A Thompson, Sr, who enslaved 23 Africans, several listed as '“Mulatto.” Gus was listed as an 18 year old farm hand living in Henderson, Kentucky in 1880 with his sister Mary and her husband, George Ellis.
Gus would leave the Soaper family in 1886 or 1887 and travel to Coronado, California. He did odd jobs for the team building the Hotel Del and soon become the Babcock family coachman in Coronado in late 1887. This could have been part of Solomon’s plan, particularly if we assume that Solomon had no interest in settling on the barren island, a place where he would be unable to build a church and tend to the larger growing Black community in San Diego. It was soon after Thompson arrived in San Diego that Solomon changed jobs and began work at First National Bank in San Diego that same year. Thompson and Johnson would remain lifelong friends.
Gus Thompson (1859-1947) would become the most influential and most successful African American businessman in the history of Coronado - his charismatic and generous spirit had an impact not just on the entire Coronado community, but also on the greater African American community of San Diego as well.
Gus married Emma Gardner in 1892 and they raised 3 children on the island - Walter, Edyth and Edward - all of whom attended Coronado schools. Walter was a war hero who served in the 815th Pioneer Regiment in WWI and later settled in San Jose. Edyth attended several years of college and would marry the California colored Tennis champion Ballinger Kemp and move to Los Angeles and raise a family. Edward “Puss” Thompson would be considered one of the greatest football players in CHS history and go on to attend Whittier College and become a supervisor for the Southern Gas Company in Los Angeles. Gus Thompson Livery and Stables was in operation from 1887 into the 1920s, yet the original building remained in place well into the 1950’s.
In addition to being the Babcock Family coachman in the early days of Coronado, Gus would become both the mail carrier and trash collector for Coronado until around 1920. He also ran a booming transfer business and ran multiple labor crews for digging, demolition and hauling. His automobile rental and transfer business operated in Coronado into the 1940s. Gus was also active in Republican politics. In 1898, Gus and his boss and mentor Elisha Babcock, were delegates representing Coronado at the California Republican Convention:
Gus helped co-found (in 1903), Fidelity Lodge No. 10, San Diego’s first Prince Hall Black Freemason Lodge. This lodge was an important fraternal organization which served San Diego’s growing Black middle class. Fidelity Lodge No. 10 remains in operation today, as does another Prince Hall Lodge that was named in honor of Gus Thompson in Spring Valley, CA, Gustavus Thompson Lodge #79.
The Marshall Family
Also recruited from Henderson on this important trip to Henderson by Solomon Johnson and Babcock was Coronado’s first African American family, The Marshall Family.
Civil War veteran Edmund Marshall (1833-1928), wife “Matt” Marshall (1838-1896), and children William, Richmond and Florence arrived in Coronado in 1887. Edmund Marshall was born enslaved by William J Marshall in 1833. Edmund escaped enslavement in late October 1864 to join the 118th Regiment of the US Colored Troops fighting for the Union in the Civil War. Edmund’s regiment would be among the first to enter and liberate Richmond, Virginia, and his regiment would witness President Lincoln’s triumphant visit to the city a few days later.
Edmund’s wife, Matt Marshall (formerly Matt Dallam) was born enslaved in 1838 to the Dallam Family. LC Dallam and his sister Virginia were listed as the likely owners of Matt in 1860. LC Dallam would marry into the Soaper family (Elizabeth Soaper, sister to Thomas and William), while Virginia would marry John Atkinson of the wealthy Atkinson family.
Matt married Edmund Marshall in 1869 and they moved into tycoon George Atkinson’s home in 1870, with Edmund working as a laborer and Matt as the cook for the house. When George died in 1877, Edmund and Matt moved into a small house behind heir John Atkinson’s home on Green Street.
In 1885, Elisha Babcock most certainly would have met with and tried to convince John Atkinson to invest in the Hotel Del, and brother-in-law LC Dallam could have also been present, Edmund and Matt Marshall would have certainly been there and met Solomon. In 50 year old Edmund, Solomon would see a potential mentor and friend, and also envision the powerful dignified example that The Marshall Family would represent to the emerging Black community. In their final years in San Diego, both widowers, friends Edmund and Solomon would be neighbors in Logan Heights.
In 1890, Edmund Marshall would be employed in Elisha Babcock’s “state-of-the-art” De Coppet method Ice Factory at the Hotel Del. Matt Marshall would work as the cook in the Babcock home until her untimely death in 1896. Sons William and Richmond would work in the laundry department at the Hotel Del.
Edmund and Matt’s son Richmond Marshall (1873-1906) was among the first African Americans to attend Coronado schools, and is likely the young African American boy in the photo below, taken in either 1887 or 1888. Elisha Babcock’s two boys were nearly the same age as Richmond and also attended Coronado schools. They may be the boys on each side of Richmond in this photo. While working as a laundryman at the Hotel Del, Richmond would help co-found the Prince Hall Freemason Lodge, Fidelity Lodge No. 10 in 1903. His charisma and vision would lead to him becoming the Grandmaster of all Prince Hall Black Freemason lodges in the State of California in 1905. Richmond would die tragically at the young age of 33 the following year.
George Banks
Solomon Johnson may have also had a hand in the recruitment of 25 year old hostler George Banks from Henderson. George was a livery worker in Coronado, likely in the livery of the Hotel Del from 1887-1903. He later worked as a porter at the hotel in 1903. George was born enslaved in 1862 to his enslaved parents, Fanny and George Banks. The entire Banks family of nine members were enslaved by Henderson Mayor David Banks, who was the mayor of Henderson during the tumultuous Civil War period of 1862-1865.
Upon settling in Coronado, George married Massy Banks and they raised two children in Coronado, Arthur and Sandy Banks.
The Significance of Solomon and Cordelia Johnson
With the arrival of Gus Thompson as Babcock family coachman in Coronado in 1887, Solomon Johnson was now released by Elisha Babcock to start work on his vision with Cordelia for the emerging Black community of San Diego.
While Solomon had earned the trust and respect of Elisha Babcock Jr and his partners, he must have diplomatically made it clear that the island life was not for him, and that he had a different calling. Babcock’s original co-investor in the Coronado Beach Company, bank President Jacob Gruendike gladly employed Solomon as janitor at his First National Bank in downtown San Diego in 1887.
Though Solomon was employed in a menial job of a janitor, such were the jobs available to African Americans in that day (he would work diligently in that humble position at First National for the next 35 years, retiring in 1922 at age 75). It was the steady income and convenient schedule of this job that provided Solomon and Cordelia the time and resources to do their real work - to minister to the growing African American community of San Diego. They used their living room in downtown San Diego as the first Church site of Bethel AME Church, from 1887 until a new site could be built in 1896.
During this crucial time they provided the needed leadership and strength to a community emerging from both slavery and the failure of Reconstruction, and now fleeing the increasing anti-Black violence of the Jim Crow south. While all African Americans arriving in San Diego were met by the segregation and discrimination of the Jim Crow West, they were also met by the beacon of kindness, generosity and sturdy leadership of Cordelia and Solomon Johnson.
The Johnson family also grew, with the arrival of two wonderful children, son Gerard and daughter Dimple.
The original church shifted to a new site in 1911 on Front St. Respected San Diego architect and philanthropist Irving Gill donated his time to design the new structure. It was later torn down when the Church moved to its final home
Solomon was also active in his role as a civic leader for the community, as the AME Church was not just a religious institution. The AME Church was an integral institution nationwide in the struggle for justice and equality. Solomon was involved in the founding of the important fraternal organization Fidelity Lodge No. 10 in 1903, and would later be instrumental in the establishment of the first office of the NAACP in San Diego in 1917.
“The NAACP Organizing committee…included community leaders like reputed ex-slave and Bethel A.M.E. Church co-founder Solomon Johnson and businessman Edward W. Anderson, the first black in Southern California to file a racial discrimination lawsuit.”
—From the History section of the San Diego NAACP website
Cordelia Johnson would pass away at the age of 53 in 1912. Her daughter Dimple would marry Isaac Wooden the same year, in 1912. Issac Wooden served as secretary of the Colored City Employees’ Social and Aid Club in the 1920s (a young 21 year old Isaac Wooden lived and worked with Gus Thompson in Coronado in 1910 - Gus was likely asked to measure up the young man for his friend Solomon prior to the marriage).
Solomon would give Dimple and Isaac the family home at 3024 Greeley to raise their young family and would live with them until his death. He passed away in December of 1924 at the age of 77.
Solomon and Cordelia Johnson’s powerful vision and humble example is still changing lives today: Bethel AME Church, San Diego
Kevin Ashley, Coronado, April 2022