Excursus: Maryland, My Maryland: Marriage Licenses Issued to African-American Couples in Oakland (Garrett County) MD, 1870-1902

The small African-American community of southern Garrett County of the late 19th and very early 20th century remains elusive. We know they are there because their names are in the federal censuses, there are references to their church activities at Oakland's Bethel AME church in the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper, and there are references to two "colored" schools in the annual reports from the county board of education to the Maryland State Department of Education.

It occurred to me to go through the marriage records for Garrett County to see if African-American couples are explicitly identified as such. And indeed they are. So I've been going through the Garrett County Circuit Court records to see what more we can learn about this community.



What the records tell us is that, in addition to marriages between African-American Marylanders, Oakland seems to have been a very popular destination for Aftrican-American West Virginians to get married: the majority of the licenses issued were not even issued to Maryland residents, but to residents of Taylor, Marshall, Mineral, and Randolph Counties, WV, and even as far away as Harrison County, WV.

This out-of-state popularity was likely owing to the fact that Maryland did not require a several-day waiting period between the date the license was issued and the marriage ceremony. But that's only conjecture on my part.

In order to keep this chart both usable and legible, I've included only the date of issuance of the license and the names and ages of the groom and bride. Were I to include all the other information, the typesize for the table would be microscopic. I could link to the full chart somewhere outside the blog, but then Google would not find it and in consequence neither would family history searchers.

This information was compiled from the records of the Garrett County Circuit Court on file at the Maryland State Archive in Annapolis, indexed as Record Group CM531, Microfilms CR 40147-8. Note that although Garrett County was formed in 1872, the first license issued to an African-American couple didn't occur until a year later.

The Garrett County Historical Society has also published Thirty Years of Garrett County Marriage Records: 1872 - 1902 (Oakland, MD: 2002), which abstracts all the licenses issued during that period. Note, however, that the editor of this publication elected not to include the customary racial designations for the brides and grooms that are indicated in the original ledger books.

Marriage Licenses Issued to African-American Couples

in Oakland (Garrett County) MD

1872 - 1902

Date Issued	Groom	Age	Bride	Age
15 Nov 1873	Galloway, James Thomas	22	Davis, Harriett Ann	20
28 Mar 1874	Davis, Daniel	24	Galloway, Sarah Frances	18
26 Apr 1874	Davis, John T.	33	Dunmark/Lunmark(?), Alice	17
14 Nov 1878	Notes, Oscar	24	Washington, Arabella	16
02 Jan 1879	Male, Granville	21	Male, Emily Jane	18
01 May 1879	Truly, James	22	Davis, Isabella	33
02 Dec 1879	Murray, Harrison	30	Collins, Lucinda	17
13 Feb 1880	Davis, Philip	35	Lucas, Missouri	18
29 Jul 1880	Brady, Smith	35	Swan, Celia B.	20
28 Dec 1880	Dunmore, Marlow	35	Collins, Barbara	18
20 Jun 1882	Lucky, John	31	Collins, Susannah	15
22 Nov 1882	Cole, Charles	24	Johnson, Caroline	28
24 Jun 1882	Braxton, George	22	See, Lizzie A.	18
07 Sep 1882	Swan, Wm. J.	23	Shelton, Emma	16
03 May 1884	Burley, Wm.	32	Pool, Jennie	17
21 Aug 1884	Kelly, J. F.	28	Ruker, Louisa	23
27 Apr 1885	Williams, John	21	Male, Susan	28
26 Sep 1885	Jones, Jesse	21	Howard, Mary	19
15 Sep 1886	Collins, Wilmer	22	Bennett, Mary	24
06 Jun 1888	Clark, Henry	29	Gant, Irene	25
18 Aug 1888	Washington, Alexander	21	Stewart, Mary P.	18
17 Sep 1888	Male, William O.	21	Cannedy, Lacy A.	16
14 Jan 1889	Taylor, Amos	21	Rogers, Lillie M.	19
29 Mar 1889	Young, Lincoln	22	Speelman, Harriet	25
10 Dec 1889	McDonald, Joseph M.	51	Thompson, Nancy	38
24 Mar 1890	Thomas, Solomon	20	Fishback, Rachel	22
10 Apr 1890	Dodd, Alexander	28	Thomas, Sarah	22
10 Apr 1890	Fishback, Ervin	25	Dodd, Mary	21
04 July 1890	Minard, Dewitt	21	Male, Rebecca	28
11 Mar 1891	Mail, Ellsworth	24	Miner, Minerva	18
24 Jul 1891	Ross, Andrew Green	45	Moreland, Sarah	20
18 Aug 1891	Thornton, John H.	28	Warren, Rachel	25
03 Oct 1891	Walker, Wm. H.	46	Whitely, Mrs. Jennie	32
30 Jun 1892	Owens, Ballard Preston	21	Norris, Lula Velrose	17
08 Sep 1893	Stewart, James Henry	27	Washington, Eliza	20
05 May 1894	Kennedy, Jonas	20	Miller, Mary M.	16
02 Jun 1894	Walker, James A.	32	Dandridge, Mary	28
08 Sep 1894	Gaunt, Richard	35	Cole, Carrie	28
23 Sep 1895	Webster, Edward Clark	30	Burgee, Lucretia	34
15 Oct 1895	Curtis, Warner	26	Randolph, Georgiana	25
24 Aug 1897	Mayle, Charles Ross	26	Pritchard, Eleby Jane	19
07 Apr 1898	Beaner, Wesley Daniel	23	Stout, Hattie Ellen	18
28 May 1898	Biggs, Archibald Thomas	25	Notes, Arvilla	34
28 Jun 1898	Wilson, George	35	Key, Ella	24
29 Mar 1899	Gilson, Guy	23	Brooks, Cinderella	19
26 Apr 1899	Jones, William Henry Harrison	21	Bird, Nancy L.	46
10 Aug 1899	Woods, Charles	38	Revels, Laura	28
22 Nov 1899	Moore, Richard William	27	Pleasants, Maggie May	21
16 Jul 1900	Jackson, Wheeler	25	Taylor, Ella	24
27 Aug 1900	Rolls, Price	25	Moore, Josephine	22
30 Aug 1900	Hinton, Ernest	24	Blake, Lizzie	24
12 Oct 1900	McGuffin, Andrew Jackson	29	Twine, Martha	27
27 May 1902	Davis, David William	27	Galloway, Emma J.	23
06 Sep 1901	Powell, John Henry	49	Smith, Mary	30
09 Jun 1902	Jones, William	44	Pleasants, Anna Maria	36
17 Jun 1902	Colbert, Richard	42	Clement, Lucy	23
17 Jul 1902	Clark, Ernest Brown	22	Knotes, Pauline	18
22 Jul 1902	Fisher, Emmett	25	Banks, Harriet	21
19 Aug 1902	Harper, Lucius	24	Bolden, Hattie	21
20 Aug 1902	Galloway, Joseph	35	Morris, Virginia Estelle	39
22 Aug 1902	Winston, Robert	27	Washington, Fanny	22
01 Sep 1902	Galloway, William	41	Wilson, Mrs. Cecelia	43
02 Oct 1902	Younger, James Thomas	21	Clements, Ellen May