Tag Archives: Freedmen's Bureau

Nancy Fletcher | Widowhood

James Stewart (Jr) and his wife, Ann (Nancy) Fletcher, liberated themselves during the Civil War from their enslavement in Prince George’s County. Nancy was enslaved by Marsham Waring and his heirs, while her husband was enslaved by Waring’s brother-in-law, Benjamin Lee. Both Waring and Lee were large landowners along the Western Branch in Queen Anne District. 

Following the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia in 1862, neighboring enslaved individuals seized an opportunity for freedom. Despite monitored roads and patrols, many fled their bondage and headed toward the District. Barbara Jeanne Fields highlighted in her book, Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground that “Many an ex-fugitive later reported having left Maryland for the District during or after the spring of 1862. Families packed up such of their possessions as could be compactly assembled and departed, sometimes appropriating means of transportation from their owners.” (111)

Camps emerged in and around the District to accommodate these incoming refugees from slavery. One such camp, Camp Springdale, comprised of tents on the grounds of the “Arlington Estate,” owned by Robert E. Lee’s wife. James and Nancy Stewart were recorded as residents of Camp Springdale in 1864 along with their three children: John (Henson), George (Anthony), and Frances. During this time, Nancy was a new mother, taking care of her infant daughter and her older sons. 

Freedmans village–Greene Heights Arlington, VA. | loc.gov

Post-War Life

1870

James and Nancy survived the war with their sons. After the war, they are living in the District, as recorded by the 1870 Census. Living in Ward 5, James is working as a scavenger while Nancy is “keeping house”. Scavenger is a euphemism, like night-soil man, for a person who collected human waste from households and transported the waste away from residential areas. The Evening Star reported in 1869, that because there was no designated place for depositing the “night soil”, it was dumped into the Potomac, the Tiber creek and the Canal. 

The 1870 Census did not record addresses or street names (like in later census records), however, by comparing names in the Census to the City Directories, a more precise location can be determined. The Stewart Family is enumerated immediately after Benton Russ, a guard at the Jail; in the City Directory, Benton Russ is recorded as living at 2d and A NE, near the location of another refugee camp, Duff’s Green Row. 

1880

By 1880, the family appears to have been split up by economic necessity. Three separate census records have been identified that appear to represent the family based on the geographic proximity to their 1870 address of 2d and A NE. Nancy is living at 107 2nd NE while Ella and John Henson are working as servants at nearby addresses.  George Anthony has yet to be found. 

Nancy Stewart is enumerated in her household, a widow. Ella, age 12, is working as a servant at 18 2nd Street NE in the household of Isaac Bassett, a doorman at the Capitol Building. Both addresses are clustered around the intersection of A St NE and 2nd St NE.

(John) Henson Stewart is working in the household of Mary J Wheeler, who lived at 136 Pennsylvania Ave SE, which was at the the intersection of Independence Ave SE (then B St SE) and 2nd St SE. Essentially, Nancy and Ella lived by the Supreme Court and John Henson Stewart lived by the Library of Congress, a few short blocks away with East Capitol Street separating them. 

On the other hand, George (Anthony) is much more elusive. George Stewart was a common name and several men with the name were working as servants in city; none were near George Anthony’s family members. In 1885, a city directory entry records Anthony Steward living as a laborer at Bassett Alley NE, which is one block north of where Nancy Stewart was living in 1880. 

1900

By 1900, Nancy Stewart has moved east of Lincoln Park and is living at 15 Fitzhugh Court, SE with her two sons: John and George A. She is living with Mary Jones, who is listed as her sister in the census record. 

Although the census lists inaccurate ages for them, shaving decades off of their ages, the address aligns with other records that suggest the high probability that this is the same family. The following records support this connection:

  1. 1907 City Directory entry for Nancy Stewart, wid. James, residing at 15 Fitzugh Court SE
  2. 1910 Census Entry for Nancy Stewart and John at 15 Fitzhugh Court, the age of Nancy is 71, aligning more closely with previous records. 
  3. 1919 Death Record for a widowed Nancy Stewart living at 15 Fitzhugh Court, with burial in Mt. Olivet, a Catholic Cemetery

Jane Colbert | Kendall Green

In May 1862, shortly after the emancipation of enslaved people in the District of Columbia, a large groups of enslaved people made their way to the District in order to be free. The newspapers are filled with reports with descriptions of men carrying and baggage from Loudoun County, Virginia, and armed groups coming for the District carrying weapons. On May 7, 1862, the Evening Star reported “the first arrests under the emancipation law were made this morning” when police arrested “two slaves who had run away from their masters in Prince George’s County, were on their way to the city and had crossed the District Line”.

Jane Colbert‘s husband, Daniel Colbert (Calvert) was named in affidavit seeking his return by James Waring, along with others from his estates. The people named, like Daniel had wives and partners living on other estates who were not named, and were likely part of the group that sough freedom in the district.

Their marriage was recorded by agents working for the Freedmen’s Bureau in 1867. They noted along with hundreds of other freedmen marriages and partnerships. Daniel Colbert and Jane Dorsey were married in 1859 by a Jesuit Priest named Bague and had two children. In 1862, 5 months prior to their escape, they had their son, George W Colbert, baptized by the Jesuits at White Marsh.

Daniel Calvert was most likely born enslaved to Marsham Waring in Prince George’s County, the son of George Calvert and Amelia Jones.  He was enslaved on Waring’s Chelsea estate and while Jane Dorsey was likely enslaved by the Hall family on their nearby estate.  Both slaveholding families were Catholic and multiple people they enslaved were married by Jesuit Priests and had their children baptized.

On 20 January 1868, “Jane Colbert” is recorded in the Freedmen’s Bureau records as living in the Kendall Green Barracks and receiving supplies.  Her age and relationship to others is not noted in the document.  The Barracks had suffered a fire in mid January, as reported by the Daily Morning Chronicle. 

The names Mary Dorsey and Malvina Jones are also recorded on the list, suggesting the possibility that there may be a connection between Jane Colbert and the larger Calvert-Dorsey-Jones kin group. While Mary Dorsey has an extremely common given name, Malvina is a more unusual given name and may be used to show a connection between the individuals at Kendall Green and the kin group. 

Malvina Jones, age 34, was claimed by Miss Mary Cornelia Wilson, the daughter of Joseph H. Wilson,  in the 1867 Compensation Lists.  The Wilsons owned land near Marsham Waring, who enslaved Daniel Calvert.  Waring and Wilson enslaved other people who partnered, e.g., John Woodward and Sallie Jones.  

Two children of Malvina Jones were baptized in the 1850s. In 1854, Cornelia “Johns”, daughter of Will. Johns and Livana “Ahlens”, “property of Jos. Wilson”, was baptized by the priests of White Marsh.  In 1859, Richard Jones, son of William and Livinia Jones, was baptized by the priests of White Marsh; no enslaver was noted.  William Jones, named in the baptismal records, is a brother of Amelia Jones, Daniel Colbert’s sister. 

Like Daniel, Waring listed him in the 1862 affidavit. In 1864, William Jones, age 45, is listed in the Freedmen’s Bureau Records as a refugee from Prince George’s County living in Camp Springfield with multiple other names from the 1862 affidavit.  In 1870, William Jones and his wife Malvina Jones were enumerated living in Ward 6, which is on the eastern side of the City near Kendall Green.  While the 1870 Census does not lists specific street addresses, the Jones family was enumerated at DN 1533; Ignatius Tabbs was enumerated at 1538 and was also listed in the 1871 City Directory as living at 324 15th NE, near Howard’s Row and Tennessee Avenue.  This connects with an 1872 address for Daniel Colbert. Daniel Colbert is listed in the City Directory (66 Howard’s Row NE), living close to William and Malvina Jones’ inferred address.  Daniel Calvert is not listed in the 1870 census in their neighborhood.  

Both Sallie Jones Woodward and William Jones are inferred siblings of Amelia Jones, the mother of Daniel Calvert and were enslaved by the Warings, like Daniel.  The presence of both Malvina Jones and Jane Colbert on the same list suggests that Jane may be Daniel Calvert’s partner, and suggesting that she too escaped to DC.

Abraham Henry | USCT

Abraham (Abram) Henry enlisted in the 1st Regiment of the US Colored Infantry in June 1863, when the regiment was being organized in the District.

His service records indicate that he was a free man and as such could receive $100 bounty for enlisting.

US Colored Troops Military Service Records “Abram Henry” | ancestry.com

Alexander Hawkins was another free man who joined the same regiment and same company, who was also from Upper Marlboro. Neither man is found in the 1860 census for Prince George’s County.

Both men enlisted a year after the abolition of slavery in DC, and in that year, many enslaved people in neighboring jurisdictions fled their enslavers and the estates where they were held captive, escaping to DC where they could claim freedom. This flight came at the risk of encountering slave patrols and constables who preyed on Black people (regardless of official status), capturing them, confiscating their property and (re)enslaving them.

Chandra Manning wrote in her book Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War, that “despite the chronic threat of kidnapping, refugees from Maryland could at least hope to blend in among the capital city’s free black community.” With the abolition of slavery in DC, it is likely that Abram Henry claimed free status in an attempt to avoid recapture and a return to an enslaver. This theory is supported by documentary evidence both in Henry’s service record and in the registrations kept by the Freedmen’s Bureau. Henry’s wife, Celia, was living in a refugee camp.

Celia Henry

Freedmen and refugees gathered in the presence of the Union troops. Manning wrote, “Wherever the Union army went, tens of thousands of enslaved men, women, and children made their way to its blue lines, braving almost unimaginable risks to get there. They gambled against dogs, heavily armed search parties, jittery Confederate and Union pickets who might shoot at the very sound of an unexpected footstep…Still they came. Still they found work where they could. Still they aided the Union army when and where they were able.” Celia Henry and her two younger children are listed in the registration for the Freedmen’s Village, situated on the bluffs on the confiscated lands of the Lee family, where the federal government was creating a series of forts and entrenchments to protect the capital city.

Another record has her registering at Camp Wadsworth, one of the camps set up in Arlington to house the refugees and provide opportunities for employment. Camp Wadsworth was established on the land of Cooke, who had rebelled against the federal government and crossed to the confederacy. The Union army seized his land near Langley and converted it to Camp Wadsworth. There about 200 refugees grew winter wheat, corn, oat, potatoes, cabbage, turnips, buckwheat, melons, tomatoes and garden vegetables. Men are paid from $8 to $10 a month with rations and quarters. (Birmingham Daily Post, 02 Jun 1864) The Buffalo Morning Express reported that some of the crops grown were used as rations in the hospitals (04 Aug 1863)

Family Names

In addition to the record of Celia Henry finding refuge at Arlington Heights and at Camp Wadsworth, there is a pattern of family names that suggest that Abram Henry and his family escaped from Charles Hill.

Charles Hill, and his son, Charles C. Hill were among the largest slaveholders in Prince George’s County. They owned substantial estates in both Marlboro and Queen Anne District. In the 1860 census, Charles Hill’s real estate was valued at $300,000 and his personal estate (which included the value of commodified enslaved people) was $215,000. His son had real estate at $83,000 and a personal estate of $71,720. They enslaved around 280 people according to the 1860 US Slave Schedule.

In 1867, Charles C. Hill submitted compensation lists for himself and on behalf of his father’s estate, listing the given and family names of those he enslaved. Among the lists are the family names, Henry and Hawkins, the same family name as Abram Henry and Alexander Hawkins who enlisted as free men. In fact, the Hill family was the only family to submit the name Henry as a family name.

A review of the Freedmen’s Bureau registration lists shows other family names connected with the Hills’ compensation lists: Holland and Diggs. The Hill family claimed 35 people with the family name Diggs, and a Holland family. The Holland family was smaller: four people, one of whom was named Martha and her two children, who were the same approximate age of those in the Registration list.

The evidence is circumstantial and indirect — and it is possible that documentary evidence exists that counters this hypothesis. And yet, the evidence that has been found suggests the possibility that Abram and his wife Celia escaped to DC with their children, and Abram signed up to fight in the newly created regiment of the Colored Troops while Celia sought refuge at the freemen’s camps.

After the war, they returned to Prince George’s County where they raised a family, having many of their children baptized by the priests of White Marsh a Jesuit Plantation with connection to Charles Hill and other wealthy Catholic landowners.

Nicholas Jones

Connected Post: Richard (Dick) Jones & Mary (Polly) Jones | Old Age

Richard (Dick) Jones and his wife, Mary (Polly) were born at the end of the Revolutionary War and lived until the start of the Civil War in Queen Anne District of Prince George’s County. The vast majority of their life was spent on the estates of Marsham Waring. They and their children labored for Waring and his three children, as well as neighboring estates. This post explores the life of one of their sons, Nicholas Jones.

Nicholas Jones was one of the younger sons of Richard and Mary born toward the end of Mary’s estimated child-bearing years (1795-1825), when she was 15 to 45 years old. If my theory is correct about Richard’s forced migration from Stephen West to Marsham Waring (see connected post), then Nicholas was named after his grandfather, Nick.

He labored on the Waring estate “Heart’s Delight”, which was in Bladensburg District near Buena Vista, near the Warington estate where his parents lived and labored. His wife and children labored on a neighboring estate owned by John B Magruder.

Nicholas and Martha had several of their children baptized by the priests of White Marsh.

  • 1853: Richard Euseb., son of Nichol. [Johns] & [?] Williams, property of J. Magruder; Sponsor: Chas. Gasebeth
  • 1856: Robert, son of Nichol [John] + Martha Williams, property of John Magruder; Sponsor: Thomas Allen
  • 1858: Lucy, of Nic Jones & Martha Anne, property of J. Magruder; Sponsor: Susan
  • 1862: Nicholas, of Martha & Nich Jones, col.; Sponsor: Carolina Green

In May 1862, a group of enslaved people from Waring’s estates fled to DC with James Waring, Marsham’s son, pursuing them. He swore out an affidavit, swearing that they were enslaved in Maryland, not the District, and therefore he was lawfully able to seek their return to bondage. Some of those named in the affidavit were Nicholas’s siblings, Joseph and Richard. Nicholas was not named, however, he is living in the District in the 1870 Census, suggesting he joined them later.

In 1864, Martha and her children are listed in the Freedmen Bureau’s Registration list for Camp Springdale, without Nicholas, her husband. She was recorded as Jones, and some of her children were recorded as Johnson. A comparison of the lists of names in the Freedmen’s Bureau Record with that of John B Magruder’s list of enslaved people he submitted to the Prince George’s Commission on Slave Statistics for compensation however show similar given names and ages and is similar to the list of names found in the White Marsh baptismal records. Again, Martha’s husband, Nicholas Jones is not listed with them.

Records of the Field Offices For the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1870; NARA Series Number: M1902; NARA Reel Number: 21; NARA Record Group Number: 105; NARA Record Group Name: Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861 – 1880 | ancestry.com
—
Prince George’s County Slave Statistics Original Scans | Maryland State Archives

They are reunited by the 1870 Census. Nicholas and his wife lived with four of their sons; one of their sons, Charles, had married and his wife and children lived with them in the District. They worked as laborers. How and where they labored is unclear.

1870 Census, District of Columbia, Ward 6 | ancestry.com

They lived near D & 13th NE on the far edge of town, near the boundary with the county and along the road to Benning’s Bridge. Other siblings were found in the County near Benning’s Bridge in the 1870 and 1880 census records.

By October 1870, Martha, Nicholas’ wife had died of consumption, now more commonly called tuberculosis.

Annotated by author with residence’s of Nicholas Jones from City Directories | Entwistle’s handy map of Washington and vicinity : showing public buildings, churches, hotels, places of amusement, and lines of street rail roads. [1876] | loc.gov

After 1870, the lives of Nicholas and his children become obscured. Other than Nicholas consistently living in Ward 6, the family and its members are not reliably identified in the 1880 census records. A widowed Nicholas Jones is identified in the census, living on B Street SE, which would suggest it is the same Nicholas Jones. He is recorded as born in Virginia, though this could have been an error made by the census enumerator, as other senior members of the household are also listed as born in Virginia.

He is in the household of Frances Williams and her grown children; this suggests he moved in with one of his wife’s relatives, if this is the same Nicholas Jones.

A death record for 1899 lists Nicholas Jones, widowed, who was born around 1815. He was buried at Potter’s Field, part of the Washington Asylum, the “poor house”. It was located near where Nicholas Jones was recorded living in the City Directories.

related posts

Doradie Stewart and Rebecca Caroline Deville

This blog post is one of a series that explores the lives of the people enslaved by the Sasscer family, who lived south of Upper Marlboro in Prince George’s County, MD. The primary estate for the family was named Pleasant Hills and additional posts about the people can be found under the category “Pleasant Hills”.

Identified children of Dora and Mary Stewart from the 1867 Slave Statistics, 1870 & 1880 Census, and Index of Marriage Licenses, Prince George’s County, Maryland 1777-1886

The third son of Dora Stewart has an unusual name. In some documents its recorded as Dorothy, others Dortha, some Doradie, and others yet Dougherty. None of the documents are consistent with their spelling, leaving the imagination to consider the possibilities.

In the 1867 Slave Statistics, Sasscer submitted the name Dorothy and listed the gender as female. The 1870 census listed the name as Dorothy, and again, the gender as female. In the 1870 marriage license, it records Dorothy Stewart marrying Caroline Deville. The 1880 census lists him as a male named Dority.

“District of Columbia, Freedmen’s Bureau Field Office Records, 1863-1872,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-8937-FTL4?cc=2333782&wc=9J3J-829%3A1069293202%2C1069293101 : 3 August 2016), Local superintendent for Washington and Georgetown (correspondence) > Roll 16, Letters received entered in vol 1-3, Apr 17, 1867-Aug 20, 1868 > image 1341 of 1408; citing NARA microfilm publication M1902 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

In 1868, his name is recorded as Doradie in a correspondence between the Marlboro Field Office and the District of Columbia Headquarters of the Freedmen’s Bureau. In this letter, “sundry names of Freedmen” were submitted as informants about a man posing as a agent and demanding money from them. The men, Doradie Stewart, John Galloway, John Henry Stewart, and Washington Galloway, are brothers and brothers-in-law. The letter lists their residence as on Zed. Sasscer’s farm two miles northwest of Marlboro. It can be inferred from the letter that one of them or an acquaintance of theirs sold their hogs to meet the demand of the spurious agent. “My informers threatened him with me, that they would inform me immediately” suggests that the family were aware of the Bureau and its work in the community.

In 1880, Doradie and his family are still living near his brothers and brothers-in-law, next door to Washington Galloway, and working as a tenant farmer on the Sasscer land.

additional families from Pleasant Hills

Ariana Stewart and Pinkney Brown

This blog post is one of a series that explores the lives of the people enslaved by the Sasscer family, who lived south of Upper Marlboro in Prince George’s County, MD. The primary estate for the family was named Pleasant Hills and additional posts about the people can be found under the category “Pleasant Hills”.

Addison Stewart and Caroline Stewart

This blog post is one of a series that explores the lives of the people enslaved by the Sasscer family, who lived south of Upper Marlboro in Prince George’s County, MD. The primary estate for the family was named Pleasant Hills and additional posts about the people can be found under the category “Pleasant Hills”.

Dora Stewart and John Henry Stewart

This blog post is one of a series that explores the lives of the people enslaved by the Sasscer family, who lived south of Upper Marlboro in Prince George’s County, MD. The primary estate for the family was named Pleasant Hills and additional posts about the people can be found under the category “Pleasant Hills”.…

Eliza Minor | contract for work

Known Information

Ralph N Dickinson reported the birth of child for Eliza, who he enslaved in Louisa County in 1862.

Sources

Ancestry.com. 1860 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedules [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.
Original data:United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1860. M653, 1,438 rolls.

Virginia, Slave Birth Index, 1853-1866. Database. FamilySearch. https://FamilySearch.org : 6 October 2020. Citing City Court Sheriff, Richmond.

“Virginia, Freedmen’s Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6XB7-Z3?cc=1596147&wc=9LML-4WP%3A1078517502%2C1078517501 : 25 June 2014), Louisa Courthouse (assistant subassistant commissioner) > Roll 104, Contracts, May 1865-Sep 1866 > image 205 of 314; citing NARA microfilm publication M1913 (College Park, Maryland: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

In 1860, Ralph N Dickinson reported the enslavement of two people: a 17 year old female and a 35 year old male; he “hired them” from Ann Dillard of Spotsylvania, County.

During the Civil War, an enslaved woman by the name of Eliza gave birth to two children: a daughter in 1862 and a son, named William in Mary 1864. They were reported by a R(alph) N. Dickinson and recorded in what is known as the Virginia Slave Birth Index.

After the Civil War, no longer enslaved, Eliza Minor negotiated a contract with Dickinson with the help of a local agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau, formed by the federal government to aid refugees from the war, especially in the areas of education, employment and health care.

This contract made this day between Eliza Minor of the the one part and Ralph N Dickinson of the other part, witnessed that the said Eliza Minor agrees to hire herself and daughter Fanny, eight years old, to work during the year eighteen hundred + sixty six to do all kinds of work usually done by hands of her class faithfully and the said Eliza Minor further agrees to loose all time in case of sickness and to deduct from her wages in proportion in consideration of the labor being faithfully performed by the said Eliza Minor the said Ralph N Dickinson agrees to pay the said Eliza Minor thirty dollars and give her daughter Fanny one dress and one Chemise and let her cultivate half acre for garden Eliza Minor’s son to fence in the garden. Eliza Minor further agrees to do her part of the work necessary to be done on Sunday.

Labor Contract between Eliza Minor and Ralph N Dickinson

Ralph N Dickinson lived near Duckinghole Creek in Louisa County, Virginia, south of the North Anna River. His property was known as “Woodbine”. He married twice, first to Judith Harris who died of consumption, and then to Evelina Mansfield who outlived him. He was a Justice of the Peace in 1870.

related posts

the Fountains, Ben and Mary | north of 7th

Known Information

Mary Ellen (Reeder) Fountain lived with her husband on 7th north of Boundary in the 1871 City Directory. Fountain has been appointed lamplighter in 1868 & 1869

Sources

Newspapers

Evening Star 
Washington, District of Columbia
08 Aug 1873, Fri  •  Page 4

Evening Star 
Washington, District of Columbia
05 Jun 1871, Mon  •  Page 4

Evening Star 
Washington, District of Columbia
19 Oct 1871, Thu  •  Page 3

Evening Star 
Washington, District of Columbia
01 Mar 1878, Fri  •  Page 3

Photos

Moulton, J. W, and John S Moulton, photographer. Howard University. Washington D.C, None. [Salem, mass.: j. w. & j. s. moulton, publishers between 1867 and 1920] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017657067/

Maps

Boschke, A, D McClelland, Hugh B Sweeny, Thos Blagden, and Blanchard & Mohun D. Mcclelland. Topographical map of the District of Columbia. Washington: D. McClelland, Blanchard & Mohun, 1861. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/88694013/

Hopkins, Griffith Morgan, Jr. Atlas of fifteen miles around Washington, including the County of Prince George, Maryland. Philadelphia: G.M. Hopkins, 1878. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/76354156/.

Real estate directory of the city of Washington, D.C. suburbs of Washington city, serial number 50, 1874 (25 objects) | DC Public Library

1867 Photograph of Howard University

Howard University was chartered by Congress near the site of a former refugee camp on Seventh Street NW in order to support the educational opportunities of freedmen. Named after its trustee and third residence, O. O. Howard, the university was a comprehensive school providing different types of education for both the newly freed who had been denied access to education under slavery and the free people of color who were seeking higher education. For those who needed basic education, it established the Model School with four classes (A-D) which were organized around skill level. In 1868, B. F. Franklin, living in the Wisewell Barracks, attended the Model School, class C.

Howard University was established just north of Seventh and Boundary, in and around the farmlands of John A Smith.

1861 Topographical Map of the area that would become Howard University
1878 Map of the area around Howard University

Fire!

In June of 1871, the Evening Star reported a fire at the home Benj. F. Fountain, on 7th street above Abner Park. The house was destroyed and damage was estimated to be $1000. The fire department “responded promptly, but not in time to save the building”.

Abner Park is the property “situated on Seventh Street, just beyond Boundary street and the terminus of the Seventh Street railway, and is improved by a large commodious hotel with stables, outbuildings, &c.” as described in an 1871 Trustee Sale Ad run in the Evening Star.

Real Estate Transfer

In 1873, the Evening Star listed real estate transfers in the County, and listed the transfer of property between C. C. Caruthers and Mary Fountain in Effingham, is part of the Howard University subdivision of John A Smith’s farm, “Effingham Place”. She sold the south one-third of lot 1 of section 2 of Effingham for $124. This shows her place as being on Seventh Street, and north of the Abner Park Hotel and connected to Howard University.

Based on her Freedmen’s Bank Records, Mary Fountain moved to 13th and O Street NW, immediately south of what was then known as Iowa Cicle. She did not list her husband on her depositor slip. She listed her occupation as sewing. The 1874 City Directory lists Mary E Fountain, dressmaker, living at 818 10th Street NW.

The 1873 City Directory lists Calvin C. Caruthers as living at the corner of Trumbull and Seventh Road which is consistent with the subdivision plat book. In the 1871 City Directory, his residence is listed as the Wisewell Barracks, suggesting that the Fountains and the Caruthers knew each other, as both had passed through Wisewell.

Calvin C. Caruthers was one of the first African-Americans appointed to the DC police force in July 1869.

Wisewell Barracks

The Third Ward Republican Club met frequently at the Wisewell Barracks which was situated near Seventh and O Street. This gave both Caruthers and the Fountains access to the party and allowed them to make connections, providing both with economic opportunities in their appointments. A separate post discusses Fountain’s appointment as lamplighter in 1868 and 1869. It likely that this appointment provided the couple the nest egg they needed to purchase the land near Howard University

Further Research Needed:

  • Locate death certificate for Benj Fountain who disappears from the records after 1871.
  • Locate land records for their property in the DC archives

related posts

The Reeders | Freedmen’s Bank Records

Known Information

Thomas and John Reeder owned property together on 1st St NW

Sources

Bank Records

Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. Micropublication M816, 27 rolls | ancestry.com

Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company’s was established to allow freedmen to deposit their savings in 1865; it closed in 1874 due to mismanagement. The bank kept records of depositors which included some demographic data including place of birth and family members.

These records show the family connections between the James Reeder family with the Mary Fountain family.

Further Research Needed:

  • Locate the Reeder family in St. Mary’s County
  • Locate the siblings in the 1870 Census
  • Locate marriage records for the Reeder siblings, esp James, Mary, and Thomas

related posts

Martha Reeder | Freedman’s Bureau

Known Information

Thomas and Martha Reeder were living in DC during the 1870 census.

Sources

Print

Taylor, James E., Artist. Glimpses at the Freedmen’s Bureau. Issuing rations to the old and sick / from a sketch by our special artist, Jas. E. Taylor. Richmond Virginia, 1866. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2009633700/

Freedman’s Village, Arlington i.e., Alexandria, Va. United States Arlington Alexandria Virginia, None. [Photographed between 1861 and 1865, printed between 1880 and 1889] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2014645761/

Map

Boschke, A, D McClelland, Hugh B Sweeny, Thos Blagden, and Blanchard & Mohun D. Mcclelland. Topographical map of the District of Columbia. Washington: D. McClelland, Blanchard & Mohun, 1861. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/88694013/

United States, Freedmen’s Bureau Ration Records,1865-1872

District of Columbia, United States, NARA microfilm publications M1055. Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861 – 1880, RG 105. (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1969-1980); roll 16 | familysearch.org

Newspapers

The Baltimore Sun 
Baltimore, Maryland
14 Jan 1868, Tue  •  Page 4

The Freedman’s Bureau was a US government agency from 1865-1872 charged with directing provisions, clothing, fuel “for the immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children”

The Bureau kept records of what provisions, or rations were distributed.

In 1868, they recorded that Martha Reeder was provided $2.00 worth of groceries as she was unemployed. They listed her residence as Kendall Green. In addition to Martha, Cora Reeder was also recorded as residing at Kendall Green and receiving rations due to sickness.

This sketch is of a Richmond Bureau Office distributing rations “to the old and sick”

Kendall Green

After the Civil War, the US Government converted military barracks into housing for freepeople. Kendall Green Barracks, located on the northeast boundary of the city was one of the converted barracks. Kendall Green was located along Boundary Ave, in the northeast quadrant of the city. On the map, it is directly “north” of the capitol building, between Delaware and Maryland Avenues. The northern edge of the camp was at M and Boundary Ave.

In 1867, Kendall Green became the housing for the freed people who were unable to pay their rent and the Freedmen’s Bureau began to transfer nonpaying tenants and “those that pay very irregularly” to Kendall Green and those who could pay to housing closer to the city. In a newspaper article, the barracks are described a light one-story frame tenements with twenty-one rooms, housing 250 freedpeople.

Picture of the school established at Freedmen’s Village in Alexandria, VA

These barracks have been fitted up for dwellings for the freed people to be rented for very low rates, in order to get them out of the wretched shanties in which such numbers of them have hitherto lived (and died). But they are located so far from one side of the city, that they are taken up slowly.

Letter from A. E. Newton reporting on the school built near Kendall Green Barracks as listed in the National Freedman, A Monthly Journal, Vol 11, No 5 May 1866 (147)

Further Research Needed:

  • Determine the relationship between Martha and Cora Reeder
  • Identify other Reeders recorded in the Freedmen’s Records

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