African Americans History

Richard C. Edwards, Buffalo Soldier

Confederate Monument
American Civil War, 1861-1865
Rose Hill Cemetery, Cumberland, Maryland

Although erected almost fifty years after the close of the Civil War, Cumberland was still one of the first cities in Maryland to erect a monument in honor of the Confederate dead. This monument to the "Unknown Confederate Dead" was "erected by the Ladies of Cumberland, Maryland in 1912 to the heroes who died fighting for the lost cause." A tablet on the monument reads as follows:

Eli Truly, 1814-1877

Eli Truly served as a Private in Company C the 31st. Regiment Infantry of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). Truly, along with Edward Young, are the two black Union soldiers buried in Garrett County’s Oakland Cemetery. They are among the eighty-three veterans of the Civil War interred in the cemetery, thirteen of which are Confederate. According to his military records, Truly was born in Virginia and prior to his enlistment in Washington, D.C. was employed as a laborer.

Union Monument
Rose Hill Cemetery, Cumberland, Maryland
American Civil War
1861-1865

The monument depicted in this photograph was "erected with contributions of citizens, to honor the men of our county who fought for the Union 1861-65, by the Cumberland Women's Relief Corps."

The Union Memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1895.

ero Mitchell, according to National Archives and National Park Service records, was born in Baltimore. At the time of his U.S. Navy enlistment in Baltimore on April 23, 1864 he was 25 years of age, stood 5'10", and identified his occupation as a laborer. The 1870 census also shows him identified as a laborer with Cumberland as his home. His initial term of enlistment was for two years with the ranking of Landsman. Mitchell served aboard the USS Stettin, an iron-screw steamship, from September 1864 through March 1865, and the USS Kearsarge, a small sailing warship, from 1865 to 1866.

United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.) and Sumner Cemetery

Ruth Franklin was in the first graduation class of the Frederick Street School, for blacks, in 1923. In 1927 she became the first local teacher hired at that school, which in 1941 became known as Carver High School.

Ruth Franklin was regarded by her supervisor at the Board of Education as one of the most outstanding teachers in Allegany County. Upon the complete integration of Allegany County public schools in 1959 Ruth Franklin relocated to Allegany High School until her retirement in 1966.

Her obituary from the Cumberland Times-News:

James Fanto Deetz, 1930 - 2000, and "Parting Ways", the Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts.

James Deetz was born in Cumberland and in 1948 graduated from Fort Hill High School. He was known around school and the community for his love of bird watching, butterfly collecting, and thespian pursuits. Dr. James Deetz received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard, and in his own words was "an early case of affirmative action, providing for the admission of hillbillies to Ivy League institutions."

The Carver High's last graduating class, 1955

The upper photograph depicts the last class that graduated from Cumberland's Carver High School. The year was 1955 and the names are as follows:
Front row, left to right: Herman Washington, Genevieve Cole, Paul Washington, Ann Hunter and Frank Page.
Back row, left to right are: Lester Frazier, James "Sonny" Courtney, Robert Lewis and Wayne Stewart. Missing at the time the photograph was taken is Elizabeth Ann Lee.

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Frederick Street School alumni, 1978

Depicted here in Carver High School's shop class are, from left to right, Gerald Holly, Spurgeon Washington, and Roger Jones.