by Anne Raines, Capital Grants and Loans Program Administrator
 |
| Laboring Sons Memorial Ground |
Just up the hill from the main street of Sharpsburg is a
modest one-room board and batten structure, neatly painted white and crowned by
a small bell tower, standing watch over a small and well-tended cemetery.
About 20 miles away, in the center of the city of Frederick,
a quiet acre serves as the final resting place of over 1,500 individuals,
commemorated by a prominent granite marker.
The sites, as different as they may seem, serve as significant
monuments to the African American experience in western Maryland.
First, the Sharpsburg story.
In 1865 a circuit preacher for the black Methodist Episcopal Church, a former
Virginia slave named John R. Tolson, founded a mission church in Sharpsburg, a
stone’s throw from the site of the Battle of Antietam. A small congregation of African Americans joined
hands in 1867 to build a house of worship they called Tolson’s Chapel. The one-room log structure took on
added
importance a year later when it also became a school. The teacher was provided first
by the Freedmen’s Bureau and later by Washington County; around 1900 a
dedicated school for African American children was constructed nearby.
The cemetery, which was active since at least the 1880s,
contains the graves of approximately 80 individuals. From the cemetery and local records a compelling
portrait of the African American community emerges: men who were enslaved on farms
that bore the brunt of the Battle of Antietam; an original trustee of the
church who was born in slavery in Virginia and served in the U.S. Colored
Infantry; a woman, already free before Emancipation, who donated a Bible to
Tolson’s Chapel.
 |
| Tolson's Chapel |
Over the years the congregation slowly dwindled, and by the
time the chapel was closed by the United Methodist Church in 1994 only two
members remained; the last surviving member was buried in Tolson’s Chapel
cemetery in 1996. Beginning in 2003, the
chapel was restored under the aegis of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation
and, later, Friends of Tolson’s Chapel, led by President Edie Wallace. Highly skilled contractor David Gibney of
Restoration Specialists, Inc. undertook the sensitive work of log replacement
and rechinking; repairs to foundation, sills, and board and batten siding;
restoration of windows; reinstallation of a wood shingle roof; and
reconstruction of a bell cupola. Much of
that work was funded through the Maryland Historical Trust’s Capital Grant
program.
 |
| Before |
 |
| After |
With the chapel looking proud once again, the Friends of
Tolson’s Chapel sought grant funding from the newly formed African American
Heritage Preservation Program for investigation and restoration of the cemetery
and grave markers. The grant covered the
costs of a preservation needs assessment by the Chicora Foundation, an
archeology and cemetery preservation firm based in South Carolina. The study included the use of
ground-penetrating radar to map possible unmarked graves. The grant also funded the restoration of each
individual grave marker, which entailed re-setting markers, piecing broken
stones together, patching spalls and cracks, and gently cleaning the stones,
which in some cases revealed previously unnoticed details. The restoration of the markers, as well as
the chapel’s cornerstone, was undertaken by conservator TaMara Conde of
Historic Gravestone Services in Massachusetts.
All of those loving labors reassert Tolson’s Chapel’s place in the
history of this small western Maryland town.
 |
| Laboring Sons Memorial Ground |
The story of the Laboring Sons Memorial Ground in Frederick
stands in sharp relief to the history of Tolson’s Chapel. Over 160 years ago, the Beneficial Society of
Laboring Sons of Frederick, an African American fraternal organization, established
a small cemetery on Chapel Alley between Fifth and Sixth Streets on the eastern
side of the city. Originally, the
Society provided for burials for both free and enslaved blacks who worked as
carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, barbers, and waiters in Frederick and the
surrounding area. From 1851 to 1949, this
cemetery became the final resting place for over 1,500 individuals.
By 1949 the Society no longer had the means or the manpower
to continue the upkeep and operation of the cemetery, so the remaining members
deeded the property to the City. That
year, city workers recorded approximately 150 grave stones, then converted the
cemetery into Chapel Alley Park, which for many years was a whites-only
playground.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, descendants of those
interred in the Laboring Sons cemetery brought attention to the site. The City’s
1949 list of grave stones soon came to light.
Mayor Jim Grimes supported a preliminary archeological study of the
site, and in 2003 the park was rededicated as a memorial, including an imposing
granite marker bearing the names of those known to be buried there.
In 2010, Frederick Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation
Roelkey Myers, whose involvement with the project stretched back a decade,
applied for and received an African American Heritage Preservation Program
grant to complete the park. Sidewalks
were improved; lighting was installed; new benches were added. But the most significant improvement is that
wayside interpretive panels have been installed to tell the entire 160-year
story of the Beneficial Society of Laboring Sons and the cemetery they founded.
Stop sometime at Tolson’s Chapel and reflect upon the hands
that built it: the hands of slaves newly freed, aided by the powers of faith
and sheer determination. Linger at the
Laboring Sons Memorial Ground and consider the love of community that sustained
the cemetery over long generations and, after an absence of decades, ultimately
reclaimed it. Although small, these
sites tell a story as large as any.
Anne Raines is the
administrator of Capital Grant and Loan Programs at the Maryland Historical
Trust, including the African American Heritage Preservation Program
(AAHPP). The AAHPP provides grant funds
to encourage the identification and preservation of buildings, sites, and
communities of historical and cultural importance to the African American
experience in Maryland. Administered as
a joint partnership of the Maryland Commission on African American History and
Culture (MCAAHC) and the Maryland Historical Trust, the Program offers assistance
to non-profit organizations, local jurisdictions, business entities and private
citizens in their sponsorship of successful acquisition, construction, or
improvement of African American heritage properties. For more information about the program,
please contact Anne at anne.raines@maryland.gov or 410.514.7634.
Sources & Links
Tolson’s Chapel:
Laboring Sons Memorial Ground:
http://ww2.gazette.net/gazette_archive/2000/200007/thurmont/news/a348-1.html
Posts
