John Alexander Starts Machinist Career At Age 19

Note: John Alexander appears to have learned to be a sewing machine machinist from his father.  The newspaper notices and advertisements below document that he started a career traveling to communities around the southern region of the country providing maintenance, repair and parts services for sewing machines. We do not know if he launched his business prior to his father’s death but these advertisements appeared less than one year after his father’s death in Atlanta.  It is perhaps only by coincidence that the earliest notices are from a very small community in West-Central Alabama where Poythress relatives are located.

It is unclear why the 13 April, 1893 notice identifies him as “the competent sewing machine repairer, of Sumterville”.  Possibly he may have been staying with Poythress family, although there is are no accounts or confirming records.  His mother, Indiana Peru, returned with her children back to Henderson after Charles David’s untimely death.

Note:  The family of James Speed Poythress (son of David Poythress and Mary Dortch) was living in Sumterville, Alabama at the time.  James Speed was John Alexander’s uncle.  Nearby in Livingston were other Poythress relatives.