Bryantown Families

In the 19th century, the northwest section of Georgetown was known as Bryantown.

Of 34 largely working-class families that lived there long enough to appear more than once in censuses and directories, 16 were White––Baker, Blackman, Chamberlain, Duffy, Dunbaugh, Duvall, Fenwick, Friebus, Frizzell, Garrity, Heiss, Hess, Pettis, Riffle, Schott, Whalen––and 18 were Black––Barker, Burrows, Daggs, Carroll, Chandler, Coates, Hall, Honesty, Kent, Matthews, Minor, Pope, Ridgely, Ross, Smackum, Snowden, Thomas and Yarrow.

They appear below by their earliest sighting in records, and by their proximity to one of six east-west streets: Fourth Street (Volta Place); Fifth Street (Q Street); Sixth Street (Dent Place); Seventh Street (Reservoir Road); Eighth Street (R Street); and Madison Street (Whitehaven Parkway).

Section 1: 1800-1830

Duffy                          8th                               1800

Dunbaugh                   6th                               1800

Yarrow                        6th                               1800

Barker                         4th                               1820

Duvall                         Madison                      1810

Riffle                           8th                               1820

Fenwick                      4th                               1830

Duffy

Bryan Duffy, the contractor whose name was later given to the northwest section Georgetown was followed in his trade by his son, Matthias Duffey. (Although Matthias preferred Duffey, his sisters went by Duffy, and the press tended toward the latter spelling.) The 1850 census shows him on Fayette Street, living with living with his wife and sister. Although listed as carpenter, Duffey was trained as an architect, and was later remembered as having designed and built St. Matthew’s Church at 15th and H Streets (1838). “The dedication of St. Matthew’s Church … deserving of thanks, the first place is justly due to Mr. Mathias Duffey, to whose kindness, even at no inconsiderable inconvenience, we are indebted for permission to have the church dedicated.” On the basis of his earlier work on the Little Falls Bridge, the commissioners for the new Bridge Street Bridge over Rock Creek employed “Mr. Mathias Duffy as superintendent.” But the project that appears to have been nearest to the architect’s heart was the “suburban villa” at what is now 3319 R Street that he built on spec in 1845. (That that he was addressing himself to a discerning clientele is clear from the reference to Andrew Jackson Downing.)

“A Card,” National Intelligencer, November 9, 1840, p. 3; “Corporation of Georgetown,” Georgetown Advocate, September 10, 1842, p. 3; “The Bridge Street Bridge,” Georgetown Advocate, October 1, 1842, p. 2; “Heights of Georgetown,” Georgetown Advocate, October 14, 1845, p. 6, November 13, 1845, p. 3; “For Sale Or Rent,” National Intelligencer, September 21, 1847, p. 2; “St. Matthew’s Marks Centennial,” Evening Star, November 30, 1940, p. 12; Matthias Duffey, 1840 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 182; Matthew Duffey, 1850 Census, North West Ward, Georgetown, D.C., p. 175A. 

Heights of Georgetown. For Sale Or Rent. ––A beautiful suburban Villa, in the modern Italian style, displaying a rich domestic character in its balconies, verandas, ornamented porches, terraces, projecting roof, windows, &c. 

This house has been erected under the immediate superintendence of the subscriber, with the very best materials, and without regard to cost; the object being to build a well constructed and conveniently arranged house, in which no pains have been spared to make it as beautiful as possible. There is a pump of excellent water in the yard and a large cistern near the kitchen door. The house is surrounded by a raised platform or terrace, fifteen feet wide, affording a firm dry walk in all seasons. The terrace is surmounted by a handsome balustrade.

There is a commodious stable, with a carriage house, wood, coal and other out-houses, all in good keeping with the house. 

The union between house and grounds is thought to be without defect, and to have a harmonious correspondence. There is about an acre of ground laid out in the natural style from one of Mr. Downing’s beautiful designs. The walks are of the most permanent kind, being filled with gravel to a depth of twelve inches, made hard and firm by the frequent use of the roller. The lawn, a great source of beauty in all places of this kind, has been laid down in turf, and every attention paid to insure that velvet appearance so much admired in English lawns. ––The parterres and borders for flowers are edged with box in the neatest manner. 

The collection of shrubbery, evergreen, and exotic trees is equal, if not superior, to any in the District. In this Cottage Villa of moderate size has been combined many of the peculiar beauties of the Italian style. The terrace, as an object of taste, is universally admired, and is of the utmost utility, affording a firm, dry, and secure walk, sunny and warm in the mid-day of winter, and cool and airy in the mornings and evenings of summer.

To a person fond of rural beauty, there is, perhaps, not a more desirable dwelling in the District.

For further information inquire of the subscriber, living near the premises. ––Matthias Duffey.

While the architect waited for a buyer for his showcase residence, he took on projects that may not have been particularly remunerative. “Mr. Mathias Duffy is building, as a valuable addition to the splendid residence of E. M. Linthicum, Esq., a spacious green-house.” One of Duffey’s last projects was the design of the second Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown, which was dedicated in 1851. A year later, the architect died. “In Georgetown … Mathias Duffy, in the forty-ninth year of his age. His funeral will take place from his residence, at the end of Fayette street, (on the Heights of the town,) to-morrow.” “Mary M. Duffey, Administratrix” put the settlement of her husband’s affairs in the hands of a lawyer. “The creditors of Matthias Duffey, deceased, are requested to apply at my office, Georgetown, for the payment of claims against his estate. ––Jno. Marbury.” The tools of the family trade––“Carpenters’ Tools, Benches, Lumber, Crow Bars Wheelbarrows, Drills, Trucks, Sash &c.” ––were auctioned off “at the late residence of Mr. Duffey, in Bryantown.” Duffey’s suburban villa was also on the market. “In consequence of the death of Mr. Mathias Duffy, his beautiful and desirable late residence will be sold at a bargain.” The inscription on Matthias Duffey’s gravestone at Oak Hill Cemetery––Friendship’s Tribute––suggests an act of charity.

“At Georgetown,” Baltimore Sun, November 3, 1848, p. 4; “New Catholic Church in Georgetown,” The Republic, November 7, 1850, p. 3; “For the Benefit of the New Catholic Church,” Georgetown Advocate, November 16, 1850, p. 2; “A Rare Chance For A Desirable Residence!” National Intelligencer, March 1, 1852, p. 4; “Deaths,” National Intelligencer, April 27, 1852, p. 3; “Died,” Daily American Telegraph, April 27, 1852, p. 3; “A Desirable Residence On The Heights,” National Intelligencer, June 3, 1852, p. 4; “This Is To Give Notice,” National Intelligencer, June 9, 1852, p. 2; “Notice,” National Intelligencer, June 22, 1853, p. 3; “Auction Sales,” Evening Star, May 30, 1854, p. 3; Oak Hill Cemetery: Matthias Duffey, lot 58 (North Hill); Mary M. Duffy, lot 340 (Chapel Valley), beside her mother, Mary Ann Lanham (1830 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 187).

After the architect’s death, his house on 35th Street, known as Duffy’s Cottage, was home to his sister. “$5 Reward, Strayed Or Stolen from the premises of Miss Lizzie Duffy, No. 214 Fayette street, Georgetown, D. C., a Cow; deep red color, blind in one eye; supposed to have a calf.” After Matthias Duffey’s death his younger sister Elizabeth was the landlord of the house her brother had built––a “good frame dwelling,” according to assessments––near the northeast corner of what is now 35th and R Streets. When the young diplomat Waldemar de Bodisco was––however briefly––her tenant, Duffy knew how to capitalize on it. “For rent, at a moderate rate, a Cottage Residence, beautifully situated on the Heights… recently in the occupancy of Mr. W. Bodisco, of the Russian Legation. Inquire on the premises, No. 214 Fayette street, a short distance above the Convent.” The family name was part of the address. “Wanted––A young, active girl––white or colored––to do housework in a small family. Apply at Duffies’ Cottage, 214 Fayette street, near 8th street, Georgetown Heights, D.C.” The house was still a well-known landmark in 1883. “The projected new [water] conduit strikes [Georgetown] on the side of Fayette, between 8th street and Madison street, near Mrs. Duffy’s cottage.”

“Georgetown Heights,” Evening Star, May 15, 1861, p. 3; “Wanted,” Evening Star, February 28, 1866, p. 4; “Lost And Found,” Evening Union, May 4, 1866, p. 3; “Affairs in West Washington,” Evening Star, September 17, 1883, p. 1; 1865-1869 Georgetown Assessments; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 508A; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D.C, p. 210B, ED 009.

When Elizabeth Duffy died, a tribute appeared over the unmistakable initials of the novelist E. D. E. N. Southworth.  “On the 22d instant there died at “Duffy’s Cottage,” Georgetown, one of the oldest Washingtonians, and one of the most beneficent women that ever blessed this earth––Miss Elizabeth Duffy––who passed away in the eighty-third year of her age. She was not rich in the world’s goods, yet her charities seemed those of a wealthy and benevolent person. In the course of the last half century she has brought up at her own expense and in her own house no less than five orphan boys and six orphan girls, some of whom are now prosperous middle-aged men and women. Her cottage, her beautiful garden, her fruits and flowers, her money, time and labor were all at the service of any who might need them––man, woman or child––yes! suffering bird or beast, whether it was an orphan child, or a crippled bird or an impecunious lodger––for circumstances compelled her to let her rooms, ––whose condition claimed her pity, he, she or it was sure to receive it.” The scene of Miss Duffy’s kindness went on the market. “The Property Known As “Duffy’s Cottage,” on Georgetown Heights, opposite Burleith. It contains about 45,000 feet of ground, fronting on two streets, and affords a fine opportunity for desirable investment.” In 1892 the house was moved. “The old Duffy cottage located on the site of the new school house on 35th above U is being moved to the adjoining lot, where it will receive many improving touches. The cottage with its many wings, ornamental eaves and numerous little spires has for years been one of the old landmarks of the town, and the spacious and beautifully kept garden was in the lifetime of the owner the admiration of all who went that way.”

“An Ancient Washingtonian Gone,” Evening Star, September 28, 1887, p. 5; “For Sale,” Evening Star, October 11, 1887, p. 2; “Georgetown,” Evening Star, September 3, 1892, p. 7; Elizabeth Duffy, lot 58 (North Hill), Oak Hill Cemetery. Building permits for 3417 and 3421 R Street were issued to a Mary E. Duffy in 1888 and 1897.

The consensus of the investors who acquired the Duffy holdings in Bryantown appears to have been that there was only one likely buyer. “C. H. Fickling has sold to the District of Columbia for $9,525 parts of lots 17 to 40, in square 127, B. and H.’s addition, and part of the estate of the late Miss Lizzie Duffy and is the site selected for the new school house. The property fronts on Fayette street.” The site of the Fillmore School at 1801 35th Street was acquired in 1892. Other parts of the Duffy tract changed hands several times. “Charles H. Fickling deeded to Brainard H. Warner a one-third interest in part of square 127, being a portion of the Duffy estate.” “Chas. H. Fickling yesterday transferred to Wm. H. Manogue an undivided one-third part of square 127. This is the block bounded by Road, 34th and 35th streets, terminating in the north in a point at Mt. Tabor Church. Manogue later deeded the same to B. H. Warner.” “C. H. Fickling sold to B. H. Warner an undivided one-third interest in part of square 127.” In 1911 Warner found the same buyer Fickling had. “Thirty-fifth Street Northwest between R and S streets––Brainard H. Warner et ux. to District of Columbia, part square 1297; $3,252.96.” “Thirty-fourth Street Northwest between R and S streets––Brainard H. Warner et ux. to District of Columbia, part lots 47, 48, and 49, square 1297; $2,211.21.”

“Georgetown,” Evening Star, August 12, 1892, p. 10; “Real Estate,” Evening Star, March 30, 1894, p. 8; “Large Deals and Transfers in Real Estate,” Evening Star, July 25, 1894, p. 4; “About Georgetown,” Evening Star, February 20, 1895, p. 7; “Proposed Building Sites,” Evening Star, March 20, 1899, p. 4; “Real Estate Transfers,” Evening Star, July 22, 1911, p. 4; “Real Estate Transfers,” Evening Star, October 28, 1911, p. 9.

Yarrow Mamout

As a rule, the earliest residents of what would later come to be known as Bryantown left very few traces in the records. In 1820, a man whose name appears to be “Yarrow Marmood” was listed as the head of a free colored household in Georgetown; other than that he lived with an unnamed woman, and that they were both 45 or older, there is little else to be learned. Censuses before 1850 did not concern themselves with things like ages, birthplaces, and occupations. Other records might supply the missing information, but the odds decrease as you go down the social ladder. The poorer people on that census page are unlikely to have left much of a paper trail. Yarrow Mamout (as we now know him) was an exception to the rule. In 1811, Gen. John Mason, a founder of the Bank of Columbia, gave this account of “an African, still living in Georgetown,” who was one of the bank’s shareholders.

“Yaro, before the American revolutionary war, was brought from Africa to the United States, and there sold as a slave to a family, who lived near Georgetown, on the banks of the Potomac. After many years of hard labour and faithful service, his master gave him his freedom as a reward. Yaro resolved to be independent. He toiled late and early, and in the course of a few years he had amassed a hundred dollars. This sum, which he considered as a fortune, was placed in the hands of a merchant, by whose death and insolvency all was lost, and Yaro found himself again in the same situation as when he became free. This affected him much; his usual strength had abated, and old age was coming on; but he still cherished the hope of independence. He worked all day at fixed wages, and, in the evening, he made nets, baskets, and other articles for sale. A few years elapsed, and he was again rich: another hundred dollars were the fruit of his toil. This amount he deposited in the hands of another merchant, of Georgetown, who also became a bankrupt. Yaro was sad, but his courage and habits of industry suffered no change. He again resolved to be independent, before the day came when he could no longer work. He renewed his task of daily labour, which he continued without relaxation for several years. He again found himself in possession of another, and a better fortune — two hundred dollars. By the advice of a friend, who explained to him the nature of a bank, he purchased shares to this amount in that of Columbia, in his own name, the interest of which now affords him a comfortable support. Though more than eighty years old, he walks erect, is active, cheerful, and good-natured. His history is known to several respectable families, who treat him with attention. On Christmas, his great delight is to fire a gun under their windows at break of day, which is intended as a signal for his dram. When young, he was the best swimmer ever seen on the Potomac; and though his muscles are now somewhat stiffened by age, he still finds pleasure in this exercise.”

Yarrow Marmood, 1820 Census, Georgetown, D.C., p. 53; David Bailie Warden, Chorographical and Statistical Description of the District of Columbia (1816). pp. 48-51.

That his death, in 1823, was noted in newspapers all over the nation is primarily attributable to his reputed age. “Died, at Georgetown on the 19th inst. negro Yarrow, aged (according to his account) 136 years! He was interred in the corner of his garden, the spot where he usually resorted to pray. Yarrow has resided in town upwards of 60 years––it is known to all who knew him, that he was always industrious, honest and moral––in the early part of his life he met with several losses by loaning money, which he never got, but he preserved in industry and economy, and accumulated some Bank stock and a house and lot, on which he lived comfortable in his old age. ––Yarrow was never known to eat of swine, nor drink ardent spirits.” The Washington Gazette was more conservative. “Died, in Georgetown, D.C., last week, Yarrow, a Moor, supposed to be aged 90 years.” A letter to the Georgetown Metropolitan, addressing the question, included valuable details about Yarrow’s employment.  

“From the Georgetown Metropolitan. Jan. 25. Communication. ––Mr. Brunet; I have read your account about Yarrow. I knew Yarrow’s master and mistress sixty years ago; his master is dead; his mistress, still living, says he cannot be more than 90. I have known Yarrow ever since he came to Georgetown, which was in 1785 or ’86––36 or 37 years ago, in 1788, 89, he received a dollar per day to temper clay in the brickyards, while no other person could get more than five shillings. He was likewise a charcoal burner and got a dollar per day for his master, and as much for himself for the night. In 1788 he attended the yard where the bricks were burned for the house now occupied by Mr. William Steuart, and from my personal knowledge of the burning of those bricks, (being often in the yard,) and of Yarrow, and some anecdotes I was well acquainted with, could not be more than fifty then. I believe he was very honest and much to be depended upon, which was the reason he could get a dollar per day, when no other person could get more than two thirds––he watched his yard, and, if possible, never let the bricks suffer from rain. He was a Mahometan––drank no ardent spirits, but would swill cider with any one. ––T.”

“Died,” Baltimore Patriot & Mercantile Advertiser, January 25, 1823, p. 2 “Died,” Washington Gazette, January 27, 1823, p. 2; “From the Georgetown Metropolitan,” The National Gazette and Literary Register, Philadelphia, Pa., January 29, 1823, p. 1.

Seventy years after Yarrow’s death, attorney and Georgetown historian Hugh T. Taggart included the “Interesting History of an Old African” an article to the Evening Star. (Nearly identical language appeared in Taggart’s “Old Georgetown,” read before the Columbia Historical Society in 1907.) “In the early part of the century there was living in Georgetown an African by the name of Yarrah or Yarrow, who was treated with great kindness by the people of the town generally on account of the sympathy excited by his peculiar history. As told by Gen. Mason of Analoston Island to Warden in 1811 and given by the latter in his sketch of the District published in Paris in 1816, it exhibits Yarrow as possessed in an extraordinary degree of the qualities which surmount adversity.” To his retelling of Mason’s account, Taggart added his own research showing that Yarrow acquired property at what is now 3324 Dent Place. “In addition to Yarrow’s ownership of stock in the Bank of Columbia, he was able to further increase his worldly substance by the acquisition of real estate. In the land records of the District there is recorded a deed dated February 8, 1800, from Francis Deakins, executor of William Deakins, to Negro Yarrow, by which the west half of lot 217 in Beatty and Hawkins’ Addition was conveyed to him in fee. The property fronted on the south side of Sixth Street, about midway the square between Market and Frederick. Mr. Balch states in his reminiscences that Yarrah was a Mohammedan from Guinea, and that an admirable likeness of him was painted by Simpson, an accomplished artist and portrait painter, resident in the town.” 

“Interesting History of an Old African,” Evening Star, May 4, 1893, p. 8; Hugh T. Taggart, “Old Georgetown,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Vol. 11 (1908), pp. 221-4; DC Liber E (1800) f. 80/67. 

The painting remembered by Thomas Bloomer Balch had been mentioned in some of Yarrow’s obituaries. “After living 135 years, Yarrow, a Moor, died yesterday, (19th inst) in Georgetown. ––One of the best likenesses we remember to have ever seen of any body, was taken of this harmless old man by young Simpson of Georgetown, a youth whose genius entitles him to the patronage of the friends of science.” (The most likely author of this obituary was the young genius himself.) Grace Dunlop Ecker, writing in 1933, also knew of Simpson’s painting.

“On Sixth Street (Dent Place), between Market (33rd) and Frederick (34th) Streets, was the house which Francis Deakins sold on February 8, 1800 to Old Yarrow, as he was called, one of the most mysterious and interesting characters of the early days. It is not known whether he was an East Indian or a Guinea negro, but he was a Mohammedan. He conducted a trade in hacking with a small cart, and his ambition in life was to own a hundred dollars. Twice he saved it and each time ill fortune overtook him. The first time he gave it to an old groceryman he knew to keep for him. The old man died suddenly and Yarrow had nothing to prove that he had had his money. So the next time he picked a young man to keep it for him. Then this one absconded. Some of the gentlemen of the town became so interested that they took up a collection and started an account for him in the Bank of Columbia. He must have been quite a figure in his day, for his portrait was painted by James Alexander Simpson, and is now owned by Mr. E. M. Talcott, who inherited it from Normanstone.”

“Yarrow Dead!” Richmond Enquirer, Richmond, Virginia, January 25, 1823, p. 1; DC Liber E (1800) f. 80/67; Thomas Bloomer Balch, Reminiscences of Georgetown, D.C. (1859); Grace Dunlop Ecker, A Portrait of Old George Town (1933, 1951), p. 207.

In 1947 it came to light that Yarrow Mamout had also sat for a portrait by a much more prominent artist, Charles Willson Peale, and that the record of their encounter was preserved in the artist’s diary. (Peale, who wanted a painting of the supposed centenarian for his museum in Philadelphia, was the likely author of the obituary that stated that Yarrow was “aged (according to his account) 136 years!”) 

I spent the whole day, and not only painted a good likeness of him, but also the drapery and background. However, to finish it more completely, I engaged him to set the next day––and early in the morning went to see some of the family who had knowledge of him for many years, and whose ancestors had purchased him from the ship that brought him from Africa. A Mr. Bell in a bank directed me to an ancient widow who had set him free. On making inquiry of this lady about his age, for he had told me he would be 134 years old in next March, I found that he counted 12 moons to the year, and that he was 35 years old when he was first brought to America by Captain Dow. But the widow Bell told me that it was a practice in former times when slaves was brought into the country, they were valued by a committee who estimated their age, and she thought that he had been sold as 14 years or thereabout, yet he might be a little older––That at the death of Mr. Bell he became the property of her husband––That Yarrow was always an industrious, hard working man and had served them faithfully for many years, and her husband, intending to build a large house in Georgetown, told Yarrow, if he would be very industrious in making the bricks for that house and outhouses, that when he had made all the bricks that he would set him free. Yarrow completed the task, but his master died before he began the house, and the widow, knowing the design of her husband, told Yarrow that as he had performed his duty, that she had made the necessary papers to set him free. Yarrow made a great many bows, thanking his mistress, and said that [if] ever mistress wanted work done, Yarrow would work for her.

After Yarrow obtained his freedom, he worked hard and saved his money until he got $100 which [he] put into an old gentleman’s hands to keep for him. That person died and Yarrow lost his money. However, it did not dispirit him, for he still worked as before and raised another $100, which he put into the care of a young merchant in Georgetown, and Yarrow said, “Young man no die.” But this merchant became bankrupt, and thus Yarrow met a second heavy loss. Yet, not dispirited, he worked hard, and saved a third sum amounting to $200. Some friend to Yarrow advised him to buy bank stock in the Columbia Bank. This advice Yarrow thought good, for he said, “Bank no die.” And he was amongst the first who contributed to that bank about 26 years past….

Yarrow owns a house and lots, and is known by most of the inhabitants of Georgetown, and particularly by the boys, who are often teasing him, which he takes in good humor. It appears to me that the good temper of the man has contributed considerably to longevity. Yarrow has been noted for sobriety and a cheerful conduct. He professes to be a Mahometan, and is often seen and heard in the streets singing praises to God––and, conversing with him, he said man is no good unless his religion comes from the heart. He said he never stole one penny in his life––yet he seems delighted to sport with those in company, pretending that he would steal something. The butchers in the market can always find a bit of meat to give to Yarrow. Sometimes he will pretend to steal a piece of meat and put it into the basket of some gentleman, and then say, “Me no tell if you give me half.” The acquaintance of him often banter him about eating bacon and drinking whiskey––but Yarrow says it is no good to eat hog––and drink whiskey is very bad.

Charles Coleman Sellers,“Charles Willson Peale and Yarrow Mamout,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Apr. 1947), pp. 99-102. 

More recently, James H. Johnston undertook the considerable challenge of going beyond the reminiscences of Yarrow’s contemporaries and seeing what else could be learned about this remarkable figure. As a result, we now know that Yarrow was born in Guinea about 1736; that he and his sister were brought to Maryland as slaves in 1752; that Yarrow regained his freedom at about the age of sixty; and that he was about eighty-seven when died in 1823. Also waiting to be found in the records were the names of the people in Yarrow’s life, his sister Hannah, his wife Jane, his son Aquilla, and the story of six generations of their descendants. 

James H. Johnston, “The Man in the Knit Cap,” Washington Post Sunday Magazine, February 4, 2006, p. 16; James H. Johnston, From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African American Family (2015).

Duvall

The early residents of Bryantown can sometimes be glimpsed when property changed hands due to death and indebtedness. In late 1812 John Threlkeld sold land in Threlkeld’s Addition to William Duvall. After Duvall died, two years later, the two-story frame house on Fayette Street became the home of Lewis Magruder, who was probably his his son-in-law. Magruder also became the proprietor of a deposit of sand––“suitable for plaster and brick moulding” ––that lay northwest of his house on Madison Street. In 1819 Magruder advertised 10,000 square yards of sand for sale. “Those who are in an extensive way of building, would do well to attend to this sale, as it is the only lot of sand in Georgetown.” Magruder fell behind on his mortgage, and his property was ordered to be sold to satisfy the lender. “Will be exposed to public sale… for cash on the premises… Lot fronting 120 feet on Fayette street, together with the improvements… and an adjoining lot… Beatty & Hawkins”s addition to Georgetown… lot No. 281, seized and taken as the property of said Lewis Magruder under the above receded writ of fieri-facias.” In 1824 the lender, Gabriel Duvall, foreclosed, and sued William Duvall’s widow Sarah, as well as Lewis Magruder and his wife Rebecca, to recover his $700. The five-person Magruder household was still there in 1827, when the property––“West side of Fayette street, and at the southeast corner of lot No. 280, in Beatty & Hawkins”s addition… Two story frame house in the occupation of Mr. Lewis Magruder” ––was again ordered sold at auction. William King’s Mortality Book records that Magruder died in 1829. The Duvalls were still in possession of this property in 1872: “Yeaton and Duvall to Joseph Duvall, part of lot Threlkeld’s addition, and lot 281, Beatty and Hawkins’ addition; $–––.”

“Notice,” National Intelligencer, December 7, 1814, p. 3; “Sand for Sale,” National Messenger, February 23, 1818, p. 3; “Public Sale,” National Messenger, March 10, 1819, p. 3; “Marshall’s Sale,” National Messenger, September 3, 1819, p. 3; “Circuit Court,” National Intelligencer, November 6, 1824, p. 4; “Sale This Day,” National Intelligencer, July 6, 1827, p. 2; “Georgetown Transfers,” Evening Star, March 28, 1872, p. 4; 1820 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 52.

Dunbaugh

In the 1800 census, Elizabeth Dunbaugh and her two children were neighbors of Andrew Caldenbaugh, who owned land on the north side of what is now Dent Place, where it formerly intersected with Wisconsin Avenue. The property was auctioned off in 1808 as the result of a lawsuit. “Will be exposed to public sale…all the right title and interest of Andrew Kaldenbach, in and to lots numbered 208, 221, 222 & 223 with the improvements thereon, in Beatty and Hawkins’ addition.” Dunbaugh, who was one of the buyers, was assessed in 1818 for a two story brick house worth $1500 on part of lot 208 Beatty and Hawkins’ addition. The 1830 directory of Georgetown lists “Dunbaugh Elizabeth, Widow, High st near Seventh.” Dunbaugh took out a mortgage in 1828, and there is no further mention of her in records until 1847. “By virtue of a deed of trust from Mrs. Elizabeth Dunback… I shall sell… Part of lot No. 208, in Beatty and Hawkins’ addition… fronting 50 feet on High street and extending through to Market street.” (In 1848 “Samuel Reintzell, only child and heir to Elizabeth Dunbaugh,” sold to the banker John Kurtz, whose heir conveyed the land at what is now 1640 Wisconsion Avenue to Georgetown for construction of a school.)

“Public Sale,” Washington Federalist, April 26, 1808, p. 1; “Lot At Auction,” Georgetown Advocate, October 28, 1847, p. 7; Elizabeth Dunbaugh, 1800 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 860. DC Libers H (1802) f. 475, John Davidson et ux Maria to Andrew Kaldenbach; X (1809) f. 147, Washington Boyd, [Marshall], to Daniel Bussard, [Georgetown Alderman]; X (1810) f. 385, Daniel Bussard to Elizabeth Dunbaugh; WB 22 (1828) f.  280, Elizabeth Dunbough to Richard Davis, mortgage; WB137 (1847) f. 171, Henry Addison, Mayor of Georgetown, to John Kurtz; WB144 (1848) f. 103; JAS205 (1860) f. 290, John D. Kurtz et ux to Corporation of Georgetown; and f. 293.

Riffle

Joseph Riffle, who appears to have been of Pennsylvania German ancestry, was receiving mail in Georgetown by 1806. Between 1800 and 1807, Georgetown assessements list him with a horse and a cart, and an improved lot in Threlkeld’s addition worth $300. Details of his life, and of the day-to-day workings of slavery became public after he went broke in 1817. “On the petition of Joseph Riffle, an insolvent debtor, confined in the prison bounds of Washington county, for debt, notice is hereby given to the creditors… the oath prescribed… will be administered to the said insolvent, and a trustee appointed, unless sufficient cause to the contrary be then and there shewn.” Among his creditors was Evan Evans, of Washington City, who acccused Riffle of not delivering back a borrowed slave. “Whereas a certain Joseph Riffle, lately in my employ, obtained of me a negro boy, some time in 1817, named Biddeford, for his victuals and clothes, to be delivered up to me whenever called for; and whereas the said Joseph Riffle has been requested several times… to deliver up said boy to me, and as he has refused to comply… and has threatened to sell the boy, whom he keeps concealed; this is therefore to forewarn all persons from harboring, concealing or purchasing said boy Biddeford. The boy was seen a day or two ago, near Magruder’s mill, in Montgomery county, Md. in company with said Riffle.” 

“A List of Letters Remaining in the Post-Office, George-town, Col., January 1, 1806,” Washington Federalist, January 11, 1806, p. 1; “District of Columbia, To Wit,” National Intelligencer, May 22, 1817, p. 1; “Notice,” National Intelligencer, June 9, 1819, p. 3.

Riffle denied the charge and suggested that Biddeford’s whereabouts were not his concern. “I, Joseph Riffle, an inhabitant of Georgetown, do certify upon oath, that the negro boy Biddeford, now in my employ for some time, was put out to me by Evan Evans, for his victuals and clothes until the said Evans should call for him. I further declare, that I never was hired out or employed by the said Evans (as has been falsely reported) to fight his battles, having enough to do of my own business, that is not only more to my credit, but much more profitable.” A year later, Evans, now convinced that Riffle had sold the boy, posted a reward “for delivering to me a certain Joseph Riffle, who has lately sold to a negro trader a black boy of mine, named Biddeford, about 9 years old, who was put to said Riffle for victuals and clothes, to be returned to me when called for… I will give one hundred dollars reward for both, or $50 for either.” There are no further reports of the case. Joseph Riffle, a parishioner of Holy Trinity Church, died in 1827. His widow Margaret appears as a head of household in both the 1820 and 1830 censuses of Georgetown, and the 1830 directory lists “Riffel Margaret, Spinster, Fayette st near Eighth.” She died in 1835. “Margaret Riffle, in her 86th year of her age, formerly of Berks county, Pennsylvania.”

“Notice,” National Intelligencer, June 14, 1819, p. 1; “200 Dollars Reward,” National Intelligencer, August 7, 1820, p. 3; “Died,” National Intelligencer, October 5, 1820, p. 3; “Notice,” City of Washington Gazette, October 27, 1820, p. 3; “Fifty Dollars Reward,” National Intelligencer, December 4, 1821, p. 3; “Public Sale,” Washington Gazette, December 6, 1821, p. 3; “Death,” National Intelligencer, October 31, 1835, p. 3; Trinity Church Death Register, pp. 33, 66; 1820 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 53; 1830 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 197.

Michael Riffle, son of Joseph and Margaret Matthias Riffle, born circa 1792, former private in Capt. Edmonston’s Company, 1st Regiment 1st Brigade, D. C. Militia, died unmarried in 1838, leaving no widow or children, and was buried in Georgetown. Arrears in his pension were to be paid to Catherine Kuhns, his administratrix. 

Trinity Church Death Register, p. 77; Alcyon Trubey Pierce, CG, Selected Final Pension Payment Vouchers 1818-1864, District of Columbia (1998).

George Riffle was assessed for a one-story frame house on High Street, on part of lot 251 in Beatty & Hawkins’ Addition (“in the town of Wilberforce”) between 1810 and 1813. During the War of 1812, he was appointed ensign of Grenadiers in the District militia. By 1820, he had sold the property to Samuel Pauley and moved to Montgomery County. In 1830 he lived in Tenleytown. A few years before his death, in 1832, Riffle owed taxes on part of lot 199, fronting 47 feet on Market Street, at the southwest corner of Q and 33rd Streets.

“Militia of the District,” Federal Republican and Commercial Gazette, May 12, 1813, p. 3; Georgetown Assessments 1808-1812, p. 137; Stephen B. Balch to George Riffel, DC Liber AD (1812) f. 292; George Riffel to Samuel Pauley, DC Liber AU45 (1819) ff. 240/166, 242/168; “Collector’s Sale,” National Intelligencer, September 22, 1829, p. 2; 1820 Census, Election District 3, Montgomery County, Maryland, p. 560; 1830 Census, Tenley, Washington, D. C., p. 204; Jane Donovan, Carlton Fletcher, William King’s Mortality Journal (2001).

Jacob Riffle, born in Pennsylvania circa 1784-1789, was a carpenter. In 1825, with William Kuntz and Sarah Ann Trunnell as witnesses, “Jacob Ruffel” married Ann Beckworth at Holy Trinity Catholic Chrurch in Georgetown. Jacob Riffle owned part of lot 249, Beatty and Hawkins’s Addition, “75 feet front, west side High street, and through to Frederick street, improved,” at what would now be 1828 Wisconsin Avenue, some of which he sold to Joseph Weaver in 1859. The rest was sold for taxes due in 1862. Between 1858 and 1862, directories list “Riffell Jacob, late carpenter” at 301 High Street. Jacob Riffel died in 1863, at age 79. His widow Ann lived at what would now be 1242 36th Street until 1881.

“Collector’s Sale,” National Intelligencer, March 6, 1862, p. 4; “Transfers of Real Estate,” Evening Critic, September 19, 1881, p. 4; “Chancery Sale,” Evening Star, April 13, 1882 , p. 4; Trinity Church Marriage Register, April 12 1825; Trinity Church Death Register, p. 114; 1830 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 196; 1840 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 197; 1850 Census, North West Ward, Georgetown, D. C., p. 178a; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 519B; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 230B, ED 011.

The Barker Family of Volta Place

The earliest record of Henrietta Steptoe in the District of Columbia is in 1805, when a Georgetown coffin maker entered in his ledger that he had made a coffin for “Henrietta Steptoe’s child.” Two years later, when Steptoe’s daughter, Mary Ann, was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown two years later, the name of the father was not recorded. The child’s godmother was her older sister, “Rebecca Stepton,” who appears in the baptismal register again in 1810: “baptized Thomas natural son of Rebecca Stiptoe born Sept. 29, last. living at Georgetown.” As Rebecca Lee, Henrietta’s older daughter married Andrew Barker, four years later.

William King’s Mortality Book, December 20, 1805, p. 9; Holy Trinity Church, Baptisms, 1805-1834 (old book), pp. 26 37, Holy Trinity Church Archives, Georgetown University Library; Homer A. Walker, Historical Court Records of Washington, D.C. (1955). My thanks to Steptoe family historian, Jack Fallin, whose research suggests that Henrietta Steptoe was manumitted in Virginia by a member of the Lee family in about 1801.

In 1829, Henrietta Steptoe was warned that taxes were due on her house. “Will be exposed to Public Sale … to satisfy the Corporation of Georgetown, D.C. for taxes due … Henrietta Steptoe––part of lot No. 60 in Peter, Beatty, Threlkeld & Deakins’ Addition, 56 feet 6 inches on First Street––Small Brick House.” The outstanding $2.75 appears to have been paid; one year later, Steptoe is the head of a two-person household that consists of herself, age 36-54, and a young woman, age 10-23. (This may be a servant, as there is also a young woman, aged 10-23, in Steptoe’s 1840 household.) The 1830 Georgetown directory lists “Steptoe, Henrietta, midwife, First street, opposite Catholic church.”

“Collector’s Sale,” National Intelligencer, June 26, 1829, p. 1; “Henrietta Steptow,” Georgetown Assessments, 1835-1839, p. 158, National Archives; 1830 Census, Georgetown, D, C., p. 173; 1840 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 183. 

In 1839, Henrietta Steptoe went before a magistrate who could vouch for her, and secured a Certificate of Freedom for herself, and for her daughter, who was now Mary Ann Tritt. In the document, John Marbury of Georgetown swears that he has known Mary Ann Tritt for about ten years, and her mother, Henrietta Steptoe, for about twenty-one years. Both women are light colored, and both live in Georgetown. Mary Ann is about thirty-one years old. Henrietta has recognized Mary as her child and “both have passed and are universally received and known by the inhabitants of Georgetown as free persons.”

Certificate of Freedom No. 1722, recorded October 29, 1839, Dorothy S. Provine, District of Columbia Free Negro Registers, 1821-1861, Vol. 3, p.165.

“At Georgetown, D.C., on Sunday, the 2nd instant, Henrietta Steptoe, aged 71 years. Near fifty years of her life were devoted exclusively to nursing the sick. By her assiduous, kind, and intelligent discharge of the duties of her humble office, she gained the confidence and affectionate respect of all who knew her. Few have contributed so largely as herself to alleviate the pains of the sick; her life has been spent in doing good; she will be long remembered as an humble friend and faithful nurse. Her funeral will take place at 10 o’clock A. M., (to-day,) at the house of her daughter, Mrs. Barker, on 4th st. in Georgetown.” Steptoe’s administrator was a prominent Georgetowner. “In the case of Henry C. Matthews, administrator of Henrietta Steptoe … with the approbation of the Orphan’s Court … final settlement of said estate, and for the payment and distribution … of the assets in the hands of the administrator … creditors and heirs … are hereby notified to attend … and file their claims, or they may be excluded.” A handsome ledger stone marks Steptoe’s grave in Holy Rood Cemetery.

“Death,” National Intelligencer, June 5, 1850, p. 4; “Orphan’s Court,” National Intelligencer, November 25, 1851, p. 4; H. C. Mathews, 1860 Census, Ward 2, Georgetown, D. C., p. 74; “Deaths,” National Intelligencer, April 30, 1862, p. 1; Holy Rood Cemetery, section 19, lot 172.

 

HENRIETTA STEPTOE

Died June 2, 1850, Age 71

Peace to thy soul eternal be thine,

May light celestial now upon thee shine

And if thy prayer now be heard above

Oh, guard thy children with a mother’s love.

Although Steptoe’s obituary had stressed her nursing of the sick, it was as a midwife that a prominent Washington physician later remembered her. 

“[I] began practice in this city when a trained obstetric nurse could not be obtained except as a special favor of one or two physicians who had educated a few for their own employment. It is true there were a few venerable and antiquated old prodigies, garrulous with gasconade and portentous advice, who would only honor an engagement among people of “quality.” Aunt Phillis and Henrietta Steptoe had risen to the dignity of Madame Lachapelle, and their vernacular and oracular dispensations were implicitly believed and accepted as the rule of conduct in the lying-in chamber of high life.” What rankled Dr. Busey about Steptoe––as his allusions to the Anti-Tom novel Aunt Phillis’s Cabin, and to the celebrated French obstetrician, Marie-Louise Lachapelle, make clear––was that the upper-class women they were both competing for preferred to put themselves in the hands of a colored midwife.

Samuel Clagett Busey, Personal Reminiscences and Recollections of Forty-six Years’ Membership In the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, and Residence in this City (1895), pp. 343-4.

In 1814, Henrietta Steptoe’s daughter, now known as Rebecca Lee, married Andrew Barker. By 1818, the couple had moved into a house right around the corner from Francis Fenwick’s house on Fayette Street, at what is now 3415 Volta Place. As the 1834 the Georgetown directory, which shows his address as “north side of 4th street, near Frederick street,” gives his trade as “plasterer,” it seems likely that he built his house himself. Barker was professionally connected with William Fields, a Black bricklayer and plasterer who built houses, in the Mutual Relief Association. “This association has for its intention, the relief of the free people of color in this town. It is conducted with regularity and order, and is of great assistance in relieving the poor people of color, which the inclement season, and other causes have, in some instances, reduced to much distress.” Holy Trinity Church records show that Andrew Barker bought a grave for his father in 1819. (William King’s Mortality Journal shows that “Andrew’s Barker’s father” was buried, in a stained coffin, July 23, 1819.) As evidence that Andrew Barker’s business sometimes required taking out loans is suggested by an 1823 report that Andrew Barker, insolvent debtor, had applied to be discharged from imprisonment. (How he extricated himself from this situation was of no interest to the reading public.) The census shows that the Barker household grew to nine persons in 1830, and to ten in 1840. In 1844, when the head of that household died, it was reported in the press. “On Friday, March 1st, after an illness of three days, Mr. Andrew Barker, a citizen of Georgetown, in the 63d year of his age.”

“Mutual Relief Association,” The Messenger, Georgetown, March 14, 1817, p. 4; “Mutual Relief Association,” National Messenger, Georgetown, March 6, 1818, p. 3; “District of Columbia, Washington County, to wit,” National Intelligencer, November 25, 1823, p. 3; “Died,” The Daily Globe, March 4, 1844, p. 4; 1818 Property Tax Assessments of the City of Georgetown, National Archives; Archives of Holy Trinity Church, Death Register, p. 93; 1830 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p.187; 1840 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 183; Homer A. Walker, Historical Court Records, Washington, D.C. (1955).

A short time after Andrew Barker’s death, Henrietta Steptoe was party to a transaction involving land on 4th Street near Market Street, abutting the house of Andrew Barker, “late the husband of Rebecca.” (This may have been the prelude to construction of the adjacent house at what is now 3411 Volta Place. Both houses were given an added floor where basement used to be when the street was lowered in the 1870s.) That Henrietta Steptoe was Barker’s mother-in-law is revealed by Steptoe’s obituary in 1850. “Her funeral will take place at 10 o’clock A. M., (to-day,) at the house of her daughter, Mrs. Barker, on 4th st. in Georgetown.” Rebecca Barker was a widow by time of 1865 tax assessments, when she and her son James were listed as owning improvements on lots 10 and 11 in Beatty and Hawkins’ Addition. According to the census, her property was worth $1,000 in 1850, and $1,400 in 1860.

“Death,” National Intelligencer, June 5, 1850, p. 4; DC Liber 116 (1845) ff. 447/436; 1850 Census, North West Ward, Georgetown, D. C., p. 174b; 1860 Census, 4th Ward, Georgetown, D. C., p. 193.

In both 1850 and 1860 censuses, Rebecca Barker’s race was entered as “mulatto.” That this was not how she wished to be seen was shown when her son William H. Barker needed a Certificate of Freedom. In this 1856 document, “Lewis Carbery certifies that he has known the late Andrew Barker, a very bright mulatto and formerly of Georgetown, and his wife, a white woman, for the last thirty-eight or forty years.” Again, in 1858, when she testified on behalf of her son, Rebecca Barker was considered white. “George Barker, free colored, was tried for an assault and battery upon Elizabeth Delany, also colored, on the 13th day of last June. The counsel for the defendant objected to the admissibility of the testimony of the prosecuting witness, on the ground that the defendant was a white man. The defendant’s mother (a white woman) was called, who testified that the defendant was her son by Andrew Barker, his deceased father, a colored man, and that she was the wife of said deceased, Andrew Barker. The court decided that the marriage of the defendant’s mother to a colored man rendered her issue colored in the eye of the law, and the evidence was therefore admissible. The prosecuting witness, Elizabeth Delany, was then recalled, and testified as to the assault and battery upon her. Other witnesses were also examined, whose testimony was conflicting. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty.” George Barker, who was living in Massachusetts by 1880, died in 1886. “In East Boston… George Barker, formerly of Georgetown, D. C., son of the late Rebecca and Andrew Barker.”

“Criminal Court,” Evening Star, August 4, 1858, p. 3; “Died,” Evening Star, December 20, 1886, p. 3; Certificate of Freedom No. 2454, April 20, 1856, Dorothy S. Provine, District of Columbia Free Negro Registers, 1821-1861, Vol. 5, 526, Reg. No. 2453, p. 58; 1880 Census, Boston County, Massachusetts, p. 185B, ED 584.

By the time that the 1880 census was taken, the 88-year-old Rebecca Barker was the head of a nine-person household at 72 Fourth Street that included two sons, a grandson, and a daughter-in-law, and four great-granddaughters. Although the 1850 census had said that Rebecca Barker was born in Virginia, and the 1860 had said Maryland, the 1880 census reported that she was born in England; and that she, and all her descendants listed in the census, are white. She died in 1883. “The will of the late Rebecca Barker, of Georgetown, D. C., was filed with the Register to-day.” Her son Edwin was her executor. Proceeds of the sale of her house were divided by her sons Andrew, James, George, Edwin, and William. Personal items were left to her granddaughters Rebecca, Henrietta, and Kate Barker.

“Probate Court,” Evening Star, April 9, 1883, p. 5; “Rebecca Barker’s Will,” Evening Star, April 14, 1883, p. 5; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., pp. 203D, 204A, ED 009; Will of Rebecca Barker, filed April 14, 1883, DC Archives (box 81).

Andrew Barker Jr. was born about 1815 and followed in the family trade as plasterer. Although the 1850 and 1860 censuses say his wife was born in Maryland, in 1880 her son, Andrew Taylor Barker, specified that she was German born. She died in 1860. “In Georgetown, Mrs. Henrietta Barker, in the 30th year of her age. The friends of the family are invited to attend her funeral, from the residence of her husband, No. 72 Fourth street, between Frederick and Fayette sts., tomorrow, (Sunday,) at 4 o’clock p m.” After Andrew Barker became mentally incompetent in 1889, his brother James obtained a court decree against him, and advertised a trustees’ sale of a “two-story and basement Brick House of six rooms” at 3411 Q Street, “in a part of town which is improving very fast.” Andrew Barker died a year later. The winning bidder was William Woody, a Georgetown butcher who died in 1894. The property was advertised “for colored” renters until 1935, when it was purchased by President Roosevelt’s White House architect. “Lorenzo S. Winslow, 1514 Forty-fourth street, owner, designer and builder; to erect one two story brick addition, and garage and porch, 3411 Volta place, to cost $1,500.”

“Died” Evening Star, June 16, 1860, p. 4; “Trustees’ Sale,” Evening Star, October 10, 1889, p. 6; “Property Sold at Auction,” Evening Star, October 18, 1889, p. 9; “Charged With Choking His Daughter-In-Law,” Evening Star, November 25, 1889, p. 8; “Died,” The Daily Critic, October 28, 1890, p. 3; “Permits,” Evening Star, November 2, 1935, p. 24; 1850 Census, North West Ward, Georgetown, D. C., p. 155a; 1860 Census, 4th Ward, Georgetown, D. C., p. 193; 1880 Census, Georgetown D. C., p. 204A; Holy Trinity Church Archives, Death Register, p. 105; Georgetown University Library.

“Barker Thomas L., plasterer” was living at 72 4th Street when he married Sarah V. Bias in 1876. He died in 1912. “Death of Thomas L. Barker, Colored Waterman. ––Thomas L. Barker, a negro, about sixty years old, who had a boathouse at the foot of 35th street, died at Georgetown University Hospital this morning. He was stricken with paralysis yesterday morning while wading in the river above Aqueduct bridge catching bait.” “Thomas Barker, beloved husband of Sarah Barker (nee Bias), and son of the late Andrew and Henrietta Barker. Funeral from Holy Trinity Catholic Church.” “Sarah Barker, wife of the late Thomas Barker,” was living at 10 Fowler Hill, between Georgetown University and Foxhall Road, when she died in 1928.

“Licensed To Wed,” The Daily Critic, May 10, 1876, p. 3; “Death of Thomas L. Barker, Colored Waterman,” Evening Star, August 12, 1912, p. 15; “Died,” Evening Star, August 13, 1912, p. 14; “Deaths,” Evening Star, November 30, 1928, p. 10; “Deaths Reported,” Evening Star, December 3, 1928, p. 9.

When William H. Barker was sixteen, he needed freedom papers. “Lewis Carbery certifies that he has known the late Andrew Barker, a very bright mulatto and formerly of Georgetown, and his wife, a white woman, for the last thirty-eight or forty years. William H. Barker is their youngest son. His family has always been recognized & held as free people by that white community as I have never heard of the truth of their freedom being disputed or called into question.”

Dorothy S. Provine, District of Columbia Free Negro Registers, 1821-1861, Vol. 5, p. 58, Certificate of Freedom No. 2454, recorded April 20, 1856.

After William H. Barker married Martha A. Briscoe at Holy Trinity Church in 1862, the couple lived at “Frederick nr 6th” Streets (now 34th and Dent Place). Barker, who was Chief Marshall at Emancipation Day celebrations in Georgetown in 1867, was a Georgetown Republican through 1871. “The delegates chosen by the colored people of the different wards of the city to make arrangements for a proposed demonstration in honor of the ratification of the fifteenth amendment met last evening at the Stevens school-house.” “The Committee on Credentials reported favorably on … William H. Barker … and Alfred Pope.” “A meeting of the Republicans of Georgetown was held … for the purpose of nominating fifteen delegates to be held to-day for the reorganization of the Republican party.” “A. B. Mullett … William Lee … Collins Crusor, William H. Barker …. Were selected as delegates to represent Georgetown in the convention to-day. Speeches were made by … W. H. Barker, and others, deprecating past differences, and counseling harmony and good feeling in the future, after which the meeting was adjourned.”

Georgetown Courier, April 20, 1867; “Georgetown Central Republican Club,” Daily Morning Chronicle, July 24, 1869, p. 4; “Convention of Colored Men,” Daily Morning Chronicle, April 6, 1870, p. 4; “Georgetown Delegates,” Daily Morning Chronicle, March 7, 1871, p. 4; Holy Trinity Church Archives, Georgetown University Library.

The 1870 census the young couple have a one-year-old son, Theodore (and the help of a domestic servant, Louisa Banks (25). By then, “Barker Wm. H. [c] plasterer” was living on “Market nr 4th” (i.e., 33rd near Volta Place). Late in the decade, the Barkers moved across Rock Creek to 18th Street, and then across the Anacostia, to “Benning, D. C.” In 1897, the Washington Bee noted the death of “Mr. William H. Barker, one of the best known citizens of Washington.” “Mr. Barker figured for a number of years in local politics and was always in the front ranks in the interest of his people.”

“Deaths,” The Washington Bee, November 13, 1897, p. 6; “Died,” Evening Star, May 3, 1898, p. 7; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 548A; 1880 Census, Washington, Washington, D. C., p. 309A, ED 098.

James Barker was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in 1822. He, his wife Frances, and their infant daughter Catherine appear in the 1850 census, living next door to his mother Rebecca. Barker is a plasterer and owns real estate worth $1,000. By 1860, his household numbers eight people, and his real estate is valued at $1,800. Although both censuses recorded the family as “Mulatto,” this was not necessarily the last word on the subject. “Police Officer Barnaclo was yesterday arrested for assaulting James Barker. It appears that the officer attempted, on the night of the 3d instant, to arrest Barker for violating the law which ordains that colored people shall not be permitted on the streets after a certain hour, and that Barker resisted, claiming to be a white man, and was pursued and struck by the officer. Mr. F. W. Jones appeared as counsel for Barker, and the investigation resulted in the holding of Officer Barnaclo on bail in the sum of $100 for his appearance to answer before the Criminal Court.” The charge against Officer Barnaclo appears to have been dropped.

“Georgetown,” Evening Star, November 17, 1860, p. 3; 1850 Census, North West Ward, Georgetown, D. c., p. 174b; 1860 Census, Ward 4, Georgetown, D. C., p. 192.

“In Georgetown, D. C., May 9th, Frances, beloved wife of James Barker. The funeral will take place from her late residence on 4th street, between Fayette and Frederick, at 2 p. m., Saturday, 11th inst. Friends of the family and acquaintances are respectfully invited without further notice, (San Francisco papers please copy.)” After the death of his wife Frances in 1867, James Barker raised their five children alone. By the time of the 1880 census (which recorded James Barker and his family as white), four of his children were working: James C., and Eugene, as plasterers, and Medora Barker and Mary Dodson, as teachers. Their sister Fannie was listed as “at home” (which probably meant she kept house for them all).

“Died,” Evening Star, May 10, 1867, p. 4; “Arrears of Taxes,” National Republican, May 10, 1876, p. 22; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., pp. 203D, 204A, ED 009.

In 1888 the Evening Star reported an assault. “A colored boy named William Patsy was brought before the Police Court this afternoon charged with assaulting James Barker, also colored. He pleaded guilty. The complainant testified that Saturday night he met the defendant on Fayette street, West Washington, and he drew a revolver. Witness asked: “Will you shoot?” and he replied, “Yes, you ––– ––– I’ll blow your head off.” He fired three shots at him, but none of them took effect. Patsy was given six months in jail.”

“Shot At Him,” Evening Star, May 23, 1888, p. 5.

Readers were informed that James Barker was near death in 1894. “Mr. James Barker of 3415 Q street, one of the District’s oldest citizens, was stricken with paralysis some weeks ago, and is now in the most critical condition, with no hopes for recovery.” When he died, three days later, the Evening Star carried three separate notices.

“Mr. James Barker, an old and respected citizen of the District, died at his residence, 3415 Q street, at 6:15 this morning, in the seventy-second year of his age. The deceased was born in Georgetown, D. C., February 28, 1822, and since that time has been resident of the District.”

“Mr. James Barker, a very much respected colored citizen, died early this morning from the effects of a stroke of paralysis. Death came at his home 3415 Q Street.”

“On Tuesday, June 12, 1894, at 6:15 o’clock a. m., James Barker, in the seventy-second year of his age. Funeral from his late residence, No. 3415 Q street, Georgetown, on Thursday, June 14, at 5 o’clock p. m. Friends and relatives respectfully invited to attend. Interment at Holy Rood cemetery.”

“About Georgetown,” Evening Star, June 9, 1894, p. 6; “Death of an Old Citizen,” Evening Star, June 12, 1894, p. 8; “Affairs In Georgetown,” Evening Star, June 12, 1894, p. 7; “Died,” Evening Star, June 12, 1894, p. 5. James Barker is buried in section 19, plot 172, of Holy Rood Cemetery.

James Barker may have been one of the people affected when the Washington merchant Thomas L. Hume went bankrupt in 1881. In 1896, Barker’s heirs brought a suit against Hume’s heirs “to secure the conveyance to them of part of plot 11 in Beatty and Hawkins’ addition to Georgetown, fronting on Fourth street.” “The property was in litigation between the late Mr. Hume and the late James Barker, father of the complainant.” The outcome appears to have been favorable to the plaintiffs. “District of Columbia to Catherine V., Fannie E., Medora F., James C., Samuel E. Barker, and Mary J. Brown, heirs of James Barker, part of lot 11, square 104, Georgetown, $22.61.”

“Suit Over Real Estate,” Morning Times, January 28, 1896, p. 9; “Bill in Equity,” Evening Star, January 28, 1896, p. 5; “Real Estate Transfers,” The Morning Times, February 20, 1896, p. 7.

In 1880, James Barker’s son, Andrew Taylor Barker, his wife, and their four daughters lived in the household headed by his grandmother Rebecca, at 72 Fourth street. After 1896, Andrew T. Barker, plasterer, and his wife, Catherine V., nurse, are listed at 1723 34th Street. His next appearance in the record is two years later. “Taylor Barker of Q street near 35th, who for a long time has been one of Miss Clara Barton’s aids, is lying very ill of lung trouble. He was to have accompanied Miss Barton on her trip to Cuba in aid of the sufferers there, but the condition of his health prevented.” Five months later, the Evening Star reported his death. “Taylor Barker, the husband of Catherine V. Barker, a well-known colored resident, died yesterday morning shortly after 1 o’clock, at the summer home of Miss Clara Barton, at Glen Echo. The deceased had been sick for some time. He was a trusted employee of Miss Barton, and was to have accompanied her on her present trip to Cuba, but was unable to do so on account of sickness. He was left in in charge of the Barton home while the mistress was away. The deceased lived at 1723 34th street, but his funeral will be held from the residence of his daughter at 3415 Q street.” The Washington Bee also took note of his passing. “Mr. Taylor Barker, brother of Mrs. Mary J. Brown and Miss Dorah Barker died on last Monday. Mr. Barker was a well known citizen of this city and connected with one of the best known families in the city. Miss Dorah Barker who was at Silcott Springs arrived in the city Tuesday to attend the funeral.”

“Affairs In Georgetown,” Evening Star, March 7, 1898, p. 12; “Affairs In Georgetown,” Evening Star, August 2 1898, p. 8; “Mr. Barker. ––Dead,” Washington Bee, August 6, 1898, p. 5; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., pp. 203D, 204A, ED 009.

Andrew Taylor Barker’s daughter, Ursuline Carleton Barker, first seen as a four-month-old in the 1880 census, died in 1906. “After a short illness, Ursuline C. Barker, granddaughter of the late James Barker, one of Georgetown’s oldest citizens, and a prominent school teacher in the tenth division public schools, died at her residence, 3415 Volta place, Saturday, August 18, at 10:23 P. M., of typhoid fever. Miss Barker was a graduate of Normal School No. 2, and stood number one in her class, and was its valedictorian.” Andrew Taylor Barker’s wife died in 1915. “Catherine V., widow of Andrew T. Barker. Funeral … from her late residence, 3415 Volta place; thence to Holy Trinity Church … Interment at Holy Rood cemetery.” There was another death in 1928. “Ida L. Barker, daughter of the late Taylor and Catherine V. Barker … beloved niece of Frances E. Barker … funeral from her late residence, 3415 Volta pl. nw.”

“Ursuline C. Barker Dead,” The Washington Bee, September 1, 1906, p. 5; “Died,” Evening Star, April 3, 1915, p. 8; “Deaths,” Evening Star, December 13, 1928, p. 9.

James Barker’s youngest daughter Medora was one of eleven students in the first graduating class of Preparatory High School for Colored Youth in 1877. At the ceremony at the Charles Sumner School, the “Hon. Fred. Douglass delivered an interesting address, replete with sound advice and words of encouragement to the class.” This pioneering generation of locally educated Black public-school teachers was seen as elite, and regularly made the social notes of the Washington Bee, a weekly aimed at the leaders of African American society in Washington. “Miss Medora F. Barker is a Washington lady, who graduated from the High school before the establishment of the Normal school and commenced teaching Sept. 1st, 1877. Miss Barker is quiet and not at all fussy in the school room. She moves around like clock work, and never appears to be disturbed about anything.” Whenever Miss Barker and her colleagues escaped the summer heat at a resort that catered to a Black clientele, the Bee took note. “Miss Dora Barker, one of Washingtons accomplished teachers, is at Silcott Springs, Loudon Co., Va.” Many items mention Jeannette Anderson, who became city editor of the Bee in 1899, and who taught sewing at Armstrong Industrial School. “Miss Jeannette E. Anderson and Miss Medora F. Barker are expected in the city next week from Silcott Springs, Va.” “Miss Anna Ross, who has been summering at Asbury Park, N. J., has arrived in the city and is stopping with Miss Medora F. Barker, of Georgetown.” In a column titled “What the Bee Would Like To See” ––such as “A colored judge in one branch of the Police Court”––the Bee urged that “Miss Dora Barker write a book on Washington society.” “Washington society is well-represented here, among whom are … the Misses Barbara and M. Louise Pope, and Miss Medora Barker of Georgetown, D. C.” “Last Saturday a party from Silcott Springs composed of Miss Dora Barker, Misses Barbara an Louisa Pope … [and] Jeannette E. Anderson took a twelve mile trip to the Shenandoah river … viewed the rare scenery of Loudon with delight.” “Miss Medora F. Barker, who has been spending the summer at Silcott Springs, returned to the city last Thursday very much improved by her vacation.” The summery social notes end in 1899.

“Examination of Colored Schools,” Evening Star, June 18, 1868, p. 4; “The Colored High School,” Evening Star, June 8, 1877, p. 4; “Miss Medora F. Barker,” Washington Bee, November 15, 1884, p. 2; “Personals,” The Washington Bee, August 26, 1893, p. 3; “Whereabouts Of People,” Washington Bee, September 7, 1895, p. 6; “Whereabouts Of People,” Washington Bee, September 21, 1895, p. 2; “What The Bee Would Like To See,” Washington Bee, August 8, 1896, p. 5; “The Week In Society,” Washington Bee, August 17, 1895, p. 5; “Loudon, Va. Social Notes,” Washington Bee, August 29, 1896, p. 6; “The Week In Society,” Washington Bee, June 25, 1898, p. 5; “Silcott Springs, Va.,” Washington Bee, September 3, 1898, p. 6; “Week in Society” Washington Bee, September 16, 1899, p. 5; Patsy Mose Fletcher, Historically African American Leisure Destinations Around Washington, D.C. (2015).

After 1894, Medora Barker became the head of the household of siblings and nieces and in-laws. A promotion made the paper in 1900. “Medora F. Barker, from fourth to fifth grade, and from $650 to $700 [per annum].” In 1903, a year after Medora’s brother Eugene died, the Barker house on (what was now called) Q Street was ordered sold––possibly in connection with her father’s estate. “Chancery Sale of Brick Dwelling, No. 3415 Q street … by virtue of a decree of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia … Arthur A. Birney, Trustee.” A year later there was this: “Arthur A. Birney et al, trustees, to Medora F. Barker, part of lot 11, square 1274; $2,800.” The Washington Bee, which had once chronicled her vacations, now issued reports on the teacher’s health. “The many friends of Miss Medora F. Barker, of 3415 Volta Place, are glad to know, after a long illness, that she is now able to be out and in a few days will be able to resume her teaching duties.” “Miss Dora Barker, who has been quite sick, is improving and will be in sufficient health to resume her school duties this fall.” Per the city directory, she was working at the Wormley School on Prospect Street in 1915. “Departed this life Saturday, May 9, 1925, at her residence, 3415 Volta pl. n.w., Medora F., the beloved daughter of the late James and Frances V. Barker and devoted sister of Frances E. and James C. Barker.” After 1928, when her brother, James C. Barker, and her niece Ida died, Medora’s sister Frances was alone in the house built by her grandfather more than a century earlier. By 1935, there was a new owner. “Pearl H. Edwards, 1312 Nineteenth Street, owner; Thomas A. Marshall, designer and builder; to make repairs, 3415 Volta place, to cost $1,000.” Fannie Barker died two years later.

“The Public Schools,” Evening Star, January 10, 1900, p. 11; “Died,” Evening Star, November 13, 1902, p. 6; “Chancery Sale of Brick Dwelling, No. 3415 Q street N.W.,” Evening Star, June 23, 1903, p. 13; “Real Estate Transfers,” Evening Star, September 11, 1903, p. 4; The Washington Bee, July 10, 1909, p. 4; “Paragraphic News,” The Washington Bee, October 30, 1909, p. 2; “The Week In Society,” The Washington Bee, September 4, 1909, p. 6; “The Week In Society,” The Washington Bee, August 12, 1911, p. 6; “Died,” Evening Star, June 1, 1919, p. 6; “Deaths,” Evening Star, August 18, 1922, p. 8; “Deaths,” Evening Star, May 12, 1925, p. 8; “Deaths,” Evening Star, June 6, 1928, p. 10; “Legal Notices,” Evening Star, November 10, 1928, p. 37; “Deaths,” Evening Star, December 13, 1928, p. 9; “Permits,” Evening Star, June 15, 1935, p. 23; “Deaths,” Evening Star, February 25, 1937, p. 15; “Pearle H. Edwards,” Washington Star, June 2, 1975, p. 44; 1910 Census, Precinct 7, Washington, D. C., p. 17b, ED 0130; 1920 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 13A, ED 156; 1930 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 4B, ED 0169.

Fenwick

Clement Sewall, wounded at Brandywine in the American Revolution, returned to St. Mary’s County after the war, married Eleanor Carbery, and moved to Georgetown, where he was the proprietor of the City Tavern and of the Georgetown ferry. Sewall lived on land sold by John Threlkeld to Bernard Medley in 1796, and by Medley and Clement Sewall to Sewall’s son-in-law, Francis Fenwick, in 1809. Fenwick (surveyor of the 1814 cadastral map of “George Town with the additions”) died in 1825, and his father-in-law four years later. The 1830 Georgetown directory lists “Fenwick Eleanor, Widow, Fayette st near Fourth.” In the 1850 census, Eleanor Fenwick––with $2,100 in real estate––and her two unmarried daughters Mary and Julianna, operate a boardinghouse at what is now 1545 35th Street. The 1853 directory lists “Fenwick, Mrs., e side Fayette, opposite Catholic Academy,” and an 1860 funeral takes place at “the residence of Mrs. Fenwick, corner of Fayette and Fourth streets.” That year Eleanor appears in the census as M. H. [Mary Helen] Fenwick, age 73. She and her daughters own real estate worth $4,000, and their household includes seven boarders. After Eleanor Fenwick died in 1866, the “Mrs. Fenwick, on Fayette street, near the Convent” was her daughter Mary. In 1870 Mary Fenwick has $8,000 in real estate, and she and her sister Julia have a 10-year-old Black girl named Emma Brown working for them. The directory listed Mary at 94 Fayette Street in 1871, the year she died. “In Georgetown, after a painful illness of some months, Mary Fenwick.” Between 1879 and 1887, Julia Fenwick sold property on lots 177, 175, and 173 of Threlkeld’s Addition, for $18,000. (The Volta Bureau was built on lot 173 in 1893.)

“Land For Sale,” Federal Republican and Commercial Gazette, January 13, 1813, p. 3; “Deaths,” National Intelligencer, January 15, 1829, p. 3; “Deaths,” National Intelligencer, April 2, 1860, p. 1; “Serious Accident,” National Republican, November 8, 1867, p. 2; “Died,” The Critic, November 23, 1871, p. 2; “Deeds In Fee,” Evening Star, July 8, 1879, p. 4; “Affairs in West Washington,” Evening Star May 7, 1887, p. 1; “Transfers of Real Estate,” Evening Star, July 9, 1887, p. 3; 1830 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 188; 1840 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 182; 1850 Census, Georgetown D. C., p. 175a; 1860 Census, Ward 4, Georgetown, D. C., p. 192; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 514A; DC Will of Mary Helen Fenwick, March 11, 1866; Medley-Sewall House, HABS DC-727; Clement Sewall, Findagrave; Mary Helen “Eleanor” Sewall Fenwick, Findagrave; A Map of George Town with the additions, 1814, Library of Congress; Mathilde Williams notes, Peabody Room, Georgetown Branch Library. When Susan Decatur died in 1860, “my friend Mary Fenwick” was one of her executors. It is likely that Fenwick, whose sons were Jesuit priests associated with Georgetown College, was connected to Decatur’s conversion to Catholicism (DC Will of Susan Decatur, August 2, 1847, filed August 11, 1860). 

The 1850 Slave Schedules list Elenor Fenwick with three enslaved females, ages 24, 23 and 8. Ten years later, her daughters Mary and Julia are shown with three slaves between them: a female, age 28, her son, age 4, and a female age 19. The names of enslaved members of the Fenwick household were recorded when they were emancipated, in 1862. Mary Fenwick’s compensation petition lists Ann Shorter, who was a cook, and her children, Robert and Lucy, ages 6 and 1. In it, Fenwick explains that, in 1858, she paid Margaret C. Barber five hundred dollars for Ann, aged twenty-three years, and for two children, Robert and Harriet (who died some time before 1862). The deed stipulated that Ann was to serve Fenwick for fifteen years, after which she was to be free; her children would serve Fenwick until they were twenty-five, after which they would revert to Barber for an additional five years of servitude before also being freed. (That Lucy, who was born after the transaction, would still have been “held to service for life,” shows how little the 1858 transaction had to do with benevolence.) Mary’s daughter Julia filed for compensation for the lost value of Mary Hamilton, who was about twenty years old. Julia Fenwick had purchased Mary from Notley Young of Prince Georges County, when she was about six years old, for fifty dollars in cash, and “one hundred dollars on account of board,” and was a satisfied customer. “The said Mary Hamilton is of a delicate constitution but very intelligent, amiable, strictly truthful and honest in every respect trust-worthy and so much attached to your Petitioner that she placed her in full charge of her keys and of any valuables that your Petitioner might any time possess.”

Margaret C. Barber to Mary Fenwick, Assignment & Manumission, DC Liber JAS154 (1858) f. 394/336; Petition of Mary Fenwick, May 21, 1862, Petition of Julia Fenwick, May 29, 1862, Records of the Board of Commissioners for the Emancipation of Slaves in the District of Columbia, 1861–1863, National Archives. I am grateful to Gene Kerr Sharp for this research.

Section 2: 1820-1850 

Ridgely                       Madison                      1820

Snowden                     Madison                      1830

Daggs                          Madison                      1840

Chandler                     6th                               1840

Blackman                    5th                               1850

Heiss                           7th                               1850

Chamberlain               7th                               1850

Hall                             6th                               1850

Carroll                         7th                               1850

Burrows                      7th                               1850

Kent                            7th                               1850

Ridgely

As early as 1830 a Free Colored Georgetowner named Henry Ridgely––who had married Eleanor Jackson at Holy Trinity Church in 1820––appears in that vicinity as the head of a five-person household. In the 1850 census––the first to give names of persons other than heads of household––Henry Ridgely, laborer, appears again, as does his wife Elen, of whom we know that she had been “freed by the will of Robert Sinclair, late of Richmond.” In 1860, Henry lives a few houses away from James Ridgley (“mulatto”), listed as a butcher. Henry’s widow, who was still counted in 1870, died the following year. Her passing would have gone unnoticed but for the horrific circumstances. “An old colored woman in her eighties named Nellie Ridgely, living near the Catholic burying ground on the Heights, was burned to death. Her clothes caught fire from kerosene spilled on them. She begged neighbors to send a priest. Before Reverend Fr. Stonestreet could reach her she had died.” The 1874 directory lists “Ridgley, Louisa, washing, Back nr Madison,” and “Ridgely Clara, wid. James, 6th nr Frederick.”

Georgetown Courier, October 28, 1871; “Burned To Death By Kerosene,” Evening Star, October 23, 1871, p. 5; “Burned To “Horrible Death”,” National Republican, October 24, 1871, p. 4; Archives of Holy Trinity Church; Ellen Ridgely, DC Freedom Register, No. 2562, 1857, in Dorothy S. Provine, District of Columbia Free Negro Registers, 1821-1861; 1830 Census, Georgetown, D.C., p. 196; 1850 Census, North West Ward, Georgetown, D.C., p. 178b; 1860 Census, Ward 4, Georgetown, D. C., p. 167-8; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 504B.

Snowden

Maria Snowden was born in Georgetown, circa 1800, and appears on the same census page as Elizabeth Duffy in 1830. The censuses of 1840 and 1850 also place her in Bryantown. She was succeeded in her house at the northern end of 35th Street by James Snowden, common laborer, and his wife Louisa. (In 1874 James Snowden is listed at “Fayette nr High,” and his son Abraham at “Fayette nr 8th.” Two years later both are at “Fayette ab 8th.”)

1830 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 197; 1840 Census, Georgetown, Georgetown, D. C., p. 185; 1850 Census, North West Ward, Georgetown, D. C., p. 177a; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 506B.

Before moving to the house at the top of Fayette Street, Moses Snowden lived with Jane Eliza Johnson at 29 5th (Q) Street, between Frederick and Market Streets. She was at the time still the wife of Charles Johnson, whom she married in 1859, while both were still enslaved in Fairfax County. In 1862 the couple had fled to the District of Columbia, where Johnson had enlisted in the Union army, and was sent to Texas as a cavalryman. When Johnson killed his wife in 1872 the story made the papers for several months. The directories of 1874 and 1876 show Moses Snowden at “Fayette nr Back,” and “Fayette ab 8th.” There were no Snowdens in Bryantown by 1880, when the directory lists “Snowden Moses, driver, Valley nr West,” (i. e. 32nd and P). That year the census enumerator found him in jail. He died in 1885. “Moses Snowden, a well-known colored man, living on R street, dropped dead last night near his residence from causes unknown.”

“The City,” The Critic, September 30, 1872, p. 3; “On Trial For His Life,” Evening Star, October 25, 1872, p. 4; “Death By The Law,” Evening Star, December 10, 1872, p. 4; “Affairs in West Washington,” Evening Star, April 10, 1885, p. 2; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 551B; 1880 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 136D, ED 076.

Daggs

Jacob Daggs was a laborer, born in Virginia circa 1800. In 1840 he was the head of a seven-person Free Colored household in Georgetown near Leonard Mackall. By 1850 he was living in Washington City. Directories of 1858 and 1860 list Maundeville Daggs, (col.) laborer, and James M. Diggs (col’d) boatman, at 43 7th Street in Georgetown. In 1870, James N. Daggs, “fireman steamboat,” and wife Martha live at the eastern end of Georgetown. Between 1875 and 1881, William H. Daggs, laborer, and his wife Louisa, keeping house, and their three children, lived on Back Street, “nr Madison” or “nr 36th.” The 1874 directory lists “Daggs Sarah, washing, 6th nr Market.”

1840 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 185; 1850 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 257B; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 603A; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 214A, ED 009.

Chandler

Adolphus Hall’s brother-in-law, Henry Chandler––laborer, born Georgetown in about 1813, with real estate worth $400––and his wife Mary appear in the 1840 and 1850 censuses. Like his sister, Chandler was a Catholic and rented a pew at Holy Trinity Church. The 1860 census lists Henry and his son William as hucksters, and they live at 291 High Street, next-door to Adolphus Hall. When “Mary, the only daughter of Henry and the late Mary Chandler,” died in 1872, the funeral was “from the residence of her aunt, Mrs. Adolphus Hall, No. 295 High street.” The 1874 directory lists “Chandler Henry, candy, 289 High.” When Henry Chandler died intestate in 1881, his heirs “William Chandler et al” were sued by a creditor, and his land at (what was now numbered) “2048, 2050, 2052, and 2054 Thirty-Second (or High) Street,” improved by four frame dwellings and a shop, was ordered to be sold.

“Died,” National Republican, December 24, 1872, p. 3; “Trustee’s Sale,” Evening Star, September 22, 1876, p. 4; “Chancery Sale,” Evening Star, April 13, 1882, p. 4; 1840 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 175; 1850 Census, North West Ward, Georgetown, D.C., p. 178a; 1860 Census, Georgetown Ward 4, D. C., p. 165; Pew Rent Records, Holy Trinity Church Archive.

Henry Chandler’s older brother Hillery was born Georgetown in 1811. The 1870 census says he “Works In Treas Dept,” and the directory shows “Chandler Hileary [c] lab” boarding on 6th Street (Dent Place). (The census shows him in the household of Darcus Hall––“Porter In Stone,” with personal estate worth $100, and real estate worth $300––who may have been a brother of Adolphus Hall.) While the 1872 directory shows Chandler at 219 Fayette Street, the 1874 directory lists “Chandler Hilleary, mess” [i.e., messenger] at 295 High Street. He served on the finance committee of the Georgetown Republicans in 1872 and was a Republican convention delegate in 1876. Hillary Chandler, who rented a pew at Holy Trinity Church, was buried at Holy Rood Cemetery in 1878.

“Georgetown Affairs,” National Republican, August 29, 1872, p. 5; “The Cincinnati and Nashville Conventions,” Evening Star, March 25, 1876, p. 5; Helary Chandler, 1840 Census, Georgetown, D. C. p. [?]; 1850 Census, North West Ward, Georgetown D. C., p. 169a; Dorcas Hall, 1860 Census, Georgetown Ward 4, Washington, D. C., p. 165; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 507A; Holy Trinity Church Archive.

Blackman

William Blackman, a shoemaker by trade, was born in Pennsylvania circa 1806, and was in Georgetown by 1830, and started a family a few years after that. Later evidence shows that Blackman was affiliated with the newly founded Methodist Protestant denomination. “A Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Sacred Music, by the different Church Choirs of Georgetown, under the direction of Mr. Blackman … will take place … at the Methodist Protestant Church, on Congress street. The proceeds to be appropriated to the reduction of the debt due on the property of the Methodist Protestant Church.” Judging by the 1850 census, in which his wife Mary Ann is only nine years older than her oldest son Thomas, she is his second wife. In 1880, at age 74, William Blackman retired and moved to 216 Fayette Street with his wife Mary (39), and their four remaining daughters. In 1881, 216 Fayette Street, which was just north of where the Fillmore School was built in 1893, became 2049 35th Street.

“Concert of Sacred Music,” Georgetown Advocate, February 26, 1842, p. 3; 1830 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 149; 1840 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 175; 1850 Census, North West Ward, Georgetown, D. C., p. 160a; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p, 210B, ED 009.

Blackman’s death notice appeared in 1886. “William Blackman died yesterday afternoon at his residence on 34th street, in the 88th year of his age, after a lingering illness. The funeral will take place to-morrow afternoon from Mt. Tabor church. The remains to be interred at Congressional Cemetery. The deceased was the oldest Methodist Protestant in this place, and one of the oldest inhabitants.” Blackman’s daughter Anna, now a music teacher, and her sisters, made the social notes in 1895. “A very pleasant musicale was enjoyed last evening at the residence of the Misses Blackman, on 35th street. A feature of the evening were the selections of the Orchestra Club, under the direction of Charles Haydn Chase. There were various vocal and instrumental numbers. After the musical program refreshments were enjoyed, the table being prettily decorated with roses and chrysanthemums.” The last news of Blackman’s widow is in 1896. “Rev. F. S. Cain of Anne Arundel county. Md., is in Washington for the Christian Endeavor convention, and will be the guest of Mrs. William Blackman of 2049 35th street.”

“Death of an Old Inhabitant,” Evening Star, September 28, 1886, p. 5; “Pleasant Musicale,” Evening Star, November 9, 1895, p. 7; “Affairs In Georgetown,” Evening Star, July 8, 1896, p. 8.

William and Mary Ann Blackman’s oldest son was also a shoemaker. Just before the Civil War the census shows Thomas S. Blackman, his wife Sarah, and an infant son, and the directory lists him at 360 High Street, a little above the tannery. After the war, Blackman set about building a house of his own, and secured approval “to erect a frame dwelling house on Back street, west of High, near the corporation limits.” But Georgetown’s approval came with a curious caveat: “said Thomas Blackman shall remove said house and otherwise place said portion of said street in as good condition as when first occupied by him whenever required so to do by the Corporate authorities.” (The implication appears to be that the house could be built in an unused portion of the right of way as long as the city had no other plans for it.) In 1872, Blackman and his wife mourned the loss of twins. “In Georgetown, on the 17th inst., John D. and Henry A., infant sons of Thomas S. and Sarah A Blackman, aged 3 months and 6 days.” By 1880, the oldest children of the nine-person household are working: Samuel, age 20, butcher; Laura, 14, dressmaking.

“Affairs in Georgetown,” Evening Star, September 14, 1866, p. 3; “Georgetown Corporation Affairs,” Evening Star, September 28, 1866, p. 4; “Georgetown Items,” Evening Union, October 13, 1866, p. 3; “Died,” National Republican, June 19, 1872, p. 3; 1860 Census, Ward 2, Georgetown, D. C., p. 98; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 504B; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 213D, ED 009.

During the two decades the Blackmans lived there, directories listed the same location in various ways: “High n Back” (1867); “Madison c Back” (1878); “Madison nr Back” (1881); and “Madison nr 35th nw” (1883). In 1884, Thomas Blackman (and three of his sons in the butcher trade) are listed at “V nr 35th nw” ––an address that seems to herald the incorporation of Georgetown street names into the District’s alphabetic grid. This is confirmed by the 1887 Hopkins real estate map, which reveals the intention to extend the old Madison Street to intersect with 37th Street (and shows several structures in the bed of Back Street). Time ran out in 1888: “T. S. Blackman to W. H. Manogue, property near Holyrood Cemetery; $––.” Blackman moved to (what is now) 3318 Reservoir Road. In 1892 he was at 3326 M Street. After which, there is no record until 1910, when he was living in Burleith with his son. He died two years later. “Departed this life March 11, at the residence of his son, Edgar C. Blackman, 3537 S street northwest, Thomas S., beloved husband of the late Sarah A. Blackman, in his eightieth year.”

“Transfers of Real Estate,” Evening Star, April 25, 1888, p. 5; “Died,” Evening Star, March 12, 1912, p. 8; 1910 Census, Precinct 7, Washington, D. C., p. 13a, ED 0129.

A grandson of the shoemaker William Blackman was married in 1895. “A quiet, pretty wedding took place last night … the contracting parties being Mr, Edgar C. Blackman and Miss Dora Ballenger, both of Georgetown, the Rev. Dr. Lewis of Mt. Tabor M. P. Church officiated.” In 1909 the couple built one of the first houses in Burleith. “Edgar C. Blackman, of 1677 Wisconsin avenue, is having plans and specifications prepared for the erection of a two-story frame dwelling on V street northwest, between Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth streets. R. T. McMullen is the architect.” Edgar C. Blackman’s obituary ascribed his death to heart disease, but his widow went to court. “Dora Serena Blackman, 3537 S street, has been awarded $10,000 damages against Howard Etchison for the death of her husband, Edgar C. Blackman, May 8, 1926. Etchison was erecting an apartment at 600 Twentieth street when Blackman went to take measurements for stonework, and while he was so engaged he was struck by a descending elevator. He is survived by his widow and five children. Etchison failed to answer the suit and the jury assessed the limit of the law against him.” Blackman’s funeral was at Mt Tabor Church. His widow Dora died “at her residence, 3537 S st. n.w.” in 1947.

“Weddings,” Evening Star, December 12, 1895, p. 5; “Real Estate Transfers,” Evening Star, November 2, 1905, p. 15; “Edgar C. Blackman,” Washington Times, February 2, 1909, p. 3; “Building Permits Issued,” Evening Star, March 25, 1909, p. 21; “Edgar Blackman Dies At Lyon Park Home,” Evening Star, May 10, 1926, p. 12; “Widow Wins $10,000 Damages,” Evening Star, December 22, 1927, p. 40; “Blackman, Dora Serena,” Evening Star, August 18, 1947, p. 11; 1910 Census, Precinct 7, Washington, D. C., p. 13a, ED 0129; 1920 Census Place, Washington, D. C., p. 7B, ED 163.

Heiss

Andrew Heiss, butcher, born circa 1828 in Wurttemberg, was in Georgetown by 1850 census shows him and his (American-born) wife Martha Ann, next-door to Henry Ridgely. Ten years later they and two children were living opposite St. Alban’s Church on Tennallytown Road. Andrew Heiss died in 1873 and was buried in Holy Rood Cemetery. When their daughter Mary married butcher John F. Warner in 1886, Andrew’s widow moved in with them at 1913 35th Street. In 1900, Martha Heiss, 79, was the head of household, which included Warner, 50, and her grandson Lewis A. Heiss 21, both butchers. By 1901, Seventh Street was known as T Street. “Thirty-fifth and T streets northwest––Charles C. Myers to Mary A. Warner, part of lot 203, square 1294: $10.” “Martha Ann, wife of the late Andrew Heiss,” died in 1907. “Funeral from her late residence, 1913 35th street northwest.” Her real estate was devised to her two surviving children, one of whom bought out the other. “Thirty-fifth Street Northwest between T and U streets––Michael E. He[i]ss to Mary A. Warner, south half of lot 207, square east of 1296; $1,150.” After John F. Warner died in 1918 his widow lived on past 1920 at 1913 35th Street.

“Marriage Licenses,” Evening Star, February 8, 1886, p. 4; “Real Estate Transfers,” Evening Star, July 13, 1901, p. 3; “General and Personal News of Georgetown,” Evening Star, June 27, 1907, p. 12; “Will Filed For Probate,” Evening Star, July 5, 1907, p. 16; “Real Estate Transfers,” Evening Star, July 24, 1912, p. 13; “Died,” Evening Star, , October 9, 1918, p. 7; “Mrs. Mary A. Warner,” Washington Times, November 3, 1936, p. 29; Andrew Hice, 1850 Census, Georgetown N.W. Ward, Washington, D.C., p. 179a; 1860 Census, Ward 4, Washington, D.C., p. 16; Andrew Heys, 1870 Census, West Part, Washington, D.C., p. 777b; Martha Heiss, 1880 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 15B, ED 001; 1900 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 20 ED 0019; Mary A. Warner, 1920 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 9A, ED 156.

The 1860 the census shows a butcher from Wurttemberg named Lewis Heiss, 28, living in the house of Frederick Luci, adjacent to the Catholic burial ground. (Lewis, who is almost certainly a younger brother of Andrew, appears to have immigrated later than his brother: the 1910 census says it was in 1857.) In 1867 “Heiss Lewis, butcher, Gtn mkt,” resided on “22d west,” and later directories say the house number was 1400. He died in 1912. “Mrs. Mary Heiss, 83 years old, widow of Louis Heiss, Georgetown butcher,” died in 1926.

“Died,” Evening Star, June 25, 1912, p. 7; “Widow, Resident of Georgetown All Her Life,” Evening Star, October 8, 1926, p. 10; 1860 Census, Ward 4, Georgetown  D. C., p. 168; 1870 Census, Ward 1, Washington, D. C., p. 207A; 1880 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 85B, ED 016; 1910 Census, Precinct 3, Washington, D. C., p. 8B, ED 0045.

Chamberlain

“James Chamberland,” born 1804, is described as “hired on a farm” in the 1850 census. He and his wife Louisa have seven children. In 1855 he secured a contract to be a night scavenger for Georgetown. The 1858 Georgetown directory lists “Chamberlin James, huckster, h. 27 Seventh.” The 1871 directory shows him at 49 7th. By 1880, James Chamberlain was a widower living with his son’s family, at 55 7th Street (3408 Reservoir Road). His son, James H. Chamberlain (36), who had started in life as a huckster like his father, now “works in store,” and had his eye on moving up.

“Georgetown Correspondence,” Evening Star, April 3, 1855, p. 2; 1850 census, North West Ward, Georgetown, D.C., p. 175b; 1860 Census, Ward 4, Georgetown, D. C., p. Page: 190; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 511B; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 207D, ED 009.

In 1885, James H. Chamberlain bought property at what is now 1637 35th Street––“J. W. Metz to J. H. Chamberlain, pt. 195, T’s addition to Georgetown; $350” ––and made plans to build a new house around the corner from his old one. “Permits were issued today to J. H. Chamberlain to build a two-story brick building at No. 1807 35th street northwest, at a cost of $1,200.” His father died there the following year. “Mr. James Chamberlain, a well-known citizen, died at his residence on 35th street.” The son––who was by then the long-time proprietor of a grocery at what is now 1434 Wisconsin Avenue––died in 1910. “James H. Chamberlain, for forty years a merchant of Georgetown … at his home, 1807 35th street … of a lingering illness.” His funeral was at Mount Tabor M. P. Church, where he had for years been a trustee and steward. His widow Louisa, with whom he had raised eight children, lived on at 1807 until about 1917. As late as 1915, Charles J. Chamberlain, a carpenter, his wife Margaret, and two great-grandsons of the huckster William Chamberlain, were still living at 3408 Reservoir Road.

“Transfers of Real Estate,” Evening Star, July 22, 1885, p. 7; “Building Permits,” Evening Star, February 20, 1888, p. 4; “Georgetown,”Evening Star, July 15, 1889, p. 3; “J. H. Chamberlain Dead,” Evening Star, October 15, 1910, p. 6; 1900 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 18, ED 0019; 1910 Census, Precinct 7, Washington, D. C., p. 11b, ED 0131.

Adolphus Hall

In the 1850 census, Adolphus and Mary (Shipley) Hall have two daughters. The 1860 directory lists “Hall Adolphus (col’d), stevedore, h 293 High” (at about 1824 Wisconsin Avenue). In 1867 “Hall Adolphus, (c) porter” lives further south, on Dent Place near 34th, but by 1871 he is at 291 High Street. Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Hall’s name began to appear in the press as a leading Georgetown Republican. In 1868 he was appointed an election judge, and the following year he was elected president of the Georgetown Republican Club. When the territorial government was formed in 1871, Hall was nominated by President Grant for one of eleven appointments to the District Council. At about this time Hall finished paying for the land on High Street: “Joseph Weaver to Adolphus Hall, part of lot 249, Beatty and Hawkins’ subdivision; $–––.” (While the 1877 directory lists “Hall Adolphus, grocer, 295 High,” a year later he is shown at 291, where the 1880 census found him as well. (There were four houses on the property, one of which, at 289 High Street, was occupied by Hall’s brother-in-law, Henry Chandler.) In 1880 Hall is again listed as a Stevedore (but “months not employed––12.”) By 1883, “Hall Adolphus, lab” was living at 3616 P Street, which is where he died in 1892. “Mr. Adolphus Hall, a colored citizen, who was treasurer of the District under Governor Cooke, and a member of the District legislature, died Friday afternoon in the seventy-sixth year of his age. On account of his worth as a citizen and his conscientiousness while a public servant Mr. Hall was highly respected by all.” The funeral was from the First Baptist Church, Georgetown. His widow Mary Jane, who moved in with her widowed daughter, Josephine Sharps, and her nephews Richard and William Chandler, in a five-room frame house at 1717 34th Street. She died in 1902. “Requiem at Holy Trinity Church, Georgetown.”

“Local News. Negro Suffrage in the District. A Colored Convention,” Evening Star, July 28, 1865, p. 2; “Judges Of Election For Georgetown,” Daily Morning Chronicle, January 29, 1868, p. 4; “Georgetown Republican Club,” Daily Morning Chronicle, August 28, 1869, p. 4; “Confirmed,” Evening Star, April 17, 1871, p. 2; “Real Estate Transfers,” National Republican, October 16, 1872, p. 4; “Died,” Evening Star, February 27, 1883, p. 3; “Died,” Evening Star, October 8, 1892, p. 5; “Georgetown. Death of Adolphus Hall,” Evening Star, October 10, 1892, p. 7; “Died,” Evening Star, September 22, 1902, p. 6; “Requiem Mass for Mrs. Mary J. Hall,” Washington Times, September 24, 1902, p. 5; “Houses For Colored Tenants,” Evening Star, May 26, 1913, p. 13; 1840 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 171; 1850 Census, Georgetown North West Ward, Washington, D. C., p. 174a; 1880 Census, Georgetown, Washington, D. C., p. 188A; 1900 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 15, ED 0019.

Carroll

Dennis Carroll, stone quarrier, born in D. C. about 1810, his wife Matilda and two daughters first appear in the 1850 census. Their address in 1860 was “Frederick, nr 7th.” His address was still 156 Frederick Street in 1879, but a year later the census found him at (what is now) Q Street, where he still lived in 1902. “Dennis Carroll, colored, ninety-four years old, was found sick last evening at the Cleveland Park waiting station of the Chevy Chase electric line, on Connecticut avenue extended. He was taken to his home, 3339 R street northwest, by the patrol wagon of the seventh precinct police station.” Dennis Carroll died at 3339 Q Street in 1907.

“Georgetown,” Evening Star, November 3, 1879, p. 5; “Affairs in Georgetown,” Evening Star, May 27, 1902, p. 11; “Death Record. Colored,” Washington Herald, February 16, 1907, p. 10; 1850 Census, Georgetown, North West Ward, Washington, D. C., p. 177A; 1860 Census, Georgetown Ward 4, Washington, D. C., p. 165; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 508B; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 205D, ED 009.

Burrows

Basil M. Burrows, born circa 1835, was the son of Basil Burrows, a free Black farmer in the vicinity of Potomc, Maryland, and his wife Verlinda. By 1859 he was employed as a street paver in Georgetown, and he also sold produce; the 1860 directory lists “Burrows, Brazil, huckster, Georgetown market, h 53 7th.” Married in 1864, the couple lived at about what is now 3418 Reservoir Road. The 1867 directory shows “Burrows, Basil M. paver, 49 7th.” It was in his capacity as paver that Burrows made the news. “Exhumed––On Fifth street, between Frederick and Market, where Mr. Basil M. Burroughs, street paver, was digging up the ground for the purpose of setting a curbstone, he came across a quantity of human remains about 16 inches below the surface of the street.” The next time his name appeared in the press was in 1871 “Burrows. ––On Monday, December 4, at 4 p. m., Basil M. Burrows, aged 48 years.” The 1874 directory lists “Burrows Elizabeth, wid Basil M, 47 7th.” She died in 1885. “Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Burrows, relict of the late Basil Burrows, died at her residence, No. 3416 T street, early this morning in the 57th year of her age, of inflammation of the stomach. The funeral will take place Sunday afternoon. Interment at Oak Hill Cemetery.”

“Affairs In Georgetown,” Evening Star, September 28, 1867, p. 4; “Died,” Daily Critic, December 6, 1871, p. 2; “West Washington,” Daily Critic, June 12, 1885, p. 4; 1850 Census, Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland, p. 383b; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 207D, ED 009.

Kent

The 1850 census shows Moses Kent, whitewasher, born Georgetown circa 1800 and wife Retta. (The 1860 census gives her name as Lauretta.) The 1858 directory lists “Kent Moses, (col.) huckster, h. 11 7th.” As a Huckster in the Georgetown market, he was fined for “forestalling the market” in 1863. He is listed as a laborer in 1874, living at 200 Madison Street, but the 1878 directory prefers “Madison nr Fayette, Gtn.” Kent is in Freedmen’s Hospital by 1880, suffering from chronic rheumatism. “Moses Kent, a well known colored man of this place, 75 years of age, living at 3338 Q street, was sent to the hospital yesterday through the sanitary office of the police department.”

“Local News,” Evening Star, Jul 28, 1863, p. 2; “West Washington,” National Republican, May 26, 1883, p. 4; 1850 Census, North West Ward, Georgetown, D. C., p. 175B; 1860 Census, Georgetown Ward 4, Washington, D. C., p. 190; 1870 Census, West Part, Washington, D. C., p. 785A; 1880 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 99B, ED 004.

Section 3: 1850-1870

Whalen                        7th                               1850

Hess                            8th                               1850

Schott                          8th                               1860

Pope                            8th                               1867

Ross                            7th                               1867

Thomas                       7th                               1862

Matthews                    7th                               1870

Smackum                    4th                               1867

Whalen

In 1850, William Whalen, born Maryland 1810, and in Georgetown by 1840, was a widower with six children. The 1853 directory shows 1853 “Whalen, _____, w side Fayette, north new cut road, Georgetown,” and the 1860 directory lists “Whelan, William, tanner, h. 203 Fayette.” In 1860, “Whalen, Henry, huckster, h 46 6th,” may may have been a son. In 1870 Henry Whelan, who had a stand at the Western market, had real estate worth $2,000, and lived at “7th cor Fayette.” That year “Henry T. Wayland” bought a two-story frame house on the east side of 35th, just below Reservoir.  He sold in 1878. “Henry Whalen to H. T. Burroughs, part of lot 199, Threlkeld’s addition to Georgetown: $1,000.” William Whalen, possibly a brother, is listed in 1870 as a bricklayer, at 164 7th Street. In 1880 the census shows him at 5 7th Street (“Works At Coal Company”). In 1900 he is a huckster living at 2017 35th Street.

William Whaling 1850 Census, North West Ward, Georgetown, D. C., p. 177a; 1860 Census, Ward 4, Georgetown, D. C., p. 170, 172; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., pp. 506B, 511A; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 206B, ED 009; 1900 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 21, ED 0019; “Deeds In Fee,” Evening Star, June 27, 1878, p. 4.

 

Hess

John Hess, and his brothers George and Paul (later Americanized as Powell), immigrated from Germany circa 1834; John and his Catherine Hess were in Georgetown by 1837. Although the 1850 census lists him as a laborer, he is building on land sold to him by Richard S. Cox at what is now 1665 35th Street. “The subscriber offers for sale his new two story Frame House, situated at the north east corner of Fayette and Seventh Streets… in an improving part of the town.” He did not find a buyer; the 1853 directory lists him as a tanner living at the corner of “new cut road and Fayette.” By 1855 he had secured an appointment to oversee the collection of “night soil” from the privies of Georgetown, and its removal to an authorized dump at far end of town. (In earlier years, the Georgetown Advocate observed, it was more often taken “to the nearest place of deposit, which in Georgetown may happen to be either the river, creek, or canal.”) “All Persons Desiring the services of the Georgetown Night Scavenger, will be promptly attended to by dropping a note in the box at the office of the Clerk of the Market, or my house, naming street and number of house, as well as their own name. ––John Hess.” 

“Messrs. Editors,” Georgetown Advocate, June 18, 1842, p. 3; “A Public Concern,” Georgetown Advocate, October 15, 1842, p. 2; “Georgetown Corporation,” Georgetown Advocate, April 28, 1846, p. 1; “House For Sale,” Georgetown Advocate, August 7, 1852, p. 2; “Georgetown Correspondence,” Evening Star, April 3, 1855, p. 3; “Notice,” Evening Star, March 12, 1857, p. 2; “Suicide,” National Intelligencer, August 22, 1865, p. 3; 1850 Census, Georgetown North West Ward, Washington, D. C., p. 176a; 1860 Census, Georgetown Ward 4, Washington, D. C., p. 171.

Because the Night Scavenger was the only person permitted to charge for this service, competition for the contract was spirited. Hess, who held the contract for the better part of a decade, petitioned for the privilege to remove night soil for an additional ten years. (Like his counterparts in Washington City who were asking for the same privilege, he may have intended to supply a factory that made poudrette, a fertilizer made of night soil, charcoal, and gypsum.) Hess was not re-appointed. The 1880 census found John and Catherine Hess on their farm on Conduit Road (although the 1880 directory still shows Catherine at 147 Frederick Street). When they died, in 1887 and 1890, respectively, their children and grandchildren lived at four addresses in Bryantown.

“Georgetown Correspondence,” National Republican, January 29, 1861, p. 4; “Important Report. Sanitary Condition of the City,” National Republican, May 21, 1863, p. 1; “Georgetown Matters,” National Republican, May 31, 1867, p. 3; “Local News,” Evening Star, June 25, 1867, p. 1; “The Night Soil Question,” Evening Star, July 27, 1867, p. 2; “Corporation Affairs,” Evening Star, September 10, 1867, p. 1; “Died,” Evening Star, June 10, 1887, p. 3; “Georgetown,” Evening Star, July 23, 1890, p. 3; 1870 Census, West Part, Washington, D. C.,  p. 782A; 1880 Census Place: Washington,, D. C., p. 13A, ED 001. 

John and Catherine Hess sold part of lot 203 in Threlkeld’s addition to Seth Schell in 1869. In 1878, Seth and Mary Jane Schell sold to Thomas Muntz. In the 1874 directory, Thomas Muntz, a blacksmith, lived at “Fayette nr 7th,” and in 1880 his address was 176 Fayette. Although censuses say he was English, frequent mentions of his name in connection with celebrations of St. Patrick suggest that he was of Irish extraction. By 1887 his wife Mary, who was Irish, ran a grocery store at the corner of 35th and Reservoir Road. The land on which the Hess house at the corner stood (which had seen the construction of 3427 Reservoir Road circa 1870) also had room at the north for the house Muntz built in 1896 at 1667 35th Street. In 1896, Mary Muntz divided the west of lot 203 into lots 41 and 42 of square 1294. By 1898 members of the Muntz family were listed at 1900, 1901, 1905, and 1907 35th Street. Thomas Muntz died at 1905 35th Street in 1904. His widow Mary died there in twenty years later.

“Affairs In West Washington,” Evening Star, January 12, 1887; “Some Improvements,” Evening Star, December 19, 1896, p. 12; “Affairs In Georgetown,” Evening Star, March 7, 1904, p. 4; “Deaths,” Evening Star, August 7, 1924, p. 8; DC Liber D8 (1869) f. 240; DC Liber 889 (1878) f. 342; 1880 Census, Georgetown, Washington, D. C., p. 45C, ED 014.

John Hess, Jr.

According to his obituary, John and Catherine’s oldest child was born before his parents arrived in America. The 1853 directory lists the younger John Hess as a laborer, living “n side 7 btw Frederick and Fayette, Georgetown.” Hess, who worked as a street paver all his life, changed addresses more than once. While the 1880 directory shows him living with his daughter Sarah at 198 Fayette Street, the 1880 census has the entire family living on F Street SW. In 1887 Hess’s house was numbered 1812 34th Street, near the northern end of the street. (In 1904 it was listed among “Some Home Bargains in Georgetown for thrifty colored people.”) 

“Died,” Evening Star, June 21, 1889, p. 6; “Georgetown Real Estate,” Evening Star, July 14, 1904, p. 20; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 527A; 1880 Census Washington, D. C., p. 175B, ED 078.

George A. Hess

John’s brother George enlisted in the 5th U.S. Cavalry and served from Bull Run to Appomattox. He was wounded at Gaines’ Mill in 1862, and married Elizabeth while on furlough in 1863. After the war he began a 34-year career in the Metropolitan police. Seventeen children came into the world at 160 Frederick Street, where they celebrated their golden anniversary in 1913. “George A. Hess, a former mounted police sergeant of police died at his residence, 1827 34th street” in 1918.

“Georgetown,” Evening Star, July13, 1891, p. 9; “Condition of Mr. Hess,” Washington Times, May 05, 1902, p. 5; “Golden Wedding,” Washington Times, September 27, 1913, p. 19; “George A. Hess Dies At Home In The City,” Evening Star, October 28, 1918, p. 18; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 191D, ED 009.

Thomas Powell Hess

Dismissed from the Metropolitan police in 1870, George’s younger brother became a building contractor. The 1875 directory lists “Hess, T. Powell, carp, Fayette nr 7th.” The 1880 directory has “Hess, Powell T, carp, 178 Fayette” (which directories after 1887 list as 1911 35th Street). Hess died in 1889; his widow Alice lived on at that address until 1921. Their son Maurice was still there in 1931, by which time the house had its present numbering, 1675 35th. In 1936 Maurice and Hilda Hess built two houses on family land at 3417 and 3419 Reservoir Road.) Hilda Hess died at 3417 Reservoir Road in 1964. Another son, William Powell Hess, of the Metropolitan police, purchased a two story frame house, at or near what is now 1639 35th Street, in 1900, and died there in 1928.

“The Board of Metropolitan Police,” Evening Star, October 28, 1870, p. 4; “Real Estate Matters,” National Republican, Aug 25, 1883, p. 7; “Affairs in West Washington,” Evening Star, February 5, 1887, p. 9; “Died,” Evening Star, November 30, 1889, p. 5; “ Georgetown,” Evening Star, December 2, 1889, p. 9; “Real Estate Transactions,” Evening Star, February 9, 1900, p. 16; “Died,” Evening Star, Oct 24, 1921, p. 8; “Lieut. Hess, Police Veteran, Expires,” Evening Star, December 24, 1928, p. 10; “Plumbing and Heating,” Washington Times, Jun 26, 1931, p. 36; “Maurice Hess Rites Set For Tomorrow,” Evening Star, January 2, 1947, p. 2; “Two New Georgetown Houses,” Evening Star, November 16, 1936, p. 39; “Deaths,” Evening Star, November 16, 1964, p. 23. 

Schott 

1710 35th Street

The house that appears on the Boschke map across the street from Duffy’s Cottage was fairly new when it was advertised in early 1859. “We will sell, on the premises, on Fayette street, opposite 8th, (first lot north of the Cedars,) the new Frame Dwelling lately erected by A. Schedd, Esq. The House is built in the best style; contains 11 rooms; is very convenient. The grounds are ornamented with choice fruit trees and flowers, and command a beautiful view of Washington ant the Potomac shores. The property is only sold because the proprietor has removed from the District.” The advertiser––the actual seller appears to have been William Hunter, Jr. (1805–1886), who lived on N Street––was Andrew Schad, listed in 1858 as “prof of music, h. Fayette nr 8th.” Schad, who had been the organist of the Protestant Episcopal church in Georgetown, and a music teacher at a female seminary, moved to Baltimore, where––a Southern obituary noted––he was the anonymous author of “a musical composition entitled “Lee’s March,” which the authorities prevented from being published.

“Beautiful Residence On The Heights Of Georgetown At Auction,” Evening Star, April 16, 1859, p. 2; “A Card,” Baltimore Sun, October 15, 1859, p. 1; “Death of Prof, Andrew Schad,” Staunton [Va.] Spectator and Vindicator, August 22, 1882, p. 4. “A. Shod,” 1850 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 211A; William Hunter et ux Sally Hunter to Arthur C. V. Schott, DC Liber JAS186 (1859) f. 16. 

The buyer was another German immigrant who had landed in New York in 1850. Although he held no advanced degrees, Arthur Schott’s qualifications in civil engineering, botany, geology, cartography, and illustration had led to his promptly being hired by the government to collect plant and animal specimens along the Mexican border. In 1854 Schott came east again to work on the three-volume Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey. His daughter Sonora was born in Washington (and the senita cactus, Pachycereus schottii, was named for him) in 1856. In 1858 Schott participated in an expedition to Colombia to survey possible canal routes. (That year he still lived at 104 West Street in Georgetown; in 1860 he is shown in his new house at 191 Fayette Street.) There was apparently no call for his talents during the Civil War, and––aside from a contract with the Mexican government to work in Yucatan 1864-1866––he was unemployed between 1861 and 1870, and had to give lessons in music, mathematics and German to support himself. He was a clerk of the Coast Survey Office when he died in 1875, and his brief obituary did not mention his scientific work. “Dr. Arthur Schott, a well-known professor of German and music, died at his residence on Fayette street on Monday evening, in the sixty-second year of his age.” 

“Shipping News” New York Commercial Advertiser, August 6, 1850, p. 3; “The American Association for the Advancement of Science,” National Intelligencer, April 28, 1854, p. 1; “Georgetown,” Evening Star, July 28, 1875, p. 4; “Personal,” National Republican, July 29, 1875, p. 2; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C.,  p. 507B; Report of the Secretary of War, Communicating, in Compliance With a Resolution of the Senate, Lieutenant Michler’s Report of his Survey for an Interoceanic Ship Canal Near the Isthmus of Darien (1861); Gretchen Gause Fox, “Arthur Schott: German Immigrant Illustrator of the American West”, M.A. thesis, George Washington University, 1977; Paula Rebert, “A Civilian Surveyor on the United States-Mexico Boundary: The Case of Arthur Schott,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 155, No. 4 (2011), pp. 433-462; Alma Durán-Merk and Stephan Merk, “Arthur Schott: A True Renaissance Man in the Americas,” Indiana, vol. 31, 2014, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.

His widow, Augusta Tafel Schott, died at 2010 35th Street in 1901. Her oldest daughter, Sonora Schott, died there in 1908. A daughter, Mellita Schott Benkert, died there in 1921. In 1925, Albert Schott––who had been a gardener at the Botanic Gardens when a German cousin persuaded him to pursue a musical career, and who had returned to Washington after several years as a dramatic tenor in Germany––died in the house where he was born. After his brother Arthur, a pharmacist, died in 1930, the heirs sold the house to Godwin Ordway, a retired Army officer.

“Washington Singers,” Evening Star, November 3, 1890, p. 8; “News From Georgetown,” Evening Times, October 29, 1901, p. 7; “Died,” Evening Star, May 7, 1908, p. 11; “Died,” Evening Star, May 20, 1921, p. 8; “Albert L. Schott Dies, Sang In German Opera. Native of Georgetown, He Sang Abroad, Then Returned Here Before The War,” Evening Star, November 13, 1925, p. 4; “Albert Schott, Noted Tenor, Is Dead,” Washington Times, November 13, 1925, p. 31; “Scott, Arthur C. V.,” Evening Star, May 24, 1930, p. 8; “Col. Ordway, Retired Army Officer and Mining Engineer, Dies,” Evening Star, November 12, 1947, p. 7. 

Alfred Pope

While most of the people in the accounts that follow left only the barest traces of their lives in the available record––and all the more so if they were born into slavery, which took no account of them as people––the outlines of story of Alfred Pope, who came to Georgetown as the property of a retired congressman from South Carolina, can be traced in some detail; his business and political activity after the Civil War, and the standing he achieved in Georgetown as a civic leader, mean that his name often appeared in the press. It also made the press because Pope acquired property. Still other records exist because of the White Georgetowners with whom Pope was connected––and in particular, of the man whose last will and testament freed him. 

John Carter (1792-1850) began his career with a law practice in Camden, South Carolina, where he was elected Commissioner in Equity (a kind of judgeship) in 1814. His wife, Elizabeth Haslett Carter, died in 1820, leaving an infant daughter. Elected to Congress in 1822, he announced his retirement in 1829 and remarried. His second wife was Ellen Marbury, the daughter of William Marbury, of Georgetown. In 1836 the couple took up residence in Georgetown, and Carter disposed of his house, and of the tannery that was the source of his family’s wealth. “For Sale Or Rent… that well known and long established stand for a tan-yard in Camden… that elegant and commodious mansion House on Broad street, known as Lafayette Hall.” In Georgetown, Carter bought a house and eight acres east of Tudor Place, called Peter Grove, and renamed it Carolina Place. (The seller was Carter’s brother-in-law John Marbury, who was David Peter’s trustee.)

“Died,” Camden [S. C.] Gazette, March 2, 1820, p. 2; “Married,” United States Telegraph, February 14, 1829; “For Sale Or Rent,” Camden [S. C.] Commercial Courier, November 11, 1837, p. 4; Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress; Thomas J. Kirkland, Robert MacMillan Kennedy, Historic Camden (1905), pp. 359-360; William A. Gordon, “Old Homes on Georgetown Heights,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Vol. 18 (1915), p. 83. Carolina Place was on R Street, on the eastern half of Square 1282. In 1867 it was sold to Henry D. Cooke and renamed Cooke’s Park.

The twelve-person Carter household included eight slaves; of these, at least two had been brought to the District when Carter left South Carolina: Alfred Pope, born in 1823, and his mother Jedidah, born 1807. There is a plausible account that mother and son had been purchased from Carter’s brother for the benefit of his brother’s wife, who was embarrassed by Alfred’s resemblance to her husband. John Carter certainly treated Pope like a nephew, saw to his education, and made plans for his future. When his recently widowed neighbor, Britannia Peter Kennon, was settling her affairs in 1845, Carter purchased her slave Hannah Cole. The understood purpose of the transaction was so that Hannah could live with Alfred. As later Kennon remembered it, “Hannah, (who belonged to me, of course) married a man belonging to Col. Carter, after which Col. Carter wished to buy her, so I let him have her that she might live with her husband. Alfred Pope and his wife Hannah, still live in Georgetown and a most respected couple they are.” (That Kennon took such an interest in Hannah’s life is amply explained by the tradition among Hannah’s descendants that a member of the Peter family, most likely one of Brittania’s brothers, had been her father.) Alfred and Hannah were married in 1847––according to Pope’s descendant, Carter and Kennon set the couple up in housekeeping––and their first child, Jedidah, arrived the following year. That same year Alfred Pope was one of seventy-seven District of Columbia slaves who participated in a foiled attempt to escape to the North on the schooner Pearl.

John Carter, 1840 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 172; Mary Kay Ricks, Escape On The Pearl (Harper Collins, 2007) pp. 18,109, 353-4, 370: Grant Quartermous, A Georgetown Life: The Reminiscences of Britannia Wellington Peter Kennon (2020), pp. 65n12, 66, 66n13, 70n27, 169n447, 212, 215; Hannah Nash Williams, interview for Black Georgetown Remembered, Georgetown University Special Collections. I am indebted Mark Auslander, author of “Barbara Cole Williams (1809-1892): An Enslaved and Free Resident of Georgetown”; and to Mary Beth Corrigan, author of Servant and Slave Biographies prepared for Tudor Place Historic House and Gardens, Washington D. C. (2003).

Of the recaptured runaways of the Pearl, only Pope had no serious consequences. What Hannah thought of being left behind with an infant is lost to us (although family lore suggests that she may have taken a dim view of her husband’s escape). Likewise unknown is whether Alfred was aware that, according to John Carter’s will, written in 1844, Alfred and his mother, and four others, were to be freed one year after Carter died. What is clear is that Pope’s (possibly impulsive) escape did not cause Carter to change his mind.

“And I do hereby manumit, liberate, set free and discharge from Slavery and every species of Servitude whatsoever, my faithful man Jesse and all his children –– namely Mourning, Martha and Ellen –– and also my woman Jedidah and her son Alfred, their freedom to take effect one year after my decease, and not sooner. And I do hereby hereby direct that my executor hereinafter named, appropriate one thousand dollars of the principle of my estate for the relief of my said Servants, after they shall have been manumitted, and divide the same among them at such time and in such portions as in his judgment he shall think best.”

Three people acquired more recently––“my servant woman Hannah and her children, and my servant man Carlos” ––were freed by a codicil, hastily added in 1850, just a day before he died. (The $1,000 set aside for them––perhaps $30,000 today––did not unduly affect his widow; Ellen Marbury Carter was to receive $1,200 per annum for her yearly maintenenace and support. She died ten years later.)

“Deaths,” National Intelligencer, June 21, 1850, p. 4; “Deaths,” National Intelligencer, April 23, 1860, p. 1; John Carter, DC Wills, box 20 (1850). The will was made November 11, 1844. Codicils were added April 4, 1845, and June 19, 1850.

Nothing is known of the first years of Pope’s freedom until 1861, when his house burned down, and John Marbury wrote to the D. C. Circuit Court to obtain a new copy of Pope’s freedom certificate. “The bearer, Alfred Pope, a coloured man, who will hand you this note was a servant of the late Col. John Carter of this town… By Col. Carter’s will Alfred was set free, [and] is now, with my consent as executor, in the enjoyment of his freedom.” The 1860 the census had found Pope––listed as “Servant,” but with real estate worth $1,500––still living at 78 Montgomery (28th) Street, but after the fire he moved to Bryantown. In 1864, for “$10 per front foot,” he bought a lot fronting 150 feet on Frederick (34th) Street. The 1867 directory listed “Pope, Alfred, (c) driver, Frederick nr High, Gtn.” Already the owner of four frame houses in Georgetown, Pope was now also the landlord of five “two-room frame shanties” at the upper end of 34th Street, on the west side. In 1870 the census shows the Pope family in a cluster of Black households on at the upper end of Frederick Street. Although Pope was listed as just a “common laborer,” his real estate was now worth $3,600. In 1865, when Pope was one of the ten-man Georgetown delegation to a convention to secure “the right of suffrage at the hands of Congress” for the colored men of Washington and Georgetown, the Evening Star had pointed out that the delegates included many who had “acquired considerable property here.” Real estate entitled them to represent their community. In 1867 Mayor Henry Addison– “the White Man’s Ticket––was turned out of office by the election of Charles D. Welch. (When Welch died in 1902, he was remembered as the “First Man Elected in the United States Through the Negro Vote.”) Alfred Pope’s name had begun to appear in connection with the Republican party in 1869, and in the following year he ran––unsuccessfully––for the Georgetown Common Council. In 1871 it was noted that Pope and a few other Black Georgetowners had secured positions in the city government. “Of the lucky ones at the election last night… the following are colored men.” Pope’s appointment was as Night Scavenger, the position once held by John Hess. (Although Pope was the first Black man to hold this city contract, it need hardly be said that the actual work had been done by Black men all along.) How long Pope held this office is unclear: by the end of the year the Georgetown Corporation had made way for the new territorial government of the District of Columbia.) As late as 1876 Pope’s address was still “Frederick street, above Eighth,” but by 1880 he had moved to 99 Green (29th) Street––now 2900 O Street––next door to his wood and coal business. 

“Sale Of Real Estate In Georgetown,” Evening Star, March 10, 1864, p. 2; “Local News. Negro Suffrage In The District,” Evening Star, July 28, 1865, p. 2; “The Georgetown Elections,” Evening Star, February 26, 1867, p. 2. “Georgetown Municipal Campaign,” National Intelligencer, February 17, 1869, p. 3; “Georgetown Central Republican Club,” Daily Morning Chronicle, July 24, 1869, p. 4;“Georgetown Republican Nominees,” Daily Morning Chronicle, February 12, 1870, p.  4; “The Municipal Election,” Evening Star, March 1, 1870, p. 5; “The Georgetown City Councils,” Evening Star, January 3, 1871, p. 3; “The Spoils Divided,” Daily Morning Chronicle, January 3, 1871, p. 4; “Georgetown,” Evening Star, February 16, 1871, p. 5; “The Board Of Health,” National Republican, August 30, 1871, p. 4; “Laws of the District of Columbia,” Daily Critic, September 18, 1871, p. 3; “The New Board Of Colored School Trustees,” Evening Star, March 14, 1873, p. 2“Mount Zion M. E. Church,” National Republican, July 1, 1876, p. 5; “List of Petit Jurors,” Evening Star, October 7, 1876, p. 4; “Former Mayor Of Georgetown Dead,” Evening Times, July 17, 1902, p. 2; Georgetown Assessments, 1865-9; 1860 Census, Georgetown Ward 2, Washington, D. C., p. 70; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 508B; Black Georgetown Remembered, (1991), p. 29; Mary Mitchell, “Black Residential Patterns in Georgetown, 1860-1900,” unpublished manuscript, ca. 1978, Peabody Room, Georgetown Branch Library, p. 9; Certificate of Freedom Registration 2859, June 28, 1861, in Dorothy S. Provine, District of Columbia Free Black Registers (1996).

Much of the eastern half of old square 71 (now 1241) between O and Dumbarton Streets passed through Alfred Pope’s hands in these years. “Releases… Richard P. Jackson to Alfred Pope, parts of lot 125 and 126, Beall’s addition to Georgetown.” A “Two-story brick and frame building, fronting 30 feet on Dumbarton avenue” went to Alfred Pope for $1,290 in 1889. Between 1890 and 1891, Pope built five brick dwellings 1338-1346 29th Street on lot 114. But Pope’s most significant activity was on in connection with Mt. Zion Methodist Church, where he had been a trustee since 1866. In 1875 Pope sold Mt. Zion the site for a new church on 29th Street for $2,581. After the old meeting house burned down in 1880––“Mt. Zion church in Georgetown has been consumed by fire. It was valued at $3000 and had an insurance on it for $2000” ––Pope disposed of the land on Mill (27th) Street and used the proceeds to purchase part of a lot at 2902 O Street. “Thaddeus De Lyons yesterday sold to Alfred Pope for $1,900 the west 30 feet of lot 114, fronting the south side of O street near the corner of 29th.” (The seller was the Black coachman employed by the widow of George Upham Morris, and daughter of Minnesota lumber baron Franklin Steele. Mary Morris lived at what is now 3508 Prospect Street. De Lyons, born in Georgia circa 1860, was still the family coachman in 1910, when Morris lived in her other house on Lafayette Square.) Pope then conveyed to the church for its parsonage. Observers took note of Pope’s role in the transaction. “In view of the fact that property holders in the vicinity of the church were aware of the intention of the trustees to purchase a lot for church purposes, it was thought advisable by the custodian, in order to prevent imposition, to buy the property in his own name.” For a time, Pope also had charge of the congregation’s burials. “All Persons Desiring Lots or Single Graves in Mt. Zion Grave Yard (in Georgetown) must apply to Alfred Pope, 1346 29th st., as no interment will be allowed without permission from the authorized agent. A. Pope.” After reports that a gang of “Resurrectionists,” who robbed graves and sold cadavers to medical schools, had targeted recent burials at Mt. Zion, Alfred Pope, with the aid of “six colored men, armed with guns and revolvers,” drove away three robbers, wounding one.

“Transactions in Real Estate,” Evening Star, July 25, 1877, p. 4; “Local,” People’s Advocate, Jul 17, 1880, p. 3; “Auction Sales of Real Estate,” Evening Star, October15, 1889, p. 3; “Special Notices,” Evening Star, May 8, 1890, p.1; “Resurrectionists Foiled,” Evening Star, January 6, 1891, p. 5; “District Government. Building Permits,” Evening Star, June 5, 1891, p. 3; “Real Estate Matters,” Evening Star, Apr 22, 1893, p. 5; “Church Property,” Evening Star, May 4, 1893, p. 11; “Real Estate Matters,” Evening Star, May 19, 1893, p. 10; “Her Home Might Tumble. Mrs. Morris Objects to the Blasting Going On Near It,” Washington Times, May 14, 1895, p. 5; “Mt. Zion Church,” Evening Star, October 10, 1896, p. 11; “The Rambler,” Evening Star, March 4, 1917, p. 46; “Deaths,” Evening Star, June 26, 1930, p. 10; 1880 Census, Georgetown, Washington, D. C., p. 50A, ED 015; Thaddeus De Lyons, 1910 Census, Precinct 3, Washington, D. C., p. 9A, ED 0057; Pauline Gaskins Mitchell, “The History of Mt. Zion United Methodist Church and Mt. Zion Cemetery,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society (1984), pp. 103-118.

By 1873 Alfred Pope was also on the Board of Colored Schools. Since 1864, Black Georgetown had sent its children to the Mount Zion Freedman’s School––renamed Chamberlain School after the death of its first teacher, Eliza Chamberlain, in 1870––at (what is now) 2512 East Place. When that crowded makeshift was finally replaced in 1885 by the Wormley School at 3325 Prospect Street, Pope objected to its location. “Today a delegation of prominent colored men from Georgetown, composed in part of Messrs. Collins Crusor, Alfred Pope, Rev. Wm. Brown and Henry Bowles, waited on the Commissioners to still further protest against the erection of the school for colored children on Prospect avenue, and ask that it be located in a more central place with reference to the colored population of that city.” Pope got a colored school on 28th Street a few years later and appears to have been ready to accept that the Wormley School would be turned over to white use––but was successfully opposed by William H. Lee and others, who pointed out that Congress had intended it to be for colored children, and that the Commissioners did not have the authority to change that.

“Colored Schools,” Evening Star, December 29, 1865, p. 3; “Death Of A School Teacher,” Daily Morning Chronicle, June 24, 1870, p. 4; “The Colored School Trustees,” Evening Star, August 11, 1870, p. 4; “The New Board of Colored School Trustees,” Evening Star, March 14, 1873, p. 2; “District Government Affairs,” Evening Star, January 14, 1885, p. 2; “Wormley School,” Washington Bee, April 4, 1885, p. 3; “Georgetown. The Colored School Site,” Evening Star, February 1, 1889, p. 3; “Objecting To A Change,” Evening Star, February 7, 1889, p. 8; “Georgetown. The New Public School Building,” Evening Star, September 20, 1889, p. 3; Lesko, Kathleen M., Valerie Babb, Carroll R. Gibbs, Black Georgetown Remembered (2016), pp. 28-30; The Black Washingtonians: The Anacostia Museum Illustrated Chronology (2005), p. 39.

Toward the end of the century, Alfred and Hannah Pope’s grown daughters’ vacations made the social pages of the Washington Bee . “Washington society is well-represented here, among whom are … Mrs. B. K. Bruce … the Misses Barbara and M. Louise Pope, and Miss Medora Barker of Georgetown, D. C.” “Miss Lulu Pope, of Georgetown, has returned to the city after a pleasant vacation of six weeks at Silcott Springs, Loudon County, Va.” “Last Saturday a party from Silcott Springs composed of Miss Dora Barker, Misses Barbara and Louisa Pope, Rachel Lee… took a twelve mile trip to the Shenandoah river … viewed the rare scenery of Loudon with delight.” That high hopes were held for them is clear. “What The Bee Would Like to See.––A colored judge in one branch of the Police Court … Misses Pope great journalists … The Bee a daily paper and the editor a millionaire.” But, because their father was in the public eye, it was just as often his rebellious son who made the news. After William Pope, convicted of manslaughter in 1880, got out of Albany Penitentiary five years later, a late-night exchange of words with Gen. Augur on the sidewalk in front of the retired officer’s house at 2732 Dumbarton Street, which culminated in Augur striking Pope with his cane, and Pope shooting four shots into the general’s legs, led to another three years in Albany. (The Albany Peniteniary was awarded the contract to take District of Columbia convicts in 1862.) The “a son of a well-known colored resident,” arrested in Georgetown for disorderly conduct in 1896. By the terms of his father’s 1908 will, Pope could live in a house bequeathed to his sister Martha, at 1338 29th Street––or, if he did not choose to occupy it, to have the rent from it. William T. Pope died in 1911.

“Georgetown,” Evening Star, September 1, 1879, p. 5; “Rambles Around Town,” People’s Advocate, September 6, 1879, p. 3; “The Pope-Butler Homicide,” National Republican, Nov 11-12, 1880, p. 5; “Pope Convicted of Manslaughter,” National Republican, Nov 17, 1880, p. 5; “Minor Local Events,” National Republican, March 9, 1885, p.  5; “General Augur Shot,” Daily Critic, August 16, 1886, p. 3; “The Shooting of Gen. Augur,” Evening Star, November 17, 1886, p. 4; “Pope Gets Three Years,” Daily Critic, Nov 27, 1886, p. 4; “An Old Offender,” Critic and Record, October 29, 1890, p. 4; “William Pope Again,” Evening Star, December 25, 1893, p. 8; “Had Excitement,” Evening Star, December 25, 1893, p. 8; “The Week In Society,” Washington Bee, August 17, 1895, p. 5; “Whereabouts Of People,” Washington Bee, September 7, 1895, p. 6; “What The Bee Would Like To See,” Washington Bee, August 8, 1896, p. 5; “Loudon, Va. Social Notes,” Washington Bee, August 29, 1896, p. 6; “Notes,” Evening Star, November 13, 1896, p. 8; “Affairs In Georgetown,” Evening Star, April 7, 1897, p. 10; “Probate Court,” Evening Star, July 17, 1911, p. 11; Pope, Alfred (1908), DC Wills box 353; David K. Sullivan, “Behind Prison Walls: The Operation of the District Penitentiary, 1831-1862,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society(1971/1972), pp. 243-266. 

Alfred Pope died in 1906, and Hannah Cole Pope four years later. He had lived long enough to see––and to disapprove of––his daughter playing a part in W. E. B. Dubois’ first challenge to interstate segregation laws. In the summer of 1906 Barbara Pope got on a Southern Railway train in Washington and declined to take a seat in a car assigned to colored passengers. She was taken off the train in Falls Church, arrested, and fined ten dollars and court costs for her violation of the Virginia separate car law. Two weeks later, her case was on the agenda at the annual meeting of the Niagara Movement––the civil rights organization led by W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter the year before––which voted to fund Pope’s appeal in the Virginia circuit court. Pope lost, but in early 1907, Virginia’s Supreme Court of Appeals annulled the initial judgment. The Niagara Movement followed up with a civil suit against the railroad for $50,000 in damages. The civil trial opened in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia in June 1907. The jury voted in Pope’s favor but awarded her just one penny, but the decision showed that interstate travelers could successfully challenge Jim Crow in federal court.

“Trouble In The Schools,” Washington Bee, June 16, 1888, p. 4; “Miss Popes’ Case,” Washington Bee, June 30, 1888, p. 4; “The Niagara Movement,” Washington Bee, August 25, 1906, p. 1; “Alexandria Affairs Case To Test ‘Jim Crow Law’,” Evening Star, October 16, 1906, p. 14; “Died,” Evening Star, December 8, 1906. p. 5; “Wins ‘Jim Crow’ Appeal,” Evening Star, Jan 13, 1907, p. 11.

That Barbara Pope’s contribution to civil rights was forgotten is likely to have been because of what happened next. One year after her victory, she pinned a note addressed to the coroner to her dress that said she felt her brain was “on fire” and hanged herself a short distance from her house. “Miss Barbara Pope, eldest daughter of the late William Pope, of Georgetown, D. C., committed suicide in Lovers Lane, Massachusetts avenue extended, Saturday evening, September 5. Miss Pope was formerly a teacher in the public schools of this city. She had a remarkable intellect, having written several stories which commanded her liberal pay. Miss Pope, since last June, had been stopping in Winchester, Va., with friends. She went there to regain her health, and everything was done for her to restore her health, but she did not seem to improve. Her sister returned with her to the city, Sunday, August 31, and her death resulted as announced above, to the regret of a large number of her friends.”

“Hangs Herself To Tree. Colored Woman Had Been Suffering From Insomnia,” Evening Star, September 7, 1908, p. 4; “Miss Pope Dead,” Washington Bee, September 12, 1908, p. 6; “Died,” Evening Star, March 29, 1910, p. 7; Isaac Pope, 1900 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 5, ED 0025; Jennifer Harris, “Barbara E. Pope (1854–1908),” Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, Vol. 32, No. 2 (University of Nebraska Press, 2015), pp. 281-297; David A. Taylor, “The Rosa Parks of D.C.,” Washington Post Magazine, March 31, 2021.

Jacob Ross

Jacob Ross, born into slavery in Lexington, Virginia in about 1814, and educated in a Methodist sabbath school, was freed by his owner’s last testament in 1855. With $1300 raised by Methodist subscribers in six states, Ross then purchased his wife and his daughter’s freedom. By 1859 the Ross family was reunited in the District of Columbia. Although entered in the 1860 census as free persons, Ross was still––and may have had no legal choice but to be––the enslaver of his wife and daughter. This changed in 1862 when, under “An act for the release of certain persons held to service or labor in the District of Columbia,” Ross stated that he “held a claim to service or labor against two persons of African descent of the name of Keziah Ross and Frances Ann Ross, for and during the life of said persons.” As was his right, Ross petitioned the Emancipation Commission to be compensated. 

1860 Census, Georgetown Ward 2, District of Columbia, p. 86; Records of the Board of Commissioners for the Emancipation of Slaves in the District of Columbia, 1861–1863, National Archives; L. Paige Whitley, “The Reverend Jacob Ross,” Washington History, Fall 2021, vol, 33, No. 2, (Fall 2021), pp. 40-52.

By 1867, “Ross, Jacob, Rev. (c)” was living at 14 Seventh Street (now 3326 Reservoir Road). Ross, whose ministry was as an itinerant preacher, rode a circuit of various Black congregations on or near River Road between Bethesda and White’s Ferry. One of these was near where River Road crossed Little Falls Branch. “The cornerstone of the new Independent M. E. church was laid at Graysville, near Tenallytown, D.C., at 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon, by the pastor of the church of that place, Rev. Jacob Ross.” During the brief period of the territorial government, Ross was a supporter of Governors Cooke and Shepherd, and of the Republican Party. In 1878 he was willing to risk the censure of the press to marry an interracial couple. “Miscegenation. ––Vincent B. Thomas, a colored man, and Helena J. Parker, a white woman, claiming to have come from Virginia, arrived in Georgetown about two weeks ago, and have since been saying in the house of Joseph Moore, a colored man, living on 7th street. These two were made one made on Thursday night by the Rev. Jacob Ross.” A telling picture of Ross’s ministry emerges from an incident that made the press in 1882. “Jacob Ross, of 3326 T street, West Washington, and Aaron Diggs, of Tenallytown” were charged with a violation of the “law governing the vital statistics of the District of Columbia, in burying the body of a colored child… in Chappell’s burial ground, without first having obtained a permit to do so from the health officer. It appears the child’s mother was sent to the workhouse the day after its death, and these people buried the infant out of charity.” At the arraignment “Jacob Ross, one of the defendants, stated that he is a preacher, and has a wagon that he does hauling in, and he was employed by the grandmother of the child to bury it, and he conducted the funeral services, and hauled the coffin out to the burial ground for 75 cents. He stated he didn’t know it was necessary to have a permit.” The court imposed a fine, but suspended execution of the sentence.  

“A Merited Endorsement,” Daily Morning Chronicle, March 20, 1871, p. 4; “Republican Clubs In Session,” National Republican,February 21, 1872, p. 4; “New Independent M. E. Church,” Daily National Republican, September 13, 1875, p. 5; “Georgetown,”Evening Star, January 19, 1878, p. 4; “In Trouble For An Act Of Charity,” Evening Star, July 7, 1882, p. 4; “The Illegal Burial Case,” Evening Star, July 20, 1882, p. 4; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 527A; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 207C, ED 009. “Chappell’s burial ground” is most likely the same as Moses Cemetery, in Tenleytown: David Kathan, Amy Rispin, and L. Paige Whitley, “Tracing a Bethesda, Maryland, African American Community and Its Contested Cemetery,” Washington History, Fall 2017. Mary Mitchell mistakenly assumed that Ross was connected with the West Georgetown Methodist Church Because he lived just a few doors east of it: Mary Mitchell, “Black Residential Patterns in Georgetown, 1860-1900,” unpublished manuscript, ca. 1978, Peabody Room, Georgetown Branch Library, p. 9.

In 1885 the two houses owned by the minister were sufficiently delapidated to attract the attention of the authorities. “Jacob Ross has been notified that houses Nos. 3226 and 3228 T street are unfit for habitation, and will have to be taken down in thirty days.” (The matter appears to have been dropped.) A few years later, the minister wrote his wife’s death notice. “Departed this life July 6, 1889, in her seventy-fourth year, Keziah Ross, the wife of Jacob Ross. She was from Car’s Creek, Rockbridge county, Va. From there she moved to Lexington. Her owner was John M. Wilson, and her husband bought her at public auction.” He died five years later. “The Rev. Jacob Ross, or “Brother” Ross as he was more commonly called, a colored minister of the Gospel, whose tall, bent figure has been familiar to three generations of Georgetowners, died yesterday. A general wearing out of the system produced death. “Brother” Ross was one of that class of ministers known as “itinerants” and made long incursions into the back counties of Maryland and Virginia, where in an old-fashioned way he preached the gospel from stumps in good weather and extemporized churches in bad. His only companion on those trips was an old horse whose decrepit condition was almost painful to behold. For the past year, though, Brother Ross has been so feeble that he found it almost impossible to continue his work and the Mt. Zion Church congregation of this place put him on their superannuated list. “Brother” Ross was a favorite with the children, both black and white. He was eighty years of age. Deceased was a member of Mt. Hermon, Salem Lodge, No. 5. The funeral services will be held on Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock at Mt. Zion Church. Brother Ross died at 3328 T street. He leaves on one daughter, Mrs. Fannie Burley.” 

“District Government Notes,” Critic and Record, February 24, 1885, p. 2; “Died,” Evening Star, July 15, 1889, p. 5; “About Georgetown,” Evening Star, February 23, 1894, p. 3; “Affairs In Georgetown,” Evening Star, February 26, 1894, p. 6.

 

Ellen Thomas

Georgetown assessments 1865-1869 show that the house Jacob Ross lived in was one of five houses on the south side of Seventh Street (Reservoir Road) near the corner of Fayette (35th) Street that were owned by Ellen Thomas, who lived next door to him. The 1870 census shows her as the fifty-year-old head of a household with three children between the ages of 11 and 17, personal estate of $300, and real estate worth $2,000. The 1880 census again lists her as the sixty-four-year-old head of household (consisting of her husband John, “Farm hand,” age 56, and six grown daughters, all “in service”) at 23 Seventh Street. (The census enumerator noted that she “owns & keeps house pays taxes etc.”) Two transactions reported in 1890––“M. J. Adler to Ellen Thomas, lot 231, square 140, W.W.; $––.” and “Ellen Thomas et al, to A. W. Tancel, part 231, B. & H.’s add. to W.W.; $500.”––show that she sold to Dr. Arthur W. Tancil, a prominent Black physician.

“Transfers Of Real Estate,” Evening Star, October 2, 1890, p. 9; “Transfers Of Real Estate,” Evening Star, October 8, 1890, p. 10; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 527A; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 207C, ED 009; Howard University Medical Department, Washington, D. C.: A Historical, Biographical and Statistical Souvenir (1900), p. 239; Mary Mitchell, “Black Residential Patterns in Georgetown, 1860-1900,” unpublished manuscript, ca. 1978, Peabody Room, Georgetown Branch Library, p. 9.

Matthews

Charlotte Matthews, born Maryland circa 1832, was keeping house on Seventh Street (Reservoir Road) in 1870. In 1880 she is listed as a widow is the head of a twelve-person household encompassing three generations. In 1900, the house at 3320 T was occupied by Hezekiah Matthews, day laborer, and wife Jennie, cook. Three decades of tenancy were nearing their end when a court ruled that the owner of 3318 and 3320 T street could not be compelled to connect the premises to the public sewer because they were ten feet below the present level of the street. They were gone by 1907.

“Mr. Thorne’s Houses,” Evening Star, July 20, 1905, p. 13; 1870 Census, Georgetown, Washington, D. C., p. 506B; 1880 Census, Georgetown, Washington, D. C., p. 207C, ED 009; “Hezekas Matthew, 1900 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 19, ED 0019.

Smackum

According to the 1860 Slave Schedule, John Jones of N. (i. e., son of Nathan), owner of a farm west of Cabin John Branch in what is now Potomac, Maryland, held twenty-one persons as slaves. Although their names were not given, there is reason to believe that one of them was Basil Smackum, who was named in Jones’s will, and was to be freed when Jones died. After Maryland abolished slavery in 1864, one of Jones’s neighbors, listed in the 1860 census as the owner of thirty-three people, tried to keep two of them in bondage because their mother had died. Lewis Smackum, who had married her after the birth of the younger of the two boys, objected. “In the case under discussion, one Lewis Smackum, the colored stepfather of the two boys, Robert and Edward Wilkins, was their custodian, and their late master, Greenbury M. Watkins, who had sued out a writ of habeas corpus to compel their appearance in court. Watkins … claims custody of the boys under indentures of apprenticeship issued by the Orphans’ Court of Montgomery County, Maryland.”

“I, Lewis Smackum, the respondent in the within cause, being duly sworn, say that I am the stepfather of Robert and Edward Wilkins, now before your honor, and that they were the illegitimate offspring of my former wife, Christy Smackum; that ever since they have been liberated from slavery I have been able and willing to take care of said children; that I have repeatedly demanded said children of Greenbury Watkins, their former master, who afterwards, under color and pretense of law, kept them from me, during which time he treated them badly until a short time since, when the said children came to me in a wretched and squalid condition, since which tim I have clothed them, sent them to school, and they now desire to remain with me.”

“Kidnapping,” Daily Morning Chronicle, April 8, 1867, p. 2; “Slavery In The  District Of Columbia,” Daily Morning Chronicle, April 9, 1867, p. 2; “Decision of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia in the Case of the Negro Apprentices,” National Intelligencer, April 11, 1867, p. 4; “The Chronicle’s Interpretation of the Constitution Sustained,” Daily Morning Chronicle, October 18, 1867, p. 2; 1860 Census, District 4, Montgomery County, Maryland, p. 282; Archives of Maryland (Biographical Series), MSA SC 5496-036295; John Jones of N, 1860 Census, District 4, Montgomery County, Maryland, p. 282; Greenbury Watkins, 1870 Census, District 4, Montgomery County, Maryland, p. 458A. See also: Harvey A. Levine, “The Resurrection of ‘Scotland,’” The Montgomery County Story, Vol. 43, No. 2,  Montgomery County Historical Society (May 2000); EHT Traceries, Scotland A.M.E. Zion Church Historic Overview, (2020), pp. 12,15; The Offutt Family Genealogy.

The 1870 census shows Lewis Smackum (36) as the head of an eight-person household that includes Ann Smackum (30) “Keeping  House”; Kate Smackum (16) and Mariah Smackum (64), both “at Home”; and Robert (14) and Edward (18), who, despite a new surname (“M Gruder”) appear to be Lewis Smackum’s stepsons. Lewis, Robert and Edward’s occupations are identical: “Works At Gt. College.” Lewis’s real estate is valued at $300, and his personal estate is $100.(That the census taker listed the household as white can be disregarded.) “Smackem Lewis [c] lab” and “Smackem Maria, wid Basil [c]” are listed at “2d nr Warren” (i.e., O near 37th) in 1870; spelled Smacken, they are at 51 Fourth Street (i.e., Volta Place) in 1871. That year, Maria died; her gravestone in Holy Rood Cemetery reads: “Maria Smackum, who departed this life May 12, 1871, aged 64 years, Rest gentle Mother, in thy slumber.” (The nearby grave of a 70-year-old Smackum buried in July of 1866 may be that of her husband, and they are surrounded by the graves of more than twenty other members of their family.) 

1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 535A; Holy Rood Cemetery, Findagrave.

In the 1870 census, John Smackum (28), farmhand, and his wife Mary (30), live just outside of Georgetown in Washington County. The 1874 directory lists “Smackem John, lab, h Gtn College.” The 1880 census shows that John P. Smackum (39), Georgiana, his (second?) wife, and nine-month-old John F. Smackum, at 51 Fourth Street, where Lewis had lived some years earlier. Directories from 1884 to 1890 show “Smackum John P, driver,” still living at in the same house, but with a new address: “3340 Q nw.” Like his brother Lewis before him, John Smackum was employed by Georgetown College; directories listed him as farmer (1878), driver (1881), laborer (1884), driver (1887-1890), laborer (1892), and “farmer, Georgetown univ” (1897). By 1892 Smackum had prospered in a way that made the news. “Ground has been broken on the south side of Q street between 33d and 34th streets for the erection of a two-story brick to cost about $1,250. Mr. John P. Smackum is the owner and Mr. P. Collins is the builder.” (The house was not for himself; the 1894 directory shows that his first tenant was “Brown George, porter, 3340 Q nw.”)

“Georgetown,” Evening Star, September 3, 1892, p. 7; 1870 Census, West Part, Washington, D. C., p. 784A; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 202b, ED 009.

In 1893 the Evening Star reported that “Mr. John P. Smackum, a well-known employe of Georgetown College, is very ill with the grip.” Smackum was widowed in 1894. “Georgie, beloved wife of John P. Smackum, aged forty-two years. Funeral from Holy Trinity Church at 3 o’clock. Interment at Holy Rood cemetery.” Her husband was reported ill in 1899. “John P. Smackum, known to the whole town as “Smackum,” and for a number of years a laborer at the Georgetown University, has been stricken with paralysis. He lies in a critical condition.” He died a few months later. “John B. Smackum, a well-known colored resident of this section, died yesterday morning at his brother’s residence, 3624 P Street. For many years Smackum had been employed at Georgetown University, and while his age is given at fifty-nine, it was generally thought he was much older. He was known widely as the “college poet,” on account of his ability to make a rhyme answer to every question propounded to him.” As late as 1911, the house, at what is now 3340 Volta Place, was still in the hands of the Smackum family. “Volta place northwest, between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth streets––Square 1254, part of lot 174; J. Nota McGill, trustee, et al. to Mary Esther Smackum, $10.” “Mary Esther Smackum to Washington Loan and Trust Company, trustee, to secure the Equitable Co-operative Building Association, $1,100.”

“Notes,” Evening Star, March 10, 1893, p. 10; “Died,” Evening Star, November 21, 1894, p. 7; “Colored Resident Dead,” Evening Star, May 4, 1899, p. 16; “Affairs In Georgetown,” Evening Star, January 25, 1899, p. 9; “Real Estate Transfers,” Washington Herald, June 22, 1911, p. 12. 

Charles Adam Smackum and Mary Agnes Marshall, married at Holy Trinity Church, June 11, 1868. The 1870 directory lists “Smackem Chas. A. [c] lab, 41 4th.” Although “Smackem Chas. A. [c] lab” was listed at 41 Fourth Street (i.e., Volta Place) through 1878, the 1880 census shows Charles (32) and his wife, Mary A. Smackum (28) and their six children living at 73 Third (P) Street, in the house of her father, Alfred Marshall. He was there through 1890: “Smackum Charles A, lab, 3512 P nw.” In the 1900 census, Charles and Agnes Smackum, and eight children live in a household headed by their son-in-law Peter Colbert, at 3524 P Street. Directories list Charles A. Smackum, laborer, at that address through 1909, when he died. In the 1920 Census, the Colberts lived at 3524 P Street, and Agnes Smackum (71) her widowed daughter-in-law Letitia (53) lived next-door at 3526. “Mary Agnes, widow of Charles A. Smackum, and beloved mother of Charles Smackum, Mrs. Cecelia Hall and Walter, Eugene and George Smackum, and fifteen grandchildren and a host of other relatives and friends,” died in 1924.

“Deaths Reported,” Evening Star, November 19, 1909, p. 8; “Deaths,” Evening Star, July 24, 1924, p. 7; 1870 Census Georgetown, D. C., p. 535B; 1880 Census Georgetown, D. C., p. 201d, ED 009; 1900 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 14, ED 0020; 1920 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 5B, ED 151. Research by Peter J. Albert, “Who Is My Neighbor?” Cura Virtualis, Holy Trinity Church, (April 28, 2021).

Seth (or Zephaniah) Smackum, born circa 1844, was listed in 1875 as “Smackem Seth, cook, Gtn College,” and lived at “5th nr Frederick” (i. e., Q near 34th) in 1878-8. The 1880 census shows Seth Smackum (33), “Cooks At G. T. College” and his wife Lucretia (28) “keeping house,” at 126 Frederick Street. His last directory listing was in 1892: “Smackham Seth, driver, 1721 34th nw.” After that, directories list his widow as “Smackum Lucretia, wid Zephaniah” in 1895; “Smackum Lucy, wid Seth” in 1896; “Smackum Lucretia, wid Jas” in 1898; “Smackum Lucretia, wid Jas S” in 1901; “Smackum Lucretia, wid Sephini” in 1904; “Smackum Lucretia, wid Seth” in 1906; and “Smackum Lucretia R, wid Seth J” in 1908, which was the year of her death: “Lucretia R. Smackum, 1721 34th st. nw., 51 years.”

“Death Record,” Washington Herald, April 23, 1908, p. 8; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 190b, ED 009.

In 1870, the directory lists “Smackem Henry, [c] lab” at 123 Third (P) Street, and the census shows Henry Smackum (28), common laborer, wife Cecelia (26), and children Cecelia A. (2), and Emily E. (10 months). Despite several discrepancies, this is almost certainly the same family that appears in the 1880 census as Hilleary Smackum (42), farmhand, wife Cecilia (35), and children Ann C. (12), Emily E. (11), James A. (9), and Isidora (8 months). (This alternation of names continued another twenty years. In 1875, “Smackum Hilleary” was living in the house that had a few years earlier been the residence of Lewis Smackum and his mother Maria: 51 Fourth Street. Five years later, the directory shows “Smackem Henry” at that address. By 1881, “Smackum Henry” had moved to 3618 P Street; by 1883, it’s “Smackum Hillery N” that lived there. In 1892, “Smackum Hillery N” is shown at 3624 P Street. This was the address of “Smackum Henry” in 1895; of “Smackum Henry N” in 1896; of “Smackum Hillary” in 1897; of “Smackum Hillery N” in 1898; and of “Smackum Hilliary” in 1899.) Thanks to the 1900 census (which found him at 3626 P Street), we know that Hillary Smackum, day laborer, was born in December 1836, and that he and Cecilia married in 1863. Their nine-person household includes their daughter Emma Duncan (30), a dressmaker, and her two children, as well as daughters Annie (31), Isadora (26), Irene (18), and Lillian (11). Their mother died in 1905: “Cecelia J. Smackum, 61 years, 3626 P street northwest.” “Hilleary N., beloved husband of the late Cecelia Smackum,” died two years later, “at his residence, 1506 34th street.” 

“Deaths in the District,” Evening Star, Apr 12, 1905, p. 5; “Died,” Evening Star, June 12, 1907, p. 5; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 549A; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 203d, ED 009; 1900 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 18, ED 0020.

Children of  Hilleary and Cecelia Smackum

Newly married in 1893, James A. Smackum, a broom maker by trade, is listed as of that year at 3624 P Street. In 1898 the address changed to 3618 P. After 1920, James A. and Mary E. Smackum, and their six children, lived for several years at 2462 P Street, where he worked at home as an upholsterer. “On Saturday, June 11, 1927… at her residence, 1245 22nd st. n.w., Mary E., beloved wife of James A. Smackum, sr.” By 1930, the widower and six of his children were at 2122 K Street. His 1938 obituary notes his standing in a Catholic fraternal service organization, and the Georgetown church he had a hand in founding. “James A. Smackum, 67, a major and financial secretary of St. Thomas Commandery, 218, Knights of St. John, died of a heart attack at his home, 22 R street N.W. He was a lifelong resident of this city. Funeral services … in Epiphany Catholic Church, 2700 block of Dumbarton avenue N.W.”

“Deaths,” Evening Star, June 14, 1927, p. 10; “J. A. Smackum Dies,” Evening Star, October 10, 1938, p. 13; 1900 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 20, ED 0020; 1910 Census, Precinct 7, Washington, D. C., p. 6b, ED 0129; 1920 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 6B, ED 159; 1930 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 8A, ED 0070; Lesko, Kathleen M., Valerie Babb, Carroll R. Gibbs, Black Georgetown Remembered (Georgetown University Press, 2016), p. 165.

By that time, four of his sisters had lived for more than twenty years at 1509 T Street NW. Two of the sisters died there. “Cecelia Annie Smackum, beloved daughter of the late Hilleary and the late Cecilia Smackum, and devoted sister of Emma E. Duncan, Irene S. Thompson, James A., Isadore M. and Lillian E. Smackum” (1936). “Irene Smackum Thompson, daughter of the late Hillary and Cecelia Smackum and the beloved wife of Charles R. Thompson” (1938). 

“Deaths,” Evening Star, October 24, 1936, p. 10; “Deaths,” Evening Star, March 15, 1938, p. 13; 1920 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 1A, ED 182; 1930 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 21A, ED 0202.

Section 4: 1850-1880

Pettis                           7th                               1870

Garrity                        5th                               1870

Friebus                        8th                               1876

Coates                         Madison                      1870

Honesty                       Madison                      1880

Minor                          Madison                      1880

Baker                          Madison                      1860

Frizzell                        Madison                      1850

Pettis

In 1860 William Pettis, huckster, was head of an 11-person household. In 1869 he lived at 5 Seventh Street, and the 1880 census shows him and his wife Ann keeping a store at that address. Pettis died “at his late residence, No. 3308 T street, Georgetown” in 1884. His son Thomas, a provision dealer, owned the house in 1900, and in 1925 his grandson, William A. Pettis, replaced the frame house at 3308 Reservoir Road with a brick house.

1860 Census, Georgetown Ward 4, Washington, D. C., p. 190; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 206B, ED 009; 1900 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 19, ED 0019.

Garrity

In 1870 Catherine Garrity, “wid. Patrick” lived on part of lot 197 in square 121 in Threlkelds Addition, at about 1647 35th Street. The census shows her “Keeping House,” and her real estate, worth $4,000, suggests she may have been a landlord. “On June 4, 1876, Mrs. Catherine Garrity, in the seventieth year of her age, a native of County West Meath, Ireland, and a resident of this District for the last forty-five years. Funeral from her late residence, No. 160 Fayette street, Georgetown.” After her death her widowed daughter Catherine Carmichael succeeded her as head of household for almost half a century. Between 1893 and 1896, Sarah Garrity, her sisters and Chantal Garrity, and Bridget Kelley, all died at (what was then) 1817 35th Street.

1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 511A; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 209C, ED 009; 1900 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 22, ED 0019; “Died” National Republican, June 9, 1876, p. 3; “Died,” Evening Star, June 21, 1893, p. 5; “Miss Garrity Dead,” Evening Star, June 22, 1893, p. 9: “About Georgetown,” Evening Star, September 18, 1893, p. 12; “Wills Filed,” Evening Star, October 17, 1893, p. 5; “Funeral Services,” Evening Star, December 29, 1896, p. 9; “Deaths,” Evening Star, October 9, 1928, p. 10. 

Friebus

Gustav Friebus (1844-1912), born in Prussia, came to America as a boy. His father, whose first employment in America had been as a bridge engineer for the B&O Railroad, was an engineer at the Navy Yard in Washington, where Gustav got his first training before becoming a draftsman in the War Department. By 1872 Friebus had married Olivia Maria, the daughter of Richard Serpell, an English railroad engineer who also worked on construction of the B&O, and Jane Deakins of Prince George’s County. That year, Friebus’s wife was the buyer of property in Georgetown: “Thomas C. Cox to O. M. Friebus, lot on Fayette street. R. S. Cox to O. M. Friebus, same; $1,500.” The house at the corner of 8th Street was built by the time the 1876 directory came out. (Between 1881 and 1892 its address was 2004 35th Street. It is now 1704 35th street.)

“Deaths,” National Intelligencer, June 15, 1863, p. 1; “Georgetown Transfers,” Evening Star, October 15, 1872, p. 4; Richard S. Cox to Oliver M. Friebus, DC Liber 694 (1872) f. 361, in Abstract of Title to part of a Tract called “Alliance,” known as “Burleith,” situated west of Georgetown, in the District of Columbia (1887), ms. 127, Historical Society of Washington.

Friebus, who set up as an architect in 1873, is listed as architect on about a dozen Georgetown rowhouses between 1878 and 1891, when he designed Annaburg, a 35-room country house in Manassas for Alexandria beer baron Robert Portner. When Thomas L. Casey of the Corps of Engineers was given charge of completing the Washington Monument in 1878, Friebus was hired to draw the detail plans of construction; he was the first man to climb to the top of the stump since work had come to a halt in 1854. Friebus was designing buildings for Fort McPherson, Georgia when his wife died in 1889. The architect’s brother, who was in real estate, offered the house for rent a few years later. “2004 35th st. n.w., Georgetown heights, 9 rooms, stable, large yard and garden… 35.00. Key next door. Theo. Friebus, 1430 U st.” In 1893 the widower moved across town to a new rowhouse on Portner Place (near where his former client was building Portner Flats). As head draftsman of the Office of Indian Affairs, Friebus designed Indian schools such as the Sherman Institute, in Riverside, California, whose cornerstone was laid in 1901. After Friebus died in 1912, the Georgetown house––considerably changed in 1894––went on the market. “Valuable Real Estate Improved By Premises No. 2004 35th Street” lots 9 and ten 10 in “Gustav Friebus’ subdivision” part of square south of 1296.”

“Georgetown,” Evening Star, October 15, 1873, p. 4; “Changes In The Offices,” Evening Star, November 27, 1886, p. 6; “Death Of Mrs. Gustav Friebus,” Evening Star, January 18, 1889, p. 9; “For Rent,” Evening Star, December 3, 1892, p. 2; “Gustav Friebus,” Evening Times, December 17, 1901, p. 5; “Who’s Who in the Government Service,” Evening Star, November 29, 1908, p. 53; “Gustav Friebus,” Evening Star, January 17, 1912, p. 15; New York Herald, January 18, 1912, p. 9; “Trustees’ Sale,” Evening Star, December 28, 1918, p. 16; Historical and Commercial Sketches of Washington and Environs (1884), p. 259.

Coates

Singleton Coats, 64, a market gardener; and his wife Jane, 68, keeping house appear in the 1870 census. The 1877 directory lists, “Coates, Singleton, lab, Fayette nr Madison.” He died in 1886. “Mr. Singleton Coates, an aged and respected resident of this section died at his residence Saturday last on Phoenix hill, between 5th and 6th. His funeral took place Monday from Mt. Zion M. E. Church, Rev. Daniel Collins officiated. His remains were escorted to the above church cemetery, where the interment took place, by the North star Order of Good Samaritans No. 8.” (In the middle of the century, the vicinity of “the residence of Mrs. Fenwick, corner of Fayette and Fourth streets” began to be known as Fenwick’s Hill, and was occasionally rendered as Phoenix Hill.)

“West Washington,” Washington Bee, May 29, 1886, p. 4; “Georgetown,” Evening Star, July 21, 1891, p. 9; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 506B; Mt. Zion and FUBS Death and Burial Records. 

Honesty

Samuel Honesty, born­­ in Maryland in 1856, can first be glimpsed in 1870 in Fairfax County, Virginia. The 1874 directory lists “Honesty James, High ab 8th.” Two years later, Samuel married Tavie Jackson in the District of Columbia. In 1880 Samuel and Octavie Honesty, laborer and laundress, lived on Madison Street, with two young daughters, Mary and Lida. By 1887 their address was “Factory Hill,” at the western end of K Street, one of several Georgetown “Tenderloins” that were often mentioned in proceedings of the police court. Samuel Honesty was homeless by the time he was forty. “Because Samuel Honesty, an old colored man, is paralyzed on his left side and cannot work, his relatives had him arrested last night as a vagrant. In the police court this morning the prisoner acknowledged his inability to labor and said: “Judge, I cannot use my left arm at all.” The old man was given a home in the workhouse for two months.” This occurred more than once. When Samuel Honesty died in 1908, the corner of M Street and 33rd was given as his address.

“General News Of The City,” National Republican, March 14, 1876, p. 4; “Sent to the Workhouse for Charity,” Evening Times, May 26, 1897, p. 6; “Term Made a Little Longer,” Evening Star, November 16, 1901, p. 17; “The Seventh Police Precinct,” Evening Star, November 26, 1905, p. 24; “Deaths in the District,” Evening Star, March 7, 1908, p. 8; 1870 Census, Providence Township, Fairfax County, Virginia, p. 378A; 1880 Census, Georgetown, Washington, D. C., p. 213D, ED 009.

Minor

The Minors were one of numerous Black families that came to the Georgetown after Emancipation. In 1880, Sarah Minor, born in Virginia in 1839, lived in a household headed by her son George (Works with Butcher”) and his brothers Samuel (“Works with Butcher”), Charles and Joseph. In 1900, the combined families of Sarah and her sons, sixteen in all, lived under one roof on Madison Street. An eleven-person household of George L. (painter) and Mary E. Minor (washerwoman) is shown in the 1910 census. “Sarah Minor, 80 years, 2106 35th street northwest,” died in 1913. (Her successor at that address was Alice V. Hardy (“widow Richard”), born in Virginia in 1854, who took in washing.)

“Deaths Reported,” Evening Star, September 14, 1913, p. 5; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 213D, ED 009; 1900 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 8, ED 0002; 1910 Census, Precinct 7, Washington, D. C., p. 13B, ED 0129; 1920 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 7B, ED 163.

Baker

George and Elizabeth Baker, and their children appear in the 1860 census. He is listed as a common laborer in 1870, and his oldest son Benjamin. listed as a butcher, lives nearby with his wife Mary, and their two-year old daughter Ida. The 1874 directory lists “Baker Benj, lab, Fayette bet Madison and Back” and “Baker Geo, Back st.” In 1880 the households of George and Benjamin are side-by side near the intersection on Madison and Back Streets. “On Fayette street (south side), near Eighth street: John Whelan et al. to Benjamin Baker, $247.” When he died in 1922, Benjamin Baker of 3418 Reservoir Road was remembered for a general grocery at Wisconsin Avenue and O Street (and was still operating a store at 1901 35th Street). 

“Real Estate,” National Republican, February 16, 1881, p. 4; “Old Resident Dead,” Evening Star, October 28, 1922, p. 4; 1860 Census, Georgetown Ward 2, Washington, D. C., p. 97; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 504A, 504B; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 214A, ED 009.

Frizzell 

John Catlett Frizzell married Matilda Follin in 1809, and appears in the 1820 census of Truro Parish, Fairfax County, 1820 census, as “John Frizzle.” (The frequent recurrence of this spelling in earlier records suggests that the name rhymed with drizzle. Although the surname appeared in the press in every conceivable spelling, Frizzell is the one that eventually prevailed.) In 1840, he was the head of a nine-person household (including a young enslaved woman­­) in Alexandria County; ten years later, listed as a farmer, he is the head of a five-person household (with no slaves) living near the northern end of Fayette Street in Georgetown. In 1865 he is assessed for a two-story frame house (worth $800) on the south side of Madison Street, on lot 282 in Beatty and Hawkins Addition. Frizzell, who had by then been a widower ten years, died two years later. His obituary in the Georgetown Courier was brief. “In this city 26th instant, John C. Frizzell, in the 78th year of his age.” What made the Washington papers was that his son James had renounced executorship in favor of his brother. “The will of John C. Frissell, deceased, was filed and proven, and letters testamentary issued to John Frissell.”

“Died,” Georgetown Courier, March 30, 1867, p. 3; “Orphan’s Court,” Evening Star, April 27, 1867, p. 3; “Orphans’ Court,” Daily Morning Chronicle, June 19, 1867, p. 2; “This Is To Give Notice,” Evening Star, July 27, 1867, p. 3; Lot 166, Oak Hill Cemetery, Georgetown, D.C.; 1840 Census, Alexandria, D.C., p. 216; 1850 Census, North West Ward, Georgetown, D. C., p. 177b; 1860 Census, Ward 4, Georgetown, D. C., p. 167; Gabriel Edmonston, A Genealogical History of the Follin Family in America, 1911, p. 35-46; “Fairfax County Marriages Prior to 1853,” Journal of the Historical Society of Fairfax County, Virginia, Vol. 16 (1980).

John Bull Frizzell

The new executor was John W. Frizzell, also known as John “Bull” Frizzell. While it was later said that he got his nickname––which was occasionally treated as a middle name––because of his great strength, it could just as well have been because of his well-known irascibility. In 1845, “John B. Frizzell alias John W. Frizzell” was convicted of receiving stolen property and sentenced to two years in prison. On the day of his discharge, Frizzell was so abusive that the exasperated warden fired a pistol at him. His name made the news with great regularity after that. “We understand that three notorious characters, Tom Tanner, Bull Frizzle, & Will Nowland, were liberated from the penitentiary on Monday last, their term of servitude having expired that day. It is hoped that from the salutary lesson they have received from Madame Justice, they will become honest and good citizens, and that society hereafter will have no cause to complain of their conduct.” After his release, he returned to his house on Canal Road. In 1854 Frizzell was employed in the reconstruction of Chain Bridge, which had been swept away by floods two years earlier. There was an accident, and one man died. “Another laborer, John Frizzle, is very seriously injured in the head and face. He can hardly survive, notwithstanding the zealous efforts of Drs. Ritchie and Snyder, of Georgetown, in his case.” But, just a few weeks later, Frizzell was out and about, and another page was added to his legend. His quarrelsome nature also survived, and two years later a judge made him pay a bond to keep the peace for six months. The 1860 census shows “John Frizzle,” an illiterate fisherman, with real estate worth $2,000––his five acres included a mill and a quarry––and personal estate of $500. The 1870 census says he was a farmer.

“Criminal Court,” National Intelligencer, March 24, 1845, p. 2; “Local News Of The Week,” Georgetown Advocate, March 27, 1847, p. 2; Georgetown Advocate, June 17, 1847, p. 2; “Criminal Court,” National Whig, July 8, 1847, p. 4; “City News,” National Intelligencer, July 9, 1847, p. 3; “Criminal Court,” National Intelligencer, July 12, 1847, p. 3; “Criminal Court,” National Whig, July 14, 1847, p. 3; “Fatal Accident At The Little Falls,” Washington Sentinel, April 25, 1854, p. 4; “Sad Disaster,” National Intelligencer, April 29, 1854, p. 2; “Georgetown Correspondence,” Evening Star, May 9, 1854, p. 3; “District Of Columbia,” Evening Star, Jun 22, 1855, p. 3; “Threatening,” Evening Star, June 3, 1856, p. 3; John Frizzell, 1850 Census, West of 7th Street Turnpike, Washington, D. C., 259a; John Frizzle, 1860 Census, First Division, Washington County, District of Columbia, p. 4; John Frissle, 1870 Census, West Part, Washington County, District of Columbia, p. 783B; DC Liber JAS37 (1852) f. 273/246  (research by Cathy Ball, Abner Cloud House).

Aside from fishing or farming, Frizzell kept an eye out for stray livestock (which an owner could have back in return for charges) and for suspicious activity along the river. One day in 1860 the “strange conduct” of three men, of whom one was Black, caught his attention, and he captured two of them. But instead of thwarting what he thought was an attempt to smuggle a fugitive slave to freedom, what Frizzell had actually foiled was the kidnapping and sale into slavery of a free Black man from New York. Frizzell was anything but an abolitionist; less than a year later, his secessionist ranting, and his threats against Union soldiers stationed near his house, led to his arrest. (During his captivity in the Old Capitol Prison, he met Thomas Nelson Conrad, who went on to become a Confederate agent. In 1864 Conrad enlisted Frizzell in a plot to kidnap Abraham Lincoln. The plan was abandoned after the president’s cavalry escort was reinforced.) Peacetime found him back in his very particular branch of the cattle business. “Stray Cows At The Stone House, Little Falls Bridge––John Frizell.” 

“Imitating Solomon Northrup,” Evening Star, June 30, 1860, p. 3; “Another Fugitive Slave Case––A Free Negro Kidnapped and Sold,” Albany Evening Journal, July 7, 1860, p. 2; “The Case of George Armstrong,” Evening Star, July 11, 1860, p. 4; “Arrest of Secessionists,” National Republican, June 13, 1861, p. 3; “Lost And Found,” Evening Star, December 26, 1865, p. 2; “Affairs In Georgetown,” Evening Star, November 14, 1867, p. 3; Thomas N. Conrad, A Confederate Spy, 1892, pp. 92-3; War Papers Read before the Michigan Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 1893, Vol.1, pp. 4-4; Edward Steers, Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, 2001, p. 55-7.

Although Frizzell did not lose his penchant for citizen’s arrests, the dominant theme of those years was conflict with his neighbors. “John alias Bull Frizzle was met on Sunday night near the culvert, above Georgetown, and severely assaulted with stones by several of his neighbors, who had some difficulty with him relative to some livestock.” Again attacked with stones after moving fences, he recovered from his wounds, sued his assailant, and buried his horse on a neighbor’s property. They stole back a cow. A well-aimed stone broke Frizzell’s nose. In 1876 Frizzell came to blows with John Hess over the right to harvest driftwood and was put under a $250 bond to keep the peace. (A week later he claimed credit for the apprehension of a wanted man.) His neighbor Woody fired birdshot at Frizzell and was sentenced to three months in jail. Frizzell made threats of bodily harm. When Frizzell died of “consumption” in 1879, his obituary drily observed that he had been “well known in this District latterly as a dealer in cattle.” 

“Assault And Battery,” Evening Star, Apr 21, 1868, p. 4; “‘Bull’ Frizzle Assaulted,” National Republican, April 22, 1868, p. 4; “Can Convicts Testify?,” Evening Star, February 4, 1869, p. 4; “Arrested On Suspicion,” Evening Star, March 27, 1869, p. 1; “Georgetown,” Evening Star, January 29, 1870, p. 5; “Georgetown,” Evening Star, February 7, 1870, p. 5; “Bull Frizzle’s First Appearance Before The Court,” Evening Star, July 29, 1870, p. 4; “‘Bull’ Frizzle And Moody’s Cow,” Evening Star, December 21, 1870, p. 4; “Bull Frizzle Has A Head Put On Him,” Evening Star, May 8, 1871, p. 4; “The Courts,” Evening Star, August 4, 1875, p. 4; “The Courts,” Evening Star, September 20, 1876, p. 5; “The Arrest of Joe Lacy,” Evening Star, September 27, 1876, p. 5; “Shooting Affair,” Evening Star, November 28, 1877, p. 4; “Shooting ‘Bull’ Frizzle,” Evening Star, December 6, 1877, p. 5; “Criminal Court,” Evening Star, March 6, 1878, p. 5; “The Frizzle-Woody Feud Revived,” Daily Critic, August 5, 1878, p. 3; “Death of ‘Bull’ Frizzell,” Evening Star, January 27, 1879, p. 4.

In 1895, a suit “for the sale and distribution of the proceeds of a certain tract of land in Whitehaven” was brought by twelve heirs of “John W. Frizzell, an old resident of the West end, who recently died intestate at his home, at the junction of Canal and New Cut roads. The property in question is valued at from $3,000 to $5,000.” In 1897 Frizzell’s children sued the Washington Post for libel over a Sunday feature about their colorful father that alluded to his sidelines in bounty hunting, slave catching, and livestock theft, and that characterized his feud with the Woody family as similar to the Hatfields and McCoys, but the case does not appear to have gone to trial. The legendary strongman figured in both Hugh T. Taggart’s “Old Georgetown” (1908) and in William A. Gordon’s “Recollections of a Boyhood in Georgetown” (1917).

“To Sell Their Tract at Whitehaven,” Washington Post, August 29, 1895, p. 9; “Bull Frizzel’s Pluck”, Washington Post, June 27, 1897, p. 10; “The Late John B. Frizzell.––Editor Post,” Washington Post, July 4, 1897, p. 4; “Post Sued For Libel,” Evening Times, July 25, 1897, p. 6; Hugh T. Taggart, “Old Georgetown,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Vol. 11, 1908; William A. Gordon, “Recollections of a Boyhood in Georgetown,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, vol. 20, 1917, pp. 132-3.

Charles Frizzell

In 1856, Charles Frizzell, born in 1832, lived on what is now 35th Street “near the new road leading to Little Falls Bridge, on the lot belonging to the Academy” –– i. e., between Visitation Academy and Reservoir Road. He inherited his father’s house in 1867. “About half past two o’clock yesterday morning fire was discovered issuing from a small frame house on the corner of Madison and Fayette streets, owned and occupied by Mr. Chas. Frizzell. The steamers Henry Addison, Hibernia, and Union were promptly on the spot, but could do but little good, as there was no water near to be had. The building, valued at $600, was entirely destroyed. It was insured for [illegible].” By 1870, Charles may have been living with his older brother James Silas Frizzell and his wife in nearby “two-story Frame Dwelling House” on the “south side of Madison street, near Fayette street” that had been his father’s. After James S. Frizzell died in 1872, the 1874 directory listed “Frizzel, Chas., carter, Fayette bet Madison and Back.” The 1880 census shows Charles Frizzle, stone mason, with his wife Sarah and three children, on Madison Street. His son Andrew, a stonecutter, lived further north. “An old building situated on the Tennallytown road, beyond Tunlaw farm, erected during the war, and used for a while a signal corps barracks, was burned last night shortly after 12 o’clock. It was occupied by Andrew Frizzell and owned by Henry Kengla. Loss, $200. No insurance.” The 1884 directory lists Charles Frizell and his son Andrew, both stonecutters; sons Basil and Charles R. were butchers––the neighborhood trade––and son Nicolas was an iceman.

“Taken Up As An Estray,” Evening Star, October 9, 1856, p. 3; “Georgetown,” Evening Star, January 27, 1868, p. 4; “Georgetown Advertisements,” Evening Star, April 10, 1869, p. 4; “In The Supreme Court,” National Republican, August 14, 1871, p. 2; “City Talk and Chatter,” Washington Post, February 26, 1880; 1870 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 504B; 1880 Census, Georgetown, D. C., p. 213D, ED 009.

In 1893 Charles Frizzell was an uncooperative witness in a murder case in which a neighbor was the suspect. “After having been in jail for about ten days, with the charge of murder hanging over his head, Richard, alias Dick, Burgess of Madison street, Georgetown, was yesterday exonerated … Chas. Frizzell, considered the most important witness in the case, had changed his testimony somewhat … So contradictory did Frizzell make his statements that the judge finally told him, with a look of disgust on his face, that he had enough.” Five years later, a late-night party at the Frizzell house––“carousal … beer … all hours of the morning … police notified the crowd to make less noise … no attention paid to the warning” ––led to the arrest, for disorderly conduct, of Frizzell and seven others. It was the second Sunday in a row that police had been called. “A successful raid was made yesterday morning shortly after 4 o’clock… a small frame house on Madison street in the rear of Holy Rood Cemetery.”

“About Georgetown,” Evening Star, August 11, 1893, p. 8; “Affairs in Georgetown,” Evening Star, March 28, 1898, p. 12; “Important Capture,” Evening Star, Aug 24, 1899, p. 1; “Two Alarms of Fire,” Evening Star, November 13, 1899, p. 14; “Demands Jury Trial,” Evening Star, July 7, 1903, p. 8.

Frizzell’s Hill 

By 1900, the press sometimes referred to the vicinity by the name of the family that lived there. “Emma Ware, colored, ten years old, has been missing from her home, at Frizzel’s Hill, near Holy Rood Cemetery, since June 23. Nothing is known of her whereabouts, and her disappearance was reported at the seventh precinct station yesterday. The child is a light coffee color, and when she left home wore a light gingham dress, old black shoes, and a red straw hat.” “Much excitement prevailed in “Bryantown” last night about 8 o’clock, near the Olympic baseball grounds. Harrison Follin, of Frizzell’s Hill, a fifty year old white man, and Lawrence O’Brien, eighteen years old, son of Crossing Policeman Dennis O’ Brien, were the central figures.” 

“A Colored Girl Reported Missing,” Washington Times, July 7, 1901, p. 19; “The News Of Georgetown,” Washington Times, July 7, 1903, p. 11.

In the census of 1900 the first house on U Street, between 35th and 36th is that of Charles Frizzell (stone mason), and the second is that of his son, Charles R. Frizzell (foreman, stable). That title to some of the family’s land on the margin of the cemetery may have been clouded is suggested by a transaction in 1902, and by a suit in 1917 to establish title by adverse possession (i. e., squatter’s rights) to parts of lots 277 and 274. By 1917 there may have been as many as four Frizzell houses on what was now U Street. Charles Frizzell was listed at 3511 U Street; his sons Basil R. and Chas. R. at 3517; and son Nicolas 3519. That year, “Mrs. Sara Ellen Frizzell (nee Ragan)” age 92, died “at her residence, 3515 U street northwest.” In 1918, a fire in a stable “on premises of Sylvester Jones, 3519 U street” made the news. “Charles Frizzell, 3515 U street, is owner of the property.” By 1923, Frizzell had moved away; two years later, the houses on the south slope of the cemetery had all been condemned, and a “Trustee’s Sale of Valuable Unimproved Property, Being the Entire Frontage on the North side of You Street Northwest Between 35th Street and Tunlaw Road” was advertised. The purchaser was the government, which was accumulating land for Whitehaven Parkway, which was originally intended to run from Rock Creek to the Potomac. Charles Frizzell, who appears to have converted to Catholicism at the time of his marriage), died in 1925. He was buried at Holy Rood Cemetery. (In its burial records, he is listed as “of Holy Rood Hill.”)

“Madison and Back streets––President and Directors of Georgetown College to Charles Frizzell, part lot 277, square 1300; $1.” Evening Star, July 18, 1902, p. 3; “Charles Frizzell et al vs. Nicholas Hedges et al” Evening Star, June 16, 1917, p. 13; “Died,” Evening Star, July 22, 1917, p. 6; “City News In Brief,” Evening Star, September 16, 1918, p. 23; “Attorney’s Sale of a Large Parcel of Ground Fronting on the North Side of  “U” Street and 35th and 36th Streets N. W.,” Evening Star, June 2, 1920, p. 32; “Trustee’s Sale of Valuable Unimproved Property, Being the Entire Frontage on the North side of You Street Northwest Between 35th Street and Tunlaw Road,” Evening Star, March 4, 1925, p. 40; “Deaths,” Evening Star, March 25, 1925, p. 8; “D. C. Park Plans Need $12,867,390,” Evening Star, December 1, 1932, p. 17; 1900 Census, Washington, D. C., p. 7, ED 0002; Holy Rood Cemetery, section 60, lot 499.