Allegany County Maryland--History

$ 25 REWARD.
Ran away from the subscriber living in Cumberland, on Thursday morning, the 31st of
January last, a black man
named
JERRY
about 25 years old, of a dark complexion, about 5 feet 5 or 6 inches high, and tolerably well built. He is a tolerable good rough Carpenter —a good cook, and can do almost any kind of farming work. No particular body marks or scars recollected. He took with him a fur Hat, a drab cloth Roundabout, one pair of brown and one of blue cloth Pantaloons. No other clothing particularlary recollected.

Jerome: The Runaway Slave Who Returned - 50 Years Later

Note: Jacob Brown, author of Brown's Miscellaneous Writings, tells the following story about a runaway slave from the Grantsville area named Jerome. Brown recorded the story in 1889:

Jerome, as a youth, was brought to the Grantsville area from Georgetown, Md., by a man who had a number of slaves. Brown described him as "... an exceedingly bright, likely, and intelligent boy. Jerome was then about 17 years of age, fair skinned, and as intelligent as any white man in the neighborhood.

$50 REWARD RAN AWAY from the subscriber, living in Petersburg, Hardy county, Va. On Saturday the 3d inst. a bright mulatto man called
Jess

A Runaway.
Was committed to the jail of Allegany county, Maryland, on the 21st day of August last, a negro man named CHRISTOPHER ATERS, who says he was commonly called, when at home, by the name of KIT, aged about twenty-five or thirty years. Had on when committed, a blue Cassinett short coat, brown Cassinett pantaloons, homemade waistcoat and also a hair cap. He says he belongs to a Mr. Balwin Luvee, of Faquier County, Va.
The owner is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges, and take him away, otherwise he will be discharged according to law.

"Aunt Judy", 1805-1866

Her tombstone reads
"A Faithful Friend and Helper
There is neither bond nor free for all are one in Christ Jesus."

Aunt Judy was a one-time local slave and later servant in the Robert Hall McCleave (1808-1886) household, in whose family plot she is buried. In 1860, Allegany County was identified as having 666 slaves, 467 free "colored", and 27,215 whites.

This runaway slave notice for Aaron and Henry Adams appeared in The Advocate, Cumberland, Maryland, Wednesday, January 11, 1832. The slave notices appeared in the back of The Advocate in a section called "The Allegany Advertiser" which featured all types of ads for things to buy and sell.

Howard High School, Piedmont, West Virginia

The first organized efforts to open a school (in Piedmont, West Virginia) which Negro children could attend was located below Hampshire Street, above the B&O Railroad track, often referred to as "Chicken Ladder." After three years of operation, the private school was incorporated into the charge of the Board of Education in 1880.

The Cumberland Street School was replaced as a high school in 1908 with the building of Allegany County High School which was located on the corner of Greene and Lee Streets, the current site of the Coca-Cola Plant and Greene Street Gas Station.

James William Goldsworthy was a 1931 graduate of Keyser High School and was the school's first graduate to become its principal. He began teaching at Piedmont in 1936 and went to Keyser Junior High from 1937 to 1940. He taught at the high school from 1941 to 1951 when he became assistant principal, then became the principal in 1959. He retired in 1971. James William Goldsworthy passed away in 2003 at the age of 89.

Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 1950 -

Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. was born in Keyser and raised in Piedmont, Mineral County, West Virginia. This is located just across the Potomac River from Westernport and Luke, Maryland in the southwestern portion of Allegany County. His father, Henry Louis Gates, Sr., worked at the nearby paper-mill, the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company during the day, and as a night janitor at the local telephone company building. His mother, Pauline Coleman Gates, helped provide for the family by cleaning houses.