Maryland

Slave Narrative of Perry Lewis

Interviewer: Rogers Person Interviewed: Perry Lewis Location: Baltimore, Maryland Place of Birth: Kent Island, MD Age: 86 Place of Residence: 1124 E. Lexington St., Baltimore, Maryland Reference: Personal interview with Perry Lewis, ex-slave, at his home, 1124 E. Lexington St., Baltimore. “I was born on Kent Island, Md. about 86 years ago. My father’s name was Henry and mother’s Louise. I had one brother John, who was killed in the Civil War at the Deep Bottom, one sister as I can remember. My father was a freeman and my mother a slave, owned by Thomas Tolson, who owned a small … Read more

Slave Narrative of George Jones

Interviewer: Rogers Person Interviewed: George Jones Location: Baltimore, Maryland Place of Birth: Frederick County, Maryland Date of Birth: 1853 Age: 84 Place of Residence: 207 Aisquith St., Baltimore Md. Reference: Personal interview with George Jones, Ex-slave, at African M.E. Home, 207 Aisquith St., Baltimore. “I was born in Frederick County, Maryland, 84 years ago or 1853. My father’s name was Henry and mother’s Jane; brothers Dave, Joe, Henry, John and sisters Annie and Josephine. I know my father and mother were slaves, but I do not recall to whom they belonged. I remember my grandparents. “My father used to tell … Read more

Slave Narrative of Charles Coles

Interviewer: Rogers Person Interviewed: Charles Coles Location: Baltimore, Maryland Date of Birth: 1851 Place of Birth: Charles County MD Place of Residence: 1106 Sterling St., Baltimore, Maryland Reference: Personal interview with Charles Coles at his home, 1106 Sterling St., Baltimore, Md. “I was born near Pisgah, a small village in the western part of Charles County, about 1851. I do not know who my parents were nor my relatives. I was reared on a large farm owned by a man by the name of Silas Dorsey, a fine Christian gentleman and a member of the Catholic Church. “Mr. Dorsey was a … Read more

Slave Narrative of Phillip Johnson

Interviewer: Guthrie Person Interviewed: Phillip Johnson Location: Poolesville, Maryland Ref: Phillip Johnson, R.F.D. Poolesville, Md. The subject of this sketch is a pure blooded Negro, whose kinky hair is now white, likewise his scraggy beard. He is of medium size and somewhat stooped with age, but still active enough to plant and tend a patch of corn and the chores about his little place at Sugarlands. His home is a small cabin with one or two rooms upstairs and three down, including the kitchen which is a leanto. The cabin is in great disrepair. Phillip John is above the average … Read more

Slave Narrative of Lucy Brooks

Interviewer: Guthrie Person Interviewed: Lucy Brooks Location: Forest Glen, Maryland Place of Residence: Forest Glen, Montgomery County, Md. References: Interview with Aunt Lucy and her son, Lafayette Brooks. Aunt Lucy, an ex-slave, lives with her son, Lafayette Brooks, in a shack on the Carroll Inn Springs property at Forest Glen, Montgomery County, Md. To go to her home from Rockville, leave the Court House going east on Montgomery Ave. and follow US Highway No. 240, otherwise known as the Rockville Pike, in its southeasterly direction, four and one half miles to the junction with it on the left (east) of … Read more

Slave Narrative of James Calhart James

Person Interviewed: James Calhart James Location: Baltimore, Maryland Place of Residence: 2460 Druid Hill Ave., Baltimore, MD Reference: Personal interview with James Calhart James, ex-slave, at his home, 2460 Druid Hill Ave., Baltimore. “My father’s name was Franklin Pearce Randolph of Virginia, a descendant of the Randolphs of Virginia who migrated to South Carolina and located near Fort Sumter, the fort that was surrendered to the Confederates in 1851 or the beginning of the Civil War. My mother’s name was Lottie Virginia James, daughter of an Indian and a slave woman, born on the Rapidan River in Virginia about 1823 … Read more

Slave Narrative of “Parson” Rezin Williams

Interviewer: Stansbury Person Interviewed: Rezin (Parson) Williams Date of Interview: September 18 and 24, 1937 Location: Baltimore, Maryland Date of Birth: March 11, 1822 Age: 116 Place of Residence: 2610 Pierpont Street, Mount Winans, Baltimore, MD References: Baltimore Morning Sun, December 10, 1928. Registration Books of Board of Election Supervisors Baltimore Court House. Personal interviews with “Parson” Rezin Williams, on Thursday afternoon, September 18 and 24, 1937, at his home, 2610 Pierpont Street, Mount Winans, Baltimore, Md. Oldest living Negro Civil War veteran; now 116 years old. Oldest registered voter in Maryland and said to be the oldest “freeman” in … Read more

Slave Narrative of James Wiggins

Person Interviewed: James Wiggins Location: Baltimore, Maryland Place of Birth: Anne Arundel County MD Date of Birth: 1850-1851 Place of Residence: 625 Barre St. Reference: Personal interview with James Wiggins, ex-slave, at his home, 625 Barre St. “I was born in Anne Arundel County, on a farm near West River about 1850 or 1851, I do not know which. I do not know my father or mother. Peter Brooks, one of the oldest colored men in the county, told me that my father’s name was Wiggins. He said that he was one of the Revells’ slaves. He acquired my father … Read more

Will of John Daverell – 1673

“Whereas JOHN DAVERELL of this city dyed in ye Province of Maryland intestate.” Mrs. Sarah Hawkins of this city, widow, “the naturall mother of him the said John Daverell,” is appointed administratrix. Given under our hand and seal at Fort James, May 12, 1673. Francis Lovelace. LIBER 1-2, page 66

Slave Narrative of Dan Smith

Interviewer: W. W. Dixon Person Interviewed: Dan Smith Location: Winnsboro, South Carolina Place of Birth: Richland County SC Date of Birth: January 11, 1862 Age: 75 Occupation: Construction Dan Smith lives in one room, rent free, of a three-room frame house, the property of his son-in-law, Jim Cason. It is situated on the southeast corner of Garden and Palmer streets in the town of Winnsboro, S.C. He is tall, thin and toothless, with watery eyes and a pained expression of weariness on his face. He is slow and deliberate in movements. He still works, and has just finished a day’s … Read more

Thomas Davis of Maryland

G115 THOMAS DAVIS: (the elder), came to America from Wales. Settled in Maryland sometime after 1600. The founder of the Davises of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Md. He m. Mary Pierpont and had eleven ch. including: (1) Thomas, Jr.: b. Feb. 1704; m. Elizabeth Gaither; d. 1749. Ch include: (A) Amos: b. 1747; mem. of the Committee of Observation, Arundel Co., 1775. (B) Ephraim: b. 1736—7; m. Elizabeth Howard. Their son (a) Thomas: b. 1768; m. Elizabeth Bowie, 1802. Served as officer of a company that went to Penna., 17.94. to quell Whiskey Insurrection; often a delegate to General … Read more

Robert Davis of Baltimore, Maryland

U136 ROBERT DAVIS: b. in Baltimore, Md. Served as a soldier during Revolution under Gen. Washington. Among his ch. Was U137 DENNIS DAVIS: b. in Baltimore, 1791, and d. at Black Oak, Mo. Hem. Joanna Thomas. Ch. include: (1) John T.: b. 1812, d. 1882; m. Margaret Moore, 1817. Ch. include: (A) Mary Ann: b. 1838; m. (1), Anthony Sharp; m. (2), Alford Hawkes. Issue. (B) Elizabeth Jane: b. 1841; m. James T. Ross. Issue. (C) George NV: b. 1844; m. first, Paulina Naffizinger. (a) Rosetta: b. 1866; m. Edward E. Taylor and had Etta, Ethel and Homer. (b) Mary: … Read more

Slave Narrative of Alex Huggins

Interviewer: Mrs. Edith S. Hibbs Person Interviewed: Alex Huggins Location: 920 Dawson St., Wilmington, North Carolina Date of Birth: July 9, 1850 Location of Birth: New Bern North Carolina Story Of Alex Huggins, Ex-Slave I was born in New Bern on July 9, 1850. My father and mother belonged to Mr. L. B. Huggins. My father was a carpenter and ship builder an’ the first things I remember was down on Myrtle Grove Sound, where Mr. Huggins had a place. I was a sort of bad boy an’ liked to roam ’round. When I was about twelve years old I ran … Read more

Biography of Edward C. Simmons

Edward C. Simmons had passed the eightieth milestone when he was called from his activities to the world beyond. His career had indeed been a most active and useful one. He was numbered among those men to whom St. Louis attributes her development and her greatness. He entered the commercial circles of the city when a lad of sixteen years as an apprentice to the hardware trade in the store of Child, Pratt & Company on Main street, near Vine. From that time until his death his course was marked by a steady progression that ultimately gave him world leadership … Read more

Biography of Murray Carleton

In the year 1873 Murray Carleton entered the business circles of St. Louis in connection with the wholesale dry goods trade, but while he has steadily developed his interests and has won notable success in founding and conducting the Carleton Dry Goods Company, this represents but one phase of his activity, for at all times the subjective and objective interests of his life have been well balanced. He has ever recognized his duties and obligations to his fellowmen and has been a contributing factor to the promotion of many lines of work which have had for their object the betterment … Read more

Biography of H. Wheeler Bond, M. D.

Dr. H. Wheeler Bond, a St. Louis physician and surgeon, comes from a family that has left many distinguished names upon the records of the medical profession in America. His ancestral line can be traced back to Dr. Thomas Bond who was the progenitor of the family in the new world and who later founded the first school of medicine in the United States. This was established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which city has always been a center of medical learning. The records show that Dr. Thomas Bond came to this country from England with a nephew, John Bond, who studied … Read more

Biography of Rev. Patrick Joseph Kane

Rev. Patrick Joseph Kane, who for a third of a century has been pastor of the Church of Our Holy Redeemer at Webster Groves, is a native of Ireland but during his childhood days was brought by his parents to the United States and became a pupil in the public schools of Bloomington, Illinois, where the family home was established. He afterward attended a local business college and later became a student in the Christian Brothers College at St. Louis. Having determined to enter the priesthood he subsequently pursued his theological studies in St. Mary’s Seminary at Baltimore, Maryland, and … Read more

Biography of Rutherford B. H. Gradwohl, M. D.

Dr. Rutherford B. H. Gradwohl, a St. Louis physician who has won prominence as a bacteriologist, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, March 4, 1877, and is a son of Emanuel Gradwohl, a native of Strassburg, Germany, who came to America in 1856. He was a member of the first cavalry regiment organized in the United States in the latter ’50s and later became a Civil war veteran, serving in the First United States Cavalry throughout the entire period of hostilities between the north and the south. He was made a sergeant and rendered valuable aid to his adopted country. He … Read more

Biography of John R. Caulk, M. D.

Dr. John R. Caulk, urological surgeon of St. Louis, was born at McDaniel, Talbot county, Maryland, October 30, 1882, a son of the late Frank E. and Sarah D. (Wrightson) Caulk. The father was a representative of a prominent Maryland family of Scotch and English lineage and engaged in business as a wholesale tobacconist, winning substantial success. He died in 1894 at the age of forty-one years, while his wife passed away in 1912 at the age of fifty-two. She was also a representative of one of the old Maryland families of English lineage founded in the new world prior … Read more

Biography of Malvern Bryan Clopton, M. D.

Thoroughly trained for professional activity in the University of Virginia, with later experience In the Johns Hopkins Hospital at Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Malvern Bryan Clopton is now engaged in active practice in St. Louis, of which city he is a native. He was born October 8, 1875, his parents being William and Belle (Bryan) Clopton. The father was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and was a descendant of one of the old families of that state of English lineage. The first ancestor in America was Robert Clopton, who came to the new world in 1643 and originally settled in Virginia. Ancestors … Read more