Did You Know? #17- The First Public School in Guilford for Black Children was started by the First Baptist Church of Guilford in 1904?

In the last post it was established that although there was a school for white children in Guilford opened about 1877 and the closest school for Black children was in Annapolis Junction near, or on, the Asbury Church property that opened in the fall of 1884. The school at Asbury was 2 miles from the school at Guilford, both of which were small one room school houses. In 1889, Samuel Green represented Guilford residents in their request for a school house for the Black children but that did not occur until more than a decade later.

Information Used for Research

A difficulty in tracing the public schools in Howard County are the lack of any compilations and specific records. We rely upon the Howard County School Board minutes (https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/hcpssmd/Board.nsf/Public - select "meetings"), the reports that the school board submitted annually to the State Board of Education (many now available on Google books), the 1860 and 1878 historic maps of Martinet and Hopkins, respectively, the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties (https://mht.maryland.gov/mihp/), property deeds and records with the Howard County Historical Society (https://hchsmd.org/). There may be more information in County Commissioner and General Assembly records but those are rare to find. The more research we do the more we learn how to put the pieces together.

The Howard County Historical Society provided what could be a photo of this early school (see below) but it cannot be confirmed. The original inscription on it indicated it was believed to be an early photo of the school. The Maryland Historical Trust has an undated photo of the school but likely taken in 1977 when the Howard County Historical Sites inventory was done and the form submitted to MHT (https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/PDF/Howard/HO-442.pdf). Does anyone recognize these buildings?

The Maryland Granite Company and New Schools

In March of 1902 the Maryland Granite Company, established just the year before, was a growing employer of the area and requested a new school house be built. But the next month the School Board denied the request and would reconsider when the Company had brought most of their worked and established that it wouldn’t just be a temporary operation. At first I had believed they were requesting a school for the Black children but a closer look at the records makes me believe this would be a school for the white children. At that time, when the School Board minutes was referring to a school for Black children, they almost always would have the notation that it was a colored school.

In the spring of 1902, Lillian Earp was finishing up her first year teaching at Public School #3 in District 6 at Guilford replacing John T.R.R. Carroll who was one of the first teachers to formally retire in Howard County. Ms. Earp would soon be teaching in a two room school with an assistant, Nellie M. Harn. With the Maryland Granite Company employing more men who are bringing and raising families, a delegation was back at the School Board meeting in July of 1904 asking for additional accommodations at the Guilford school as well as an assistant teacher. At the same time, “a delegation of colored citizens were before the Board asking for a colored school near Guilford – at least requesting the Board to give them a teacher.”

A “new school” at Guilford

The request to build a “new school” to replace the existing one was granted and awarded to Mr. Reely to build for $745 in October 1904. The exact location of the new school compared to the existing one has not been determined but School #3 did not appear to close at any point during this period. The trustees for the 1904-1905 school year were Henry A. Penny, Siebert Vollmerhausen, and William E. Carr.

A “colored school” at Guilford

Education of their children was a priority for the Black community and it seems they were receiving schooling at the First Baptist Church of Guilford in 1904, prompting the request to the school board for a public school teacher if not a school. While there was no record of a “colored school” being built at the time, it is believed that Willis J. Carter started a school when the community built the First Baptist Church of Guilford in 1903 and it seems that a public school teacher, as had been requested, was eventually provided and the school became the Public Colored School #3 in District 6 for the 1905-1906 school year. The new trustees for this school were Willis J. Carter, John Holland, and George Howard. It is not yet known who the school teacher was for this first school as the County stopped including the names of the Black teachers in their reports to the Maryland State Board of Education.

After the untimely passing of Rev. Willis Carter in 1906, the trustees for the 1907-1908 school years included a Carter (first name not included), John Holland, and David Thomas. John Holland and David Thomas were both long time resident of Guilford as well as neighbors of the Carters. The Holland and Thomas families were farmers dating back to the 1870s and earlier. David Thomas was a cook by trade. By the 1908-1909 school year, an additional school for black children was added in District 6 and the next year the enrollment at the Guilford school dropped to a total enrollment of 44 students, all in elementary grades.

From the 1907-8 through the 1919-1920 school years, the three faithful trustees of the school in Guilford were John Holland, James Carter, and David Thomas. Mr. Carter was Rev. Willis Carter’s younger brother who worked in the quarries as a block cutter but moved from the area by 1920. After James Carter moved away, Mr. Jacob Coleman was appointed as the third trustee of the Guilford school for the 1920-1921 school year.

Mr. Coleman was a quarry man whose family moved to Guilford for the job but who remained dedicated to education for the children and a school trustee until his death in the early 1940s. Mr. Thomas and Mr. Coleman were such prominent citizens in Guilford that the Coleman Thomas Road off of Oakland Mills in Guilford bears their family names. The Coleman family were original members of the First Baptist Church of Guilford and some still reside in Guilford. Mr. Coleman became a trustee for what was likely the last year this school was open – a new school was finally to be built on Mission and Guilford Roads.

The closing of Guilford School

At the March 5th, 1940 school board meeting it was stated that the Guilford and Atholton Schools were proposed to close and the students would be transported to Savage. On May 7th the school board discussed the closing of these school to save money on the “upkeep of two buildings” but due to petitions received from these school communities asking to keep them open the Board decided to delay the decision for another year. It appears the 1940-1941 school year was the last one for the Guilford School and School Board received 4 bids for the school and the highest bidder was Henry J. Sieling at $1,151 dollars (Sept. 9, 1941 School Board minutes). A resolution was passed at the Oct. 7th meeting to accept the bid to sell the school since “said property was no longer needed for educational purposes”.