+family legacy
the dixons. storer college+niagara movement+john brown
sunni knight

Once upon a time in a place called Charles Town, in what would become the State of West Virginia, there lived the beginnings of a family of “Mulattos” as they were described in the census of 1850. Their surname was Dixon. The person listed on the 1850 census named Archilles, with the occupation of Blacksmith, was the son of Jemima Dixon and appears to be one of five children. Their paternity is, at this point, unsubstantiated. According to family lore, Achilles (and presumably the others) was fathered by a white man by the name of “Lane” who was said to be the son of the “secretary” of Chief Justice John Marshall. According to biographies, Justice Marshall was born in Fauquier County, VA and practiced law in both Germantown, MD and an area described as being in the “ Blue Ridge Mountain Valley.” He frequented the areas in and around Charles Town and Washington, DC prior to making his permanent home in Richmond, VA. Research indicates that the name of Jemima’s “suitor” was more likely John Laidley, a fellow lawyer who was periodically in the Charles Town area around the appropriate times and acted as Marshall’s mentee. Laidley eventually settled in Huntington, WVA where he founded a school named after his friend and mentor, Justice Marshall. That being said I still look upon the issue as a mystery yet to be solved.

Archilles paid $100 on August 19, 1839 (according to a bill of sale found in Charles Town records) to a Mrs. Margaret Kearsley- a prominent Charles Town resident- for the freedom of his wife, Ellen and their two children, William and Urania Camilla. According to more unsubstantiated lore, Ellen was the offspring of a liaison between the one of the daughters of a man named Zachariah Connells and an Iroquois Indian who lived on the property. Zachariah was the first permanent white settler and therefore, according to American tradition, the “founder” of Connellsville, PA in 1770. Zachariah was a Welshman and captain in the Revolutionary War that came to the area as an agent for 2 governors (Virginia and Maryland) and a prominent Philadelphia family. It therefore follows that an unmarried daughter’s half breed baby would not have been acceptable as a family member. Given the mores and customs of the time it is not a reach to hypothesize that the child could have been indentured to a prominent Charles Town family such as the Kearsley’s. (Mr. Kearsley was a lawyer whose name is repeatedly evident in Jefferson County legal documents of the period). Archilles, in his capacity of blacksmith, would have had a far reaching clientele and in this way he probably met, married and was eventually able to purchase Ellen’s freedom.

In 1795, 6 years before Jefferson County, West Virginia was organized, the property at 115 Liberty Street on the corner of Samuel Street and Liberty Avenue in Charles Town, West Virginia was purchased. The original parcel was about a quarter of the total block which contained a log cabin and a separate building housing a smithy. Eventually the property consisted of the main house (which was expanded by 5 rooms and provided with a basement), the blacksmith shop, a pig sty, a cow barn, a smoke house, a spring house, an outhouse, a summer kitchen, a cistern and a garden. And even later, another four room house was built on the lot as well. There is a hand drawn map showing the placement of the buildings sitting in my file cabinet. The property was known to still be in the hands of the Dixon family in 1945 by way of an article in The Advocate, a local newspaper, speaking of 150 years of never mortgaged, continuous ownership. It was at that time owned by a John J. Dixon – presumably the heir of the youngest son of Ellen and Archilles Dixon.

The smaller house was said to be the initial meeting place of the school that came to be known as Storer College. Storer was the first African American school in West Virginia and was established to educate former slaves. Storer was officially established in 1867, moved to nearby Harper’s Ferry, and became a Normal and Liberal Arts institution that operated until 1955. Frederick Douglas was a trustee of the school and delivered a historic speech on the subject of John Brown at Storer in 1881. (Noteworthy at the time because Harper’s Ferry was Brown’s stomping grounds, so to speak.) The school was, in 1906, the site of the second conference of the Niagara Movement (which later became the NAACP) headed by Dr. W.E.B. Dubois. At onetime there was an extensive campus but a fire destroyed many of the original buildings and others were demolished as safety hazards. Some of the buildings still exist and are used as the Stephen T. Mather Training Center, a training institute for Rangers and Park Managers, and house a small museum/ picture gallery. The site is on a hill above a very old graveyard. You can also visit Storer at www.nps.gov/hafe/storer.htm . Along with historical information the website consists of many faculty and student group photos. My sister and I enjoyed looking for the names and speculating over the faces of possible relatives.

The square block on which the Dixon property stood is occupied by the Jefferson County Courthouse and jail and is pretty much in the center of the town. It is attested to that during the Civil War Charles Town sustained considerable Union (or Federal as you prefer) shelling because of it’s proximity to the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry and John Brown’s activities. It is said that during one attack Archilles hid in the cistern while Ellen and the kids were in the basement and that the house was imbedded with shot from Union guns thereafter. It is also said that they could hear the proceedings of the John Brown trial from their yard.

It would be interesting to find out when this property passed out of Dixon ownership. My son and I visited the courthouse, and therefore the land on which the house once stood, and I don’t remember anything but that building and the jail.