William Judson CheneyBorn: October 26, 1878, Nicholville, St. Lawrence, NY
Died: January 9, 1957, Dover, New Jersey
Relation to Author: Great Grandfather
Leila Cooper (married name Cheney)
Born: May 7, 1886, New Jersey (Dover?)
Died: December 2, 1975, Dover, New Jersey
Relation to Author: Great Grandmother
Bruce Judson Cheney
Born: October 28, 1917, Morris County, New Jersey
Died: Today, July 16, 2012, Morris County, New Jersey
Relation to Author: Grandfather (aka PopPop)
The 1940 Census has a wealth of information, so as I notice something interesting about family members, I'll write it up in a post. In this post I am going to talk about the listed income of the Cheney family (William, Leila, and Bruce) and the value of their home.
At the time of the 1940 Census, Bruce Cheney and his parents William Cheney and Leila Cheney were all living at 4 Ann Street, in Dover, NJ. According to the census, Bruce, age 22, was working in the stock room of a hosiery mill and William, age 61, was a post office clerk. Bruce's mother Leila, age 53, was working at home.
Bruce's income on the 1940 census was $520 - this is $8,510 in today's dollars. And William's income was $2,100 - this is $34,365 in today's dollars. William's income was enough to live off, but Bruce's was probably not enough for him to be independent and almost definitely not enough to support a family. Fortunately, Bruce would find work at Picatinny the following year.
The value of their home at 4 Ann Street was listed as $7,000. This is above the median value in New Jersey in 1940 of $4,528. To put that number in perspective (using the Historical Census of Housing Values), a $7,000 home in 1940 would be roughly similar to a housing value of $280,000 in the year 2000 (the census didn't have 2010 numbers).
I plan to have more on both Bruce's work at Picatinny and William's work at the Post Office in future posts (and someday a bunch of posts on William's baseball life). If I can find one, I'd also like to have a picture of the house on Ann Street for a future post.
