A Jitney Driver in Miami Between Censuses

Thank you to the cousin of my husband's who let me know (a couple of years ago) that he found Joseph Handler as a jitney driver in a Miami, Florida, City Directory in the 1920s, thus confirming the family story that my husband's grandfather moved his family to Florida to see if he could be more successful there than in Akron, Ohio.

A jitney is a small bus which got its name because jitney was a term for a nickel and that's what it cost to ride the early jitneys.

This image from the Library of Congress website is a photograph of a New York City jitney in about 1915 to 1920.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-B2-1234]

Census records show the following addresses and occupations for Joseph Handler:

Year	City	Address	Occupation
1910	Cleveland	2515 Woodland Avenue	None, Factory
1920	Akron	644 Bell Street	Laborer, Rubber Works
1930	Akron	553 Rhodes Avenue	Salesman, Junk
1940	Akron	553 Rhodes Avenue	Industrial Salvage, Own Truck

But what happened between the times that the U.S. federal census was taken? It turns out that a lot can happen in ten years.

The following table shows where I have found Joseph Handler in city directories in the early 1920s.

City	Year	Name	Occupation	Address
Akron	1922	Joseph Handler [Lena]	jitney driver	h 406 Raasch ave
Akron	1924	Joseph Handler [Lena]	jitney driver	h 406 Raasch ave
Akron	1925	Joseph Handler [Lena]	[no occupation]	h 406 Raasch ave

Joseph Handler doesn't appear in Akron City directories before 1922, though he was living there by 1917 when his daughter Belle was born. (Prior to that, he was living in Cleveland.) His 1918 World War I Draft Card reports that he was living at 646 Bell Street and working as a bartender for his cousin, Herman. He lived in Akron until at least the fall of 1922, when youngest son, Harry, was born.

But in 1925, Jos Handler appeared as a jitney driver in Miami, Florida.

Polk's Miami and Miami Beach City Directory (Jacksonville, Florida: R.L. Polk & Co., Publishers, 1925), p. 579;
digital image, Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2469 : viewed 21 January 2019).

I haven't found him in other Florida city directories, so I'm not sure how long he lived there. The family story says that the jitney business dried up (newspaper stories from Miami go into this in great detail) and he had to ask family in Ohio to send him money so he could return. He was living on Rhodes Avenue in Akron in the 1930 U.S. census and a 1931 Akron City Directory, working as a Junk Dealer.

Akron Official City Directory (Akron, Ohio: Burch Directory Co., 1931), p. 875; digital image, Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2469 : viewed 1 February 2019).

Arthur is Joseph's son and Margaret is his daughter; they all live at 553 Rhodes Avenue.
Arthur C., Irvin and Milton are sons of cousin Herman, and "Mrs. Sarah" is his ex-wife. (They divorced in 1931.) They lived at 373 West Cedar.