Poolesville
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Poolesville's economy depended on farming and slavery from its founding in the late 1700s, through the Civil War. Its white population was almost entirely Confederate, and in part because of this and because of its strategic location near White's Ferry, it became a Union encampment of about 12,000 soldiers during the war. In 1862, the Second Confiscation and Militia Act allowed Black men to serve in the Army, which attracted self-emancipated and free Black men from Maryland and Virginia.
In April 1865, when the war ended, some of the Black soldiers from Maryland and Virginia who had served there stayed and helped form some of Poolesville's Black communities. Other communities were begun by Black families who had been enslaved nearby.
Alabama
Poolesville, Md
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The Alabama community is a mystery. It existed somewhere on W. Willard Rd. A few different accounts tell us that the Summerville family (one generation shown on the following page) lived there.
It may have been a kinship community made up only of Summerville's. Memories from the elders tell us that a man named Bill Summerville was a bellringer and handyman for Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church, around the corner. However, the two different sketches we have show slightly different locations. And the Summervilles may not have been part of Alabama.
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There are also stories of a juke joint...
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Alabama, cont'd... (coming soon)
Poolesville, Md
Early residents of Jerusalem included Robert Williams, Wallace and Dennis Hamilton, John Harper, William Robinson, and Frank and Mollie Dorsey.
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More recent famous descendants include Noah Clarke, who campaigned for and raised money for the Rosenwald school on Jerusalem Road, for George Washington Carver High School (later called Lincoln High School) in Rockville, and for bringing about racial integration in the school system. His niece, Nina Honemond Clarke, and granddaughter, Tina Clarke, continued his activism in the Montgomery County school system.
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Jerusalem
Jonesville
Poolesville, Md
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Richard and Erasmus Jones founded this community in 1866 after the Civil War, when Erasmus was 22 years old. By 1870, a community had grown up around them, including Peter and Cristy Davis, George and Louisa George, Jerry and Caroline Jackson, Leven and Ruth Hall, Thomas and Elizabeth Harper and their families.
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"When I was a little girl,” says Chanell Kelton, “I used to tell my friends that my house is one of the oldest houses in Maryland.” (Keyes)
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A log cabin built by the Jones brothers in about 1874, is an important part of an exhibit on Reconstruction at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Sugarland
Poolesville, MD
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"It was a community born out of slavery.... The church was one of the first community buildings they built. By them being in slavery, they learned trades. Some were blacksmiths. My great-grandfather made bricks. They took the skills they learned in slavery and helped each other building log cabins." ​
—Gwen Reese (2015), Sugarland elder & historian
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As the Civil War ended, both white and Black county residents in the Poolesville area would have had to create a new life in a landscape scarred by war. Union occupation and Confederate raids left the land decimated, with woodlands and fences used for firewood, fields trampled, and livestock appropriated for food. Area residents would have mourned the loss of friends and family, and struggled to reconcile living near neighbors with whom they had so recently been at war....
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Texas
Poolesville, Md
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The community of Texas was located on Peach Tree Road near Jerusalem and Jonesville. The children from these communities first traveled seven miles to Sugarland for schooling. In 1912, they moved to an Odd Fellows Hall on Peachtree Road, which they called Old Union, until 1927 when the Rosenwald school on Jerusalem Road opened. Dedicated parents made sure that their children had a place to go to school up through the eighth grade.
In 1927, the first high school for Black students, the Rockville Colored High School first accepted about 40 students for grades 9-11. It was replaced in 1935 by Lincoln Junior/Senior High School, and in 1943, 12th grade was offered for the first time to Black students in the county.
Poolesville HBCs today
Poolesville is part of the Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve, and so has received less pressure from developers to tear down historic communities in order to build new suburban housing. However, many HBC descendants have left the area and moved downcounty or to Baltimore in search of non-farming employment. Some families moved away because taxes were too high. The lynching of George W. Peck in Poolesville (by “parties unknown”) in January 1880 created more fear among local Black residents. Communities began to shrink or disappear.
Fortunately, there are still many descendants in the county, and dedicated volunteers keep some of the bigger communities active and key buildings standing.
References
Clarke, Nina H., and Lillian B. Brown. 1978. History of the Black Public Schools of Montgomery County, Maryland, 1872-1961. D.C., Washington: Vintage Press.
The Crossroads of War and Freedom and Edith B. Wallace. 2024. “Reconstruction the Region.” In Article. Crossroads of War. https://www.crossroadsofwar.org/discover-the-story/reconstructing-the-region#:~:text=Return%20of%20the%20Soldiers,the%20preservation%20of%20our%20liberties .
Johnson, Suzanne. 2023. MoCoLMP Interview Suzanne Johnson of Sugarland, Sugarland is a historic Black community in Poolesville, MD. St. Paul Community Church, Poolesville, Maryland: Unpublished.
Johnson, Suzanne. 2023. “MoCoLMP interviews Suzanne Johnson of the Sugarland historic Black community, Maryland.” YouTube. Poolesville, Maryland: Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r304wTx26lM&list=PLizVuepFSmZMqBr29oxFXDXs81_IfqQ6K&index=5 .
Keyes, Allison. 2016. “For Nearly 150 Years, This One House Told a Novel Story About the African-American Experience.” Smithsonian Magazine, (Sep). https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/for-nearly-150-years-one-house-told-novel-story-african-american-epxperience-180960355/#:~:text=“When%20I%20was%20a%20little,steps%20was%20built%20around%201875 .
McDaniel, George W. 1979. Black Historical Resources in Upper Western Montgomery County, Maryland. Maryland: Sugarloaf Regional Trails.
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McDaniel, George W. 1982. Hearth & Home: Preserving a People's Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Smithsonian Institution. 1978-1979. “Historical Records related to the Jones-Hall-Sims House.” Smithsonian Institution. https://www.si.edu/object/archives/sova-nmaahc-a2013-110?destination=collection/search%3Fpage%3D90%26edan_q%3D%26edan_fq%255B0%255D%3Dtype%253A3d_package%2520OR%2520type%253Aead_collection%2520OR%2520type%253Aead_component%2520OR%2520type%253Aecr%2520OR%25 .
The Sugarland Ethnohistory Project and Jeffrey Sypeck. 2020. I Have Started for Canaan. Maryland: The Sugarland Ethnohistory Project.
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