the families explored in these pages, for the most part, lived and labored on the Western Shore of Maryland prior to migrating to the District of Columbia by the early 1900s
these pages hope to track their journey to the District
the Jackson & Reeder families
Henry Jackson and Alice were living in Louisa County, Virginia after the Civil War. They left Louisa County moved to Staunton Virginia before coming to DC in the 1880s. They settled in the neighborhood and alleys of Swampoodle, where Union Station would be built in the early 1900s.
Their son, Damon Jackson, married the daughter of Thomas Reeder and Martha Colbert. Thomas Reeder, enslaved in St. Mary’s County, had self-emancipated himself during the war, following the Union Army to the District with his brothers and sisters, where he met Martha Colbert, a refugee from slavery in Prince George’s County.
the Wilkes family with the Gantt & Crack families
Frank Wilkes was born near Surrattsville (now present-day Clinton, MD) to unidentified parents. He married Rosa Ella Gantt the daughter of Hannibal Gantt and Agness Crack. Frank and Ella Wilkes, moved with their children to the District in the early 1900s to B Street.
The Gantt family lived on property that Hannibal Gantt and his father-in-law David Crack bought in the 1870s near Cheltenham, MD. They purchased land that had been subdivided from a tract of land called “Poplar Neck” and owned by the Brookes family in Prince George’s County. David Crack and his wife, Priscilla Carroll, had worked the land as enslaved laborers.
the Graham & Thomas families
William Dent was the son of Bruce Dent and Cassandra Johnson, both Black people with free status in the District prior to the Civil War who worked as hucksters at the markets. He partnered with Alice after the Civil War. They lived on “The Island” south of the Mall.
She remarried Charles Graham, the son of Peter and Charity Graham. They had lived and labored on the land owned by George Washington Young across the Eastern River (now called Anacostia River). Post-emancipation, Charity lived in Good Hope, a village along what is now called Alabama Ave SE. Alice and her children took on the last name Graham, including William Henry. Alice and Charles Graham lived south of Capitol Hill and north of the Navy Yard.
William Henry Dent Graham married Mary “Mollie” Thomas, the daughter of William and Margaret Thomas, who had moved from Charles County, Maryland around 1889. The Thomas family lived on the 1300 block of C Street SE with other families from Charles County. In Charles County, they lived in the northwest portion of the county between Pomonkey and Port Tobacco.
the Wedge & Sharps families
George Washington Wedge traces his family back to Mary Wedge, a British indentured servant who partnered with Daniel, an enslaved African, in the early 1700s. The Wedges lived in and around Hill’s Landing in both Prince George’s County and Anne Arundel.
George Wedge married Mary Elizabeth Sharps who had been enslaved in Anne Arundel County most likely by the Drury family. Their son, James Edward Wedge, married in Prince George’s County and then moved to the District in the 1910s.
the Lee & Stewart families
Washington Lee married Sallie Stewart in 1870, in the Queen Anne’s District of Prince George’s County. Washington Lee was a USCT soldier in the Civil War. He was likely a self-emancipated refugee from the captivity of Septimus Cook in the Bladensburg District of Prince George’s County. Called Daniel by Septimus Cook, Washington Lee fled to District of Columbia with his self-given name to join the army and fight for liberation.
Washington Lee returned to Prince George’s County after the war and married Sallie Stewart, the daughter of James Stewart. They had been enslaved by Marsham Waring and his family in Queen Anne’s District.
stories of Then 