Excursus: Maryland, My Maryland: African-American Schools in Garrett County

The 1880 and 1900 federal censuses for Oakland, MD, showed a number of school-age children, so the natural question that immediately arose was "In this era of segregation, where did these African-American children go to school?"

My first clue came from a more-or-less off-hand mention on the Western Maryland Historical Library website about the opening of an African-American school in Oakland. The entire mention was this:

From "The Republican" newspaper, November 29, 1884: "A colored school was opened in Oakland last week, with Mr. Patrick Stanton as teacher."

As it turns out, Alice Eary and Jean Grose have done the heavy lifting for us in Garrett County Schools of Yesteryear, where they document the two schools that served southern Garrett County's small African-American community from around 1877-1914.

According to Eary and Grose, the larger and more well-known school was identified as the Oakland "Colored" School in District 7. First opening in 1877, Isabel Davis was the teacher. There was an apparent hiatus in its operation soon thereafter, as Early and Grose report that the Board of Education "determined to allow a Colored School" in Oakland in 1882. Apparently it was closed and then re-opened again, leading to the story in the Republican. Because Oakland's African-American population was never large, school attendance waxed and waned until the the school was discontinued starting in 1907, after attendance fell below the requisite 10 students.

In 1912, another African-American school opened in Oakland, but it only lasted for two years, as once again, the attendance failed to meet the ten-pupil minimum.

Eary and Grose weren't able to conclusively identify the site for the Oakland "Colored" School. They found an 1896 reference in the Republican to such a school being conducted in "Hamill and Little's Hall" without any further clues about the location of said hall. They cite unspecified "elderly citizens" as believing that the school was on the corner of 5th and High Streets.

Since the corner of 5th and High was the location of the Bethel A.M.E. Church, the suggestion seems inevitable: school sessions may have been conducted in the church building itself. A bit of possible circumstantial corroboration comes from the property records: the property at 5th and High was sold in 1897 to Bethel A.M.E.'s pastor and his wife, William and Virginia Walker; the seller was Gilmor Hamill. Of "Hamill and Little's Hall" perhaps?

(I haven't been able to get a firm date yet for the construction of the church building itself, although the centennial history of the A.M.E. church lists the building of the Oakland A.M.E. church as one of the accomplishments of Bishop George Claudius Taylor [b. 1862], who is found residing in Frostburg, MD, in the 1900 federal census. But the building was clearly constructed before then.)

Early and Grose found a second African-American school in southern Garrett County in District 8. They locate it along a now-closed portion of Steyer Mine Road, not far from present-day White Church. The records identify it as "Colored School, District 8, Number 1" but it was known locally as "Galliger" School. It seems to have operated from 1885 to 1899.

Here is Eary and Grose's list of teachers in Garrett County's African-American schools.

Teachers at the Oakland "Colored" School, District 7:

1877-80 Isabel Davis
1880-82 Not available
1882-83 Julia Faherty
1883-84 Not available
1884-85 Patrick F. Stanton
1885-86 Titus Delawder
1886-87 George T. Motor*
1887-88 Not available
1888-89 Nathan Selby (part of year)
1888-90 Martha Enos
1890-91 Rhoda Strawser
1891-92 Not available
1892-93 Lillian Yurley
1893-94 Bessie E. Lee
1894-95 Minnie Manhorn
1895-97 Emma Hickman
1897-99 W.W. Curtis
1899-1900 Anna L. Jenkins
1900-01 Mattie Young
1901-03 Unknown
1903-04 Hattie J. Gray
1904-12 School closed
1912-13 Theresa Parker

Trustees for the Oakland school included Minnie Manhorn, Woody Gibson, (Unknown) Davis, James Truly, William Walker, Oscar Notes, Daniel Holt, Philip Davis, James Truly. Trustee Oscar Notes eventually bought the property at 5th and High, and it was sold by an heir to the Garrett County School District in the 1930s to make way for the expansion of the local high school.

(Info as presented in Eary and Grose, p. 537, and Garrett County property records.)

* "(applied but no follow-up available)" [Ed. note: Not sure what this footnote means]


Teachers at the "Galliger" School, District 8:

1885-86 Walter Nine
1886-87 Calvin Thompson
1887-89 Rhoda O. Gibson
1889-90 Titus Delawder
1890-91 Alice Brown
1891-92 Not available
1892-93 T.W. Gibson
1893-94 S.Z. Gibson
1894-95 Titus Delawder
1895-96 Edward Speicher
1896-97 Mrs. S.A. Laughlin
1897-99 J.W. Kildow

(Info as presented in Eary and Grose, p. 303.)

The annual reports of the State Board of Education include teachers' names, salaries, and budget information for the schools of Garrett County, and all the other Maryland counties as well. Several of these historic reports are available free online at archive.org, e.g,https://archive.org/details/twentyfifthannua1892mary The Maryland State Archive in Annapolis has more, although some years are missing even from their collection.

Most of the info above comes from Eary and Grose, Garrett County Schools of Yesteryear (Oakland, MD: 2008) pp. 302-303; 536-537. Property, census and school board records are publicly available.