Dickerson / Barnesville

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Now part of Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve, and running along the Baltimore and Ohio train line—now called MARC—this area is still very rural. It is the site of one of the oldest historic Black communities in the county—Big Woods, begun by Rev. Elijah Awkard who was one of the largest and most successful Black farmers in the county in the mid-1800s.

This area of the county is also the site of the last historic Black community in the county—and possibly, the state—to still have all three pillars of these communities: the church, school and lodge—Martinsburg, also known as the Warren United Methodist Church Historic District.

Big Woods

Dickerson, MD

The (Medley) district’s 67 free people of color lived both within white households and in independent households. Ten white households included residents who were free people of color. There were only nine independent free Black households. Of these nine households, just four Black men owned real estate. Census enumerator Josiah Faney classified only two of these four landowners’ occupations as ‘farmer’: Philip Spencer and Elijah Awkard. (Blair 2024, p. 42. Information from the 1860 U.S. Agricultural Census)

Located at the northern end of the Blue Ridge Mountain range, in the northwest corner of Montgomery County, one of the earliest historic Black communities in Montgomery County, Big Woods, on Big Woods Road in Dickerson, was founded in 1813. James Spencer bought 50 acres of land...

Blocktown (linked with Turnertown and White Ground Road)

Boyds, MD

Founded by Thomas A. and Jennie Jackson in 1884, when they bought 12 acres of land on Slidell Road near Rt. 117. An industrious couple, neither Thomas nor Jennie had been able to find an opportunity to learn to read or write. They couldn’t read the mortgage agreement they were signing, or even sign their own names...

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Thompson A. Jackson House, Blocktown. (McDaniel, Black Historical Resources, p. 67)

Bucklodge

Boyds, MD

Bucklodge is down Bucklodge Road from Blocktown. Named after the Buck Lodge Branch of Little Seneca Creek, it grew in size after the railroad came through in the late 1870s. Black residents may have been employed in maintenance and other jobs on the railroad.

There was also Darby’s Grist and Saw Mill, seen on the 1865 Martenet Map off what is today Old Bucklodge Lane. (Martenet 1865) These enterprises and farm labor would have provided local employment. (Wilson 1966, 8)

Please contact us if you have any information about this historic community.

Rural road in Montgomery County.

Martinsburg

Dickerson, Md

Nathan Naylor, the founder of Martinsburg, appears in the 1850 census as a free Black man living in Darnestown working as a laborer, (one of few free Blacks in the area,) has no assets and cannot read or write.

Mr. Naylor was born in Cold Spring, MD, up the river in Washington County, MD. His parents were born in Virginia. Could he have found work on the canal and traveled 60 miles down the Potomac to work as a laborer?

More to come...

Martinsburg

Warren United Methodist Church, Martinsburg, Montgomery County, MD

Owensville

Dickerson, MD

In 1936 three Owen brothers built homes next to each other here. The homes still remain. This small community is connected to Sellman and Big Woods; their children would have attended the same schools and the families attended the same church, Mt. Zion United Methodist.

Owens Park, Beallsville, MD

Sellman

Barnesville, MD

The Sellman family were white landowners who owned a large farm next to the B&O Railroad in Barnesville, MD. The farm still exists, but the historic Black Sellman community of their former enslaved farm laborers is gone, replaced by industrial lots.

In this small community, a remarkable woman named Mozella Coleman Owens tragically lost five of her children in a kitchen fire back in the 1950s (fires were a regular occurrence back in the days of woodstoves). She went on to foster 21 children...

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Sellman

Sellman farm & Sellman Road

Thompson's Corner

Thompson’s Corner

We can't find any information on Thompson's Corner. Please contact us if you have any stories to share!

Turnertown

Boyds, MD

Turnertown is located on a beautiful rural road in upper Montgomery County. Children from Turnertown, as well as the nearby White Ground and Blocktown communities, attended the Boyds Negro School from 1895-1936. A historic church, St. Mark's United Methodist, still stands.

St. Mark's United Methodist Church, Boyds, MD

Backyard gardens

Many Black families in the county grew and stored their own food, including fruits, vegetables, corn, chickens and hogs. This gave them access to delicious meals, but also provided security when employment was insecure and stores were difficult to reach.

Some families were able to share their harvest with the less fortunate in their communities, or to sell or barter, giving them more economic flexibility. And relatives who hopped on the train from D.C. or downcounty after church on Sundays to come upcounty for a visit could count on a dinner of delicious home-grown, home-cooked fried chicken, collard or turnip greens, black-eyed peas and other delicacies served as young cousins played tag in the fresh country air. An aunt who made the best greens or a mom who shared delicious dinner rolls with hungry children created lasting, warm memories.

Photo by Elias Morr on Unsplash.

References

Blair, Melissa F. 2024. “Working freedom: Black farmers building industrious landscapes in Maryland, 1814-1880.” Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes 44, no. 1 (May): 38-56.

Buglass, Ralph. 2025. Montgomery County, Maryland’s Historic African-American Communities. Maryland: Montgomery History.

District of Columbia Freedman's Bureau Records 1865-72. 1867. Nathan Nailor & wife deed for colored school, Property transferred to school trustees for school. Familysearch.org: D.C. Freedman's Bureau.

HUD Office of Policy Development & Research. 2025. “A History of the Rise of Homeownership in the United States.” PD & R Edge Magazine (HUD), (July).

Martenet, Simon J. 1865. “Martenet and Bond's map of Montgomery County, Maryland,” 1865 map of Montgomery County, MD. Library of Congress.

McDaniel, George W. 1979. Black Historical Resources in Upper Western Montgomery County. Maryland: Sugarloaf Regional Trails.

McHenry, Elizabeth. 1995. “Dreaded eloquence": The origins and rise of African American literary societies and libraries.” Harvard Library Bulletin 6, no. 2 (Summer): 32-56.

U. S. Census Bureau. 2000. “Historical Census of Housing Tables: Homeownership,” Homeownership Rates 1900-2000. Census housing tables.

Wilson, Everett B. 1966. “Communities Along the Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.” The Montgomery County Story X, no. 1 (November): 1-9.

Unattributed photos by Neile Whitney.