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Year of Jubilee (1863)
20th Century |
River Alley, Doctor Jones and Freedom Seekers
A
small African American community developed in the 1840s along River
Alley, but in particular near the intersection with Barbara Alley.
One of the anchors of this neighborhood was the household of "Doctor" William
Jones and his wife Mary. The Jones' were leaders in Harrisburg's African
American community, and in addition to his unofficial title of "Doctor,"
William was also affectionately known as "Father Jones."
Intersection of River and Barbara Alleys
This
neighborhood was located at the northern limits of the borough, when
it began, which may have limited its vitality and importance to the
overall African American community. However, the remote character of
the area worked to the advantage of those anti-slavery activists who
were engaged in hiding fugitive slaves. This was one of the locations
in Harrisburg where white and African American activists partnered
to thwart the plans of slave catchers, as described below.
From
The Year of Jubilee, Men of God
William
M. Jones was born in Maryland about 1791 and came to Harrisburg about
1823, establishing himself with his wife Mary in River Alley near
Barberry (later Barbara) Street, on the northern edge of town. Other
African Americans also lived in this neighborhood, including the formerly
enslaved man Fleming Mitchell, but the neighborhood did not acquire the
unique identity that other Harrisburg African American neighborhoods,
such as Judy’s Town, did. Jones followed several pursuits,
working for years as helper to a town druggist, but became notorious
for his knowledge of herbal remedies and folk medicine, and by the
1840s was known even by white residents as “Doctor” Jones.
Although
he collected fees for his treatments, Jones lacked the fancy diploma
that would allow him to put professional letters after his name,
and as a result, he took on a variety of other jobs to support his
large family, one of which was the collection of rags from rag pickers
for resale to paper makers. Jones turned this lowly social station
to his benefit, however, using the cover of unobtrusive rag merchant on
his rounds, while he carried out Underground Railroad missions.
Frederick Kelker sent freedom seekers, whom he had briefly taken into his Front
Street mansion, to Jones at Barbara Street. Kelker owned
a barn near Jones’ frame house, so regular traffic
between Front Street and a nearby barn would have been a normal
occurrence, unlikely to arouse suspicion from neighbors or watching slave catchers
along the riverfront. When fugitives arrived at the barn, Jones
took charge of them, secreting them in his own house where they
were fed and cared for.
Although
white Underground Railroad activists seldom used their own homes
to hide fugitives—the Front Street mansions of Dr. Rutherford
and Frederick Kelker being notable exceptions—free African
Americans commonly welcomed freedom seekers into their homes,
despite the dangers.
The homes of African American residents, however, were not safe
from a surprise search, if slave catchers suspected that their
prey was
hidden within. Slave catchers would smash through the front door
of an African American household with impunity, if they had sufficient
numbers in their party to fight off a possible challenge from
the inhabitants.
If they felt they could not raid the house on their own, they
solicited back up from the local sheriff and deputies, who often
eagerly obliged them.
Because
of this constant threat of a sudden surprise raid, Doctor Jones had
a special hiding place prepared for such emergencies.
Builders of the modest wooden row houses in River Alley had
mimicked a feature
of the brick and stone townhouses on Harrisburg’s fashionable
main thoroughfares by including a narrow covered passageway
from the alley to the rear yard. Jones had modified the passage
between his
house and the adjoining house by placing a movable board over
the alley entrance. To the unknowing observer in front of his
house in the alley,
the board appeared to be part of the house’s outer wall.
Behind it, however, fugitive slaves crouched unseen in the
narrow passageway
until the danger had passed.
(p.527-529)
The
photo above shows modern day Barbara Street from the intersection with
River Alley, looking west toward Front Street and the Susquehanna River.
Barbara Street was originally laid out as Barberry Alley, in keeping
with the scheme of naming alleys after fruit-producing plants
and shrubs. These east to west secondary streets, originally designated
as alleys, were Cherry, Blackberry,Strawberry, Cranberry and Barberry.
Two of the town's original north to south alleys also bore the name
of fruits: Dewberry and Raspberry (Raspberry later became Court Alley).
An
African American church was begun at the intersection of River Alley
and Walnut Street. This church, the borough's third African American
church, served Harrisburg's African American Presbyterians, and was
under the leadership of Charles Gardiner. From the Year of Jubilee:
Men of Muscle:
African
American Presbyterians, by 1857, worshipped generally on their own in
conjunction with the established
church, although they were not recognized as a separate congregation
by their church’s General Assembly as such. Late in that year,
Joseph Bustill and Mordecai McKinney began discussing the formation
of an official
African American Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg. Bustill contacted
an old friend in Philadelphia, Reverend Charles W. Gardiner, then about
seventy-five years old, who visited Harrisburg in September to explore
the idea further and to negotiate possible aid and support for the
church with Reverend DeWitt.
It
turned out to be a bad time, economically, to discuss financing a new
church. The nation was in the midst of a financial downturn that
had put an end to the economic boom that followed the Mexican War.
Plans for the new “Colored Presbyterian Church” were put
aside indefinitely through the winter, and only revived when tragedy
struck the First Presbyterian Church on March 22, 1858, in the form of a disastrous fire that burned
the sixteen year old building to the ground, along with most of its
records.
The
homeless Presbyterian congregation was forced to hold services in
Brant’s Hall, the new four-story public building that had been
built by entrepreneur John H. Brant—the employer of James Phillips—in
1855 next to the courthouse. It was in Brant’s Hall, while
squashed together in a too-small space for Sunday services, that
Harrisburg’s
Presbyterians realized that a split was imminent. From this arrangement,
two new and separate churches would be constructed for the white
congregants, and one for the African American congregation.
In
April, Harrisburg’s Presbyterian African Americans rented from
the Haldeman family the second floor of the building at the southwest
corner of Walnut Street and River Alley and prepared to hold
temporary services there, under the direction of Reverend DeWitt and
his assistant pastor, Reverend Thomas Robinson. Mordecai McKinney agreed to
supervise the Sunday school, and in mid-April, Reverend Gardiner returned
to Harrisburg from Philadelphia to officially take charge of the
new church. Assisting Reverend Gardiner were elders Jeremiah Kelly, a local tradesman,
and Hiram Baker.
The
charter congregation included the provisioner and caterer Curry Taylor,
now in his mid-fifties, and his wife Elizabeth;
Matilda Greenly, wife of Harrisburg caterer and oyster restaurateur
James Greenly; several more members related to the Kelly family; and Hannah
Humphreys, who would shortly become Joseph Bustill’s sister-in-law. (p.
165-166)
The
original site of the "Second Presbyterian Church (Colored)," as
it was named, is now occupied by the eastern wing of the Dauphin County
Library building, on Walnut Street. During the invasion of June 1863,
the church was scheduled to be used as a military hospital, to treat
the many wounded men expected to flood the town as enemy forces approached.
The old Lancasterian School on Walnut Street, and the Female Academy, were also to be
used as hospitals.
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All
photographs and text on this page copyright © 2011 George F. Nagle
and Afrolumens Project.
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