South East Coordinator

The South East Region is coordinated by local historian and writer, Henry R. Burke.

About Henry Burke

Henry writes a weekly newspaper column for The Marietta Leader. You can find online version of his articles, which cover a variety of subjects including his specialty -- the history of the underground railroad, on The Marietta Leader web site at http://www.mariettaleader.com/henryburke.html.  

Henry Robert Burke is a distinguished local historian.  His credentials include:

Contact Information

Erin Sullivan of the Athen's Post published a wonderful article about Henry Burke and his family history on September 11, 1998 entitled "Slavery sparks family's history".  You can find it at http://thepost.baker.ohiou.edu/archives/091198/ourneck.html

John Curtis (1830-1914)

John Curtis (center, holding the colt) was a fugitive slave from Rockingham County, Virgina, who settled near Stafford in Monroe County, Ohio, in 1846. John Curtis served as a conductor on the Stafford branch of Ohio's Underground Railroad from 1847 until the advent of the American Civil War in 1861. When the Civil War began, John Curtis returned to the South first as a civilian scout-guide for the Union Army until 1863, then joined Company G, 3rd Regiment, US Colored Infantry and served for the duration of the war. Upon his return to Stafford in 1866, he married Jane Early from Cumberland, in Geurnsey County, Ohio, bought his farm on Curtis Ridge, east of Stafford, and raised his family: Tom, Cis, Clem, Ike, Laura, Edward, John and Cis's daughter Anna.

Around Washington, Noble and Monroe Counties in Ohio, he was called Rockingham John because he loved the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where he was born. This account of his life is taken from our family's oral history, passed to me by my grandmother Anna (Curtis) Burke (1892-1973) and her older brothers Tom (1870-1954), Clem (1872-1947), Ed (1885-1951), Albert (1875-1963) and John Henry Curtis (1888-1967), and also from lengthy conversations with Lester Feldner (1874-1969), a lifelong resident of Elk Township in Noble County, Ohio.

In the early fall of 1846, three slave boys, my great grandfather John Curtis, 16, along with his younger brothers Harrison, 14, and Benjamin, 13, escaped from a plantation in Rockingham County, Virginia. They crossed western Virginia on Old Arlington Pike into Wood County, Virginia, by cautiously traveling at night and hiding during the day. Bounty hunters were hot on their trail by the time they reached a settlement in western Virginia called Ellensboro. There an abolitionist-minded Virginian gave them directions to the nearest point on the Ohio River at St. Marys, Virginia. Then he created a diversion to buy them some time.

After the confusion at Ellensboro the group of bounty hunters split up, some going northwest toward St. Marys and the other group staying west on Old Arlington Pike toward Parkersburg. When Rockingham John and his brothers reached the Ohio River, "the dogs were gnashing at their heels." They managed to get across the Ohio River; fortunately the water level was quite low during the fall. The bounty hunters picked up their trail again on the Ohio side of the river and pursued them all the way across Washington County to the northern part of the county. The area where they finally stopped running is located on the East Fork of Duck Creek near the village of Carlisle (now in Noble county), located about 25 miles north of Marietta, near the junction of Ohio State Routes #145 and #260, at a place known locally as Road Fork.

By the time they reached Road Fork, the temperature was falling fast, and it had begun to snow heavily. The snow continued and the temperature kept falling. This part of Washington County was sparsely settled at that time, but fortunately John and his brothers were able to find a cave to hide in. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your point of view, the cave was occupied by a hybernating bear! I was told that John Curtis killed the bear with a large piece of sandstone. The boys ate the bear's flesh and used its hide to keep warm while they hid out for about two weeks in and near that cave to avoid the bounty hunters that they thought were still searching for them. During that time they only left the cave at night to drink water from nearby Duck Creek.

In November of 1846, this unusually early winter storm and cold spell had fallen upon southeastern Ohio, and the runaway boys found little protection from the bad elements. The bounty hunters gave up and headed back to Virginia, but this was too late to help the youngest brother, Benjamin, who died from exposure to the cold weather. John and Harrison attempted to bury him beside Duck Creek, by placing creek stones over his body, since the ground was frozen solid, and they had no digging tools at their disposal.

This is where the Feldner Family came into the picture. The Feldner family had immigrated to the area from Fulda in Germany some years before, and had become part of the large abolitionist group in and around Stafford in Monroe County. Around 1850 a large group of "free blacks" would settle near Stafford to form a sizable black community there.

The principal abolitionist in that area was a white man named William Steel, who immigrated from Bigger, Scotland, to Winchester, Virginia, then to Monroe County where he founded Stafford around 1839. White settlers lived in Stafford proper, and the black community was located a mile south of there in an area made up of Washington, Monroe and Noble County (but which later became Noble County, the last county formed in Ohio from townships formerly in Washington, Morgan and Monroe Counties). Stafford became an important station on the Underground Railroad because of John Steel and the large colored settlement there.

The Feldner family found Benjamin's body buried beside Duck Creek soon after it had been placed there. Noticing the footprints of John and Harrison, they followed the trail back to the cave and convinced the boys that they were friends. They took them to their nearby farm house where they were hidden and nursed back to good health by Mrs. Feldner. These events soon came to the attention of William Steel, who had some connections with people in Harrisonburg, the county seat of Rockingham County, Virginia. Apparently Rockingham County had a relatively large group of abolitionist-minded people at that time. Rockingham County's representatives in the Virginia legislature had earlier voted to abolish slavery in Virginia but lost out to those Virginia counties with larger slave populations. Incidentally, Rockingham County is also where the Lincoln family had been living for many generations. Tom Lincoln, father of President Abraham Lincoln, was born and raised in Rockingham County.

William Steel was able to negotiate freedom for John and Harrison Curtis by paying off their owner. John and Harrison then worked at William Steel's grist mill over at Stafford for several years to repay the debt. While working at Steel's Mill, John and Harrison became heavily involved with the Underground Railroad. The two brothers guided fugitive slaves passing through the Stafford Station on to Guinea, another Colored Settlement further north near Summerton, Belmont County, Ohio. When the American Civil War rolled around, John joined the Union Army.

The African-American Reunion at Stafford

Nearly everyone in this photograph is a direct descendant of Joseph and Hannah Burke.

The third Sunday of every August since August 1945, a group of African-Americans have been meeting in a park formerly known as "The Campground," located on Ohio-SR 145 just north of Stafford, in Franklin Twp., Monroe County, Ohio, which is in the extreme southern end of that county.

Monroe county borders northern Washington County; both counties extend along the Ohio River in the Mid-Ohio River Valley region of southeastern Ohio. The people attending this event are descended from a group of "free blacks" most of whom came to Stafford around 1849 from Virginia.

Stafford has sometimes been erroneously referred to as a colored settlement, but in fact the village was incorporated around 1839 by a white abolitionist named William Steel. At first called Bethel, the name was changed to Stafford, because another community in Ohio already had a post office with the name of Bethel. Stafford had a sizable number of abolitionists in the vicinity, from around 1840 until the beginning of the Civil War. William Steel, Benjamin Hughes, James Oschel, Liberty Curtis, the Rev. Joseph Markey and many other white abolitionists, along with virtually all the free black population of the area were active with the Stafford Underground Railroad Station.

In 1820, the first year that a U.S. Census Report was issued for Monroe County, Ohio, there were only 11 free people of color listed. Both the 1830 and 1840 U.S. Census Reports listed only 13 free people of color, but there is no reference as to exactly where in Monroe County they resided. However the 1850 U.S. Census listed 69 "free colored people" in Monroe County and most of these people were in or around Stafford. In 1851, Noble County was formed from parts of other southeastern Ohio counties, and some of the free colored populace of Stafford, lived across the Noble County line, but apparently they were still considered part of the Stafford community.

In 1849, Ohio repealed the Ohio law requiring free blacks entering this state to post a $500.00 security bond. The black population of Ohio greatly increased during the decade of the 1850s. In late 1849, the Armstrong and Curtis families arrived in Stafford from Rockingham County. All through the 1850s, free people of color were drawn to Stafford. By 1860, the black community around Stafford was home to the Armstrong, Burke, Curtis, Freeman, Marlborough, Singer, Solomon, Woods and Wooten families.

During the American Civil War, Harrison Armstrong, Nimrod Burke, Charles Burke, Jacob Curtis, John Curtis, Albert Freeman, Issac Solomon and David Woods, of Stafford, served with the Union Army.

After the Civil War around 1870, an exodus of black families from the Stafford area began and continued through the 1960s. For over 100 years Stafford was home to a small population of African-Americans. Today that number has dwindled to just one African- American family that still maintains a residence in Stafford. Nevertheless, for well over 50 years, a group of African-Americans has continued the tradition of attending the Stafford Campground Reunion each year in August.

Among my many relatives buried at the Stafford Cemetery, is my great-grandfather, John Curtis, Underground Railroad conductor and American Civil War Veteran who served with:Company C, 3rd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry!

Robert Carter III (1728-1804)

The Man who Freed the African American Burke Family of Washington County, Ohio!

It has been 208 years since Virginia plantation owner Robert Carter III did something so dramatic and so radical, that it still can take one's breath away! 70 years before the American Civil War he declared that he would emancipate his 485 slaves.

All the names are listed, page after page of them, in a document at the Northumberland County Courthouse in Heathville, Virginia. Eight years after the end of the Revolutionary War, Carter announced in the document that he had - "for some time past been convinced that to retain them in slavery is contrary to the true principles of Religion and Justice."

Carter's spiritual burden of hundreds of slaves was acquired by inheritance and expanded by procreation. He was the grandson of Robert "King" Carter, the richest man in America before his death in 1732. "King" Carter, who owned over 1000 slaves, and had 300,000 acres of land in Tidewater Virginia, outlived his son Robert Carter Jr., who died in 1728 when Robert III was only 4 years old, so the grandson became an heir to a large part part of Robert "King" Carter's estate, including his slaves.

Surnames of Slaves Emancipated by Robert Carter III of Nomini Hall,(Montross), Westmoreland County, Virginia:
Allen, Arnold, Banks, Brooks, Brutus, Burke, Burton, Cary, Colson, Conway, Cooper, Craft, Daley, Daniel, Dial, Dicher, Dickerson, , Glascock, Greggs, Gumby, Hackney, Harris, Harrison, Henry, Hollady, Hubbard, Johnson, Jones, Kenardy, Mitchell, Newgent, Newman, Peterson, Puss, Reid, Richards, Richardson, Robinson, Single, Smith, Spence, Taylor, Thomas, Thompson, Thornton, Tosspot, Tuckson, Walker, Wells, Wilson, Wormley and Wyatt.

Joseph Burke's Freedom Paper

In bold print are surnames of some African American Families living in Southeastrn Ohio.
_________________________________

From the "Registration of Free Negroes; Commencing
September Court, 1822, Fairfax County,(Virginia)".
Register No. 37
Virginia to wit:
I, William Moss, Clerk of the County of Fairfax, do hereby certify that it appears from an affidavit of George W. Lane, filled in my office that the bearer Joseph Burke, a dark mulatto man 26 years of age, 5' 10" high, with large lips, and a small scar on his forehead over the left eye and a small scare on the forefinger of the left hand, is a son of Winney Burke who was emancipated by Robert Carter, decd. Whereupon at the request of the said Joseph Burke I have caused him to be registered in my office pursuant to Law. Given under my hand this 8th day of June, 1826.
Signed Wm. Moss, CC
At a Court continued and held for the County of Fairfax the ___ of day of 1826.
The above register of Joseph Burke, a free black man was examined by the Court and found to be correctly made. _____________________________________________________

Researched by John Barden
Duke University
Edited by
Henry Robert Burke

Veterans of The American Civil War (1861-1865)

This section is dedicated to:
Nimrod Burke (1836-1914) and John Curtis (1830-1914)

Sgt. Nimrod Burke
Company F, 23rd Regiment, US Colored Infantry
Born in Prince William County, Virginia,
Buried in the Fourth Row, Soldiers Circle,
Greenlawn Cemetery, Chillicothe, Ohio.

Pvt. John Curtis
Company G, 3rd Regiment, US Colored Infantry
Born in Rockingham County, Virginia
Buried in the Stafford Cemetery
Stafford, Monroe County, Ohio.

Washington County, Ohio sent over 4000 men to fight with the Union Forces during the American Civil War, the highest per capita of any county in the United States. During the early part of the Civil War, Union policy excluded African Americans from enlisting in the Union Army. African Americans involved in the early phase of the Civil War were civilians employed as laborers, teamsters, servants for high ranking Union officers and as in some cases, guides and scouts.

Nimrod Burke was a scout. He was born in 1836 in Prince William county, Virginia and raised in the Tidewater Region. He lived there for the first eighteen years of his life, before coming to Washington County, Ohio with his parents Joseph and Hannah Burke, in 1854. Nimrod Burke was one of about 200 African-American men from Washington and surrounding counties who enlisted in the United States Colored Units when President Lincoln and the War Department authorized the use of colored soldiers in 1863.

Before the Civil War, Nimrod Burke was employed by Melvin Clarke, a prominent attorney in Marietta, Ohio. On April 12, 1861 when the Civil War erupted, Clarke was commissioned as a Major with the 36th Ohio Infantry in the Union Army. Major Clarke hired Nimrod Burke as a civilian teamster and scout for the 36th Ohio Infantry. Clarke's unit was sent to fight Confederate forces in eastern Virginia. Clarke was promoted to full Colonel on the day he was killed in the Battle of Antietam, near Sharpsburg, Maryland on September 17, 1862.

General George B. McClellan commanded 12,500 Union Soldiers and General Robert E. Lee commanded 13,700 Confederate Forces at Antietam. The Confederate retreat gave Lincoln the occasion to announce the preliminary Emancipation, which also declared his intent to enlist "free blacks" and "emancipated slaves" in the Union Army. After Colonel Clarke's death, Nimrod continued to serve as an Army scout until March of 1864, when he joined the 23rd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry, at Washington, DC. He was immediately appointed 1st Sergeant of Company F, one of the highest ranks authorized for black soldiers.

The 23rd was organized at Camp Casey, Va., from November 23, 1863, to June 30, 1864. At first Attached to 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, 9th Corps, Army of the Potomac, from April to September, 1864., then to the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 9th Corps, until December 1864; then assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, 25th Corps, until December, 1865. Finally the unit served with the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 25th Corps, in the Dept. of Texas.

The 23rd fought combat campaigns from the Rapidan to the James River, Va., in May and June, 1864. They guarded wagon trains for the Army of the Potomac through the Wilderness from June 15-18 as they moved into position Petersburg at the Siege of Petersburg and Richmond which was begun on June 16, 1864, and lasted to April 2, 1865.

They participated in the Mine Explosion at Petersburg on July 30, 1864 and at Weldon Railroad on August 18-21. Then Fort Sedgwick on September 28, Poplar Grove Church September 29-30, at Boydton Plank Road, on Hatcher's Run, October 27-28. They fought at Bermuda Hundred December 13. They remained on Duty at the Bermuda Hundred front until March, 1865.

The 23rd joined the Appomattox Campaign on March 28-April 9, back to Hatcher's Run March, 29-31. Finally the Fall of Petersburg on April 2, 1865 and Pursuit of Lee April 3-9 1865.

Nimrod Burke fought in the Battle of Appomattox on April 9, 1865 when General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Forces. This fact has a particular significance for Sergeant Nimrod Burke, because Robert "King" Carter, an ancestor of General Robert Lee, had owned the slave ancestors of Nimrod Burke.

The 23rd remained on Duty in the Department of Virginia until May, 1865 then moved to the Rio Grande River in Texas during May-June. Nimrod continued duty with the 23rd Regiment at Brownsville, Texas until November 30, 1865 when the 23rd Regiment was Mustered Out of Military Service. The Regiment's losses during the Civil War, were 4 Officers and 82 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded. 1 Officer and 165 Enlisted men died from disease. The total casualties were 252.