Born as a slave and worked in the fields from an early age. His surname was of the family that owned his mother and her nine children. He lost two of his brothers in the Civil War and, following the Emancipation Proclamation, moved to Nashville to be near a grandmother. He attended school for one term. He was hired by a Nashville restaurant owner and spent five years learning the business. In 1881, he relocated to Chicago and worked on Clark Street for two years. In 1883, he joined the Pullman Private Car Service and spent the next fourteen years working on the rail road cars that carried celebrities and wealthy people. He honed his culinary skills there and soon became a preferred chef, preparing dinners for presidents and celebrities. In 1894, he travelled to Japan. He left Pullman in 1897 and became the chef to Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Gould Railway president Arthur Sitwell on his private railway car. In continued in that job until 1907. He then joined U.S. Steel Corporation in Chicago and was the chef for their subsidiary companies. in 1911, he published Good Things to Eat As Suggested by Rufus, an unusual cookbook, but very well-received. Nothing is known of the circumstances or place of his death. |
