Jennie E. Williams was born around 1882–1883 in Virginia, probably in May 1883 according to the 1900 U.S. Federal Census. At age seventeen, she lived in Beverly Manor, Augusta County, Virginia, with her parents, Nathaniel and Mary Williams, and several family members. The household included her sisters Corah, Alice, Lucy, and Mary, as well as William Williams and a young niece named Millie. William was identified as a son-in-law, although the exact family relationship is uncertain.
By 1905, Jennie had left Virginia and moved hundreds of miles north to Plattsburgh, New York. The New York State Census recorded her as a servant in the household of John and Fanny Wever in Ward 2. Another Black woman, Lillian Marsil, was also employed as a servant in the household. Jennie’s move from Virginia to northern New York represents an example of Black migration northward for employment during the early twentieth century.
Jennie remained with the Wever household for many years. In the 1910 U.S. Federal Census, she was living with the family on Cumberland Avenue in Plattsburgh and continued to work as a servant. She was single and could read and write. Another Black servant, Blanche Williams, was also living and working in the household. Later records and Plattsburgh city directories placed Jennie with the Wevers on Durand Street, where her occupation was more specifically identified as domestic maid.
By 1930, Jennie had returned to Virginia and was living at 201 Eighth Street in Roanoke. Still unmarried, she continued working in domestic service, this time as a cook in the private home of J. W. and Essie Graham and their six children. The census recorded her as approximately fifty years old.
The 1930 census is the last public record currently identified for Jennie E. Williams, and no record of her death has been located. Nevertheless, the surviving records trace a life that connected Virginia and New York and document more than two decades of her working life. Jennie’s story contributes to the history of Black women, migration, and domestic labor in Plattsburgh and the North Country during the early twentieth century.