James Edward Greenwood

1870s

Born 26 January 1870 in Halifax, in the West Yorkshire wool country.

1890s

A worsted-weaving overlooker — a mill supervisor — by 1891. In 1896 he and Clara Rawson emigrated together; James landed in Philadelphia on 11 March and took up permanent residence there on the 26th.

1900s

Worked in the Philadelphia mills and was naturalized through the Eastern District court of Pennsylvania in 1906.

1940s

Died at his home on East Willard Street, Philadelphia, on 29 October 1948.

A Halifax Weaver

James Edward Greenwood was born around 1870 in Halifax, in England's West Yorkshire wool country, and left school after the eighth grade to enter the weaving trade, rising to worsted weaving overlooker — a mill supervisor's post — by 1891.

Philadelphia

James emigrated to the United States in 1896, arriving in Philadelphia on March 11 and settling there permanently by the end of the month; he and Clara Evelyn Rawson, also from Halifax, made the crossing and their new life together. He declared his intention to naturalize in 1903, filed his petition in 1906 with two fellow weavers as witnesses, and took the oath of citizenship on January 7, 1907. James spent the rest of his working life as a loom fixer in Philadelphia's cloth mills — including a long stretch at the Fernrock Woolen Mills — through the 1920s, moving the family through a series of Philadelphia rowhouses and finally buying a home on East Thayer Street in 1924, where he lived until shortly before his death. He retired around 1932 and died at his home on East Willard Street on October 29, 1948.