African Americans History

McKendree Church, Paca Street McKendree Church Notes Anniversary

The McKendree United Methodist Church, Paca Street, will celebrate its 127th anniversary beginning with the 9:30 a.m. service Sunday.

Guest speaker will be Bishop D. Frederick Wertz of the Baltimore Annual Conference. The choir will sing several selections.

Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. a covered-dish supper will be followed by an "old fashioned" hymn fest led the choir.

The cover of the 1928 anniversary program at McKendree United Methodist church.

The McKendree Methodist Episcopal congregation, later known as the McKendree United Methodist Church, was established in 1854. Prior to that time congregants were seated in the balcony and worshiped at the Centre Street Methodist Episcopal Church. It was also in 1854 that the original McKendree site, a modern two-story brick structure, was purchased on North Centre Street in Cumberland. The membership at that time was about forty people. By 1878, McKendree had a Sunday School and a membership that had more than doubled to 90.

This article was reported under the "Local Affairs - Incidents and Events at Home and Nearby" column which routinely appeared in the Daily News of Cumberland, Maryland.

Local ties to the Underground Railroad

Teresa McMinn, Cumberland Times-News

Mystery, folklore and patchy records surround the reasons that Samuel Semmes and Samuel Denson ended up in Cumberland.

At face value, Semmes was a Confederate slave owner, while Denson had escaped bondage.

A closer look, however, suggests they might have shared a common goal.

Community can take pride in tunnels
Escaped slaves likely sought refuge beneath downtown church

Matthew Bieniek Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — Fleeing slaves finding their way north likely found a resting place and a bit of food and drink beneath Emmanuel Parish of the Episcopal Church in Cumberland. The low-ceiling, often-narrow tunnels are all that remain of Fort Cumberland, and over the years, an abolitionist rector turned the tunnels into a stop on the Underground Railroad, the route that escaped slaves followed to freedom.

City celebrates being part of Underground RR

CUMBERLAND — "I looked over Jordan and what did I see, coming for to carry me home? A band of angels coming after me, coming for to carry me home."

The words of the spiritual were familiar in the mid-1800s to black men and women who stood on the southern bank of the Ohio River near Ripley, W.Va., staring into Ohio and freedom from slavery on the far side.

Underground Railroad history

City woman recalls grandfather's role

MARIA D. MARTIRANO

FEBRUARY 9, 2004

CUMBERLAND —
As a child walking home from Frederick Street School, Romaine Franklin would stop by to see her grandfather, who gave her a coin each time.

She'd ask how he was doing, and he would respond "just tolerable." Then he asked which grandchild she was. And once she answered, he'd give her a nickel or a dime.

"I was one of his spoiled grandchildren," she said.

Emmanuel Parish was founded in 1803. The cornerstone for the stone Gothic Revival Emmanuel Episcopal Church was laid in May 1849 with the consecration being held on October 16, 1851. It eventually cost $18,000 to erect the Church. The adjoining parish hall was constructed in 1901. In that same year, the entire property was enclosed by the existing stone wall. The church stands on the former site of Fort Cumberland.

The following text is taken from a brochure produced by the Emmanuel Episcopal Church of Cumberland. It is to a significant extent based upon oral histories:

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